Chapter 17 – Renewal
With her sister in tow and the tiny Cyber Elf of their design perched on her shoulder, Ciel stepped outside, where she found the object of her search in the middle of a discussion with Axl.
"I suppose that looking back, it makes sense." Zero pondered. "X was always the one doubting himself and fighting against that doubt. This Warrior of Light stuff sounds right up his alley."
"Yep." Axl said. "Even that bit about thinking he's not good enough. If… when he finds Alia, I hope she can convince him to give himself a little more credit."
"As for me, I was always more action oriented." Zero added. "Cutting straight to the point. I'm not going to deny that I had my times in the pits though."
"Still, remember what they said." X pointed out as he got up from the spot in the shade of a tree where he had been sitting and joined the conversation. "In theory, all of us could call upon this. I guess part of it is a matter of having the right disposition?"
"Maybe." Zero said with a shrug. "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather rely on our strength and drive, rather than on something I don't really understand."
"That's fair, I suppose." X conceded. "That said, if I find a way to help you unlock this, or if it comes to you on its own, it could be interesting."
"It definitely looks like our visitors don't have all the answers either way." Zero remarked. "That weird kid freaked them out as much as as he did us."
"I just wonder what the boy meant..." X recalled. "The whole melody thing? What, does he want us to burst into song like in one of those ancient animated movies?"
"Now there's something I'd like to see." Axl teased. "I suppose those rabbits and other fluffy critters you like so much might come swarming."
"I should have expected Phantom to mention that..." X said, recalling his incorporeal trek back to the settlement and one of the distractions along the way.
"Oh please!" Axl retorted with a grin. "You were always like that! If it wasn't for Sigma or some other asshole starting crap every five minutes, I'm sure you'd have gotten a pet or ten eventually."
"Nothing wrong with being sensitive, mind you." Zero added. "I just wonder how some of the people who put our so-called legend on a pedestal would react if they knew just how human we can be."
"Does falling in love count as a reaction?" Ciel silently wondered, glancing adoringly at Zero.
"They were… definitely not what I had expected in person." Cial mused next to her. "Not that it's necessarily a bad thing..."
The twin sisters exchanged glances, not wanting to interrupt the conversation, but a glimmer of mischief appeared in Croire's tiny beady black eyes. The Cyber Elf dimmed her aura, revealing her diminutive humanoid form wrapped in a blue one piece outfit and her soft tiny face with golden hair in a bowl cut. She spread her golden wings of light in the shape of a butterfly's, then scooted over around them, carefully avoiding the trio's line of sight. Once she was in position, she launched herself at Zero like a tiny torpedo.
Startled, the legendary Maverick Hunter felt something bury itself in his overly long hair and instinctively jumped, letting out a rather uncharacteristically high-pitched screech. X and Axl, startled in turn, turned their heads in his direction in surprise and then blinked.
"I didn't know you could make that kind of sound..." Axl remarked, struggling to hold back his laughter.
"Neither did I..." Zero grumbled in visible embarrassment before reaching into his mane. "What's this?"
"Remember me?" the tiny Cyber Elf chimed in, clinging to his hand.
"Croire..." he said with a fond smile as he loved his hand closer to take a better look at her. "I knew it would take more than that to get you down. But what happened to you?"
"It was a mess..." the Cyber Elf explained with a wince. "That whole thing was blowing up and falling apart, then I lost track of you and got clipped by a piece of metal. The next thing I knew, I was floating in space… and then he came."
"He?" Zero echoed. "Who are you talking about?"
"I don't know for sure." Croire clarified. "I never saw his face and he wouldn't give me his name. A guy dressed all in white, covered with a hood… and with a huge pair of wings."
"Wings?" Ciel asked, raising an eyebrow.
"He wouldn't talk much about himself… but he did ask a bunch of stuff." Croire recalled. "Especially about you girls, about X and Zero… How you were, what you were up to and so on."
"He asked about both of us?" Ciel asked.
"By name." Croire confirmed.
"Strange..." Cial remarked. "Most people outside the Resistance or our former classmates wouldn't even know I exist..."
"What else did you talk about?" Zero asked, a little suspicious.
"That was most of it." Croire explained. "He said something about being glad that Ciel was in good hands and was sure that someone would get Cial to come home… I guess he was right."
"What else can you tell us?" Ciel asked, her mind already sensing another mystery to dissect.
"Not that much." Croire said. "It looked like he was trying very hard not to tell anything about himself… and during the time I stayed there I never saw him sleep. Not even once. But I can tell you two things."
"Oh?" Ciel asked.
"There was someone else there who kept coming and going. A tall guy with dark hair and a weird outfit. His face was always wrapped in some kind of weird scarf so I didn't get a good look at him either. The other one kept calling him his mentor or something."
"And the other thing?" Cial asked.
"He took very good care of me." Croire recalled. "Wouldn't let me out of his sight until I was completely recovered. As for the second thing... I wanted him to come back with me, but he wouldn't budge… and he sounded really, really sad about something. Every time I tried to ask why, he'd just clam up."
"Another mystery for our growing list then..." Ciel pondered. "But how are you feeling now?"
"Good as new!" Croire said excitedly, before looping through the air around Zero's head a few times. "See?"
"I can't help feeling like a bit of a jerk, leaving you back there..." Zero said. "I guess we were both lucky."
"There was nothing you could have done." Croire countered. "I was more worried about you, but the hooded guy told me you were OK."
"How did he know?" Zero wondered.
He then turned to Ciel.
"I still have no idea how I made it back down. I blacked out and the next thing I knew you were throwing your arms around my neck."
"I'm afraid I can't tell you much either." Ciel said, slightly flustered as she recalled what she had done in front of everyone. "The girls called me from Mission Control. They said there was a flash of light outside the old Resistance base and some of the soldiers on lookout duty found you just sitting there."
"The hell…?" Zero muttered.
"Definitely another mystery." X pondered. "But I think we have enough things on our minds for now."
