Location: Vire-Laravé – Outskirts of Sector 3-C (Post-Ass-Kicking Alley, Adjacent to Emotional Turmoil)
Time: [Cycle 4 : 19:49 : Local Spacial Drift]
After having long debate about who takes credit after defeating those beasts and also blaze gives credit to Ren so that he, feels strangely flattered and wildly uncomfortable, scratched the back of his head.
Lira turned toward him, curious.
"Are you always like that? Talking to yourself with six different personalities?"
Ren laughed nervously.
"Kinda… not exactly."
He hesitated.
The wind swirled faintly around them, tugging her cloak and his coat in a synchronized little dance. She looked so… normal. Small. Wide-eyed. But something in her voice, her poise — the stillness she carried — reminded him: this wasn't a kid.
"Lira…" he said slowly. "There's something you should probably know about me."
She tilted her head.
"Okay. Go ahead."
"So… these voices in my head? They're not voices. They're… AIs. Sort of. And also not just AIs. They're ancient Aetherium constructs from previous timelines. My left and right eyes are literally sentient weapons-slash-time-navigators."
He paused.
"Also, I may or may not be carrying the remaining Aetherium Core fragments inside my body, and I think I'm accidentally the timeline's last failsafe. Also, I'm from Earth. Like, dumb Earth. With social media and microwavable noodles."
Lira blinked. Once.
Twice.
Then softly smiled.
"That makes sense."
Ren stared at her.
"I… I just trauma-dumped sci-fi prophecy into your lap and that makes sense?"
"Ren," she said gently, "I've literally watched time loops collapse from the inside. I've aged backwards through a tear in chronology. I've spoken to myself five seconds into the future while standing inside a locked dimension. Your glowing eyeballs are the least weird thing I've seen today."
FROST:
"Okay she's scary. I like her."
BLAZE (quietly):
"...Same."
CORE (thoughtful):
"She's dangerous. She also might be the only one who understands what you're becoming."
Ren exhaled, shoulders lowering.
For the first time in what felt like days — maybe lifetimes — someone didn't flinch at what he was.
No fear. No suspicion. Just... acceptance.
Even if it came wrapped in a girl who barely came up to his chest and looked like a holographic moon sprite with PTSD.
"Well then," Ren said, mustering a crooked grin, "guess we're both walking paradoxes, huh?"
"Yup," Lira replied. "Now let's go find that core fragment… before you pass out and I have to carry your dramatic ass again."
Ren scratched his head, feeling about as useful as a vending machine in a blackout.
"Okay, so... one little thing. I know we both have grand destinies or whatever…"
"Yes?" Lira replied calmly, dusting her sleeves off like she hadn't just been bullied by interdimensional lizard thugs.
"I have no idea how to find this last core fragment," Ren said, hands up.
Lira stared at him.
"...You don't have a plan?"
"I thought you had one!"
FROST:
"This is incredible. Two interdimensional anomalies just formed the most directionless team in history."
BLAZE:
"Next they're gonna form a club. 'Hi, we're Cosmically Important, but we brought no maps or lunch.'"
CORE (sighing):
"I can scan planetary sectors if you two quit whining long enough for me to align the data mesh."
"Please do," Ren groaned. "Before I end up asking a sentient tree for directions again. One of them tried to sell me insurance."
Lira giggled. It was soft, but it echoed — like a breeze brushing the edge of a long-lost laugh.
"Alright, then. Let's set the record straight," she said. "You want to know my goal?"
"Yeah, shoot. I've already emotionally committed to this deranged buddy-cop thing we've got going."
She pointed up toward the shattered sky, where floating glass moons turned in lazy circles.
"I want to find the core fragment not just to restore myself — but to restart the memory archive of this world."
Ren blinked. "...Wait, you're telling me this place had a hard drive?"
"Every city in this world once stored echoes of every timeline it touched. Memories. Choices. Alternate outcomes. Caldrith Verge was once the library of What Could Have Been."
She turned back to him, eyes glowing faintly.
"Then the archive collapsed. Everything fractured. Everyone forgot."
"So you're not just restoring you. You're trying to reboot the cosmic brain?"
"Exactly."
"...Neat," Ren said, blinking. "All I wanted was a hot shower and to not die tragically in an alley."
"Ambitious," she replied with a straight face.
And just like that, the universe's dumbest-smartest pair stepped deeper into the strangest city in existence — with one goal:
Find the last core.
Restore the archive.
And maybe, maybe, avoid getting mugged by time again