Chapter Text
The tension in the air was interrupted by the door suddenly being slammed open, a blue figure barrelling into the room so fast it was a blur. Both Mirage and Gabriel immediately turned to see who had entered, watching as V1 finally slowed down before he could crash into them. He was visibly jittery, hands flapping nervously.
“I think I’m late.” He said awkwardly in Mirage’s voice, not quite sure what else to do.
Gabriel looked between the machine whose arm he was grabbing, and the new machine that had entered, near-identical except for that familiar shade of blue. He glanced between them for another second, realization dawning on him.
“Machine!” He shouted, shoving Mirage aside and diving towards V1 to grab him by the collar. “Where in the world have you been? Who is that? Why has it replaced you? And what are you wearing?! ”
Gabriel’s anger didn’t subside, but was slowly overwhelmed by confusion as he tried to rationalize what was going on. As far as he’d heard, there was only one V1. Who was the other one? He turned to stare at Mirage, who had fallen back onto the floor with the force of his shove and was finally getting back up.
“I guess the jig is up, huh.” She muttered, stretching her arms above her head and putting the Sharpshooter away. She walked over to V1, standing by his side, before glancing over at Gabriel. “I’m guessing we have a lot of explaining to do?”
Gabriel took a step back, completely speechless, stammering for a moment as though he wanted to say something before sighing. “So there’s two of you?” He said, crossing his arms and standing up a bit straighter. He felt a bit threatened, but didn’t show it.
V1 shrugged. “Kind of. This is Mirage, she comes from a different universe of sorts. We thought we could get away with swapping places for a day.” He explained, and Mirage nodded along in agreement. “It wasn’t meant to get… well. This bad.”
Considering their words for a moment, Gabriel didn’t seem satisfied by the explanation. “How did you even find out about each other? What kind of ‘universe’ are you talking about? Are there any other-”
He was cut off by a fourth voice coming from the door.
“Um? Anyone care to explain what’s happening?” The newcomer sounded distinctly confused yet irritated, and the other three immediately looked in their direction. Mirage gasped sharply.
“Gabrielle?! What the hell are you doing here?” She exclaimed in disbelief, and V1 seemed just as nervous.
“You followed me?” V1 shouted, earning a glare from Mirage.
“Did you seriously let her follow you? I told you not to even speak to her!”
Now it was Gabrielle’s turn to be confused, walking towards V1 and Mirage. “In all honesty, I do not know what’s going on. One of you has to be Mirage, right? I mean- from what I can tell, it’s not you.” She pointed at V1. “I knew something was off about you. And you.” She pointed at Mirage. “I’m just hoping you’re the real one.”
Tensing up, Mirage nodded, still infuriated at V1 for even looking in Gabrielle’s direction but now having to place her focus elsewhere. “Yeah. It’s me. I don’t think you heard, but this is V1, him and I tried switching places for a day. We kind of hoped nobody would notice.”
Gabrielle nodded to show that she understood, before addressing V1 again. “Were you planning to tell her about- um.” She cut herself off, her focus switching from directly at V1 to just behind him, where a very familiar face was staring back at her. “Who are you ?”
“Tell me about what?” Mirage tried asking, though she was ignored instead as Gabriel responded to Gabrielle.
“I could ask you the same question.” He responded, taking a step closer so she could hear him more clearly. He was much taller than Gabrielle was and was using his wings to hover off the ground, making her feel strangely threatened.
V1 stepped in, trying to ease tensions before Gabriel and Gabrielle began arguing. “Yeah, where Mirage comes from, there’s people there that are like equivalents to the residents of this universe. Gabriel, meet Gabrielle. Your names are spelled differently.”
Even as V1 tried smoothing things over, Gabrielle and Gabriel were still glaring at each other, until Mirage beeped to get V1’s attention.
“We should… probably switch back to normal.” Mirage suggested once V1 turned to look at her. V1 looked down at himself, still wearing the school uniform, and nodded. “Yeah, agreed. You probably want to get your stuff back on.” He turned to look at Gabriel and Gabrielle again. “Don’t argue while we’re busy. Actually, I think you shouldn’t talk at all, that’ll be more likely to avoid a confrontation.”