"Like that thing you asked me to put away." Cial said, before handing him the pouch with the Radiant Shard. "You left the meeting in such a hurry you forgot to ask for it back."
"Oh..." X realized. "I guess I wasn't paying attention. Thanks."
"I'm still waiting for that explanation." Cial said. "When I touched that thing, it made me feel… strange."
"You mean like a warmth spreading through you?" Ciel asked with a smile.
"It's one thing for you and Mother and these three to tell me that I deserve to give myself a second chance." Cial remarked rather bitterly. "But I'm still in the process of convincing myself of it."
The normally composed former Head Administrator stared at her right hand with an anxious look on her face and sighed.
"It was as if..." she said, struggling for words. "As if something was telling me that I am worth caring for. After what I was a part of, do I even have the right to feel like that?"
"You do." Ciel replied, placing a hand on her shoulder. "In fact, I'm guessing the reason why it happened when it did was because you needed it."
"How do you know?" Cial asked, a little surprised.
"I've had a taste of it myself." Ciel explained. "Can you show her, X?"
X nodded and once again summoned the white radiance to his hand. Caught by surprise, Cial stared at it for a moment… then slowly, hesitantly reached for his hand.
"Yes… that's what I felt." she said once the tip of her fingers were touching the back of his hand and the strange sensation crept through her arm and into her chest once again.
Cial paused for a moment, surprised by another sudden sensation. She reached for her own face and realized that she was becoming misty eyed. In a start, she quickly withdrew her hand and turned away from X.
"I get it..." X said with a nod, gently placing a hand on her back. "You're still hurting, aren't you? You're still trying to shed the weight of the past and the light touched the wound in your heart."
"How do you do it?" Cial asked with a sigh, keeping her back turned to him. "How do you keep moving forward?"
"By learning to forgive myself for my failures." X said. "By accepting myself for who I am and focusing on the people and things that matter instead of a past I cannot change."
Seeing her sister – normally so fully in control of herself – in such a state left Ciel feeling rather unsettled. She stepped closer and stared at her face to face.
"I know we had our differences..." Ciel said. "But I never thought you were a bad person so to speak."
"Can the Reploids who had to watch their friends and loved ones be hunted down and scrapped say the same?" Cial retorted with a bitter scowl. "I know you, Zero and Axl shut down plenty of those so-called retirement centers yourselves. You saw what was happening there. Even if my role was administrative, I was still a part of it. My hands are still stained."
"Ice Queen..." Axl intervened, his tone and expression unusually serious. "Stop it. Please. You weren't the one organizing that sick shit. You were trying to keep a city with millions of people still running while the assholes at the top spent their time playing Evil Overlord. We both know they would have run that place into the ground in months if you hadn't been there."
The change in his demeanor from his usual clownish self definitely surprised her, and she did not have a retort ready.
"What do you mean?" X asked.
"Your copy and Weil had absolutely none of your skills at organizing stuff." Axl explained. "They just wanted to be in charge and impose their will. They had no idea how to run a place meant for people to live in. Do you think their kind would actually listen, or just surround themselves with yes-men?"
"Not to mention that bastard Weil reprogrammed the Eight Judges after he took over..." Ciel pointed out. "I'm sure you also remember he had no qualms about turning the husks of his defeated enforcers into mindless drones."
"That much is true..." Cial conceded. "They were obsessed with stamping out the Resistance and then anyone else even thinking about leaving Neo Arcadia. After all, Weil wanted to turn the outside world into a lifeless wasteland again just so nobody would be outside his reach."
"Is that the real reason why you stayed then?" Ciel asked.
"My intent was always to preserve order." Cial clarified. "Some sort of structure that could ensure the survival of humanity. The thing about having megalomaniacs at the top is that their priorities usually run counter to that. They don't usually want their domains to outlast them."
"They do love throwing their toys out when they lose." Axl remarked. "None of us could have predicted what Craft did, but a lot of people would have probably starved or wasted away in prison before we got there to evacuate the city."
"In fact..." Axl added. "I'm pretty sure you saved a lot of lives, Ice Queen."
"H-How did you..." Cial muttered.
"Spy, remember?" Axl pointed out. "I already knew about the information leaks in those neat little packages… including lists of people slated for arrest. Funny how that intel always reached us before the goon squads got the actual orders."
"Weil's takeover was the last straw." Cial remarked with a smirk.
"Meaning you weren't just tipping us off but wanted to bring the whole system down." Ciel remarked.
"So that's what happened..." Ciel realized, having pieced together some portions from their previous conversations. "But how did you manage to keep doing it without anyone suspecting it?"
"I guess being an anti-social workaholic recluse paid off." Cial said with a smirk.
"The fake was too busy with his delusions to notice." she elaborated. "Weil probably did not even know I existed, and I did not bother formally resigning, for obvious reasons. All pretense of subtlety went out the window when I found out about Ragnarok though."
"I imagine it also felt pretty good to outsmart those two smug assholes." Axl said with a grin.
"It did." Cial admitted with a satisfied smirk. "They thought the whole world just had to bend to their whims. I despise self-important fools drunk on power they did not earn."
"Let me say this much..." X said with a timid smile. "I'm glad you're with us."
Hearing such appreciation from him caught her off guard.
"Just making up for my mistakes..." she said, feeling a little uncomfortable.
"I hope I never get on your bad side." X added jokingly, surprising her yet again.
"Y-You… don't have anything to fear from me." she stuttered, trying to regain her composure as quickly as possible. Reconciling with her family was one thing, but earnest praise from the likes of X was something she was not prepared for yet.
"Him, on the other hand..." she added, glancing at Axl. "We'll just have to wait and see."
"Was that a joke I just heard, Ice Queen?" Axl asked, reverting to his usual self.
"Or was it?" she retorted, completely deadpan.
"I'll take that risk." Axl said with a shrug. "Mark my words, I'll make you laugh yet."
