(AKA it's okay to lose your way, but a moral compass won't point you north)

Year six ended. Then seven. Omega had stopped bothering to tail his unconventionally adopted child ages ago. As long as Aile showed up to her lessons and informed Omega about what she'd done in a day, he acted like he couldn't care less about what she did (even though she knew better. Oh, how much he fretted! He wasn't as good at hiding it as he thought he was). She was allowed to explore more freely since was old enough to wield her metal baton without falling over, after all. Old enough to fight. She had enough years under her belt to make her own decisions, her own mistakes, and Aile was smart enough to know when to do something risky or to back up and beg her papa to do it for her. Usually he just showed her how to fix the problem, shoved her back into the fray, and that was that. Omega taught best through the school of hard knocks. Sometimes these lessons hurt, but what lessons she learned, she learned well.

As the tween miscreant snuck through the underbrush of the Area A forest, she snickered to herself about the reputation she'd been slowly earning among the locals. Campers, rangers, security guards and civilians alike were certainly beginning to take note of her existence. Or at the very least, they'd started to notice the absence of personal items that Aile had taken a fancy to. Aile the Terror, it had a nice ring to it, didn't it? Not that anyone knew her name or actually called her that. They didn't even know her face all that well, since she'd taken to wearing a mask she'd made by herself, well, mostly by herself. Daddy had helped a little. She was rather proud of it, it had horns like her dad's helmet did! Sorta like them anyways. It was super cool and scary. Add to that the age-old beanie she had, which covered her hair more often than not (and was a comforting remnant of how she'd been saved that day in the amusement park), and her true identity was more than secure. She'd often steal from campers, taking their books or gadgets or food at whim from their campsites as they foolishly strayed away to go hike or gawk at nature. Aile also made a habit of using her unconventional weapon to trash security mechaniloids whenever she could, as the often klutzy things made for easy target practice. Some had even started to hone in on her whenever they saw her; a sure sign that she was recognized. It never ended well for the mechaniloids though, so it was "too bad so sad" for whomever was paying for such stupid piles of scrap.

She liked her baton a lot. It was actually just a random, badly bent metal stick her father had yoinked from somewhere in the ruins, but it was a good and proper weapon in her eyes, and that's all that counted. She loved it. But that didn't stop her from occasionally harassing her father to let her use his sword, or just a sword of any sort really, because she wanted to be like her epic dad and she knew there were some random armaments lying scattered and broken somewhere around the ruins. She knew because he'd let it slip once. Daddy got kind of dodgy about that little secret every time she brought it up, though. Must have been a sore spot. Oh well. Sometimes she'd try to badger him into letting her train with his adult weapons, or at least allow her to try and steal one of her own from a security guard, no matter how many times he'd already told her she was too small for a proper people-killer yet. Oftentimes she ignored him and demanded it anyways, and sometimes he was more patient about this than others. For one reason or another, whenever Daddy started getting too grumpy, she just scampered off to try one of her other favourite pastimes: invading Cinq Ville.

Which was precisely the kind of mischief she was up to now.

Aile slunk through the woods, keeping low and frequently ducking under bushes as she plotted her mischief for the day. Sneaking into the nearby city was one of her newer habits, but it was a treasure trove of adventure and goodies. She'd snuck into Cinq Ville (also known as Innerpeace or Area C and why did one city have so many dumb names) a few times before and stolen junk food and shoes and fashionable articles of clothing, though after one time she got chased out of an arcade, she tended to try and stagger the dates when she went on one of her trips into town. Gotta keep the stupid defense force off her trail, right? Aile's many misdemeanors, her haphazard weapon and her grotesquely hand-carved mask, had started to earn her both fear and respect on the streets of the city filled with so many peaceful, passive, pathetic civilians. It hadn't always been that way. At first, all she got was disbelief and patronizing chuckles more often than not. It was kind of hard to take a pipsqueak like her seriously. So maybe she was a little short, that didn't make her any less fierce! After many thefts and threats and streaks of vandalism, people soon got the message. It helped that she also made sure to deface every poster and billboard with the Slither Inc logo on it.

