A day had passed since we made it back to Caem, and the boat was almost ready to go. I looked out the window of the house that we were staying at. Tensions were still high between me and Gladio after what Ardyn said. I honestly didn't blame Gladio for how he felt either. I stood up from where I was sitting, grabbing my journal and putting it in my jacket pocket. I walked outside, put on my sunglasses, and sat down underneath a tree. I rested my head in my hands. It was just so much at once.
I heard footsteps slowly approaching me and I looked up. I expected one of the guys, but instead it was the woman I saw when I first arrived at Caem. I grit my teeth. "Gaia?" She asked quietly. "Is that you?"
I stood up quickly. "Why would you care?" I spat. "Artemis Machina." I couldn't believe it, my own mother shows up here of all places. "What do you want from me? You fucking sold me to Niflheim all those years ago!"
"Gaia, honey," she began, but I walked back inside, slamming the door.
Prompto looked over at me. "Gaia, is everything okay?" He asked.
"Tell Noctis I am going to take a break for a bit. I need to get away from here, clear my mind," I responded as I grabbed the rest of my stuff. A few potions, a change of clothes, and some snacks I had bought myself at one of the rest stops. I shoved it all into my bag as I continued, "If a woman asks about me, do not tell her anything. Got it?"
"What woman?" he asked. "Is there someone following you?"
"Just my mother, if I can call her that," I huffed. "She and my father sold me to Niflheim when I was a kid, and that's why I am the damn magitek I am today."
"She won't hear anything from me," Prompto nodded. He stood up and put an arm around my shoulder reassuringly. "Be careful out there, Gaia."
I nodded before pulling away from him and once again walking out the door. I glanced up at the sky, noticing what seemed to be another Imperial base fly past. Suppose it wouldn't hurt to go there, take it out. You need to earn their trust.
I began following it, taking note of my surroundings. Artemis wasn't following me. No one was. It was going to be dangerous, taking on an imperial base by myself. I watched it land nearby and I carefully observed my surroundings again. I snuck a bit closer, taking cover behind a rock.
"I doubt they would have many Magitek Armors, but axemen and swordsmen will be roaming around. An assassin if I'm really unlucky. Not to mention the infantry soldiers," I told myself, looking for any higher ground. I heard the sound of a twig snap a few yards away and I quickly spun to look in that direction. I hadn't heard any imperial dropships nearby, so there weren't any other magiteks. I slowly approached the noise, walking over to the tree I had pinpointed the noise being near.
"Show yourself," I ordered, summoning my sword. "I won't hurt you if you come out peacefully." A woman with blond hair and blue eyes carefully stepped out from behind the tree. I stepped back slightly. "You're... Lady Lunafreya?" I asked in disbelief. "There's no way."
"You seem surprised," She responded, giving me a soft smile.
"What are you doing here?" I asked in a hushed whisper. "I thought you were awakening the Six for Noctis? I heard you were in Altissia."
"I thought that the imperial base in front of us needed to be taken care of. I had my ways of sneaking over here."
"And you were going to do it yourself?" I asked. "That's crazy!"
"Well, since you are part of Noctis's group, would you like to help me?" She offered.
I paused for a moment, considering what she was saying. "Are you sure you can fight?"
She summoned her trident. "I can defend myself," she responded. I nodded slightly.
"Come on, we should probably get a plan set up for infiltrating this base," I started walking to a watchtower, motioning for her to follow.
"If I may ask, why are you out here alone?" Lunafreya asked.
"Long story," I responded.
"I'm certain we have time to discuss it while we think of a plan."
"When I joined Noctis and the others, I lied to them about a few things. Mainly my past."
"What do you mean?"
I sighed and took off my sunglasses. "I think this answers that question."
She nodded slightly. I tucked the sunglasses into my pocket.
"Luckily, where we're going, I don't need to put these on. They're more likely to be broken, and I doubt I can get a new pair. We just need to get up this watchtower and then we can scout the area."
"Then we can come up with a plan?" Lunafreya asked.