"But back to the original topic..." Cial said, unwilling to let go of her train of thought or entertain Axl's antics. "What was that thing?"
"Apparently, a gift from another world." X said. "I'm going to ask you to keep this to yourself for now since I'm still trying to understand it all, but it seems there are these people out there called Warriors of Light… and the presence in this crystal recognized me as one of them."
"What does that even mean?" Cial asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"It means that X is the kind of guy who gives of himself for everyone else's sake." Zero said with a shrug. "We didn't need some glowing piece of whatever that is to tell us that."
"But apparently being a huge softy isn't the only reason why he makes people all warm and fuzzy on the inside." Axl added with his usual cheeky grin.
"We had some… unusual visitors." X said. "A man and a woman who showed up while we were investigating that buried library, and then again after this… Radiant Shard crashed down. They have this power too and said a lot of strange things about it."
"Like what?" Cial asked.
"They said it's part of who I am." X elaborated. "That it comes from love and courage and reflects my true self… but also that everyone could in theory learn to use it eventually."
"I don't care about power..." Cial said. "Or about going around glowing like a firefly. Coming from anyone else, I might have dismissed that as pseudo-mystical babble. But there's definitely something real here. Something… soothing."
"Yes..." X said with a nod. "This power helped me in the past, when I was in tight spots or on the verge of losing my sense of self. What intrigues me the most about it though is how it can help me save lives… and how using it makes me feel like I have the warmth of life itself in my chest, even in this temporary body."
"And the kid?" Axl asked. "The one going on about melodies?"
"The kid?" Cial asked, a little confused.
"Someone else came along." X explained. "A boy who popped in out of nowhere. He said something about songs and harmony but I'm still trying to figure out what exactly he meant. I guess these Warriors of Light have different methods."
"And what about you?" Cial asked, glancing at Zero.
"I don't remember ever being able to do that." Zero said with a shrug. "For now, I'd rather rely on things I know I can count on. My conviction, my Z-Saber and my friends."
"You know..." Croire chimed in. "I've seen that before."
"What do you mean?" Zero asked.
"The glowing hand thing?" Croire clarified. "I'm pretty sure the guy who took care of me had that same light. Some Cyber Elves have healing abilities, but not exactly like that. Ours can patch you up, but can't make you feel all warm and fuzzy. His did."
"And you said he had… wings?" X asked.
"Big, fluffy, white as snow." Croire recalled. "Softest things I've ever seen Gotta say I was… a tiny bit jealous."
"I'm not sure what to think of all of this." X said. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see what else life throw our way."
"Oh!" Alouette cried out excitedly, having returned from classes. "Is that you, Croire?!"
"The one and only!" the tiny Cyber Elf squeaked before darting in the direction of the small Reploid girl.
With a beaming smile, Alouette took Croire in her hand and gently pressed her against her cheek in the closest approximation of a hug she could muster without squishing the much smaller being.
"I missed you!"
"Sorry I made you worry." Croire managed to squeak. "It won't happen again."
A few more days passed, and Ciel definitely began to notice a difference as her sister's plans came into effect. With more people sharing the burden and important activities meticulously planned, the net effect was that she and Cerveau found themselves with considerably lighter schedules, leaving more time to focus on their pet projects and get some decent rest.
During this time, Cial and Lune also organized an expedition to the point of origin of the rampaging Mechaniloid, scouring the old abandoned factory for anything of immediate use and preparing the bulkier machinery still in working condition for the day when it would be needed again rather than carrying it all the way back.
"Some of these furnaces can be repurposed..." Cerveau remarked after joining them at the factory and inspecting the contents. "With a few adjustments, I think we can have them cranking out Titanium X."
"That's outside my particular area of expertise..." Cial said. "But even I know what that means."
"It would have taken us much longer to find this place if not for that incident." Lune said. "It wasn't on any of the maps we recovered, so we didn't even know it existed."
The gray metal building had been partially concealed by a rock slide, and the trail of destruction left by the Mechaniloid had definitely helped find it. An inspection of the system logs inside had revealed that the machine had been triggered by a random power surge, likely caused by lack of maintenance on the facility's generators. Thanks to the combination of this windfall, Lune's assistance and Cial's organizational skills, work on X's new body advanced by leaps and bounds.
A few more weeks passed...
One evening, the twin girls and their mother were heading back home, after a long day of work and meetings.
"So..." Lune said. "Now that it's just us here, what do you think?"
"I think it's good that someone is tempering their enthusiasm for a change." Cial remarked. "But… it could work."
"To be fair, people are going to get tired of canned food eventually and it'll be a while before Andrew's first crops are ready." Ciel noted. "Not everyone shares my taste in fruit and wild berries, and it's good to have alternatives."
Unwilling to commit the resources to starting large scale livestock breeding at such a stage of development, but concerned about the human population's long term nutritional needs, a group of biologists and engineers had managed to return an old cellular growth unit to working condition. The encoded genetic information of dozens of varieties of edible animals had been carefully preserved in digital format centuries prior, around the time others had figured out a method of producing food grade cloned meat without the unnatural texture or unpleasant chemical smell and aftertaste of prior experiments. Such technology had also been in use in Neo Arcadia, but in the chaos of the evacuation there had simply been no time to recover any units from there.
"Truth be told..." Ciel thought, feeling her mouth watering. "I do miss the taste of fresh meat. Steak. Those thick broths Mother used to make…"
At the end of their trek, the three crossed the doorway and put their notes down on a small table in front of the couch. While they were still discussing what to do in terms of living space, for the time being Lune and Cial had settled for sharing a small unused room in the same house, which they had quickly managed to furnish with the basics.
"We'll just have to see how things go." Lune said as she headed to the kitchen and set about improvising a meal with the ingredients at hand.
Cial nodded as she stepped in to give a hand.
"This does bring me back..." she remarked, still getting accustomed to the family setting once again.
"Simpler days..." Ciel said with a nod, joining in as well.
About an hour later...
