The Aegis Awakens

/Chapter Fourteen: Lie/

Watching as both Ethan and Malos walked away from her, Winter felt a strong urge to call her brother back. She stopped herself at the last moment, as she felt an overwhelming amount of guilt flooding her. Malos appeared to not suspect her of anything, and she felt horrible about that. The ice Aegis was not usually one to lie; however, she had made an exception during the final fight with Mythra.

All those years ago, Malos had made a near-fatal error. He had assumed that Mythra would be defeated easily; however, he had not considered the possibility that the blonde Aegis had another Artifice. To be fair to both Winter and him, Mythra had never actually used the particular Artifice against them until the final fight. He had managed to take down Artifice Ophion and sink it into the depths of the Cloud Sea, through the use of his Gargoyles.

Despite that victory, he was overwhelmed by Mythra's Siren. Truthfully, Winter had been frozen as the two other Aegises fought each other in their Sirens. In the end, Malos' core was broken and his Siren had been destroyed. Mythra was supposed to have been destroyed; however, her appearance now clearly proved that was not the case.

Both of them being Aegises, they were technically siblings. Of course, that also meant that Mythra/Pyra were their siblings too. Winter was unsure of just how she felt about that, but she wondered if Malos ever thought about the fact that were siblings. Being Blades, they were not related in the human sense. Rather, they simply shared the Architect as their father.

After all, they had been through together, you would think that Winter could bring herself to actually tell him the whole truth. In actuality, she was too much of a coward to do so. Even Regan did not know the truth and had been told the same lie that Winter had told everyone after the Tornan Titan had perished. She had promised Jin, who had figured out the truth, that she would tell the dark Aegis what really happened.

She had even promised to do as her fellow ice Blade asked. However, she had no plans of keeping that promise. Malos would hate her if he found out, and Regan would definitely have a similar reaction. Malos truly believed that he had caused all that destruction, and his lack of memory for that particular event just made him more inclined to believe whatever she told him.

He would never forgive her.

•••••••

While Rex usually had a tendency to get up fairly early due to his job of salvaging, this was the second morning in a row that he had woken up after everyone else. Nia was standing up and stretching her arms, while Dromarch was hovering close by her side and was doing the same as his Driver.

Azurda, Malos, and Kaevan were talking with each other quietly. Poppi was currently hovering close to Malos, while her Driver was currently joining the conversation between the two Blades and Titan. Both Eva and Regan were nowhere in sight, which made him curious as to what they could possibly be doing.

"Hey, Nia?" The fifteen-year-old asked after he let out a yawn while stretching his arms above his head. Momentarily stopping her stretching, Nia turned towards him. Noting that her ears were pinned back a little on her head, Rex wondered if that was an indicator that she was upset.

"Yeah, wha' is it?"

Rex noticed that the five other present members of their camp had stopped talking, but he ignored them for the moment. "Did you see where Regan and Eva headed off to?" The Gormotti nodded, and her posture relaxed a little.

"Yeah, they headed off tha' way." Looking in the direction Nia was pointing in, Rex gave her a quick thank you before he headed off. It did not take very long for him to locate both Regan and Eva since they had not walked very far away from camp.

The Driver and Blade were chatting with one another, and he noticed that Regan's hair was no longer in a braid. Most of her hair was now down; however, part of her hair was braided to form a crown. The braid started from the right side of her head and ended on the left side and a couple of shards of ice were keeping the braid in place. He had seen her wear her hair like this before, yet it never ceased to amaze him at just how neat and good it looked.

"Reg?"

Regan fully turned to face him, and Rex took note of her facial expression. She looked to be uncomfortable, and it was an expression he had seen on her face before. Despite her less-than-happy mood, she still offered him a small smile. It was definitely a forced smile, but he knew that she was not upset at him. "What is it?" Trying to find his words, Rex looked down at the ground for a moment.

He had sought her out with a clear purpose in mind, but Rex now seemed to be unable to find the right way to word it. "So... You gave Gramps Kaevan's Core Crystal, right?" She nodded her head at that, and she raised an eyebrow at him. When she gestured for him to continue, he let out a sigh and finally decided to just come out with it. "I think you should take them back."

Her eyes very visibly widened at that, "What?! Rex, they're your Blade now." He nodded.

"Yeah, but I think they'd be much better off with you as their Driver." She shook her head, her eyes still wide.

"Seriously, Rex? I gave their core to Azurda for a reason."

"What reason is that? I'm not even experienced enough to handle one Blade..." The fifteen-year-old looked down at the ground, his fists clenching. "So, I don't know why you thought it was a good idea to give me another one..." Regan's eyes softened at that, and she stepped closer to him. Due to the fact that they were actually the same height, she was easily able to wrap an arm around his shoulders.

