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Chapter Text

He sat by the brazzier poking the burning logs as the sun beat over head. "I mean, it, well it sounds highly unlikely," Pyra muttered as she sat the opposite side of the fire. "You, you're just... I mean,"

"I could pull her out of you right now if I wanted to," 

"W-what?"

"I could pull both of them, force them out, they wouldn't be happy with me but I could do it,"

"Both?"

"Doesn't matter right now, let's just say number three is to Mythra what she is to you,"

"You mean, I'm a replica, of a replica?"

"Not replica more faucet, imagine Mythra is the base stuff, number three is basically the distilled version while you are the dilution of her,"

"I'm a quarter as powerful though?"

"No, Mythra was about seventy five percent, all she was missing was the processing space and chromatic ability, now you on the other hand, you're about ten percent of the pure power Mythra has,"

"I'm seven point five percent of her power?"

"There or there about, you're still well above the average threshold for a Blade though, so don't beat yourself up about it too much,"

"But it's still,"

"Pyra most first generation blades couldn't even do a hundredth of what today's common blades can, the fact you're technically a third generation and could probably out burn Brighid in a fight should speak for itself,"

"But I'm,"

"You're not an Aegis, you're not even half an Aegis," He cut in, "You're a halfpowered shell of a partial Aegis, the fact you're even able to exist as a whole unique individual is indicative of your power alone, Pyra you're strong enough to destroy a city,"

"What?!"

"Mathematics," Rex shrugged, "I've done it all, Miss Third can destroy several titans at once, Mythra could sink one if she really thought about it, now if you gave it everything you've got you could probably take out Torigoth or Alba Cavanich, I mean if you gave it enough welly you could take out the entire Argentum Trade Guild, which we should set sail for now Gramps if you want to make it before sundown,"

"And since you have a very important meeting to get to,"

"I've always wondered what'd happen if I missed it, but there's a few people there we need to meet there, so sadly, it's unskippable," Rolling his neck he sighed,

"Why haven't you sperated us yet then? If you have the power to?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Because I don't want to this time, not yet anyway, Mythra had her adventure with the Tornan prince Addam, this time it's her turn to rest and be saved, which includes you Pyra, I'm not letting anyone get a hold of you, plus you guys asked if I could do this for you, plus it'll be a damn sight more fun with this baby," Holding out his hand, he let Ontos' Monado form before snapping it onto his back, much like Shulk carried Ontos' red copy of Logos'. "I'll explain it a bit more when we get to Argentum and meet Nia, speaking of Argentum, you're going to want this," Reaching into his pocket he tossed her a core chip. "That chip is one of a kind, took us a few attempts to get enough Noponstone to buy it,"

"Noponstone? Is that the new currency?" Barking out a laugh, Rex slapped his knee.

"Hardly, no, Noponstone is a reward the Nopon Archsage hands out when we complete one of his challenges, gather up a dozen handfuls or so and you can trade them in for core chips or give over a couple hundred to get flawless Noponstone and cash those in for different, better core chips,"

"Why not go for those ones then?" Her question caused his face to fall,

"It's a handul of Noponstone to a flawless Noponstone and honestly I'm not bored enough yet to spend several days doing that,"

"Not bored enough?"

"Yet, I doubt it'll be much longer though, I'm running out of things to do, I mean I can only shoot Amalthus so many times before it gets boring,"

"You've shot Amalthus?! More than once?!"

"Pfft, yeah? Most of the time it's the first thing I do when I get back here, spend an hour or two travelling to Indol, takes another half hour to get into position, wait for him to fall into position and," Miming the shot with an imaginary sniper rifle, he grinned, "Sometimes I aim for an artery just to watch him bleed out, powerless to stop it despite how much power he claims to have," Taking the gun pieces from their various holsters on his body, he began cleaning the segments.

"Surely the nearby Blades,"

"No-one on Indol is allowed to awaken a Blade except for the Praetor, it's one of his rules to assure his dominance while claiming to protect the masses, same thing with Driver Registry, it's just so he can keep tabs on everyone, he doesn't care what you do with the Blade as long as it's not against him," He put it together in a series of clicks.

"Something you specialise in?" The bolt cracked into place.

"Oh yeah,"

"I want three hundred gold, not a penny less," Staring at Bana, Rex kept his best foot forward. "I've got a lot of people back home depending on me and if I'm risking my life for some rich collector, then I want to make sure they aren't just throwing pocket change around,"

"Rex-rex, Bana not in charge of payment, group request Leftherian salvager and gave starting price, talk to them if more money needed," The green Nopon stared at him, "Did Rex-rex get taller?"

"Wow, perceptive, Bana you haven't noticed I'm twenty-four?" At least he looked that way, counting the amount of times he'd done this, he was somewhere in the region of a hundred and thirty-one. Even then he'd done it so much it was only the notches in his book that told him how long he'd been doing this song and dance.

"But Rex-rex was only fifteen yesterday!"

"No Bana, I was the height of a fifteen-year-old, the constant salvaging kept my spine from extending, when I took the day off last week I hit a much needed growth-spurt, I've still got the stretch marks on my back if you want to check?"

"No no, Bana believe you, now bring customers in yes?" Rex gave a brief nod and turned his head. His breath stopped for a moment when Nia and Dromarch walked in and stood off to the side, Malos came next, with it a strong desire to throw some punches. Finally Jin came in through the door and stood facing him.

"You're the salvager?" He asked

"Right on the money," Rex frowned, his eyes moving back to the merchant, "Bana you didn't tell me the buyers were Torna," Nobody moved.

"That going to be a problem brat?" Malos growled, summoning Sever's tonfa.

"Hardly, as long as you help me take care of my family back home, I don't care what you do in your own time, I would however like to be part of what she does in her own time," Nia's face went red as Malos began laughing. Even Jin held a small smirk while Rex grinned charmingly, a finger in her direction. "In fact I'm willing to bet you haven't had a decent meal in a long while, so what say you and I go to a place around here that does the best all you can eat in all of Alrest?"

"It depends," Dromrach gave an amused intervention, "Would you be willing to cover the meals?"

"Of course I would Sir Blade, why it'd simply criminal to ask such a beautiful lady out to dinner and expect her to pay," Malos was clutching his gut in laughter now as Jin let out a small chuckle. Nia somehow went even more red before looking away.

"Fine, but only because we've been on shit rations and I want to make you regret the offer,"

"Alright, now onto my payment," Rex grinned at Malos, "Is your treasurer nearby perchance? I know none of you would carry it,"

"And just how do you know that?" Nia glared at him, trying her best to look intimidating. He just smirked before pointing at her.

"Healer, you supposed to keep heat off your back, carrying the gold would just make that target bigger," His finger drifted to Malos, "Tank, his job is to be the target and get hit, he's not going to notice if they swipe the purse from him," Flicked to Jin, "Attacker, he's supposed to do the hard and fast hitting, he'd be most likely to have it but  looking at his outfit, he's got nowhere secure to hide it during a fight, you've most likely put the support in charge of it," He mocked musing for a moment, "Preferably a guy with an ether cannon or some type of ether bow," Ahkos was the treasurer, the playwrite was the only one that actually touched any of the funds, until Rex convinces him to change sides. Then Patroka gets it, or Mikail, then Jin. In short Malos never gets to touch it.

"Smart, you got brains brat I'll give you that, but do you have the muscle..." Malos charged forwards with his tonfa, getting it deflected as Rex pulled out the parts of his rifle  to put them together. Flipping backwards across the room, he perched on a shelf and cocked the gun. "To back it up,"

"I don't need to fight harder when I already fight smarter," Rex smirked and closed one eye. "You can't avoid a point blank shot, you sure as hell can't deflect it and I'm damn sure putting this through that little plate on your chest would put you down, for good," Flipping the safety off with his thumb, the metal click filled the room. "Go ahead, make my day," A slight snarl. Malos stood silently for a moment.

"Malos, what the bloody hell was that for?"

"We want a salvager that isn't going to screw up, we're paying you a lot of money," Rex spat,

"Please, two hundred grand is pocket change to arseholes like you, you heard what I told Bana, three hundred or I'm not doing it, but now you've gone and tried hitting me, I want three-fifty,"

"That's a lot for one man isn't it?" Jin raised an eyebrow.

"It'll cover an orphanage for six months though," And when he put the other gold in his pocket with it, they'd be set for more than that. In fact they'd have enough to convert that empty warehouse into the school Aunt Corrine wanted. "So is that low enough for you or do you guys want to parlay a bit more?"

"How many shots do you have in there?" Nia raised an eyebrow, "I mean not to sound eager but there's five vital spots you're gonna have to hit and if you miss one,"

"I got ten ether cancelling rounds, a magazine of bullets using ether to heal and a buncha bullets that'll go boom on impact, those ones are my favourites," He winked, "So don't worry love, I've got more than enough to take out those three,"

"And what of us?"

"You never use your weapon on a lady, unless she goes first," Smiling charmingly, he raised an eyebrow, "So unless you want to use those claws anywhere but my back, this thing will never be pointed at you," Malos laughed again as Nia blushed and looked away from him.

"You got spunk, I like you brat, three-fifty it is," Flicking his head he smirked, "GIve him the purse Jin," The silver haired man put a hand behind his back and pulled out a small fabric puch, throwing it over to Rex. Moving his supporting hand from the angled fore grip he caught the bag and placed it on the shelf next to him. Not moving his gun nor his head, he opened the bag and flicked his eyes to look inside. He knew the troupe didn't carry more than a hundred on them at a time since no-one before him was ballsy enough to barter, but he liked to push the price higher everytime. Nia always found it humorous.

"Ah, not today thank you," His eyes snapped back to the group, gun trained on Sever, who'd slowly begun moving. "Unless you're going to badger your treasurer for another seventy-five grand, the only moves you're making are the ones that take you out of the door you came in through," Both Malos and Sever stopped moving, "'Cept you cutey," Another wink at Nia kept the shit eating grin on his face. "I'll take the job, the hundred now is a good down payment for me to get my equipment, I'll take the rest when the job's done," He was never going to see that two-hundred and fifty thousand, if he added up the lump sum he was owed at the end of it, it'd be easier just to give him the deeds to every property in Alrest.

"Fine, we leave tonight, so get your shit together,"

"Never go anywhere unprepared, it's what my Grampa taught me," Rex nodded, still not moving the gun, "I'm packed and squared away for another week's journey, long as the ship's got a laundry room, I'm good until food runs out, all I need to do is get my gear upgraded and even then I'll have it all done in an hour, so, meet at the bizaar in hour and fifteen?" 

"You are a brave one, she eats like most of her is hollow," Dromarch shook his head, "I should hope the hundred is enough to stave off any debt you'd otherwise incur today,"

"A hundred will be plenty to keep me afloat, don't you worry," Rex smirked, "Now, can I go?"

"Just who are you?" Nia sat opposite him, hardly taking a breath from eating the fish platters the nearby stall served.

"Rex, just Rex, nothing more nothing less," Waving a hand idly he smiled. "Now, who are you Nia?" 

"You know my name?"

"There's few in Alrest who don't, it's on every wanted poster,"

"No, it's not, because nobody else knows my name, the only,"

"Pair that did are dead?" Rex raised an eyebrow, "You mean the affluent Gormotti who spent his last coin healing his ill daughter? You know people talk, but if you want me to explain, well," He shrugged, "I'll do all of that later,"

"Or you can do it now, you know who I am, what I'm part of,"

"I know what you are," His unimpressed tone and level gaze caused her to stop, "Trust me, I've known for," Counting on his fingers, he quickly gave up, waving his hand, "Oh some would call it decades, others would say over a century, most would say a couple hours but they aren't afflicted with my curse,"

"Curse?"

"I'm stuck, in the same two weeks, over and over again, I've done it a couple thousand times already, a lifetime if you will, I know almost everything about everyone, I've seen everything a select few have to offer," Her hand moved over her chest. "Relax Nia, nothing has ever gone sexual,"

"You're just biding your time,"

"I'm not a pervert, at least, not compared to a few Blades or Tora, then again everyone else looks like a saint compared to Tora," He added with a mutter, "However what I'm going to do is going to need you in your true form,"

"You are a pervert,"

"No Nia, I need you to be yourself," Again she froze with food halfway to her mouth.

"I-I don't know w-w-what you're on about, I am myself," She waved her hands around, throwing food in a few directions. Rex sighed and looked over to a nearby table, flicking his head to the side. Nia tried following his gaze but found nothing.

"Should I put in another order of food or can we talk privately now?" A rather thick gulp before Nia stood up.

"If this turns out to be some underhanded dirty,"

"On my life Nia, I won't harm you, if you don't trust me or believe what I say next then you can kill me yourself once the job is done, I won't even try and stop you, I know, I better watch myself cause I'm on thin ice,"

"Absolutely you are," She growled, hand drifting towards the wild rings on her hip. "Maybe I should pre-emptively give you a thrashing now so you don't,"

"Nia, just, come with me," Grabbing her wrist, he put a stack of gold coins down and led her away from the table into the Lemuor Inn.

He didn't even flinch as the Lethal Lysaat King burst out of the doorway. The metal chunks flew past him as he barely gave them a second thought. "Bugger off," Pulling out the gun, he skipped adding the barrel. Instead opting to just put the muzzle against the creature's head and pull the trigger. Silence reigned after the bang resounded through the still air, making him realize just how much attention had been on him. "Well? It'd make a nice meal if you get it back now," A few other salvagers hurriedly nodded and dragged the massive carcass as he stepped closed to the door. "Are you lot going to stand there or do I actually get back up on this exploration?" 

"Something tells me you don't need it," Nia muttered, Jin and Malos followed him silently, neither having a visible reaction.

"Salvagers deal with aggressive wildlife all the time Nia, just this morning I fought a Crustip that'd stowed away in a treasure trove," The bolt ground back as the empty casing was ejected. "Guess I did more target practise than I thought," Pulling out the magazine he swapped it out for a full one from his pocket, locking it in place and chambering the first bullet. "C'mon then," Without hesitation he led them through the ancient ship, eventually arriving at the door with Addam's crest on it. Trying to kick it down looked right for the role he was currently playing but it was honestly just to vent his frustration of still being stuck in the loop the Architect cursed him to live in. When kicking it didn't work, he clutched the uninjured foot as if he'd done something to it, putting a hand against the door. Sure enough the door began opening after his hand landed on it. The second door stared at him irritatingly.

"Open that one too," Jin motioned.

"This is why you wanted me isn't it? Only a Leftherian can open the doors, right?"

"Just open it brat, we aren't paying you to ask questions," Malos snapped, Rex simmered with rage as he slowly walked forwards. The bulkhead opened without any resistance and he stepped towards the empty room. "It should be, right," 

"Is th-urk," He knew it was coming, it always was. The moment the sword began forming in his hand, he could feel the nodachi tear through his muscle and heart. His ribs were also broken at both sides while the nodachi sat out in front of him. His legs and most of his lower body went numb as Nia made some noise of abject horror.

"JIN!! WHAT ON ALREST IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

"I'm sorry, but this is an act of mercy, now you don't have to see what comes next," Turning his head, Rex spat blood into his face.

"I hope you burn you coward," Jin made no noise as the sword was pulled back and Rex dropped like a stone. "Do what you're good at you psychopathic freak and run away again," His blood slowly trickled around him as Nia suddenly appeared in his vision. "Guess the second date really isn-,"," He died before he could finish his sentence.

Pyra stood waiting for him by the tree on the hill. "He really did it huh?"

"Yeah, honestly I don't think there's much I could do to prevent him from doing it, so we just let it happen,"

"And how will you survive this time? Surely if you have my core crystal it should kill us both," Rex shook his head,

"I don't have a heart currently Pyra," Tapping the green on his chset he explained, "Ever since Jin did it the first time I've been in a state of undead healing, the core acted as my heart while my body recovered, now I can survive losing a nonexistant heart ad infinitum, it scares Nia witless when she discovers I have no pulse most the time, well, not a normal pulse,"

"What kind of pulse is there?"

"An ether pulse, instead of blood I have ether in my veins, that is what helps my muscles remain in working order and not decay,"

"Really?"

"As far as I'm able to figure out, yeah, that's the long and short of it," 

"So what do we do now?"

"Well, we wake up kick some arse and head to Gormott," The redhead stared,

"Oh, okay, anything detailed or,"

"Naw, we just wing it here, can't look too professional with a Blade yet considering I'm technically a new Driver," Standing by the tree overlooking what Elysium once was, he sighed. "One day, one day I'll make this real, I promise," Closing his eyes as he put a hand to his chest. Ringing filled his ears as he slowly got back to his feet, the others wouldn't be that far ahead. Leaning on the red sword for a moment, he adjusted to having his legs back.... yet again. "Now I'm pissed," Walking back up to the deck of the ancient ship, he cracked his neck. "So, not only do you think it's fair to stab me in the back, but you're also going to go after my friends? Now I'm pissed off," Taking Ontos' Monado from his back at the same time, he glared at Jin. "And to think I respected you once," It caused the silver Flesh Eater to look at him in silence. 

"Now you've gone and done it brat!" Malos charged forwards using Sever's tonfa. 

"Shut up egoist," Swinging Pyra's sword, he deflected the attack and kicked Malos square in the groin. "I don't have time for you," The flat of his blue blade crashed into the damaged Aegis, knocking him to the side. "Stay down, final warning,"  It began glowing orange from his hand unti the whole thing had changed colour. The centre window glowed with a single symbol. God. "Jin, try cut me down and I'll show you just how quick I am on the draw," 

"Meddling brat," Malos was launched back again as he tried to attack,

"I said stay down, well, Jin?"

"Nia get aboard the Monoceros, Malos and I will,"

"Will what Jin? Kill him again?" The Gromotti Flesh Eater stared at him in spite,

"It doesn't matter, get aboard the Monoceros, now," Jin instructed, the yellow clad Driver glared before growling.

"No, I'm not letting you spill innocent blood, Indoline is fair game but he's Leftherian, he's done nothing wrong,"

"He's become,"

"So what? You didn't need to kill him for it, as long as his hands didn't get dirty he would've happily let us get on with what we were doing, but you killed him anyway and you just admitted you were going to kill the other salvagers as well!" Drawing her twin rings, she dropped into a stance, "I won't let you hurt innocent people,"

"Do you remember what you are brat? What we've done for you?" Malos barked, getting back to his feet.

"Stick me in a room on my own and only let me out when you need me? Or only feeding me scrappy rations and calling it generous? Or doing all of that as a hazing ritual?!"

"You little!" The dark Aegis charged, but Rex was faster. An ether shield appeared in front of Nia as Rex closed in behind him. Sever's tonfa disappeared as Rex threw Pyra her sword. Malos stopped cold before glaring at Rex. "You learn fast,"

"I know a thing or two already, now do you have a real weapon or you going to ask really nicely for me to give this one back?" Smirking as his opponent only seemed to get enraged, Malos held out his hand. Something began forming in his hand but quickly unravelled. He tried again with a grunt, staring at his hand. Seizing his advantage, Rex rushed him quickly and ducked low. "Problem with your blade Malos? I hear Mor Ardain has pills for that now," Nia stared at him in shock, suprised he'd closed the distance so fast. "Gale Upper!" Striking Malos in the gut sent him flying backwards into the air, crashing onto the deck of the Monoceros. "Remember back in the Inn, you asked how you'd know if I was being honest? Well, here's your cue Nia, do you trust me?"

"JIN, KILL HIM!" Malos screamed from the Monoceros as he seemed to search for a weapon.

"I trust you," She whispered,

"Good, give me your scimitar,"

"My what?"

"Nia you told me yourself you were a Flesh Eater, I swear to the Architect that I'll never let anything hurt you, even after I've escaped this infernal trap, but I need you to work with me please," The nodachi was drawn with a grating of metal, Malos roared as he leapt from the Monoceros with a chroma katana in hand. "Nia, please!" 

"Alright fine!" She gave into the panic and transformed into her true self. He barely had time to snap out of his captivation before getting the blade thrown at him. Sever's tonfa disappeared from his hand as Pyra threw her sword back to him. Putting the Monado between his teeth, he caught both thrown swords and crossed them together. Jin and Malos both bore down on him as he leant backwards.

"Ekus, fors!" A muffled cry as he pushed them both off and raised the swords above his head, slamming them down in an amighty strike of power. Now with breathing room, he pushed his own ether into the blades and put the pommels together. A small click that he barely heard before dropping one hand and spinning the handle until the joint sat in his closed hand. Taking Ontos' Monado from his mouth, he held it in his left hand.

"Triple wielding? What the hell is wrong with you brat? You want to blow up?"

"Best healer in all of Alrest keeping my health in top condition, a fraction of the Aegis's power as my offence and a seer's blade allowing me to avoid the lethal stuff, if there was anything ever known as peak performance, it's going to be this,"

"Bloody hell," Nia gasped, "Were you gonna warn me you could do that?"