Having finished eating a light meal, Ciel decided to go to bed early, hoping to get some extra rest.
Weighed down by fatigue after another long day of work, she slipped into slumber in a matter of seconds after her head touched the pillow. However, it appeared that something had decreed she would not be able to get much rest that night.
"Not this again..." Ciel lamented as she recognized a familiar scene in her nightmares.
Once again she found herself reliving what she knew to have been the last moments of a brave, foolish boy who had attempted to protect her. This time, however, something felt different. Her heart had been strengthened by the events of the previous months, and instead of the old familiar dread, instead she felt determination.
"Back to the same old song and dance..." she thought out loud. "But even if I can't change what happened out there, maybe here I can..."
She focused her will, and to her surprise she found that everything in the dream froze in place… with one glaring exception.
"Now why didn't I think of this before?" she wondered, before her gaze was met by another's.
"I know I'm just dreaming." she said with a sigh, staring firmly at the familiar face. "This won't change what has already happened. But at least here, maybe I can finally make a little sense of-"
"No Ciel." the boy interrupted, starting at her through the square lenses of his glasses with deep blue eyes. "You have to stop coming back here."
"It's not like I came by choice." she protested. "But I suppose I'm still struggling to understand."
He said nothing, giving her a sad look.
"Why did you do this to your father, to my sister, to me?" she insisted, staring at him. "To yourself?"
"You know what they say..." the boy finally said. "About good intentions and where they lead..."
With a rumbling sound, the walls collapsed and the scenery abruptly changed, shifting into the edge of the crater where Neo Arcadia once stood. The blue eyed boy's glasses cracked and fell off, and his face abruptly transformed into that of another boy who had wounded her in a different way. His garments changed accordingly, with the labcoat soon being replaced by a familiar blue suit of armor. Dark, churning clouds appeared overhead, shrouding the scene in an eerie twilight.
"You again..." she hissed, glaring daggers at the red eyed figure.
"Why are you still complaining?" her greatest failure taunted. "I am what you made me, Mother. I could never be anything more than a fake, a replacement for a hero and some dead kid!"
"That's not true!" she retorted.
"Good." a familiar voice said from behind her. "Fight it."
Ciel looked over her shoulder and she saw once again the bespectacled boy clad in white. He edged closer for a moment, but then for some reason stopped in place, keeping his distance from her.
"Don't let him guilt trip you, Ciel." the boy pleaded. "If you must blame anyone, then blame me."
"How's that any better?!" she protested, turning around to face him. "I don't want to blame anyone! I just want some peace!"
"This is my fault..." the boy lamented with a look of profound grief. "I set this in motion."
"However..." he added, clenching his fists and showing the same determined expression he had worn on that horrible day. "There's something you need to realize."
"What?"
"You're doing this to yourself." he pointed out. "These nightmares are your own mind's doing."
"I know." she lamented in frustration.
"Which means the only person who can stop this is you." the boy added, straightening his glasses. "I'm just a figment of your imagination. I can't give you the answers you need and my role in your life is over. But I'm not going to let you face this alone."
"What do you mean?" Ciel asked.
"It's time to let go of the past." the boy said with a stern look. "Grasp the future with both hands!"
"Come forth!" the boy called out, pointing straight up. "Break through a sky misted by tears and reveal the stars above! Emblem of Light! Messiah of Steel!"
In a radiant flash, another figure took his place, clad in a very familiar suit of red armor over a black body glove, brandishing the unmistakable Z-Saber.
"You're full of shit, faker." Zero spat at the red eyed fiend as he interposed himself between the fake and Ciel. "Your path was never set in stone."
"What are you going on about now, you useless relic?" the copy sneered with a look of pure hatred.
"Just look at me." the apparition of Zero said. "A madman created me to be a devil but I chose to live as a man. A gentle girl created you to be a hero but you thought yourself a god… and chose to become a devil."
"Who's full of shit now?" the copy retorted with a deranged grin, unfurling his bladed metallic wings and darting towards Zero. "Look at the destroyer pretending to be a hero."
"Shut up." Zero retorted. "Shut up and leave her alone."
He raised his Z-Saber above his head with both hands and suddenly his entire body began to glow with the same radiance X and the strangers had displayed before. The Z-Saber's blade took on the same white glow and grew to a frankly ludicrous size.
"I am Zero." he proclaimed. "I am the Sword of Ciel. And you are nothing."
With that, he abruptly brought the blade down upon the hateful apparition, banishing it from existence in a flash of white.
The dream version of Zero stood there patiently until the flash faded, then turned to her with a smile she had never seen him wear before, pure, innocent, unburdened… with an intensely warm gaze that left her out of breath.
"Nobody will ever hurt you again." he said, stepping in her direction. "I promise."
With that, he placed a hand on her cheek and began leaning closer...
Dazed, emotionally drained and utterly baffled, Ciel suddenly opened her eyes.
"That had to be the weirdest one ever..." she muttered to herself. "But where did my mind get all of that from?"
It was then that she heard a sound in the air. She paused and listened intently, trying to discern what it was. An energetic song she did not recognize, accompanied by a singing voice.
Love you! Love you!
The entire world is waiting just for you,
Until the end of days!
The song appeared to be coming from somewhere very close. After a moment gathering her thoughts, Ciel realized what had happened. It appeared that Alouette had forgotten to shut down the old stereo system set in her room before falling asleep. An unfamiliar song from ancient times was left still playing on a loop, at a relatively low volume but still clearly audible as their rooms were right next to each other.
"Messiah of Steel… So that's where she got that nickname from..." she thought as she listened for a little while and recognized both the name and some of the words uttered by the boy during the strange dream. "I suppose it fits..."
The notion of a song influencing her in her sleep and bringing her exactly what she needed to break out of the nightmare felt ludicrously far fetched. However, she couldn't help appreciating the results.
"I suppose I should be proud of my imagination..." she silently mused, feeling rather flustered. "Even if it cut me off at the best part."
