"Ana, stop sulking, it doesn't look good on you," Layfon said. She looked away from him, her expression one of deliberate disinterest.

Marcia pulled him aside. "Is she gonna be ok?" she asked. Layfon just sighed.

* 2 Hours earlier *

"So, do you really think Phog likes Hope?" Layfon asked.

"I don't know, he is always just across the street from her," Ana replied, taking a sip of her coffee. "And he did confess that he cares for her."

"Ehh, I just don't see it," Layfon said, turning from her to look down the center of the Barista Court. "He always lingers there anyway. Maybe he's just looking at something else entirely, like a random park bench or something."

"Hmm, maybe, but if he does like her, I'm gonna need to have a talk with him." Ana frowned slightly.

Layfon laughed. "Go easy on him, ok," he said, and her face lit up a little. Earlier he had suggested the two of them meet for coffee, and while the puzzled look she gave him at the time made him nervous at first he was happy to just be spending time with her outside of missions and in the barracks. And sparring, he supposed. Mercifully she had decided not to wear her black leather jacket, instead opting for her white and blue hoodie and simple jeans. As much as Layfon enjoyed the jacket, it fried his brain a little too much for his liking in a casual setting. According to Lin I stare at her enough anyways, he thought to himself.

"Oh, Irina is wondering if you wanna come down to the training room later," Ana said, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Seems our fights have made her itch for some action herself."

"Me, fight Irina? Nah, Gwin would never forgive me."

Ana smiled wickedly. "Oh, you'll be fighting me, too. Gwin will be on your team, 2 vs. 2."

Layfon just looked at her for a moment. "Excuse me?"

"Irina thinks, rightfully so, that Gwin is still too soft," Her smile grew wider. "She said that making him fight alongside you might give him some motivation."

"Doesn't he like Irina training him, though," he asked. "Remember that time Irina said that he acts weird when she trains him?"

"It's because he has an obvious masochistic streak when it comes to her," Ana replied. "Not that Irina knows that. However, she is hoping that fighting him directly might beat out his weird behavior,"

"As much as I think he might enjoy that, I doubt he'll be able to bring himself to physically hit her," Layfon said.

"Well, maybe he'll wanna fight me at least," Ana said. "After all, I stole you away from him, remember." She took another sip of her coffee and looked away from him, but Layfon noticed the slight blush on her cheeks. Man, she's so cute, he thought.

"I wouldn't call it stealing," he said. He waited before she turned back to look at him before speaking again. "Unless you count the fact that you stole my heart."

Ana stared at him for a moment before bursting into laughter. "Th-That was horrible," she said in between gasps. "Even Paige would cringe at that."

Layfon smiled. "Well it made you laugh, right? Sacrificing what's left of my dignity's worth making you smile." He looked into her smile and her eyes, and he fell in love with her all over again. She opened her mouth to speak.

"Layfon, I-"

🎶~I can feel your halo, halo, halooooo🎶
🎶~I can see your halo, halo, haloo~oo~ooo🎶

Ana stared at him, her mouth stuck somewhere between open and closed. Layfon winced and clutched at the device in his pocket.

"Oh, sorry, stupid device, what were you saying?"

"No, just answer it." Ana looked away again, her eyes distant this time. Layfon felt himself deflate. The one time Queen B betrays me, he thought. He picked up his device and answered.

"Hello?"

"CHIIEEEEEEEEEFFF!"

Layfon jerked back, wincing at the sudden sound. "Mia?" He held the phone a little farther from his ear. He tried to ignore the fact that Ana was giving him a sidelong glance.

"CHIEF! I NEED YOUR HELP!"

"Mia! Calm down!" Layfon almost shouted back. "What's going on? Where are you?"

"I'm in the lava place! There's a lot of scary creatures here! And stupid aliens are shooting at me!" Ana had turned to him now, and she was raising an eyebrow at him. Just my luck, he thought.

"Mia, where in Cauldros are you?" Layfon asked.

"Somewhere near the alien city! I wanted to help find stuff out about-" Layfon's device went silent.

"Mia? MIA?! What's wrong?!"

"Woah," Mia said. "That's a big gun. It's pointing right at- CRACCCK!" Her device went dead. Layfon stared stupidly at the 'call hung up' symbol for several moments.

