My apologies on how long this took to write. My original computer broke earlier this year and I lost all my files (including all my Dyad chapters). I kinda had to start over. Well, I finished the next chapter, so its all good right? XD Well, enjoy.

Aile and Vent had quickly grown accustomed to their new armored forms, and moved swiftly through the forest. They were also getting better at avoiding Serpent's mechanaloids while they went as well (although Vent almost stepped into sight of a huge army of them a few times). X had been quiet for most of the trip, as were they both. The smoke from what they believed was their boss's fight was easy to see above the trees, and they both kept moving towards it.

Aile broke the silence as they slowed to a stop. " Wow, change of scenery, huh?" she muttered to herself. Boy, she was right. The forest abruptly stopped, and changed into an abandoned construction site. Metal frames were set up everywhere, and some unused ones lay on the ground. Barrels and materials lay in heaps, most of them half destroyed or rusted.

"Yeah," Vent replied. He noticed several of the metal bars were covered in large holes; most of them were still smoking. Fresh blasts.

'Looks like there was some sort of struggle. Recently as well." X commented. 'We best hurry. Just follow the trail of damage.'The two nodded and were about to leave when static began to spurt from the comphone. Vent almost jumped out his skin. Aile laughed hard as he fumbled anxiously with it and answered the call voice-only.

"Vent… Aile... that you?" came a distinctly female voice, and a familiar one.

"Ah! Prairie!" Aile cried out. "You're alright!" Vent rolled his eyes. Just an hour ago she was jealous of the attention the girl in pink had been receiving.

"Yes, I am. Thanks to your help!" came the cheerful reply. There was silence a moment, then her tone turned serious. "I was thinking about the mavericks that attacked us earlier. Perhaps there is information on them in the ruins of that area."

Vent nodded. "I was thinking, what is this place?" It was rather odd. No one built anything outside the safety of Innerpeace, or any of the other cities, unless they had some sort of death wish. Anyone out here would easily fall prey to Mavericks.

"You mean the construction site? They started building this before the Maverick problem began to surface. Back then it was pretty safe to live outside the city walls. Of course, it was abandoned once attacks began happening." Prairie responded. "Which is why I bet there is information about the attacks here. It was one of the first places to be invaded, and no one's come here for years. There must be something!"

"Good idea!" Aile agreed, nodding quickly. "We'll keep an eye out!" Prairie gave her thanks then shut the link off. And with that they were off.

The two continued to follow the beaten trail of bullet holes and scorches, surprisingly without any resistance at all. A feeling of uncertainty seeped into his mind.

"It's a little weird, isn't it?" Aile said suddenly, as if he was reading his mind.

"Yeah, it—" Vent paused. About 5 meters away was a reasonably large helmet lying on the ground. It was rather out of place, being in perfect condition and sitting a good distance away from the construction. "Uh…" A strange confusion popped up, and he somehow understood it, pointing to what he saw; Aile turned around.

"A helmet? What's so special about that?" She trotted over to it, and stared a moment. Vent hadn't realized how large it was: it came up all the way to Aile's waist. She gripped the helmet suddenly and attempted to lift it. However it wouldn't budge.

"Having a little trouble?" Vent snickered; Aile sent him a death glare and he immediately shut up. She tugged and tugged but it wouldn't budge. A growl escaped her, but she was quickly silenced when the helmet suddenly lifted all on its own, revealing a small creature below with huge eyes. Vent came a bit closer to get a better look, but the shadow of the helmet blocked its other features.

"Aww! How cute! A Mettool!" Aile giggled and poked the shell a few times. The Mettool didn't seem as pleased. Out of nowhere, it pulled out a huge flashing stick and began smacking Aile over the head with it. Aile let out a cry of surprise, too stunned to stop the tiny mechanaloid. Vent began laughing his head off.

"BASTARD!" Aile suddenly yelled. The brunette girl let out a roar and kicked the Mettool clear out of sight. She huffed and puffed and crossed her arms. Vent couldn't stop laughing until one of her fists came down on his head.

"SHUT IT" she shouted at him, temper rising higher (if that was possible). She was about to explode again when she went quiet. Vent blinked, then turned to direction she was looking. The Mettool was back, dented in the head, and it had brought friends.