"FIgured I wouldn't have to just yet, but things don't always go according to plan," Rex spun his monster of a double blade and twisted the Monado into a reverse grip.

"Ahkos! Get the cannons ready," Malos cried, "Ready, aim and fire at the brat in blue,"  The brunette began moving as the massive weapons twisted to aim at him. "Anytime please Gramps!" On his order the titan dropped from the sky. "Pyra, with me," Ontos' Monado was clipped to his back as he grabbed Nia's hand, "Dromarch keep up,"

"At your side!"

"Sever, you best come to!"

"W-what's going on?!" The Blade yelled in confusion, feeling compelled to run with them. 

"Jump when I say to!" Everyone else just looked at him in panic. "NOW!" Throwing Nia forward as he spun on his heel, an ether shield was thrown up to block the mass of projectiles aimed at the fleeing group. "Gramps! Go,"

"Rex, get down here,"

"Just get moving, I'll be fine!" A larger shield enforced as more explosions and projectiles thundered into it.

"Rex,"

"GO, THAT'S NOT A REQUEST! I'll catch up!" The titan gazed at him before nodding and beginning to fly alongside the ancient vessel. The smoke and light gave him a solid cover until they were almost out of range. The Monado on his back hummed lightly. "C'mon Ontos, she can use your Foresight, you can use her speed, gimme something you lazy ass cryptid," The world began greying in response to his hushed speech. "Alright, let's rocket!" Malos slowly called over his shoulder for something as Rex charged. Leaping up, he easily got to the rails of the vessel and leapt towards the Monoceros. Planting his feet on the side he began running along the side, praying Ontos would keep this from getting harder. The last thing he needed was a difficulty tweak right now. A lone cannon was already following Gramps as he left cover and began to fire. Scaling the wall further, Rex curved over the barrel and jumped at the end. A harpoon began flying under his feet as he dropped onto it, barely affecting it's flight. Keeping his balance as much as he could, he continued to run before going for a triple jump, planting both feet on the head and launching himself towards Gramps. Ontos' attention moved elsewhere as he began falling, colour slowly returning to the titan. His landing was rough as he immediately spun on his heel and threw one last shield to stop the harpoon from impaling Gramps. Unfortunately he wasn't able to stick the twist and fell onto his back rather harshly.

"Oh Architect!" Nia gasped as he fell over. "Are you okay?" Kneeling she cradled his head gently.

"As good as I'll be for the moment," He panted, "That used a lot of ether,"

"But... we're all okay?" Pyra leant over him, "Even Sever seems alright,"

"Alright? Alright?! I've just ditched my Driver for some shmucks I don't even,"

"I'm youre Driver now Sever, I took the bond away from Malos, that twisted torturous connection is gone now, I can free you if you want,"

"Free... Me?" Rex nodded and beckoned him over with a finger.

"What colour do you want to be?"

"I... uh... crimson I guess," 

"Pyra a hand please, I can't quite do this on my own just yet,"

"Can I remove this ridiculous core chip first?" She huffed from under her ether created gormotti cloak, the only difference between it and a regular cloak was the fact it wouldn't burn or rip no matter how bad the fight got. 

"Sure, but you'll have to put it on again when we get to Gormott, which is where we're heading,"

"Why?"

"Closest titan to our location, plus we have a few hands to collect over there," Rex yawned, "Now, Pyra, please hold my other hand, Sever I need to take a bite quickly,"

"You want me to be a Flesh Eater?!" Sever stepped backwards, "B-but I'll,"

"Honestly that's just step one and until I've figured out how to either bypass it or do it automatically, I need you to ingest a few of my cells, be it blood or muscle, I swear to you I won't leave you like that,"

"Fine, but if you double cross me,"

"I won't stop you," He nodded, "I have no other blade except Pyra and she'd survive my death anyhow," 

"Pass me your free arm," Rex obliged and watched as Sever hesitantly bit into his flesh, slowly tearing off a piece of his skin and swallowing it. Immediately the change took effect. His crystal gained a pink swirl and his body convulsed. "Ooh, that's not.... oh that is not pleasant,"

"It's fine, give it a minute, Nia?" She nodded and put a hand over his wound, healing it in seconds, "You really are the best in Alrest aren't you,"

"Keep talking as if you didn't nearly kill yourself to save us," Her other hand ran through his hair, "I'm definite now, you're either insane, a genius, some apparition sent by the Architect or a combination of all three,"

"The first two and cursed by the Architect, trust me, I'm not his friend, Sever, I need to touch your core crystal please, then we'll be done," The Blade obliged and leant forwards, letting Rex put a fingertip to the blue surface that made up his being. "Expect a small jolt," Sever paused before his body involuntarily went limp. His body glowed for a moment before his core crystal began turning green and bleeding into his blue features. Rex smiled tiredly as he watched the free Blade look at his body. "You are now in full control of your ether connection and don't have to have a Driver to live Sever, once we reach Gormott you can do as you wish, congratulations on your freedom," His eyelids began drooping "And thanks for... for helping me, me lea-," He dozed off before he could finish his sentence, his head still cradled in Nia's lap.

"You may want to get comfortable there missy, Rex there sleeps like the dead until morning,"

"That's fine," Nia smiled, pushing some stray hair from his face. Dromarch curled up behind her as a convenient pillow while Sever held a small celebration with Pyra over his new self-sufficiency. Lifting his head to straighten her legs out, Nia watched his chest moved silently. "He deserves the rest,"

Chapter Text

"Alright, why can't we land in Torigoth?" Gramps grumbled as they sailed to the Gormott titan. The group were all gathered around the brazzier again, more than one of them sleeping quietly.

"Because Gramps, it's too obvious, at that point I may as well go in with a flare and yelling I have the Aegis here, come get me,"

"But I'm sure that,"

"I'm sorry Gramps but no, we don't have a choice, we can't land in Torigoth, Lascham island should be safe though, isn't affected by the tides, far enough away to help you hide,"

"Why do I need to hide?"

"Do you want some Nopon thinking you're a stray titan and turning you into a ship?" Rex raised an eyebrow, getting met with a thoughtful silence.

"Alright fine, but what if the tides are out when you return?" He stayed silent, simply staring at the massive wings of his parental titan. "Oh, right," His chest bounced lightly as he laughed before the group around him stirred. Pyra leant on her arms and looked around, smiling at Rex before sitting up and going for some of the crustip that were cooking on the brazzier. Sever was up next, unfamiliar with the idea of cooked food, instead just used to the rations of the Monoceros. He stared at the warmed substances for a few moments before watching Pyra casually pick one up and began eating. Cautiously he followed her example and began nibbling on the food. It didn't take long for the awe to spread on his face as he hurriedly took larger bites. Dromarch opened one eye and looked to Rex before nodding and putting his head back down. Stifling his laugh he remembered just how much of a cat the Blade really was. The amount of times he'd found him taken a dirt bath in the sun on Fonsett island was a testament to that. His Driver wasn't much better though. Nia was giving off a soft purring as she slept. The wind changed gently, blowing the smell of food into her face and causing her nose to twitch. Her awakening took several seconds before she rolled to look up and saw Rex smiling down at her.

"Mornin'," He grinned, "Sleep well?"

"Divine actually," Her face fell flat at his greeting, "Care to explain why I'm in your lap?"

"Well, after I woke up last night you got flustered about me realizing I was in your lap, proceeded to nearly throw me into the fire, apologize and heal my first degree burn before willingly cuddlling next to me while letting Dromarch do his thing and hog most of the fire's heat, which is why the others are still using him as a backrest,"

"And how does that relate to this situation?"

"Well, I fixed myself up a back support while you fished us some dinner, once you'd had your fill you fell asleep on my shoulder and rolled down to my lap, from there I didn't want to bother you so I took night watch until Gramps woke back up and started moving again," Her mouth opened in silent understanding. "I just started scratching your hair out of impulse and you seemed to enjoy it so," Rex shrugged, "I kept doing it,"

"Thank you," She quietly murmured. Rex smiled inwardly to himself, hiding the fact that she'd confessed how much she loved headscratches many, many cycles ago. After that it'd just become ingrained into him to do it at the first opening he could to get as much of it in as possible. "Is it leftovers for breakfast?"

"Nope," He smiled as a new body burst for the clouds below. It landed to show a tall red haired man stood holding another large Crustip in one hand, a large greataxe in the other. "Everyone meet Gorg, he already knows you all since I brought him up to speed,"

"Where did you get a core crystal from?"

"Oh I swiped it from a barrel on the Maelstrom before we left yesterday, just in case,"

"And you got lucky with Gorg?" Nia raised an eyebrow.

"You could say that," He shrugged, truthfully he'd used his Master Driver ability to force Gorg to be chosen. "He managed to fetch us some Crustips for Pyra to cook up, before she went back to sleep obviously," She smirked up to him.

"Did you give Gorg the treatment?"

"Yessir he did," Gorg grinned tapping his sea blue core crystal. All of the blue highlights had also faded to the same colour to match. "And I look mighty fine now," Sitting with the group, he remained to himself to avoid getting anyone else wet. "Now do I need to take another dive bossman or is this last one a good enough haul?"

"More than enough Gorg, we'll be landing in Gormott soon anyway, you can stay with Gramps if the water is more your style because we'll be up on dry land a fair while once we moor up,"

"Nah I'll come with you Boss man, sure I might not need a Driver, but you make a pretty fine one anyway,"

"Sever, how about you? Did you want to go your own way,"

"Nah, if I went alone there's no way I'd get good food like this, this is some serious gourmet shit,"

"It's just some grilled Crustip," Pyra smiled, "I'm sure there's better out there,"

"Not to me right now, this is the best food I've ever eaten in my life," Nia laughed, still not moving herself from Rex's lap.

"I know right? Rex, you should've invited Sever to the all you can eat back in Argentum, you would've gotten loyalty until the end of time,"

"She's not wrong!" The upgraded Blade cheered, "Plus with your treatment thingamajig I actually get to enjoy how things taste instead of just eating for sustenance,"

"On that note," Gorg interrupted, "What exactly are we now? I mean we both ate a piece of your flesh to be Flesh Eaters which you then cured us of, so what does that make us?"

"MarkTwo Blades," Rex nodded, "It's not the best name, but thanks to the cells I introduced into your system, you're able to draw in enough ether to sustain yourself without a Driver, I had to weaken your attacks marginally for it to work but you're still quite strong, previously Blades were only able to mimic the appearance but with the cells in your systems now you're that much closer to naturally biological life,"

"But what does that mean for us?"

"Well, before I got involved your core crystals could only mimic biological cells, but now they can actually produce them and encourage the division of the cells, there's a lot of science from the old world I had to study for it to make sense so if I say more than that you'll probably get confused,"

"Try us," Nia challenged looking up at him.

"Alright fine," With a smirk he pointed to Sever's core crystal. "Once he ate my flesh his core began to understand how to convert ether into actual cells, it turned them into the only cells it understood, muscle cells, now the biological cells abosrb ether faster than the mimic cells do, but the core crystal converts both sources into Art ether, issue is that even as a Flesh Eater, Sever couldn't draw in enough ether to sustain the constant transformation which is why being a Flesh Eater while making a Blade able to operate without a Driver, gives them a shorter lifespan than an actual biological being, Sever was operating on an ever growing deficit, not good," Pausing for a moment he glanced at the series of wide eyes. "Now what I did was update his core crystal, it now knows how to reverse the muscle cells into cells that can do anything needed, a very advanced prodcedure from an age long gone, from there the core crystal then knows how to make an entire functioning biological body from nothing but ether, however it still creates an ether deficit because there's only one source of ether absorbtion now, so I had to tell it to reduce the converstion rate, less ether for an Art, this cancels out the deficit but weakens the Art," Pyra was the only one that didn't look lost, "Of course you can still create connections with a biological being if you want a Driver, doing so will actually double the ether available and so double your Art power but you don't need it anymore, make sense?"

"Yeah, sure," Sever waved a hand, his voice completely empty.

"My head hurts," Gorg flopped onto his back and remained there for a while. Pyra just shrugged and went back to eating. Dromarch had been sleeping the entire time and his only response was a mild purr. Nia sat up and spun to look at Rex.

"Fine, okay, you win, I won't ask you to explain again," She groaned, "Man, my eyes hurt from trying to follow any of that, I think we're just going to say you're magic from now on,"

"But what is magic except science you don't understand,"

"Shut up or I'll fill your mouth with Crustip,"

"Don't threaten me with a good time," She went bright red as he smirked. "We'll be at Lascham island soon, from there we can just waddle off to Torigoth and find the people I'm looking for,"

"One small problem with that," Nia raised a finger, "Pyra may be disguised and all but what about Dromach and me? Plus you're probably going to have a bounty on you now because Torna are after you, and you ditched the Trade Guild, so that Nopon will want your head, then word will get out you're the Aegis Driver and Indol are going to want you on a stick, why are you laughing?"

"Simple, give me a minute," He walked into his hut for a moment. When he returned his blue gear had turned black with green shorts and a grey tank top. In his hands he held a pair of core chips and a pair of black clothes. "It's my Cloud Sea King version, got it from this Nopon Archsage dude, same place I got these for you and Dromarch," The big cat had woken up at the mention of Torna and was now listening curiously. "It's the Blood Witch outfit, along with a Sincere Primrose corechip and an Obsidian alteration for Dromarch," 

"What?"

"Well they're looking for a Gormotti in yellow with her white lion Blade, since I've already cured your Flesh Eater status you can freely walk around without covering up your core crystal if you want to, and the chip is just in case you wanted to change up your look without ether,"

"Y-you'd really do that for me?" Rex nodded not trusting himself to say much else. Nia hugged him tightly before taking Dromarch's core chip and applying it for him. The colour change spread from his core crystal, white fur turning midnight black. His armour remained silvery gray as the edgings turned completely silver. "I'll put the core chip in while I'm changing into this," Nia looked at the black clothing with a grin.

"It's ether laced so it'll just disappear when you want to transform, I should warn you though, whoever you choose as your Driver will also become Dromarch's Driver unless he seperates your  ether connection first," He casually mentioned to a quiet group, Nia hugged him again, nearly cracking his ribs before disappearing into his hut to change.

"I must thank you Master Rex, your kindness has filled Nia with such joy, it's almost overwhelming our ether connection," Dromarch nodded slowly.

"It's just Rex Dromarch, the only Master in my title is Master Driver, even then I still have a few things to perfect," Gramps turned his head to interrupt the conversation.

"You best tell your lady friend to hurry up Rex boy, we're nearly at Gormott,"

"So this is Torigoth?" Pyra looked around.

"Yeah, very lively place isn't it?" Rex waved a hand, "There's a recruitment drive going on, Mor Ardain needs Drivers, none of their remaining soliders have the aptitude for it," He moved through the crowds and arrived at the stand.

"Ah young sir, come to serve,"

"Afraid not sir," Rex interrupted, "I'm already a Driver, like to go around helping where I can, I couldn't help but notice that this core crystal here, it's actually damaged,"

"It's what? How on Alrest would you know that?"

"Call it a disturbance in the ether," He picked up the core crystal. "Hold it for a moment, don't try awaken it, just hold it," Handing it to the soldier he waited for several seconds. "You feel that? It feels hot right? Almost like it's going to burn you?"

"Yes, I... How did this happen?"

"Who knows, damaged in shipping, damaged before it was found, damaged in the fight that killed the previous Driver, any manner of ways, what it means is that the crystal is currently absorbing and tranforming ether without an outlet, so it's simply just building it up, until it goes boom,"

"Is there a way to solve it?"

"If you'd give me a second," Taking it back, Rex poked the object with his own ether and began trying to repair it. The core faded from blue to black as he absorbed the build up. Holding out his other hand an etherial cloud hovered and began falling to the ground, seeping into the dirt. He put the core down on the table as it flashed blue again. "There now it should be good, you're lucky nobody tried awakening before I got here, if they didn't have the aptitude for it they would have ended up dead," The crowd gasped before several people began to step back. "At worse they'll end up with a nice headache now," The fear dissapated.

"Do you know if any of the others are damaged?"

"Well, where are they?"

"On the moored ship the other side of town," Rex shook his head,

"Sorry but that's too far away, even if every single one of them was overfilled, I'd have to be on board to feel it, maybe check with your supplier, there's a Nopon merchant, Bana, he's been known on the underground to be selling damaged core crystals, nearly killed a friend of mine with one," The Ardanian nodded to him. "Okay, well, I only came here for some supplies and a night at the inn, so I'll let you get back to what you were doing, good day sir,"

"Same to you sir," The group met him on the other side of the crowd, walking past the fountain.

"How did you know that?" Pyra stared at him, "I mean I could tell something was off but,"

"I've learned how to sense the smallest changes in the ether around me, that core crystal was ready to blow if someone didn't awaken it soon,"

"And you knew how to fix it, just like that?" Nia raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh no, no, it took me a long time to get that right, normally I had to have my teacher to make sure it was alright,"

"You mean my third form you've yet to name?"

"Yes, because I'm not a chump and promised her that I'd do this one by the books this time,"

"What does that even mean?"

"Well, I'm going to do everything directly, any help anyone else needs I'll send squadrons of Mark Two Blades once we join the Garfront Mercenaries,"

"The who what now?"

"I'll explain later," He waved a hand. "For now we need to go and find someone, Nia you can come with but I'd advise not to, normally when you're here for the first meeting you nearly beat Tora over the head with the wrench I need to finish Poppi, breaking it so badly I have to salvage for a new one,"

"I'm not that bad y'know," Nia folded her arms, "Unless he's a bloody pervert," Rex remained silent, "Oh fine, I'll stay at the shops then, it's been a while since Dromarch and I sat in a cafe without looking over our shoulders," He put a hand into his pocket and handed her a small purse of gold coins.

"Go wild, there's a bakery Lucky Dawn Bread is the best on the menu, if it's not available right now grab the Deluxe Ham Toastie instead, then head to Cafe Savvy and get the Victory Smoothie or the Gormottie Honeytea, we won't be long, I promise," Before he could stop himself, he'd pecked her cheek and began walking away with the group. His face went red as he put his hands to his head. "I shouldn't have done that, I should not have done that," He whined to himself quietly, Sever chuckled lightly to himself while Gorg seemed more interested in the handle of his greataxe. Pyra merely flushed and refused to look at him. "Let's just go find Tora," He grumbled leading them to the Residential Zones.

"Who is Rex-rex?" Tora still seemed paranoid as Rex crouched into Poppi's internals, fixing parts together in all manner of noises.

"I'm a Driver, for one, number two I've been put into a time loop by the Architect, for a good long time I've been learning about how Poppi Alpha and her later models work, thanks to all the parts I've collected, I can skip Alpha and go straight to QT model, but as you can tell it's been taking me a bit of time to improve the ether furnace,"

"You claim to be Tora's friend?"

"I am Tora, you and I often talk about mechanics together, I still can't believe you, your dad and grandfather were able to come up with the idea of Poppi, it's the most ingenious step forward in technology that I've ever seen and you've even improved the appearance of the mechanisms to look more streamlined and efficient," The Nopon just remained silent before smiling arrogantly.

"Of course, Tora greatest thinker in,"

"Though your ether collection manifolds and conversion systems are a bit slow, and you're overclocking your CPU with those perverted protocols, the propulsion system is also at risk of overheat, there's a few places where gears are highly likely to get caught," Rex grunted before holding out a hand, "Pyra can you pass me that ratchet please?" His fingers flexed as he kept looking at the part of the robot. "That's the one with the little tube and lots of little teeth inside," The small tool was handed over to him as he kept working on Poppi. "A few more twists and," Carefully pulling his head and hands out of the robo-guts, he stepped back and stood up. "Done, now we just need to give her the jumpstart needed to kick off the ether furnace,"

"And how are we going to do that?" Sever raised an eyebrow, "You don't have any other core crystals and none of us are electric elemental,"  Gorg nodded in agreement.

"Simple," Rex checked the clock on Tora's wall. "I hate the Architect, he's nothing but a whiney moping bitch that won't do anything because he sucks ass and can't fix his own prob-,"

KRACKOOM

Lightning struck the lightning rod Tora had hidden away on a rooftop in Torigoth and travelled through the town. The lights turned off, leaving them all in the dark, listening to the storm outside.

"Waah! Nooo, Tora not to anything, it all Rex-rex! He incur wrath of Architect!" The Nopon dived under his table and hid away while Sever and Gorg looked around in fright.

"All according to plan," He smirked,

"Did you actually," Pyra raised a hand to her mouth,

"Nah, I can insult him all I want, he literally won't do anything to anyone on Alrest, even though he knew what Amalthus did, he won't lift a finger to help, he's left me to solve his problems for whatever forsaken reason," The lights came back on as a new voice joined in.

