The first thing that Vent had done was take Aile to the airship so that she could get looked over by Muguet despite her protests that the Biometals needed to be looked over first. Aile had looked sheepishly at the short, brown-haired doctor, who had gasped and had immediately forced her to demerge and lie down on a bed.

"Aile! How many times do I have to tell you not to end up in this condition! Rose, get me the scanner, stat!" Muguet ordered a purple-haired nurse, who immediately ran to do just that.

Model X woozily floated over to Vent, nearly falling out of the air. Vent caught him, and then fished Model Z out of his sister's pocket. "I'll go hand X and Z over to Fleuve, alright?"

"Fine," Aile sighed, but lay perfectly still as Muguet and Rose checked her over, other than turning her head to watch Vent go.

"…" Model C would have been grimacing were he capable of it, and Vent waited until he was no longer in the Medical Bay before he glanced down at the Biometal.

"What's the matter, C?"

"…I don't like M-Model Z," the Biometal flatly stated. "For s-some reason."

"You haven't even met him!" Vent protested; the red, black, and white Biometal was still unconscious, and he was starting to wonder if he would ever wake up.

"Don't push it, Vent," Model X spoke up, still sounding dizzy. "There's a history behind them, and it wasn't completely pleasant."

"Wh-What do you mean?" Model C asked, suddenly curious; he was aware enough to know that there was some bad blood between him and Model Z, but didn't know enough as to what it was.

"I-I really don't feel good…" the blue Biometal mumbled in return, his eyes dimming.

"How c-convenient," Model C muttered, but he stayed silent for the rest of the journey to Fleuve's lab.

"Hey, Fleuve?" Vent asked, nearly making the scientist jump from his computer. "Can you check X, Z, and C over?"

For good measure, Model X floated into the air, wobbling, and almost fell. This time, it was Fleuve that snatched him out of the air.

"What have you two been doing to these Biometals?" Fleuve huffed, reaching out to take Models C and Z as well. The scientist tinkered with the Biometals and his computer for several moments before he came to the conclusion as to what the issue was. "Model X is badly damaged, and Model Z is completely drained of energy! Model C is fine. Thank Light for small mercies," Fleuve muttered quietly. "And where are the other four?"

"Erm, well…" Vent wasn't quite sure what to say to that; Fleuve really seemed a little neurotic when it came to the Biometals. "Look, can I take C, and then come back and pick up X and Z later?"

"Fine, fine," Fleuve huffed again. "But I'm taking them if you and Aile make them end up in this condition again!"

Vent's eye twitched; Model Z's condition wasn't even their fault, and he was sure that Model X didn't blame them for his condition, either. But Model X made a sound that suggested he wanted to roll his eyes, and Vent realized that Fleuve probably threatened Aile like this all the time.

"Vent, we will be fine here. Please go make sure that Aile is okay. I purposely shouldered the majority of the damage, but I couldn't stop it from reaching her completely."

He nodded, glancing over at the three Biometals as Fleuve all but shoved them into the scanner. Shaking his head, he left the room.

Given that the damage to Aile's arms had been mostly absorbed by Model X, with some Subtanks and some medicinal patches, her arms were good as new and she was able to leave the Medical Bay, much to Muguet's reluctance – but at this moment, they needed all the people capable of working to be doing just that.

With Prometheus and Pandora gone, there wasn't much left to do in the Guardian land base other than help with the cleanup. With the help of the Guardian that he had met earlier, Roselle, and several others, Vent and Aile checked to ensure that nothing else was missing.

"The security systems are down," Roselle noted as she looked over some of the data, "but other than the four Biometals, nothing else is missing. Some people are hurt, but no one was killed."

Vent gave a deep sigh. "So it was them that they were after."

"A little odd that they didn't harm anyone else," Aile said, frowning. "They don't usually worry about that…" Did they want them all alive for some reason? The way their expressions had shifted when they'd heard Vent and Aile's names together…

"Huh… they looked kinda a familiar, now that I think about it," Vent mused out loud.

Aile blinked at him, looking alarmed. "…What?"

