Work Text:
As they climbed the world tree, just after their talk with the Architect, Rex was lagging behind with a thought pestering him. Nia noticed and started to walk over to him to ask but he beat her to the punch quickly asking her meanwhile struggling to keep eye contact, "Hey, Nia. About that thing you said that one time... I, uh, well..." Surprised about the suddenness of this topic again she quickly responded playing kind of ignorant, "Huh? Oh, right!”, Chuckling at what he was talking about she continued, “You're asking now? Now's not the time, we can talk later.”. And so, they left it at, that due to their lack of time and the lack of a good place to talk about it.
It had been six months since that eventful day, where the world tree had fallen and the angel that saved it sacrificing themselves just to return less than thirty minutes later, it must have been just another miracle the architect had made. It took very little time for most of the crew to find their ways back to their places.
Morag had a tearful reunion with her brother for a second time before setting to work and expand Mor Ardain into the new fertile land.
Zeke and Pandoria went home to talk to his father and help his people also expand into New Elysium. Though we recently found out that he is back exploring after supposedly he threw a snowball at his father and it didn’t end too well.
Tora returned initially to Torigoth to see his father, but after some discussions with Morag, Tora and his family have reworked the old factory where he had found his long-lost dad, into their workshop for the creation of new utility vehicles and artificial blades. His grampypon and father focused on the utility vehicles to make the expansion of the nation’s easier, and Tora was messing with some new light stuff he attempted to explain the last time he was around but it only seems to interest the sisters.
Speaking of them, trio of blades and their driver settled down very quickly in Fonsett where it landed near a coast of the new land. They also helped with some expansion of the town, with the new indoline refuges, and even a new house made to hold the whole group if they were in town. This house was to be the Trio’s with enough rooms and things to keep them all happy. Rex, luckily had quite a bit of cash and motivation because he helped with the construction along with a lot of the village and Azurda. There were a few additions at the request of the trio, Rex got a workshop, Mythra required there to be a Training area and pushed but failed for now for a hot spring. Pyra wanted to have a large kitchen and dining room for her to be able to advance her craft.
Last but not least had been the Gormotti Flesh Eater with no real place to go back to, she returned to Torigoth to settle and hopefully help the people there. She stayed in her true form and was assisted with finding a place by Tora offering her the ability to say in his place until she found somewhere she could call her own. And she was content like that for a while making sure the people were safe sound expanding into the new areas. The Gormotti leaders were very open to her and her being a flesh eater due to some help from the Adainian leadership, though the stigma still stuck around in the average people. ‘Perhaps Amalthus had done even more damage than we thought.’ Nia pondered they usually warmed up to her after she fixed any injury or ache they had. But their gazes and unheard thoughts hurt as much as ever now that they knew. She decided it was about time to return home for dinner and see if Dromarch needed anything.
The wildlife had gotten more mellow after the land merging and even got sparser due to them moving onto the new land, and it left her feeling extremely useless. Not needed to help keep the town safe and heal their injuries, like again she wasn’t needed and there was no real reason to be here yet was the only place she felt like she belonged, at least at the time. Dromarch astute as ever, caught onto his drivers’ fears and brought it up at dinner that night.
“My lady, I’ve noticed something is on your mind, and I want you to talk with me.” He stated somewhat sternly. Nia taking a second to even move, slouched and slowly started talking, not even at her blade but at herself. “It’s just that I’m just useless again, and it shows with how little I even have to do now, I can’t even say I have much more than before. We have a damn roof over our head now and that’s it. I’ve never been able to save anyone I’ve cared about; I always fail when I’m needed most Dromarch. I feel like I’ve lost my place all over again.” She barely even realized she started actively crying. unable to say more she went into her thoughts as the waterworks continued to flow. Her world narrowed to the thought of her sister, next her father, Rex, Vandham, Jin. All the people she failed, horribly. All the people she left to die so she could feel better about what she had become. She couldn’t move for minutes just letting her pent-up emotions and failures pour out of her eyes. Dromarch had come over to his driver and made sure she could feel his presence, and give he something to hold on to. Slowly coming back to the now, she left the thoughts in her head and noticed how bad she felt about everything. All she was able to squeak out was a, “Thanks Dromarch”. It was barely even audible, but the blade knew she appreciated it when she started to scratch the side of his face. The thoughts didn’t stop there though, but they shifted some way she wasn’t expecting back almost seven months ago at this point to her memories of Mabon and Vess, and how nice their lives had been together. All the poor Gormotti could think about how nice a situation like that feels to her right now.
he stayed there for a while, until she slowly returned to eating, her blade giving her time to think and process what to do. If anyone at this point knew what to do around her it would have been him. The night quickly passed and as She laid down to try to sleep, one thing crossed her mind as she struggled to do so.
