I would tell you that life, without its seemingly hopeless dilemmas, is not something worth living for. I would say that it is an empty life, devoid of the all of the circumstances that make us what we are: human beings. However, I am beginning to think that I was wrong all along…

A/N: This is the side story to Mirrored Vision and vice versa. This fanfiction details the events leading to the interaction in Cephiro.

1. Reminisce

Eagle stared endlessly out at the darkening gray sky and the precipitation that had been falling from it for the last four months. He found solace in watching the rain; it was strangely cathartic and seemed to mirror exactly what he was feeling but was unable to voice.

He had been home for nearly two years now. How time passed him by… He thought of Cephiro and her clear blue skies, her lush vegetation, and glittering waters. The rain and lighter sky in Autozam were signs that the atmosphere was clearing and yet, while this was good news, he still had a sense of longing for the world that had captivated him since he first saw its image on the surveillance platform. He would have liked to remain in that beautiful country a little longer, if Autozam did not need him.

His return to Autozam was not filled with pleasantries, despite having gained an alliance with the other countries. It was completely unexpected how quickly he had taken ill again after arriving home. The still-existent pollution, primary dependence on mental energy, and his own desolation overcame what recovery he had made in Cephiro.

For nearly a year, Eagle fell into a deep sleep. He awoke close to his twenty-first year only to succumb to irregular fainting spells for the ensuing months. Now, one month before his twenty-second birthday, he was in somewhat satisfactory health.

He sighed and closed his eyes. He was lonely, fatigued, and frustrated with being trapped in this weak body, unable to help himself break through this aggravating condition. What's more, he couldn't tell a soul as it would only invite pity and excess concern.

He placed his hand on the glass and felt its coolness permeate his skin. He felt caged in. He felt more tired, more aged for someone who was only twenty-one. He wanted to live for them all, but now he wasn't even sure he had the heart to live for himself.

A knock sounded from behind his bedroom door. As he turned around, the door slid open and in walked Corolla Vision, who had been running around nervously to check on her son's status since his mysterious collapse in the dining hall.

Standing beside her son, she barely brushed past his shoulders. She was a woman in her early forties, slender and petite, with fine auburn hair and jade eyes. Her regal countenance exemplified authority and commanded the attention of her audience. However, in the midst of her unease, there was not much she could do to maintain order.

Eagle smiled at her warmly and reassured her of his well-being before she had a chance to lay a hand on his forehead. Despite his insistence, she watched him with skepticism and a painful expression, for they both knew that it was not true. He had used too much of his heart in his youth, nearly exhausting himself entirely in the invasion of Cephiro. Had she known the severity of his condition, she would have dissuaded him from leaving home before he set out with his Second-in-command and NSX fighters. It wasn't until hours before he entered his final battle that he called to apologize…to notify her and her husband of the possibility of his not returning.

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders with a gentle squeeze and in a soft whisper, said, "I'm fine, I promise." Corolla nodded slowly and let him fall back from her frail figure. She had been harboring a thought on her mind for the last four months and had recently made a resolution to share her plans with him.

"I have wonderful news, darling," she began, looking at him intently. "You remember Sud, don't you? The district we used to live in before your father was elected president?" Eagle thought for a moment that the name sounded familiar, but he could not recall any memories of it. "There was a little girl you used to play with—Mika. Well, I've invited her to stay with us for a little while." Her face fell, despite her obvious attempts to keep her tone even and her guise happy. "There was an accident—a break in the domes… Fortunately, the child was not there, but her mother—" She paused for a moment and gulped, wiping the edge of her eye swiftly with her fingers. "Well, you can imagine how she must feel. I thought it would be appropriate if we take her in. After all, she no longer has any surviving relations…"

Eagle reflected on his distant memory of their former colleague. The few reminisces that he could recall were of a too-tall blonde miscreant, but who was she and how were they ever acquainted?

He stared at his mother. She returned his gaze with a fixated look that could only mean she thought him undergoing another episode. "Eagle," she began slowly, "I was thinking…I should hire someone to look after you."

He shook his head and insisted that he was fine. "I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I really don't need to be treated like a child."