Slither Inc was the biggest company in the city, hailed as heroes by the populace, and the ones who were in charge of dealing with mavericks. If they were supposed to be protecting civilians, yet had let the attack at the amusement park go on and on until nobody was left… Well. Nobody that incompetent deserved any respect in her books.

Hilariously, Serpent's company had put out a bounty for information on her in response to a few memorable incidents. It was quite an honour to be sought after by such a publicly admired organization, not that anyone would ever figure her or her plans out! They knew she frequented the forest and the town thanks to various security forces and the occasional camera, but no one could figure out exactly where she came from. As if she'd let that happen! Pftt. Civilians were such imbeciles. She was a villain to them, through and through, and proud of it. The city had recently put up a few genuine wanted posters featuring her masked visage, titled 'The Imp of Cinq Ville'. The day she first saw her own face plastered on a piece of paper, one which offered a reward for her capture (or information leading to said capture), was a moment of pride that she'd never forget. Omega had gotten a good laugh out of it too when she showed it to him. She vainly plastered the poster up on her wall soon after, and this display of her infamy was well worth the chiding Daddy gave her for getting spotted in the first place. Like a piece of modern art, Aile admired it on occasion. She'd even caught daddy smiling at it a few times too, not that he'd ever admit to it.

A noise broke her from her musing. Something had disturbed the underbrush nearby.

Aile turned around at the rustle; It was just enough time for her to see the brilliant red eyes of a man as he looked away, sweeping his gaze around the woods she was hunkered down in. A gasp escaped her. It was a maverick! And not the usual kind! Aile wasn't stupid when she realized her slip; By the time he turned his head and braced his large weapon at the source of the noise, she'd already started dashing back to safety. The brunette heard a crunch of leaves and branches as the unknown humanoid jumped into her former hiding spot and attacked the greenery with his scythe. She was already far away from there, of course. Sucks to be him!

"Don't think I didn't hear you!" crowed the maverick. Aile could hear the sounds of plants being slashed and savaged somewhere behind her. She continued to book it back into the darkest depths of the forest, running, ducking, and worming her way through tightly wound roots and towering monoliths of wood and metal, mechanically-augmented trees and shrubbery obscuring her path as the loam beneath her feet stifled the sounds of her passage. Aile was already pretty close to home, having taken her time in carefully zig-zagging and sneaking an unusual route towards the city, so a direct dash to safety took little time at all. A familiar rock face loomed before her. Something else whooshed behind her as branches crashed to the ground, "Where are you? Get out here!"

Unfortunately for the guy chasing her, Aile was already back into the crack in the rock and scrambling to the safety of its depths. Her speed of movement mattered little. The soft dirt of the cave, as well as her keen instincts, muffled her retreat. Or at least it did until she accidentally kicked a rock and sent it careening into the wall with a startling crack.

"Eh? The hell was that?"

The voice was distant. Aile leaped down a fissure and ran. If he said anything else after that, she was too far away to hear it.

—-—-

"I heard it, Pandora! Rocks hitting rocks. It's supposed to be a damn forest, something ain't right here!"

Aile was back in the mouth of the cave, ready to explore the woods for knick-knacks and feathers, when she heard the maverick once again. A day had passed since the close call, but it seemed that this maverick was a bit more stubborn than the usual lot. And this time he'd brought a friend. Aile backed up slowly as she continued to listen.

"Rocks… It makes sense. There are… lot of cliffs here."

"Yeah, no, I know that. But it echoed! Weird, right? Maybe this pointless shadow-hunt isn't so pointless after all. Who would have thought that all those tall tales of a mysterious maverick in these woods might actually be true?"

"Indeed... Oh. Prometheus. Here. The mud… a scuff here."

Shit.

