Chapter 11: Artifice Trauma

For those of you who are interested, there's a RWBY anime coming out. I'm hoping it's good, I think it's being done by studio Shaft and they've done good stuff before.

Also for anyone who's interested in Smash, specifically Project M, apparently there's a new mod project called HDR, short for HewDraw Remix. It's Smash Ultimate's Project M. According to a friend, who was a competitive Project M player, the game is effectively everything he's wanted in a Smash title since Melee with only tiny issues. I don't have the ability to mod my switch rn but you know that the moment I get my hands on the tools, I'm going to have HDR modded on. As well as both Nia mods that go over Sheik and Lucina respectively. It's convenient that I picked up Sheik and I've been having a lot of fun with her.

Though I wonder what they're going to do for Smash 6 whenever that comes out. I really hope they put Rex in with Pyra/Mythra and give us the Ice Climbers stance changer combo, that would be awesome. Shulk is fine, I just want his backslash changed to a different Xenoblade 1 art. I know it's iconic but that move is actually garbage. The big question is which Xenoblade 3 protag will be put in since both Noah and Mio are going to be duo protags.

…

"Come on," Brandon muttered to himself as the armor he put on whirred to life. He had spent a couple of hours working with his computer to get his armor fully functional. "Come on!" He took a step forwards while holding his breath. He let that breath out in relief as the armor functioned as it should.

"This big success!" Tora cheered, hopping up and down in celebration. Rex and Pyra, having joined them for their lunch break, gave a weak clap as well. It honestly looked like that was the most Rex could do without collapsing. At least he got on well with Tora after they were introduced.

Brandon took a few more steps and moved his body around, trying to test as many little mechanical parts as possible.

He broke into a jog, his metal armor making a deafening sound as it clanged onto the metal floor. He tried to make a pinpoint turn at the end of the ship but stumbled and fell. He skid across the ground, flinging up sparks before colliding with the wall. He got up with a groan, more disappointed in his lack of skill than of pain or discomfort. Even so he saw a panicked Nia sprinting towards him with concern etched into her face.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," he said, his visor moving up and out of the way so he could speak out freely.

Nia glared up and down, unconvinced. Though his body was covered from head to toe in a metal power suit, he was sure Nia was able to detect any kind of injury on his body. After a minute, she nodded, satisfied that there was nothing wrong. Maybe he joked about the suit's risks too much. It was highly unlikely that the suit would actually malfunction and kill the user. Since it was designed for combat, it was designed purely for functionality and protecting the wearer. As such, it was built with a ton of redundancy and failsafes to ensure the user would survive for as long as possible.

"You're goin' to kill me doin' that," Nia said, putting a hand on the armor's chestpiece. Her hand lit up with power and Dromarch's Core Crystal glowed in response. Brandon felt his skin itch lightly as even the smallest abrasions and bruises from the fall healed completely. Even the small welt from bumping his head earlier faded. Though the soreness from working didn't fade. Probably Nia discerning and then treating what were proper injuries, though he'd hardly classify a few light bruises as a proper injury.

"I'll be fine. I know what I'm doing."

Nia snorted, clearly unconvinced. "I'm sure you do. Just like I'm sure I'm goin' to make sure you don't kill yourself doin' this."

"Wait… isn't that-?"

Nia snarled, "don't even try. You're goin' to be more careful and I'm goin' to make sure you do. End of story."

Brandon sighed, "understood milady."

"And stop callin' me that."

"No, I don't think I will. Not if you keep annoying me."

"Annoyin' you? I'm tryin' to keep you alive you dunce."

"I'm not saying no to that am I? I appreciate the concern, I really do. But you don't need to mother me every step I take. It just sounds like you're lecturing me." Honestly, she had started treating him as if he were made of glass after their little heart to heart. He didn't need coddling, especially not from someone only a year older than him.

Nia fixed him with a harsh stare before relenting, "alright, I'll lay off a bit. Just be careful."