"But," she said, holding onto his forearms. "Eagle, please. Please don't be so difficult. I cannot handle not knowing what may happen to you every five seconds of the day. I need to be sure that you'll be all right."

"And I am, mother," he said, earnestly, smiling. "Nothing is going to happen to me."

"How do I know that?" she demanded, her face bright red and eyes shining. He became silent, his eyes squinting as he pondered on how to answer. He held his mother, showing a sign of his submission to her will and his remorse at making her as desolate and dejected as he was. "I'm sorry," he said.

-o-

A week had hardly gone by before Eagle found himself in the sitting room, waiting for the coming of his would-be bodyguard. She did come, much later than expected, after his brief conversation with Corolla and Chrysler Vision. They had informed him that the young woman would be arriving somewhere in the late afternoon and had asked him to attend to her. Whether they had been speaking of "Mika" or his bodyguard, he did not know at the time.

As the sixth hour drew near, he had yet to see any sign of her and had made up his mind to retire to his room. The second hand was a quarter of a way from six o' clock when a form hidden partly by shadow arrived in the doorway to the drawing room. "I'm sorry I'm late," a hasty voice rang. "My plane was delayed a half hour this morning."

Eagle watched as his visitor became illuminated with the soft yellow glow from the lamps. She was a girl around the age of nineteen, tall, slim, fair, with a healthy complexion. Her hair was wound into a loose knot at the nape of her neck, which was considerably long despite the many times she had twisted it. Her attire, however, was what caught his eye. It was the same midnight blue lined with silver, similar to those of the guards.

She placed her suitcase on the floor and, looking up with a sheepish smile, met him. "Good evening, Mr. Vision." Straightening up and brushing her wet bangs aside, she extended her hands towards him. "It's a pleasure to see you." He smiled and readily exchanged a handshake with her. "It's nice to meet you, too, Miss. Would you, by any chance, be my new bodyguard?" She nodded accordingly and said, "Yes, I am."

He gestured toward the couches. "Have a seat," he said, reclining into an armchair. "My mother will be joining us shortly." She followed suit and settled down into one nearest the fireplace. "Wet weather, isn't it?" he asked, eyeing her sodden clothes. "It is," she replied, giving off a shudder.

Eagle grinned, pulled out a mobile phone from his side pocket, and called for a blanket and hot tea to be brought in for his guest. Subsequently, he replaced it and turned his attention back on the young woman sitting across from him. "I'm sorry, but I haven't quite learned your name yet, Miss…?"

She opened her mouth to answer but, at that moment, a maid came in with a large maroon blanket. Behind her, the butler carried a clear tray and tea-set towards the glass coffee table. He asked the sopping young lady how many spoons of sugar she wanted in her demitasse as the maid unfolded the blanket and draped it across her shoulders. "Two, please," she answered, relaxing immediately in the comfort that was bestowed on her. "Thank you."

Eagle glanced at the two servants and gently waved them away. "So," he began, after she had taken a few sips, "tell me about yourself."

She looked momentarily at him with surprise, as if to ask, "Like what?" before setting her cup and plate down on the table. "Well," she said with a shy smile, "I've recently turned twenty a month ago." He nodded attentively and she continued, "I have worked as a waitress and a domestic servant. Before that, I attended the S Academy for about three years—so I have some experience in military technique and training." She clasped her hands together in her lap and looked down. "I wasn't able to finish school due to some…circumstances that had taken place in my eleventh year and, therefore, could not earn my diploma." Her cheeks flushed. "And, um—as you know, that would give the universities a reason to not accept me into their institutions." She stared wistfully at her feet and recounted further, "I had hoped to go onto Ouest…"

Eagle lifted his hand to his chin, thoughtfully. She was a year younger than him and, had she attended Ouest when she meant to, they might've crossed paths. It was the year when he was assigned the position of commander of the NSX and met Lantis. Lantis, he thought with some pain. And Cephiro… H—

He shook the thoughts away and listened to the rest of her story. "…scholarship in my ninth year, but it was retracted as soon as they heard that I dropped out. And so it was just work and…here I am now," she ended on a depressing note.