It was that she included Rex in her list of those she had failed. She technically did she thought, back on the ship but that was far out of her control Jin likely would have just killed her on the spot if she tried. The same with Vandham, Akhos and his blade, would have made it useless to even try, even if she was in her blade form before that that ether block was about as strong as it was in Elpys. The only one she could confidently say she failed was her sister. It was in that moment of reflection on probably her only real failure as a blade she recalled that question Rex asked her back in the world tree those few months ago. though it wasn’t the time nor place then, but now she felt like she needed more than ever, even if he could just be a shoulder to cry on.
And so, the next morning she sent him a message asking him to come to Torigoth, asking,
“Hey Rex, its later. I need to talk to you about honestly a lot. Could you please come to Torigoth and meet me tomorrow? Or as soon as possible, I’ll be near the thing we had to break to escape Torigoth after you rescued me. Thanks.” -Nia
Rex received the message latter that day, and brought it up to Pyra and Mythra that night, their initial talk was very quick because, of course rex would go and help Nia if she needed it, but the topic very quickly turned from what to why because it completely puzzled the sisters. That’s when Rex realized, that the sisters hadn’t known of what conspired when they were taken by Malos.
After a quick summary of the days leading up to the cliff’s, Rex brought the conversation back to the events in the crucible, getting to the point where she confessed but, he just could not get his response to her words out again. It was getting stuck for a reason he couldn’t really explain. It was like he knew all this time that he was as dense as she always told him.
Luckily Pyra gave him an out realizing he is struggling with his own actions, and to make it easier she asked him, “So, what did you say that has you in such a twist?”
Unable to think of a better way than to just say it Rex directly quoted himself. “I said, Nia, I love you too! You and all you guys!”. Pyra slowly lost her smile dipping her head into a facepalm, and Mythra covered her mouth stifling a laugh and failing with a slight sound escaping her. He continued, “And that was her reaction as well Mythra. To laugh off the non-reply I gave her. I was so focused on you guys I just left her out to dry, and I can now see that for this past half a year it has been eating at her meanwhile I just have been as ignorant as ever, she was right about that all this time. Now that you guys think I’m more of an idiot than I’ve ever been. Hell, even the architect made fun of me showing it in those nightmares. Those showed us how we truly felt, and that version of her said that I only cared for Pyra.”
The tension he emitted felt was almost physically weighing down the air, that was until he felt an all too familiar hand clasp onto his shoulder, he didn’t even notice that Pyra had walked over to him and had pulled him into a hug, and Mythra wasn’t far behind. He felt was wrong to accept this, but at least it gave him one answer. They seemingly didn’t hate him, he thought.
They sat there for about a minute as Rex collected himself, breaking the embrace by saying, “So now you see why it’s such a problem for me. I failed her, I was too focused on you two, and n-now I only hope this meeting is about what to do now, and not about her wanting to yell at me about ignoring her. If she is as hurt from this as I fear, I don’t know what to do.”
Pyra scowled, and without question hated how Rex was taking this. Both her and her sister knew that if he was like this, she could only imagine the problems Nia was dealing with from it. She spoke through his gloom and asked him, “What are we to you? Were your blades. Your Partners. And you, love us, right?”. After a second to try and straighten his mind to the now, He responded, “Of course! I don’t know what I’d be able to do without you two!” He desperately said starting to look to the ground as his vibrato dropped near the end of what he said. Softly guiding his chin to look at her Pyra asked him directly, “Well, What’s different between us and Nia?”.
Rex didn’t know how to respond to this, he stopped thinking about them for a second and just thought about what Nia meant to him, and what differences she had to the sisters. And only one answer came to his mind.