"Yeah, well, I kinda did mess the place up a bit-Wait. Footprint, right there. You're onto something. Tiny little thing, geeze…"

Double shit. Omega never taught her to cover her tracks, even if he did tell her that it was a thing she could eventually do. She stealthily returned to the safety of the tunnels, slow enough to make no noise, but tense enough that she could run at a moment's notice. She dimmed her flashlight as much as possible by hiding its bulb under the fabric of her shirt.

"Whoa! Would you look at that! Pandora, c'mere," came the alarm, "look at this crack! You'd never see this if you didn't know where to look!"

"You think it might… lead to a cave?

Shit on a stick dipped in chocolate. Time to go.

She raced to safety, dodging and weaving through the maze of fissures and caves and keeping her light turned off as much as possible. Her footfalls echoed lightly through the air as she hit a patch of harder stone floor, but it sounded bold as drums to her. She thought she heard something behind her, and her fears were confirmed after she ducked down a hole not far from where she'd lobbed Vent's old backpack, "Oi! You hear that? Oi!" The voice was loud but distorted, a sure sign that they were there in the cave with her, but far behind. She couldn't tell how far that was though, and in that moment she realized something very important. The echoes, though they gave away her presence, also obscured her location. With the sounds bouncing and travelling back and forth through the underground, it was next to impossible to pinpoint her. She heard a yell, "Damn it! Why are there so many turns?"

"It's… a maze…!"

"Can't see shit, ugh!"

Heh. Get lost and die, dumb mavericks! Would serve them right. She was running back through the ruins, finally starting to relax, when Omega spotted her. His countenance was stern as he noticed her shortness of breath. With an exasperated huff he raised an eyebrow and stalked towards her, "What did you get into now-?"

"There's mavericks trying to get me!" She hollered.

Omega stopped dead. "You know where the safe room is. Go." He disappeared. Since she did indeed know where the safe room was, and had no desire to get anywhere in the vicinity of an overprotective God of Destruction on the hunt, she went there without any further ado. Aile spent some time drawing over one of her old doodles with a piece of charcoal she'd scrounged up from a campfire. Soon afterwards, Omega trundled back into the room. He'd come back empty handed; The other mavericks must have left by the time he got there, or perhaps gotten themselves lost in the network of stone tunnels. With his brow furrowed he looked at her, "You're sure there was someone?"

"Positive, daddy. I heard them in the cave! They were smart enough to talk, too."

"You don't need to call me that," he complained for the umpteenth time. He steeled his glare towards her and held her gaze for a long moment before he spoke, "Right then, Aile. Guess what? You're going to learn to use a proper weapon after all."

She'd never before felt so much delight and dread.

—-—-

After that little scare, Aile and her father made sure to conceal the way into their home. Several vital tunnels, little more than thin cracks in the wall, were hidden by old blankets. Like an improvised camouflage curtain, the fabrics were so grey and ragged and covered in grit that you would never tell the difference between them and the stone next to them. These disguises turned out to be nearly-perfect when the false walls were placed at the beginnings of the paths. It made it look as though the cracks in the walls weren't deep at all, obviously not worth investigating, which would dissuade anyone from trying to push at them. Age-old toys that Aile used to use as occasional waypoints were removed. Chalk drawings were washed or scraped away. The only thing left mostly untouched by their bout of 'cleaning' was Vent's backpack; The pair stumbled across it in their mission to clear the paths. Rather than dispose of it like the rest of her broken-down and discarded possessions, it was dutifully and respectfully placed on a ledge in a small, dead-end cavern.

Aile was determined to put the past behind her. That space was now, in essence, her brother's bodiless tomb. Aile and Omega gave him a final 'burial' at her behest, and she decided to never visit the place again. She had no desire to desecrate the burial ground with her presence, nor did she want to risk any reminder of her tragic past.

With that final object buried, there was nothing left to suggest that the caves were inhabited. No markers to navigate by. Without any landmarks or colourful oddities to hint at progress, the caves had returned to their original state as a cold, dark, unforgiving labyrinth, ready to swallow the unwary within the bowels of the earth forevermore. The way to their sanctum was well hidden... But that was only the beginning.