"Got it. Though I don't know why you don't like milady. I think it's a cute nickname."

"Well it might be more endearin' if you weren't only usin' it to annoy me."

"Then I shall strive to change my ways, milady."

Nia rolled her eyes but smiled. "Of course. Perhaps I should start treating you like a butler like your nickname would imply."

"I would be honored, milady," Brandon bowed. He laughed as he felt Nia swat at his head.

Rex winked at Brandon as he walked back. "I see what's going on."

"Huh-?"

"Anyways, I think we should give that armor a proper test run," he said, "let's go get Morag."

Brandon shook his head, "you just don't want to suffer alone." Brandon accused and Rex chuckled sheepishly. "But you've got a point. Sure, go get her."

Rex cheered slightly and walked off slowly.

"Why didn't you treat Rex?" Brandon wondered aloud.

"He didn't have any damage from outside sources," Nia explained, "if I heal damage done to himself by exercise, it would negate the effects and benefits of exercise, which would make it a waste of time."

"And also it is unlikely Morag, an expert, would do something to cause permanent damage during training," Dromarch added.

"Couldn't you stop the soreness though?"

"What part of 'I can't stop pain' did you not understand."

"I mean yeah but surely there's something if it's too bad."

Nia sighed, "the only real way to stop it is to heal the damage. If you're askin' if I can create painkillers or somethin' then no. Theoretically I can alter your nervous system with my limited control over the human body but somethin' like that is extremely risky and has the potential of bein' permanent. I wouldn't do that unless you're goin' to die from the pain but even then, if somethin' was that painful, it's more likely that whatever's causin' it will kill you first."

"You can do that?" Brandon asked.

"What? The nervous system thing? Yeah. How do you think healin' is done? Magicking flesh together? No, it's a lot of knowledge about the human body and acceleratin' its natural healin' process by manipulatin' cells." Nia said, almost reminding Brandon of his old professors.

"I mean, the process of actually doing it sure, but like, using Ether energy is still something I can't wrap my head around." Brandon said.

"Huh? It's somethin' every Blade and Driver... oh."

"Yeah."

"No Ether at all?"

"None."

"I feel like I'm missing some subtext here, my lady," Dromarch said.

"Sorry Dromarch," Brandon shook his head apologetically, "this is something I'm only telling Nia for now."

"Understood, master Brandon. I hope that whatever my lady was prodding you over earlier has been resolved."

Brandon nodded, "she still owes me something but I can ask again later."

"Then I hope you receive what it is you want."

"I can take care of my own business, Dromarch," Nia complained at the unwanted interference.

Dromarch withdrew slightly with his head bowed, "understood, my lady."

Brandon snorted, addressing Dromarch. "I'm surprised you're not putting up more of a fight this time around."

"No need this time."

Brandon shrugged. He inputted a few commands and had his armor open up from the back, allowing him to step out and stretch his arms out upwards. He winced, feeling his back pop a few times.

"You should stretch more often," Nia commented idly.

"Wow, thanks milady, couldn't have figured that out myself," he said sarcastically but did a few more proper stretches. He rolled his shoulders, warming himself up for whatever trial Morag had for him.

"I'm back!" Rex called from the doorway as he returned, Morag and Brighid with him.

"I see you have finished your repairs," Morag said.

"Yeah," Brandon said as he hopped back into the suit. It whirred and clicked into place, sealing him back into the power armor.

"Fascinating," he heard Morag say, "what is it capable of?"

"Enhancing strength is really all it does outside of being armor." Brandon said, "though I guess there's a display in the visor that gives me basic information about the suit, my own vitals, and the environment. It's also meant to work in tandem with that gun so it'll tell me how much ammunition I have left as well as if it's overheating," he pointed to the gauss rifle sitting in the pod.

"And this is of your own creation?"

"No. You won't find the manufacturer either since they're dead."