"All systems online, Poppi ready to work!"

"Poppi work? Rex-rex telling truth the whole time?"

"Of course Tora, I couldn't lie to my best assistant could I? Poppi override Tora-no-mora," After Rex finished her voice became less emotional.

"Multi-Driver mode active, awaiting instruction from Master-pon and Master Rex,"

"Set Master-pon to primary Driver, new Driver password Azurda, activate QT free toggle,"

"Master-pon set as primary Driver, Master-pon can switch between Poppi Alpha and QT modes by saying Alpha or QT, systems QT-Pi not found, restore files?"

"Archive files, save blueprint for QT-Pi mode,"

"Poppibuster files found, engage?"

"No, archive files, await further instruction to use files,"

"Understood, system setting complete, restart Poppi?"

"No, activate Blade function Poppi Alpha," Rex nodded,

"Engaging function, Blade, Poppi Alpha mode, system will reset in three, two," Everyone stood with baited breath, "Poppi ready to go Masterpon, what can Poppi do to help?"

"What Rex-rex do to Poppi?"

"I removed your pervy files, those can wait until we get the QT-Pi  upgrades and she at least looks adult, I've also set it so that if you aren't able to fight for whatever reason, we can still use Poppi as a Blade for someone else, I improved the ether furnace to support QT functionality and even made the poppiswap compatible with a Dark or Light converstion core, however that's only for QT-Pi function,"

"Woah, Rex-rex super smartypants,"

"Why thank you Tora, you're not so bad yourself,"

"I found you!" They all turned to see Dromarch in the doorway. "I have terrible news,"

 "Hey, you don't have the authorisation to be here," A solider levelled the gun at him as he marched through the relay base. Despite wearing the Ardanian armour, it appeared he was still going to have to fight his way through.

"Oh but I do," His hand gripped the scimitar as it formed in his hand.

"What's your clearance code then?" Rex kept marching forwards,

"G-zero, five-U-C-K, Y-zero-U-R-S-Three-One-F,"

"I haven't heard that code before, what rank does it stand for?"

"It stands for," Crossing his arm over his neck, he pumped ether into the sword, "Go fuck yourself, Hydro Blast!" Swinging the sword, he sent a jet of water in all directions, knocking over the soldiers rushing to intercept him. He marched onto the titan battleship and held out his other hand. Ardanian forces charged at him once more before being blown away with Nexus Force.

"You're not supposed to be here," Rex looked over his shoulder at Captain Padraig aiming for him.

"And Consul Dughall is not supposed to be doing under the table dealings with Bana to supply Gormott with core crystals and prep to overthrow the current government but hey ho," A Rolling Smash knocked the Captain down before Rex continued into the ship, "Don't worry, I won't forget you," More soldiers were knocked down as he kept on walking through the ship. Arriving at the holding cells he dissolved both swords and picked the locks. There was only three holding cells and one of them had to have Nia in.

"The intruder is over here, he's trying to release the captive!" A voice yelled. Rex opened the cell and darted inside, slamming it behind him.

"Is it time for the interrogation already?" Nia asked tiredly, slowly getting up from her bunk. "Aren't you a little short for an Ardanian soldier?"

"What? No," Rex took the helmet off, "I'm here with the rebellion I'm here to rescue you,"

"Rex?!" She crossed the room and hugged him, "I wasn't sure if  Dromarch could find you, where are they all?"

"Currently? Fighting the troopers in the relay base to keep everyone out of the ship,"

"Wait, did you say a rebellion?"

"Yeah, just a joke though, there's no actual rebellion," She tutted and rolled her eyes, "So how are we getting out of here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" He grinned, "We're going to fight our way out," Nia's clothing changed as her scimitar formed in his hand. Together they moevd out of the door and sent the collection of troops clying with a Hydro Blast. "This way!" He grabbed her wrist and led her back through the ship. "Get ready, guys!" The group were fighting off the small Ardanian army that had been trying to keep them from the ship. As they rushed to the exit, Rex slowed the group down. He knew what was going to happen.

"Halt!" Everone ground to a stop as blue flames overtook them and crossed in front of the exit. "The,"

"Morag," Rex moved to the front of the group again, "Do you even know why we're here?"

"You have just attacked,"

"Brighid unjustly jailed a member of my team and nobody would allow me audience to sort the understanding out,"

"Be that as it may,"

"Even now while I try and explain this diplomatically, all you are doing is trying to fight me," Clutching the scimitar he glared her down, "Well not this time, Sever, Gorg put those fires out, Dromarch you and Nia are with me, Pyra keep those reinforcements away, Tora, Poppi back her up,"

"On it," The group nodded and split up. Holding the twin rings in one hand and the scimitar in the other, he faced the Special Inquisitor down.

"Tell me, are Torna so adverse to losing people they'd send such a large team on a suicide mission to rescue one?"

"Had Brighid listened to a word Nia said, you'd know we aren't with Torna, in fact we've been against Torna for years, Dromarch and she were part of my plan to infiltrate and takedown Torna, you think you're the only ones against them? Don't be so foolhardy," He watched her ready her twin whip swords 

"You would try fight me with one sword and twin rings? Have you a third arm somewhere?"

"I've tried solving this diplomatically, I have and I wish for the records to show that Brighid's eagerness to please and you're unwavering ignorance of the world around you are the reasons we clash today,"

"Say whatever you please rogue, you attacked an Ardanian warship,"

"Because you attacked first! I retaliated in kind!" Rex barked, "And anyway didn't you know that twin rings make excellent projectiles?" Flinging both towards her he charged after them. As they deflected he jumped and lifted a foot over his head. Kicking one back down he swung the scimitar to bat the second. One ricochetted off the floor and forced Morag to step backwards. The other lightly grazed her cheek, causing her to spin as a reflexive dodge. "We are not members of Torna, in fact Nia and I are here because we barely escaped a fight with them,"

"Then what is your Driver Registration Number?" 

"Why do I need one huh? So Amalthus can tell everyone I'm a bad guy if I fight him?" Kicking him away as she parried both rings again, he rolled to his feet.

"So you are an unlicensed Driver? This means you are an outlaw!"

"Hasn't mattered before, won't matter tomorrow and it doesn't matter now!" Knocking one of the rings back, he caught the second and spun on his heel to throw it as fast as he could.

"Boss, these flames aren't going out!" Morag knocked both of the rings into the sky as Sever called out for assistance.

"Dromarch, give them a hand!" One sword clashed onto his as he put his left hand over the same shoulder.

"You would combat me one on two?" She growled at him, "Are you that unorganized?" Her anger turned to shock as she quickly moved her second sword to stop the slash. Rex smirked as he clutched Ontos' Monado, pushing it against her defence.

"Never assume I am without a plan Morag," He grinned, "Nia, go for Brighid!" Throwing her scimitar to her, he put both hands on the large handle, pumping it with ether and turning it a burning orange. Suddenly the dual wielding Morag was down to one sword as she was forced to hand one over to her own Blade. "Now it's my fight!" The two clashed as Brighid fought Nia beside them. As they fought both moved with such fluidity that it became a dance. Rex had spent decades fighting Morag in spars, enough to know her tactics were a strong offence to prevent counter attacks, yet when forced onto the back foot it was only her reactions that allowed her to remain fighting. Now with only one blade, she was forced to remain defensive or risk losing a limb. Not that he'd actually do something like that.

"What are you?" She growled, trying once more to break into an offensive style.

"Someone who knows experience can only come with age," Locking their swords together, he took his anchor and aimed low. "Sorry about this," Firing it he bounced it from the floor to wrap it around her ankle and pulled. Morag fell backwards with a yelp as Rex quickly retreated. 

"Boss we got an opening!" Grog yelled, "Quickly,"

"Tora, Poppi, get moving, Pyra, Nia with me for a moment," Everone fell back to the exit, Nia and Pyra stood either side as the Ardanian forces charged. Grabbing their swords together he smiled. "Do you both trust me?"

"Of course,"/ "Absolutely,"

"Then give me everything you got," Swiping up as he leapt into the air with Pyra's sword, he slashed down with Nia's Scimitar. "Union Sword!" Crossing the blades in an X slash, he sent a medley of fire and water to knock the soliders back. Brighid was forced to shield herself and Morag lest the latter be blown further back. Everyone charged from the base at top speed, taking the back exit from Torigoth and running into the wilds.

"That could've gone better," He grumbled, using a stick to poke a large fire.

"How so?" Nia sat next to him, eating her cooked fish.

"Well for one, Brighid could've listened and we could've solved this diplomatically instead of having to fight her, but her self assurance in being right meant that she wouldn't listen to you, just because Dromarch looked like himself, she assumed you were part of Torna, that's not even fair!"

"Nope, not even close," Sever agreed, 

"Not to mention they didn't even give my Lady the option to explain and just arrest her immediately," Dromarch added as he curled up next to the fire.

"That Inquisitor lady didn't like to listen much either," Gorg commented.

"No, she's so cocksure of herself and her Blade that she forgets there's a world around her,"

"Still it could've gone worse," Nia shrugged, "I mean no-one died did they,"

"Tora and I are the only ones here that can actually die though," Rex raised a hand,

"And did either of you die? No, so we had a one hundred percent survival rate,"

"Meh meh, Tora nearly lost a wing!" The Nopon yelled in indignation.

"Still survived didn't ya furball?" She smirked, "Plus we did end up with this," She pulled a core crystal from her pocket. "It appears that Dughall has been wanting to arm his own personal guard with Blades and a few of them were part of the group to arrest me," Handing it to Rex she smiled, "Go wild,"

"Nia I could kiss you right now," Clutching it in one hand he closed his eyes and felt the information running through the core. On the outside the core began to puff and glow while he mentally forced the right combination for the Blade he wanted.  Once it all clicked into place, Rex tossed the core into the air. A white figure burst from the piece and began taking form. She looked around curiously, "You can call me Nim, these are my friends, Kit and Sunny," She gestured to the small creatures on either shoulder. "I'll help however I can!"

"It's nice to meet you Nim," Rex nodded, "I hope you don't mind being our close combat healer?"

"Sure, my knuckle claws will keep anyone back, so you're my Driver?"

"Currently? I'm everyone's Driver, kinda my deal, this is Nia, Dromarch, Pyra, Gorg, Sever, Tora and Poppi, Tora here is a Nopon and Poppi is his artificial Blade, I'm also recognised as an admin in her systems to technically I can also be her Driver,"

"Oh, awesome, you must be pretty skilled,"

"I've had a long time to learn," He sighed gently, "Far, far too long," There was a brief silence before,

"So, where to next then Rex?" Nia tried lifting the mood. He leant back on his arms.

"No idea I've I'm honest, we could head to Uraya see what we can accomplish over there, Mor Ardain to try sort this whole misunderstanding out, forcing them to take the civilized route, hell if you want to Nia, I could teach you how to use this thing with a certain Indoline as target practise," Showing off his gun he made sure the safety was on and unloaded before stowing it away again. "Or we could just enjoy two weeks down in Leftheria while Torna search in the complete wrong direction," 

"What else can we do in Uraya?"

"Well, we'd meet Vandham, the Garfront Merceneries, Ahkos would chase us down, eventually we'd have to fight Malos and Jin,"

"Indol?"

"Nothing but target practise,"

"Leftheria?"

"It'd be sun, sand and sweet fuck all,"

"And in Mor Ardain?"

"Bana's artificial Blade factory, meeting Niall, getting to see Temperantia and prevent Jin from rising tensions," He shrugged, "Plenty of things but we'd need to head there first before even touching Temperantia, but that involves sorting out the whole, 'who shot first' issue which,"

"Perhaps we can help with?" Everyone but Nim was suddenly combat ready, the newest Blade picking up the cue and getting her knuckles out. Morag stepped into the clearing with her hands raised in surrender. "We've not come to fight,"

"Forgive us if we don't believe you," Sever snarled. Morag sighed,

"I suppose it is an acceptable reponse after today's.... events,"

"You unjustly arrested a member of my party, actively started the fight you arrested her for and then refused a hearing to try and understand the situation, just say that,"

"You broke into an Ardainian warship and got back out without killing a single troop or even being hurt, you are the first to win a fight against me and Brighid, blemishing our untouched record with our first loss," She took her hat off, "Might we sit?" Rex nodded and she gently lowered herself onto the log on the other side of the fire. Brighid slowly left the forest and sat beside her. "After a thorough discussion with Brighid and reading the reports, I have come to the conclusion that yes, no diplomacy was used by our forces, which is an incredible breach of protocol, since we try to resolve all issues as peacefully as possible, Consul Dughall had somehow undermined our orders and told all troops to act with extreme prejudice against any Driver and Blade within Torigoth, however I also recognise my own Blade acted in much the same way, for that you have out apologies," Both nodded briefly, "I am here now to attempt to rectify these mistakes and get to the bottom of whatever you are doing before deciding if Mor Ardain can aid you, fight you or remain out of whatever conflict you have,"

"Our only conflict is with Torna," Rex grunted, "They hired me to do a job and stabbed me through the heart when it was done, luckily the job was to find the Aegis and she was able to save my life by making me her Driver," His index finger tapped the core crystal segment in his chest, "She also made me a form of Blade Eater that can awaken other Blades,"

"Is that how you can weild the seemingly unowned sword?"

"No, that is from someone else, since I have only a partial core crystal I am unable to make my own weapon, instead I am stronger when using the Aegis sword,"

"And which of your party is the Aegis?"

"None of them, this is Pyra," The redhead pulled her hood down, "A faucet of the Aegis, Torna want her power in order to access the World Tree, reach Elysium and destroy Alrest, I'm going to beat them there and prevent them from being able to do it,"

"Lofty goals," Morag hummed, he hid his smirk. It would certainly seem optimistic to do that, if he hadn't already beaten them there a couple thousand times. "How are you planning to do this?"

"Whatever way I can, thanks to an ability granted to me by the Aegis and the Architect I know what comes next, so we can either head to Mor Ardain or Uraya, if we head for the World Tree we'd end up in Uraya anyway, Mor Ardain we could stop a double cross from happening but Uraya has the Mercenaries, so we could have Blades deal with missions too,"

"Can we go to Mor Ardain, I'd need to update my brother on the events transpiring and why I will be accompanying you on your venture to find out your true intentions for Alrest and the good of Mor Ardain,"

"Be my guest, come light tomorrow we'll get to Gramps and make tracks to Argentum,"

"Why Argentum? Suerly that's just a Trade Guild with nothing of value there?" Rex chuckled lightly at the Special Inquisitor's confusion.

"Oh no Morag, there's plenty there, including hidden core crystals, a chance to restock some supplies and the first step of our mission,"

"W-what?"

"Well, we can't stay on Gramps forever, there's going to be a lot of us in a short time, so we're going to need a bigger boat,"

"But Argentum doesn't have any...." Nia trailed off, "You're not going to say what I think you're going to say are you?"

"But of course I am Nia, this time tomorrow we'll have a large enough boat for us all to travel on,"

"How? Are you suggesting we buy a boat from a Nopon merchant?"

"Oh no, we're going to steal one, a very specific one actually,"

"You can't be serious," Nia groaned, "And here I thought we could actually be welcome there,"

"It's not my fault Bana gave Mor Ardain fake gold for it," Rex shrugged, "Plus with Morag in our party, we're simply retrieving stolen goods for the better of Mor Ardain,"

"Could you please tell me what you're on about?" 

"It's simple Special Inquisitor Morag, tomorrow,

we're going to steal the Maelstrom,"

Chapter Text

"You're sure this will work?"

"Possibly? We haven't tried this before," The Argentum Trade Guild hovered in the distance. "But I mean if I just kept repeating everything I'd lose all the fun wouldn't I?" Nia frowned at him. "Look, we'll be fine, alright Gramps, take us up,"

"Please keep all limbs on the titan at all times, thank you for flying air Azurda," The titan chuckled as they left the Cloud Sea below them, "We'll be out of sight soon enough,"

"Um, Rex, how are we going to get down?" Morag raised an eyebrow.

"Well, we're going to jump, obviously,"

"Jump?! From this height? We'll most certainly die,"

"Not with Sever, his wind mastery is exactly what can keep us alive, plus with Nim here, we'd be alright even if we did get hurt,"

"There's a difference between getting hurt and going splat Rex," Nia stared at him.

"So? Thanks to your Blade physiology fall damage can't affect you, Tora, Morag and I are the only ones with legs that can break,"

"Not reassuring those who need it then," Morag bristled.

"Look, Poppi can take Tora down, Nia, Pyra, Dromarch, Nim, Gorg and Sever jump with me, you and Brighid wait a few seconds, then jump, Sever will meet you on the way down and slow your fall, sound good?"

"Not really, but I suppose we have limited options,"

"That's the spirit!" He cheered before walking back from the edge, "All together everybody!" Poppi picked up her Nopon driver and began smoothinly flying away as Nia and Gorg panicked. Dromarch simply got into a position to pounce. Sever seemed actually gleeful, quickly joining Rex's side. "I heard Gormotti always land on their feet," The former Flesh Eater glared at him.

"You know that's just a rumour spread by Tantalese bastards," 

"Well I suppose I'll just have to catch you then," His hand stretched out to her.

"You promise?" Tentatively she reached out to grab his hand.

"Always," He grinned and charged to the end.

"Wait, REX!!" She yelled as he lead them straight off Gramps' back, Sever cackled, hurrying after them, Nim laughing in tow, Dromarch pounced as Gorg hopped around before diving straight down after them. Rex cheered as he spread his limbs out, slowing his descent. Their target was the titan holding the Maelstrom, they'd slide down the ropes and steal the vessel while the guards didn't know they'd made it to the ship. Morag would descend into Bana's office, armed with the knowledge and evidence he'd used fake gold to buy the ship in the first place and play the part of the Inquisitor coming for property, shortly after Gramps would land by the Trade Guild, acting as Morag's personal titan ship. While the crew stole the Maelstrom, Morag would pretend to be unaware until a guard burst into the room informing Bana the ship had been stolen. Morag would rush to witness the theft and call it Bana's lucky day as the Maelstrom being stolen meant he didn't have to pay the gold back until they could prove he'd used it after giving them fraudulent gold. She and Brighid would then rush to Gramps and take off after it before anyone recognized him. Bana would count his blessings and not report the ship stolen as it confirmed his guilt, the group then got a nice ship to actually sail on and the Nopon would be none the wiser when the group used it publicly later. Waving his hand, he signalled to Sever, who tilted to dive faster and pass them up. Rolling onto his back, the Blade pushed his palms up at Rex, a column of wind slowing his descent. Sever landed on the titan, no problem, Gorg and Dromarch following him as Nim stumbled into her landing but remained on her feet. Rex twisted to land perfectly on his feet, holding Nia bridal style.

"See? Told you I'd catch you," He smiled at her red face. They looked up to the circling Gramps as two more figures jumped off, both twisting in a show of acrobatics. "Sever, go," The two shadows dropped through the sky as his Blade sprinted from the titan and jumped again, pushing another column of air to slow them down. The Inquisitor and her Blade made a rather dramatic entrance as they both floated onto the flight deck and began marching in. Looking over her shoulder at him, Morag gave a subtle nod. "Let's move guys," Gorg, Sever, Nia and he all took a different cable, grabbing it and sliding down silently. Nim followed Nia down, giggling like a school girl. Dromarch, being the only one without apposable thumbs, was forced to go to the titan's smaller end and drop onto the ship directly. Rex snuck across the deck and into the bridge with ease, grinning as he looked at each console.

"Do... you know how to work this thing?" Nia asked as she joined him.

"But of course I do, get Gorg to haul the anchor and Sever to undo our moorings," She passed on the orders, returning to find his fingers whizzing about the different controls.

"Poppi and Tora are below deck,"

"Good, tell him to make sure the gate stays locked, draw in the gangplank while you're down there,"

"Aye aye captain," She saluted with a smirk before walking away. A few moments later, they were slowly drifting from the Trade Guild. The guards began panicking and trying to draw it back in but to no avail. Rex laughed as they picked up speed, heading away from the dock. Meanwhile at the dock, Morag and Bana had just arrived to see it drifting away.

"It appears to be your lucky day Nopon," She growled, "Because whoever you ticked off recently has just saved you a lot of gold,"

"What what?"

"Without the Maelstrom being moored here, we can't prove you've used it or even had it here, it being stolen from you absolves you of ownership,"

"B-but Maelstrom best moneymaker!"

"As you previously said, however you've got a lot of nerve trying to keep stolen property, if you want to own it, you'd have to pay the full sum for it, including the fine for giving us counterfeit gold,"

"B-B-B-Bana no idea what you mean, Maelstrom not his ship, no never, he not report missing ever!"

