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Nezach
Day 15 through 19
A 'Tales of the Abyss' Story
by Meimi

---

"It is almost time for lunch."

The others looked up in disinterest at his comment as Jade preceded Ion into the room. He had spent a good deal of the morning scouring the cathedral for information, a task that had been made infinitely easier and yet sometimes more difficult with the Fon Master in tow. He was quite sure that Grand Maestro Mohs was aware of their presence in Daath by now, even though the man had been suspiciously scarce for the entire morning. It was worrisome, but ultimately, Mohs was the least of their concerns. If the Grand Maestro decided to make a nuisance out of himself, then the Necromancer would be more than happy to show him just exactly how he had gotten that title. It would certainly be a most satisfying encounter for one of them. But regardless of the machinations of men with too much power in their hands, he hadn't been able to discover much along the lines of Commandant Grants' activities. Not that he had been expecting much, but you never can tell what you might come up with if you take the time to go digging around for it. However, even with the lack of results, there really wasn't much to worry about there. As long as they continued to oppose Van Grants, then eventually they would cross paths with him again. And then he would die. Good things come to those who wait, so to speak.

His other point of interest, any sort of information regarding the Sephiroth Trees and the Passage Rings, had come up just about as empty. They had found a few books in one of the moldier libraries courtesy of a researcher, with a remarkably sharp photographic memory, who had been able to point them in the right direction. Unfortunately, a precursory examination of them had shown the books to be of little use to him. What pertinent information they may have once possessed had been systematically torn out, it seemed, perhaps by some fanatic or other. Religion could be such a bother when it came to censorship.

"I guess so," Anise murmured mournfully, glancing up through the window to check the location of the sun from her slouch on Ion's cot. "The bell to break fast again will probably be ringing soon." Jade frowned at her, it didn't appear as if she had moved at all since they had last been in. That was troublesome.

"I'm not very hungry," Ion muttered sadly as he plopped down beside his former Guardian and leaned wearily against her, his head drooping down onto her shoulder.

Jade shrugged. "Very well, I suppose missing one meal won't harm you too much in the long run."

Anise snorted, but didn't comment. Shaking his head at her lethargy, Jade crossed the room, ignoring Tear, Guy and the focus of their concern for the moment. Natalia still sat vigil at Asch's side, though Jade noticed with some small amount of relief that she was no longer attempting to heal anything. That was good. He could appreciate the sentiment behind her actions, easing the suffering of others was always a noble goal. However, he'd toyed with the vexing idea of eventually having to force her to stop for her own continued health. But it appeared as if she'd had the presence of mind to know when to do so herself, and thankfully she'd done so before managing to drain herself too far. He did frown slightly at the glint of metal in her lap. A cursory glance at Asch showed that his wrist had been unwrapped. The metal rods. Oh dear. Well, as long as she didn't collapse he would hold his tongue. For now.

Jade nodded a silent greeting to her as he leaned over and checked Asch's pulse. Strangely enough, there didn't seem to be any change at all in his condition. Odd that. His pulse, while still dreadfully weak, remained steady for the most part. Jade adjusted his glasses absently as he straightened up. Stubborn child, what was he waiting for? Why would he still- His thought process was cut short by a brief flash of gold behind him followed swiftly by a soft, low groan.

"Luke?"

Jade whirled around, steadying Natalia when she nearly tripped herself up scrambling out of her chair. Tear and Guy were leaning over the cot, both wearing expressions of expectant, if tentative, hope. Amusingly enough, both Ion and Anise had already zoomed across the room and were now hanging off of Guy in anticipation. It would be quite interesting to see just how long it would take him to realize that a girl was touching him and whether the resulting scream of terror would succeed in shaking off some of the plaster from the ceiling.

Luke, if it truly was Luke who was rousing, had gripped his head in the meantime as if in pain and was even now slowly curling up on his side. And he was mumbling something or other, which Jade managed to catch the tail end of as he apologetically shouldered his way past Guy and his limpets. "...didn't have to kick me..." Odd. "...bastard..." Even odder.