"It was never in my mind to obtain the manufacturer," Morag said, "I am simply impressed by such a feat of engineering." It was then she noticed the nopon standing nearby and a frown made its way onto her face.

"And who is this?"

"Tora is Tora!" Tora said.

"Did you really let a random nopon into a military installment?" Morag sighed, putting a hand on her face.

"Yes?"

"That was a rhetorical question."

"He's been an invaluable asset in the repairs."

"Obviously." Morag said, "if he wasn't, there'd be a big problem."

Brandon laughed nervously. "I'm not that dumb."

"Good. I would hate to have to arrest you after all that."

Brandon swallowed, unsure if Morag was poking fun at his expense or not. Her combination of maintaining a completely serious disposition at all times as well as few instances of dry humor leaving Brandon unable to get a real read on Morag.

"Uh, thanks?"

"You're welcome." Morag nodded. Okay, she was messing with him for sure. "The nopon, Tora, should leave now. Unless he has something else to share?"

Brandon was loath to reveal Tora's Artificial Blade. He had not brought Poppi to the military base so he obviously didn't want to just advertise her. On the other hand, he had just kind of grabbed Brandon and Nia off the streets randomly once he knew that Nia was a Driver. "Uh, Tora, are you okay with showing off your thing?"

"Hm, is Ardanian soldier Driver?"

Brandon glanced at Brighid, "uh, yes?"

"Tora okay then. Tora will get Poppi."

"And who is this Poppi?" Morag asked, "is she his Blade?"

"You'll see in a bit."

Morag sighed, a little exasperated, "very well then. You go and get Poppi. The rest of you, follow me."

Brandon was doubled over panting, his armored hands resting on his knees with his lungs feeling like he was breathing in fire. If that wasn't enough, he also had a side stitch, the sharp pain at the side of his abdomen indicating the diaphragm cramp.

He noticed a blue hue settle over him and the stitch dissipated, leaving Brandon in a state of relief. He made a mental note to thank Nia later. She had been reversing any muscle cramps that formed throughout the rigorous testing Morag had been putting him through.

He knew that this was all technically within his limits. He'd be surprised if Morag was incompetant enough to make him do more than he could. She had been slowly ramping up the difficulty of his tasks. Going from the basics like seeing how fast he could cover short distances to slowly ramping up the weight he had to try carrying. It was just unfortunate that his armor enhanced strength rather than do the work for him. If he was pushing himself to his limit, it was the same as a hard workout without the armor.

And he hasn't had a proper workout in a while. Ugh, he really had to get some workout equipment once this was all over.

Once she was satisfied with seeing the limits of the armor, she called on Nia and Dromarch to see what they were capable of. Once that was done, she had the two square off against Brandon. Nia initially didn't activate the energy blades on her twin rings but Morag argued that she should to see if Brandon's armor would hold in an actual battle versus Blade weapons and that she would cover the costs of any repairs. Though she did note that Brandon probably shouldn't use his oversized rifle in a spar.

Nia initially refused saying she didn't want to spar with a non-driver without safeties on. Morag responded by saying that if his armor failed him here, he wasn't fit to fight Torna in the first place and that if he was to be injured by a Blade weapon, it was better when they weren't in a life or death situation.

Nia eventually relented and drew her weapons in earnest. It was a rough fight. Nia went in with a horizontal slash at Brandon's chest. He instinctively held up an arm to block it and winced as his heads up display showed that Nia's chakram ripped a small gash into his armor.

He feinted to the left, trying to make a setup to force Nia right. But he didn't account for just how agile the Gormotti Driver was. She ducked under his armored fist and slammed it to the side, even the armor's enhanced strength buckling in the awkward angle. She landed a few slashes across Brandon's back before skirting back to dodge Brandon's next clumsy swing from his followup spin. Brandon sighed, more annoyed at how much time he was going to have to spend to repair the armor than any kind of frustration.