Oh, he hadn't meant to say that. "Just… I could've sworn that I've met them before, but I can't for the life of me remember when and where." He shook his head. "Sorry, I must be making things up. Anyways, so nothing else is gone or damaged? Just the four Biometals?"

"Nothing," Roselle confirmed again. "…I'll report this to the Commander, and we'll keep looking for them. I wish you both the best of luck."

"Thanks, Roselle," Aile said with a sigh. "…Vent, let's go back. Maybe Fleuve has fixed X and Z by now."

They'd gone back to Fleuve's laboratory, where Fleuve had repeated his rant about permanently keeping the Biometals if they ended up in this kind of condition again the next time that he got his hands on them. Aile had just smiled and nodded before taking Model X and Z back.

"Are you both alright?" she asked them, checking them over. It looked like both of them had been polished.

"We're fine, Aile," Model X said gently. He no longer sounded dizzy. "I simply took some damage, but it wasn't anything major. Z was just drained of energy and he is feeling much better now."

"Are you?" a deeper voice came, and Vent realized that this was the first time that he had Model Z speak.

Aile nodded, but it was clear that she was deep in thought. While Model C had curled up in Vent's pocket to take a nap during this as they seemed to be out of imminent danger, Aile was holding Model X and Model Z as close as she possibly could.

"Aile," Model X whispered as she squeezed them, "you're going to crush us."

They all knew that there was no way that she could, but it was probably uncomfortable for the two Biometals and she loosened her grip. "Sorry, just… I'm sorry, X. I know that they were your friends…"

"Don't feel sorry for yourself. I've told you this before," Model Z said before X could correct her on that statement. "You did what you could, and I'm impressed that you were able to keep us in your possession as long as you were able to. We will find them, and retrieve them so that we can take them to their true Chosen Ones."

A smile flickered across Aile's face. "You're right… thanks, Z."

Well, well. Prometheus, as he had mentioned before, almost did feel sorry for the poor bastards that were going to be given these four Biometals; they were pawns. All of them were. He took a moment to check the list over.

The first was a former Ruin Hunter and a mercenary for hire, a Reploid named Siarnaq. While he had been Chosen a long time ago, the hatred and coldness that had been caused from being betrayed by those that had thought friends would work in their favor.

The second was the son of a city governor, a human named Aeolus, who, like typical politicians, didn't care too much about the people that they were supposed to be looking over. This would work in their favor, as well, as Aeolus would only want the best to survive.

The third was a human formerly in the military, named Atlas. Like many people, she believed that only the strong should survive, and that war was the key to doing it. She'd be a good player, even if he doubted that she would make it to the end. No one was supposed to.

The last had somewhat puzzled Prometheus – a young Reploid boy named Thetis. He seemed like an environmentalist that wanted the ocean and all life in it to survive, though maybe they could nurture that into a streak of wanting humanity dead so that it could.

"Tsk," Prometheus muttered, looking over at Pandora. She was starting to look a little tired, he noticed, and he doubted it was because of the fight. Ten to one it was because of their little problem; he was feeling rather fatigued himself. "Holding up alright?"

Pandora nodded. "He said he'll… give us back the Biometals soon… we just have to manage until then…"

"It had better be pretty damn soon, we're cutting it too close," Prometheus grumbled as he sat down on a crate. He knew why he had wanted the Biometals, of course; they couldn't manipulate these four new Mega Men if the Biometals protested, so that little aspect had to be taken care of, to make them as silent as Model W was.

Prometheus wasn't sure whether he wanted to hear Model W yakking, anyways. He'd been merged with it for two centuries, and it seriously gave him the creeps. It felt like old snakeskin that he desperately needed to get off, but couldn't.

Pandora hesitated for a moment, before she sat down beside him, silent again. She was normally silent, but Prometheus was able to tell when something was on her mind. "What is it, Sis?"

"Those two… were there," she finally said. She hadn't recognized Aile the first few times that she had seen her, just that the girl had been the Chosen One for Model X, and that Girouette had been particularly fond of her from his behavior in Area D's highway – like a father to a daughter. "Cinq Ville, Area H. Vent and Aile. The little twins that survived."

