I am back after too much absence ! I admit I lost interest for a long time and I couldn't find a good way to continue this story without forcing destiny (lol) I ended up forcing destiny cause why not annnnnnd ... here we are, enjoy.


"Oh Fiora give me that welder on this workbench, I have to keep holding the antenna of this unit with my other hand" she didn't understand what Vanea was doing, yet the young girl enjoyed watching her work.

"What is the purpose of this one ? It looks like a big eyeball" Fiora commented as Vanea was welding back the last frame pieces of the mechon unit.

"You are right, Egil gave me the model, I built it, it's an observer, recently we developed a new system that allows almost all of our units to become invisible. But it's too complex to be applied on all our soldiers for now, so instead we are making a single model without any kind of weapon or defensive system excepted this one, mostly to test it. But at the same time this observer will be able to scout out for us ... now-" Vanea stop her welder and walked a few meters away from the unit.

...

Which didn't move as both the machina and the him had expected "it's supposed to be working right ?"

"I-I must have messed up something while I was finishing to assemble it." The engineer hurried back and began to disassemble the unit once more. Meanwhile Fiora looked around the workshop, her eyes stopped in a strange white device that had been put away with random pieces of mechons.

"What is this ?" She asked Vanea.

"Hum ? Oh ... this ... this is- ... this does work, in fact it never worked. After the Bionis attacked I tried to contact lady Meyneth with all the knowledge I had about her, this was supposed to be some kind of catalyst but the power of a god is probably too much for a simple machine.

"So this is supposed to be ... a heart ?"

"You may call it this way, I do not recall giving it a name ... oh what did I do wrong ? I'm supposed to be the best engineer in the city ... and the only one around."

Fiora kept looking at the device, she held it in her hands and rotated it a few times, from her fingertips she felt a "vibrant" aura emanating from the piece of metal and- ... and a voice saying- ... saying-

"You have to reverse the polarity or else the circuit will stay clos-" she spoke out loud, Fiora brought her hand over her mouth as soon as she realized that she had ... lost control ?

She turned back in Vanea's direction, the machina was starring with her eyes and mouth wide open at the young hom girl who didn't notice that the heart device was now glowing red in her hand.


The leg of the Bionis, from the sky Shulk had a very different view of the valley, this was probably the most open area he knew on Bionis. He wondered how it looked around the head, he tried to ask Egil once but the machina shrugged and ignored the boy, this meant "it isn't a place for you" obviously.

Getting to Colony 9 wasn't hard, yet he wouldn't take any risk with the air defence system of the colony, Shulk was about to drop further down the leg when he spotted something being pursued by a creature he had already seen somewhere ... Shulk zoomed ... it was a hom and-

"A telethia ?!" He didn't waste any second and headed straight toward the hom, he had experienced being drained of his life force, no one would have to experience this under his watch.

"Ge-get away you damn thing ! You-You- Ahhhh !" The hom was carrying a large hammer and a bag with him, he dropped his bag and turned around to swing his hammer at the telethia, but the creature had foreseen this attack and easily dodged the head of the hammer. Then it pinned the man against the ground and began to absorb all it's ether, Shulk took out the sword of his face unit, he was probably going to damage it with so much speed but the telethia would not be able to dodge.

The creature was too focused on his feast that it didn't felt Shulk's presence, and when the massive metal blade had impaled it there was no more opportunity to fight.

The beast was dead but the hom wasn't close from the same state, Shukl remove his camouflage and jumped out of his unit to take a look at the man ... the telethia drained a lot of it's ether, his skin had gone white. Listening to his altruism Shulk headed back inside his face unit and grabbed the hom in his arms, he could still be saved.


"Fiora ! It's-! ..." the machina was trying to process how the device ended up working ... because it was working, this red aura, she had seen it, Egil had seen it, Lady Meyneth's power.

"W-what should I do ?!" The young hom girl asked disturbed by this odd sensation.

"Put it on my work bench" Fiora hastened to get the device away from her hands, she kept her distance while Vanea was trying to find answers.

It wasn't obvious, in fact the machina couldn't scientifically explain why the device suddenly decided to work, yet she had one theory, Lady Meyneth used Fiora's ether to power the device in an attempt to communicate. "Fiora ... this is going to be difficult to explain but I have a request, could you hold the device for a moment ?"

"Is it safe ?" The girl asked.