He knew he was always going to be an underdog in a fight with a fully powered Driver and Blade. Without his advantage in ranged combat with his gauss rifle especially, he wasn't too surprised he was losing. Though this was going to be important since obviously Torna was going to try to close the distance, their only ranged weapon, as far as he was aware, being on their ship.

But even then, he wasn't a quitter. If he couldn't outskill Nia, he'd have to outmaneuver her. He grinned remembering their conversation over chess from earlier. In this case, he didn't have an advantage in anything other than maybe his mind. Like, if he challenged her to an arm wrestle now in his armor, he wasn't sure he'd win. Maybe he was overestimating his mental game but he didn't have many other options.

He made another purposefully telegraphed attack, Nia obviously dodged it, then got clotheslined by Brandon's quick reaction to unlatch the back of his armor's arm, letting his actual arm out and into position. He winced, feeling his arm bruise as he pulled it back into his armor and slammed a fist down to where Nia fell. She easily rolled out of the way, again, getting behind Brandon and scoring a few more hits.

Brandon rolled forward and quickly spun around. He wanted to shake his arm but knew he shouldn't show a sign of vulnerability there. It really felt like he had just blocked a brick with it though. Brandon raised his fists into the basic combat position again but Morag raised a hand to stop him.

"I believe I've seen enough. You'll do well enough in an actual fight."

"That was a nasty trick," Nia grumbled, raising a hand to heal both herself and Brandon.

"Yeah well, it'll keep me alive." Brandon shrugged unapologetically.

"Not sayin' it's a bad thing. I'm just annoyed I didn't see it comin'. Your arm feelin' alright?"

Brandon rolled his shoulder and waved his arm around in a circle. "Yeah, I'm good. I just wish your forehead wasn't so dense."

"You what? Are you really sayin' that with the bucket over your head you… buckethead."

Brandon laughed, "is that really the best you could come up with, milady?"

"Says the person who's just taken Dromarch's line and added a sarcastic spin to it."

"Well-"

"If you children could stop bickering for a moment," Morag interrupted the two, "your Nopon friend arrived a minute ago."

"Children?" Nia asked, an indignant expression on her face.

"Yes, unless you'd prefer to be called an old married couple? You're certainly fighting like you are."

Nia squawked.

Morag let out the smallest hint of a smirk, "either way, I'm not a parent, nor a marriage counselor so if you two would like to continue, you can do so when I'm not present to be deafened by it."

Brandon whistled, "you didn't have to murder us like that."

"No? It was certainly effective."

"Fair enough."

"Anyway, is this Poppi?"

"Affirmative!" Tora said.

"Poppi is Poppi!"

"What exactly are you, if you don't mind my asking."

"Poppi is artificial Blade. One of a kind."

"So you're a machine?"

"Technically, yes."

"Well then, why don't we see what you're capable of as well."

Brandon raised his visor, "you're not going to test Rex?"

Morag stared at him, "have you sparred with Rex before?"

"Well yes."

"Then I don't see a need. Rex has unfortunately picked up the habit of relying solely on Pyra's power, which while considerable, betrays her with his skill. However, when I had him spar hand to hand, he used every dirty trick he could think of, something I have you to thank for I wager. As far as I can tell, your fighting style is very reliant on catching your opponents off guard. While it's likely effective, maybe even multiple times if your bouts are spread apart enough, it can become predictable that you would try something unpredictable. Rex wouldn't gain much from that and I assume that the way he fights without Pyra is a result of trying to counter such a combat style."

Brandon nodded, conceding the point.

"However, you are right. Nia, if you would be so kind as to be a sparring partner for Rex as well, that would be much appreciated."

Nia grumbled, "call me a child. Then tell me what to do. Blegh."

Brandon laughed.

"I see you're takin' it in str-"

"Children, if you please."

Brandon laughed harder, "sorry sorry. Do your military thing."