Without thinking a second more he said, “Nothing right?”. The red head’s smile very quickly grew wide and she told him “So, you have nothing to worry about Rex.” Stunned by Pyras words, he could barely move let alone talk before the other sister chipped in, “If I had known of this before our fight with Malos, I would have forced there to be time for you two to talk, and now it looks like she wants to have that time tomorrow.”, “Also” Pyra interrupted, “Those visions father showed were not their true thoughts, it was your greatest fears about them, you were scared that Nia thought you only cared for us.”
Rex sat there still confused after getting the last half year of reflection upturned but coming around to this new revelation and asked, “So you guys are fine with us possible being a, thing?” Mythra scoffing, snarkily replied, “Well, you already have us two, and that already one more than normal so I don’t see a problem with adding a third to the family if she wants.” Rex even more baffled, meekly asked, “Pyra, You too?” She sweetly said, “Rex we both adore Nia and it’s obvious that your more than able help others, and You don’t have to only make us happy. And I know that you wouldn’t ever want to leave anyone behind and unhappy, especially Nia or us.”. That’s all he needed to hear, but he started to think ahead trying to not be dense and had another request. “Can you guys go with? I may need you guys to convince her that you guys are fine with this, because I hardly believe that she will just go with it.”. “Sure” They both said in unison, and from that point on that night they prepared for something between a day trip and a night over in Torigoth.
There she sat on top of the somewhat new water tower waiting in her blade form, and hoping the one who showed her she shouldn’t be afraid anymore would be able to have the talk they have put off for far, far too long. Going into this all she was wanting was someone to let it all out to that wasn’t intrinsically linked to her, and maybe a strong shoulder to cry on. As she sat there the time passed seemingly quickly when she was doing nothing but hoping. It was calming, and she knew that if he did show that she would need that calmness.
It was going on to about mid-day now, and she was very quickly losing all resolve she had that he would show up. Parts of her mind started to drift to the dark idea that he didn’t care enough to take a break from his two basically wives to even talk to a friend. But it was about at that point where she was about to start to tear up at the idea she heard a familiar reel, and a clink of metal on metal. She turned around to see him scaling up the tower. He had used his anchor to help, and she didn’t even notice him coming up to the tower. Before she knew it her breathing instantly started hitching and her heart started to work up into her throat just from looking at him. He pretty quickly, and wordlessly walked over and sat down next to her staring out at the Ardanian port. After a minute of seeing who would start this, He was the first to speak telling her, “Sorry for being a bit late, Gramps was being a bit extra lazy this morning, but hey I’ve made it! So, what was it you wanted to talk about Nia?”. It took her a second to be able to say anything, barely getting it out saying, “So did you recall the conversation we had just after meeting the Architect? It’s about that.” she said, struggling to brace herself for this conversation, as much as she thought she was going to be ready. she wasn’t.
“Yeah, I got the hint from your letter, and Nia, I want you to know,” during his pause she prepared herself for what her head said was coming, for him to say that he talked it though with Pyra and Mythra and that’s where his feelings lie. So, she could just move on with her life and find a reason to continue doing good for people. The darker side of her mind was front and center, ready to be able to move on and continue with him left behind, meanwhile her true wants wailed in the background hoping that he would be able to help her once again. He continued, “that you are not the only one who has been struggling with it then.”
This hit her harder than any fight they’ve been in, and she was so prepared for him to keep everything like how it was before. But to hear that he was struggling with her words and his response, it instantly threw the darker half of her mind to the side instead leaving her true wants to be able to move forward, the only problem is that they were emotional, and she could feel the dam in her eyes was getting close to breaking. He again continued, “I’ve thought about it whenever I thought about you, and all I saw in it was my failure to you, I was too focused on the twins to realized what you needed and you have every right to put me on blast about it.”
She couldn’t believe that he was completely doing the opposite of what she expected him to do, she couldn’t believe that he was blaming himself for everything. She started to talk without thinking, “I bloody should hit you for being this dense! but it would just hurt my damn hand worse than anything we’ve been through! But your wrong, it’s not only your failures to do something for the either of us, I’ve failed you too many times, I couldn’t even believe that you’d come today.” He somewhat cut her off stating, “But Nia without you- “she yelled cutting him off instead, “For crying out loud Rex! I let Fan die! I let Vandham die! I even let them almost kill you in Tantal. and I let them actually, kill you back on that damn ship! You have no reason to compare you not saying a few extra words to all my damn failures throughout my whole time with you.”. As she finished, she turned back into her Gormotti form, and refused to even look at him staring at the bottom of the tower. To her she knew she shouldn’t put this on him but it was what she was struggling with, and if he was going to help her like he seems to want to, she was going to make sure the both of them were on the same page.