"Good, now if you'll excuse me I still need to capture Mor Ardanian property," She, Brighid and Sever all ran to the other docks, jumping aboard Gramps. The titan removed himself at record speed and gave chase to the 'stolen' ship.

He was atop the crow's nest again, laid down, staring at the inside of his eyelids. "You alright?" A voice startled him, "Woah, easy, friendly," Nia sat down by his head. 

"Oh, hey, what's up?"

"I believe that's what I just asked you,"

"Uh, well, it's nothing, really, just... pondering I guess,"

"About what?"

"What I'm doing wrong, what I've gotten right,"

"Existential or loop related?"

"Loop," He answered quickly, "I... it's.... At first I thought I was given the second run as a chance to save everyone I lost, grow closer to the people I saved and used things that were super helpful but no-one told me about until it was too late,"

"Like your Master Driver skills?"

"Yeah, those, like, apparently I could always override an ether connection and make any Blade mine, which would've been super helpful the first time to disarm Torna, I could've saved a couple lives, not wasted a bunch of time moping, but, then I got the third run, then the fourth and then I just didn't know... I still don't,"

"What run are you on again?"

"I don't remember right now, and my books are on Gramps in case someone caught us,"

"Oh, yeah, you're going to have to move all of your stuff over aren't you?"

"Unfortunately, yes, I'm going to have to haul all of two boxes, however will I cope?" Putting the back of his hand against his forehead dramatically, he smirked. Nia pushed his shoulder playfully, "There's also the brazier, the hut will make good repair material, Wulfric can,"

"Who's Wulfric?"

"He's a," Rex paused, "Oh, right, he's not with us yet, okay, forget that, Sever and I can move my furniture over, it shouldn't take long," A shrug before a hand tapped the floor by his head. "Gonna join me or what? It's surprisingly comfortable here, and we got a while before we moor up at Mor Ardain," Nia raised an eyebrow before smirking. She rest her head on his gut and stretched her arms up gently. 

"You're right, this is comfortable," Unable to see her face, he opted to roll his eyes and rest his hands behind his head. "And that sun is so warm," Shifting her body lightly, she tickled his stomach. "I might just have to stay here," Moving one hand from under his head, he rested it in her hair, stroking it softly.

"Please do,"

After mooring up at Mor Ardain, Morag helpfully took the lead on disembarking. Calming the soldiers present once the rest appeared. Introduced as a third party that had attempted to infiltrate Torna, Morag explained they had a delicate agreement to try and work together. A small number of soliders were nominated to work with the group to try and catch a possible weapons dealer operating illegally on Ardainian soil. Rex had done his best to minimize the numbers. Mikail was jumpy at the best of times, if they couldn't have a calm coversation there was no chance he'd be willing to join. In the end five soliders agreed to work under his order alongside him. It was better than ten he guessed but it still made things tense. The rest asked questions about Poppi and if she and Tora were related to the robot attacks on the capital. Morag's version of events, wherein they tactfully cut out any fighting, claimed that Rex had stumbled into Tora while trying to find Morag and offer an alliance. As they walked down the docks, they passed several large crates. "Hold on," Everyone stopped on a dime as he turned to face a box, "This one, it's full of core crystals isn't it?" Several of the soliders began reaching for weapons.

"It is, why?"

"Who gave it to you?" He rubbed his chin,

"Some Nopon merchant from the Argentum Trade Guild, he had a colleage come to Mor Ardain and parlay,"  Nia bit back a snort at the reminder of Bana's office, Rex frowned.

"Bana then, only he uses go-betweens, a way to deflect blame and save his reputation," His neck cracked, "Alright fine, Pyra, you're going to have to stay behind,"

"W-what, why?"

"I must agree with her Rex, what is the problem with,"

"They're all damaged, some more than others, but you're holding a bunch of handsized explosives, all they need is someone to try awaken them as the trigger,"

"Y-you can tell that?!" A solider exclaimed, stepping back in shock. Rex nodded,

"Morag, you're a Driver, close your eyes, feel the ether around you, then focus on the crate," The Special Inquisitor was hesitant but followed his direction. "Try and imagine the ether as a gentle breeze, it blows through all things around you, penetrates the floor we walk on but mixes with the air we breath, it moves around us and through us,"

"I can feel it, it feels.... calming," She smiled, "It is.... relaxing,"

"Now focus on the crate ahead of us, ignore each core crystal, just focus on the crate,"

"It's..... cold, thirsting for heat, yet it feels," Her eyes flew open as she gasped, "It feels as if it is going to explode," Everyone except Rex stepped away from the box, shielding behind one another. "Rex, get away from," A heavy sigh interrupted her as he picked up a nearby crowbar. "Rex, what are you..."

CRUNCH

The front of the box slowly gave way to his strength. Inside were rows of neatly stacked core crystals, all glowing blue with ether. He grabbed a random one and held it in his hand. Similar to the crystal at Torigoth, he probed it with his own ether before fixing the error that had occured. Once he was happy with it, he tossed it to a solider.

"Try that,"

"I-I, but, I d-don't have aff,"

"You don't need high affinity for core crystals, the ones you're using are broken, their parameters are faulty because of it," Rex raised an eyebrow, "Awaken it,"

"I hope you're not ordering one of my men to kill himself Rex," Morag spoke tersely, "Because if you are this alliance is done,"

"Two things Morag, number one I would never knowingly or not, even believe anything I was doing could kill a man, which is why I don't salvage up weapons when I go salvaging, number two, I would never, even indirectly tell anyone from anywhere, to kill themself, if there was even a one times ten to the negative forty-two percent chance that he could get killed, I wouldn't have even given him the core crystal, if there was a one times ten to the negative one-hundred chance he could get hurt I wouldn't let him near the damn thing," A sombre look crossed his face, "I made that mistake already, and I watched someone I care about pay the price, do not even joke that I would allow it to happen again,"

"I... my apologies," Morag bowed her head lowly. Her soldiers all looked to her in surprise. "Nori, please do as he said,"

"I, of course Ma'am," The now named Nori closed the core crystal in his hand, clutching it to his chest. For a few moments nothing happened. The soldiers looked to each other and back at their comrade. Rex's eyebrows rose before he smirked. As the core crystal glowed, a figure began forming. Soon enough, a Brute Blade stood beside the soldier, a Shield Hammer at the ready.

"I'll do my best to help, you can call me Yagi," A raised thumb, "Are you my new Driver?"

"I-I, yes I am, it's nice to meet you Yagi, I'm Nori, let's work well together!"

"Amazing," Morag looked from the interaction to Rex, "You, the last time he tried resonating, he ended up in the infirmary for a week,"

"Because you gave him a dud, these cores here," He tapped the crate with a knuckle, "It's all faulty, it's going to fuck with all your troops, only those that could pull uniques have a chance to get common, once I've fixed 'em all up, you can spread the Drivers around and stop putting all your eggs in one basket," A grin, "Or, once Pyra's done I should say,"

"WHAT?!" The redhead Blade yelled, "You're going to leave them all to me?" 

"No, of course not Pyra, I'll help," He chuckled good naturedly. "I was just thinking you and me could get through this crate in a couple hours, instead of the day and a half it'd take me by myself,"

"Oh, alright, that sounds fair," She nodded, sighing in relief, "Should we begin now then?"

"Can't," Rex shrugged, "I mean I would, but there's going to be a whole lot of paperwork and certification and whatnot, and that'll cause Morag a headache, so for now we'll just stick with our original thing, then we'll get to the core crystals, deal with one problem at a time, y'know," With a smile, he picked up the fallen side of the crate and fixed it back into place. "Say Morag, could we take this with us and work on it while we travel? Gramps could shop them back here once we've replaced them, you and Brighid could even go with him," Nia nudged him,

"You're just looking for a reason to not move your stuff," She muttered.

"Even if they agree, I'll be swapping the stuff out, no way am I letting her get back problems from my two and a half year old mattress or struggle with the lock on that five year old chest, the brazier is coming too, because I'll be damned if I don't get you to fulfill that threat of filling my mouth with Crustip,"

"You bloody smooth talker," Her face went bright red as she refused to look at him. "Alright, you make good points," 

"As much as I'd appreciate the help Rex, you taking Mor Ardain core crystals isn't a possibility, the council that my brother oversees is unlikely to allow you to even touch the core crystals, even if it was to fix the broken ones,"

"Which is all of them from Bana, at least," He added, "Alright, how about this, after Nia infiltrated Torna, we were able to figure out a rough location for the weapon supplier, we'll take the ship to the area, with the core crystals, work on them as we try to find the place, then once you meet us there, everyone piles onto the ship and we come back, one illegal manufacturer arrested and a crate of fully repaired core crystals too," Letting the Special Inquisitor ponder for a moment, he added, "Plus there will be the group of soliders on the ship while we're on the move, the crystals can be in their possession the entire time,"

"Brighid, if this gets approved, can I ask you to go with them? It would be an extra level of security the council would find appeasing,"

"I shall leave a whip sword with you," The jewel of Mor Ardain nodded. "It's best we address them immediately then, as it will take time, perhaps while we discuss this, our party can rest at the inn?" Everyone looked to Rex, who just shrugged before nodding. 

"Wonderful, Nori, you should go and get the registration forms for your license, do mention how Rex detected and repaired the broken core crystal and your previous attempt, it should help our case against the council," Morag turned to the new Driver, "Afterwards, please find Rex and collect a core crystal from this crate, perhaps a demonstration would sway the council to our favour,"

"Yes Ma'am!" Nori saluted "C'mon Yagi! I can't wait to tell my folks!" With professionalism forgotten, he and his Blade ran off towards the lifts into the town.

"If that's the case, I'll need Nim or Nia to come with me as a healer, no offence Dromarch but they'd be able to heal him faster,"

"No taken Sir Rex," The lion nodded,

"Apologies, but Nim will have to come with you, even if these troops are able to convey the message quick enough, I'm not sure the council will take kindly to a member of Torna standing in their chambers, double agent of no," Nia sighed,

"I suppose that's fair, I knew what I was signing up for when I agreed to join them,"

"Hey, silver lining, you get more time in the hot spring," Rex shrugged, "I'll have to deal with bigwigs that can't awaken Blades and so try tell the guys that can what to do," Nudging her shoulder lightly he shook his head.

"As much as I agree with your statement Rex, I must ask you to not say it in such a crude and public manner," Morag smirked to him. "Of course that being said, we shall head to the council chambers now, I pray you, Nori and Yagi don't keep us waiting,"

Nori was jittery. Rex could tell. "Nervous?"

"A little, I mean," A pause, "I probably shouldn't," They walked silently for a moment, the solider holding the damaged core crystal in his left hand. Their Blade were behind them, the two talking amicably, throwing around the possibilities of a sparring match.

"It's fine, go ahead, I won't judge,"

"It's just, when I was a kid, I thought Driver's were so cool and I wanted to be one of the greats, not to mention the money could help support my family, which is what I've always tried to do,"

"I know the feeling, before I started my thing against Torna, I was just a salvager, every coin I didn't need was sent back home," Rex clapped Nori on the shoulder,

"T-thanks, when I tried to awaken a Blade a few years back, well Special Inquistor told you, I was stuck in the infirmary for a week, almost bled out, I didn't try again after that, it felt like my limbs were going to explode off my body, I guess I should be thanking you, if you hadn't come along, none of us would've known the core crystals were faulty, I wouldn't have Yagi right now,"

"Don't worry about it, honestly I'm just glad I was able to alert you guys before more people died,"

"Yeah, I was one of the lucky ones that failed," Nori looked down, "I, it was scary y'know, the core crystal, it felt, felt angry almost, like it was annoyed that it had been broken, and it was blaming me," He gestured with the core crystal, "I can feel it in this one too, the rage, impatience almost, I can see what you meant by a handheld explosive,"

"It took me a long time to learn how to fix the broken cores, almost too long, days of constant study and ether expirements, along the way I theorized a cure for Flesh Eaters, even figuring out how to edit the colour of a core crystal, that reminds me Nim, once we get back to the inn we need to go over the process with you,"

"Sure thing Boss,"

"Would you be interested Nori?"

"You'd be better off asking Yagi, he's the one you'd be doing it on, but I'd say no thanks, I'm just happy to have him with me, I don't want to do anything that could risk that," Rex nodded seriously before reaching into his pocket.

"On that note, have you been injured recently, hurt in anyway?"

"I, uh, not that I recall? I got a papercut recently, sprained my ankle like a week ago, why?"

"We need you in top form, while it may be a tad bit too much, take a sip of this," Handing over a vial of green liquid, he watched Nori lift the faceplate of his armour up. Revealed a mature face with blue eyes. Yellow blond hair fell in a small fringe.

"What is it?"

"A healing potion, Nia made it before you came to get me, it'll have an immediate effect should repair whatever damage you got, inside and out,"

"Well, I have had a rather nasty stomach ulcer for a while," Nori shrugged, "I trust you, down the hatch," Acting as if he was taking a shot, Nori quickly swallowed a mouthful before putting the cork back into the vial and handed it back over. "That's sour," Rex chuckled,

"Oh boy don't I know it," He swirled the vial before slipping it back into his pocket, "It'll kick in after a few seconds, I've had to use them so many times I've forgotten the flavour, ah, here we are," They arrived at the door, "Alright, deep breaths Nori," Opening the door, they both stepped inside.

"Ah, speak of the devil, Private Nori, Rex, I was just about to explain, perhaps a demonstration would be better?" Rex smiled and gestured for Nori to walk in first, Yagi followed behind him, getting murmurs from the council.

"Esteemed chancellors, I am Private Nori, I have just finished the registration as a Driver after awakening my Blade Yagi, under the supervision of Special Inquisitor Morag," Performing a military salute, he stood at ease, "Permission to move and speak freely Special Inquisitor?"

"Granted,"

"Thank you Ma'am," Nori relaxed, "In my hand, I have a core crystal, retrieved from the same crate Yagi's core crystal was shipped in, I'm sure Special Inquisitor has informed you of the circumstances of the crate, but at the risk of repeating what you already know, the crate was from merchant Bana, Driver Rex was able to detect the broken nature of the crystals as he passed them, he selected one at random and repaired, records show that the last time I attempted an awakening, I ended up losing almost fatal amounts of blood and requiring hospitalization for a week, Rex handed me the core crystal he repaired and with Special Inquisitor Morag's permission, I awoke Yagi from the core crystal," His Blade raised a hand. "Of course afterwards I immediately registered, putting the circumstances of the awakening onto my form, with my ether connection, I too can also feel the build up of ether that signifies this core crystal is damaged,"

"And why couldn't Special Inquisitor Morag? She has been a Driver much longer than you Private," One spat,

"Be that as it may," Rex interrupted folding his arms as he leant against the wall, "Morag Ladair has spent years surrounded by the core crystals, they seem to be on every single one of your transports, she and Brighid have grown accustomed to the ether build up, to the point they have filtered it out without realizing, which is why myself and Nori can in fact feel the disturbance, Yagi because he is a new Driver, not used to the ether flow and so more sensitive to the build up, myself because I have been a Driver for long enough with functioning core crystals, I have fought crystal collectors enough to know when a core crystal is damaged, as they most often are when collected by the bounty hunters, after damage occurs a core crystal is unable to properly cycle, collect and release ether, causing it to build up, if left for too long, a damaged core crystal will simply self-destruct, trying to awaken a core crystal can have varying effects, depending on how long it has been left to build up, if it were simply a minute or two, there would be nothing, a few hours would result in mild pain, a few days results in physical damage to the bone, a few weeks and the muscles are at risk, left for a few months and the individual could may well lose their arm entirely, any longer than that results in death, without fail,"

"You know this how boy? You are no older than the street rats running about our,"

"I'm older than Emporer Niall over there, ever since I awoke my first Blade I've done nothing but study them, learn how they work and what they are, how they manipulate ether, I've spent countless hours just writing notes on how the more skilled of Blades can manipulate ether to act as clothing, I have entire notebooks on how their weapon is formed upon awakening and how they are unable to change it regardless of how skilled they are with ether manipulation," Not entirely true, Mythra and Pneuma both altered their weapon, the Monado into the Aegis sword and then into the Aegis blade Pyra used. They were the only current exception to the rule though. His limit to ether manipulation was changing weapons slightly to combine two at once. He was no Perdido, quad-wielding was definitely too much for him right now. The dexterity was not there. Mythra and Pyra's swords and Nia's scimitar were enough for him right now. Demonstrated by how he fought Malos on the ancient ship. "Due to my studies I have become far more sensitive to the flow of ether, I'm sure that Emporer Niall has felt the odd flow of ether coming from the docks?" The young leader nodded slowly, "That is due to the build up from the broken core crystals, Nori, if you could please hand the core crystal over so they may all feel it," The soldier followed his instruction as Rex continued, "Now I'm aware that since you are not Drivers, you will not have a sense for the ether, but I'm sure you can all feel the pure heat coming from the crystal? If you were to hand it to your emporer, he too would feel the ever growing store," True enough, Niall hissed out as his hand was burnt, dropping the crystal. Signalling with his head, Nim walked past Rex. Taking the injury in her hands, she begain healing the burn. Rex merely picked up the core crystal and held it above his head. "Now if you will give me a moment," Once again repairing the crystal, he threw it over to Morag. "How does it feel now?"

"Calmer, pleasantly warming, like a hot drink on a cold day," It was thrown to Nori, "Private, if you,"

"Now hold on a moment!" Once chancellor stood up, "How are we to trust you actually fixed the crystal? We can admit that it was broken, but how are we to know you fixed it?"

"Simply put I do not trust you to pass it around once again, instead awakening the Blade as soon as it reaches you, any of you, however perhaps this may help," Holding up his hand, he expertly caught it when Nori tossed it over. "If Emporer Niall can hold it again, without being burned, will that prove it to you all?" Silence, "Well tough because that is going to be all you get," Niall took it in his other hand warily. This time he did not hiss, nor reflexively drop it. Instead he hummed and smiled,

"My cousin is correct, it radiates a much calmer warmth, like good company on a summer's night, it does not burn as it did moments ago," Handing it back so Rex could throw it back to Nori, he nodded, "Please, proceed,"

"Private Nori, attempt to awaken a Blade from this core crystal," The man did as asked and repeated his actions from earlier in the day. After a moment of anticipation a regular humanoid Blade appeared, weilding a pair of knuckle claws.

"Heya, name's Toshi, here to help however I can,"

"Hi Toshi, my name is Nori, I'm your Driver, over there is Yagi, my first Blade and now your partner," Nori nodded as he gestured to his other Blade.

"Now, challencors, you probably all assume that Toshi here is a fire element, when in fact, he is a wind, you can tell by looking at the aura around his knuckle claws," Rex clapped his hands, "So are there any non-believers in the crowd?" No voices of dissent arose as Niall stood up.

"Thank you Rex, perhaps we can ask you to aid us in making sure our other suppliers aren't giving us damaged goods? Maybe teach some of our Drivers such skills as the detection and repairing?"

"It took me a long while to learn, but I suppose it would be much easier with a teacher instead of just fumbling like I did," He shrugged, "I'll see if I have time, but with Torna getting too big for their breeches, I have other priorities,"

"Understandable," Niall nodded, "Then I will take whatever you can offer Rex, now onto another matter, Bana is the one responsible for this shipment?"

"It's very likely that all of his shipments are damaged, you can never trust Bana with so much as your lunch, if I can ask Morag, Brighid, Toshi, Nori and Yagi to leave, Kim, you too, I need a private audience," Morag looked to her cousin, whod nodded.

"If there is a disturbance, you will know immediately," He assured them, "I have Aegaeon with me, I shall be fine," The group all slowly left, Morag looking to Rex, motioning that she would be watching him. "The chamber is completely soundproof, now we shall not be disturbed again, please Rex, continue,"

"Good, now, if I may begin with Bana, you cannot trust him, at all, he is a double crossing deflecting dubious Nopon of a merchant, he once made a deal with Torna, that I had to do, aggravatingly," He added, "They weren't taking no for an answer, so I sabotaged their plan," He grunted, "They didn't take kindly to it, they ended up killing me once we found the Aegis, hence how I have this," Pulling his collar down to show the core crystal part in his chest, he let go and continued, "It's how I've become so skilled with ether, I've had several decades to learn, after which, I began making my moves against Torna with Nia as a double agent, I have other agents in the hierarchy, but it is harder to reach some moreso than others, which is why I am pursuing Torna with a small band of Blades, instead of risking the information getting leaked by using a lot of people,"

"Why tell us?" Niall leant forwards in his seat, "Surely you realized the security risk of such a move?"

"Of course I do Niall, but I'm also aware none of your chancellors would want Morag put in danger and since she will be joining my quest, they shall remain quiet for now,"

"You would use my cousin as a hostage? As insurance?"

