Chapter 3: Their Meaning

So… been a while huh? Uh… I've got no excuses for why this is so late. Just lazy mostly. Plus studying and busy with other RL stuff. University's finally finished the merger with the eSports team so I'm a lot more active in that stuff as well now, on top of practicing. Hardstuck diamond lol.

So something I'm planning on doing is distancing my online presences from each other since it's looking like plugging my shit isn't really doing much so I'm going to slowly edit out any self promotions I've done in my stories.

Purpsz: Thank you for the kind words though I don't think I deserve them. I'll see if I can live up to your expectations.

….

Brandon awoke with a stiff neck and raging headache. Typical. Ugh, and Rex was the heavy drinker while he never even touched alcohol in his life. And Rex had awoken as if he had slept like a rock. It must be nice living life with no stress.

"Ugh, you know," Brandon groaned, "I don't understand how the makeshift mattress you put together is better for my sleep than these comfort beds in inns."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Rex stretched.

"I- what?"

Rex laughed, "you're too used to hard and uncomfortable mattresses. Maybe we should splurge a little on a good one."

Brandon shook his head, "nah, why fix what isn't broken?"

"True enough. I'm going to go and send the rest of the money back home now that the couriers office should be open."

"Alright, well we still have a few hours to kill, I'll pack up our stuff. Want to meet up at that seafood restaurant, I could use an actually good Crustip after yesterday."

"Hey, I do my best," Rex crossed his arms, "why don't you try cooking for once? Burn a few meals and you'll be grateful for what I do."

Brandon chuckled, "you like what few things I can make though."

"Yeah, because they're salty and greasy as hell. Nothing can taste bad when it's been deep fried for long enough."

Brandon just laughed. "Go on then, send the money home."

Rex grinned back and spun around, slinging the bag of gold over his shoulder.

"Oh right," Brandon drew his sidearm and passed it to Rex.

"Huh?" Rex looked confused, "you never let me use this."

Brandon shrugged, "I don't think it's a good idea walking around with that much without proper self defense. It's not like you can go around and swing your two handed heavy sword with only one hand while also trying to keep the heavy bag of gold safe. You remember all the safety stuff I taught you and how to use it right?"

"Yeah, I got it. Thanks."

"See you in a few then."

The restaurant was bustling by the time the two had managed to get a table. Given that it was the most popular fish chain, it shouldn't have come as a surprise. There was also the fact that the big mission was in a few hours so many salvagers and other crew members found themselves sitting down and eating at Fishy Fishy.

While their food was good for sure, Brandon always found it kind of strange how popular it was given that the main Argentum building mostly had salvagers passing through and the majority of the food on long salvaging expeditions ended up being seafood.

It was probably the brilliant marketing actually. They even had small take out stands all over the guild building.

"You know," Rex hummed to himself, "you probably could have made your own successful food based business, just bundle all of your recipes into a cookbook and you could probably make a good amount."

"Maybe, but I've got to get so many third party contractors for that," he held up a hand and started ticking fingers, "I've got to get a publisher interested and to do that I need an agent, then in order to get it through a publisher I need an editor to look over it. I'll also need an illustrator or a photographer to show what the final product would look like-"

Rex held up his hand, "I get it," he laughed, "you always have so many nitpicks. You're going to regret not doing some stuff and taking some risks in the future."

"Maybe, but that's not too important to me," he shrugged, "not too much in my life except to survive and help you."

"Well if we can get your memories back-"

Brandon waved a hand dismissively, "you've done more than enough to help me out. If they haven't returned, they're probably not going to return." He shrugged. It was as good an excuse he could come up with. He was sure Gramps didn't believe him but never said anything about it. Rex on the other hand just naively took his word.

That made him feel worse. But what the hell else was he supposed to say? Oh hey, I happen to be from the land of Morytha? At least Gramps seemed to think he was a Judicium survivor. He pieced a decent amount about the fallen Titan. The people there were almost like from his world, technologically advanced in the more mechanical field.

Their competitors were other Titans that seemed to have died out around the same time. Some of these countries were more advanced in Biological or Ether studies rather than the brute mechanical force that was Judicium. However, they were unable to really compete with Mor Ardain which had been, and still is, a massive industrial powerhouse.