Perhaps the combination of her burning affection and fatigued state were leaving her a little giddy, or perhaps she simply longed for that overwhelming sensation in her chest again. Either way, if Zero had been there at that moment, he would have likely found her arms thrown around his neck once more.
"Sometimes you're too much of a gentleman for your own good, Zero… even in a dream." she thought, divided between affection and frustration.
Not quite a girl anymore, but not yet a grown woman, she craved his embrace but understood his restraint. She had never felt this way about anyone before in her life, and while these emotions were a source of strength and comfort, they could also leave her drained at times.
"Maybe I'm just weird… but after meeting someone like that, how could I even look at anyone else?" she thought, feeling her heart pounding again.
With a sigh, she got out of bed and silently made her way to Alouette's room.
The small Reploid girl she had grown to love as a little sister was fast asleep at her desk, seemingly having dozed off after eating. Sheets of paper and a couple of pens were strewn about the top of the desk. Some of the papers looked like homework from school, while others contained random doodles of various things. In one she saw Old Andrew, tending to the fields. In another she saw what looked like Alouette's attempt at imagining what the old Reploid had looked like before changing his appearance. Other drawings showed her, Zero, X, Axl and even Lune and Cial, doing mundane things together as a family.
"These are actually pretty good…" she realized. "But..."
"You're far too young to be copying my bad habits..." Ciel thought with a smile as she glanced at her soft face, completely relaxed in her sleep. "I'll have to work on setting a better example for you."
The last drawing made her smile in a mixture of joy and embarrassment, as she saw Zero carrying Alouette on his shoulders… and Ciel herself in what looked like a classic bridal carry.
"Not very subtle, are you?" she thought with a smile, wondering how long Alouette had been hoping the two would end up together.
She shut down the stereo set on the desk, then took a moment to gently pat Alouette's head before picking her up from the chair and carrying her to bed.
"You have no idea how important you are..." Ciel thought as she tucked her in. "Or… maybe you do. You and Zero are the best things that ever happened to me."
Once she made sure that Alouette was comfortably resting, Ciel kissed her forehead and went back to her room.
"My mind just… cooks up the weirdest things..." she grumbled to herself as she got back under the sheets, trying to ignore the warmth spreading across her face and chest from the memory of Zero's imaginary display.
Before laying her head down on the pillow, she spared a thought for the bespectacled boy from her past who had unwittingly set those events in motion years prior in a misguided attempt to protect his classmates.
"Wherever you are… I hope you found your peace too… Cadmus Atreides."
This was indeed the last time she would find herself haunted by nightmares of that day or confronted by the visage of her hateful creation. For many years to come, she would not be completely sure if her mind had constructed that entire scene under the song's influence or if something else had intruded upon her dreams.
Meanwhile, in another room, the former Head Administrator of Neo Arcadia had momentarily reverted to the state of a young girl and nestled herself next to Lune like both sisters used to do when they were younger.
For the first time in several years, she was finally able to dream. Tranquil days under clear skies flooded her mind. With the semi-permanent scowl gone from her sleeping face, she looked nearly indistinguishable from her twin apart from the shorter hair and different clothing.
A few more weeks later...
"Well buddy..." Axl said with an excited grin as he glanced at X. "Tomorrow is your big day. How are you feeling?"
"Excited and nervous." X said, fidgeting slightly with his hands.
"Don't be." Axl said. "It's not like you're tying the knot with Alia just yet. You still need to find her first."
"I get it already..." X said, feeling a little embarrassed. "I know you want to see people around you happy, but even after all these years it still feels a bit weird to talk about this stuff out loud."
"Would you rather I sang about you two sitting in a tree?" Axl teased.
"You're absolutely terrible." X said with a smirk.
"I know." Axl retorted with his usual shameless grin.
"You know..." Axl realized a moment later. "I thought you'd be looking happier about this."
"I've had a lot on my mind, that's all." X said. "Even more after..."
"After you got visited by a talking space rock that called you a Warrior of Light?" Axl guessed.
"Something like that, yes." X said with a nod. "I thought about trying to activate it again and asking some more questions, but I just haven't had the time."
"No time like the present, as they say." Axl remarked.
"I suppose you're right." X conceded, before reaching for the pouch he had kept close to him since the day of the strange encounter.
Hesitantly, he pulled the strange object out into the light and attempted to trigger a reaction like the previous one by igniting his inner radiance. Strangely, nothing seemed to happen.
"Don't tell me it's broken." Axl joked.
"After making an entrance like that, it would be more than a little disappointing." X remarked.
As if on cue, the chunk of the strange crystalline substance lit up once again and X felt his mind whisked away like the first time.
"Usul, was it?" he asked as he found his consciousness floating before the outsider's manifestation in the same strange landscape as before.
"I suppose that's the problem with trying to make a grand introduction..." the young man remarked with a smirk. "Sometimes a Warrior of Light can't as much as sneeze without attracting the attention of others of our kind."
X blinked. After such a rather grandiose introduction, the man floating before him sounded surprisingly casual, joking even.
"Are you talking about those three?" X asked. "The man, the woman and the boy?"
"Who else?" the young man retorted with a shrug. "It was a bit of a dick move on the boy's part, but I suppose I should feel some measure of pride in the fact that people in other worlds already know my name."
"Wait a minute..." X said. "Does that mean you're aware of your surroundings? Are you supposed to be some kind of artificial intelligence?"
"I see I found myself a smart one." the young man noted with a smile. I get the feeling the next several years are going to be interesting indeed."
"I've had some experience with this kind of thing before..." X said, recalling the holographic messages sent by his creator. "But you haven't answered my question."
"Patience, my boy." the stranger said. "By the time I'm done with you, you'll be packing all my knowledge in your head. I sense you already have a little experience with this power, but you have just seen a small fraction of what you can do with it."
The young man floated towards X, until the two were hovering face to face.