To her relief, Rex did not shrug her off. Instead, the fifteen-year-old leaned into her side. "Look, you would definitely have a point if Malos was just an ordinary Blade... He's an Aegis, remember? To be honest, he's actually been holding back." She had yet to tell the dark Aegis herself, but she was actually fully aware of just exactly what he was capable of.

"Holding back...? What do you mean?" Rex questioned; however, she shook her head at him.

"It's probably better for him to be the one to tell you..." Regan let out a sigh, "Anyway, Rex, I can't just take Kaevan back. I really think it'd be good for you to fight with another Blade besides just Malos." She explained, but she felt him move out from under her arm at that.

"You don't get it. Trying to bond with Kaevan is great...but I want to try to bond more with Malos. I just want to be able to bond with him...like how you're bonded with Eva." He retorted, and Rex was determined to persuade her to agree. The Elf looked down at that, and it was obvious that she realized just how serious he was being.

"Okay, if you really want...there is a way to transfer a Blade to a different Driver." Regan pulled something out of the pouch that hung from her belt and offered it to him. He accepted it and held it up as he inspected the strange-looking object. "That's what is known as an Overdrive Protocol."

"Whoa, how does it work?"

"It basically allows for Drivers to be able to switch Blades with one another. However, keep in mind that these are very hard to come by. I have this one and one other, so we are definitely limited in the amount of how many times we can do that." She explained before a realization suddenly hit Rex, and he grabbed something out of the bag he always carried with him.

"Well, we have three actually. I found this one in Torigoth." He said before he handed it to her. "I want to be Kaevan's Driver; however, I don't want to be their Driver right now... At the moment, I just want to focus on bonding with Malos. Maybe one day, I can try again with Kaevan..." Regan nodded before she suddenly shook her head.

"I'm okay with that... First off, we need to see what Kaevan thinks about this."

•••

"Rex, you should really think on this a bit more." Azurda reprimanded, and it was evident that he thought that Rex was being far too rash in his decision-making at the moment. The fifteen-year-old looked down at the ground at that, wondering if the Titan had a point. After all, Kaevan had only been his Blade for less than a day, and it did seem a bit rushed for Rex to want to transfer them to Regan.

Kaevan had yet to express their opinion on the matter, while Malos seemed confused as well as curious. "I have been thinking about it since yesterday... Regan said she's okay with it." Azurda shot a 'really' glance in the Elf's direction before he turned his attention back to his grandson.

"She may have said that; however, wasn't she also the one to ask you to talk to Kaevan about it?" When the salvager nodded his head, Azurda looked in Kaevan's direction. "Would you please come here for a moment, Kaevan? Your Driver has something he wishes to ask you." The Volff-like Blade approached and looked expectantly at Rex. This was just a setup and Rex knew it since Kaevan had already heard everything.

"Okay..." Rex started and placed a hand on the back of his neck in an attempt to ease a little of his embarrassment from being scolded by Azurda. He already had enough of that from Malos, and he had hoped the Titan would have quit with the scoldings by now. "Look, as much as I've enjoyed fighting with you as your Driver... I just think that Regan would do a better job at it than I can right now. After all, I only become Malos' Driver once I had died...so I'm still new to this whole Driver thing."

The fifteen-year-old paused for a moment, and he glanced in Regan's direction. She had a look of encouragement on her face, so he took that as an incentive to continue when he looked back at Kaevan. "It's just... I think it would be better for me to bond with just Malos right now, so I..." He cut himself off abruptly, unable to find any more words to say.

Kaevan watched their Driver closely for a moment before they suddenly shook their head. "As heartfelt as that was...the better solution would be to simply not use me in fights unless absolutely necessary until you decide you're ready to fight with me again." The dark-furred beast Blade had a very good point, Rex had to admit. Wasting a pretty rare resource on something that could more easily be accomplished another way was definitely not a good idea.

"I... That's a good idea actually." He answered, and at that the conversation fell away.

•••

"So, Regan, Nia?" The two Drivers looked at him, curious as to what he wanted now. "I, uh, found these two Core Crystals back on the Titan Battleship and... You two are more experienced than me at being Drivers, so I wondered if the both of you wanted to-" Nia cut him off.

"Jus' get to the point already." With her hands on both of her hips, it was evident that she was getting impatient with him.

"Do you... Do you two want to resonate with them...?" He finally managed to get out, and he watched as both their expressions became curious.

"Resonate with them, huh? Sure, I'm alright with that... How about you, Nia?" The Elf asked Nia, who thought about it for a moment before she finally nodded.

"Yeah, sure. Why not?"

Rex sighed in relief before he pulled the two Core Crystals at the very top of the bag out. "Here." The fifteen-year-old handed one to both of them, and he then looked in between the two of them. "Which one of you wants to go first?" He asked, so Nia shrugged before she held both of her hands around the core. The Core Crystal started glowing, indicating that Nia had chosen to go first.