"No, never, which is in part why I am not telling her what I am telling you, should she be told, Torna could and would, use any means to get information from her, whether it be bribes,"

"Never," Niall scoffed,

"Or downright torture," That caused the emporer to stiffen, "If she remains in the dark, she will be safer, on that you have my word,"

"And why should we trust the word of a man that appears to be twenty-four but talks as if he is eighty?"

"Oh you silly little boy," Rex laughed, "I have lived much longer than that, you believe I was twenty-four when I became the Aegis driver? No, I was only fifteen, as the rumours say, the Aegis Drivers can appreciate a much longer lifespan than the average Idonline, which is how old Amalthus the old codger is still alive, despite it being over three hundred years past his expiration date," The fellow Aegis Driver was a thorn in his side on every loop, he was about ready to shot the shrivelled nuts off the blue fucker and watch him writhe in pain. "I keep the appearance of a mature human because of the extended lifespan, but thanks to the fact the Aegis also split her lifeforce with me to save my life, I age a damn sight slower than normal, meaning that even if I was a hundred and forty-five, I could look anywhere between it and fifteen years old, depending on how I was feeling that morning," A silence spread over the room, "I could live until your grandchildren die and look younger than they are now," Several hands slammed onto the benches as voices began yelling for his impudence and rudeness. One notion was quickly spread and agreed upon.

"If you do not work with us against the Urayans, you should hand over the Aegis so that we may use it properly!" That caused Pyra's sword to fizzle into his hand, swinging it widely with a trail of fire in the air.

"THAT IS ENOUGH FROM YOU!" He barked out, silencing the room, "I will not be using Pyra against anyone except Torna and those wishing to destroy Alrest, and this properly you speak of, it is the same way Torna would use her power, to destroy those who stand against them, you do not wish to have Pyra to ensure peace or so you may fight against some grave threat, you wish to simply have the bigger weapon and force those you do not like to surrender! I will neither hand over Pyra for you to use nor will I raise a finger against the Urayans until they pose a threat to the greater good of Alrest," A consensus quickly retorted,

"Then Mor Ardain shall not ally itself with-,"

"That is not your call to make Chancellor Roki," Niall interrupted coldly, "It is mine, do not overstate your position or I will have expelled from these chambers and arrested for conspiracy against the empire, sit back down," Rex smirked, through many loops he had underestimated Niall and his empathy clouding his judgement as a leader. However he'd overstepped his boundaries in one loop and quickly learned that Niall was fucking terrifying when he wanted to be. And that didn't even begin to include anything he could do on the battlefield. Right now the young leader was leaning to one side. Elbow rested on the arm of his throne, fist supporting his cheek. His face held no emotion but his eyes held a cold fury only the chancellors could bring out. "As it stands I myself and vying against the preparations for war while the Queen of Uraya and I organise the peace treaty, if I were to talk to her about Bana's double crossings and alert her to the issue that Rex brought to our own ignorant attention, it would stand to reason that we can  at the very least co-operate and make a war redundant, the resource boom that would accompany it would also be far, far greater than anything we could gain from fighting them, or do we need to revisit your estimations for the cost of an invasion?"

"No, your majesty," Roki bowed his head as he seated himself. Rex nodded quickly in thanks. Niall waved a hand.

"Rex, you have brought a grave danger to our attention and if my sister's statements are as iron clad as they always are, you are also not only alerting us but assisting us in the locating, fighting and arresting a group of weapon manufacturers operating illegally on Ardanian soil,"

"Oh it's worse than that," Rex laced his fingers together, "Not only is the manufacturer operating illegally, but they are infringing on the intellectual rights of one of my friends and attempting to recreate artificial Blades, such as the one seen with my Nopon companion, furthermore they are also using these as a way to build up their own private militia to attack both major powers, but also selling some of them, many of them, to Torna, for gold they have stolen from your and the Urayan's ships, in fact they purchased one of your own ships with counterfeit gold,"

"Really?"

"On the Architect, but do not fret, I have already worked with Morag to reclaim your stolen vessel, it is actually the very same ship we arrived on, the Maelstrom as he called it,"

"That, we sold that to a Nopon tradesman," Aegaeon stared at him, "You mean to tell me,"

"Yes, the one comitting all these crimes is the same Nopon that is selling you faulty core crystals, Bana," Niall nodded,

"We must have a warning put out at once, send a messenger to the other Titans, include Leftheria and Uraya both, we must meet at once to warn them of the danger this Nopon poses at once,"

"My group and I are already planning to take Bana down at his factory,"

"Morag told us, you would use the Maelstrom, taking the shipment of crystals and a group of soldiers with you, moor up at the place you believe him to be hiding in and catch him unawares,"

"Yes, another of my informants sent a coded message to me while I was in Gormott, Torna plan to recieve a shipment in a few days, if we take time to prepare, chances our my agent can stall long enough for us to capture at least a few of them, if not reunite with me and share the intel they have aquired," Mikail had done and will do no such thing. Rex just knew how to get through to the blond casanova-wannabe. Mainly appealing to his better judgement and the promise of stopping his pain. Plus he had the locket that he'd given him on a previous run to cement his trust in the brunette.

"You have aided Mor Ardain in a monumental way Rex, in fact, if we are to end our trade deal with Bana, we should have enough to revitalize the economy and continue our research into turning Temperantia a habitable Titan for us when ours finally loses it's power," Niall bowed his head, "Mor Ardain is in your debt, whatever we can do to repay you, consider it done,"

"I would not ask for anything unless I greatly needed it Niall, that is not why I am in the business of helping people, but with the reforming of my group I find my own ship is quickly becoming too small for us all," The emporer nodded with a wry smile,

"If that is the case, I suppose you could keep the Maelstrom in your possesion, give that it was your services that reclaimed it for us before we even knew it was stolen, it should suffice for your crew, are you sure there is no other reward you would ask for?"

"I could not take anything from you, knowing that I only get it because people would be hurt had I not acted, I have gold enough for myself and my crew, perhaps a recommendation?"

"To whom?"

"Me, if you are to give me the Maelstrom, I should know a decent place to get furniture for it,"

"You would not perfer it be gifted as a reward? We could give you the finest in all of Alrest should you ask for it,"

"Thank you, but no, my Aunt has always told me that working for something makes it worth more, and if I were to recieve it from you, one could argue I have yet to work for it," He smiled, bowing his head, "Thank you Niall for your most generous offers, but perhaps it would be best to discuss how I am to help repair the core crystals Bana has sold to you?"

"Of course, and you will be paid for your services on each shipment, the lessons to our own Drivers and finding if any more of our sellers are giving us broken crystals," Niall smiled fondly, "It is the least we can do, so please do not refuse this, otherwise the council may attempt to take advantage of your giving nature,"

"Then I humbly accept your offer Emporer Niall and shall await your message informing me the paperwork and litigation are all organised," 

"Thank you for your time Rex, this meeting is adjourned," With that, the council began filtering out, Rex and Niall shaking hands before parting ways. Cracking his neck as the door closed behind him, Rex rolled his shoulders.

"Right, now to trick a trickster,"

Chapter Text

Aboard the Maelstrom, Rex stared at the core crystal in front of him. Nia had found it in a barrell just inside the woman's changing room for the hot spring. It was fully operational, no damage at all. The barrell itself had practically been in plain sight. Which begged the question why hadn't anyone else opened it? It was widely known among Alrest, any containers not within a private property or clearly labelled were free for anybody to open. You could take whatever you wanted out of there or drop whatever you wanted into it. Many just became public bins, so were painted black and put on the street to be as such. Several were buried by the more secretive or adventurous. A lot of them were just left out in the open by explorers, since they were in such hard to reach areas. Rex knew where each of them were exactly. He had a map of each city, level and wild zone in one of his books, marked with good foraging locations, key places to go or avoid, salvaging points that often brought good items to sell, or things that people needed for one of his 'quests'. He even had places that would require ether, or elemental manipulation, such as the miasma they always encountered in Uraya. Roc had taught him how to do it himself though, so many of them were simply permanent issues he could wave through, instead marking it down and getting the right Blades to help him. It irked him that he couldn't figure out who was leaving core crystals, core chips, accesories an unbelievable amount of gold or even Overdrive Protocols in these containers. Amalthus wasn't that generous, despite his duplicidous appearance and attitude. Mor Ardain were already struggling with resources so they had no chance. Uraya was hogging everything they could in case war broke out, so not them. Leftheria didn't really get involved in the rest of the goings on so they were out. Temperantia was a wasteland, so nobody there to do it, Gormott was just an extension of Mor Ardain, so no resources to spare there. The Architect wasn't going to bother doing something like that and Torna wanted to keep their core crystals, so putting them in a place the public could freely take them was dumb, even for Malos.

He sighed and shook his head, grabbing the core crystal. He took out a different notebook and flipped thorugh the pages, until he found the list he was looking for. Morag needed a second Blade, there was no excusing it. Even in their first run when he didn't know what was coming, the Special Inquisitor needed more than just the fire Brighid. Fortunately he could awaken any of them, give them the upgrade to Mark Two Blades and then give the ether connection to Morag. Perhaps he should offer Brighid the update? A small power reduction when on her own to double her power when within range of Morag. Given that they had a red ribbon to increase their range further, she could probably be at one end of Alba Cavanich while Morage stood beside her cousin in the throne room and still enjoy double the power. He leant back in his seat and ran his finger down the list. Brighid was a TNK, class Blade better known as the tank, which was pretty much just the damage sponge. Thanks to his work on Poppi, the artificial Blade could roll change between ATK, an agility based, offensive style Blade and TNK. Luckily that meant he could multi-class as an ATK and HLR, the less powerful but necessary field-medic. Dromach, Nia and Nim all fell into the HLR category, Gorg, Pyra,  Mythra and Pneuma were all ATK. Sever remained his only TNK class. Discounting Poppi in the element count due to the nature of Poppiswap, they had three Water, one Earth, two Fire and a Wind Blade. Mythra was of course a Light and Pneuma was also able to pick her element. Ontos classified as an ATK but he didn't really have an element. The runaway Aegis was always indecisive, and so relied on everyone else to make the decisions, even when he preferred a certain answer. Could he ever give Rex a straight answer though? Every conversation with him made Rex want to pull his hair out. Not Rex's, no he wanted to pull Ontos' silver hair from his scalp and punch him in his non-existant cryptid brain.

Getting off track. With a slap to his cheek, he ran back down the list. An element they didn't have, perferably TNK for Morag. Perhaps he could have Morag earn Sever's respect enough to also be his Driver? Rex wasn't sure how that would work, but he knew it would remove the need for an Overdrive Protocol. Perhaps Sever couldn't choose another Driver, just disconnect from Rex and be weaker. No, that's not how he planned the update to work. He should just see how that worked. Regardless, even if Sever chose Morag as  Driver, the Special Inquisitor only had two blade to Rex's four. (Six if you counted Mythra and Pneuma as different Blades, which he did) Checking his list again, he hummed, first narrow down to the elements they didn't have. That was easy, no Ice, Lightning, Dark or Light. Light element didn't occur in any regular Blade. There was only one unique Blade to have the Light affinity, KOS-MOS. Though the computer-like Blade seemed to be the only one able to refuse his Master Driver summon unless he got Pneuma involved. Or T-elos, though he could never get them to admit it was due to the feelings they harboured for one another. Otherwise it was only Poppibuster, which wouldn't be ready yet, Corvin, who was only stored in a very special core crystal or Shulk, who wasn't even a Blade. Ontos' connection to the  Proto-Monado wielder allowed him the ability to harness ether into the Light element. Unconscious though it was, since he had acces to Ontos' refracting ability to pick elements but only used Light. In fact Ontos creating their simulatory universe also meant Fiora was able to choose her own element, yet believed Wind to be the only thing she could manipulate. It was the idea of Homs as a species that gave Rex the solution to the ether balancing in Mark Two Blades.

Shulk and Fiora were able to act as a completely individual entity when they got the Alrest Linkring working. Which had led to him studying their powers and comparing their damage to his own when they acted as Blades versus self-powering entities. However their assitance there was not going to help him figure out which Blade Morag could use. Perhaps she would work well with Godfrey. Both had the sense of justice and duty, indeed Morag had been able to summon him once by complete chance. Rubbing his chin, he continued to ponder. Morag didn't have to be TNK only, she did perform incredibly well as a multi-class ATK/TNK. Perun could be a good match then, her ATK megalance would give more reach than the whip swords, but it had more control than Godfrey's shield hammer. Morag was a strong individual but even Zeke in his eight belted glory had a hard time limiting the follow through of the weapon. Rex had picked up notes after every loop and could only really come to the conclusion it was better to move with the weapon, letting it swing you around as much as you swung it. That effectively amounted to spinning around and slamming it into the ground. Godfrey was a good TNK but the Shield hammer needed a weapon chip to help reduce the intertia. A chip they could only get on Indol annoyingly. Putting an erasable marking next to Perun's name, he closed the book and picked the crystal up again.

"Hey," A finger poked his forehead. Nia stood beside his chair, looking at him with concern. "The guys are ready to go, Brighid's got the soldiers below deck," Slowly she took the core crystal from him and laid it to rest on the desk. "You've been staring at that core crystal like it's insulted your entire lineage and your girlfriend,"

"If someone insulted you they'd get worse than a look," He answered without thinking. Eyes widening as his brain caught up with his mouth. "Not that, I, uh, umm,"

"We, we've been together?"

"Well, more than one loop we've been, intimate, I won't say sexual because, well, we haven't, but intimate and willing to put that label on us, yeah," He rubbed the back of his head. "But in some loops, you prefer to just kinda, hang out, it's not, not all of them that you, so I know if,"

"That makes this so much easier," She huffed out, "Because I've been trying to figure out how you feel since you started flirting with me at the Trade Guild," He sat up straighter in his seat. "Y'know my first thought was a womaniser, then you knew secrets about me, so I figured you were some creep, then you actually let me, be me, it explains how you knew I was a Flesh Eater, it explains why you were so fixated on the, the, update? Is that what you called it? Nevermind, that, you can go over that later," Softly sitting on his lap, she put an arm around his shoulders. "I'll admit, it was pretty brave agreeing to let me kill you after you did the job, was it getting boring letting Jin do it?"

"I'd rather have that a thousand times than lose you Nia, and I'll suffer it a thousand more times for you to stay," Taking her free hand in his, he put it against his chest. "I, due to the injury Jin gave me, I, there's no pulse, I have no heart, the segment is acting as a substitute, using ether instead of air, while it helps my body grow a new one,"

"Oh Architect, I-I can feel the ether,"

"Can you?" He looked up to her face, "Because I need you to know, no matter how many times I have to loop, this ether heart of mine beats for you and when I get my human heart back, the only reason it will beat, is you,"

"How can you be so mushy over such a morose thing? Rex you don't have a heart, that's not some romantic,"

"No, but," Keeping her hand on his chest, despite her trying to slip away, "I do mean it, I'm going to escape this time loop, just so I can be with you, I've tried other people, other Blades, Gormotti, Urayans, Ardainians, I've had my cake and ate it too, but none of them, not one, holds a droplet to you Nia, I realized it lifetimes ago, when I tried moving on after watching you forget me for the millionth time, I can't and I won't, because no matter what I do, what I try, I'm yours Nia, and there's nothing I want to do to stop it,"

"You dopey bastard," She whispered lovingly, "Getting all gushy on me, we've got a job to do," Wiping her eyes with her sleeve, she smiled at him, "Once this is done you're taking me on a date alright? Our evening at the hot springs got interrupted after all," Rex let out a laugh as he realised he too had begun crying at some point.

"Of course Nia, how's the best dinner on Mor Ardain with a rest in the hot springs before some late night stargazing sound?"

"The best on Mor Ardain? What, is the best in Alrest too expensive?"

"That's in Leftheria when we cook together," He smiled, "We normally make something with fish and vegetables, but that's still to come yet," Letting her hand go to wipe her tears away with his thumb, he looked into her eyes. "Now, I think I sent our conversation off the rails just now, what were you coming in here to say?" She began to play with his hair.

"Nothing that can't wait, Nori knows how to cast off and you told Sever the rough area we need to be in, I was just coming in to let you know we should be leaving soon, Brighid is just getting waiting for the incoming ships to moor up before letting Tora know to start the engines," They sat in silence for a moment, "Hey, so, why were you staring at that core crystal so intently?"

"Oh that? I'm just trying to figure out who we need next,"

"W-what?"

"Yeah, well, with Tora and Poppi being our shields, Morag being the striker and me as the medic, I'm trying to figure out who would work best next, so far I think Perun, so that Morag actually has an ATK Blade instead of just trying to use Brighid as an ATK when she's a TNK, we could always try and get Aegaeon out onto the field before we leave Mor Ardain, but that means getting another TNK to protect Niall, and he's a Water so there's no elemental diversity, honestly with Fire, Wind, Water and Earth, Ice opens up four more combo pathways, Lightning opens up just as many and Dark only opens up three,"

"Combo pathways?"

"When we use the Special Arts, if we link them together in certain ways, the ether flows mix in a way that does extra damage, here, pass me that notebook," Flipping to a page once he found it, he continued. "So if we used a Special Arts, we'd go down the Water path, which means Nim can use a level two Special and Sever uses a level three to force our enemy over, or you and I can just use a level two and three after that to scramble the ether flow and attract monsters to fight our opponent, it also forces team mates to move away from each other, so it's good against a group of Drivers especially or you and I can use a level two special and have a Dark Blade use a special three to prevent reinforcements arriving, no I'm not entirely sure how that one works either,"

"Or here," She pointed to the Earth branches, "Nim could use a level one, Pyra uses a level two and then Sever can forcefully knock them down?"

"Yeah exactly that,"

"So what does shackle Driver and Blade mean?"

"It warps the ether flow in such a way that it can temporarily restirct ether transfer from the Driver to their Blade, or vice versa, depending on which we seal,"

"Affinity down?"

"Monsters have affinities, like Blades and Drivers, it makes an opponent's strongest move weaker, Self-Destruct doesn't actually cause an opponent to self-destruct, but it does cause their ether build up to backfire damage them instead of us, meaning they need to recharge their Arts again, Back Attack just means their rear guard ether shield is weaker, so we can do more damage,"

"H-how did you learn all of this?"

"The loops, mainly, but I had the help of some Drivers we meet along the way," He hummed lightly, "Especially when it's used on us, or me I should say,"

"Aww, are you salty that some monster got you with a..." She looked at the chart "Blowdown? Awwh," Kissing his temple as she giggled, he smirked,

"No, got me with a Stentch, on Temperantia, it took five showers to get rid of the smell and you wouldn't even hold my hand for three days, three!" Nia giggled lightly at his antics, "D'you know how hard it is to sleep on your own after sharing the bed with someone you care about?"

"We used to share a bed?"

"We, uh, well I, there's not much I can say to explain it's just, well, you're normally very cold at night, I like to sleep cold and it just so happens that thanks to Pyra being a Fire Blade, I'm also very warm naturally, you like to cuddle in the night, especially when we get to Tantal, you practically fuse to me the moment we get near snow," Nia looked thoughtful for a moment before grinning.

"Well it is true Gormotti like to nap in warm places," Adjusting to sit sideways on his lap, she leant onto his shoulder. Rex chuckled, "Shush, nap time," He rubbed her back in circles.

"Sure thing," Leaning back in his chair he closed his eyes. A bit of rest should help clear his head.

He woke up to someone throwing themself against the door. At least that's how it sounded. Nia was startled awake, her gormotti side showing through. As she scrambled from him, her nails scratched his arm and legs. "I'm awake," He mumbled, quickly standing up, she gave him an apologetic look. Rubbing his arms lightly, he walked over to the door. Another series of rapid knocks, as he opened it slowly. "Yeah,"

"Uhh, Rex," Nori was stood apprehensively at the door, "Uh, we, uh, we got some, some guys on deck, uh," Rex sighed and waved a hand.

"Oh, it's just Zeke and Pandoria," He shook his head, "Ask them where Turters is, that should keep them busy until we make land," Nori erred,

"Uh, what, who exactly is Turters?" Rex dragged his hand down his face.

"Actually, forget about it, Nia, come on, we've got to go deal with some invaders, Nori, keep close, I'm going to show you how to deal with decievers," They walked down the corridor to the main deck. Zeke and Pandoria stood together, confident against the stares from Blades and soldiers around them.