The next mission in the roster was, of course, her new training regime. It was the best and worst thing ever. Omega treated her to a constant onslaught of weaponry and battlefield knowledge, whether it was drawing crude images of armaments he'd seen, smacking her around with shoddy wooden replicas, or even straight up (carefully) firing his own gun in her direction and forcing her to learn to dodge. It wasn't anything new, as he'd occasionally trained her how to avoid his strikes before (lest she get hit as collateral in a fight), but it was the first time he'd been so intense about it. Any day she could walk away from one of her fathers "classes" without wincing was a day where he was being gentle with her. After the scare with the maverick duo, she didn't walk away nearly as much as she used to. Aile was utterly covered in bruises. So many bruises! And quite a few burns, too!

These lessons were also the first time she was expected to follow along and learn, instead of simply listen to his instructions. She found herself not nearly as good as she'd thought when her weapon of choice was anything other than a good, solid rod to smack things with. But she corrected herself swiftly enough. Well, okay, sorta. She was decent with a sword, her instructor had to admit, and could peg a target with a buster better than half the trainees he'd ever encountered. That could have partially been caused by her usage of his own weaponry. The quality and accuracy of his blaster couldn't be argued, and likely contributed to her skills, but she had a good eye, too, and after two weeks of hitting the bullseye about a third of the time when standing, he started forcing her to move while aiming. But fisticuffs? Whip weapons? Nope. She was so laughably bad it wasn't even funny.

Omega had always been very cautious with his weapons. Quite zealous in protecting them. The tools of the trade were the only things keeping you alive, after all, so upkeep was crucial, a virtue he quite firmly beat into Aile's skull as they practiced. Omega still found himself surprised at how easy it felt to hand his gear to her to practice with. She respected and loved him, and as his weaponry was an extension of himself, she revered the old armaments just as much. In the end, despite him training her with as many styles of fighting and battle-tools as he could given his limited inventory, Aile's preferences and strengths were clear to see after just a few sessions. A staff or baton, like the one she held now. Swords, which could be seen as a natural progression of said rods, were also acceptable. Firearms weren't her strong suit, but she was no slouch at using a gun either. Whatever Aile would get as a true weapon, it would have to be from one of those categories.

It felt almost heretical, but for a moment, a very clear moment, Omega considered giving up one of his two precious weapons to her. Permanently. Anything to keep her safe. He knew firsthand how reliable the sabre and buster were, so it would bring him some piece of mind. He was more than capable of defending himself with a single weapon, too; most of his weapon systems were directly built into him anyways. Yet he was understandably concerned about giving up one of his invaluable, irreplaceable tools. Even if he had some copies to spare, which he didn't, it would be a hard loss on his end. After some consideration he found the point moot; The veteran ultimately decided against giving her something bladed or energy based. Omega knew all too well that she frequented Cinq Ville, and that the security forces would eventually see whatever weapon she had. A kid with a baton or pole was one thing, but a bladed weapon or gun could get her in serious trouble. There was, after all, a difference between half-heartedly chasing after a brat with a metal stick, and tracking down a threat with military grade weaponry and the skills to use it, too.

No, best to not give her an energy weapon just yet. Aile had a penchant for violence. She had a lot of fun causing mayhem, and definitely went out of her way to ruin people's days whenever she got the chance to. If the Imp of Cinq Ville got her hands on something truly dangerous, there would be armed forces on her in a heartbeat, justifiably concerned that the semi-maverick on the street was more than just a brat having fun at others' expense. They'd assume that she was out to cause serious damage, put people in hospital, or worse, and they might not even be wrong in coming to that conclusion. That old bar of hers was bent in three different places for a reason. Aile definitely needed a proper weapon, there was no doubt about it, but Omega couldn't give her anything too harmful lest he escalate the very danger he was trying to protect her from.