Humming in curiosity, Jade leaned over and pried one of Luke's hands off of his head long enough to check his eyes. They blinked up at him, clear and green, before Luke grunted irritably and rolled over, burying his face into the pillow. Well, at least it wasn't Lorelei. And while he didn't want to leap to conclusions, the grumbling did sound remarkably like the Luke they all knew ever so well.

Tear, her brows drawn together in worried consternation, leaned down until her head was practically resting on the pillow beside Luke's and called his name again, "Luke?"

At first, she just got another pained grunt for her trouble, but then he eventually shifted and blinked blearily at her from underneath his arm. "Tear?"

She laughed weakly in relief and nodded at him.

He frowned in confusion and shifted again, lowering his arm as he glanced around at all of the people -his friends- hovering over him. "What are you guys doing here?"

Guy snorted happily in disbelief. "What do you think, you idiot?"

"Oh please, not you too," Luke grumbled halfheartedly as he rolled the rest of the way onto his back and peered curiously up at the ceiling. "Hmm, oh! I remember now." His eyes widened from some realization or other as he quickly sat up and gave Ion an apologetic look, "Sorry about that, Ion."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Ion said with a cheery smile on his face, "I didn't mind."

"No, really, I'm really sorry," Luke babbled as he levered himself up onto his knees and leaned out over the side of the cot, "I'm sure it was kind of shocking, but I really didn't know where else to go, I mean, come on, it's Daath. You're about the only safe thing about Daath."

"Ah, yes," Ion winced almost painfully at that and reached up to hold his cheek self-consciously, "I must apologize for that. My city really ought to be a better place than it actually is."

"Oh, oops. I put my foot in it again, didn't I?" Luke muttered in embarrassment and hung his head. "But it's not your fault Ion, it's Mohs and Master Van and-" He stopped then, his expression turning dark and dangerous. Glaring around at them, he growled, "Where is he?" But seemed disinclined to wait for an answer as he slid off of the cot and abruptly shoved his way past his friends, stopping short for a second before resolutely walking over to the only other bed in use.

Luke skirted around the chair and instead slumped down against the bed, perching on his hip. His face lost the dark edge, instead turning soft and thoughtful as he stared down at his original. Blowing out a breath that almost sounded relieved, he reached down and gently cupped Asch's cheek, rubbing the skin softly with his thumb. The others watched him silently with growing apprehension, but he paid them no heed, his attention focused completely on Asch. After a moment he frowned, his expression turning annoyed. "Oi," he grumbled as he gave the God-General a little poke.

"Oh," Tear gasped in shock and took a step towards the pair, her hand reaching out to stop Luke. Of course he wouldn't know how bad Asch's condition was. He needed to be told. "Luke, I don't-"

Luke jerked his free hand up and waved his finger at her. "Not right now, Tear," he stated firmly as he leaned over and gave Asch a few gentle pats on the cheek. "Hey, come on, wake up." He scowled at Asch's unresponsiveness and sighed in a very put upon manner, "I'm not going to be the only one here, now wake up already." This time, he got results.

The others could only watch on in varying degrees of surprise and shock as Asch's brows twitched and then slowly, ever so slowly, his eyes cracked open. He squinted wearily up at his now cheerfully grinning replica. "See, that wasn't so hard, now was it?" Luke crowed happily. Asch simply stared up at him for several seconds, then blinked drowsily, dragged his right arm up, grabbed Luke by the face and pushed him off the bed.

Luke landed with a very audible thud on the floor between the bed and Natalia's chair. "Ow," he groused as he sat up and rubbed his head. "You didn't have to-" Then stopped and stared at his right hand.

Asch too was staring blankly at his own right hand, or to be more precise, his right wrist. Frowning slightly, he flexed the joint and blinked at the lack of pain. Sighing silently at this strange discovery, he shrugged minutely and lowered his arm across his middle. He could ask about it later. He was too tired to even consider bothering with it at the moment.

Luke climbed to his feet as Asch closed his eyes to rest and turned to the others, shaking his right arm pointedly. "Not that I really mind and all, but what's up with this?"