"Absolutely, I think Lady Meyneth simply borrowed your flux of ether to manifest herself, if possible I need you to keep sharing it with her, you won't feel any side effect I promise ... well you might feel a bit sick or disoriented but you will be unharmed I promise"

Hesitantly Fiora grabbed the heart again, as soon as she touched it however she didn't feel sick at all, in fact she felt great, really great. She was about to speak when she heard a voice, a deep and kind voice "Fiora ... I like your name a lot."


Shulk flew as fast as he could, he was in reach of Mechonis when Egil contacted him "Shulk, something happened ?"

"I was flying over the leg of Bionis when I found a hom that was being pursued by a telethia !"

The tone of the machina radically changed "A telethia ? So far down ?! You killed it ? Can you describe it to me ?"

"I will but not now, the hom was drained of his ether but he his still alive" Shulk didn't get any response "We can help him right ? We can get him a face unit and-"

"I am preparing a mass product right now, I am calling Vanea, bring him directly to her workshop"

"Un-understood" Shulk was approaching from the capital, he changed his trajectory to land on the closed area from Vanea's workshop.

"I am not angry against you, in fact you did good, they will be able to tell us how they found themselves in this situation ... and also, I admire your decision, you experienced this yourself, you made sure that this hom would not meet the same fate. If he isn't in a critical state we might be able to help him to a full recovery."

Shulk wanted to thank the machina for his approval, but he was too shy to reply. He had already landed.


Vanea and Fiora were heading straight to the landing area, Fiora did not notice that she was still holding the heart in her hands.

"We have to tell your brother-"

"I will but not now, Sh-Ruby brought back another hom, and this one is injured, really injured, I need to prepare a unit to stabilise him"

"A unit ? You mean- ... a faced mechon ?"

"Yes ... they can be piloted by a living being like my brother they can also be used as a life support. But they aren't ready yet, I must make a few changes so the unit can accept the hom as a pilot."

Vanea arrived at the landing area, the mass product had already been moves by Egil who was piloting Yaldabaoth at the moment, the main frame of the mass product was open and the hom had been placed inside.

"He is not in a "very" critical state, but without a face unit or a life support system he will die" explained her brother as he saw her sister approaching. The engineer took a look at the hom, his skin was pale like snow, she had to act fast.

"I will have to lock them inside the face unit until they fully recover, once the main frame is closed they will receive a new flow of ether, they might panic"

"They will panic" corrected Shulk fully aware of how he felt with his new body.

"I can always prevent them from moving if needed. Ruby for how long were they affected by the telethia ?" Asked Egil.

"Five seconds I would say, this was a very small one, unlike the bodies in the capital"

"I see ..."

Vanea finished to program the mass product, she closed the hatch of the main frame and moved away from the suit as it was being powered up. Soon the eyes of the face unit lit up and a distorted sound of breathing was heard.

"Uhhhhhahhhhh ahhh !" The mass product tried to stand up but failed like a newborn.

"Breath, you are safe" began Shulk.

"Wh-where am I-I-I can't feel my body !" The new unit said as it was now crawling on the floor.

"You were attacked on the leg of Bionis you remember ?" Continued Shulk.

"Y-Yes I-I remember now, I was going back to Colony 9 when this-this thing hunted me and-and- I am dead ?!"

Egil moved closer from the new face unit and took over "No, you were drained of your ether however, Ruby found you and brought you back, we gave you the equivalent of a life support to save you. At the moment you are inside a machine, you will have to stay until you have fully recovered. Do you understand ?" Egil spoke slowly, making sure that the hom was listening and understood everything.

"A-a machine ? Where am I ?" Egil was about to speak again but Fiora ran between him and the face unit.

"You are safe mister, these people are nice and kind, we are on Mechonis"

The man froze for a moment, the face unit stared at the hom girl in front of it "Me-Mechonis ? So you are-you are mechons ?"

Egil's face unit opened to reveal it's pilot "We are machinas, the mechons are our machines, our workers and soldiers, as for myself, I am Egil, leader of Mechonis. This is a lot to take in, I understood how uncomfortable you feel at the moment and I am more than willing to answer all your questions, but first I would like to learn your name."

The hom kept looking at the young hom girl and the machina standing next to her, until it found the strength to stand up "I am Xord" it replied.


The new face unit named Xord was brought to Lady Meyneth's shrine and Egil explained everything, he even explained his recent activities with Shulk, which he simply named Ruby to avoid any confusion.

Xord listened silently, asking a question from time to time.

"So ... that thing which almost took away my life is one of the creatures responsible for the genocide of your people ... even we home are in danger, we are getting killed and harvested like food by this Zanza, the Monado." Summarized Xord.