The history of Alrest was interesting, almost more interesting than his world's history, but that was probably because he was more used to his world.

Rex sighed, "well, as long as you're happy with your life."

Brandon laughed, "you'll be the first to know any dissatisfactions I have."

"I'd better be."

"You-" Brandon doubled over with laughter, "you know, usually people try to avoid responsibility."

Rex grinned, "I like breaking the mold."

"Right, you want to help everyone," Brandon said, "I honestly don't know whether to praise you or to criticize you. Someone's going to backstab you at some point."

"Hey, I took a big chance with you. If I was as cynical and untrusting as you are, you'd probably be stuck with nothing right now."

"Fair enough," he finished off the rest of his Crustip. "Alright, I'm going to go and pick something up from Gramps, you going directly to the Maelstrom after?"

"Yeah," Rex pushed a plate of food over to him, "I shouldn't have ordered that, could you go and get it packed for me?"

"Sure, you need anything from Gramps?"

"Nah, I've got all my gear in my bag," he gestured towards it, "I'm surprised you forgot something to be honest with you, doesn't seem like you."

Brandon shrugged, "slipped my mind, happens to the best of us."

"I guess, you going to tell me what it is you forgot?"

"Nope," he smirked, "though if you want a hint, it's a bit of a surprise for you."

"Cool, is it a new weapon?" he asked, "not that I need a new one with how good that sword you made me is."

"It's a surprise, telling you anything would ruin that."

"Sure, I'm assuming you're giving it to me during this trip then?"

"The plan was to finish it then hand it to you when I got back, but, well, you're on the same mission as me so…"

"Ah, better finish it quickly then."

"Oh screw off," he laughed, "come back and say that when you can repair your own gear." He turned around while giving him a lazy salute, "see you later."

"Hurry up, launch is in like half an hour."

Argentum was really fucking big. That was the only way he could describe it. It was a massive mall with sprawling wide open areas, as well as twisting labyrinths of hallways and shops. Honestly, outside of the office areas where the trading guild was actually run, there was very little structure, as the place had grown organically as more was added onto the place.

He grunted as he ran into someone as he rounded a corner.

"Watch where you'r-" he grumbled before his brain registered who it was he had crashed into. It was that rude Gormotti driver girl.

"Sorry," he mumbled, "I didn't realize-" He stopped when he noticed a tear rolling down her face.

"What?" she snapped, "you only decide to be polite if you know someone?" She wiped at her face furiously.

"I- sorry," he held out a hand. She glared at him, considering her options, then ultimately decided to take his hand and let him help her up to her feet.

"Thanks-" she was interrupted by her stomach growling.

"Have… you eaten, today?"

"... No," she mumbled, cheeks flushing red.

He sighed. He handed her the styrofoam box in his hand containing the uneaten seafood. She sniffed it once. "Thank you."

"I don't mean to be a nosy prick, but why haven't you eaten? We're taking off soon and there's not going to be an opportunity to eat aboard for at least another few hours until dinner."

She shrugged, "I had a disagreement."

Brandon's eyes narrowed slightly, he wanted to say that her expression said that it seemed more like just a disagreement, but if she said so. Not like it was any of his business.

"Mmh, whatever you say boss," he waved before walking off, "I guess I'll see you on the ship then."

"Yeah…"

"Be careful," Gramps gave Brandon one last warning before he stepped off back onto the dock, "when a third party shells out so much money, they're not looking for some random treasure. They know something's out there and it will either bring them money or power, likely both."

Brandon shrugged, "I'll watch my back, but I don't think there's too much to worry about. Either way, we get paid and there's no politics involved. This isn't a government trying to scrounge up old weapons technology."

"I've lived for many centuries, I may not be able to tell what's wrong, but there's something not quite right."

Brandon grimaced, "I'll take your intuition for what it is." He quickly ducked back into the little shack and grabbed a few more magazines and batteries. No such thing as being too prepared.

"Good luck," Gramps said, "I hope that I'm wrong and this goes well."

"I do too."

"-awking over a boat, what are you? Twelve? Wait, maybe you are twelve."