Jade chuckled. "I'm afraid the responsibility for that falls solely upon Princess Natalia's shoulders. She was quite intent on overdoing it." That said, he stepped up next to the bed and took up the wrist in question. "Now that's interesting," he murmured as he checked Asch's pulse again then leaned over and felt his forehead, "Very interesting."

Luke watched Jade warily for a moment, then shrugged and crossed over to Natalia. He smiled gently as he gave her a quick hug and whispered in her ear, "Thanks, from the both of us."

Natalia blushed as he released her and ducked her head down, smiling tremulously. "I'm glad that you're okay."

"What did you do?" Jade asked sharply as he turned around and gave Luke a harsh glare.

"Uh," Luke began hesitantly and couldn't help but take a step back at the obvious severity in Jade's stare. He hadn't done anything bad, had he? "What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I said," Jade stated icily, "What did you do? He was dying, Luke. You are Luke, are you not? And now he is not, so please tell me just what it is that you did."

"Colonel," Anise murmured uncertainly as she disengaged herself from Guy, who still had yet to realize that a girl had been touching him, and trotted over to Jade's side. Why couldn't he just be happy about what had happened? There wasn't anything wrong here... was there?

"Not right now, Anise, this is important." Jade spared her a glance, then pinned Luke with his glare again. "Are you Luke?"

"I... I would hope so," Luke muttered timidly and reached up to scratch the back of his head self-consciously, "I mean, I know I'm a replica and all, but Guy said that I had as much right to the name as anybody else. I guess."

Jade rolled his eyes in mild exasperation and reached up to adjust his glasses. "All right, we've established that you are Luke. Now do please inform the class of just exactly what it is that you did."

"Well, I didn't do anything," Luke grumbled and shrugged, looking everywhere but at Jade, "He did everything himself."

Jade crossed his arms. "Explain."

"Uhm." Luke glanced guiltily around at the others, his eyes lingering the longest on Guy and Tear before letting his shoulders slump in defeat. "I told him that if he was going to die then I'd go with him. We argued about it for awhile. Man, but he's a stubborn bastard. Well, anyway, he finally just said 'Fine!' and kicked me out."

"You what?!" Guy and Tear cried at practically the same time and Luke flinched. Damn Jade and his prying, now he would never hear the end of it.

"How could you do something so stupid?" Guy growled.

"I know we've talked about this already," Tear muttered sourly at the same time.

They both stopped then, glanced at each other, nodded solemnly, crossed their arms and turned to glare pointedly at Luke. "You are in so much trouble."

Luke blanched and backed away from them, his hands held up as if to ward them off, not that that would help him much in the long run. "Look, I'm sorry, but it was important. I swear." He grimaced when his protests only received an arched eyebrow from Tear. "Okay, I'm sorry. It won't happen again." His eyes turned hard then as he quietly snarled to himself, "It had better not."

Tear and Guy looked at each other questioningly, then shrugged. There wasn't too much they could say in this sort of situation. They could both understand where he was coming from, sort of. Maybe. But at least he was back, and that's what mattered the most.

Luke frowned in confusion as something odd finally occurred to him and he started to look around. Humming curiously, he crouched down and peered under the bed and the cots. He scowled at the telltale stain on the floor, but still didn't find what he was searching for. Straightening back up, he rubbed his chin and looked at the others. "Uh, not to sound ungrateful or anything at this oh so pleasant reunion we've got going here, but where's Mieu?"

The others just blinked at him for several seconds before glancing around at each other. Now that they thought about it, they hadn't seen the little cheagle since... Keterburg.

"Oh dear," Jade murmured, a small amused grin curling at the corners of his mouth, "I'm afraid we may have forgotten him."

"Oh, poor Mieu," Tear said, completely ashamed with herself for not having noticed his absence sooner. That poor, cute little dear all alone amidst all of that snow. Surely he was a cheagle popsicle by now.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," Jade commented cheerfully and shrugged, "I'm sure that someone has found him by now and delivered him into my sister's tender care. He'll be perfectly fine until we have the chance to go pick him up."