"When did you give her your number?" Ana asked with a curious tone that begged no inquiry. Layfon looked at her. She was frowning at the device slightly.

"Mia's in trouble. We need to go help her," he said. She stayed silent for a few moments. "What?" He asked.

"Do we have to?"

"ANA!"

"Yeah, I know, we'll go help her." She had a pout on her proud features.

"We?"

"I can't let you die out there," She said. "especially for her," she muttered.

"Ana, I don't understand why you dislike Mia so much," He said. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah I know, she's a little, well, clumsy. But she just wants to explore the world like her parents did."

"Can't blame her parents for leaving her behind. If I had a daughter like that, I'd leave the house a lot, too." Ana said.

"Ana..." He shook his head and sighed. "This isn't the time for this, we need to go, now."

"Do you even know where she is?" Ana asked.

"Uhh, somewhere in Cauldros, near some Ganglion."

"Wow, how specific."

"Well, her device went out somewhere near mining point 509. Maybe one of the Pathfinders could help track her down from there." He picked up his device and started calling numbers.

*   *   *

"I'm sorry, Layfon, but I cannot assist you at the moment. I am already embroiled in an arduous mission of my own."

"Um...ok, thanks, H.B." Layfon hung up his device and leaned back in what he had realized was a chair not meant for long-term seating, letting his neck collapse as he closed his eyes. Man, why are all the pathfinders busy right now, he thought to himself.

"This is going well," Ana remarked.

"Shut up," he said without opening his eyes. "Are there any Pathfinders you know?"

"None besides the ones you've called."

Layfon sighed. "Are you absolutely sure there's no one else," He asked.

She leaned her head on her hand and looked away. "Well, there is one, but she's a last resort."

"What Pathfinder could possibly annoy me more than H.B. does, besides maybe Tobias?"

*   *   *

"Hmm, I see. I'll meet up with you at the East Gate in 10."

"Thanks, Marcia, we'll see you there," Ana hung up her device.

"So," Layfon said. "when did you give her your number?"

"Shut up, we're going."

"Alright, alright, let's go." He stood up and started trudging back towards the barracks before realizing Ana hadn't gotten up yet. She was still seated at the table, staring at her device.

"What's wrong?"

She shook her head and got up, putting her device back into her pocket. "Nothing."

*   *   *

"Is she always like this?" Marcia asked him.

Layfon looked over at Ana. All of them had left their skells in the Nopon village in favor of stealth in case Mia had gotten captured by the Ganglion. Ana's face looked taut like a bowstring, ready to snap at any moment.

"Sometimes. Not recently though," He said.

Marcia looked at him for a moment. It had been a while since the two of them had looked at each other face to face, and the last time they did she had yelled at him for killing their friends. Her blue eyes were just as electric at he remembered them, and her shoulder-length blonde hair flowed lightly in the warm wind of Cauldros. The red light of the lava darkened the shadows of her skin, making her high cheekbones stand out in the harshness of the red light. She was only an inch shorter than he was, but her presence loomed over him like a goddess. Last time they met he thought that she looked like a valkyrie from the heavens, ready to smite him for his sins, but this time she looked more inquisitive, her eyes seeming to peer deep into his soul, beyond what even he knew about himself. "You honestly have no idea why she's mad, do you?" She asked him.

Layfon felt like that kid in class who gets asked a question by the teacher after getting caught sleeping. "Well, whenever Mia's brought up she gets angry for some reason. I still don't get why, though."

"Who is this Mia person anyway? Ana didn't exactly give much of a description," Marcia said.

Layfon thought about it for a moment. "It's kind of hard to explain."

"That's probably not a good thing," she said. He glared at her before continuing.

"Mia's a young girl who wants to be part of BLADE. She kept trying to get in but her instructor failed her dozens of times because...well," Layfon hesitated.

"Well?"

"She's...uh," Layfon said. "a little..."

"She's stupid," Ana said. Layfon glared at her and she turned away. He could hear Marcia holding in a laugh, and Ana frowned at Marcia as if miffed that Marica found her funny. He sighed.