"Well, I'm certainly impressed," Morag said to the group, who were all currently sweating and on the floor, completely exhausted. Except for Poppi, who, annoyingly, was as chipper as ever.

"I believe you all will be fine should you encounter Torna again. Nia, have you ever had formal training before?"

"... No," Nia said, unable to put any energy into a quip.

"Interesting. Out of everyone, you seem to be the most apt at combat and is quite the standard approach."

Brandon raised an eyebrow. Though Nia was certainly miles better than he was, she didn't do anything standard as far as he could tell. At least standard by the conventions of his world. She fought with chakrams in melee for crying out loud. Obviously they weren't called that, Alrest not having the diversity of languages and culture of Earth, but still. As far as he could tell, throwing chakrams as a ranged option was somewhat limited in use even though they were Blade weapons and could be regenerated at will unlike a regular metal chakram.

Nia shrugged, "maybe I've mostly fought standard fighters."

"I suppose your history with Torna might explain that. Now Brandon on the other hand, I have no idea what the hell you're doing."

"What?" He asked, sounding offended.

"Well there's nothing… conventional about the way you fight. It's not any form of martial arts, nor form of boxing. I'd say it's random flailing but it clearly works."

"Yeah, well if it wasn't obvious, I fight mostly ranged." He gestured to his mostly unused gauss rifle. He had been given the chance to fire at some targets and while he proved to be a good shot with or without his HUD, it didn't really show much since he'd be shooting at moving Drivers and Blades.

"And there's a reason why I've been making you fight hand to hand. Unfortunately, most Drivers and Blades have melee weapons. Even Drivers who's Blade partner is an Ether cannon are still made to learn melee combat."

"You've made your point." Brandon sighed. "Also, why go through the lengths to test Tora and Poppi?"

"Because if Torna was spying on us, they'd learn about Tora and would likely target him to try to get to you."

Brandon swallowed. He didn't think of that.

"Torna?" Tora asked, "you mean bully criminals who steal Core Crystal so others can't be Drivers?!"

"Well…" Morag sighed, "never mind. Yes, those guys."

"Tora want to help stop them. Tora angered by such selfish bullies."

Morag shook her head, "why do I get the feeling that you want to stop them for the wrong reasons. Hm. How about this. Rex and friends will do what they need to do, I will train young Tora here with the rest of our new Driver recruits. We'll meet up again after you're done to finish off Torna."

"Sounds good," Rex groaned, "I think I'm going to need a day off though."

"You can rest on the way." Morag said mercilessly, "go."

"Got it," Rex said unhappily and slowly got to his feet. "Thank you for everything," he bowed, Pyra following suit and lowering her head. He held out a hand to Brandon and hauled him to his feet, armor and all.

"Uh, I'm going to need time to repair this thing."

"Then go buy what you need and do it on the way. We've wasted enough time as it is."

Brandon sighed, "alright then. I guess we'll do it your way."

"Do it on the way," Brandon muttered sarcastically, welding the gashes in his armor shut. He took a step back and flipped up the protective welding mask he had bought along with the rest of the welding gear. He stepped back, unsatisfied with the patchwork repairs but it was the best he could do under the circumstances. It was uncomfortable doing this on Gramp's back, especially with four other passengers, who were currently huddled inside Rex's shack to protect their eyes.

"Are you done?" Rex called from inside his little hut.

"Yeah," Brandon growled, "a little help with this thing?"

Rex and Nia hurried out to help Brandon move the armor into the pod and sling it back over onto Gramp's side.

"There," Brandon said, brushing his hands together, "we actually have some room now. Hey Gramps, how long until we reach the World Tree?"

"Hard to tell," Gramps said, looking into the distance at the ever present superstructure, "I'd wager another day or two."

Brandon sighed and quickly hopped into the shack to grab a pillow and tossed it out the window. He walked over and simply laid down, hands crossed behind his head.

"Really?" Nia asked, "that's all you're goin' to do?"