And then it happened. In a horrible, sickening moment of remembrance, he recalled it. The exact tool for the job. Omega decided that as much as he would rather avoid it, Aile was ready for a proper weapon, needed one… but not one of his. He hated to think of it, utterly loathed it, but the ancient reploid knew where he could find just what he required. The perfect defensive item awaited him below. Far, far down into the depths of the earth, in a secret place he'd hidden from everyone, even Aile, lay a room where he had put his past to rest. Omega went down into the ruins, to the deepest, darkest, most well hidden crevice in the whole cave system, where he had long ago dumped the remains of the Neo Arcadian Guardians and their signature weapons. What little was left of them, anyways. In a hole in the wall, at the bottom of an abyss, he was met with the sad sight of a few fragments of armour and shattered implements.

Even to this day, he still didn't know what to feel about the sight that met his eyes. Four separate piles were secreted away in fissures in the bedrock. Fefnir had the most obvious chunks of armour and weapons left, being the defensive tank. A shoulder guard, a yellow spike off of his helmet, and two hand-cannons that a weaponsmith could possibly scavenge enough to make a single working gun. Leviathan's staff was the next most recognizable piece, having mostly survived unscathed even if the rest of her and her possessions didn't. Possibly because her body, and anything she had on her, would have needed to remain buoyant enough for her to swim, and therefore had been less durable than Fefnir's things. The specific pieces left over were her spear, its tip fractured with a large crack that showed that it would probably never summon any ice again, plus a partial piece of jet from her head-mounted propulsion systems. Harpuia's gear, being even frailer than her since it had to be light enough to fly, was probably the most dusted of all of them. All that remained were two very broken swords and a wing chunk. Omega considered trying to repair these swords for Aile, but it wasn't a promising concept; one was completely busted, shattered into white fragments and barely held together by wires, and the other one didn't look too hot either.

The last remnant was a little puzzling. A kunai, dull and split at the handle, was nestled among the other Guardian pieces. Phantom had not been physically present at the battle, so one of his siblings must have taken the small throwing knife with them as a symbolic gesture. All of these items had been the only recognizable pieces of the Neo Arcadians left within the lab. The rest were mixed in with the corpse of his giant armour, shredded and splintered and sunken under a pond of acrid, ankle-high water that had accumulated in Zero's former hibernation chamber. Most likely they'd all rusted away by now. All that remained was what Omega himself had scavenged and dumped in this little hidey hole. That their corpses were hidden in a room away from the eyes of the world… pah! A fitting end for the cowards! Weaklings, the lot of them! The only reason they'd succeeded in their plot was because they'd ambushed him after his duel with Zero. Because X's power had sabotaged the programming of his ally, the Dark Elf, and caused her to betray him and hold him still so that Zero could-!

Omega stopped that thought. He gritted his teeth at the thought of X. The wretch who had so easily abandoned him during the Elf Wars to follow after a fantasy, a copy, a so-called "Zero" he claimed to be the real thing. (That's why Omega never called himself Zero, despite it being his true name. Because the fake had made the title synonymous with a plethora of pathetic, wretched virtues and lies Omega couldn't stand.) Oh X, that weak-willed, naive, simpering lout who still managed to delay his own death by remaining in cyber elf form, held on just long enough to undo everything Omega had worked towards.

Yet on that calamitous day, X hadn't been the only one there in elf form. Phantom had been there too. Another bastard that should have been dead, but whose spite let him linger around to ruin Weil's plans. Omega hadn't thought much of it at first, when he first noticed the former Guardian sneaking around the depths of Neo Arcadia as a cyber elf. Then that fateful fight had occurred in the excavated lab. Omega had only seen a glimpse, one single flash as the familiar, shadowy figure moved, but it was enough. The concern in Weil's voice was unmissable when he'd tried and failed to teleport Omega out of the room, attempting to distract Zero from landing his final blow as the scientist desperately worked around the digital obstacles Phantom had set up. The poor man's shocked tone had told Omega more than enough. Phantom had been there and contributed to the heinous act that separated him and Weil. The ninja had, perhaps, committed the worst blow of all. He prevented Omega's escape and ensured that the God of Destruction would fall, all without ever landing a hit of his own or showing up to the actual fight. The most effective coward of the lot.

