It's time...for the next chapter. Dumdumdum. Thank you to all the support and reviews so far - I treasure them every single bit. Now, here's a chapter where the POV is omniscient - in other words, no first POV from Eri herself.

Enjoy!

Oh, I'm finally dropping the Japanese honorifics. No more nii-san. [faints]

"In this bright future you can't forget your past."
- Bob Marley

Past

There was a girl.

There was a girl, whose hair resembled a forest – and not just by the color. It practically flew around in a mess, wavy and unbrushed. Her fuchsia eyes darted around, curiosity showing.

Her voice was lilting. "Who are they, brother?"

"They are us," he answered. Although their hair color was different by a few shades, they both had the same eyes. People often commented on how that was the only trait that they shared.

"You're being secretive again, brother. I don't understand. How are they 'us'?"

"Be patient," he admonished lightly. "I'll introduce them to you first. This is Hilling Care, Revive Revival, Bring Stabity, Regene Regetta, Devine Nova and Anew Returner. I was the one who awoke them from their long slumber."

The young girl giggled. "They have such funny names."

"What's this, Ribbons? Who's this young girl?" The one named Hilling Care asked.

She could feel Hilling's eyes scrutinizing her every move, but strangely enough, she didn't feel frightened. There was a strange connection between all of them – something like a huge web that made them all interconnected. They felt distinctively like her, just as what her brother had said.

"Now, sister," Ribbons murmured, patting her hair, "Where are your manners?"

Oh, right. She had to introduce herself.

Standing a little straighter, she said, "My name is Lilith. Lilith Almark. I'm Ribbons Almark's younger sister. Pleased to meet you."

"Oi, you."

It was Hilling again, and this time she was looking down at Lilith in disdain. "What are you doing here?"

"Brother said I could come here for a little while to look at the mobile suits."

Hilling snorted. "You should mind your own business, you know that? Go play with some little dollies or something. We don't need you here."

"That's rude," Lilith retorted. "And I have my brother's permission, so there." To prove her point, she trotted to an enormous mobile suit and began scaling it with little effort. "I'm independent enough, see? Brother and I used to climb around the house when we were younger, you know."

"Cut the sentimental trash. You're just not one of us," Hilling said with a snicker. "So get off that suit and stop trying to prove your worthiness."

"Now, now, Hilling. She is Ribbon's sister, after all. No matter how much you try to deny it, Lilith is one of us," Regene interjected.

Lilith grinned cheekily at Regene, watching as Hilling growled and fumed in distaste. At first she had found herself feeling disconcerted mingling around with her brother's creations, but they had proved to be entertaining as time went by. Besides, he spent less time with her as he grew up – but now she had some new people to talk to. Despite Hilling's rejection, Regene and Anew were at least friendly and nice to her. The rest of them, though distant, did acknowledge her presence.

And it felt good to be with them. To feel like she had an extended family. The best thing was that they were always connected – Lilith could feel Hilling's anger, Regene's amusement, and the vague emotions of the rest of them. It was enjoyable.

They were her, and she was them. What more could she want?

"How is she?" Tieria asked brusquely, taking off his helmet.

Feldt looked at him wearily. "Her heartbeat is quicker than it should be, and she has some injuries here and there, but nothing vital was hit. She should recover soon enough."

Tieria shook his head angrily. Having the A-Laws attack Katharon was bad enough – they had spent quite a few hours eliminating them, and the loss of lives was apparent. The four Meisters had been doing the best they could, and Tieria had been focusing - until he heard Eri scream.

There was no way he could have literally heard it, of course. She was far away, so very far away – and that was when he knew that she had screamed in his mind.

It was telepathy. Quantum brainwaves. Tieria was certain on it.

But weren't hers supposed to be destroyed?

Unless…

Tieria's blood ran cold. What if her quantum brainwaves weren't destroyed? What if they were merely dormant, put to sleep - meant to be awakened in the future?

Why hadn't he considered that possibility?

And what about her memories? Were they merely asleep as well? If her quantum brainwaves were back, would that mean that her memories were back as well?

But there had been no time to waste for Tieria on the battlefield. The enemy was onto him. There was no one he could alert to regarding Eri needing assistance – everyone was having enough problems trying to keep themselves alive.

Tieria gritted his teeth, knowing that he should have just shot when he saw her in Veda's terminal for the very first time – at least he would have avoided any future problems.

By the time they had found her, she was out cold – and barely breathing. There was blood on the side of her head, and there were broken fragments of what seemed like an exploded mobile suit around her. Just what had that been about? Had she piloted that? Who struck her down? There were many questions, and Tieria found himself wanting answers.

"There's food for all the Meisters in the cafeteria now. You should have some," Feldt prodded.

"May I see her?"

Feldt blinked, caught off guard. "Eh?"

"I want to see her. Eri."

"Oh," Feldt said, nodding understandingly. "Of course you can – but it'll take her more time to wake up. She's still unresponsive."

With that, Tieria nodded and headed to the medical room. That girl – Eri – was in a healing chamber, looking much cleaner without all the blood on her. He stepped closer, observing – and paused.

Her eyebrows were furrowed, and her fists were clenched. Were recovering people supposed to have such distressed expressions on their faces?

He crossed both arms and frowned.

What on earth was she seeing that he couldn't?

"You're getting better, Lilith. You'll be good in piloting mobile suits soon," Anew complimented.

Lilith grinned. It had been a few years since she had met these Innovators – and now that she was older, she was being allowed to do things that previously were off-limits to her. "Thanks. I heard you're leaving today?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, I am."

"Where are you off to? Will I ever see you again?" Lilith asked. The news of Anew leaving wasn't really a surprise – she had somehow known through these 'special connections' they had. Her brother called them 'quantum brainwaves', and had told her that they were very useful for all sorts of things. What sort of things, though, she had no idea.