"He is the ultimate threat to our world, as I explained he has infiltrated all the different civilisations on Bionis, we can't trust anyone, our priority for now is to destroy the Monado at all cost. Once it's done we can search for his disciples and end it all."

Xord looked at the ground for a moment, his gaze moved to his right hand which he ended up closing "I want to help you, I have a daughter in Colony 9, I want her the best for her, I won't let anyone be treated as mere food by a rotten god !"

Egil chuckled "My original plan was to complelty destroy the Bionis, but when I finally had the occasion to destroy the Monado, I found another way, no one else will ever have to feel the suffering brought by Zanza, follow me"

Egil lead Xord and Shulk to the most secured area of all Mechonis, he called it the apocrypha generator, inside hundreds of mechons were monitoring one single object, the Monado, completely cut from any kind of ether source.

"This is- ... now that I am here I am almost scared of that damn sword" Xord explained.

"It can manipulate any source of ether and turn it into something else, this is a very complex tool, I found a way to disable it but destroying it is another thing ... Ruby, Xord, I haven't mentioned this yet, but the high entia living on the head of Bionis can all be transformed into telethia."

"What ?!"

"Their DNA is very sensible to ether, with the correct signal or a violent expose to ether they can be turned into telethia, they probably forgot about this, however their ancestors attempted to be free of Zanza's influence by mixing their own DNA with hom DNA."

"I see ... I don't know much about genetic but this is smart, really smart, even a god can't fight evolution hahaha ..."

"I am thinking about communicating with them in the future, they might be able to help us reach our objective, but for now, Ruby you will help Xord with his face unit, Vanea asked me to join her at her Workshop." Egil flew away leaving Xord and Shulk at the entrance of the apocrypha generator.

"So ... Ruby hum ? Egil keeps calling you like that but you are clearly another hom" deduced Xord.

"Y-yes ... he saved when he found the Monado, I was part of an expedition but the Monado killed everyone, one of Zanza's disciple named Dickson-"

"Dickson ? The Dickson from colony 9 ?!"

"Yes ! You know him ?"

"Who doesn't ! ... I can't believe he is- ... that bastard, what did he do ?"

"He tried to kill me, he tried to kill Egil, and he managed to ran away with the Monado. But thank to Fiora, the other hom you saw earlier we got it back and we even managed to make them think they still had the original."

Xord nodded "How bad were you hurt ?"

"... some parts of my body had to be entirely replaced, thanks to Vanea I can live a normal hom but- ... I am also a machine now, compared to you I might never be able to heal completely."

"How old are you ?"

"I'm nine"

"... wait really ? I thought you were a teen but you are just a kid ! And you met a worse fate than me, that girl Fiora she seems fine, what is she doing here ?"

"She went here to be protected, she helped us to steal the Monado, imagine if Dickson suddenly discovered what she did. Her brother, Dunban, he is the only hom who managed to use the Monado without losing control.m from what I understand she wasn't on good terms with him before so now ..."

"Hum ... she knows about you ?"

"I- ... I don't think she does, we are trying to keep the secret of the face units. The homs aren't ready for the truth yet"

"Clearly not" Xord sat down, he seemed confused for a moment "Hey it actually feels like I'm sitting right now ! This Vanea must be a wonderful engineer ... well since they are machinas they must build machines every day right ?"

"Egil and Vanea are the only ones living in the capital, the others live on the fallen arm of Mechonis, I haven't been here yet though. Egil told me the others do not want to deal with Zanza anymore, I don't think they understand that this could happen again ... or perhaps they have lost hope ?"

"Pff ... ridiculous, you four have accomplished so much already, now it's all about hunting the rats among us right ? What could go wrong ?"


"Lady Meyneth lives in that little device ?!" Egil was speechless.

"Not exactly, her hum ... "very being" if I may say, is focused inside it, but in order to work it needs a very complex system of ether, similar to ones of the homs, that is why it only began to work when Fiora interacted with it. Her last fight with Zanza must have weakened her to such an extent that she couldn't even manifest herself physically." Vanea had prepared a few schematics for her brother, she had never made so much advancement in years.

"So ... can we bring her back ?"

"Yes, if Fiora agrees I can try to make an artificial body based on her own for Lady Meyneth, it will take some time though ... at least a month to make a first version. Then I do not know if Lady Meyneth will accept this body as her own"

"I trust you Vanea, if the high entia do not posses the knowledge that would help us to destroy the Monado she will. Fiora, do you agree to help us ?"

"Of course ! I will do everything I can to help"

"You have all my gratitude ... perhaps we should also make a face unit for her, she will need protection."