"Ah Master Rex," Dromarch hummed, "These two seemingly landed on our ship by jumping from the titan, they claim to be,"

"Thank you Dromarch, you can go back to your catnap," The Beast Blade nodded his head gratefully. Pyra came over, making her confusion and apprehension apparent. "Alright, Blade Eater, Prince of Tantal, Messenger or whatever of Indol, you can tell Amalthus that he can suck my dick, tell your father he needs to stop pretending to be Addam's descendant," Sufficiently cowed, Zeke stared in shock and horror. "You're listening, good, now you better have a good reason for distrubing my mission to get my agents out od Torna, bring Bana to justice and save Alrest or so help me,  I'll take those eight belts and beat you with them,"

"I, well, that certainly was a greeting," He began, "However you are mistaken Aegis weilder, I am here to find out if you are of pure heart enough," Spinning on his heel to spread his arms, he was abotu to continue when Rex hummed.

"Uh huh, this is an intersting sword, two-hander am I right?" Zeke whirled right back around to see Rex inspecting his weapon. Pandoria also seemed greatly alarmed. Zeke held his hand out to try and dismiss the sword from Rex's grip. "I've trained with ones like this to get use to the one and a half-hander Pyra uses, still it's lighter than the three and a half-hander I can use when I put two of 'em together,"

"W-what? How did you?"

"Did Amalthus not tell you Zeke? The Master Drivers get special abilities unlike other Drivers, such as extended lifespans, higher ether control and the ability to overwrite ether connections, Pandoria isn't your Blade right now, she's mine,"

"That is enough!" Zeke was incensed, "You are clearly all to willing to,"

"Tell me Zeke, if there are two Aegis' and I'm Pyra's, who do you think is Amalthus' Aegis?"

"W-what?"

"You heard me Crown Prince of Tantal," Rex snapped, "The Indoline you work for is a Master Driver, who is his Blade? Because it's not Fan La Norne, that's for sure, you know of the Aegis Was don't you?" Zeke took a step back, Pandoria's sword fizzled into the holder on his back. 

"Y-you're lying,"

"Am I Zeke? I'm doing what I can to save Alrest, now tell me, what has Amalthus actually done? Aside from put his arse on a throne and claim the title of Praetor? What has he done? Gone down to the Mor Ardainian chambers and snapped some fragile egos? Gone to Gormott and repair the issues that Mor Ardain couldn't? Has he even tried looking at the problems Bana causes? Well?" There were plenty of things on the list of things Amalthus didn't do, it swamped everything someone could even suggest he's done, with nothing they could prove. Zeke stared at him for another moment, "You know it as well as I do, there's only one Aegis Amalthus could be the Driver of and look at how that turned out, the Tornan Titan sunk in a stupid war he orchestrated, a terrorist group taking the name lead by his Blade aiming to destroy Alrest and him sat on his precious little crap seat both thumbs twiddling up his arse doing nothing!" Zeke glared at him, "You want to call me a liar? Go the actual fuck ahead, but before you do, remember which one of us is wearing an eyepatch for dramatic effect,

"How dare you! My shining,"

"No!" Rex turned on his heel, "Nope, not now, not ever, not today good sir! Lieutenant Nori, get Toshi and Yagi to throw these intruders overboard, I don't care what else they say, I want them off my ship, I'm returning to my quarters, do not let them disturb me, otherwise if any assitance is needed, you know where to find me,"

"Aye aye Captain!" Nori nodded

"W-wait a moment!"

"No, you Zeke are known for your abysmal luck, you didn't jump onto our ship, you fell, from up there,"

"Still we,"

"Were looking in the complete wrong direction, at the wrong Drivers, on the other side of Alba Cavanich, I mean come on man, you were fighting a monster with a weakness to Earth type ether, meaning you were at a type disadvantage,"

"Then how do you explain our arrival aboard your vessel,"

"Fuck knows!" Rex cried, "Because you're bad luck makes Kasandra look like a lottery winner! Seriously, how many times can you be sent flying by enviromental damage done by your moves?! Too many, that's how many, I still can't predict just how much fuckery your bad luck brings and it's always a new thing every bleeding time, so either drop the charade or get thrown overboard, I don't care which, now I'm going to sleep until we make landfall, Lieutenant Nori, the helm is yours, don't sink us,"

"Sir, yes sir!" Nori saluted "Toshi, Yagi, get these two below deck, either in the clouds or the common area, I don't care which,"

Rex enjoyed his captain's quarters. They were adjacent to his office, that door being the only one to the room. His slumber was interrupted again when there was a knock on his door. "Captain? I know you said not to disturb you before we make landfall, but we can see our mooring point and.... well,"

"Let me guess Nori, something's happened to Zeke?" He called out. Nia grumbled quietly and tried to nuzzle into his chest. It had been such a good nap too.

"I... Yeah," Nori sounded defeated, "I did my best Captain, honest I did, it's just, I.... there's no way he isn't cursed," He bemoaned, "The man nearly killed himself by slipping over and cracking his neck on the table below deck! We checked the floor and it wasn't even wet! How he went over is beyond everyone on board, then he nearly rounded a corner and impaled himself on Lady Brighid's sword, despite it still being clipped in place, I, we, aside from putting him in the brig, we don't know how else to keep him alive,"

"So what's he done this time?"

"Trapped himself in the Salvager's drop pod,"

"Is that where you guys dove when we were looking for the ancient ship?" Nia asked tiredly, still wanting to nap.

"Yeah, there are two small Titan's in there though, so how he trapped himself, I don't," A heavy sigh, "I'll be right there Nori, in the meantime get ready to deploy the auxiliary float Titans,"

"Sir," The solider began to walk away as Rex sat up and groaned. 

"Fucking dammit Zeke, this is why we can't have nice things," He wiped his tired eyes and huffed. "And we just got this one,"

"I take it he's bad news?"

"No, not, Zeke is a good man, but until we head to Tantal and he confronts his old man, he's, well, bad luck follows him like a shadow," Rex waved a hand, "He, it's hard to plan with him until Tantal, honestly even though it sounds bad I try and avoid him until then, it just, he's wrapped in some sort of curse that means every time I meet him, nature figures out a new disaster to through at us, at one point when we met him in Gormott, this massive Rotbart I think it was, just dropped out of the sky on us, incredibly territorial, even though it didn't have a territory at the time," He shuddered, "All of us crapped ourselves and then some, I didn't sleep right for a few loops after that, Zeke wouldn't stop muttering about an electric guitar only he could hear," Nia laughed,

"Sounds traumatizing,"

"It was, hell you decided to only eat Rotbart meat from then on just to get your own back on it, Morag wanted to try and kill the fucker shortly thereafter, Brighid too since their pride had been damaged or whatever," She giggled,

"Oh my Architect, it sounds like it would've been hilarious to see,"

"Tora never wanted to go near Gormott again, not even to his house 'meh meh', he said 'Tora not go house no more, be hermit Nopon like Great-great grampypon, wanderer Driver live Rex-Rex,' or so until he realized that I have a place on Fonsett Island I call home, then he got all hurt and tried to explore by himself,"

"Didn't get far?"

"Nia, he couldn't navigate his way off of Fonsett Island, he spent a couple hours lost on the beach directly next to the walkway off the Titan, he needed help finding the shops," With a smile he shook his head, "Right, c'mon, we need to get up, deal with Zeke before he can actually kill himself,"

"H-has that actually happened?" Nia asked, almost worried.

"No, he's come close, including causing a rock slide on Mor Ardain that sent him flying halfway to Leftheria, leaning on a broken piece of fencing and falling a few Titan peds from the harbour in Ysheva harbour into the Cloud Sea, on more than one occasion, I might add," A small groan before he stood from the bed, "Right, better sooner than later, let's get this prat out of his cage,"

"Am I to guess I can't laugh?"

"The complete opposite, I encourage all of those that witness it to laugh at his stupidity so that maybe one day he learns to judge how bad his luck can be before doing something,"

"Mikhail, Patroka!" Rex pleaded as weapons were drawn, "I don't want to fight you two," He didn't have much time, Tora and Brighid were bust clearing out the factory, not knowing the two Tornan member were here. Zeke was locked away in the brig of the Maelstrom but that didn't mean anything.

"Well then you're going to get hurt dumbass," Patroka sneered, Perdido's decimation cannon forming in her hand. Mikhail simply smirked as Cressirdus'  rockrending gauntlets formed. "Why not fight now? Start destroying the rest of the Titans by destroying Mor Ardain right now, it's what you plan to do isn't it?!" He deflected the attack with Ontos' sword, stumbling from the strength of the blow. Patroka was angry, she always was. It wasn't her fault about what happened to her, but the events she remained so cagey about left her in a perpetual anger. A traumatic type of anger, one that stems from not knowing how to feel, so just being angry instead. Feeling something as opposed to nothing. Patroka hated weakness, so hated herself for feeling weak, which only fueled that fire further. He shook his head.

"I'm not here to destroy anything! I just want to save the people I care about,"

"And why would you care for us Aegis Driver?!" Mikhail spat, "I've seen what that power does to,"

"To Amalthus," Rex cut in, getting both of them to pause as they readied to attack, "To Amalthus, to Addam, but not to me, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, but I don't have power, I have strength and that's the difference,"

"You still look down to,"

"I look down only to the cloud sea Mikhail, I have nowhere else to look anymore, whenever I look up I'm just reminded of the man that put us in this position,"

"You know the Architect? Puh-lease," Patroka snarled, "Just another false claim by a man given,"

"I can prove it to you, Malos wants to destroy everything, he wants to destroy Alrest, the Titans, the World Tree, even the Architect himself, I know because I've been there already," Putting the sword on his back again, he raised his hands.

"Rex," Nia hissed, "What are you,"

"I'll say this one last time," Surrendering to them, he reached into a pocket and threw the contents onto the ground in front of him. Mikhail and Patroka stared at the locket and the ring, shining on the dirty factory floor. "I don't want to fight you two, I just want to talk," Kneeling, he rested his hands behind his head. "If you don't believe me after everything, I won't stop you trying to kill me,

"Rex,"

"Relax Nia," He looked over his shoulder to her and smiled, "I've got this," Patroka dismissed Perdido's weapon and summoned her own cobra bardiche. Swinging it around, she put the tip to his throat, just under his chin. Despite this, Rex remained impassive and calm.

"You get one chance and one alone... talk,"

"I know you're hurting, I know something in you is making you angry, that you suffered and you hate yourself for letting it happen, I know you blame yourself for being weak and despise that fiction, more than that I know how to make the pain stop," His eyes drifted to Mikhail, "I know you are more than your quips and flirtatious remarks, you use it all to hide the scared and scarred boy you have tried burying deep inside of you, I know no matter how hard you try to lock it away, it keeps bubbling away just under your surface, threatening to break you and your conviction down to nothing, I know you fear being without reason and so latch onto whatever you can and justify it by whatever means, you blame yourself in part for not being enough to help save Torna, for not stopping Amalthus even if you never truly had a chance to, I know you harbour deep hatred for that man and all Drivers like him, but I refuse to be like him, I refuse to allow myself to fall to such depths, I'm Rex, not Amalthus and if that becomes a lie I will put a weapon through myself without hesitation," Patroka lifted his chin, forcing him to look her in the face. "I do not believe you to be bad guys, just the ones that are hurt and are refused the help at every turn, I know you think Jin is going to save you, but he can't, he won't, everything he's doing, everything he tries, it leads up to one thing and one thing alone, the destruction of Alrest, and you don't have to trust me to be the hero, or believe I am some cosmic saviour because I'm not, I'm just a salvager, given the power to help and dammit that's what I'm going to do," Her weapon wavered for a moment. "May I?" He gestured to her core crystal.

"What?"

"Heal you," Nia supplemented as Patroka let Rex get to his feet, bardiche still at his throat. She pressed a finger to her own yellow core crystal, "Like he did for me,"

"Impossible," Mikhail spat, "Even Amalthus,"

"Amalthus hasn't searched for the answers the way I did, once he realised his power would be in danger, he cancelled all attempts and left you to suffer and rot, but I have poured myself into my research and I've finally been given the right equipment to do it," Gently pressing his palm to where her core crystal was hidden, he closed his eyes. Her core crystal was tumultous to say the least. Just like it was on every loop he fixed it. Using her own weapon was making the divide bigger. So to heal her he'd have to either greatly dimish her power, or supply ether to reduce it himself. Choosing the latter option, he pulled his hand away. Her core crystal now shone a snow white underneath the cloth used to hide it. Rex stepped past her towards Mikhail, who seemed scared.

"I won't be another,"

"Mikhail, on my life, you are not an expirement any longer," His Blade Eater physiology made the process slightly different, considering his body could already produce human cells and the core crystal was coverting the ether from them into his longer lifespan and attacks. However he remained in a similar deficit. It was easily fixed though, so to covert him from Blade Eater into a full Mark Two Blade was quick. Encouraging them both to him, he took them in a one armed hug each. Mikhail remained still in pure shock.

"Y-y-you stopped it, t-the pain," He whispered, a hand moving to Rex's back, holding onto him. "Y-you fixed me,"

"I didn't fix you Mikhail, you were never broken in the first place," Patroka's knees gave out, dragging both men down with her slightly. "It's okay Patroka, it's alright, you don't have to be strong anymore, we've got you, I've got you," Soothing her as gently as possible, he rubbed circles into her back soothingly. "You're both okay," Mikhail buried his face into Rex's shoulder as Patroka began wailing into his chest. It was nothing new to the Master Driver, in a lot of cases the two were overcome with relief, joy or a mixture of the two. Patroka moreso than Mikhail, most certainly due to the different types of trauma. Mikhail gripped his shirt as if he'd fall without it. Slowly crouching to the ground, he let Patroka put her entire weight onto him as she crumbled into herself. Mikhail just remained silent as he wept. Nia, Sever and the rest watched on as Birghig, Morag, Tora and Poppi arrived. No-one dared interrupt.

Mikhail and Patroka sat with Cressidus and Perdido. After getting back aboard the Maelstrom and freeing Zeke and Pandoria from their confinements, he'd taken the four new members to his quarters with Nia. He explained all that he could to them, the research, the maths and how it all worked. The two Mark One Blades were more than happy to take the choice, becoming Flesh Eaters and then full Mark Two Blades. All openly expressed hesitation at allowing themselves a new Driver so soon after finding an impossible freedom, Rex accepted it as it was, only asking they speak with Sever as he'd tried keeping the fact he missed them to himself. He also stated they would be welcomed to the crew with open arms, if that is what they wished to do, otherwise the cover story would be that they'd asked for some time away from his anti-Torna missions and were simply going on a tour of Alrest. The Wind Blade had eagerly spoken to them all as a group and taking Rex as a good starting point, offered to talk with them individually if they had personal uncertainties. Morag and Brighid were on guard for the time being, as to be expected. Though Zeke quickly proved that keeping him around was a good idea, since he was the comedic relief. Albeit unwillingly. Nori nearly threw him overboard when he fell down the common area stairs and broke the railing. Patroka and Cressidus nearly bust a gut laughing while Mikhail helped him up, also laughing but less so. "How many more agents do you have Rex?"

"More than necassary Morag, in fact Torna is mostly guys I asked to get close to Jin and Malos, some of them just got too deep, Ahkos is another one, he and his Blade need to be retrieved but getting the sleeper agent in him to wake up is going to be hard,"

"Y-you, what?" Her hands slammed on his desk, "Rex do you know what this looks,"

"I'm more than aware Morag Ladair," His eyes bore into her, devoid of emotion. Fingers laced together in front of his seat. "I'm also aware that if Bana escapes your hold at all, he'll got for an attack on the next meeting of the Titan leaders, hosted at Indol when Jin attacks your Titan excavation site and nearly incites a war,"

"Is that why you told my men to set course for Temperantia?" A sword was drawn, "That's a classified secret, how on earth do you know it's there?"

"I have sources that you won't believe, nor comprehend, the Aegis is more than just a powerful Blade Ladair, it's connected to every core crystal in Alrest, and I mean every single one," Not to mention the time loop or Ontos' insane foresight abilities. The sword was put to his neck, hovering inches away from his skin.

"Whatever source you have, you've just admitted to knowing a Mor Ardain state secret, I should kill you for that," Flicking his eyes up to look at hers boredly, he remained still.

"You're more than welcome to try Special Inquisitor Morag, however I'm sat in a chair, unarmed in a locked room, this looks less like a capital punishment and more like an assassination, tell me, how well would that go down?"

"As well as I needed it to," She frowned, eyes narrowing. "Why not attempt to stop me?"

"Simple, I don't need to," He shrugged, leaning back in his seat, the sword tip pointing to his face. "You need me alive, at the very least,"

"And why do I need that?" She questioned, pushing the sword further forwards.

"To repair your broken core crystals for one," He used a fingertip to move the blade away. "Two, I'm currently the only one with a big enough gun to keep everyone in line, you want Mor Ardain to go to war? No? Then I must stay alive, lest the Aegis fall into the hands of a corrupt senator, reason three, I'm the only motherfucker currently able to challenge Jin, Malos and even Amalthus, that means I'm the biggest gun of all and quite frankly, that's what you need right now,"

"A rather large ego for such a small vessel," A cold laugh,

"Morag, let's get one thing straight, even if I let you attempt to strike me down right now, Pyra would know, then Nia would know, then the rest, in ten short seconds, you'd have my entire group of Blades, a Nopon mechanic that knows your tech better than you and an artificial Blade that makes the one beating your men look like a joke, including three, count 'em, three double agents strong enough to join Torna, their Blades and the Blade Malos forcibly awakened for his cover," Standing from his seat, his posture displayed the gravitas of his words. "Now there are what, ten Ardainian soldiers on this vessle, including Nori, how many of them do you think you could evacuate before those ten seconds were up?"

"Do not threaten my men," Morag hissed, "Now I don't know how you got that secret, or what else you know, but I could tell from our first conversation on Gormott, there's clearly more than you admit happening,"

"Special Inquisitor, that's the first intelligent thing you've said in the last three minutes," He chided, "Obviously there's more than what I say, than the senators say, than even your cousin states, there's a war going on in the shadows of the Titans, one that will decide the fat of Alrest, with Torna and myself being opposing sides, now I'm trying to save everyone not just Mor Ardain, not just my people, but everyone the Tantalese, the Ardainian, the Urayan, the Leftherian, the Nopon, even the Indoline, but Amalthus will use Torna to destroy us all if I can't stop him and if anyone knows what's truly going on, they shall be a target also,"

"I can not work properly if I do not,"

"You have all the information you need Morag, what I am doing is not out of selfishness, nor a thought you couldn't handle yourself, indeed I know you can, incredibly well in fact, you are staunch in your beliefs and work with your cousin towards a better tomorrow for Mor Ardain, I wish for you and Niall to be able to continue doing that, if I were to tangle you in my web of truths, lies and fights, you would hardly make it out the same person you fell in as, Amalthus would do everything in his power to take your credibility away and mark you as a villain in this story, until even your cousin's allegiances were called into question, wherein he could stage a coupe and have one of his own men put into power, keeping certain things from you is for your benefit, not mine, it is an act of mercy and kindness, not mistrust,"

"So why are you telling me now?"

"I'm not," He stared at her, "Am I? No ears to hear, no words to report, you don't think I refused the modifications to the Maelstrom just because I didn't like the colours did you? Bana modified this vessel to be as secure as possible, which includes soundproofing this room so that he could discuss his corrupt business with the captains in private, once we walk out of this door, all we will have had is a civil conversation about what we are doing at Temperantia, since I don't know why Jin would head there of all places,"

"You've thought all of this out?"

"Of course I have Morag, when combating a threat like Amalthus, one must always treat everything as a risk to be addressed, it is the only way to survive the shadow game I play," The sword was put away, Morag adjusted her uniform.

"Very well," Taking her cap off and resting it on the desk, she sat back down in her seat, "Then perhaps you can explain to me why Jin would want our Titan excavation site of all things?"

"A distraction, they currently need to go and retrieve the Marsanes which is full of Artificial Blade like weapons and hidden somewhere on Mor Ardain after I got Mikhail and Patroka back, even they do not know where it has been moved to, since Ahkos is the one piloting it remotely,"

"Remotely? But,"

"The Marsanes isn't a Titan ship Morag, it's the last of the Tornan country's engineering, revolutionary transport, instead of Mor Ardain's weapons," His face grave as he continued, "Jin will likely the excavation site as a distraction by raising tensions and attempting to start a war, we need to stop him before he can, it should help keep diplomatic tensions low and raise awareness of the threat Torna pose,"

"And what of the shipment?"

"Allow them to believe they have outwitted us this time, prepare to retaliate in kind and make sure that they not expecting it,"

"A trap?"

"Exactly, I don't doubt that we will meet them in Uraya, after all, now they have information on Mor Ardain, the only other possible interference is Uraya, the fact of the matter is, they can simply ignore Indol as Amalthus is Malos' Driver and the closer Indol get to them, the bigger a danger he will be, regardless of the damage he does, Indol will aim to remain on the other side of Alrest, that makes our job harder thanks to the possibility of a pincer if they ever make their aligned goals obvious,"

"Y-you really have thought it through haven't you?"

