Sento starts heading into the garage, notebook in one hand and a well-chewed pen in the other, and stops short. "Oh, sorry, I thought you were out. The bike's still gone, so…"

Philip just waves over his shoulder. "I was out. Found what I needed. Came back via the tunnels, it was faster from where I was." He refocuses on his current project, which seems to involve some sort of cording.

"…Tunnels?" Sento blinks.

"There were plans for a subway system in Fuuto, years ago, but it was abandoned. I suspect that my late father played a not insignificant part in getting it canceled. Actually, that would tidily explain how my mother was able to connect the base to the network, now that I think of it." Philip shoots Sento a smile before turning back to the work bench. "How did you think we got the RevolGarry in and out of here?"

"…I don't know, but I didn't expect it to be by subway." Shaking his head, Sento bounds down the stairs. "It's just as well that you're here, I wanted to run a few questions by you about how your Memory Gadgets work…"


Ryuuga frowns at the case report in front of him. "Yeah, no, the person hiring you for this case was full of it."

"And what makes you think that?"

"Because of this comment he made here, when you were getting details." He points at one line. "That just isn't how gyms work. Not legal, above-ground ones, anyway. If that were actually something the gym itself kept track of, they'd be risking getting sued in a heartbeat if someone found out."

Shotaro leans over, to check what Ryuuga's looking at, and nods. "Nicely caught. Took us two days to figure out the problem there." He claps Ryuuga on the shoulder. "Any thoughts on some of the other old cases I had you looking at?"

"Once I managed to wade through your writing style, yeah. On this one here-"

The door to the garage bangs open.

""WE HAVE AN IDEA!""

"It may be possible to turn your dragon on-"

"-where did you guys hide the fullbottles-"

"-it could work just like the Gaia Memories do for our gadgets-"

"-I swear I won't try and run off, I promise-"

"-Don't know why it took over a month for anyone to think of this-"

"-to be fair we only used the bottles together with the dragon for transforming-"

"Woah, woah, slow down!" Shotaro puts his hands up to halt Philip and Sento's rambling. "Start over, but one at a time, and slower."

Sento beams, a lock of hair flipped up. "I think I've figured out how to power Cross-Z Dragon back on!"

Ryuuga's eyes light up. "Really?!"

"Really!"

"Well!" He shoves the case reports he'd been studying to the side of the table, ignoring Shotaro's protest. "What are we waiting for?!"


Sento hands Ryuuga the Dragon FullBottle. "Would you like the honors? He's your sidekick, after all."

Ryuuga lets out a small laugh as he carefully takes the bottle. "And I'm the closest we have to where these came from, you mean."

"I wasn't-" Sento frowns. "I wasn't thinking about that, or anything to do with it. I was thinking about how this is your bottle, how you've always been better with it than I have, and how this is your partner."

"…'kay then." With a careful shake, Ryuuga flips the cap. "Here goes nothing…"

He clicks the bottle into place, in the back of the motionless dragon robot.

For a few moments, nothing happens. Both Sento and Ryuuga's faces start to fall, before the faint sounds of mechanical parts whirring into action can be heard.

As the Cross-Z Dragon flaps its wings once, then twice, seemingly warming itself up, the pair begins to cheer.

"Hey there, buddy!" Ryuuga reaches forward, fond. "It's been a while. How're ya doing?"

The dragon hops into the air, circling the room, before hovering in front of them, giving them a look that implies it's wondering what took them so long.

"Yeah, I know." Ryuuga raises one arm, which the dragon perches on. He gives it a small pat on the head, which it leans in to. "I missed you, too. Someone" he smirks in Sento's direction "Didn't realize we could take a really simple path to get you back up and going."

Sento gives an affronted gasp. "I went through all of the other 'simple solutions', and we got here in the end, didn't we?!"

The dragon gives him an unimpressed look.

"Fine, be that way." Sento turns his back to the pair, but he can't hide his grin. "Don't thank me for waking you up, or for creating you in the first place, or anything!"

Quiet laughter comes from the other side of the room. "Are you going to introduce us any time soon, or do you three want some time alone?" Philip chuckles behind his hand, Fang perched on his shoulder. Shotaro stands further away, Zephyr curled up in his arms. The other Memory Gadgets are sitting idle on a nearby table.

The dragon takes flight, clearly ready to spit fire at these new (to it) strangers, but Ryuuga catches it mid-air. "Hey, woah, no, none of that! We're living with them, play nice!"

If it were able to, it would probably be raising an eyebrow at the situation.

Ryuuga carefully strokes it along its head and neck, to which it relaxes. "I know, you woke up somewhere new, surrounded by strangers. But this is-" he pauses. "…This is home, now."

Sento breathes out slowly. "…Yeah. It really is, huh?" He gives a small, fond smile as he looks at the pair that Ryuuga and his dragon make.

"It's great, isn't it?"


And that! Is the end of Try and Re-Build! It's been... a long time coming, and I'm so grateful for everyone who has stuck with me for all this time.

The plan for the next story in Riders ReUnited was going to be that I start off with my Zi-O alterations, and post interludes and other short fics as I go…

And then they announced OOO Ten Years Later.

So! Ankh Revival fic is next on the docket! And then I will be able to start in on Zi-O.

Again, thank you, to everyone who has stuck with this story for so long, despite the hiatuses. If this is your first time reading, thank you for coming in! I've got more fics in this same universe in the Riders ReUnited, feel free to check those out!