Chapter Text
Professor Gerbera of the Dark Axis was not one to panic, or at the very least he was quite good at shoving that sort of fear deep within where it belonged. Still, when his last memories were the scattered fragments of his systems failing for the final time, waking up in his old quarters in the SDG's Blanc Base was plenty to set his processors whirling.
How did he get back here? Why? Was this some strange quirk of that warp gate accident so long ago?
As he was trying to work his way through those questions, he made the mistake of glancing down at himself. Where he was expecting black and dull gold paint on his wrist armor, he found white and sky blue instead, his original colors.
There was no staying in his recharge bay at that, Gerbera stood and made a mad dash for the nearest reflective surface, which happened to be a mirror mounted to a nearby wall.
What he saw there... he felt himself start to tremble at the sight of it.
From the tips of his V-fin to the bottoms of his feet, he stood there in his original white and blue SDG paint job, from back before he ever came across the General. Even more striking, his optics were their old shade of ocean blue, as opposed to the violet they would later become.
It was about there when he realized the only thoughts in his head were his own . . . the lack of the General's whispers was part of what roused him from recharge in the first place.
Gerbera's gaze strayed down towards his chest paneling, specifically where his Soul Drive was hidden. Dare he take a look? There was honestly no telling what the device was doing while it was still locked away. Though given everything else, he had the strangest feeling he already knew what he would find.
A moment's hesitation, a steadying breath even though he didn't really need air, and then he accessed the locking mechanism. His armor shifted around a bit, and finally revealed what lay hidden...
“T-that's impossible...” Shock and wonder each found their place in his voice, and the only thing he could do for the moment was stare in awe.
Gerbera's Soul Drive sat there in his chest compartment as innocently as ever, though perhaps the rings were circling a bit more rapidly than normal due to his unstable emotions. The faintly glowing sphere was just as clear and bright as the day he was activated, the tiny flame within easily seen. If not for his memories, there would be no evidence it ever held the darkness that clouded it while he served General Zeong.
He would've probably stood there staring at it for a while longer, if not for a voice he heard calling outside his door.
“Madnug? You awake in there? Chief Haro wants to talk with you!”
The sound of his true name was plenty to rouse Gerbera from his shock, and he quickly closed his armor back up. Who knew what granted it, but if this was the second chance it looked like, he now had a role to play. At least for a while, anyway. He would run to the ends of Neotopia and beyond if presented with that doomed test flight again.
But for now.... “I'll be right there, just wait a moment!”
“And you are quite sure I can't just stay here to do my research? Or at the very least, can't we send the pod out in autonomous mode first?”
“Madnug, this mission is the very reason you were constructed. It doesn't make sense for you to get cold feet about it.”
“But, Chief Haro...”
For the most part, this loop looked like a normal Baseline run, but watching his brother almost pleading with their superior officer was not on Captain Gundam's list of typical events. Granted, he usually altered things himself by this point if he were able, but the current delay was entirely Madnug's doing. Was this one of those variants where the GP-04 somehow knew what would happen to him if he took part in the warp gate experiment?
Although, generally if it was that kind of variant, Madnug would be more obviously frightened of his potential fate. Here, the younger Gundam seemed as tense as the launch catapults outside, not so much scared as ready to spring into action at a millisecond's notice. He also kept glancing at Captain from across the room, almost as if he were expecting something. Hoping for a distraction, maybe?
During baseline, Captain learned all about friendship, but it was only during the Loops that he got a chance to know an older brother's duties. He aimed a subtle nod at Madnug the next time he glanced his direction, and then spoke. “Chief Haro, if Madnug does not wish to proceed, there is likely a good reason--”
The roar of flight boosters activating cut Captain off, the GP-04 zipping from the room when Haro's attention wasn't on him anymore.
Three hours later, Madnug still hadn't come out from wherever he was hiding, so the rest of Blanc Base's aerial units were sent out to find him. Captain was inside the base, running ops along with Juli, though he had been out looking himself earlier. At the moment, he was speaking with Guneagle over comms, while the jet Gundam transmitted his camera feed back to them.
“We checked the city, and the wilds around it, no sign of him. My hunch is he's still hiding up here somewhere, Captain.” The camera feed shifted as Guneagle glanced around, and his gaze focused on the stealth cover over the base.
True, everyone in the city knew of the SDG's existence, but eventually the cloud disguise was added back to Blanc Base as it was a bit of an eyesore without it. The speedy flier took a good look at the top of it from as far away as he could manage, and eventually hit paydirt. “Oh, that little shit, there he is! No wonder we didn't spot him earlier, his armor's the same shade of white as the roof.”
Sure enough, there was Madnug on the screen, sitting on the false clouds and seemingly watching the world go by. His predominantly white armor would've made it hard for anyone going by at speed to see him, despite the light blue accents. As Captain watched, something like intuition stirred in his Soul Drive. The only explanation he could think of for the GP-04's odd behavior was that he started Looping as well. Would... would Yggdrasil really be that merciful? Even after everything, it would still allow for a second chance? He hesitated for only a moment, then sent out a Ping...
...And in the same second was rewarded by his brother jolting in surprise and glancing around, likely searching for the sound he heard out of nowhere.