"I must Morag, to ensure the survival of every innocent life in Alrest, I cannot let a single thing slip through my fingers, so my plans can't just be intricate, they must be a perfect web to ensnare all threats that could arise," Moving around his desk, he offered a hand, "I am aware that you are still unsure of me and my intentions, seeing as it is your mission to observe and conclude what they entail, your paranoia is well intentioned and I can't blame you for it, I will not ask you to trust me, but can I please ask for your faith?" Morag stared at him for a moment, her hand raising hesitantly.

"I do not know where this will go Rex, if you are lying to me, know there will be no place on Alrest safe enough for you to hide from me, but this once, I shall leave my faith with you and I pray you don't abuse it," She gripped his hand, shaking it firmly.

"I won't Morag, I could never," Now calm, they left the office walking out to the bridge. 

"Sir?" Nori turned from his position at the helm,

"The matters are all sorted Lieutenant," Rex nodded, "Maintain course, get the men ready for travel, make our journey half as long," Nori nodded, looking to him for a moment.

"Sir, yes sir,"

"Now," He stared across the white expanse ahead of them, "Bring me that horizon,"

Chapter Text

Morag continued to treat him with suspicion, even when they landed and disembarked. The Ardainian soldiers were all told to not fight the group, though they were all very wary of the ex-Torna fighters. Rex himself was given the most suspicion, he didn't doubt that Morag told them all to watch him. The moment he stepped out of line he would be thrown in the brig and shipped straight back to Mor Ardain for his execution for crimes against the Empire. None of it stopped him, or even slowed himdown however. The brunette marched forward, leading the group over the rough terrain towards the large excavation site. The Special Inquisitor and her Blade both insisted that the place was currently unoperational while peace talks were ongoing.

Rex ignored her claims and continued to lead them, making bets with Mikhail, Nia and Cressidus about the place. Mkihail bet that the whole place was operational and Morag was covering for it. Nia bet the place was shut down, Cressides was absolutely sure that Morag was having men shut the operation down while they were making their way over. He happily took the bets, taking advantage of the fact they were all too busy to remember he already knew what was going to happen. Zeke and Pandoria had been instructed to remain at the tail of the group and keep watch, should their abysmal luck return in spades during their walk. Rotbart weren't even native to Temperantia but Rex just couldn't eliminate the possibility that one could just drop from the sky again.

Nia walked beside him, catching his index finger with hers. They didn't hold hands, no that wasn't quite where they were yet. Still progress was progress and he could fight the compulsive need to tell Nia he loved her until she was ready to say it back. Nori, Yagi and Toshi marched with the group of soldiers behind the pack of Drivers, acting as the social bridge of sorts. Mikail was being his sociable self and asking about life on Mor Ardain after so many moons since he'd seen it. Quietly they moved in the direction of the excavation site, something that had the Ardainians even more wary of him, since he was the one leading them across the ground. "If we're lucky," He began, only to be interrupted by the sound of tumbling rocks. "Oh fuck it!" Taking off in a sprint, he left most of the party yelling behind him. Unfortantely they just didn't have the conditioning his body had. He felt the temptation to pull on Pneuma's power, to start flying and take the easy route. But he'd promised not to do it, not unless he was absolutely desperate for her help. So he denied that corner of his mind and pushed his body further.

Each step was as fast as possible, feet spending as little time on the ground. He pushed as much power into his legs as he could. Every pace cracked the ground beneath him. Craters in the size and shape of his shoes left at equidistant. "C'mon Ontos, lives are at stake here," The world greyed out, he felt time moving slower around him. Still he did not stop. Even Nia and Sever, who'd been able to somewhat keep up fell behind. A streak of afterimages shimmered behind him as he careened through the small valley leading to the excavation site. As a titan weapon came back to life, the rubble around it began falling. Rex only grit his teeth and moved faster. He ran up a large rock and leapt, landing on the falling debris and jumping between pieces, higher and higher he scaled. With one more great bound, he cleared the top and drew the blue Monado from his back. Spinning as he fell, he drew the ether into him, "Monado, CYCLONE!" Whipping up a wind even he could feel in this quasi-time distortion, Rex fell to the surface of the titan weapon. Jin was taken by surprise, barely turning before the wind sent him flying from his position. Not even hesitating, the brunette Aegis wielder turned to the control panel, "Monado, SHOOTER!" Making eight different slashes, he sent arcs of pure energy flying across the distance. They carved clean through the panel and severed each connector pipe. In seconds he'd shut down the weapon that had originally taken him two fights, a major loss and several minutes with levels of stress only possible with the risk of causing a war .

Calming down, the world faded back into colour and he walked to the edge of the weapon as it slowly lost the hum of power. His party and the Ardainian soldiers were still only half way across the excavation site. Weapons were trained on Jin and in the case of those manning the site, Rex too. The silver haired Flesh Eater got to his feet stumbling slightly. He looked up to the Driver that stared to him with colder eyes than he could ever manage. As the group moved in, he slowly drew his kodachi and got ready to fight. Everyone was ready, drawing their weapons and forming a semi-circle. "Stand down Jin," Rex called out from his vantage point, "The fight is over, you lost,"

"I will not lose, not until my goal is accomplished," Rex shook his head as he stepped off the edge, dropping to the ground. There were a few yelps of shock as he landed, but once people noticed he was unhurt, Jin was once again the target. An aura began to settle over the battlefield. Tora looked around in fright as Morag fought a shortness of breath and white knuckled her swords. The various Blades all suddenly became fatigued as Jin nearly doubled over. Pyra leant on Nia, who also was not doing very well. Rex fell to one knee, pain flooding his very being. 

"Fan la norne, stop!" He called out, watching the skin on his arm slowly grow paler. "Fan, stop!" On both knees and shaking arms, Rex suddenly couldn't breath. He began rapidly coughing up blood. The group quickly understood his situation and began crying out for her to stop too.

"STOP IT YOU BLOODY MORON, YOU'RE KILLING HIM!" Nia screamed over the voices, startling everyone around her. To her credit the amnesiac Haze suddenly saw Rex and startled long enough to drop her Art. Getting back to his feet slowly, he heaved the sword in both hands.

"You would still fight, in that condition?"

"You're one to talk bud, don't you have a popsicle to hang out with?" Trying to sound more confident than he currently felt, he knew that the blood trickling down his chin did him no favours. He arms would not stop shaking under the strain of holding a Monado, even as the ether flowed back into his body. "You're outnumbered and outpowered Jin, either surrender or run away, like you did when you tried to kill me the first time," Jin moved into a battle position, eyes scanning for a target.

"I may be outnumbered, but you are arrogant to think that means anything!" With his final word, he began to move towards Haze.

"Alvis.... please," Rex begged, taking weak steps. Once again the world greyed out, it was barely black and white as he moved. He covered the distance pathetically easy, rasing his sword to block the attack. Jin's face morphed into shock as the world snapped back into place. Rex could feel the beads of sweat rolling down his body in droves. "Like... I.... said Jin...... run!" Lifting both arms up, he felt the ether flow through his body into the vibrating sword, "Monado... BUSTER!!" Merely guiding it as he let gravity and inertia drop it, he felt the shock wave from the attack burst around him. Jin was hardly able to avoid it, with the kicked up whirlwind carrying him further from the group. One look to lock eyes with Rex and the Flesh Eater quickly retreated. Morag and her troops moved to chase after him when Rex stumbled slightly. Should sweat feel this heavy? Why did he taste metal again? 

"REX!" Nia screamed from somewhere, when did she get underwater? Even as he fell into the darkness, Rex glared at where Jin had stood.

"Heh, pussy," He grinned before his body hit the ground.

Only to immediately sit up in a bed. He heaved deep breaths and frantically pat his body down. "Both legs," Grinning as he clutched the limbs, he grabbed his arms, "Both hands, both elbows, shoulders, feet, ankles," Tapping away he continued to calm down, "Chest, crystal, head, hair, ears, eyes, nose, ten fingers, ten toes, teeth, my teeth!" His tongue ran all over his mouth, "Thirty-two, phew, tongue in place, last but not least," He threw the covers to the side, finding himself only in a pair of black shorts. Quickly moving lifting the hem, he peered underneath. "And my junk is still in place, thank above," Now calmer, he put two fingers on the core crystal segment and felt the ether pulse slow down. As he did, he came to a realisation, "Gotta pee," Climbing from the bed, he reacquainted himself with his captain's quarters and sighed. A private washroom sat in one corner. Shuffling into it, he took deep breaths and went about his business. As he washed his hands, he heard a yell. "Hello?"

"Rex?! Where the bloody hell have you gone?"

"I needed to take a leak," He opened the door to see Nia on the verge of a panic attack, "Are you, is everything okay?"

"Is, is, you nearly bloody died you idiot!" She stomped over to him and began battering his shoulder, "Stupid, dumb, thoughtless, arsehole!"

"Nia, Nia!" He grabbed her shoulders, "What happened exactly? All I remember is scaring Jin off,"

"Yeah covered in enough blood to make Nori's knockback look like a papercut,"

"What? I wasn't bleeding,"

"Yes, yes you were!" Another swat and Nia glared at him, "Whoever this Fan la norne is, she appeared, used her Art to forcibly stop our ether connections, shutting off your life support in the process, and only stopped when she saw you hacking up blood," She began to shake lightly, "T-then you get up, snap back at Jin, then you, you moved you crossed double the distance Jin did in three-quarters the time, we all saw you blur, once you stopped you were covered in blood, arms legs, like all your arteries had exploded, you were crying blood Rex, Jin probably retreated because you looked like death, hell if Nim, Dromarch and I weren't close enough you would've died, even Toshi had to help use keep you from fading," Suddenly her arms were around him as she pressed her face against his chest. "You, I, I really thought you were going to die, that I was going to lose you, I was, so, scared Rex, please, please promise me, promise you will never, ever do something like that again?"

"That, I, okay," He relented, wrapping his arms round her and resting his chin between her gormotti ears, "I promise to try and avoid situations like that, what happened after I passed out?" Nia just squeezed him tighter for a moment.

"You hit the floor obviously, Nori picked you up and we practically sprinted back to the ship with you, Pyra and I had to cut your gear off of you, you should be greatful nothing was bleeding around your crotch because your modesty was at the bottom of our list of priorities," A low growl of warning, "And if you scare me like that again, it'll be forfeit, understand me?"

"Of course dear," They rocked side to side softly

"Once we stopped the bleeding we took you from the mess hall to here, we left you on the bed and had a rotating watch on you in case your situation changed, good or bad,"

"How long have I been out?"

"About three days, Fan la Norne insisted we head to Indol for you to be checked by their healers, luckily we've been able to outvote her unanimously," Rex sighed lamely into her hair.

"Of course the one thing everyone unites behind without hesitation is a hatred for Indol and Amalthus, where's Gramps?"

"Comes and goes really, he's been on Temperantia trying to get back his fighting skills, he's been wiping out the weaker stuff, most of them can give him a decent challenge though, he should be back by evening, why?"

"Just, wondering, I imagine he wouldn't take it well,"

"No, no he didn't, had we not vouched for the Ardainians, he would've eaten all of them in seconds," Yup, that sounds like gramps. "For the record, he already outlined a space for him to rest on deck,"

"You think he'll fit?" Rex lifted his head back incredulously.

"He did, takes up half the space but he fits, and besides, we only really need from the mess stairwell to the stairs to the crows nest, we got plenty of room to move,"  Smirking up at him, she squeezed him one more time. "Right, now you get dressed before we let the rest of them know you're back in the land of the living," He sighed,

"Yes dea-ah!" Yelping as he hopped forwards, his hand rubbed his butt. Where Nia's palm had just landed a sharp crack. "Right, you can bugger off now, I'll be out there in a moment," Putting on the prototype suit he kept in storage, he sighed lightly. Taking stock of the items in his room, he quickly found that the crew had left a few things on Gramps. Namely a chest he absolutely did not want Morag to open yet. Hell if Nia opened it there'd be an arse whooping coming his way. However he was grateful they'd left it in the hut on Gramps' back right now. Leaving the room and walking with Nia, he smiled and hugged and shook hands. He wasn't manipulating them persay. It was just that he, he knew their tics, tactics, patterns. Using that was just proving he cared about them, that's all. Even as things calmed down and conversations settled, Haze still hadn't come close to him. So he took the initiative. "This seat taken?" Without waiting for an answer, he fell into it and faced the brunette.

"I, hello,"

"Hi, nice to formally meet you Fan, you can call me Rex," He smirked slightly, "Y'know normally after you nearly kill someone by accident, you don't actively avoid them,"

"I, I, I am sorry for what happened at the site, I was, I didn't know that my power would effect you that way,"

"I'm aware," He tapped the crystal segment in his chest, "This? It's currently sat in place of my heart, to allow me to live while it heals the damage, it's why Pyra over there is missing the chunk, I guess that kinda makes you match doesn't it?" A finger pointed to her own half crystal, "I don't mean to be rude but uh, where's your other half?"

"Oh, this? I," She hummed, putting a hand to the half, "Praetor Amalthus had to implant half of my core crystal into himself to save my life,"

"Do you remember your life before him though?"

"No," She whispered quietly, "I don't,"

"So he claims it was to save a life you don't remember?" Slowly she looked at the table, Rex gripped the handle of his cup tighter. Amalthus seemed to find no end of ways to piss him off. "If you could, would you want it back? The piece?"

"I," A few tense seconds of silence passed, "Yes, I would," Barely even whispering the words, Haze acted as if the thoughts themselves were treasonous enough to burn her. Rex nodded gently and sighed, "But I know it will not occur, I have made peace with that fact,"

"Good for you," Smiling supportively, he finished the sentence in his mind 'well I sure bloody have not'. Standing up, he smiled, "Well, I best check our heading, I take it everyone is retiring soon?"

"From what I can tell yes, everyone seems to be tiring," Bidding their farewells, he disappeared from the hall. Up the stairs and into the wheelhouse, he moved silently. Using several maps, a few starcharts and the view he could see from the window, Rex figured out where his trip would be and how long it'd take. Pouring over the maps, he looked over his shoulder to see Nia poking her head through the door. Nodding in greeting he returned to his cartography.

"Rex? Everyone else is goin' to sleep now,"

"I'll come to bed soon babe," Speaking without thinking he waved a hand over his shoulder, "I'll try not to wake you,"

"I, what?"

"You're going to bed now, I plan on staying up just a bit longer, so I'll try not to wake you when I come to bed," If his cognitive dissonance had been even a smidge lower, he would've realised what he'd just said and noticed Nia's atomic blush. With  a hurried agreement she darted from the room. For another few minutes, he looked over the maps and busied himself until he knew even Nia would be asleep. Then he slowly crept onto the deck and walked over to Gramps.

"Rex, you're awake, finally,"

"Sorry Gramps, I guess I pushed myself too far,"

"I'll say, so what are you doing up?"

"I need to go somewhere, without the rest of them knowing,"

"Keeping secrets Rex? That's not like you,"

"Plausible deniability Gramps, the less this crew knows the better,"

"Alright, what's our heading then?"

"North-north-East, for three thousand titan peds,"

"That's six thousand peds round trip my boy, you think we have enough time?"

"Wow Gramps, didn't realise you were too old for this, maybe I'll get a,"

"Bah you've made your point, you best just buckle in then," Silently the minor titan slid into the cloud sea and swam until he cleared the ship. Wings spreading, Azurda took to the air and quickly became a speck in the horizon. Rex quietly walked into the hut and put in the combination to open the battered chest. Inside was a set of Indoline robes and a ceremonial dagger. As it glint in the moonlight, he stared at the edge. Maybe one day he could stop covering it in blue blood. One day he would use it to chop vegetables instead.

Today was not that day.

Once again he leapt from Azurda's back, falling towards a large spire. Calling on Ontos again, he used a burst of wind to silently slow his descent. Landing in the fabric cover of a street vendor, he rolled onto the floor and sunk to a crouch. Dashing towards the large wall ahead of him, he used another whirlwind to carry himself above it. Now on the stairwell, he crept up towards the sanctum. Using the shadows, he slid past the patrolling guards and found a wall he could scale. Normally only praetorian guards could access further than the audience chamber. Or the study where international meetings, debates and treaties were held. Rex ignored all of this though, in favour of slinking through the building, expertly avoiding the patrols and the ether traps like he'd been doing for several decades now. Judging by the stars, Amalthus would be in his bedchambers right now. A well guarded, well secured room. The door under contact watch with guards posted outside of it twenty-four hours a day. Unfortunately the cleaning cupboard directly below did not have such security measures. Or any for that matter. 

Slipping through the door with practised ease, he opened the window and hauled himself out of it. Normally walls in Indoline were supposed to be unclimbable, to keep the people where Amalthus could manipulate them. The rule of thumb was that if he could see them, he could control them. However that also appeared to be in effect when the Preator slept. Which was just bad luck for him. For Rex? Not so much. The walls of the sanctum had been exposed to time and weather. Expertly finding the right footholds, he reached Amalthus' window and slipped into the room. On his bed in the middle of the wall, the blue man slept with his hands together on his chest. Silently Rex crossed the space and stood over him, dagger already in hand. He grit his teeth and lifted it above the other Master Driver's forehead. Where, plain as day the second half of Haze's core crystal was implanted.

In quick succesive movements, Rex first grabbed the duvet and holding it tightly in his hand put it over the Preator's mouth and dropped the knife down. Amalthus snapped awake to see an Indoline mask looking over his head. The thick fabric of the glove deadened most of his screaming, the bedsheet doing the rest. Wide eyes stared at Rex as he slowly moved the dagger around the crystal segment. Oh sure there was a surgical way to do this which Rex knew perfectly, but bollocks was he doing that for Amalthus. Even as hands slapped his mask and legs kicked out, Rex only ground his teeth and continued to cut. Dark blue oozed from the wound as the cutting was finished. Further pushing the knife into Amalthus's skull, he prized the core crystal out, ignoring how the Indoline body tried to cling to it. Once it clattered to the ground, Rex moved the blade down Amalthus's vision and leaned into the man's ear.

"This is for Coeia and Spessia, Baltrich and Rhalldalis would say see you in hell, but the Devil's got a special placed reserved for you old friend," Slowly he dragged the serated teeth over Amalthus' neck, "And that is for Nia," The eyes began to glaze over as Rex pulled the knife away. Just to be sure the bastard was dead, he delivered a single stab wound to the heart and twisted the knife. Once he did, he stowed the knife and the partial core crystal away before creeping from the window again. This time he was able to descend to the floor and begin walking away. Nobody bothered to look at him as he left the sanctum. Dipping into a dark room, he took the garb off, hiding it in the cylinder compartment of the diving suit. Pulling his vest over the core segment and lifting his helmet over his head, he reached into his last pocket. From it he pulled a beige cloak and slung it over his shoulders.

Silently slipping out of the room again, he took a leisured pace, even as the siren began to blare. Guards began to flock towards the noise, not even looking in his direction. Shouts and yells filled the air as he reached an open window. Vaulting the ledge, he enjoyed the wind howling as he dropped towards the sea of white. Gramps began diving alongside him, Rex took ahold of the grass like hair on the titan's back. A wide smile split his face as they swooped out of the dive, his stomach dropped out of his body as they levelled off. Gramps slowly entered the Cloud Sea and looked over his shoulder. Spotlights began illuminating the space around them as they continued to go lower. As the clouds crept over his shoes, Rex took to robes out of the compartment and slotted a premium cylinder in place. The cold water crept up his thighs as he entered the cabin. It was almost spilling into the chest as he sealed everything back inside of it again.

Once it began to cover his faceplate, he grabbed one handle and dragged it from the cabin. It didn't matter where they were, how the tides moves or even if the chest survived the pressure. Since he had it in the cabin when he started over, it'd be sat there waiting for him to unlock it again. Around him was a dark blue slowly fading more and more to black. He hummed once more before heaving his arms. Slowly the chest left Gramp's back and began to drift through the water. He didn't wait to watch it begin sinking into the depths before returning to the hut. Thanks to his mistakes in previous runs, Rex had immediately reinforced the structure even before summoning Pyra. Sealing the door as Gramps began to pick up speed, he was slowly pressed against the wall. Indol was left behind, searching for a killer too practised for them to find. In truth he wouldn't even be a suspect. Not even with Haze in the group, it'd be easy to spin his story and claim he saved Haze by using his Master Driver powers to restore her core crystal. As it stood he'd still be doing something like that. Holding the half crystal in his hand, he kept feeding it his own ether. Haze would be kept in a limbo state until he restored her crystal to a whole and became her Driver. As Gramps surfaced again and quietly climbed aboard the Maelstrom, he prepared for the oncoming fallout.

