"So, where do you think Azurda landed? Er," Pyra paused, "I suppose where did he land?"

"Shouldn't be much farther," Rex led the way through the lower regions of Gormott. He was smiling now, but it was going to take a while for him to really come to terms with everything that had happened. In typical Rex fashion though, he did his best not to let it show.

"Huh, well he should be right here," Rex walked around a small clearing. Sure enough, several branches had been broken above from where he had crash landed and there were javelins from Torna's ship, but no Gramps. Rex started to peak around the area wondering where he could have gone. Potentially off searching for him, Rex realized.

"Rex!" The salvager looked up and over at the larval titan. Fortunately, the search had not gotten far.

"Ah, there you are, old timer!"

"You…aren't surprised?" Azurda crossed his arms partially disappointed that he would not get to show off. He could have sworn it would have taken some convincing to get Rex to believe he was who he said he was, "This is hardly a normal occurrence."

"Er," Rex froze realizing, that, yes, such a change was rather jarring the first time, "I just…"

"It's good to see you again, Azurda," Pyra came to Rex's rescue.

"Pyra?" Azurda replied solemnly, "So it was you." Once again, he noticed that Rex did not seem surprised in the least that they knew each other.

"Yes," Pyra's voice was quiet and nearly unreadable. So then why did she feel like Rex was reading her like an open book with those golden eyes? It did not feel fair to have someone know you so fully when you knew next to nothing about them.

"We can chat later," Rex broke up the awkward exchange, "Come on, you can ride in my helmet, but right now we need to go find Nia and Dromarch."

Azurda landed in the diving helmet like Rex suggested, but that did not mean that he was letting his behavior slide. It took a lot to dent his usual good mood to such a degree. If it was mild annoyance, he would generally let people know, but this ran deeper. Something bad must have happened for him to be acting so strangely, and as much as Azurda wanted to scold him for taking that job, he was worried more than anything.

They found Nia and Dromarch in the middle of a fight. They were not going to go down that easily, but the help was still appreciated. Rex jumped into the fray with a level of experience that surprised Azurda. He may have taught the boy some arts, but he was taking to real combat as if it was second nature. He had not seen anything quite like it in 500 years.

His use of Pyra's power was once again superb. He channeled it with a precision so honed that very little was wasted on his end. It was enough that he made short work of the first monster purely on his own, but more joined the fray. He moved to attack one of the new targets, but Pyra had not anticipated his action leading to their link weakening. It was not enough to put him in danger, but it did not go unnoticed.

"Sorry," Rex apologized quickly before getting back to devastating the monsters with perhaps a bit more aggression than he was used to showing. Despite his apology though, or perhaps because of it, Pyra felt her stomach fall. His Pyra would have read him and been right there with him. It was yet another reminder of her own deficiencies.

"Woah," Nia stared at Rex wide-eyed wondering who exactly this kid was. Surely the Aegis could not do that to a kid in less than a day.

"Nia," Rex sheathed Pyra's sword and smiled as if he had not just gotten slightly carried away in his venting, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm alright," Nia reigned in her surprise, "You're not half bad kid."

"Thanks," Rex tried not to let it show but he was heavily debating what he should do. Nia…she got hurt on their journey more than most, and he was really hoping to avoid a repeat of that. Still, that was not to say that she had not benefited from their journey either. Besides, until he got Pyra and Mythra up to their full capacity, the extra support might not be the worst thing ever.

"So, where are we?" Rex played his role.

"Hmm," Nia looked around, "Looks like…Gormott. The lower lands specifically."

"Hmm, Gormott," Rex commented, "So…you're Gormotti, do you know your way around?"

"I guess you could say that," Nia swiped at her nose. One of her quirks.

"Gormott is the place of my lady's birth, after all," Dromarch offered with a deferential bow to his driver. Had it really been so recently that he was with all of them?

"Yeah, we should really look for a city. We should be able to spot one if we keep going up."

"Though we'll need to make camp soon," Dromarch pointed out making them realize that it was much later than they had considered. Come to think of it, Rex never did find out how long he had been out. Never bothered to ask before. Never seemed all that important, and it did not seem right to ask Pyra now.

"Alright," Pyra nodded before lighting a flame in the palm of her hand, "Leave the campfire to me."