Omega stared over the nearly unrecognizable corpses once more. There was one other body nearby, one he couldn't name, which baffled him to this day. A corpse he'd found in a different part of the ruins that, if Omega didn't know any better, looked as if it had gone through some sort of massive impact or explosion. This body belonged to some sort of soldier, grievously damaged, who had been given their own place in the underground chamber separate from the trash heap of Neo Arcadians. He'd been respectfully laid to rest alongside his massive piece of artillery. The God of Destruction recognized the kind of wounds inflicted upon his large frame, despite how beaten up the soldier's overall chassis was, and figured that anyone who had gone down fighting Zero had probably been on Weil's side. The veteran decided that he might as well give the man some respect, from one ally of Weil to another, and so had done his best and buried him under a cairn. The gun was laid on top as a grave marker. It felt like the least he could do.

Omega pushed thoughts of the unknown soldier from his mind. There was a moment where he pondered to himself as he uneasily surveyed the leftovers of the Neo Arcadians, wondering if he should do anything else with them. He'd been indecisive about their fate for a long time, and had put off his final verdict in the past before. Should he desecrate the Guardians for their wretched tactics? Bury them properly, just like he'd done with the soldier? Or straight up atomize what little was left, leaving nothing but ash behind in a vindictive cremation? Thinking of them was not something Omega wanted or liked to do. It's why he'd initially just dumped the substitute carcasses in a crack in the wall and resolved to come back to the matter later. Yet he never did. He just forgot them in that hole forevermore, and perhaps that would be the best way to deal with the remains.

…Yes. Probably that last idea. One way or another, the fragments of these wretched warriors were never seeing the light of day again.

"I wonder if you're proud of yourselves. Hmm?! All your efforts, and this all that's left of you! No heroic burial… no respect from me! All your achievements, all those people that looked up to you, wiped out once and for all! Gone! Forgotten by history! And I'll make sure you stay forgotten! I hope you're satisfied!" Omega snarled out loud suddenly, perhaps as an assurance to himself.

He didn't know why he'd done it, honestly. How silly of him. Their spirits had long ago discarded their own remains, callously fleeing to the afterlife without a care for what they'd left behind. As such, no one was left to hear him. No one else was left to ponder the fate of a few lone cadavers.

Perhaps he cared more about the matter than they ever did.

He gazed around the room once more. His eyes caught onto another glint in his impromptu storage room, ah yes, that must have been the… well. Whatever that strange, floating stone was, it wasn't important. Best not think about it. Nor about the way it tugged away at the edge of his mind, reaching gently for him like a slow slide into an antlion's pit, or a siren luring in an unwary-

No. Don't think about it.

Omega was distracting himself. Then again, as he finally reached for the thing he'd come here seeking, he wasn't able to convince himself that he hadn't just been stalling. This place always unsettled him for many reasons he refused to admit to. All of that, yet he had come here anyway, because the perfect tool for Aile was right there and no amount of trepidation on his behalf was worth her safety.

He picked up Leviathan's spear.

Gods, he hated it. Hated to let even the smallest remnant of one of them see the light of day. Despised the fact that the four bastard children of X weren't completely buried and rotted and wiped from history, that he himself was dredging up a vital piece of their past, their selves. That Leviathan's prized weapon, the memory of her vindictive grin as she ambushed him, would be staring him in the face whenever he looked at the weapon in Aile's hands.

He hated it. But practicality won out.