"You just had to kick it didn't you?" Vent cried out angrily as they ran from the army of Mettools and other mechanaloids.

"I said shut up, Vent!' Aile snarled back, shooting shots back at the oncoming enemies, hitting her targets with deadly accuracy. Jeeze, she was scary when she was mad. The two sprinted across the construction site. They had long lost the path they had been following; not that it mattered anymore.

Ducking quickly to avoid a lunging Mettool, Vent slammed the small robot with his fist. A satisfying crash of it hitting a pile of rubble and steel followed soon after. A smirk was plastered on his face, when he turned something caught his eye. "Woah! Watch it!" Vent cried in surprise, grabbing Aile's arm to stop her. A huge spinning saw flew down from above and slammed the ground. Why the hell was a saw attached to a building?! The two skidded to a stop then flew to the side, not waiting for the path to reopen.

Suddenly a few mechanaloids popped from behind a pile of rubble, quickly firing shots at them. The two shouted and scrambled over each other. Vent dodged two of the bullets going by and stepped to the side to run, but his foot only hit air. He shouted out and behind to tumble backwards into the fissure. Aile shouted to him, but Vent was too terrified to compute what she said. His heart pounded during the freefall, which seemed to go on for eternity. After what seemed like years internally, he landed with a sharp thump on the dirt below. Vent lied down, dazed for a moment, but somehow easily got up. Shockingly, his only injury was a dull headache, and that went away in mere moments.

'You're lucky you were in armor' X said, a bit worried. 'Otherwise that fall would have killed— Woah, watch out above!" His head snapped up to see Aile falling from the small cliff as well. His reaction to catch her was quick, but not quick enough. Her body was as heavy as a boulder and crashed into Vent, sending both off them to the ground.

"Oww, my head…" Aile moaned, seemingly oblivious for the moment of what she had landed on. Vent sure wasn't and made sure she wasn't either.

"Aile, get off!" He snapped. "Or more than your head's gonna hurt!" The fall hadn't hurt too much to start with, but the giant blue comet known as Aile had certainly made it worse. She suddenly giggled.

"Hah, you probably liked me landing on you." She teased, getting up. "Sorry! It was drop down or get swarmed!"

Vent's face flushed in both rage and humiliation, but before he could sputter something out, X interrupted him. 'You two all right? Well, seems like those mechanaloids don't feel like following you."It was true; many of them were crowded along the edge of the drop-off, glaring, but not daring to drop down. A few had even begun to leave

"How odd." He replied, forgetting he had been worked up. He was silent for a moment, and then it hit him. "Damn, that's not gonna do us much good! We lost Boss's trail and all that ruckus probably covered it up anyways!" He slammed his palm against his face and walked a few feet away, trying to burn off some steam. "Now what are we gonna do?" he muttered to himself. How were they going to find Giro now? Its not like he was going to—

'Plane…'came a foreign thought. Plane? What? Where had that thought come from? Whiirrrr. It almost sounded like X, but not quite.Whiiiiiiiirrrr. Maybe he should ask— WHIIIRRRR! Snapping his head up, the sight of an enormous hover-plane engulfed his vision. Its twin fans kicked up huge dirt storms, clouding out the sky and sun. 'DAMN IT LOOK OUT!' a voice screamed in his mind. Aile rammed into his side and the two flew into the ground. Crates had crashed where he had been standing, and the plane disappeared from view.

It suddenly occurred to him. 'Aile?' he thought, getting up'Can you hear me?' She turned to face him, confusion on her face as well.

"Uh, yeah, what's your point?"

"I didn't say anything! That's the point!" She blinked, as if it hadn't occurred to her.

'Vent, Aile.' X said "The mind of a Biometal and it's host becomes one when it activated. Considering you're both my host, you two are also linked together."

Suddenly a huge pressure was forced on his mind. He knew who it was immediately. "Aile, stop trying to read my thoughts." Although he shoved her lightly, she laughed.

