Luckily for me, Lyra chose to come.
"I'm still worried about Lee," Lyra says while we cross the ocean.
"She'll be fine," I say, "I'm sure she has other talents."
"Enough about Lee," Lyra says, "Tell me about the person you have for me."
"Her name's Whitney," I say, "and she wants to be a singer and an actress, but she knows stories about us. About FM-ians in general. She made me realize that Geo's body was probably stolen by Aquarius."
"The assassin?" Lyra says, "But…but then he would be king, wouldn't he?"
"That's our hunch," I say, "Layla- my partner- is nervous about fighting Aquarius now. As Geo has the Battle Cards, while our only legal resource is V-Cards."
"The virus-enslavers," Lyra says, "Aquarius couldn't possibly be trapped in one."
"I know," I say, "Taurus couldn't be trapped either. We fought him a few days ago. Rather, her. Taurus managed to get a girl for himself."
"So you mean that this new generation will be made of more female FM-ians?" Lyra says.
"Maybe," I say.
Lyra nods and says, "I tried fusing with Lee, but…for the first time since Sonia's death…I couldn't fuse with Lee. She just didn't have the same EM wavelength as I did. Everyone else in Sonia's bloodline did…except her."
Then…maybe the wavelength passed on to Whitney somehow?
"She's very passionate about her career," Lyra continues, "but somehow, she just can't fuse like Sonia and I did. After that…she grew resentful. She ordered me to call her 'Lee-sama' and began calling me 'Lyra-chan'."
"Betting there's gossip about her," I say.
"Naturally," Lyra says, "but the worst rumor is the one where Lee and some other child was switched at birth. It's a popular rumor, and by far the most widespread…"
Switched at birth? I'll have to ask Whitney where she came from…
"Although she's quite rude at times," Lyra says, "I can't see why she ended up so resentful about me."
"Maybe she really was switched at birth," I say, the words simply tumbling out.
Lyra stops and glares at me.
I stop and try to apologize, but then Lyra says, "Lee was not switched at birth! If she was, then she wouldn't be called 'Skye's child', would she?"
"What…what if they never considered that possibility?" I say, the words not stopping.
Why am I saying this?
Lyra hesitates, causing me to say, "I mean, think about it, Lyra! What if she simply read the gossip, tried to fuse with you, and, finding she couldn't, found herself realizing that she truly wasn't Sonia's descendant?"
Lyra's eyes dull, a sign that she's thinking about it.
"After that," I press, "what if she looked through the Internet? What if she found records of a different girl, one who was everything Sonia and her other descendants are and Lee herself wasn't? It would cause Layla to be resentful if she were in that situation, for sure!"
A long moment passes before Lyra says, "I…I honestly think that you're right, Omega-Xis. Lee-sama…Lee asked me if we could try EM Wave Changing when she turned thirteen, as a sort of teenhood tradition…but…now that you say it like that, then maybe the rumors are true."
I look at the sky.
The sun's still up, and we're not far from Garden Wake. We should keep going.
"Lyra," I say, "when we get to Garden Wake, try fusing with Whitney. If I'm right, then Whitney might be the descendant you're looking for."