"Exactly," I nodded, running up the stairs of the watchtower. Once we were at the top, I leaned on one of the rails. "This base is different than anything I've seen before. The layout is entirely different. Looks more like it's some attempt at being some fancy mansion with maybe a few barracks for soldiers."
"Do you know how we are going to enter?" Lunafreya asked, looking over at me and then back at the base.
"Sure do," I chuckled. "We're gonna sneak in at night like I did with the others. And if there are any locked doors, I'm sure my code still registers. Now we just have to wait."
Once night fell, we made our way into the base. "Lady Lunafreya, I'm more worried about your safety than mine," I whispered, "What if you get found here?"
"I know with you at my side I won't," She whispered back. "After all, Noctis trusts you."
I nodded slightly. Footsteps echoed down a nearby hall. "Shit, come on, we gotta hide," I looked for anywhere that would provide cover. I grabbed Lunafreya's wrist and pulled her into a small closet-like area. A few imperial soldiers walked past us, luckily not noticing we were there. I sighed in relief after they passed us, having been holding my breath the whole time they were there. I poked my head out of the closet, looking around for a moment before stepping out. "We're clear for now, let's go Lunafreya."
I ran down the hall, looking over my shoulder to make sure she was still following. Once I confirmed she was right behind me, I found myself scanning my surroundings. A wave of anxiety hit me as I looked at a few inactive magitek axemen. I froze up.
"Gaia?" Lunafreya asked quietly, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Is everything okay?"
I blinked a couple of times, snapping out of that fear and nodding slightly. "Yeah," I muttered, continuing to run down the hall.
"Are you sure?" Lunafreya asked. I stopped outside a door.
"Looks like this is supposed to be some kind of barracks," I laughed quietly. "On a base full of metal soldiers." I held my wrist up to the scanner and I heard the door unlock with a clunk. "Let's hide in here for a moment. Do some more planning now that we're in."
I pushed the door open, waiting for Lunafreya to enter before I did. I sat down on one of the beds. "Fuck, never thought I'd get like this," I sighed. "Like what you saw."
"You seemed afraid," Lunafreya responded. "You don't need to talk about it."
"No, I figured I should tell someone," I sighed. "This place reminds me of the facility I was sent to when I was a little kid. My parents sold me. Made me who I am now."
"That's horrible. How could they do that?"
"My father wanted power, so he sold me to get it," I shrugged before laughing sadly. "I shouldn't be so accepting of this. I just... when I froze up, I felt like I was back at that facility again. I felt like I was just that small, sickly kid."
"Well, you're doing better now. Do you know what your father is up to now?"
"He's a commander last I heard," I huffed. "How much you wanna bet he's acting like he cares so much about his daughter? Parading himself around like a poor father who lost his daughter somewhere."
"What is his name?" She asked. She seemed genuinely invested in this conversation, which surprised me.
"Thanatos Machina. If I recall right, around the time I ran off, he was pissed off about not getting the position of High Commander," I responded. "Makes me nervous, thinking what he would do to get that position."
Lunafreya nodded slightly. "You're worried about Ravus? Is that it?"
I shrugged. "Well, while Ravus is technically my enemy, I can't wish harm upon him. He didn't wrong me. Plus my father is a real piece of work so it's hard not to worry," I sighed, staying quiet for a moment. "I just remembered we were supposed to be coming up with a plan!"
"It seemed like you needed someone to talk to," Lunafreya smiled. "I wasn't going to interrupt."
"I just find myself thinking about him too much," I laughed. "Normally there's always something that I can focus on to ignore thinking like that, but now that it's just us in this base I can't."
Lunafreya laughed quietly.
"But the plan, we have to think of a plan." I opened the door to the barracks just enough so I could get a glimpse at our surroundings. "I bet a thousand gil that the base commander is hiding around here somewhere."
"I don't believe there is a reason to bet," Lunafreya responded. I closed the door again and sat back down. "If there is a base, there has to be a commander."