Much like when Rex had resonated with Kaevan, a bright light shined in their eyes for a moment before a very odd Blade appeared in front of Nia. The Blade appeared to be very human-like; however, there was a large animal holding her up. It had white fur and judging by the Blade's white-colored, woolen poncho, pastel-blue hair, and pale skin: she was of the ice element.

Rex could not help but just think about how cute the Blade was, although he was very curious about the white-furred creature she had with her. "Wow... You're adorable." He commented, which caused the Blade to hide her face in the creature's neck in embarrassment.

Nia, after shooting a small glare in Rex's direction, stepped closer to the newly awakened Blade with their Knuckle Claws in hand. "Hey, my name's Nia. How about you?" She asked gently, and the Blade looked at her after a moment.

"I... I'm Ursula, and this is Beary..." The Blade did not say much more than that, and the creature holding her was silent as well.

Rex smiled before he looked towards Regan. He had to admit, he was fairly interested in what kind of Blade she would awaken. Noticing the look he was giving her, she adjusted her grip on the Core Crystal. The core started glowing and a bright-blue light once again invaded their senses. Regan suddenly felt a large weapon appear in her hands before the owner of said weapon appeared before her.

Looking down, she could now fully tell that the weapon was a Greataxe. Now, she definitely had not expected that. She had expected a Megalance or even an Ether Cannon since those two weapon classes would have likely been way easier for her to handle. Greataxes were definitely not the easiest to handle; however, it actually felt much lighter than it looked.

Once she looked towards the Blade she had awakened, she realized that she was being stared at. The white-haired Blade was looking Regan up and down. That's when Regan noticed that the Blade was hardly wearing any clothing. The female Blade's only clothing consisted of a skirt and a pair of boots, and she wore a capelet that resembled a pair of wings. A white bag covered some of her chest, and it also floated around her head.

"Huh, you're much tinier than I expected." The Blade commented, and Regan now noticed a pair of blue horns sticking out of the Blade's hair with black and white stripes towards the bottom of them. At first, the Elf did not realize that the Blade had in a way just insulted her. It was not technically an insult since Regan knew it was just the truth. Despite it being true, she felt her face heat up at the Blade's comment.

"Though, as long we fight tough opponents I'm okay with you as my Driver. The name's Zenobia." The Blade greeted, which caused Regan to feel a bit better.

"Oh, I'm Regan. Nice to meet you." Her being cheered up did not last long when Zenobia suddenly looked towards Malos. The Blade's green-eyed gaze suddenly fell onto the Aegis' Core Crystal.

"Oh, I definitely want to fight him!" Zenobia exclaimed before she floated over to Malos, who did not look to be amused in the least. The Elf definitely could not blame him for his annoyance, but the Blade seemed to not notice or just did not care.

•••

It took several minutes for Regan to be able to convince Zenobia that they would find something super strong to fight later; however, despite that promise, the newly-awakened Blade still insisted on fighting Malos. Zenobia wanted to fight him directly, but Malos seemed completely uninterested in the idea. "C'mon, it'll be fun!" The wind Blade insisted and pouted when she was once again turned down.

"No."

Regan sighed in exasperation and let out a sigh of relief as Zenobia gave up, for now anyway. The Elf had no doubt that the Blade would bring this up again. "So, where to now?" She asked the others, and Tora responded to her question cheerfully.

"Head back to Tora's house in Torigoth to get some food before going to the World Tree!" Poppi nodded her head in agreement, and they all headed back in the direction of Torigoth.

•••••••

Bonus Scene*

"What is this place?" Ethan asked as both he and Regan approached the old, abandoned-looking building. The other Elf did not answer him, and she entered the building. Following after her, he looked around as he went inside. Much like it appeared to be on the outside, it looked to be abandoned. Despite its appearance on the surface level, something just seemed off about the place. Regan seemed to sense the same thing, and she looked in his direction.

"Stay close... I definitely don't like the look of this place." Nodding in agreement, he moved closer to her. They went through the whole building, which only appeared to have about two floors. It still did not have the appearance of a house, but neither of them was sure what the place had once been. The building was in the middle of the forest, and it had taken them hours to even locate it. "Eva, Lucy, come in!" Regan called out to both their Blades.

"This place... Do you think he might be here?" Regan suddenly asked them as their Blades walked into the building. The taller Elf shook his head in response.

"I don't think so. There's got to be something here though," Ethan stated before he spotted an odd-looking spot on the floor. "Something's been moved." He stated before he looked around and spotted a rug rolled out on the floor. It looked strange to him, so he rolled up the rug and something in his mind clicked. It was a trapdoor.

"Wait." Regan stopped him as he was just about to open it, and she shook her head. "This seems way too convenient... We don't have any other leads but still, this definitely seems like a trap." She looked towards Eva and Lucy, "Stay up here." At the worried expressions they were given, she gave both Lucy and Eva a reassuring look. "I promise, we're not going to split up this time."