Now Prometheus recognized the names, and despite his exhaustion, he sat up a little straighter. "Huh. Fancy that. Knew those two kids were something special." He smirked. "Makes you almost regret attacking Aile all those times, eh?"

He'd been half-tempted to kidnap those two four-year-olds; a pair of lost children, fleeing Mavericks, in a place filled with nothing but death? They'd reminded him of himself and Pandora, and small children were far easier to manipulate how people wanted them than older people. Plus, if they'd taught them how to fix them, then maybe they wouldn't have had to rely on him.

But they had both come to the same conclusion. It would have been impossible to hide a pair of four-year-olds. They had been young and would've needed constant guardianship, and what if they'd both needed to be worked on at the same time? The kids would've been caught and probably killed or bent to his whims.

Sure, he'd almost killed Aile a few times. But they were better off this way; right now, Aile had destroyed a Model W, and he'd hinted to her that there were others out there. Hopefully, she would go after them. And even though the Red Mega Man, Girouette, was dead, maybe Vent would help her out, because that boy was going to get involved, whether he wanted to or not, and it wasn't even Prometheus's fault this time around.

"…Do you think… they will be fine?" Pandora finally asked; she'd come to the same conclusion that he had.

"Eh, they'll be fine. X and Z were legends, and while I dunno about Model C, pretty sure that as long as he sticks around Aile he'll be fine," Prometheus shrugged again. "Speaking of Model C, you think he's possibly her creation?"

"It is… very likely," Pandora said, after a moment of thought. "Prometheus… do they have enough… information to find Model Ws?"

Oh. Right. Knowing that some were out there might not be a large enough hint; sure, they knew what to look for, but the Model W Core that Serpent had gotten his hands on had been hiding right under everyone's noses.

"Can't be helped, we may have to toss them some hints," Prometheus chuckled.

"That's very disturbing," Prairie said as she listened to the report that Aile had given her once the twins of them had arrived on the Main Deck. "So that means there are more Model Ws out there instead of just the one that Aile had destroyed."

"To make matters worse," Aile said, grimacing, "Serpent hadn't been joking around."

"About what?" Vent asked, glancing at his sister.

"Serpent told me that all Chosen Ones have the potential to merge with Model W, and Prometheus said the same thing. I'm not sure whether Serpent was just repeating what Prometheus had told him, but if they're right and all Chosen Ones were originally created to merge with Model W… that means there could be any number of them out there," Aile explained.

"Model Ws or Chosen Ones?" Prairie asked her, masking any anxiety in her tone that Vent thought that she would have.

"Both, probably. How many of us are out there?" Aile asked. "How many of us have been out there? I suspect there were a lot more of us than just me, Vent, Giro, Serpent, Pandora, and Prometheus. Those two sounded like they've been doing this for awhile, and I doubt that the four of us are the first ones that they've found."

"Technically, three of you, since they didn't know about me until today," Vent pointed out. "I'd be surprised if there weren't more Mega Men out there… even Mega Men that didn't even know that they were Mega Men. Even some of the people coming to Giro Express or in the Guardians could possibly be Mega Men, and could not know it, if no one ever tested them."

Prarie was silent for a moment. "In either case, we need to find the other Model Ws out there and destroy them before anyone else can use them. Vent, I know that you aren't a member of the Guardians, but could we still count on you to help us out?"

Vent thought for a moment; on one hand, Giro Express wouldn't run itself, though he had left it in Sho's hands for the time being. On the other hand, he would finally be able to somewhat keep an eye on Aile, and maybe he would finally keep her from running off and doing something stupid. "Yeah, why not? I'm pretty sure I'm involved in this whether I want to be or not."

As if that much hadn't been obvious the instant that he had been given Model C.

His sister smiled at him, despite the worry that shone in her green eyes, and he smiled back at her as Prairie gave a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Vent," the Guardian Commander told him. "For now, we should start searching for the Model Ws."