The blonde swordsman would have to content himself with the thought that he was doing it against her will. That Leviathan would never have wanted to help him in such a vital manner, would have been scandalized that her tool of protection and justice was being turned into the plaything of a villainous tween miscreant. Omega wouldn't be indebted to her, or be relying on a piece of her legacy. He'd be insulting her and bastardizing everything she'd ever stood for. He struggled to snap the damaged spearhead off, eventually giving up as he used his sabre to cut off the useless remnants of it instead. Then he leveled the tip as flat as he could, and made a note to put a proper cap on the end of it if Aile didn't do so herself. He also checked the rounded spike at the bottom of it as he flipped it around, as it would undoubtedly be used as the rod's new top. Leviathan's once-proud spear was little more than a bo staff now, or perhaps a javelin, pointed at one end and only recognizable by the colourful markings down the shaft.

He gritted his teeth at the sacrilegious thing. Then he took it out to Aile. He proffered it to her with little pomp or ceremony, almost shoving it at her as its presence crawled on his artificial skin. The girl stared at it for a moment, taking in its intricate design with her mouth agape. Then she rushed forward with a delighted shriek, "Thank you! Oh my gosh! Thank you daddy! It's the best thing ever, eeeeeeee! Thank you!" Aile squealed, launching herself at him and hanging herself around his neck like a noose. He couldn't remember having ever seen her so happy.

Omega grunted as he was jerked downwards by her grip. He held his stance admirably well despite that, "Aile. You're getting a bit too big for this."

"Thank you thank you thank you!" She kept hollering, breathless yet utterly gleeful even as she let go of him and landed on the floor with her new treasure firmly in her grasp. It was the most awesomest gift ever! She turned to admire it in the low light of the ruins, squinted her eyes as she contemplated the white space near the tip between the spike and where the yellow and pink striping stopped. Omega stared angrily at the weapon when she wasn't looking. Sighed in defeat as Aile practiced with the flawlessly balanced piece of metal. It was no longer Leviathan's staff, he reminded himself. It was Aile's staff now. Her weapon to protect herself. He swallowed his disgust at the thing, because as much as he hated its previous owner… it would make it so that Aile's safety would be more assured now. She loved it and it would serve her well. That was all that mattered in the end.

(The next time he saw it, Aile had already altered it. Covered the white spot at the top with charms, ripped-up fabric strips, frayed feathers, scavenged electrical cables, and all sorts of other childish, shamanic decorations. Like a little girl playing urban savage, cute and fun and intimidating all at once. She'd already gotten dirt down one side of it and hadn't bothered to clean it off yet. Leviathan had been immaculate with her weapon. Though he knew Aile would eventually polish it up, because he had hammered in the importance of caring for one's weapon, it was a mess in the meantime, and Leviathan would have been aghast at it. Or so he told himself. It definitely helped.)

It wasn't an ideal situation, not by a long shot. But seeing how happy Aile was with it, knowing that the quality of the weapon would never fail her, that she could easily kill with it if she needed to… it put something deep within him at ease. As she twirled the staff, as he once again ran her through techniques and routines he'd taught her, he couldn't help but keenly feel a warmth in his breast as he watched Aile move. She was a little fighter through and through. He'd done well in teaching her. She'd done well. Weil would have been floored at the transformation. The diminutive toddler that used to cry herself to sleep in his lap every night was long gone, replaced with a bloodthirsty spitfire on the cusp of reaching her potential. The once-innocent little girl was now a warrior.

Omega was no stranger to pride. But something about this moment, about Aile's success, burned through him from his very core with an intoxicating pleasure and honour he couldn't possibly put to words. It felt like nothing Omega had ever felt before, and it far outshone whatever shallow narcissism he'd previously known. He was proud of himself. He was proud of her. Omega felt a little silly about all this vanity, because he had many things to brag about in his long life, things a lot more impressive than this. His considerable contributions to the Elf Wars, his efforts in the Sigma wars, his survival against all odds, the numerous other rookies he'd trained, or even his unmatched kill count over the many centuries of his existence. Yet somehow, despite all that… Aile's success felt like his greatest accomplishment yet.