"I wouldn't say that, but she's kind of oblivious to danger," Layfon said. "Her parents were explorers back on Earth, and so she wants to be like them and help discover more about Mira. Granted, she's a little too eager sometimes." He swore he could just feel Ana disagreeing with him from here. "Ok, maybe all the time. But she has a good heart!" He turned to Ana. "Besides, she likes you!" he said to her. He turned to Marcia. "She calls her Annie, actually."

Marcia turned to Ana with a questioning look. "Oh?"

"I keep telling her not to," Ana said with a huff. "She's too stupid to get it. It's like she doesn't hear me. Anyway," she pointed to Layfon. "this idiot found her moping about in the administrative district after she failed the BLADE exam for the umpteenth time a while back and took pity on her. She asked him for some gear to help on her 'adventures' and for some dumb reason he said yes. Probably thought of her as a stray puppy or something. After that we had to go rescue her three different times in Oblivia, Noctilum, and Sylvalum. She's just a pain."

Marcia frowned in thought, her brows furrowing. Layfon knew that look from times kitchens, fireplaces, and battlefields. Marcia had always been curious, asking their friends and fellow officers about their histories, lives, and dreams. Her proclivity for asking questions and strong moral center had been a profound thorn in the side of their commanders, and other people had just called her nosy and had told her to stop meddling in other people's business. Layfon hadn't minded, though. His memories were still fuzzy, but her thoughtful expression and desire to know why stirred up happiness in him.

If he had all of his memories, he would have realized it had been one of the reasons he had liked her.

They arrived in silence at Mia's last known location, near mining point 509. A quick look around was enough to instill a sense of fear into all of them.

"What the hell happened here?" Marica asked.

An NLA skell was strewn about in pieces on the ground. A ganglion corpse lay near, riddled with beam blasts from a psycho launcher and various knife wounds. Some human blood could be seen near the corpse, although there was no sign of its intrepid owner.

"Wow, she actually got one," Ana said. She started to step towards the wreckage. Marica pulled her back roughly.

"Look up," she said. Ana and Layfon turned their gazes upwards. Perched on the cliffside was a Ganglion sentry Zig. Its tall stature made its black body stand out in the red light of Cauldros, and it was easy to see that, if turned around, it had a clear shot at the wasted skell.

"Well, at least we know what took her down," Marica noted. Some Ganglion sentries could be seen near the Zig's sides, milling about as the Zig scanned the area. Marica turned to Layfon. "What do you want to do," she asked. She cursed in her head, old habits having made her ask him as if he had any authority over her.

Layfon thought about several possible options as to how to approach the situation, carefully weighing the pros and cons of each scenario before deciding what he figured was the optimal play.

"Let's go get our skells, I think some Ganglion are about to have a bad day," he said with a grin. In a rare moment of unity, Ana and Marcia smiled together, although Ana would refuse to admit it later.

*	*	*

Grithe had had better days. His squad's Zig had just been repaired, and now he was back to his old position standing watch near some random cliff in the burning lands of Cauldros. It was a boring job, especially when he had heard of his comrade's exploits in locations nearer the Earth alien stronghold in Primordia. However, the Ganglion leaders had been clear that maintaining control over Cauldros, their stronghold, was critical to their success and by extension the continuation of the glorious Ganglion race. Grithe was a good soldier, and so he listened, nodded, and followed his orders. He was also a poor believer, however, and so he sulked quietly and dutifully as he had looked over the cliffside for months on end.

However, this day was not to be one of those boring days he had come to loathe. It had started out well, too. Some incompetent Earth alien had come here alone in her skell, looking about like some clueless animal, and had promptly been shot down. His soldiers had quickly taken her to the Definian stronghold nearby, where she would be interrogated, copied, and removed before a Definian operative would take her place as one of the many operatives within the Earth alien city. Grithe knew that his superiors loved planting spies amongst their enemies, and Grithe was a good soldier, after all. He had been considering asking those same superiors for consideration for a promotion following the capture of a lone Earth alien. However, his plans for a better life would have to wait.

He still wasn't sure if he was going to be alive after today.

"Where is she?" the female Earth alien asked. She had a sniper rifle strapped over her back and a hard glare in her eyes. Grithe would have found such an expression amusing on the face of such a pathetic, powerless race if their Zig wasn't in flames behind her.