He gave her some time; he knew that she was struggling with so much and being truthful to him like he wanted her to be since the crucible in that moment. but didn’t think that she was going back to how she was before, and it hurt him to see her like this again. “Nia it wasn’t you who failed them, it was everyone and everything around that did. The world failed them, and there is nothing either of us could have done those days to change it. Trust me every time I see Roc, I think about him. But now every time I do I think about doing what he wanted.”, and as she heard this the dam started leaking, and she spoke “Yer’ just stronger than I am, and that’s embarrassing because you’re just a kid. Look at me, I’m crying over the people I should up to and remember fondly because I’m such a pessimist. I don’t deserve to be even talking to you.”.
Putting a hand on her shoulder, Rex confidently states “You know that’s what I like about you Nia. You’re such a good counter to me, and you keep me balanced and in line. And I hate what I’ve done to you out because I can tell you’ve been missing it too.” She was in shock at his statement. She struggled to respond with a slight rose blush starting to flare up, saying,” W-W-W-When the hell did you get this smooth? Am I really that transparent?”.
“Well from the second I saw you I couldn’t easily tell you apart from the first time we talked on the maelstrom, other than your blade form. I could have thought you were replaced with that old you from all that time ago.” She was so taken aback with his comparison, she never had realized how much this had been hurting her, but before she could respond he quickly said, “And before you hit me for that! I need you to know I hate seeing you like that. And as for the smoothness, living with Mythra for sixish months will make you a lot less awkward fast, especially if she drinks.”. Hearing that she made a decision at that moment, she turned back to her blade form, and almost pleaded him, “I’m sorry for all this emotional crap Rex, I really suck at it, and it seems like you’ve had more than enough time and experience now to lap me, but I don’t want to intrude on you guys, but I want to make it clear that you reminded me of why it’s so nice to help those you care for.” As she said this, she made her healing aura engulf the two, with droplets of water glistening around them she continued, “As long as you want me to be I’ll always be your blade. Its scary for me to show this side out here and I’ve been trying, but with you it’s a lot less scary, damn near comforting. So please, Rex, will you still have me as your blade?”.
Rex starting to be happy with the progress she made back to the girl he remembered that day the world was saved, and now wanted to rectify those words to back in the crucible, he responded taking her hand that was sitting on the tower into his own and said while looking right at her, “Of course Nia, I couldn’t imagine a life where I’ve cast you to the side, where I abandon you.”. As he finished his statement, she pulled him into a hug and he accepted the embrace, and the dam’s had finally given way. She couldn’t hold it anymore and started bawling into his shoulder, and if he wasn’t wearing his salvaging suit, he would have needed a unsoaked shirt by the time she let it all out. As she let herself calm down through the crying, Rex held her tight making sure she knew that he would always be here if she needed it. She slowly worked herself out of the embrace but keeping one arm around him, whimpering, “Thanks so much Rex I didn’t realize how much I actually needed this.”.
Rex thought for a moment and started a new question for her. “Nia, you do realize we are not done right? I still want to talk about that thing that one time.” She was puzzled at this her ears dipped not liking the implication of this. “About what? We already covered that or has Pyra talked your memory out of your ‘ead?”. “Well…” he started, “It’s just that it isn’t what I really wanted to talk about when I first mentioned it exactly, there was something different I meant then.”. “Ok then out with it!” She emphatically said not realizing where this was going, though it thrilled him to see her out of this funk. He could only wait to see if she was willing to retry that old scene from all those months ago.
“Nia when I originally wanted to talk about that I wanted to make up for where I’ve failed you, and so I need you to repeat what you told me that day Nia.”. She instantly started to shake a little, and her heart was racing faster than ever before. What rushed through her head was the question of is he about to do this? Is he actually going to reciprocate the love she thought he would never have for her? She realized how he talked about the sisters, and asked. “What about Pyra and Mythra? You’re with them, aren’t you? I’d hate to make everything awkward between you guys, it’s something I felt guilty about after the crucible too. Taking advantage of their absence.” Rex taking his time to remember the words the sisters told him, he slowly grabbed both of her hands, and said, “Once we received your letter, we talked about it and they were the whole reason I’ve even gotten this far to be real with you. But I think Pyra got me to realize it the best. Your no different to me than they are.”.