'Woah, watch out! It's coming back!' Aile sent. Automatically her cannon was raised and a flurry of shots rained upon the plane. Vent turned to see the purple machine enter the cloud of dust. It would not stop it though; every shot bounced off the plane's purple armor as if it were a fly. Its own guns were freed and it returned fire as it passed by.

Vent covered his face with his arms, and was knocked back by the attack. He felt Aile's anger increase as she fired and fired at the plane in vain. "Damn it! Work!" she cried out in rage.

Quickly it circled them in the skies, partially hidden in the haze, never ceasing its offensive. Vent had to use all his energy just to avoid the shots, but a scream broke his attention. He swerved around to see Aile kneeling in pain, most of her armor beaten and burn. 'Aile! Don't just shoot! Run!' But it was too late. Her body was shaking, unable to move, and in a flash of white, X's protective armor vanished into air.

"I… can't..."Fear coursed through his veins. The plane was coming in for another pass, and Aile couldn't take any more. He rushed to her side, grabbed her around the arms and pulled his hardest. He didn't know where he was going; the pit had no cover around and he couldn't lift her anyways. WHIRRRR.

The plane was flying straight towards them, gun prepared. Clenched his fist and shut his eyes, hoping his body would be enough to shield his fallen comrade. He waited for the pain, but it never came. CREEEEAK.A splitting sound came, and Vent's head whirled around to sight of his opponent now cut clean in half. The sides split from each other and crashed to the ground on opposite sides of the two.

What in the world…?His eyes scanned the area and fell on a lone figure in red, a shining green sword swung over his shoulder and long golden hair flowing behind him.

'So, this is Biometal X's chosen one?' came a voice, not unlike X's, but sharper. It came from the red man, but he didn't seem to be saying it. As he came closer, Vent could see a black visor covering his face. Vent could practically feel the power radiating from the stranger. He turned around and faced him, but still stayed between him and Aile.

'Yes, they're both very special to me." The man replied. Aile suddenly moved behind him and stuttered out a few surprised words.

"It's... its him!' She muttered out, standing now with the help of Vent's support. "The red knight… the one who saved me… back then," She smiled to herself, and then added proudly, "Told you he was real." Vent snorted at her; even in this situation, she had to be right. The man in red suddenly froze in place at her words, then laughed.

"Ah, the famous red knight. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but—" In a flash of light, the armor was gone and revealed to them the one they had been looking for: Giroutte. In his hands was a metal, similar to X, but red and black. "—I'm not much of a knight."

"BOSS!" Vent cried out. "You're okay!" Suddenly he went blind for a moment, and it felt as if part of him was being torn away. His armor faded away and Biometal X was floating in front of him.

'Ah, good to see you again.' X said. His red counterpart floated up to meet him.

'Likewise.' It replied coolly. Giro smiled.

'Glad to see both Biometal fragments were recovered." He said, then turned to Vent and Aile. Both had a look of pure shock plastered on their faces. "Ah, I see you want an explanation."

"YES!"

"You had this power all along?"

"Weren't you gonna tell us?"

"What's up with this Biometal?

"What the hell is going on?!"

Giro pinched his nose and replied sternly. "Quiet, now!" The two went silent immediately. "This is my partner, Biometal Z, just as Biometal X is yours. I'm... sorry I've kept this a secret from you." He ended on a quiet note. "I have been on orders from the Guardians to protect the power inside you two."

"Wait! The Guardians? You work for them?" Aile replied in shock.

"Yes. I was going to tell you… After the delivery, and ask you to join us." He turned around, thoughtful. " I'm not going to force anything on you two. It's your decisions alone. But for now, its probably best we get Aile some help."

Aile was shaking now, and tried her best to hold onto Vent, but collapsed to her knees again. "Ah! Aile!" Vent said in surprise, trying once again to pick her up, but his strength was depleted from the battle.

"Don't worry, I got her. ' Giro said concernedly, and lifted her up. "You can walk fine right?" Vent nodded. "Then let's go."

Bit awkward, I know. It's been a while since I wrote last. Yeah, the plane fight was ALOT different than it was in the game. I wanted to make it more interesting XD BTW, Giro is hot-shiz. He's my favorite character. Well, next up is a 'filler' chapter, introducing a slightly important OC. Well, until next time!

-Veek