The next morning the news had spread like wildfire. Morag handed him the letter from Niall after she had read it. Trying not to appear eager, he got permission from Morag to announce Amalthus' death to the ship. The former Torna members hid their glee like he did, Nia seemed close to tears with relief while also raising an eyebrow in his direction. After silence for a minute, he dropped the letter and exclaimed, "Fan!" Charging to the room she shared with Patroka, he slammed and locked the door before turning to the Blade. She laid perfectly still on the bed, eyes closed entirely unresponsive to any noise he'd just made. Pulling the segment from his pocket, he hurried over and gently put it in place. Running a fingertip over the gap, he used the Aegis core crystal in his chest to find the correct data and seal up the crack. Once that was done, he attached the loose ether connection to himself and rocked back on his heels. For a few short, agonizing moments, nothing happened. Suddenly she was upright and looking around.

"MIKHAIL!!" 

"Woah, woah, easy, easy!" Moving to calm her, he spoke softly, "Hi, my name is Rex, I'm your new Driver, I've just restored your core crystal, it's a bit of a story but for about five hundred years you've been known as Fan La Norne, a Blade for Amalthus, do you remember that?"

"I, I," A hand moved to her crystal, "I do, I do but I, I remember before that too, I remember being attacked, Indoline forces were coming for us, Lora she, she told me to protect Mikhail, she and Jin were, were...." Her eyes began to well up lightly, "They're dead, aren't they?" Rex remained silent for a few short seconds.

"Lora, she, she is, I don't know what happened to her but Jin is a flesh eater and very much remembers her, so he must've done something moments before she died," He shook his head as Haze sucked in a soft breath, "As for Mikhail, well, I, I think it's better if you come with me," Gently leading the Blade from the room, he gestured for everyone to take it slow. Haze followed him, uncertainty written across her face. The blond ex-Torna was first to break rank. As Rex and Haze descended the stairs, he met them at the bottom.

"H-Haze? Is it," He swallowed thickly, "Do you remember me?" An uncertain hand rose to the side of his face.

"Mikhail," A hoarse whisper, "You've grown so tall," Gently there was a mist of ether around them. "And old," It got him to let out a wet laugh,

"You're one to talk, considering you're still older than I am,"

"Not that I'm ungrateful that you're here but, shouldn't, you're a Tornan, but it's been," She inhaled gently as his hand drifted over his coloured crystal.  "Y-you, but,"

"Amalthus," Mikhail growled out, "Forcibly combined a bunch of the refugees with Core Crystals, called us all Blade Eaters before calling the torture off and having us killed, I, I was the only survivor, I was just like a Flesh Eater for five hundred years, it hurt Haze, it hurt so much," Now cradling her hand against his face as tears fell he sniffled, "I got so used to the pain I stopped noticing it, then, then Rex came along, just like Addam did, all smiles and ideals, but he delivered Haze, Rex, he promised to stop the pain and he did, he healed me, Patroka," In seconds he held her in his arms, "And now he's brought you back too," Morag's whip blade rested by the side of Rex's neck.

"You told me they were your Blade infiltrating Torna, what does he mean by healing him?"

"Morag Ladair you have exactly ten seconds to remove your sword from its position as you currently are in the middle of a crew ready to protect their captain,"

"Explain," She growled, "Else you will be,"

"Good grief would it kill you to listen without making a fool of yourself for once?" With a snap of his fingers the sword and its twin dissolved from Morag's grip and appeared around Rex's waist. Next Nia's scimitar materialised in his hand, gently levelling it at her. "You may be as angry as you like but in my fight against Malos you are naught but a mild inconvenience, you may not understand many things Morag, but understand this, you are unimportant in my plight, Mor Ardain is unimportant to me," Even Haze jumped to his defence with the Mark Two Blades as the Ardainians readied to fight. "I am here to save Alrest, appeasing you is much much lower than the last of my priorities," The Special Inquisitor gulped lightly as he followed. "Now I urge you, I urge you to behave yourself Morag, in my many lives I have saved yours more than I care to count, in many others," His eyes narrowed, "In many others I have taken it, unwillingly though it was, upsetting and painful, when you leave me no choice Morag I do not insult you by hesitating,"

"Are you threatening me?" Her gaze hardened as her fists clenched, "You would threaten,"

"You have no weapons, no Blade, you have ten men to your back and naught but one is a Driver, who is only a Driver because of me, I assure you Special Inquisitor I am no threat to Mor Ardain, I am no threat to Uraya, I am no threat to Indol," Saving a side look for Zeke, he continued, "I have ten Blades ready to fight with me, eleven weapons to choose from, I'm the Master Driver, I could use your Blade to kill you, I can take your soldier's Blades from him and use the pair to kill all of you," Suddenly her rapiers returned to her hips and Nia's scimitar dematerialised from his hand. "But I do not because I do not want to, leave me no other option and I will, I protect everyone from my enemies and you are included in that group until you decide to make me an enemy," Closing the distance until he was leaning over her he growled, "And you will find Alrest is a very small place when I am angry with you," Silence passed for a moment, "If you wish to leave, disembark now because once we set sail for Uraya remaining with me is the only way I can ensure your protection," Only Nori stepped forwards, "Lieutenant?"

"With respect Special Inquisitor, I trust the Captain, without him I would not have Toshi or Yagi by my side, after all that has occured, I do not believe Rex could be a threat to Mor Ardain until we make him one," Rex nodded as the soldier saluted, Morag glared for a moment.

"I do not appreciate have my Blade taken from me," He chuckled lightly before nodding.

"Of course, of course, perhaps a gift as a peace offering?" Raising one hand to show an open palm, he slowly reached into a pocket with the other.

"A core chip? You would offer me a single core chip in place of,"

"It's not just a core chip," He shook his head, "Please, Brighid,"

"If you try anything while attaching this, I do not care how many there are, I will kill you," The blue Blade promised, Rex just nodded in understanding stepping to her. His fingers brushed over her Core, in that moment he reconnected to Haze and found their mutual memories of Torna. Restoring them as he clipped the chip in place, he stepped away. Slowly her dark blue dress changed to black, the lining turning a dark rose. A line of pink traveled down her hair, leaving it a gentle magenta. Her gloves also changed to match the colour along with her boots.

"I call it Crimson Orchard Brighid, it comes from a Nopon traveller I have met before now, he issued me a challenge and this was the reward,"

"I, I, it's," The Blade didn't know what to say, looking to Rex before scanning the room. "Haze, Mikhail, I, I remember you two, f-f-from Torna," At this Mikhail fell to his knees, ready to keel over in shock. "We were with...with.... no not Niall, it, it was Hugo, oh Architect he's the spitting image of Hugo," The regal Blade began to tear up.

"What did you,"

"As the Master Driver I am afforded several abilities, one of those is the ability to restore a Blade's memory of their previous lives, since Haze technically didn't lose her memories I was able to date them while healing her Core Crystal, I used the same date to restore Brighid's memories since they apparently knew each other," When given a level stare, he raised an eyebrow, "I want this team to be cohesive and trust each other, I trust all of you now I just need you all to trust the rest, if I have a few cheats to do that, I don't see the problem," He shrugged lightly, "Judge me all you want, I won't stop you, as long as you know I'm doing it for you and them I don't mind your opinion on the matter,"

He opened the door to the hall way and leant his head from it. "Are you coming to bed or what?" Nia startled from her position facing away from him. Whirling round with a beet red face, she stammered excuses.

"I-I, Rex, wuh-well, you, you see, I was, I was just," Immediatly after seeing his reaction, she swat his bouncing shoulder, "Don't you go laughing at me you arse! You're the one making me all... all,"

"Nervous," He offered with a wry grin, "Look, Nia, if you're uncomfortable with it, you know you can say no right?"

"I, it's not, last night you were distracted, so it's fair that you'd make some sort of slip, but, but, what's tonight's excuse?"

"Last night," Gesturing for her to follow him, he lead her into his room and sat on the edge of his bed. "I, look, I know this is unfair, putting so much onto your shoulders, I just, I, you have been my healer in every run, for two weeks I spill my guts to you and you accept me for who I am, against what I've done and I've done some pretty horrible things Nia, stuff that would make Log- Malos jealous," She sat down next to him a hand on his shoulder.

"Rex,"

"And I know that it's not fair to you, since I'm essentially a stranger to you every two weeks, so dumping this on you is so, so cruel but I just, I," His head dropped, "You're the only person in Alrest that listens, at least that's how it feels to me, sure the rest say they listen but they don't mean it, but you, you do, every time, you listen, you nod, you offer thoughts and help, crack jokes and just remind me that I'm human, alive and I'm not stuck in some cyclical purgatory of my failures," Slowly he laid back on the bed, shuffling around. Nia gently and silently joined him, putting a hand over his crystal segment. "I have nightmares," Admitting it as almost a whisper, he felt a floodgate open, "Every night, it, I've gotten used to it by now, after all the nightmares come from one failure or another, Vandham dying, Patroka and Ahkos getting destroyed by Malos, Amalthus destroying the titans, I have failed and each time I cry with relief when I wind up back at the beginning, but then I succeed and I still end up back there," Without either of them releasing it, his other arm had wrapped around her shoulders and held her close to him. "I, the worst ones involve you where I fail you by the Architect are there so many of those,"

"You haven't failed me Rex,"

"This time," He mutters hoarsely, "I haven't failed you this time, I was too slow fixing Poppi and you were taken to Indol, we were in Mor Ardain and Zeke's bad luck took you over the edge except you didn't land in the Cloud Sea like he did," Tears began to run down his face, "Amalthus..... he, there's,"

"You killed him," It wasn't a question, she knew he'd done it, even before he nodded. "That's what you did last night,"

"I promised you I'd do it once, you gave me this," He gestured to the battered bracelet around his wrist. "Told me it was special when you gave it to me,"

"Before I died," Again Nia seemed to read his mind, "How?"

"You don't,"

"Rex,"

"Praetor Amalthus had us cornered inside the World Tree, he'd, he'd fused his being with a dozen Core Crystals, nearly killed Akhos when he took us by surprise, he, he," Pulling her body flush against his, he buried his face in her hair. "I can't, I'm sorry Nia,"

"Please, talking about it will,"

"It won't help Nia, all it will do is make me relive it over and over again, over and over and over and over and over again, I, I can't do that Nia,"

"Rex," Something in the way she said his name, he couldn't stop his mouth moving.

"He got Dromarch first, some move that forcibly severed your connection to him, it, it caught you off guard, you didn't see the attack coming," His arms tightened around her, "It caught you in the gut, you promised things would be okay, smiled at me while you reverted to your crystal, threw the bracelet at me and made me promise I'd get the fucker back for it," She peppered soft, chaste kisses on his chest. "I tried getting your Core Crystal, I, I did I swear I did but he got there first, I, he, he, it," Rex took a deep breath, "He crushed it, in front of me, took you away entirely, I, I," One of her feet gently rubbed his thigh, "I saw red Nia, I just, I put Pyra and Mythra's swords together, I summoned her Third form as well and used that and I, I cut him, feet, ankles first, I ripped off each finger with my hands, kicked his kneecaps in until they broke, hacked away at him until he was mincemeat, I, I made sure it was painful, as if he screams could bring you back, I, I tried to use him to bring you back but I, I.... couldn't, you, you never did, not until I started the loop again and even then I couldn't hold you like I had, tell you how fucking sorry I was for letting you down, I, I just, I loaded a clip into my gun, went to Indol and shot him through the neck, nearly got caught because I watched him drown in his own blood," Rolling onto his back to leave her on his chest, he held onto her, "I'm so sorry Nia, you always get hurt and it's always my fault,"

"I'm here of my own choice y'know? It's not like you're makin' me do this,"

"B-but,"

"No, no buts mister, it's not your fault am hear a'right? Now you stop blamin' yourself before I smack you silly," He huffed but said nothing against her. For a few moments, they laid in silence, her hand drawing shapes on him. "How'd you do it this time?"

"I, last run, he managed to have you kidnapped while we were in Indol and tried using you against me, so, so this time I made it personal, I looked him in his eyes as I did it," A hand rested over her mouth, "I made sure he couldn't scream," A finger on his other hand drew the large triangle in her forehead, "I cut the Core Crystal segment out," It rested on her throat, "I slit his neck and then just to make sure he wasn't getting back up, I stabbed him in the heart, I made sure he was dead, I made sure he was never going to wake up again,"

"If they,"

"I waited until he had no pulse, until he was bled dry, I made sure of it, he made the mistake of hurting you and damn it will I always make sure he knows you are off limits,"

"Oh? And the rest?"

"I will fight for them, I will get hurt for them, but you Nia? I'll kill for you, you are the best of me and that means if Amalthus so much as gives you a funny look, I'll take his eyes out with a fork,"

"That's,"

"I'm serious Nia," His face hardened, "Of course if he hurts the rest of them, I'll unleash a wrath that'll make the Aegis War look like a tea party, but if he tried to hurt you I'd carve Idol up with a rusty kitchen knife and make sure he watched me do it, then I'd take him to the top of the World Tree and hurl him off the edge, so he can watch his goals fall apart as he dies,"

"You really hate him,"

"Saying I hate him is like saying I love you, it doesn't fully cover or quantify the magnitude of my emotions,

"I, you... love me?"

"Did I not just say that was wrong?" He yawned, "It's like saying the titans are big, or that Poppi is some metal and wires," Shifting his head to rest his forehead on hers, he smiled to her, "I adore you Nia, everything I am, is because of you, my coping mechanisms are that much healthier because you coached me through them, I can keep track of ideas because you insisted I make a habit of writing them down, I, I came up with the cure for you,"

"What?"

"The process that allows me to turn Blades into Mark Twos, I, I figured it out to help you," She stared at him in slight shock,

"I, I,"

"You told me that being a Flesh Eater hurt constantly, the ether imbalance made everything painful and after long you just got used to it, so I spent five years figuring out the process to revert your change, until I realised it would make you dependant on me and that was cruel, so I spent another five taking the changes and making it an advantage,"

"And you, you did that for me?"

"I'd do it again in a heartbeat Nia, I have all the time in existence, you can be damn sure I'll use as much of it as I need to to help you," The kiss wasn't long, his lips barely ghosting over hers before he rest his head back on the pillow. "I swear it on all that I am, even if I figure out the answer to my situation, I won't stop until I've saved you first,"

They had decided to return to Mor Ardain to return the repaired Core Crystals. Pyra had found the process to be oddly soothing, as if fixing the device helped heal her. Rex understood, probably better than she, Mythra or Pneuma would ever realise. Healing each crystal helped him feel lighter, gave him some more hope. It wasn't much but in the bleak existence he currently called his life, it helped. Together they sat finished the crate on the deck, as the ship grew closer to the Mor Ardain titan. Well they were, until a pair of figures appeared and Rex had a chroma katana to his neck. Unfazed as he put a Core Crystal down, he sighed lightly. Pyra had leapt back and yelped loudly, gaining the attention of the crew. Both attackers remained unemotional as a megalance was pointed to him as well. "See that is how you do a surprise appearance on mighty Zekenator," Rex hummed as he relaxed in his seat. "Praxis, Theory, you sure took your time,"

"You got a lot of Core Crystals there bud, if you want to keep that pretty head you best hand over the crate,"

"Sorry Bubbles, but I'm afraid, actually no I'm not, I'm not handing them over," Looking to the bubbly Blade, he grabbed another one to fix. Idly he prodded at her ether connection, it was weak, her Driver wasn't close by. Rex had hoped he was nearby but no matter. Snatching it anyway, he placed the repaired crystal down. Praxis' weapon dissolved from her hands and appeared on his back.

"Wuh-what?" She stepped back in shock as Theory acted. Rex's eyes snapped to her as she swung her weapon. It also dissolved, her closed fist passing by his neck harmlessly.

"As I said I'm not handing them over, especially to Core Crystal thieves, not that it matters, since you're both my Blades now," Proving it by using their ether connections, he smiled at their faces of shock. Tapping the green segment in his chest, he explained. "I'm a bit of a special case among Drivers, I'm called the Master Driver, I can take you from anyone," Spreading his arms wide, he gestured for them to come closer. "And more importantly I can make sure you never go back to those rat bastards again, ever," Both of them froze before Praxis charged forwards, grabbing her weapon from him and twirling it to attack.

"What have you done?!" His arm calmly raised to block the staff, the edge of the weapon inches from his head.

"As I just said, I took the ether connections from your previous Drivers and transferred them to me, you can feel it, I know you can, calm down," Moving his arm up and over the polearm, he kept it trapped against his body. "You're both safe now,"

"Safe, safe?! We've just been Blade-napped!"

"You came to me, not the other way around, plus now you don't have to go back empty handed," He argued back, "You don't have to go back at all, because they are no longer your Drivers," His focus changed to the Ice Blade, "Theory I suggest you don't move," Her weapon rested in her hand, ready to be drawn. Rex clicked his neck and sighed before she charged. Again her weapon dissolved as he pushed Praxis away. Using the katana, he thread it between the prongs of Praxis' megalance and pulled. Spinning on his heel, he wrenched the weapon away and tripped Theory into her team mate. Seperating both weapons again, he jabbed the megalance at them. They both hand their necks trapped between the prongs as it dug into the wall. "Nor am I going to punish you for lashing out, arguing or giving your opinion, not to mention I plan to skin both of them alive for you... other services," His face darkened as they both stared at him. "You are my Blades now and part of my family, from now on you will be protected by me and anyone that comes to harm you is going to meet a very, very painful end," The former Torna members came up to his sides.

"He ain't joking," Mikhail shook his head, tapping his Core Crystal, "He gives us free reign to relax as we please, soon we'll be heading to Uraya and apparently he's got something for us to really let loose with,"

"Mercenaries if I remember correctly," Patroka rubbed her chin,

"Some mercenaries, the Garfront are allies, you can spar with those lot but there's gonna be free agents and other groups you can really swing at," Rex corrected, as the megalance dissolved. "Now you two can either like it or lump it, there's a canteen below deck you can go stew in, I'll be there in a moment to talk to the pair of you, right now though I'm heading to the helm to help Morag land this thing," Rolling his shoulders, he stood up and began walking away. "Please make yourselves at home, you don't have to come with us if you don't want to, some of these guys are staying back anyways, join their card games if you want,"

"We're also slinging dice," Mikhail put a thumb up. "If you don't got gold, bother Rex for some,"

"Oi!" He called over, "You lot already nicked my gold to play with!"

"You lost blackjack, it's fair game!" Sever shot back,

"I did not lose, you lot cheated," An accusatory finger across the deck.

"Nuh-uh! Zeke tripped up on his own bad luck,"

"There is no way he tripped over at exactly the right place to take my chair over and you know it! You lot picked out the cards and swapped them the moment I went down, don't you lie to me,"

"Well what ya gonna do about it now mon capitaine?" Patroka grinned mercilessly, "Want a rematch?"

"And give you a chance to steal more of my gold? Not on the Architect's life, you've got more chance of making Jin not broody," Flippantly waving a hand, he walked away. "Welcome to the Maelstrom Praxis, Theory, make yourselves at home," Stepping down the silent corridor he arrived at the bridge. Morag eyed him as he pulled out a notepad and pencil. Several eyes looked over his shoulder as he drew out a map of Mor Ardain perfectly, before colouring in several pieces. Scrawling a few labels as well, he finished up the diagram before folding up the paper. "Special Inquisitor," He held the note out, "Once you have a secure room, read this, I recommend assigning the mission to a squadron of Drivers, whether you send these ten after giving them all Blades or simply just use the cores we've repaired and sending a new group out, but you'll find a den of bandits, specializing in Blade theft,"

"Thank you Rex," Taking the note, she tucked it away in a secure pouch. "We'll be making landfall within the next few minutes, are the cores all repaired?"

"Ninety-nine percent, Pyra should be finishing up the last three or four now, either way I can finish off whatever is left before we disembark,"

"Before we do, I feel the need to check, what price are you going to be asking for?"

"Five hundred a core," He stated firmly, "I am not hurting for gold, however I fear asking for less with allow the chancellors to believe they are taking advantage of my goodwill,"

"Something I'm not actually eager to witness," Morag nodded, "Very well, we shall see to the delivery and your payment before embarking for Fonsa Myma," Rex just nodded.

"If your troops are coming with us, I recommend they take a moment to retrieve informal clothing, it will help keep things less tense in Uraya, that includes you Special Inquisitor,"

"Very well," There was a moment of silence, "I don't suppose your nopon traveler had something?" Rex laughed,

"Unfortunately no, unless you wish to wear a crimson uniform, which would make you stand out even more," Morag only sighed.

"Just my luck," At the mention of luck, a certain eye-patch wearing individual popped into his head. They looked to him as he cackled for a moment.

"I may have something to help you cheer up,"