"As for what I am..." he added. "A Radiant Shard is essentially a magitek construct, powered by the light of its creator. You could call the manifestation before you an echo. An imprint of the original Usul's personality and memories at the time of creation."
"Magitek?" X repeated. "As in…?"
"Yes, a hybrid of magic and technology." the young man confirmed. Seeing the look of confusion in X's face, he elaborated further. "There are far stranger things out there, both sublime and grotesque. You and I are due for many long conversations for the next few years."
"I do suppose it would be too dangerous or at least inconvenient to dump everything on me in one go while my body just stands there." X conceded.
"You have no idea how many times the original Usul struggled with that very same predicament." the figure said with a grin.
"But if you are self-aware, doesn't it bother you that you're just someone else's copy, cast out into the unknown?" X pointed out.
"On the contrary." the young man said with a shake of his head. "The original Usul was always a wanderer at heart, with his eyes constantly fixated on the horizon. I am a part of him and this is merely a continuation of the endless journey. He's still out there somewhere, whether in his original form or in a different incarnation. Should I return to him one day, I will have so many stories to tell..."
"And you came all this way just because of me?" X asked.
"I did not know what I was going to find." the young man corrected. "But I have no doubt that it was your presence that awakened me. While I may not know everything about you, your light tells me the important part."
"Aren't you assuming a little too much?" X asked.
"On the contrary. The ability to sense good and evil is but one of many our kind possess. Even now, you are as a shining beacon to those who are trained to perceive these things."
"What… exactly do you see in me then?" X asked.
"Love and sorrow intertwined. For the world and for those who dwell in it." the young man said, with a haunted look. "It's funny how I would find someone so much like the original Usul so far from my point of origin."
"What do you mean?"
"Everywhere he went, the original Usul would find himself entangled in the troubles of others… and fighting for their sake no matter how tired he got of it at times. Much like you, he struggled with doubt, bitterness and sorrow, but still rose above them to fight for those who cannot."
"You gathered all that about me just from… this?" X asked, before manifesting the increasingly familiar light again.
"I cannot read minds, though a common ability among Warriors of Light is the sharing of thoughts and emotions regardless of the distance. Others possess the ability to delve into particularly significant memories of others, but that is beyond me in this state… not to mention that particular ability can be quite a hassle since it tends to trigger randomly and involuntarily."
"I think I'll pass." X said with a wince. "But so..."
"I cannot read minds, but your intent shines through. This nobility of spirit is a key factor in awakening these abilities. Though the outward effects could be replicated by other means, the burning in your heart cannot."
"I see..." X said hesitantly.
"We will speak at greater length later." the young man said. "I'm not going anywhere. And lest you worry, I can perceive my immediate surroundings when the Radiant Shard is activated, but I do not see outside its boundaries in the traditional sense. Whatever secrets or privacy you may be concerned about, they are safe. Now go on. Your friend is beginning to worry."
In a flash, X found himself returned to his temporary body, while a grinning Axl stared at him.
"You know..." Axl remarked. "We'd better hurry and find Alia. If you're gonna make a habit of it, we'll need her to wake you up."
"Q-Quiet you..." X grumbled, visibly embarrassed.
"Wait… don't tell me..." Axl realized. "After all those years, you never even got to k-"
"That's quite enough." Lune interrupted, lightly bonking Axl over the head with her knuckles.
"I like you, boy." she added, rolling her eyes. "But sometimes you need to know when to drop it."
Meanwhile, at the facility the Guardians were still using as a temporary home…
A gray metallic heavy duty door opened with a pneumatic hiss and the unmistakable figure of the resident aquatic operations specialist stepped inside. She glanced around the chamber, an old security station which had been repurposed into a combination of bunk and living area, to find Phantom typing away at an old computer, Harpuia studying weather data from recent records and Fefnir absently tinkering with one of his cannons at a table.
"If you three are here..." Leviathan remarked. "Then who's coming in through the front door now?"
Phantom quickly put away whatever file he was writing into, then checked the camera feed on one of the monitors. To his surprise, however, the cameras were offline.
"What the hell?!" Fefnir interjected over his shoulder. "These stupid pieces of-"
Another door opened nearby, and through it walked a petite figure, covered in a brown hooded cloak and with her face hidden underneath a breathing mask.
"I thought you'd still be here." it said with a feminine voice as four pairs of eyes quickly converged on it.
"It has been a while..." Phantom said, turning to look at the newcomer. "What are you doing here… Head Administrator?"
"That title no longer has any meaning." Cial retorted, before removing the mask. "But how did you know it was me?"
"Only six people were supposed to have the list of access codes for these facilities." Phantom reminded her. "Four are here and one is permanently deactivated… and the physical storage devices that contained them are gone."
"You were always the most logical of the four." Cial noted.
"Well, this is a surprise." Fefnir said. "But what do you want?"
Cial took a deep breath and showed the faintest hint of a smile.
"First things first. It is… good to see you again."
Fefnir blinked, caught by surprise.
"Uh… what?"
"I am trying to be sincere here." she said, looking almost offended.
"Don't take it the wrong way..." Harpuia chimed in. "I think I speak for all of us when I say this was unexpected."
"I am trying to learn from my mother and sister's example..." Cial said hesitantly. "To be more… open about these things."
"Admittedly, neither of us was ever very good at it." Phantom remarked, giving her a sympathetic glance.
"Indeed." she noted.
"You two really are peas in a pod." Leviathan remarked, raising an eyebrow.
"I have no expectations about us suddenly becoming the best of friends..." Cial said, still hesitant. "But since you are collaborating with my sister and the others, then..."
"So what's what this is about." Harpuia realized. "I wasn't expecting you to have thrown your lot with them."
"What did you expect then?" Cial asked. "That I'd try to start another Neo Arcadia somewhere? Repeat what was already pointless?"
"Honestly, I didn't know what to expect." Leviathan spoke her piece. "I guess all of us have had plenty of time to question our choices."
"Things might have ended differently if my mother had not managed to track me down." Cial conceded. "I might have simply ended up starving in the wilderness or staying hidden in that damp cave."