Guneagle was of course still watching too, and at seeing that he spoke up again. “Crap, I think he saw me! You want me to go ahead with retrieval?”
“No, Guneagle, come back inside. I'll go out and talk to him myself.”
Less than five minutes later, Captain fitted his Option F thruster pack and flew out of the base, angling up the second he cleared the runway. It didn't take him long to reach the spot on the roof where his brother was sitting and watching the sun begin to set.
Captain landed nearby, though he had to quickly call out to make sure the younger Gundam didn't just dart off again. “Madnug, wait! I just want to talk, but not to convince you of going ahead with that mission. I can have you assigned to the Gundam Force instead of the science division, and Bell Wood will have to find someone else to fly his test pod.”
“You would do that? Even with how much it would change--” Madnug's optics went wide for a moment as he realized what he almost said, and he suddenly quieted.
“Of course I would. 'Even with how much it would change the past', as you nearly said yourself. ” Captain paused for a moment, trying to figure out how best to go about things, then nodded to himself. “Humor me for a moment, Madnug; something interesting will happen in five seconds...”
Five seconds passed, and Captain sent out another Ping.
Again, the strange sound shot across the younger Gundam's audio processor, though at least he didn't jolt as strongly as before. “That was you, earlier? Is that some new ability of our Soul Drives?”
“Not exactly. That, is called a Ping. Since you heard it, that means you are caught up in a much bigger temporal loop than the one I just promised to save you from. Don't worry, you're not alone this time; there are many other Loopers beside the two of us.”
“'Loopers'? Well, go on; I know there has to be more to it than just that.” There was a good bit of uncertainty in Madnug's gaze, but Captain recognized the spark of wanting to discover something new there as well. It was becoming more and more familiar, with how many times he managed to save his brother across the Loops...
Not one to delay, Captain nodded and got on with it. “All right, this may be hard to believe, but it is the truth. This all began with Yggdrasil, the world tree...”
By the time Captain finished, the sun was set well beyond the horizon, Neotopia's moon and stars in plain view in the sky. At some point during the explanation, he sat down beside Madnug, as that seemed less awkward than just standing there. “So, do you believe me?”
As for the scientist mech, he had gone very quiet during the latter half of the conversation, and stared up at the moon. He sounded a bit haunted when he finally managed to reply. “Yes, I do, as there is no other explanation why I remember everything...”
“Everything? So then-- You don't mean--” Captain could try to deny it all he wanted but he knew how Yggdrasil worked; if one was Looping then they remembered Baseline as they experienced it. It did not matter how tragic that history was. At once he reached up, placing a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder. “Oh, Madnug... I-I'm sorry.”
He could have brushed that comfort aside, he could have stood up and flown off again, but the white Gundam stayed put and allowed it. “You did try to save me, in the end. Not that I could see it at the time, with the General's voice echoing so loudly in my head, but in even making the attempt you proved him wrong. It's only now, where my mind is my own again, that I could realize the truth: you never abandoned me. Not back then, and not when I was first lost, either.”
Now Madnug did stand up, pulling slightly away from Captain and turning to face him. “Still, it may be a mistake for me to remain here. This is more of a starting point, it does not mean my issues are resolved. It's likely inevitable that I will slip, or lash out when not intending to...”
Captain looked up at him, letting out a faint sigh before focusing his resolve. “It's all right, Madnug. There were Loops where you gained the memories of your time in the Dark Axis after I saved you; we still made it work, somehow. ”
“Are you sure? I have been 'Professor Gerbera' for far longer than I have been 'Madnug'. It's generally a bad idea to place a wolf in a sheep's pen, after all...”
Captain rolled his optics at his brother at that, given the bad analogy. Neotopians might be peaceful, but Madnug would know as well as anyone they weren't sheep. “So says the Gundam who had to disguise himself as a Dark Axian to play the part of the 'wolf' in the first place. You were fine earlier, and if there are any rough spots, we can handle them together. Come on, I can hardly imagine how much you wanted to return home while you were adrift out there . . . well, now you can be here to stay if you want, and even remember it across Loops.”
There was a part of Madnug that still wanted to run, still thought it would be better to keep to himself for the time being... but those feelings weren't nearly as strong without the General's voice there to reinforce them. Between his in-Loop memories reminding him of what Neotopia was truly like, and what was being offered, well, he was close to tearing up. A faint sniffle proceeded his words once he spoke. “Y-you're right. How in the world could I have forgotten that? Very well, if you feel you can handle things, I will stay.”
Captain was clearly beaming behind his faceplate at that. He stood up, then stepped closer to wrap his brother in a warm hug. “Welcome home, Madnug... and, welcome to the Infinite Loops.”
Somewhere both far away and closer than you'd think, Bishamonten sighed in relief at the sight on his terminal. “Thank you, Yggdrasil, for allowing that to work so well...”
It had taken a bit of nudging, but the tree picked the most stable point in the sub-branch to get Gerbera looping. The potential problem was his reaction, but thankfully he was much calmer without General Zeong directly influencing his mind.
Overall this would increase branch stability, as the few other members of the Dark Axis with Looping potential now had a better chance to start. Though, it might take a while for Gerbera to get bored enough to start running closer to Baseline... oh well, they had infinity after all, it would happen eventually.