Vanea nodded and went back to her activated, however before Egil left she interrupted him "Brother I- ... I think you should talk with father, things have changed, he might-"

"He wants me dead ... my goal is still the same and what I did before can't be erased, he doesn't even see me as a machina anymore, I'm just a murderer and a dictator ... You should feel lucky, the others still consider you as a friend and a close relative."

Egil left the workshop, Vanea sighed and looked at the main factory throught a window.

"...Vanea, Egil is your brother right ? How- no I mean- why do the other machinas hate him so much ?"

"It's complicated, the war changed a lot of things, many of us died, Egil did everything he could to protect us, and after the fight ended the other machinas just wanted to live in peace, far away from any kind of conflict. But Egil knew that in the future Zanza would come back and finish what he started. He begged the others to keep fighting, but the wound was fresh, he wanted blood, to make someone, to make anything suffer ... no one trusted him anymore. If only they could see how much he has changed."

Fiora thought about Egil's situation, the heart she held between her hands was suddenly warmer. "... Let's bring back lady Meyneth, I'm sure she will be able to reunite everyone, no matter if they are hom or machina."

Vanea smiled and passed her hand between Fiora's hairs "Then let's get to work."


Mumkhar was ... pissed, first Dunban was now the hero of Bionis, the heir of the Monado, or some stupid knight thingy as the other people at the Colony called him. And second, his sister was gone, now he was a martyr ... she was gone, she was just gone, he wasn't really surprised, the way he had treated her didn't go unnoticed.

Actually Dunban wasn't actively looking for her, he went looked around in Tephra Cave but he didn't go further, it had been two weeks now. Dickson suggested multiple times now that she was probably "gone" no matter what he meant Dunban refused to believe his sister was truly lost. "She will come back." He kept saying.

This was pathetic, Mumkhar was in Tephra Cave again, Dunban and Dickson had stopped their researches ... then Mumkhar thought to himself that if the other idiot wasn't able to find his own sister then ... then perhaps he could ? The feeling he had was weird. He knew it was hopeless, and most likely a waste of time.

So he went to Gaur Plain, by the time he reached the leg the night had passed. The air was just warm and cold enough at the same time to travel ... Colony 6, it would be an interesting place to start yes.


After two weeks Vanea and Fiora had made a lot of progress, Fiora consulted most of the archives of the capital, the machinas had a VERY extend knowledge of biology, probably because of their bodies being half natural half artificial, they developed ways to replace organs and bones or other essential components of their bodies without damaging the rest. Of course the brain couldn't be replaced.

Fiora did find a few reports about brain restoration but the experimations stopped when Zanza attacked. Vanea made a lot of scans of the young girl's body, she had created about 90% of lady Meyneth new body, she also found a way to use the same metal that face units were composed of as skin but she needed another kind of material, something she wouldn't be able to find on Mechonis.

She had called Egil, Shulk, Fiora and their new ally Xord to discuss of her advancement "We are almost ready to begin the fabrication of the body but- ... I need something to hold the fabric of the skin together, a strong silk, according to the archive some can be found near the leg of the Bionis, but I need a really large quantity and we can't just spend too much time around this area." She explained.

"You need steel silk ?" Fiora asked

"You know about the kind of silk we need ?" Egil demanded.

"Yes, the spiders in Tephra Cave keep making cocoons with metal parts from an old hangar, I guess with the time they ended up evolving to the point of synthesizing literal webs of metal" the girl explained "I'm not sure Colony 9 has any uses for that ... but they can be used to make cables, the miners at Colony 6 probably have a lot for their equipments."

"Colony 6" Xord repeated "I don't think they would give someone such a large quantity, even if they ask nicely" the blacksmith had been offered a new face unit but he said he liked this one, the "bulky" shape illustrated his temper, however he requested a hammer as a weapon. He couldn't get out of his face unit yet, so for now he listened from outside the workshop.

"We can't just take it and run away, we will have to establish good relationships with the Homs in the future." Egil tried to find a solution, they were so close, he looked at Shulk who stood next to Fiora, the girl was showing him the plans Vanae had created to Lady Meyneth's "what quantity of this silk to we need ?"

Vanea looked at her files "... considering it will act as flesh and skin ... about a cubic meter of silk ... I do not know how much it weights but in terms of volume that would be perfect."

"In that case ... Fiora, would you accept to be escorted to Colony 6 and retrieve the quantity we need ? We could buy a smaller amount and come back in a few days to avoid any kind of suspicion."

"Does it mean I can fly again with Ruby ?"

Egil chuckled "Yes it does"