"What's your problem? You got an issue with me?-"

Brandon sighed as he walked up behind the two, "you know," he said, causing both Nia and Rex to jump, "you could be a little nicer to Rex here, after all, that food I gave you earlier was his leftovers, that he paid for."

"Wha- hey! You gave this arsehole my food?!"

"That was his? I wouldn't have taken it if I had kno-"

Brandon waved to cut them off, "Rex would have done the same in my position. Try to get along, or this will be a painful few days, if not a painful week." He walked forward and grabbed Rex by the ear.

"Ow! Hey! Let go!"

"You're an idiot," he hissed in Rex's ear, "were you trying to start a fight? A Driver will pummel you into the ground no matter how much training you have. You think I can beat a Driver? Maybe on my best day I can be even with a low level Driver and then their Blade will tear me apart. The sheer strength, speed, and reaction time boost they get just by being a driver is impossible to compete with."

He smiled at the guard at the top of the ramp to the Maelstrom who stepped to the side and let them board.

"I wasn't trying to start a fight," Rex complained.

"Didn't look like it from my perspective. It's unfair, but just because someone else is rude to you doesn't mean you can be rude back. Didn't I tell you? If you're dealing with an asshole, you use either cool politeness or ignore them. If you don't, you make enemies, and some of those enemies can kill you with ease."

"Kill me? I don't think she would kill me."

"You don't know her," he said, "you don't know who she works for or what she's done."

"She's barely older than me."

"Do you know that?" He stared directly at Rex, "do you know for certain?"

Rex averted his eyes, "... no."

"Exactly," he said, "she's got one of those faces, can't tell if she's fifteen or twenty five." It also didn't help that she had cat ears sticking out of her head. The humans of Alrest, looked different compared to the humans from his world. Particularly the Gormotti, Urayans, Tantalese, and Indoline had strange appearances. Obviously there wasn't much of a genetic difference given that only appearances really looked different. It could also be because of the Titans they lived on.

The Gormotti in particular were weird to him. While the other people had some weird difference, he could at least see how they could happen. The Gormotti just had an extra set of ears. Why? That baffled him.

"So that means we should immediately peg her as a murderer?"

"No it's, hmm." He groaned, "it's not that, I'm saying don't piss off other people because you don't know what they could do. I don't care how good it feels to cuss someone out because that feeling's going to die with you."

"I can fend for myself you know."

"I know you can fend for yourself. But you're too naive in human interactions."

"Not everyone is out to get you."

"Not everyone is as kind as you. And with her, I don't feel anything bad but you can never be too careful, especially around third party drivers."

"Look, I'll be careful, could you just let go of my ear now?"

"Oh, sorry," he chuckled, letting go.

"Ow-" Rex muttered, "you could have emphasized your point without doing that."

"Just be careful around people you don't know. You're not going to get so lucky that everyone will turn out like me. Hell, what if I happened to be a serial killer or something?"

"Then I'd have thrown you back into the Cloud Sea."

"I- ugh." he sighed, "I forget you're just a kid sometimes."

"You're only a few years older than me."

"Those few years makes a massive difference," he said, "I'm heading up to do my patrol and watch. You should check up on your gear like you're supposed to."

"Yeah yeah, I got it, you're worse than Gramps sometimes."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Brandon grinned.

Night fell fast. The Maelstrom was an impressive feat of engineering for the people of Alrest, it was almost the size of old cruise ships. It had taken his entire shift to do a sweep of just three levels of the ship. Of course right after he had taken the night watch on the crow's nest. He had originally wanted to just get his shifts over with so that he could get a long sleep in before he had to guard the cargo but he was now regretting it with how tired he felt.

At least with the cold wind whipping at his face, it wasn't too hard to stay awake. And the night watch so far was uneventful. He had noticed a black ship in the distance but it was more than likely just headed to another titan. Gormott was around the same trajectory as their destination and it wasn't out of the question that they wanted to stay within communication distance in case of pirates.

If they were pirates they would have already made a move.

"Ugh, I shouldn't have come up here, it's way too cold."

Brandon turned around to spot the Gormotti driver. "Only crew are supposed to be up here," Brandon said.

"I just need some fresh air. The crew below's started boozin' if you want to join 'em. I could take over your spot."

