Harpuia was choosing to believe that Hidden Phantom was late. It was either that, or Harpuia could tell himself that he was actually early which was more possible than any other excuse he could give. Under the circumstances, perhaps the Guardian was a bit more excited than what he should have been.

Communication between the Four Guardians was practically a no brainer for many people, but it was general 'this area is protected' or 'minor outbreak in Sector V'. It was rare when one of them had news for the other that must be done in a more secure manner- even more rare was when one was readily able to give information that could further fuel an unrequited infatuation.

"I can see that you didn't waste any time coming." a calm voice said from the shadows. Harpuia turned around, not surprised to see his brother standing there. The green Guardian opened his mouth to greet his brother, but did not have the opportunity when the other spoke first;

"I hope you prepared for travel Harpuia."

"Just where are we going, Phantom?" Harpuia asked, although he was agreeing that he was ready to go. Hidden Phantom did not give any readable expression as he started to walk to both of them out of the area.

"Out of Neo Arcadia." came the short answer. Harpuia raised an eyebrow at the idea, but quickly followed behind his brother with haste. Whatever Phantom had found, it must have been pretty special if they had to do it out of the city...

. . .

The youngest of the four Guardians led his brother to an old, broken down lookout shelter out in the desert that surrounded the otherwise lush paradise of Neo Arcadia. Getting a connection to the city out this way was almost difficult- not just because the signal couldn't reach that far, but the dust in the air made it hard to hone in on a broadcasting signal. This was where Phantom decided to look them in, and where he pulled out an odd looking contraption that belonged with the technology advances from a century ago.

"Why do you have that?" Harpuia inquired, not meaning to sound accusatory, "That's ancient tech. It can't do any good to anyone anymore."

"It's not that old." Phantom uttered, almost sounding hurt- perhaps more for his sibling's lack of faith and misunderstanding than from actual disappointment. "It was being used before Mother was activated."

"How is that significant?" Harpuia then asked. Phantom simply stared at Harpuia, thinking of some other way that he could drop a hint as he extracted the disk from inside the video recorder. Harpuia, in turn, watched as Hidden Phantom placed the disk into a DVD player that was hooked up to an old analog television before turning on the television. Both of the Guardians knew that if the Mother Elf could connect to the technology out this far from Neo Arcadia, she wouldn't have been able to; any piece of technology that was created before the Mother Elf's birth or not originating from Neo Arcadia would go blind underneath the Mother Elf's all seeing eye.

"Have you... ever have dreams about her?" Phantom quietly asked as he got the video ready.

"Who? Mother?" Harpuia asked, randomly guessing. But his brother shook his head.

"Not Mother, but... but her. Have you ever had dreams about her before?"

It took the green Guardian a moment to realize what his brother was asking, but when he did, his face grew dim and perhaps a bit pale. Of course he had dreams about her. Which one of the Guardians didn't have dreams about that woman at some point? They couldn't see her well in their dreams, but they all knew who she was; she was the Mother Elf before she was even considered as such, she was a ghost that haunted their waking consciousness without any direct warning, in some ways, she was their mother in more sense than what the Mother Elf herself was. And perhaps, just thinking about that made the idea even scarier for the Guardians. The Mother Elf, before she was so, had been a human- a human that fell in love with...

"What I want to show you can't be told to anyone else- not the lycan, not the siren, and certainly not the fake, Weil, or Mother." Phantom then told Harpuia in a cold, unfeeling tone. "Do you understand?"

"Of course." Harpuia agreed, his face also devoid of emotion. Hidden Phantom gave a nod as he started the video. The two then stood back as the video started to play...

"What are you doing with that thing?" a voice that sounded a lot like the Mother Elf's voice asked, there wasn't an actual video feed at the moment so all the viewer was greeted to was a black screen.

"Axl found it earlier today." another voice said, it was the voice that almost copied the one that the fake had, except this was the original- Harpuia had a gut feeling that it was, and the idea gave him a horrible knot in his stomach. "He was taking videos of Zero to prank him or something. I saved it from being scrapped, which is what Zero wanted it to be after finding out what Axl was doing."

"I bet he wanted to scrap Axl too."

"Yeah... had to bail him out of that too."

Then gave a laugh, a laugh that the Mother Elf could have been capable of when she was feeling a bit euphoric- but there was a difference in this laugh, it was almost sad or tired. But the joy was there, both Harpuia and Phantom could feel it.

"Are you recording this now?" the first voice asked. There was a sound of a nod with an affirmative little mumble. The broken laughter of a dying woman rang out again as she went on to say, "Do you realize that the lens cap is still on?"

"Ohuh?" was the reply before the lens cap came off. At the same moment, the two Guardians watching the video took a breath in as the viewer was suddenly introduced to a young woman in her late 20s with short red hair with brown eyes that have seen better days. She was laying on a cozy bed dressed in her pajamas- she looked ridiculously tired although the window in the background indicated that it was a little past noon. The woman looked so much like the Mother Elf's hologram form that it was almost dizzying to think that they could have been the same person at some point.

"Oh wow, there's a video preview option on this thing too... Who knew?"

The woman laughed again, her smile showing this time around which seemed to make her laughter even more enjoyable.

"Can I see it for a moment?" she then asked.

"Sure." came the reply as the camera's view shook as the camera itself was given to a new user. When the camera adjusted to a figure again, Harpuia and Hidden Phantom were given a look of the original Mega Man X decked out in his recognizable armor, spare for his helmet, which revealed his light brown hair stylized in a floofy 1950s flip. He too looked tired, but it was for a different reason; where the young woman looked exhausted from some kind of illness, Mega Man X looked tired from stress. The now departed Reploid looked on at the camera with a smile that seemed far more broken than the what the young woman's was- it was a feeling you could sense just by looking at him.

"I like the handle on this thing." the woman declared. "It's not bad for a moderately sized camera, not bad at all."

"Really?" X asked curiously as the camera view drifted down the bed sheet to give the viewer a look at the woman's feet for a few moments before snapping back to look at X.

"Alright, now get naked!" the woman told him. The look on X's face shifted through five different emotions in under a millisecond. His cheeks flushed a deep red color as his face finally settled on an expression that was confused but almost willing to do the deed. An emotion, Harpuia realized, that he would have shown if the Mother Elf had requested the same of him. Hidden Phantom knew he would too, but kept his counsel for the time being.

"I-I don't think that... that it would be a, a uh, good idea Seph." Mega Man X eventually stammered. "I... I, um, promised A-Axl that I would... that I would, urm... give it back. He might want to see... you know... us having..."

A little teasing giggle came from the other end of the camera. "I was only joking." the woman then insisted. "Just a little..."

"Don't joke like that Sephira..." X then said as he carefully tried to reach for the camera. "You almost made me believe that..."

"Believe what?"

"You made me believe that-" X started to say before the video cut off. The video on the television screen went black before Harpuia turned to look at Hidden Phantom, who stood without saying a word.

"It really makes me wonder," Harpuia then decided to say, "It makes you wonder what happened between the death of her and the creation of the copy that removed that part of their relationship away. They are clones of the other, for the most part, wouldn't you think?"

For several moments, Hidden Phantom didn't say a word as carefully took the DVD out of the player and back into the camera it came from. Harpuia simply observed as the Shadow Guardian then held the camera as if it were the most precious thing on earth and looked at it with a kind of sadness that came with remorse or regret.

"I can't imagine it." Hidden Phantom then said, making Harpuia question he was really answering him or simply speaking out loud. "It really is a mystery..."