"What? You should relax a bit too. You seemed perfectly fine with that when you were watching me repair my armor."

"That was because I thought it would just be a few hours. The idea of just sittin' there for potentially two days isn't a great prospect for me."

"Mmh. I'd take the chance to get some rest. You're not going to be able to do much until we get to the World Tree anyways so you might as well."

"Um, actually, Brandon, can I speak with you?" Pyra said, "privately?"

"Uh, sure," he stood up and gestured towards the shack. Pyra nodded and Brandon followed her in. He shut the door and the windows. "This thing isn't that soundproof so you probably want to lower your voice if you want to keep this private."

Pyra nodded and took a deep breath, looking like she was deeply contemplating her next words. Brandon sat awkwardly for a few minutes while Pyra sorted out whatever it was in her head.

"You're from the Land of Morytha." Not a question, a statement. Not much point in denying that then.

"Yeah."

Pyra nodded, "I suspected as much when I saw that pod you have strapped to Azurda. But seeing your armor confirmed it. I didn't want to say anything earlier and put you on the spot in front of everyone."

"What about my armor confirmed it?"

"I suppose it's because it has a lot of similarities to the Artifices."

"Artifices?!" Brandon roared as he bolted to his feet. Pyra flinched and Brandon slowly sat back down, forcing himself to calm down. "What do you mean by Artifices? Are they still active?"

"No. They were mostly destroyed in the Aegis war, there aren't many left today. Actually I was hoping that you could answer some of my questions about them and Morytha."

Brandon rubbed a hand over his mouth. The fact that there were any still operational Artifices was concerning. If he had known sooner he would have hunted them down and destroyed them. As things stood now, maybe he'd be able to issue a kill order from the World Tree to make them destroy themselves. "What were you hoping to learn?" He said, finally deciding that he might as well if Pyra's knowledge was incomplete.

"Well first, I want to know what I am. What an Aegis is and why I'm different."

Brandon shrugged, "sorry, I don't know anything about you. Unfortunately I was on the other side of the war. I don't know much about any experiments or projects the Coalition government had going on." He gestured to her Core Crystal, "though I'll say that shape is very much the same as the Conduit. I know there was an Artificial Intelligence network developed to help study the Conduit. Make of that what you will with that information."

Pyra bit her lip in thought. "What exactly happened back then? I know there was a war but not much more beyond that."

"I… don't really want to talk about that. There was a war, yes. It was a war to possess the Conduit fought between the Coalition government and the Saviorite Rebellion. That's all I'm going to say about it."

Pyra nodded, accepting the answer though obviously not satisfied. "Then can I ask-" She froze.

"Pyra?" Brandon asked.

She shook her head, "sorry, it's nothing. Just a sudden sense of vertigo."

"Are you coming down with something?"

Pyra smiled warmly, a genuine smile that made Brandon feel reassured. "No, Blades can't get sick, or at least I can't. But I appreciate the concern. I wanted to ask, what are we to you? What Nia said earlier…"

Brandon sighed, suddenly feeling a lot worse. He ran a hand through his hair, a nervous tic from when he had grown his hair out, "I… it's hard to explain," he said a little annoyed at having to explain it twice, "Core Crystals were originally meant to replace human brains to achieve immortality. But because of the information stored within them, while technically granting the humans who used them immortality, it also mutated them into creatures that were barely recognizable. It was easy to see Blades as being extensions of that and since Rex wasn't a Driver before, it wasn't hard to continue to see Blades as such. And what I said before wasn't a lie either, the mercenary Drivers and Blades I've worked with in the past are arrogant for the most part."

"I see. I apologize then. I assumed the worst and-"

Brandon waved his arms, "no, don't apologize for something stupid like that. Rex would have my head if I took that. I'm the one who should be apologizing, assuming what you were instead of trying to learn more."

"That's alright. I'm more ashamed that I didn't realize sooner."

Brandon chuckled, "what are we doing? Going around in an apology loop? How about we're both sorry and we move on."