"Vent!" Sho grinned as he saw who had called him, the blond-haired Reploid waving enthusiastically. Vent had forgotten how cheerful his best friend was. "At least you're not pulling an Aile this time."

"Hello to you too, Sho," Vent laughed. "Anyways, just calling to see how Giro Express is doing while I'm gone." Hopefully, nothing huge had come up that Sho couldn't handle.

"Pretty well so far, I think," Sho said, glancing behind him for a moment. "Not a lot of customers have dropped by, so me and the other employees have been able to handle it. What about you? You just up and ran off after leaving the reins to me for the time being."

"Doing okay." Vent pursed his lips, pondering just how much to tell his friend. "I… might have gotten involved in something huge like Aile did, so I'm not exactly sure when I can come back."

"How bad?" Sho asked, looking more serious than he had before. "It's going to have to be pretty bad if you're being this cryptic, Vent."

Darn, his friend was able to read him like a book. He didn't want to lie to him, of course, but if he didn't tell him enough, then Sho was probably going to poke more at him. "I told you that Boss died, yeah? Well, it seems like he was involved in something pretty big… something that we're going to have to investigate further."

"We?"

"Aile and I," Vent supplied.

"Ah, right! You managed to make contact with her, didn't you?" Sho sounded cheerful, if but a little anxious. "Anyways, keep me posted. What you're doing is why all those Maverick attacks were happening, weren't they?"

"Yeah, that is why," Vent confirmed, and then almost froze as another thought occurred to him. Sho was a survivor of Maverick attack and while Giro himself hadn't adopted him as he still had family alive, he had taken him on as an employee… in fact, all of the employees that Giro had taken on had been Maverick attack survivors. Not to mention, Giro had been a Maverick attack survivor himself.

Aile had mentioned something about how Maverick attack survivors tended to be Chosen Ones. Like them. Like Giro. Like Serpent. Giro, he, and Aile had been Chosen Ones. Any one of the employees at Giro Express could be Chosen Ones, and that included Sho. He wasn't sure what he would do if it turned out that Sho was and ended up getting a Biometal. No, he needed to be careful.

"Hey, Sho?" he said.

"Yeah?"

"…Be really careful, okay? If anything weird or suspicious happens, can you call me or Aile?" Vent asked him. It was important that if someone like Pandora or Prometheus – or anyone, for that matter – approached him, that he let them know.

"Sure thing," Sho said, blinking in confusion. "…This has something to do with what you two are investigating, isn't it?"

"It does," Vent confirmed. Given how intelligent his childhood friend was, he wasn't surprised that Sho had managed to figure it out. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you much more than that."

Sho sighed, and shook his head. "Whatever, that's okay. I'll be in touch."

Vent managed a small smile, and hung up after the two of them said their goodbyes.

"Commander," Marguerite, one of the operators, called as Prairie left her bedroom to enter the Command Deck. For a moment, Vent was sure that he caught a glimpse of pink walls in there, but the door shut as quickly as it had opened. "We received two transmissions just now."

"What kind of transmissions?" Prairie asked as she settled down in her chair, idly fixing the ears of her cat plush sitting on her control panel.

"The first one doesn't have any information on the sender, nor is it encrypted with any special security codes. We scanned it to check for viruses and it came up clean," Marguerite told her. "It's a very short message: 'Check the planetarium in Area O.'"

"The planetarium in Area O?" Prairie echoed. "And there is no indication as to who could have sent it?"

"None, Commander," Marguerite shook her head. "All three of us have picked the message apart in every method that we could possibly think of."

"Very well then…" Prairie shook her head as she tried to puzzle it out. "And the second message?"

"This one was… encrypted," Tulip spoke up this time. "Commander, the encryption is the First Commander's special code."

Prairie froze just as Vent and Aile reentered the room. "The First Com… you mean, it's Sis's special code? The one that very few of us knew?"

"That's the one, Commander," Tulip replied, sounding a little shaken herself.

"The First Commander's special code?" Even Aile looked stunned at that. "Between that and Model C's mysterious existence, there's a good chance she's alive, isn't she?"