"The first one we busted had Ravus and Ardyn, so if there isn't a commander, there is probably someone even higher up the chain," I shrugged. "But Ardyn said that the two of them would be in Altissia the next time we see him, whatever that means. It's like he's stalking us." I kept glancing at the door.
"The imperial chancellor? It wouldn't surprise me if he was," Lunafreya responded.
"Yeah. I think the plan going forward with this is to try to sneak around and figure out where the base commander could be," I changed the subject. "If we have to fight, we will, but I hope it won't come to that too often. Noctis would kill me if something happened to you." I laughed a bit at the last part. "So just stick close to me and hopefully everything will go according to plan."
Lunafreya nodded and I glanced at the door once again. "You seem on edge," She said after a moment.
"I always am, to be honest. We've encountered Caligo, Aranea isn't a commander, and I heard that Loqi was already taken care of. That just leaves my father to be the commander here," I huffed. "And even if Loqi and Caligo weren't off the table, I didn't see any magitek armors, so they couldn't be here."
"That's reassuring," Lunafreya responded.
"Well, a lot of good us standing around is doing, we need to get back to busting this base. Come on," I made my way back to the door. Once we were both ready again, we left the barracks and ventured deeper into the base.
The base didn't seem too active, for whatever reason. Once we made it to a more open area, we were greeted by only a few imperial soldiers patrolling and numerous magiteks I could only assume were inactive or asleep. I gently grabbed Lunafreya's wrist and readied my sword as I watched the few soldiers walk their rounds.
"I hope you don't mind if I do that," I whispered, realizing I never asked if she was okay with me grabbing her wrist.
"It's alright," she whispered back. "You just want to make sure we stick together."
"Alright, you can tell me to let go at any time. Plus it just helps me calm down," I admitted with a slight smile. I continued to watch the soldiers, noting every opening I saw. After a moment I let go of Lunafreya's arm. I snuck behind one of them, hooking them into a chokehold and grabbing their gun with my other hand. "Come with me," I muttered, pulling them into one of the areas in the other soldiers' blind spots. Tearing the gun from their grip, I tossed it to the side.
"Give me your armor," I demanded. The imperial rifleman didn't say a word, turning to glare at me. I tightened the chokehold. "Give me your armor or I will tear it off your corpse." The soldier grabbed my arm and I quickly pulled off their helmet, dropping it at my feet.
"Well, I offered," I shrugged, quickly attacking the soldier's now exposed head. It fell to the ground and I scrambled to remove the armor. "Didn't miss this chainmail, that's for sure," I muttered. Once I put the armor on, having to fight the chainmail to get it over my regular clothes, I returned to Lunafreya.
"You're wearing their armor?" She asked.
"Figured it would help me blend in," I responded with a shrug. "I don't know how they can tolerate this helmet though."
"So what's the plan now?"
I looked at our surroundings for a moment. "What I think we should do, and forgive me for this, is I act like I took you as a prisoner. So long as we keep that act up, I'm pretty sure we could figure out where the commander is."
"It wouldn't be the first time," Lunafreya responded calmly, holding her hands behind her back. I gently grabbed her wrists, keeping my head down.
"There should be somewhere we can go to and figure out where the commander is," I whispered. "The soldiers here may be cyborgs, but they can still talk." We continued walking down the hall, quickly making our way past the other soldiers patrolling that area.
Once we made our way to another room, I stopped to look around again. I saw a few more soldiers. It appeared that we were getting closer to something they were supposed to guard.
"Commander Thanatos is still looking for his daughter," I heard one of the soldiers tell another.
"He has a daughter?" The other asked.
"That magitek that escaped a while back. Called her his daughter. I can't tell if he is looking for her to help the empire or for his own gain."
"I doubt that MT could have gone far. We'll wind up getting her back."
I grit my teeth, trying to remain calm as we walked past. Keeping my eyes on our surroundings, I noticed another door. "Come on, let's check out that room," I whispered. Lunafreya nodded slightly and I let go of her wrists. "I'll go in first, in case it's a trap."