"That would have been a waste of your talents." Phantom remarked. "Not to mention your family would have not been very happy about it."
"I… could not bear the thought of facing those two." Cial admitted in a rare display of vulnerability. "But since it appears that all of us are getting a second chance regardless of whether we think we deserve one..."
"I will have to stop you right there." Phantom intervened.
"Yeah, we're tired of beating ourselves up over that stuff, even if we fucked up big time." Fefnir added.
"Besides..." Leviathan joined in. "As much as we're still learning to grasp certain things, some of us do understand family and its importance."
"I suppose we should be touched that you bothered coming here in person." Harpuia said.
"I suppose I wanted an opportunity to speak to you without interruptions or eavesdroppers." Cial said. "After all, until very recently I was on the same boat as you."
"Just for the record, we never held any ill will towards you." Phantom said, stepping a little closer.
"The whole Ice Queen act could be a pain in the ass, but I guess that's your way of doing things." Fefnir added.
"I… think I understand." Leviathan pondered. "You were… lonely up there, weren't you?"
"H-How do you figure?" Cial asked, taken aback.
"Cut off from your only family?" Leviathan pointed out. "Trying to keep something you believed in from falling apart? Realizing it was all pointless?"
"You too then..." Cial realized.
Leviathan's expression darkened, recognizing the parallels.
"I take it back, you probably weren't just lonely… but slipping into depression as well."
Cial said nothing.
"Your silence is enough of an answer." Leviathan said. "I understand how you feel. After all, we were no substitutes for your actual family… and even with these three around there were plenty of times when I didn't know what to do with myself."
Cial had expected one of many things before meeting the Four Guardians again. Indifference, disdain, possibly recriminations. She had, however, not expected this.
"I suppose you are correct." she finally said. "Perhaps I underestimated you. But I will deny everything if you speak of this to anyone else."
"There is no need for that." Phantom said. "We are the last people in a position to judge you or point fingers."
"And for the record…" he added, still recalling Alouette's teasing about his difficulties on the subject of expressing emotions. "It is... good to see you again."
"Perhaps that is better than what I deserve..." Cial remarked, getting a little misty eyed. "But if my mother were here she would probably tell me to just accept it."
"We have spent a considerable amount of time examining our actions..." Phantom mused. "We are still in the process of coming to terms with them, but it appears that we have all been swept into this… new dream."
"It would seem so." Cial said with a nod, once again showing the faintest hint of a smile. "My sister and the true X always had this way of drawing people to them… to make them believe. Which brings us to the second reason why I came to you in person."
"Do tell." Leviathan chimed in.
"Your old Master." Cial explained. "Your true Master, though he hates being called that. The new body is finally finished. I thought you would want to be present to witness the transfer."
"Much sooner than we anticipated..." Phantom remarked.
"My sister and her Chief Engineer are exceedingly good at their work." Cial said with a hint of pride seeping into her tone. "When they have some additional resources at their disposal and the time to work in a structured manner without interruptions..."
"I see." Phantom said with the faint hint of a smile of his own. "So I imagine this is your doing."
"I've gotta admit." Fefnir remarked. "I wouldn't have expected you to come here all the way for this."
"And… how are things in the settlement?" Leviathan hesitantly asked, still reluctant to go close after the previous incident.
"Making good progress." Cial said. "In fact, given how the last few meetings went, you should probably expect the others to come knocking soon."
"Still hoping we'll move in, are they?" Harpuia asked, still unsure what to think of the idea.
"Why not?" Cial asked rather bluntly. "If you four still want to safeguard the future, you'd be better off living where people are instead of this dusty old place."
"Now that's more like how I remember you." Fefnir remarked with a smirk that could have barely passed for a smile. "Determined."
"I do not make excuses, and I do not beat around the bush." Cial said with a shrug. "I suppose I am somewhat lacking in tact at times."
Fefnir snorted in response.
"What would that make me then?"
"A hothead and occasionally a dumbass?" Leviathan chimed in.
"At least I don't get my jollies-" Fefnir retorted.
"Let's not go there..." Harpuia cut him off, trying to avoid making their sister uncomfortable again.
"I appreciate your concern." Leviathan said, still calm and composed. "But I'm not as weak as… some of my displays suggest."
She then turned to Fefnir with a rather predatory grin.
"I'll try not to enjoy myself too much when I beat your ass for running your mouth."
"If you think your head's back in the game, bring it." Fefnir taunted.
Cial blinked and glanced at the Guardians one at a time, looking rather confused.
"What… just happened?" she wondered out loud.
"If you don't know, then you don't need to concern yourself with it." Harpuia said, looking rather uncomfortable… though feeling slightly relieved that Ciel and the others had stayed true to their word and not mentioned the incident to others.
"We do appreciate the visit and the opportunity to catch up." Phantom said, attempting to be diplomatic. "As for the invitation… we will consider it."
The next morning...
Ciel woke up early and after finishing her preparations she made her way to the workshop along with Alouette. To her surprise, she found Cial, Cerveau and Lune already waiting for them.
"You did not think we would miss this, did you?" Cial asked.
"Everything is ready." Lune added, giving Ciel and Alouette a conspiratorial wink.
"Oh..." Ciel realized. "You came in early to make sure you had time to hide it..."
Cerveau glanced outside through the window and pressed his index finger to his lips.
The Maverick Hunter trio stepped through the door a few moments later, with X looking excited and more than a little anxious.
"It's gonna be fine." Axl said encouragingly. "They're the best around at this kind of thing."
"No doubt about that." X said. "It's just that… it's been so long..."
"Relax." Lune said. "If anything goes wrong, you've got all the backup you need right here."
"You're right." X said, calming down a bit.
Lying on a metal table, covered in a blanket, his new body awaited, as if asleep. X took a moment to examine the fruit of months of work – practically identical to the original, clad in a black body glove much like Zero had taken to wearing under his armor a long time prior.