Wanting to change the mood of their conversation, Eagle suggested she tell him about her hobbies and aspirations. "I love to read," she said, brightening a little. "Classic novels are my preference. However, I do read different genres from time to time, including books on self-instruction. I also adore dancing. I don't dance, but I like to watch others dance. The movements are so graceful and beautiful." She hesitated before continuing. "Most of all, I like learning about people and interactions. You can often tell how a person is by their nature, their speech, and their responses to different environmental stimuli." She laughed, "I guess I've always wanted to be a psychiatrist. It's just the expenses that are the problem." He asked if she was planning on returning to school. She smiled and in a rueful voice, murmured, "Perhaps not."

He thought for a moment of all of the things that were confided to him. She had undergone some difficult situations, but surely she is better off now? He took a glimpse of her, drawing in all of her features. She looked well enough but, as he paid closer attention, he noticed the faint coloring of the barely discernible bags under her eyes. And on noticing them, he couldn't help but stare at her oddly-colored eyes. They were a deep blue, the irises resembling irregular layers of paint splattered on a wall.

He had no idea how long his gaze had been fixated on her face but, as her eyes widened questioningly, he soon realized that it had been far too long to go unnoticed. Before he could explain himself, Corolla had entered the room.

The young woman rose from her seat and was suddenly enveloped by his mother. "Mika, it's so nice to finally see you again!" she exclaimed, "How are you, my dear?" Eagle remained in his armchair, dumbfounded. "Mika?" he breathed.

"You are looking well," Corolla gushed, stepping back and studying her form, "I still can't believe how grown-up you are." Mika smiled and replied warmly, "Thank you, Mrs. Vision."

"Well," Corolla said, acknowledging her son and glancing between the two of them, "I see you two have already had a chance to get to know each other." Eagle affirmed her assumption, but he wasn't sure whether or not it was true. Why didn't she—Mika—bother to convey her identity until this moment? He peeked at her. She was engaged in a tête-à-tête with his mother. What they were talking about, he did not know. He found it hard to follow their conversation as his mind could not help but wonder about her.

In a few minutes, they were joined by Chrysler Vision, who greeted their guest with utmost civility and inquired about her travel.

The evening passed by at a relatively slow rate for Eagle, as he spent the most of the period listening politely to the soft-spoken murmurs of his parents and their visitor over dinner and back in the drawing room. He politely made inquiries from time to time, but he felt caught in a whirlwind, unable to grasp at anything.

It did not occur to him how exhausted he was until he was sporadically nodding to sleep in his armchair. He heard his father mention that it was well past one o' clock and that they all ought to go to bed. Corolla knelt beside Eagle and tenderly called him awake. "Come now, my darling. I need you to show Mika to her room." He obediently rose and followed her to the corridor where Mr. Vision and Ms. Tenshi—as he had learned was her surname—were waiting.

Mr. and Mrs. Vision departed down a separate hallway, leaving the two adults to wander down the opposite. Eagle sleepily led the way through the dimly-lit corridors as his guest trailed along, turning her head in every direction as she analyzed the photographs of Autozam's past presidents and their families. A short distance before the appearance of another entryway, they came across a portrait depicting an eleven-year-old Eagle standing beside a proud Mr. Vision.

As they approached it, Mika turned her head upward. What thoughts were cruising through her mind as she watched the depictions were soon made known by her almost inaudible whispers. She smiled, and redirected her attention to the present Eagle. "Bit of a nasty change for you, wasn't it?" she asked.

He did not know what she was referencing. "What was?" he asked.

"You used to grieve so much about moving away from Sud," she replied, staring at him starkly. "You really don't remember anything, don't you?" He frowned. "No, I guess not," he admitted. She grinned, moving forward. "Well, I suppose it's not very important, anyway. So you've been in Cephiro for a couple of months, have you? What is it like?"

Eagle could not refrain from smiling as he imagined the blissful time he spent in that country. "It's beautiful," he said, "like…a paradise. There's really no other word to describe it. You have to see it for yourself." She slowed down and walked alongside him. "How is it like a paradise?"

As he thought more about his stay, he began to feel a strange feeling of bleakness claw from within. Thankful for the fact that they were now standing between their separate rooms, he suggested that he aid her curiosity on another occasion. She disappointedly consented and wished him a good night before disappearing behind the door of her bedroom.