Anew smiled. "I'm off to Celestial Being."

"That's nice…" Lilith murmured vaguely, unsure of where or what Celestial Being was. "I wish I could go around and see the world, too. It gets boring here sometimes, and I can't help anyone out." Especially brother, she thought. She would love to help him out – but whenever she suggested it to him, he merely shook his head and told her that it was unnecessary.

"Does the little princess want to help Ribbons out so much?" Hilling taunted from a side, watching gleefully as Lilith shook in anger.

"Of course I do," she snapped. "It would be better if you just disappeared, honestly. You're just a superior pain in my…"

"Nuh-uh, no name-calling! Tell you what, there IS a way that you can help him out."

Lilith stopped in mid-sentence, clearly intrigued. "Really? No, wait," she said in realization, "You're lying. You probably want to pull another prank on me, and I'm not falling for it."

"I'm not."

"Oh, yes, you are. Just because you were artificially created…"

"And just because you're Ribbon's genuine sister by blood…"

Anew smiled serenely. "You two should stop fighting."

Hilling leaned closely, whispering in Lilith's ear. "There is a way to help your precious brother…but the thing is, are you willing to do it? It's tough, you know, but it's a task that only you may be able to carry out…"

There wasn't even any hesitation. Lilith was tired of being the wallflower.

"Definitely."

It was, however, a very long time before that topic was brought up again. It was mentioned on one sunny afternoon when they were all gathered in the house, deep in discussion. Lilith had sensed that something was amiss when she couldn't feel Anew's presence anymore, and asked about it.

"It seems that Anew was discovered," Revive said, humming casually.

"Anew? What happened to her?" Lilith asked, anxious and alarmed.

Ribbons stepped towards her, arms outstretched.

"It just means," he said smoothly, "That your time to help me has come, Lilith."

There was nothing else that could be done. Tieria could only eat, rest, and wait.

Everyone else looked exhausted. Saji seemed to be ready to breakdown at any moment – Tieria had been the one to notice that something was amiss, and realized that he was the one who had, unknowingly, led the A-Laws to Katharon's base.

Tieria hadn't even held back his strength during the slap.

Perhaps he should slap that girl too when she woke up. What was wrong with her? He clearly told her to stay on the Ptolemaios!

There were just too many idiots around him. Tieria could feel a massive headache coming on.

To make matters worse, Sumeragi herself had fainted. The sight of blood had probably brought back several bad memories to light. So, for now, they were out of one technician – Eri – and a tactical forecaster – Sumeragi herself.

"Thank you for your hard work, Mileina," Tieria said, watching Mileina fix his mobile suit.

Mileina smiled cheerily. "No problem. I'll have this done as soon as possible. You can count on me!" Her smile faded, and then she said, "How is she?"

Tieria knew who Mileina was referring to. "She's fine," he said in a clipped voice. "No vitals were injured."

But Mileina just stood there, biting her lip. Tieria waited, knowing that she was about to say something important.

"I never really liked her," she confessed finally, "I was always wondering where she was from. But seeing her injured like that…"

"It's not your fault, Mileina," Feldt said.

"B-but I was always so rude to her!"

"Then all you need to do is to apologize to her when she wakes up. I'm sure Eri will forgive you," Feldt murmured comfortingly, patting Mileina's back.

Tieria left the hangar, leaving Feldt to be the one to comfort Mileina. He understood where those words came from – it had taken Mileina some time to accept Eri's presence, and now that Eri herself was injured, Mileina was feeling the guilt.

There was nothing else left that he could do.

"Ah, it seems that she had a horrible awakening," Hilling said, plopping her legs on top of the couch.

"Being horrible now, aren't you?" Regene asked, joining her. "I can feel her quantum brainwaves palpitating unsteadily. Soda?"

Hilling gave him a disgusted glance and grabbed the can without a thanks. "You're pitying her? I can sense her uncertainty even though she's far away and unconscious. It's weak and annoying."

"Ribbons isn't going to like this," Regene warned, ignoring her question. "You could have waited for a little while longer before going to such extents."

"Like I care. I just want to see her suffer – and the only regret I have is not making her suffer even more than that. I had to go easy on her or I would have killed her by accident. Besides, she has a thing for little Tieria. It'd be so amusing to pull them apart, don't you think?"

Regene gave Hilling a hard smile. "Jealousy is ugly, even on you. One of the reasons why you hate her so much would be because Ribbons holds her in a higher regard than you, isn't it?"

Hilling's face contorted into a sickening, twisted expression of anger. Regene merely laughed, ignoring her. As for Lilith – he understood that she was being called another name, Eri, on the Ptolemaios. How was she going to handle her own emotions after getting her memories back? Regene wondered how Tieria would deal as well. If Tieria found out that Eri was the sister of his true enemy, Ribbons, how would he react? What about the Ptolemaios crew? They had given her their trust, haven't they? And they were treating her - an enemy - as one of their own. It would be a repeat of Anew Returner's incident, wouldn't it?

Regene's lip curled. More importantly, who would Eri - no, Lilith, fight for? Would it be for the Innovators – or would she, like Tieria, be on humanity's side?

Only she could answer those questions.

Things were going to be much more interesting from now onwards.

Oh-okayyy...this was quite hard to pull off...

I know, I know. Ribbons' past was never clearly mentioned, and all we know that he was a Gundam pilot (was he? Yeah, he was the one who gave Setsuna the suit, wasn't he?) - so, I chucked in a little salt and pepper.

Please review and tell me what you think. I tried to make sure there were as little loopholes as possible. :D

- Anne