With that, they dispersed to set up a meager camp. It was an activity Rex had become quite familiar with over the months, and the familiarity was nice at the very least. Nia and Dromarch had managed to scrounge together a bit of fish which Pyra prepared exquisitely despite the lack of ingredients. Of course, she did.

However, with the meal over, Rex walked off on his own to the nearby pond. His action did not go unnoticed by Azurda and Pyra who watched him leave.

"That boy's been acting strangely ever since we arrived," Azurda shook his head, "Perhaps I should go have a talk with him."

"Actually, Azurda," Pyra stood, "Allow me. There's something I need to tell him."

The titan was skeptical, but Pyra looked serious. She had her reasons even if they were not forthcoming. Azurda sighed, "Very well."

"Thank you," Pyra nodded politely before breathing deep and walking off to face her driver.

Rex noticed Pyra's approach, but he did not comment. Pyra joined him at the water's edge not saying anything at first, but the silence was deafening. Rex hated it. Even when they had first met, they had never been like this. Then again…maybe they were meeting for the first time.

"Mythra wanted me to tell you that she'd rather stay hidden for the time being," Pyra started in a hushed voice, "Azurda knows about her, but otherwise she'd prefer if you didn't mention her to the others."

"Alright," He knew that he would need to talk to her at some point, but he knew better than to push the issue too soon.

"Sorry," Pyra apologized, "You must be used to her power. I know I'm no Mythra."

"You're plenty strong, Pyra," Rex responded almost immediately, "In fact, I think we make a pretty good team."

"You mean you made a good team with her. The other Pyra. The future one. You miss her, don't you?"

"I…" Rex's words died in his throat as a rebuttal failed to form.

"You don't have to answer," Pyra sent him one of those smiles she used to give when she did not want anyone to worry about her. It was enough to make Rex swallow hard as he felt his stomach drop, "I'll try my best not to slow you down."

Rex opened his mouth and reached out, but her retreat was too hasty leaving him alone with the sickening sense of having hurt Pyra. Of course. He should have realized that she would blame herself for them being out of sync.

"Perhaps I should have spent less time teaching you arts and more time teaching you how to talk to a lady."

"Gramps!" Rex straightened up, "H-how much of that did you hear?"

"Nothing. I didn't have to for me to know that it didn't go well."

Rex scratched the back of his head, "That obvious, huh?"

"Painfully so. Do you want to talk about it?"

Rex looked back at Pyra taking her place around the fire, "It's…complicated."

Azurda did not uncross his arms, "Are you trying to get out of this?"

Rex sighed in defeat, "Alright, but you can't tell anybody about this? Well, except Pyra and Mythra."

"You…know about Mythra?" That was certainly a surprise.

"Yeah, I know about her, and that's not all." Rex then launched into an explanation of everything. The next few months, the showdown with Malos, and coming back to the past. He gave Azurda the general gist of it, but he did leave out the finer points about his feelings and heartbreak.

"You weren't kidding," Azurda finally spoke after some silence, "That is quite the story. I had a suspicion that you had great potential, but this is something else. To think that you would succeed where Addam failed."

"But I still failed in the end, didn't I? I couldn't stop Malos. I couldn't save anyone."

"But you're here now. You have another chance," Azurda placed a stubby hand on Rex's shoulder, "You can save them." He spared a pointed look over at the Aegis as he said that. He got the distinct impression that a certain redhead might have been a bit more important to Rex than he let on even with the spiel about unlocking their true power.

"Thanks, Gramps," Rex finally let out a smile. It was smaller than he was used to, but at least it was authentic this time. This boy had seen more than Azurda believed anyone his age should have to, but Azurda had every faith that he could overcome this.

"Well then, we should get some rest ourselves."

"Right, we got a long walk tomorrow."

Azurda chuckled, "I suppose you would know with that future vision of yours."

"Stop joking around," Rex shot back before walking back to the small camp, but he was grinning as he did so. Leave it to Gramps to be able to make him feel better.

A/N: Alright, let's see where this goes. A shorter chapter this time, but I opted to cut it here. Next chapter should have Tora…which means Nopon speak.

Also, while the game can give somewhat mixed signals, the ending gives Pyra and Mythra their own bodies so that would seem to support them being separate individuals. Maybe they don't even realize it themselves at first.

So, thoughts so far?