"If you say so."

---

"He really said that, did he?" Nephry asked before taking a sip of her tea and snuggling further back into her plump armchair.

"Mieu, yes he did," the little cheagle squeaked as he jumped down from the coffee table and blew a quick breath onto the flickering fire, making it roar up. "He wouldn't really eat me though, would he?"

"It's my brother," Nephry replied plainly and shrugged, "You can never tell with him."

"Miieeeuuu."

---

Natalia winced slightly as she leaned back and stretched her arms up. Jade had forced them all to eat something shortly after the excitement from their very pleasant surprise had died down somewhat. But that had been quite some time ago now, and she was starting to feel the lack. She couldn't help a little exultant grin of elation though as she reached forward to sweep a few stray wisps of crimson colored hair that had slipped down back up onto the bed. He was alive. They both were. And they were going to stay that way. Asch hadn't stirred much since his rather rude, if profoundly welcome, awakening, but that really wasn't very much of a surprise. He was still in a very bad state. His wounds had been and were still quite serious. And while she'd managed to heal what little she could bit by bit, it would still take time for him to completely recover. But he would recover, and that's what was important. He would live.

And at least when he woke next he wouldn't have any further pain from broken bones, she had seen to that. Which was, no doubt, the very reason she was feeling faint at the moment. Well, at least it was almost dinner time. She was certain that she had heard Anise announce in the periphery of her extremely vague attention that she would have their dinners brought up for them. Granted, healing broken bones took a horrendous amount of concentration -and energy-, but she was certain that she had heard that correctly. Now if it would just arrive before her stomach decided to fall out of her and take the rest of her body with it. It was either that or she might just end up falling asleep while sitting up. She couldn't help but frown a bit as she didn't quite manage to stifle a yawn after that thought.

Reaching up to rub tiredly at her bleary, aching eyes, she missed the first faint stirrings. So it was with some surprise that when she lowered her arms back down she found him staring sleepily at her. "Oh," she murmured and blinked, and couldn't help a short, soft, relieved giggle when he blinked back at her in return, "Good afternoon."

A minor grimace was his only response to that before he shifted his gaze up to the ceiling. He seemed disinclined to speak, or perhaps he simply couldn't at the moment. It was probably in his best interest to conserve energy at any rate, and surely he had already realized that. She didn't even want to consider the possibility that those ghastly neck wounds he still bore pained him too much to even try. But still... it would be better to check.

Standing up, and leaning against the bed to hide her distressingly wobbly knees, Natalia reached down, her right hand just shy of touching the thick bandages wrapped around his neck. "It- it doesn't hurt you too much, does it?" she asked nervously.

He closed his eyes wearily and shook his head slightly in answer.

"Oh, that's good then," she whispered, then reached up with her other hand and carefully placed it on his forehead, mindful to keep her touch light so as not to cause any possible discomfort. "You're running a bit of a fever now, but Colonel Curtiss said that was a good sign. That your body was finally starting to fight against what was done to it."

His eyes were open again, looking up at her solemnly and she feared that she might start crying again, so instead she plopped back down into her chair ungracefully and stared forlornly at her hands, wringing them apprehensively. How unladylike of her. She needed to stop falling apart at every little thing. Everything would be fine now. He would be fine now.

An almost inaudible sigh caught her ear and she glanced up as he shifted. "No, you shouldn't-" she stammered, reaching out as if to stop his motion as he rolled over towards her, completely ignoring her efforts until he was on his side. "You might hurt yourself," Natalia finished lamely as a very obvious grimace of pain flickered across his face.

He arched an eyebrow at her after a moment's time as if asking something along the lines of, 'And your point is?'

Natalia frowned, doing her best to smother the first nigglings of irritation. "You probably pulled your stitches."

He blinked and gave her a negligent shrug. The very concept apparently didn't even register as a concern with him.

Natalia allowed herself something of a scowl as she muttered under her breath, "Luke is entirely correct, you are ungodly stubborn."