“What makes you think we’ll argue?” Gabrielle said defensively, crossing her arms. Gabriel nodded to show that he had the same sentiment, and V1 considered his words carefully.
“You’re both like that.” V1 decided to say, before rushing over to Mirage, dragging her to one corner of the room so they could finally get things back to normal. Gabriel looked offended, but now that he couldn’t properly yell at V1, he just complained to Gabrielle.
“That machine is absolutely insufferable.” He grumbled, glancing at her in the hopes that she’d agree. Gabrielle nodded half-heartedly.
“Yeah.” She sighed. She was distracted. Realizing that it had been someone else in Mirage’s place, she felt upset knowing that it hadn’t been Mirage herself who had suggested the date. She kept her hopes up, clinging to the small chance that Mirage would want to go with her anyways, but the way she’d greeted her said otherwise.
V1 was quickly getting out of Mirage’s uniform, relieved to be free of it. As he piled up the different items of clothing, he stretched out his arms and legs, feeling less confined by the now-absent fabric.
“Shit, where’s your toolbox?” Mirage asked, twitching the wings that were still attached to her so V1 could help. V1 reached into one of the wings, pulling out a blob of energy that quickly manifested into the desired object, opening it up and pulling out the necessary tools. As he worked on detaching the wings that were still connected to Mirage, she began speaking.
“So what did Gabrielle want you to tell me about?” She asked, taking the pile of her clothing that was on the floor and pulling it onto her lap. The question made V1 go silent for a moment as he kept fumbling with the tools, not sure how to explain what had happened.
“Um. Please promise me you won’t be upset?” V1 said hesitantly, making Mirage look over her shoulder to give him a suspicious glare.
“Is there something that might make me upset?” She asked, watching as one of the wings was detached. She felt a pang of sadness, feeling almost like her freedom was being taken away, but tried to push down the feeling so she could focus on V1’s explanation.
“Well. Gabrielle and I… um, I ended up talking to her.” V1 started, making Mirage sigh quietly.
“I assumed that much. What happened when you talked to her?” She asked, earning another moment of silence only broken up by the fumbling and clinking of tools.
“Her and I kind of ended up liking each other.” V1 decided to say, leaving out the way they’d started talking, when she’d dragged him inside from the rain. “And one thing led to another, and I might have… ended up setting you two up on a date tomorrow.”
“You did what?! ” Mirage gasped sharply, loud enough for Gabrielle to hear from where she was waiting. She winced, knowing exactly what Mirage had learned about. She was sitting at the top of the stairs, with Gabriel hovering just next to her, waiting for V1 and Mirage to properly switch back to normal; and, of course, tell each other about the exact ways they’d fucked up each others’ lives. Even as Gabrielle got increasingly more heartbroken, she clung to that small hope that Mirage would understand, that she’d want to go on the date regardless. It wasn’t likely, but Gabrielle still silently wished for it.
Beside her, Gabriel had dropped the small distance to the floor and was pacing in circles, his wings twitching in irritation from where they were folded against his back. He longed to grab his swords, to kick Gabrielle and Mirage out of the room and just fight V1 right then and there. But his precise planning, with his scripted monologue and music and everything, had been ruined. He could wait, send V1 back to the start of Heresy, but it had to happen fast. He grumbled, fighting the urge to yell at Mirage and V1 to hurry up.
Meanwhile, V1 was desperately trying to explain how everything had happened, setting down his tools for a moment. “Okay, yeah, it sounds terrible, but she’s really not that bad. She did get a bit impatient with me, yeah, but I think she cares for us… well, for you. I just managed to get her to show it.”
Mirage glanced over at where Gabrielle was sitting, and noticing her staring, lowered her voice to a whisper-shout. “How does that even happen? What did you do?”
Finger tapping nervously, V1 tried to downplay it. “I kind of spilled a little bit of blood on myself and she helped me clean it off. I was just trying to be nice, then suddenly I was agreeing on your behalf for a date tomorrow.”
Mirage sighed heavily, turning around to face the wall again. “Just detach the wings. We can discuss it after.”
V1 nodded, picking up his tools again. Three of the wings were off, five to go. “Yep. Luckily the test wasn’t too hard, and I think I did pretty good for you.”