"I don't know what you are talking about, human scum," he replied as he struggled against the bonds these filthy aliens had managed to put on him. The punishment for revealing information was death among the Ganglion, and Grithe was a good soldier. The Earth alien narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'll ask one more time, where is she?" she asked, her hand moving down her body.

"Earth alien, you are nothing more than an insect, and so nothing you can do will make me tell you. You will suffer like the rest of your disgusting race, and in the end you will all be begging the Ganglion for death." Grithe puffed up a little with pride. He had been working on that one for a few weeks now, and he was finally grateful for the time he had on the cliff to mull his words over and perfect them. The distinctive sound of metal escaping a sheath interrupted his thoughts.

"Oh, you will tell me," the Earth alien said with a disturbing look on her face. A knife had appeared in her hand, gleaming in the light of the flames. "It's just a matter of when."

*	*	*

"Did you have to torture him?" Layfon asked. The three of them had just left the scene, and were about to head over to the Definian stronghold.

Marcia looked at him. "What? It's not as if he was going to tell us anything," she said, her face questioning.

"Yeah, but shoving his face up against the burning wreckage of his Zig? Wasn't that a bit excessive?" Layfon replied.

"We needed to get the point across," Marcia said. "The Ganglion think of us as primitive, stupid, and as lower life forms. They are part of a galactic federation that has built an empire on conquest and war. To creatures like them, force is what speaks the loudest, and we don't have the time to convince them otherwise." She looked up at him. He expected to see the grim fire in her eyes that he had seen in Lao's, but instead all he could see was that she was tired. Her face was drawn and tight, and her eyes dipped before she looked away. "You know, I've been thinking about what I said to you that day, about how you were responsible for the death of our friends." Ana looked between the two of them, her expression inscrutable, but neither of them noticed. "I've come to realize that I can't and shouldn't blame you for that. In the end, it was the terrorists that killed them, not you. All you were doing was being the kind-hearted soul that I know you to be." She swallowed hard. "I've talked to some people around town, and from all accounts you still seem to be that guy, helping out random BLADES and citizens alike with their problems, especially when they don't ask. If it weren't for that Hope girl people might come to you for help." She smiled sadly before looking him in the eye.

"Layfon, I don't know how you do it, but for some reason you are still that same man I fe-" she shook her head. "Followed into war. Even without your memories, it's like you're still the same, and I've come to realize now that the world needs people like you to be kind, to be the light in our lives that shows us that there is another way." She took a deep breath. "However, I've also come to realize that the world is an unforgiving place, and that there are some people, or I suppose aliens, that cannot be reasoned with. People like you will often believe otherwise, and I can't blame you for it, but I can't let you hold onto the guilt that comes when innocent lives are lost because of hesitation and a worldview that simply isn't true." Marcia closed her eyes and took a few moments for continuing. "Layfon, I will never again ask for you to change, but I ask that you let me hold the pain and guilt for once." She smiled sadly. "You've been holding onto it for far too long." She walked towards her skell, her body set and determined.

Ana and Layfon were still for a few moments. The two of them exchanged a glance before following her into their skells. Neither said a word.

*	*	*

The three of them arrived at the entrance to the cave, the size of it forcing them to abandon their skells.

"Haven't we been here before?" Layfon asked, turning to Ana.

"Yeah, when we had to take out those Definians on behalf of their mother program," she replied. She snickered. "It called you a dummy-face, if I recall correctly."

Marcia turned to look at him. "The mother of the Definians, the Ganglion-affiliated super spies who have infiltrated NLA on numerous occasions, called you a dummy-face?"

Layfon soldiered ahead, his head held high. He remembered vaguely that Elma had said something to him about not letting distractions get to him after he had lost yet another bout to a jacket-clad Ana, who had started to don it during their fights as means of "training." Granted, it was hard to think straight after what Marcia had said to him earlier. His thoughts kept running in random directions, and while he knew that he needed time to think about it all, he couldn't help but be in shock. In the chaos of his mind, one thought pushed through to the forefront of his mind.

Marcia had forgiven him. Perhaps it was time to forgive himself.

The three of them entered the cave. Layfon never knew how the Ganglion and their crew continued to repopulate the places BLADE had cleaned out, but once again there were a variety of Ganglion associated soldiers wandering around the place.