"Ok, Michael, I gotta ask, it's been bothering me for forever!" Exclaimed Yuma as the two boys sat in his attic digging through many artifacts and the Arclight bursting into a gleeful mini lecture at each new exciting find.
Michael set down the vase he had been examining and looked at his friend with gentle curiosity, "Yes, Yuma?"
"If you used to be Trey, and your brothers were four and five…then who are one and two?!" asked Yuma emphatically, waving his arms frantically for emphasis.
Michael-formerly-Trey opened his mouth to reply, then closed it. He tried to reply again only to come up with no answer.
"I…have no idea!" He finally answered with surprise. He hadn't thought about it before, to be honest. Having to change your name was strange to begin with without thinking about the logic (or lack thereof) behind it. When Vetrix had told them they were Trey, Quattro, and Quinton, he was to be obeyed, not questioned.
Yuma looked incredibly disappointed, and Michael didn't like his friend looking upset (plus now that the question had been asked he was curious about the answer, himself), so he quickly reassured, "Next time I get the chance, I'll ask my father."
"Next time" was actually fairly soon- the next morning in fact. Vetrix no longer hid away behind closed doors, only to be talked to if or were for a mission or to give out orders; instead it was now fairly easy just to catch him at breakfast, the same as any other father might be.
"Father, I had a question," asked Michael over his breakfast tea.
"Oh? Ask away, then, son!" replied his father easily as he stirred another spoonful of sugar into his own teacup (wait, how many was that now? Well, Trey would have to save that concern for another day).
"If I was Trey, Thomas was Quattro, and Chris was Quinton," he started asking, noticing his father flinch slightly from guilt as he was taking a sip of his tea. (Or maybe the tea was still somehow too bitter, he wondered, as his father quietly added more sugar.) "What about one and two?"
"Oh!" exclaimed Vetrix, realizing that he never did explain any of that, did he? "That's a fair question!" He remarked. Taking a sip of his tea, and then setting the cup down again, his eye searched the table as he tried to find the best way to explain.
"Trapped between worlds, it becomes very difficult to hold on to who you are," he turned his head to the side so Trey was now looking at the glass red eye of his mask, adding sheepishly, "I'm sure that was very apparent from how I acted after I had returned." Shaking his head to clear it he turned back to his son and the subject at hand, "To return even in the state I did, I had to cling very hard to what I could. Eventually the best way I was able to persist was to focus on five things. To give myself five reasons to stay myself as much as I could."
"One:" he listed, counting on his fingers, "To get revenge against Dr Faker," he grimaced once again at the reminder of his past actions.
"Two:" he continued, unfolding another finger, "To remember Kazuma's advice to never give up, no matter what."
"And the rest?" asked Michael with a soft hopefulness.
"Reasons three, four, and five that I WOULD escape that place no matter what:" he concluded, holding out an open palm, fingers spread apart, he hesitated only slightly before listing, "My sons, Michael, Thomas, and Christopher."
"Daaaaad!" Exclaimed Michael tearily at the explanation, moving around the table to throw his arms around his father in a tight hug.
Arms trapped in place by his taller son, Vetrix couldn't really return the hug, though even if he could have he might not have because he was frozen in shock. "I…thought you would be mad…" he quietly said in a shockingly small voice.
Pulling away slightly, the youngest son tilted his head in confusion, "WHY would I be mad?" He asked, baffled.
"Because," replied his father in the same small voice, shrinking down in his seat, "Wanting revenge on Faker was more important to me than you all. My own family was only third and onward priority instead of first!"
"The way I see it," the son kindly retorted, "If we were reasons three through five, that means we were 3/5ths of the reason you came back. That beats out Faker by a mile!"
"Or at the very least, by 40 percent," quipped Vetrix with a gentle smile, losing his guilty posture and relaxing into his son's embrace.
"Exactly!" agreed Michael with a quick,sharp head nod. He was glad he had asked this question. Even despite the rocky road it had taken for them to truly get their father back, it still made the teen happy to know that he and his brothers had been most of the reason that their father had been able to make it out through that portal. Even if revenge had been reason number one, it had only been one reason. Now he was able to be here for reasons three through five.
Heh heh, Vrains references.
I don't know if there is a canon reason for the Arclight brothers being named the way they are, and frankly I had so much fun writing this that I didn't care to look it up.
Either way, I hope you enjoyed. :)