"We took the opportunity to make some improvements." Ciel explained. "Nothing too outrageous, but you should feel a little lighter and faster."
"If memory serves, you partially based it on Zero's current body, right?" X asked.
"Which in turn was based on your original." Zero remarked. "I guess it's official."
"Guess so." X said with a nod. "Brothers in spirit and now in form."
"It's a good thing human genealogy doesn't really apply to us, or things would get really weird really fast." Axl joked.
"Well..." X said. "Here goes nothing."
The others watched intently as he began the transfer. In a surge of energy, the modified Pantheon frame that had been serving as his temporary body froze in place and from it emerged the radiant orb of light X had shown himself as several times before.
A thought crossed Alouette's mind as she watched.
"Did he become a Cyber Elf all those years ago… or is he an angel?"
The radiant presence floated towards the chest of the inert new body and sank into it. Ciel checked the readings on the monitoring equipment.
"Here we go..." she said excitedly. "Fingers crossed."
As if a switch had been flipped, energy began coursing out of the new body's reactor and through its entire structure. The chest began to rise and fall much like a reflexive imitation of a human's breathing. The fingers and toes twitched slightly.
"X?" Zero called out.
X opened his new eyes and slowly sat up, pushing the sheet aside. He glanced around, looking at everyone in the building, then examined his right hand, tentatively wiggling his fingers.
"How are you feeling?" Ciel asked, a little anxious since he had remained silent.
"Like myself again." X said with a beaming smile.
He tried to stand, then took a couple of hesitant, wobbly steps before Zero rushed to grab him.
"You OK?" Zero asked.
"It's… going to take a while getting used to." X said. "But it's safe to say that everything will be all right."
Zero nodded and, after making sure he wasn't just going to fall down, released him and let him continue testing his legs. After a couple of minutes experimenting little by little, X managed to take a few steps with his old, firm stride.
"There we go." he said with a triumphant look on his face. "I missed being able to feel all of this."
"Good." Lune said.
"And now that you're finally back to a body you can call your own..." Ciel added with a smile.
"Surprise!" Alouette shouted, pulling a box out of a nearby storage closet.
"What's this?" X asked, caught by surprise.
"Take a seat." Cial said, heading to another nearby table and pulling the chair resting next to it slightly back while Alouette set the box down on the surface.
X glanced at each of them, then at Zero and Axl.
"Go on." Axl said with a grin. "It's rude to keep the ladies waiting."
X nodded and took the seat.
"Since your description of how that light feels was so specific..." Ciel explained as she edged closer.
"You gave us the perfect idea of what to get for your first meal in that new body." Lune added, approaching him as well.
"You didn't!" X gasped as Alouette lifted the lid of the box, revealing a plate with a large stack of honeyed pancakes, still steaming, along with a fork and knife and some napkins.
"We did." Alouette said with a beaming smile.
"Well then..." X said, eyeing the stack of pancakes with the look of a ravenous wolf on his face. "Since I haven't eaten in centuries, let me apologize in advance for any breach of etiquette."
"Oh please." Ciel retorted with a chuckle. "After seeing the way Axl eats, I doubt anything you do can shock me."
The others silently let X go through the surprise treat, with Alouette in particular watching his reaction expectantly.
"I could… get used to this..." he finally said after a while, with a beaming smile that left Alouette and Ciel exchanging triumphant grins.
Cial watched from a corner of the room, with her expression gradually softening.
"There's nothing soulless about them..." she thought as her newfound optimism and purpose clashed with the memories of the previous regime's actions.
Then she noticed something glistening in X's face.
"Did something go wrong with the assembly?" she thought worriedly.
Before she could say anything, however, Zero stepped up to X and patted his shoulder.
"I guess they're that tasty huh?"
X paused for a moment and wiped the tears from his eyes.
"They sure are." he managed to say, with his voice slightly cracking. "They taste like home."
The realization of what had just happened hit Cial like a punch to the gut. Before she could regain her composure, her body and mouth felt like they were moving on their own.
"Of course they do..." she said, covering the distance to place a hand on X's back, feeling something moist in her own eyes. "You are home."
"And don't you forget it." Ciel added, joining in to give X a proper hug now that he could finally feel it.
"What they said." Alouette chimed in, joining the hug.
"For a guy who used to be so shy, he's sure getting all the attention from the ladies today." Zero thought, grinning like an idiot.
"And me without my camera..." Axl thought with a fond smile. "C'mon old pal. Keep it together just a bit longer. Save some of that emotion for Alia."
"Hmm..." Zero remarked, glancing around the room, specifically at everyone's faces. "I guess it's raining in here."
"I guess it is." Axl said with a nod, before wiping his face with the back of his hand.
"You were already back with us..." Cerveau remarked. "But it's damn good to see you back to how you were meant to be."
"It's good to be home..." X said. "Home and whole again."
Once everyone's emotions were a little more subdued and Ciel finished running some final tests to make sure that everything was working properly, she stepped up to the table and placed her hands on its surface.
"Once Phantom's new body is finished, there's something else I want to devote my time to." she said, finally articulating a thought she had been digesting ever since the discovery of the buried library and its trove.
"Oh?" X asked.
"Neo Arcadia was an abject failure." she said. "Now is the time for something else. Now is the time to start laying the foundations of... Neo Alexandria. Not a city or a nation, but rather a repository of knowledge, open to all."
"I like the sound of that." X said, looking as if that beaming smile might be permanently etched upon his new face.
"The past will not be forgotten." Ciel said resolutely. "Its lessons and the heritage of humanity will be preserved and spread to all. Beyond my energy production system, this will be my gift to the world. I won't waste the opportunity chance and those travelers gave me."
"We should probably keep that temporary body somewhere safe, just in case." Cial thought. "But that can wait."
Outside the workshop, the Four Guardians watched the scene through a window in awkward silence, torn between the desire to congratulate their idol and the awkward feeling of not belonging there.