Nodding, Mirage finally got to relax. “That’s good. At least you did what you were there for.”
V1 set another wing aside. He’d have to get the second worst of it over quickly. “I also might’ve gotten in a fight with Miracle and ripped her sleeve off, so she hates you even more now.”
To his relief, Mirage laughed instead of getting upset again. “The bitch deserves it. We already despise each other enough, why not add a little more?”
Laughing along, V1 nodded. “There wasn’t really anything big that happened apart from that. Minerva and Sienna tried speaking to me when I was in the library, but they didn’t really bother me too much, and they left after a bit. Neither of them noticed that I wasn’t you. Nobody noticed, actually… apart from Gabrielle, obviously.”
Mirage nodded, glancing at Gabrielle again, who wasn’t looking at her this time. Gabrielle was looking down at the ground, making Mirage feel bad. She regretted shouting so loud after being told about the unexpected date, and looked away again, feeling the last wing finally come off. She sighed quietly, picking up the clothes piled on her lap, knowing that she was going back to a life she didn’t enjoy.
V1 was waiting for Mirage to get her clothing on, finger tapping again, itching to get his wings back on and weapons back in his possession. He subtly glanced at Gabriel, wanting to fight him as soon as possible, waiting until the sound of rustling fabric stopped so he could face Mirage again. She was already picking up the tools, and V1 beeped happily, turning around once more to let her attach them.
“You didn’t mess up anything for me?” He asked hopefully, and Mirage thought about it for a moment, before shaking her head.
“I wiped out the rest of Greed, but that’s just normal you behaviour. The only thing I really messed up with was getting Gabriel kind of impatient, but I think his only focus is fighting you, so he’s probably not going to care for too long.” She explained as she attached every individual wing to V1’s back as quickly as she could. It felt almost unfamiliar now, not having the wings on, but she couldn’t muster up the courage to ask V1 if she could join him in Hell to continue fighting.
“I doubt it.” V1 muttered, looking over at Gabriel again, his finger tapping even faster. Now Gabriel was looking at him as well, and they gave each other matching glares, both refusing to look away until the other did first. The silent stare-off was finally broken when Mirage attached the last wing, tapping V1’s shoulder to get his attention and making him turn to face her once more.
“We should switch our voice boxes back to normal.” She suggested, reminding V1 that they had even done that in the first place.
“Oh, yeah.” He said to acknowledge her words, nodding. “Really quickly. You and Gabrielle need to return back to your world soon.”
As quickly as they could, they removed the voice boxes and got them each back to their rightful owners. V1 sighed in relief, his wings fluttering as he made sure they were properly recalibrated, drawing each gun and being reminded of how familiar they felt in his hands. Mirage just watched sadly, standing up quietly and returning back to Gabriel and Gabrielle. V1 trailed close behind, beeping as he slid across the floor to catch up.
“We’re done.” Mirage said flatly, and Gabrielle stood up from where she’d been sitting on the stairs. V1 rushed to Gabriel’s side, and now that things were back to normal, the four were standing in pairs - the two from Hell and the two from the other world. Gabrielle tried subtly reaching over to hold Mirage’s hand, but Mirage didn’t reciprocate, and she withdrew.
“I guess this means we’re going back home.” Mirage said to break the silence, looking over at Gabrielle. Gabrielle nodded in agreement, crossing her arms.
“Machine, you should return back to the start of Heresy.” Gabriel suggested in a voice that was surprisingly calm but with a simmering resentment beneath it, and V1 nodded, stepping over to Mirage and Gabrielle’s side.
“I’ll go with you.” He said, before changing his mind in a split second and decisively shaking his head. “Actually, scratch that. I need to move fast to get back to where I’m meant to be. Goodbye!”
V1 immediately dashed forward to gain momentum, sprinting towards the door. Mirage beeped in surprise, and with courage that she didn’t know she had, reached out a hand to get V1’s attention.
“Wait!” She cried out, making everyone else in the room look at her. She could feel every mechanism in her body whirring faster as she stared at V1, making direct eye contact with him. She stood up a bit straighter, bottling up every bit of nervousness in her body as she finally said what she’d wanted to tell him for hours.
“I want to join you down here.”