Pyra smiled, a hand going over her heart, "yes, that sounds good. Still… I'm… sorry if this is a bit of a personal question-"

Brandon snorted, "just get on with it."

"Oh. Well… how are you not suffering from PTSD? You seem to be doing perfectly fine, as well as doing what would theoretically cause panic attacks in many soldiers."

"Do I not seem like I have PTSD?" Brandon shrugged, "I don't know. Panic attacks and flashbacks used to be a lot more common. It's definitely not a healthy way of dealing with stress but I found myself circumventing a lot of that by just hyper focusing onto different things. For a while it was making sure Rex received a decent education as well as making sure he didn't get himself killed. Then it was making money. Now it's this. Plus I have good people helping me. I'll be honest, I'd probably have killed myself if it weren't for Rex and Gramps."

Pyra covered her mouth, probably to cover a more drastic reaction. "I… see."

"Yeah," he chuckled, "nothing to worry about now though. I don't know what you're going to do once we take care of Torna, but you, Nia, Dromarch, Morag, Brighid. You're all friends now and that's honestly fantastic. Helped me out a ton as well."

Pyra giggled, "yes, I'm sure Nia has been helping you out a lot."

"Yeah, she-" Brandon did a double take so harsh he almost suffered from whiplash, "what? Hold up, what are you trying to imply there?"

"Oh nothing. I'm sure you two are great friends."

Brandon narrowed his eyes, "yeah we are. I still don't see why you brought her up specifically. It's not like I get along with her any better than you or Rex."

"I see."

Brandon grumbled, feeling that Pyra wasn't taking him seriously. "Alright. I don't normally go for this kind of conversation but you've forced my hand."

Pyra's eyes glittered with amusement. "Very well then."

"You like Rex yeah?"

"Well yes," Pyra said, not falling for the obvious bait, "he's very nice and optimistic. He wants to help everyone while not wanting much for himself."

"Bah, everyone says that about Rex. Don't you want to know more than that?"

"Like what?" Pyra said, trying not to seem obvious but her curiosity was clearly piqued.

"I don't know? His favorite color?"

"Blue," Pyra said.

"That was just an example. Maybe you want to know his favorite food, or what he does in his free time, or maybe, what kind of girl he likes?"

Pyra blushed and Brandon smirked victoriously. She sighed, "I knew that was coming as well."

"Yeah, well you still fell for it."

"I suppose I did." Pyra laughed, "just like how you fell for Nia."

"Yeah I-" Brandon frowned, "really? That one was a bit on the nose, no?"

"Perhaps." Pyra shrugged, "but perhaps offering me the knowledge of what Rex likes is also, as you put it, on the nose."

"Fair enough. Also, when did you suddenly gain the snark?"

"I have a teacher."

"Okay, so flattery as-"

"I was referring to Nia."

Brandon stared at her. Pyra attempted to return the look but eventually looked down, red rising to her cheeks. "How do you do that without being embarrassed?"

"It's our brand of humor. You gotta get used to it. At any rate, shall we return to the others? Or do you still have more questions for me?"

"No, I believe my curiosity is sated for the day."

Brandon nodded, "okay then, I guess back to waiting."

Nia had given Pyra a look when she left the shack. She had heard the whole conversation, obviously, though she didn't know if Pyra or Brandon knew. She didn't say anything that day, content with sitting back and reclining on Dromarch as usual. The day passed and they all had what Nia felt was an extremely unhealthy dinner. Apparently it was a specialty of Brandon, something he called a burger. It was more of the same the next morning, and she was starting to get irritable with boredom soon into the day.

Her mind wandered back to the conversation between Pyra and Brandon. Hmph, her and Brandon. What a ridiculous notion.

Even if she was looking for a guy right now, it wouldn't be him. She glanced over at Brandon, who was currently idly twirling a pencil around his fingers. She snorted, wondering how much time he would have spent to master such a useless skill.