"I don't drink. It's not my thing, plus," he added under his breath, "I'm not old enough." He cleared his throat, "so you don't drink? I thought that Gormott's alcohol was pretty famous."

"I do drink, I just don't want a headache tomorrow," she said.

Brandon shrugged, "suit yourself. But I'm being paid to be up here," he took a bite of the sandwich he had taken from the dining hall, "there's plenty of fresh air on the deck or on one of the balconies."

She seemed to shudder, "I'd rather be around as few people as possible."

"You know the windows in the cabins open, right?"

She blinked, "no, I didn't know that," she made no move to leave.

"Tsk," Brandon's tongue clicked, "well, I guess you can do what you want, just don't let someone stricter than me catch you up here."

She nodded.

"Also don't blame me if you catch a cold."

She scoffed, "I don't catch colds."

Brandon barked a laugh, "I'm sure. I'm assuming that you've never been to Tantal?"

"Tantal?"

"Hm, I'm surprised you don't know about Tantal given how you're a Driver," he said, "a lot of people hiring Drivers there given how big their black market is."

She looked at him warily, "you don't seem to like us Drivers very much," she noted.

"Do I?" he shrugged, "well it doesn't really matter to you if I don't like Drivers. I doubt we'll meet again after this."

"What? That's one of the dumbest things I've heard."

He raised an eyebrow, "why's that?"

"Are you kiddin' me?" She glared at him, "how many Drivers do you interfere with? This can't be the first time you're workin' with Drivers if you're part of security."

"First time," he shrugged, "not often the Guild is willing to shell out for Drivers and is even less frequent when a contractor or business partner is able to. This is the first time an organization with Drivers has hired us before. Your employer must be extremely wealthy."

"My employer is none of your concern," she said, "what is your concern is how your attitude will mess with the dynamic of-"

"There is no dynamic," he cut her off, "I do my job, you do yours."

"What kind of short sighted reasoning is that?"

"It's just business," he said, "my opinions shouldn't matter to you."

"What, so it's not my business if you happened to be a raging racist against Gormotti?"

"Urk," she had him there.

"This might as well be the same thing, just you're being 'racist,'" she air quoted, "towards Drivers and Blades instead of Gormotti. Oh wait, that's not just quote unquote racist, it's actually racist towards Blades."

Brandon scowled, "have you really never even considered anything that has to do with Blades before? They're unnatural, artificial even."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Life just forming out of a crystal? You think something like that's natural?" Of course he knew exactly what a 'Core Crystal' was. He just wasn't sure what had happened to make them create a life form that was attached to a weapon. Not to mention the energy in the air known as Ether which was a form of sustenance for the Blades.

"What? So are Titans not natural either? Get real, they've been part of our lives for thousands of years. So what if they're supposedly unnatural? Thousands of Blades sacrificed themselves to save dozens of Titans and their inhabitants during the Aegis war. Are you sayin' that bein' 'artificial' somehow makes them any less human?"

"I…"

"Yeah," she tilted her head, "that's what I thought."

If only she knew. He wanted to scream at her about what Core Crystals were originally made for, the destruction they caused because of the horrible mutations, about how they were stowed away and kept under heavy guard in the First Low Orbit Station.

Then again, he was no better than the ones who made them. He was just as guilty. Being responsible for so many deaths…

"You know," Nia said, observing his face, "now that I think about it, you look familiar, weren't you that Argentum weapons seller that was making a stir about a year ago? Hm, seems a little hypocritical, don't you think? To be talking about Blade weapons being unnatural, yet making tools to kill."

Brandon scowled, "and what would you know? None of the weapons I sold were military grade, nor have I ever sold any to any military. All of them were non lethal and for self defense. I even stopped selling completely now that the cold war between Uraya and Mor Ardain is almost at a tipping point."

"So that's supposed to be applauded?"

"Oh for fuck's sake, get off your high horse. If you were so morally superior, you'd be working to actually fix issues instead of telling off a random asshole on a fucking boat you'll never see again."

"Why do you think we're on this damn mission? What we're looking for could change Alrest."

He snorted, "you think a singular object can change Alrest?"

"You don't know what we're even looking for," she shot back.

