Prologue
His heartbeat thundered in his ears as he raced against the clock through the halls of the Ouroborus, hoping that he and his compatriots could escape before the self-destruct countdown ended.
Aeolus could hear the footsteps of the other three Mega Men not far behind him, clutching the offline green Biometal in his hand like it was a protective talisman used in an age long ago.
His Shadow counterpart, Sairnaq, ran a few steps behind the Flame and Ice Megamen; Thetis gripping Atlas' hand in a desperate attempt to not be left behind as they jumped over cracks and small ledges and dodged large chunks of the dark grey plated ceiling shaken loose by mighty tremors. Although none of the four could remember much of the events that lead up to this moment, most of it a blur of voices, colors and emotions, something told them that whatever they experienced was unpleasant at best.
Now was not the time to think too hard about that anyway.
A spot of lavender caught the sole female's eye as they rounded a corner and she grit her teeth, her male companions noticing it too.
"Fuck!" Atlas growled as the spot grew closer, revealed as a humanoid machine with a buster gun attached to its arm. It was a Galleon, one of many footsoldier mechaloids used by the government. Wonderful.
"How are those things still online!?"
"Just run past it, we can't deal with it right now!" Said the green haired man at the front, ushering his fellows in a mad dash down the hall past the still-active Galleon. Luckily, it didn't seem to notice them as it was preoccupied with freeing its foot from a pile of rubble.
It's buster seemed to be damaged too.
Another tremor shook the ship as the quartet sprinted further down the hall, causing them all to stumble a little. "At this rate, the whole damn thing is going to cave in on us before it blows up!" Atlas' grip tightened on her younger friend's hand as he whined in fear, trying to be reassuring as his ocean blue eyes threatened to spill tears.
"Just keep going! I think we're almost to the hangar!"
"And then what? We jump for it!?" Atlas yelled as sounds of destruction from above grew louder, her burnt orange eyes glaring at the group's de facto leader.
"THERE ARE VEHICLES WE CAN USE". Siarnaq monotoned, his own dusky violet eyes glancing back at the redhead as if to reassure her. His mask had slipped off his face at some point since de-merging and in the heat of the moment he hadn't bothered to pull it back up. This gave the other three the rare opportunity to see his entire face, the lower half of which was marred with scars. Atlas chose to ignore those as she nodded to him.
"He's right! Just keep going!"
Aeolus willed his legs to move faster as another explosion erupted just above them.
'I hope those fools make it out alive.' He thought to himself. Freed from Model W's influence thanks to Model Z, however the heck it did that, the Wind MegaMan could suddenly think a lot more clearly than he could for several months.
The first thing he had noticed upon waking from that nightmare was that his and the others' eyes had changed back to their original colors.
Instead of the crimson associated with Mavericks, the young aristocrat's eyes were now a similar shade of green to his own BioMetal.
The second thing he noticed was that the voices in his head were gone. Since he could finally think straight he determined that the two Guardian Commanders and the two Hunters, who went on ahead to challenge the man behind everything, were not his enemies.
The third thing was that he needed to get the heck out of dodge. Right now. The others had come to similar conclusions.
He didn't know what had happened to Model Z before the self-destruct started counting down, but he hoped it would make it out mostly unscathed.
After what felt like an hour of running, when really it could've been five minutes, the colorful quartet found the door to the hangar bay. Just as they approached, a large piece of the ceiling gave way in front of them. They came to a screeching halt as the debris fell, almost crushing them, and effectively blocking their escape route.
"Now what do we do!?" Thetis wailed.
Before anyone could come up with an answer, explosions louder than the others erupted from behind them, within the circular aircraft.
Suddenly, the foursome were knocked off their feet as the ship rocked violently. Aeolus immediately recognized the feeling of being in the air, realizing to his horror that they were in freefall!
Atlas and Thetis hung onto each other for dear life as fire engulfed the other sections of the Ouroboros, the smell of smoke and heat quickly approaching. Siarnaq shared a look with the silently panicking greenette, before nodding his head and closing his eyes as if in acceptance of what was to come.
Aeolus looked down at the still silent Model H, cradling it in his hands as his emerald eyes began to spill. If he could only MegaMerge again, he'd be able to fly everyone to safety. But with everything he'd done, abusing his power to fight a war that wasn't even his, had he earned the right to use Model H's power at all? Had any of them earned the right to use the power of the fabled Generals of Neo Arcadia? Guardians to the Father of All Reploids himself?
In a bout of curiosity and frustration at being left in the dark, Aeolus did his research a while back. He didn't regret hacking into the Masters' computer to get the information he wanted, even if it got him a stern lecture and a history lesson from Master Mikhail.
He would miss him.
Before Aeolus could mentally prepare himself for the inevitable, fully expecting to be ripped apart by flames, shrapnel and wind friction, everything went black.
Had anyone on the outside been watching at that moment, they would have seen a bright golden light suddenly engulf the falling Ouroboros, and perhaps they would have noticed that the light took on a peculiar shape, like that of a triangle with wings.
What a peculiar symbol…