Though it wasn't a matter of that. In terms of talent and skill, Brandon was honestly nearly unparalleled. He brought knowledge from a society more advanced and completely different from that of Alrest after all. It was that she already had enough baggage without his tacked onto hers. Not to mention they were going to be fighting against Torna, and they all had a good chance of dying during the process. Even if she did feel something, she wouldn't try anything right now to spare any potential heartache.

Besides, it wasn't like she liked Brandon any more than Rex or Pyra, even if she had interacted with him more, and she wasn't bursting out of her skin to ask out one of those two. But that was its own hurdle since she was sure Pyra would not be happy if she made a move on Rex.

"Heads up!" She heard Brandon call and looked up in time to have his pencil bounce off of her forehead. She grumbled. And that was the other thing: he was annoying.

"Could you not?" She growled, chucking the offending piece of metal back at the idiot. Brandon caught it easily with a grin.

"Sorry," he said, "it slipped."

"It slipped… and it just so happened to land on my head?"

"Yes?"

"Very convincing. Weren't you the one sayin' to take the time to relax? Are you bored already?"

"Well I'm not bored per se. It's more that I'm feeling antsy. I think this is the first time in a while I've actually had nothing to do or prepare for." Brandon said as he started spinning his pencil again.

"So much for relaxin' then." Nia rolled her eyes.

"I am relaxing." Brandon protested, "I just-"

"We need to turn around," Pyra interrupted suddenly.

"For what reason?" Gramps asked, "if you're concerned about the gap, I am capable of flight." He flapped his wings and took off to make his point, getting ready to climb to clear the Great Void.

"No it's not that," Pyra said, her voice agitated, "we just can't go to the World Tree right now. We have to turn around."

Brandon bolted to his feet, a familiar sense of foreboding shadowing over him. His breath caught as he heard the faint humming of an orbital weapon charging up. "ARTIFICE!" He screamed, instinctively reaching for any kind of energy shield. Failing to find one where it used to be on his belt, he simply ducked down and curled into a fetal position.

"What? What the hell is he talkin' about?" Nia demanded, her voice panicked.

"He… Artifice Ophion," Pyra shook her head, "I'll explain later. Please, Azurda, you have to turn around now!"

"Understood lass. Hold o-"

A purple laser seared through the sky and Gramps cried out in pain as it lanced through a wing and everyone screamed as they plummeted out of the sky.

…

So a proper conversation between Brandon and Pyra, and it doesn't take 80% of the story to happen. Honestly, it's mostly me acknowledging that I haven't been doing the best job with showing Brandon's mental issues and the ending to the chapter is me trying to rectify it. It also has the benefit of having Pyra learn more about how someone else is dealing with similar issues, since the whole reason behind her creation was effectively Mythra's PTSD. Of course, Brandon isn't meant to be a healthy example either since his coping mechanism is basically just ignoring it to focus on other things.

I'm going to aim for biweekly updates. If I do that, that'll give me between 11-13 chapters done by the time September rolls around. Ideally I'd update weekly or twice a week but that's kind of unrealistic. I'll write as much as I can each day to see if I can get chapters out faster but for now, expect it to be biweekly.

I wish I could get chapters out twice a week tho. Looking at how many chapters of my story are done so far, I can see this story easily going up to 50-60 maybe even 70 chapters which is a hell of a lot more than the 30 the original version was. Not to mention the word count for this version is already more than half the word count of the original, while only having a third of the chapters. So assuming the current average of about 5.5k words per chapter, that'll be around 300k words by the time I'm done.

Taking that into consideration, I'll be taking breaks from this story occasionally so I don't burn out again. If I don't hit the self imposed deadline, assume it's because a different story on my profile has been updated instead. This will still be my main focus until it's done though, and then I'll have a different Xenoblade project as my main, whether that'll be this story's sequel or something else entirely, that'll be decided with time.