He almost smiled then and Natalia had to force down an oncoming blush. He had heard her. And then she truly did blush as he slid his free arm up and gently grasped her left hand. So that was why. He had wanted to give her comfort. Idiot, she thought fondly as she twisted her hand in his grasp until she could hold him in return. He should be concerned with his own health, not her ever changing mental state. But even so, she couldn't help but smile. He could be so exceptionally kind when he would just allow himself to be. But then, they were both like that. Asch and Luke appeared to share the best of traits... and some of the more annoying ones, as well.

Then, as if her thoughts had summoned it, a hand came to rest briefly on her shoulder, causing her to look up. Luke grinned down at her cheekily and gave her a light pat before leaning over to gently stroke Asch's hair. "You should get some more rest," he said softly, "I know you're tired."

Natalia couldn't help but stare at him. It was such a strange reversal of his usual behavior concerning Asch, but then he had, reluctantly, admitted to the fact that he had been quite intent on dying along with Asch earlier. Perhaps something else, something even more profound had happened between them. It would stand to reason, but she doubted that any of the rest of them would ever find out the particulars. Something like that was, perhaps, too personal to share. It had to have been something deeply soul changing at the very least.

Asch blinked up at Luke, the nodded slightly in acceptance and closed his eyes once more. Luke continued to softly stroke his hair, a gentle smile on his face, until he felt the pained tension of wakefulness pass from beneath his touch. Nodding to himself, he straightened up and then looked down at Natalia speculatively. "You've been doing a lot."

Natalia laughed weakly and looked away. "Not especially."

"You're a horrible liar," Luke groused good-naturedly as he leaned down until they were almost face to face; then he put his hands upon his hips and gave her a thoroughly disapproving look. "Don't go overboard."

She scowled back at him. "I am not overdoing it."

He smirked knowingly at her. "Then why are you trembling?"

"Uh," she blinked and finally realized that she was trembling. Oh dear. Well, maybe she had overdone it. Just a bit. It's not like he could blame her, it was for a good cause, after all. "Okay," she muttered as she gently extricated her hand from Asch's relaxed grasp. Then she crossed her arms and her legs primly, did her level best to not pout and pointedly looked away from Luke. "Maybe I did overdo it a little. But just a little."

Luke chuckled at her. "Well, as long as you realize it." Then he gave her a quick peck on the cheek and rose to leave.

Natalia froze, a brilliant blush suffusing her face before she shakily reached up and touched the cheek he had kissed. What in the world? "Luke," she called after him, the shock she was feeling quite evident in her voice, "Why did you do that?"

"Huh?" He glanced over his shoulder at her in mild confusion. "Do what?"

"Why did you kiss me?" She managed with some difficulty, her disbelief almost choking her. He had never done anything like that before, at least not something so obviously impulsive.

"Eh? I did?" Luke turned back to her and scratched the back of his head in thought. Then, as if he had finally realized just what had happened, he blushed a bright crimson. "Oh! Yeah, right. Sorry about that. It's kinda hard right now to filter stuff out, so sometimes I just do stuff without even realizing it."

"Wait wait wait," Natalia said quickly, holding her hand up to forestall any further babble from him. "Filter stuff out? What do you mean?"

"Well, it's just so open right now," Luke tried to explain, his shoulders drooping when Natalia just gave him an utterly perplexed look, "He's just too weak to keep stuff back and I don't really want to risk doing anything bad by trying to close it off, so it just comes through and if I'm not paying attention it gets right through to whatever I'm doing."

"Wait," Natalia interrupted again, and then simply asked, "Are you talking about Asch?"

"Who else would I be talking about?" Luke responded irritably and crossed his arms.

"That was from Asch?" Natalia asked again for clarification.

"Oh come on," Luke grumbled as he rolled his eyes, leaned forward and gave her an annoyed glare, "You'd have to be blind, deaf and dumb to not realize that he has some sort of affection for you. Though, honestly, I have to wonder where his brain is. You're so irritating."