"So what are you looking for then?" he crossed his arms, leaning back onto the railing, "pray tell."

"It's the- I'm not allowed to say."

"Mmhm, right," he shook his head, "that sure doesn't sound sketchy at all."

"So what? You want me to give up all of our secrets? If you started giving out your weapon patents you would have gone out of business if you hadn't closed yourself."

"That's a different story," Brandon scowled, "what, are you expecting me to try to steal whatever the hell you're looking for? From multiple drivers and blades? You must think I'm either full of myself or insane. Maybe both."

"You really want to know? Fine but you'd better not tell anyone or it's both our arses on the line," she warned.

"Yeah yeah, I'm not a moron," he responded.

"Hmph," she grunted, unconvinced, "we're lookin' for the Aegis."

Brandon stared at her for a moment. He then busted out laughing.

Nia's face flashed red, "what?!" She demanded angrily.

Brandon doubled over, unable to stop laughing. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he hiccuped, "it's just… we're both after fairy tales huh?"

"We're both… what're you on about?" She glared, "I don't know what you want but the Aegis is very much a real object."

"Huh? Oh that's not what I meant. I know the Aegis is real, but the hero who wielded it all those centuries ago sealed it away. I heard from my brother that shifting currents brought something up? Hah, I doubt that's the Aegis, another false positive in a sea of other wild goose chase stories."

Nia tilted her head to complain but Brandon held up a finger to stop her.

"But I can't really say anything. To be honest, chasing after a dream like that, even if it's farfetched, is better than giving into despair. Especially given the state the world is in, many have already fallen into that pit. Gives a reason to keep on going, you know?"

"Oh really?" Nia crossed her arms, "then what are you after?"

"Elysium."

It was Nia's turn to burst into laughter, "the Aegis may be hard to find, but Elysium is actually just a fairy tale. The top of that World Tree is the same as any other tree, it's just an overgrown shrub."

Brandon just smiled, fully expecting that response, "everyone tells me that, well other than the religious people who think you have to die to go to Elysium. But, I've got nothing else."

"What do you mean?"

Brandon sighed. It was honestly a pain that he had to lie about his past. He honestly wasn't sure why. Honestly it wasn't that people wouldn't believe him, or rather, that Rex wouldn't believe him. Rex would probably believe whatever he said in a heartbeat, just the way the kid is. But to know about everything that's happened before, that would be crushing to anyone's mind.

"I don't have anything. I woke up when I was pulled out of the cloud sea, no memories or identity. But one thing's set in stone in my mind. I was searching for Elysium."

That… technically wasn't a lie. It's just that the rebellion was trying to take out Rhadamanthus after getting there. The goal was to claim the Conduit, to prevent further creation of Artifices since that was ultimately what was losing them the war. No matter how powerful his own weapons were, they couldn't compete with the weapons designed by artificial intelligence and powered by a perpetual motion machine.

"You were… searchin' for Elysium?" Nia said, "why would that be the first thought in your head? Wait, if you have no memories… a brother?"

"That… wasn't a sentence," Brandon sighed, "I was kind of adopted in. Gramps thinks that I'm from Judicium, one of the Titans that fell during the Aegis war. He thinks that I was preserved in their long lost technology. Of course I have no memory of anything so I can't confirm nor deny."

Again, almost the truth. He was preserved in a long lost technology. A technology that has been lost for tens of thousands of years if what his pod said was correct.

"So you lost your family," Nia said quietly, almost to herself. She seemed to mutter something to herself before she stuck out a hand, "look, I- I apologize for the way I behaved earlier. Let's start over."

Brandon raised an eyebrow before smiling and taking her hand, giving it a firm shake, "same here. Let's hope everything turns out well."

….

Has Brandon just jinxed himself? Well, yes but you already knew that.

Man I'm bad at writing, I just can't get stuff out the way I want it to. At least I have a better setup here than in the original. It makes more sense than "insert Brandon here in place of Rex." I may be bad at writing but I'm better than I was a year ago, and that's what's important.

Also thinking back to the original timespan I set which I think was 3000 years? That's probably a bit short for humanity to reevolve, even with the accelerated process with core crystals.

Also I'm actually coming up with my own shit than copy pasting dialogue, yay!