"Tulip, can you send the message over to my console?" Prairie requested. The operator did so, and Prairie looked down at her screen at the message, intent. Vent was tempted to peek at her console – he was curious about the First Commander – but Prairie closed it almost as soon as she had received it. "I see…"

"What does it say, Prairie?" Aile asked, equally as curious but not nosy enough to trying peering at her screen.

Prairie didn't respond at first, seeming contemplative before she finally spoke up. "…Aile, can I talk to you in private? This is important."

Aile looked surprised. "Alright."

Vent tried hard not to look offended at the idea of the two of them leaving him out again, causing Prairie to giggle at him. "Don't worry, Vent. I just want to ask Aile something, but don't want to put any pressure on her by having other people around to listen in."

"I'm not sure what this is about, but I'll tell you once we're done, okay?" Aile smiled at him. Vent sighed, but he nodded.

"Alright."

It was almost thirty minutes later when Aile and Prairie, who had disappeared into Prairie's bedroom – Vent had caught sight of several plush toys, most of them pink and cutesy, before the two had shut the door – came back out. Aile looked somewhat stunned, and Prairie looked relieved.

"Well?" Vent asked, sliding out of the chair he had been sitting in; Gardénia, another one of the operators, had been talking to him about basic functions of flying a ship without using autopilot and the conversation had been rather interesting.

"In about a week or so, I'm going to be taking a leave of absence from the Guardians to go find Sis," Prairie said calmly, almost as if she was announcing the weather.

"You're what?!" Vent nearly knocked the chair next to him over. He wasn't the only one, however, as all three operators – Gardénia, Marguerite, and Tulip – nearly leapt out of their seats as well.

"Commander…" Marguerite seemed uncertain. "While I understand the necessity of searching for the First Commander, if you're not here, then who will…?"

"Ah, yes!" Prairie smiled at them. "That was what I wanted to talk to Aile about, actually. I feel like, with the three of you helping her with the day-to-day duties, that she could handle the responsibilities of being Commander while I am gone."

Vent glanced over at his sister. "Are you sure about this? This was rather sudden."

Aile nodded. "I think so… I've had two years to understand how everything works here, and I have the sneaking suspicion that Prairie had been training me during those two years." A quick glance at the Guardian Commander and the tiny smirk on her face confirmed it.

"Besides, Vent," Model X's voice came as the Biometal hovered in front of them. "She'll have me and Z with her to help. We both have experience in these kinds of things."

He'd almost forgotten that the Biometals had been there, especially with how quiet Model C was being. Was the other still napping?

"I th-think," Model C suddenly spoke up, which answered Vent's question, "that Aile being Commander is making you all f-forget that other message?"

"Oh – yes!" Vent scratched his head in embarrassment and then turned to the two girls. "What was that message about a planetarium?"

"Ah, yes…" Prairie said, sitting back down in her Command Chair. "There's only one planetarium that I know of in Area O: Étoile Space Planetarium."

Aile cocked her head. "Vent, didn't Giro take us there once when we were little?"

Vent frowned, and nodded. "Yeah, I remember… we were like… six? I think we were upset and he was trying to cheer us up by taking us there. Why would someone tell us to go there?"

"I'm not sure, but I don't think it would hurt if the two of you check it out," Prairie replied. "We'll look up information on the planetarium here while the two of you transport over there."

"Both of us?" Aile asked, frowning.

"Both of you," Prairie confirmed. "If this is a trap to lure one of you there, it's best if you both are there to work things out. That, and since Vent isn't actually a member of the Guardians, I can't send him out alone on good faith… no offense, Vent."

The twins looked at each other. "None taken. Let's head on out then," Vent said. He had been wanting to go back to that planetarium for a while, anyways.

Over a year. Welp. I really don't have too much of an excuse other than the fact that I fell out of ZX for a little bit, and fell back in long enough to both finish writing this chapter and make a skeleton for the next one.

-Étoile Space Planetarium: If you recognize the name, then yes. I named it exactly why you think I did.