"You don't need to do that. We'll go in together," Lunafreya said with a smile. I nodded slightly and opened the door. The room was strangely empty. Unlike the barracks we hid in earlier, this room seemed more like an office. On the desk sitting against the furthest wall, there were some papers strewn across it. I closed the door behind us and walked over to the desk.
Imperial documents were left out as if someone knew I would read them. One was a report. The first thing I noticed was a string of numbers. 70817108, my production code. This is about when I escaped, I realized. I skimmed through the document. Besides the usual military talk, the document was just explaining how I had managed to escape. Sure enough, I was deemed a rogue unit.
I took off the helmet I was wearing and set it down on the desk. "This is suspicious," I muttered, getting a closer look at the rest of the papers. "Why are all these documents about me?"
"I think Commander Thanatos knew you would be here," Lunafreya responded quietly. "That's the only explanation I can think of."
"Great, just great," I huffed. I grabbed the helmet and quickly put it back on. "Time to find him."
"Let's show him," Lunafreya smiled.
"If it's alright, once we figure out where he is, I would like to fight him alone. I don't want you dragged into this more than you already are," I sighed.
"Dragged into this? I willingly joined you, Gaia." She put a hand on my shoulder. "And if hearing you ramble about my brother for a moment didn't scare me off, I don't think you ever could."
I smiled, though it was hard to tell from under the helmet. "Thank you, Lunafreya. It means a lot, especially coming from you. Not many people can say that they got to meet the Oracle herself."
"And I'm happy to be with one of the Crownsguard. Even if it sounds like you have a crush on my older brother," Lunafreya laughed.
I stammered for a bit. "A crush?" I asked.
Lunafreya continued laughing. "A crush. You love him," she elaborated.
I shook my head. "He seems so... rude. So standoffish."
"And yet you admitted you can't stop thinking about him?"
"What does that have to do with it?" I asked.
Lunafreya shook her head with a smile. "Let's figure out where your father is."
"Yeah," I responded with a nod. I walked to the door, opening it carefully. After making sure our coast was clear, I quickly snuck out of the room, waiting for Lunafreya to follow.
"So after we take down this base, what will you do?" Lunafreya asked me.
"I'll go back to helping Noctis, I suppose. We're supposed to be heading to Altissia. I wonder what it's like there," I responded. "And I suppose you will have to summon Leviathan for the whole covenant thing."
Lunafreya nodded. "Such is the duty of the Oracle."
"Sounds really tiring, honestly. I could never do it," I admitted. "Can't take that kind of stress."
"And yet you protect Noctis, all while hiding from the empire," she laughed.
"Well, I willingly signed up for all that stress. I don't have any magic bloodline stuff, that's what I meant."
We continued talking about Noctis and the others as we looked for anywhere the commander could be hiding. I noticed a room that had a few guards standing in front of it.
"That's it," I whispered. "He's there. No other room had been guarded like that."
"What are we waiting for?" Lunafreya smiled at me. "He's what we're here for, after all."
I nodded and ran at one of the soldiers, summoning my sword and plunging it through their chest. Lunafreya quickly attacked the other one with her trident, slamming the guard into the ground. Standing before the door, I took a few deep breaths before removing the helmet.
"Don't need this anymore," I laughed, setting it down quietly. "I'm keeping this armor though. Come on, Lunafreya. Let's face this bastard."
We entered the room, finding the commander at the other side. Thanatos Machina, my father.
"Ah, Gaia," He turned and grinned at me. "You're finally home, my daughter. And I see you brought a friend."
"Don't refer to me like that," I spat. Lunafreya adjusted her grip on her trident.
"Do you know how long I've waited for this? You running away has caused quite a stir, as you know." He walked over to me. I backed up, pointing my sword at him.
"And I don't plan on returning, if that's what you're getting at," I glared at him. "I only came here to make sure this base goes down."
"By all means," He laughed, holding out his arms. "It will only give me the excuse to detain you. You know how well being a traitor goes in the Niflheim army."