Nia couldn’t believe what she was hearing, she was expecting to wake up any moment, but his hands now felt like they were keeping her anchored down and kept her from falling off the tower. Now her Elysium was just Infront of her. She knew he couldn’t lie to him, so she decided to do what he asked. “Alright then” She said as she looked him directly in the eyes, he then knew what was coming, she continued, “I love you Rex!”, without hesitation he said the words she wanted to hear for the past six months, “Nia, I love you too!”.
She couldn’t stop herself at this point, she took her hand and very quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and brought him close, even if it was just a hug she didn’t care, she just wanted to be as close to him. What surprised her when he reciprocated the movement and their faces were within inches of each other. Forehead to forehead, and she felt like exploding. This was a reunion that they both needed. Both sitting in contentment, they barely noticed a couple things happening. First, they didn’t notice the surprisingly quiet sisters walking up behind the tower, who were expecting to be walking in on a mess, and possibly an injured Rex.
And secondly, that a bright gold affinity bond that had snuck its way between the two, they only noticed when they could hear each other’s heartbeats breaking them out of their trance. Both of them couldn’t believe how strong their bond was, but it was Nia who broke the silence saying, “Rex, I can even feel your heartbeat! H-How did our bond get this strong-“? Her words and thoughts were immediately cut off by Rex, who had brought one of his hands from their hold on her hands to her cheek he quietly said, “I can feel yours too Nia.” Then without any thought the two drifted closer once again, meeting finally as their lips touched.
And of course, it was very awkward between them. It was Nia’s first kiss, and Rex hadn’t had much experience from either of the twins. Their teeth clashed and their noses bumped each other, but neither of them cared it just felt right to the both of them as the bond between them grew even brighter making the water tower look like a lighthouse.
The moment broke and the two were left speechless and in their own little world as the light they admitted dulled down, until a blond-haired aegis, butted into the conversation after having made it up the tower, and found them mid kiss. Luckily, she was nice and waited for the moment to be finished then said,” Wow Rex, and you thought you may need us to convince her huh?”. The boy and the girl instantly turned a brighter red than the other aegis who had just made it to the scene and separated like they had been caught murdering a loved one. Rex struggling to talk, “Uh Mythra its… I-it’s not what it looks like!”. The blond broke into a massive laughing fit at him, leaving her red-haired sister confused and in the dark. “So, it seems like I’m missing some context here.” Pyra asked, and before Rex could dig himself further in a hole, Nia coming down from the rush and slowly looking less like an apple answered the question for him saying, “We were just finishing up a conversation that we’ve been needing to have since the world tree, and I could only assume that you guys want to get back home for dinner, so I won’t keep em’ from you guys for much longer.”
As she finished saying that, she began to get up but felt a hand on her right shoulder stopping her from doing so, and it was Mythra’s who cut in with a softer tone than before, “Nia, Pyra may not have seen that but don’t kid yourself, your more than welcome to join us.”. Nia taking this at face value and thinking about dinner replied, “Ok then, Tora’s place should be fine for a night away, I’ll go and grab Dromar-“,getting cut off by the other aegis this time also making contact on her other shoulder and she said, “Nia, I think you misunderstood Mythra.”. Confused all Nia could say was, “About what? I don’t see what else you guys could have been referring too.”. As she was saying this the sisters sat on opposite sides of the reacquainted couple. But it was Rex who made the next move towards the baffled flesheater.” Nia, they are offering for you to live with us in Leftheria. And I think all of us would love to have you there with us from tonight’s dinner on.”.
This broke the floodgates again; Nia couldn’t believe that she had a full family again and the tears wouldn’t be held back any longer. Rex quickly brought his sobbing blade into an embrace giving her that shoulder to cry on one more time. He took this time to just rub circles on her back, and hold her head making sure she knew that she won’t be alone again. Once she was able to stabilize herself, she finally started to push from the hug, and finally replied to his request, “Rex, of course I’m going to take you up on that, and I can’t even say how much this means to me you three, b-but Dromarch will have to come with.”. With enthusiasm, Rex said, “Of course! We would love to have him, I bet the orphans at the foster would love to play and learn from him!”. And from that, the now quartet made their way back to where they left good old reliable gramps, and set for home for all of them now back in Leftheria.