"I'm not a traitor if I was forced into the army in the first place!" I snapped, bringing my sword down on him. "You greedy bastard!" My sword crashed against the armor he was wearing, the sound of metal scraping on metal making me cringe for a moment. He glared at me, and I jumped back as he grabbed his greatsword.
"Lunafreya!" I yelled, and she ran to attack Thanatos from behind. He spun to face her and readied his greatsword. Shit, I thought. I ran to attack him as well, summoning my axe and slamming it against his shoulder.
"Should have expected a child to play dirty," Thanatos growled. "Perhaps destroying you is best after all. And then Lunafreya will belong to the empire."
"Like hell I'll allow that," I yelled. I quickly swung my axe down again. His armor was slowly giving away. Lunafreya circled back to get behind me, getting in a few quick stabs before backing away. "I'm sick of you! Your disgusting existence. You made me this way!"
"Oh? But in a way, it only improved you," Thanatos grinned. He swung his broadsword and I watched as it cut the armor I was wearing. "You wouldn't be nearly as strong. You wouldn't be a weapon. You would be nothing without me."
I growled, switching my axe out for my sword and slashing blindly in front of me. "All you thought about was gil! You sold me to get this position! You and mother!"
"And now look! I'm one step closer to being the leader of the army! That insipid Ravus is the only one in my way!" He laughed. "I'll take care of him once I get rid of you! This pitiful show of yours has only proven that you are just a defective, broken magitek! And your mother? She didn't know what I did. She never will, once I kill you."
A sharp pang of anger shot through me. Switching back to my axe again, I screamed as I charged him. I shoved him to the ground, slamming my axe against the chestplate of his armor over and over. Clang, clang, clang, crack. The armor finally broke away and I slammed my foot on his chest to make sure he couldn't get up.
"Gaia! Calm down!" Lunafreya yelled.
"You're a crooked fucker," I sneered, watching my father's face turn from confidence to fear. "I'll show you a weapon." I stepped away from him and swung my axe one last time. The noise it made drew me from my rage and I stumbled back.
Thanatos was dead, blood flowing from his mangled chest. I dropped my axe.
"Gods," I muttered. "Lunafreya, I... I'm sorry you had to see that."
"It's alright, Gaia. I'm afraid that if you didn't, he would have killed you."
I nodded slowly, trying to control my breathing. "Let's get out of here, quick." I turned and ran to the door. "The quicker we leave, the better."
Lunafreya nodded and followed me as we made our way out of the base, still sneaking around.
I sighed as I stuffed the armor into my bag, looking back at the base. "Well shit," I muttered. "This wasn't my go-to plan of how I wanted to spend my day, but I admit, I don't regret it."
"We did what we had to do," Lunafreya responded. "We should probably go our separate ways now. It was such a pleasure to meet you, Gaia."
I watched her walk away before making my way back to Caem. I looked around. Artemis seemed to notice my arrival again and cautiously walked over to me.
"Gaia, I'm so sorry," She said after a moment.
"I should be the one who's sorry," I responded, hugging her. "I ran into Thanatos. I figured out everything. He's gone now. I'm sorry I snapped at you."
"I shouldn't have let him take you away," Artemis argued. "I failed as a mother."
"No, you didn't. You couldn't have known," I pulled away after a moment and smiled slightly. "I forgive you."
"You said Thanatos is gone?"
I nodded slightly. "I killed him. It was either him or me. I don't think I'll be able to get over it though."
Artemis nodded in response. "I saw you are with a few friends here," she said, changing the subject. "I'll let you go hang out with them. I'm going to head back to Lestallum."
"I'll go there as soon as I'm done with what I need to do," I smiled, giving my mother one more hug before heading back into the house.
"Everything alright, Gaia?" Noctis asked. "Prompto said you left in a huff and we were starting to get worried when you didn't come back."
"Just fine," I responded, setting my bag down on the table. "I'm doing just fine." I finally had closure with my past, and I was ready to see what awaited in Altissia.