Natalia stuck her tongue out at him, but couldn't resist a brilliant smile as she looked back at the slumbering God-General. He had kissed her! Well, by proxy through Luke and he probably never would have done it himself if he had been awake and paying attention. But it had still been something from him.

"Weirdo," Luke muttered as he shook his head at her and turned to leave.

"Luke?"

He sighed in acute aggravation and turned back around, quirking an eyebrow at her questioningly. "Yeah?"

"Doesn't it, you know, hurt?" She asked and waved her hand, vaguely pointing at his head.

"What do you mean?" He blinked at her in confusion.

"Your... connection," she explained, tilting her head slightly in concern, "Doesn't it hurt? It always gave you such awful headaches whenever Asch tried to contact you before. And you did collapse that one time too."

"Oh, that," Luke remarked airily, then frowned in concentration and held his chin thoughtfully, "I really don't know why, but it doesn't hurt anymore. It's just... there. Though, I am kinda glad about it. Those damned headaches could be pretty awful. I'd rather not have my head explode every time he decides to yell at me for something or other."

"I might have a theory about that," Jade commented blandly as he snuck up behind Luke, smirking in a rather pleased manner when Luke jerked away from him in fright. It was so very amusing to unsettle them at times. And they made it so terribly easy for him to do so. Though it would be quite disappointing if they died of heart failure one day. Perhaps he should lay off them, as it were, every now and then. It was so hard to find good entertainment, after all.

"Gah!" Luke shuddered and slinked behind Natalia. "Please don't ever do that again."

Jade grinned menacingly, not unlike the cat who had caught the proverbial canary, before continuing with his original thought, "As I was saying, I might have a working theory about your lack of pain so far as your connection with Asch is concerned, if you'd care to hear it."

Luke grimaced sourly but nodded hesitantly for Jade to carry on with his theory. He might be a thoroughly creepy bastard at times, and took great enjoyment out of being so, no doubt, but he did always seem to know what he was talking about.

"Yes, well, I believe it started with the initial assault," Jade explained as he picked imaginary dust off of his uniform, "I'm quite sure that none of you have realized it yet, but Asch is also suffering under the effects of a fon slot seal." He nodded grimly at their horrified looks. "However, it was only partially successful, mostly because of your connection."

"What?" Luke croaked out as he unconsciously reached over towards Asch. Jade observed this with narrowed eyes. Interesting.

Mentally shrugging to himself, Jade continued on with his explanation, "When it happened the connection flew open. No doubt, a survival instinct of some sort. At any rate, it was completely open when we checked into the hotel in Keterburg. But you didn't feel any pain, did you? At least, not where you head was concerned."

Luke slowly shook his head in answer. He hadn't had any pain in his head. But... His eyes widening in realization, Luke glanced down at his right hand before looking back up at Jade questioningly.

"Exactly," Jade nodded in response, "There was no headache at all, but you were feeling the echoes of his pain."

"I-," Luke looked down at Asch and shook his head again, "I don't understand."

"I think I understand the nature of your connection now," Jade smiled triumphantly, as if he had just solved a rather difficult puzzle, "It has always been there, was perhaps even created at your birth. But you've always kept it closed, both of you, whether you realized it or not. The pain came from forcing that barrier open, but only just enough for minimal contact. There was always the intent to close it back up afterwards."

Natalia nodded slowly in dawning understanding. "That... does make sense," she said sadly as she glanced over at Asch, "He has seemed quite intent on keeping people out."

"Exactly." Jade smiled charmingly at her. Clever girl. "But there is no barrier now and neither of you are trying to close it back up again. There is no pain because you're not fighting it anymore."

Luke blinked and realized that Jade had directed his last comment at the both of them. He and Asch. And he further realized that the drowsy presence curled up in the back of his mind -Asch- had heard it. And had simply accepted it without any sort of argument.

Never alone.

---

"That is that then, I suppose," Jade said cheerfully as he placed the last of their used dishes up on top of the already substantial stack of trays.

Anise warily eyed the veritable leaning tower that she'd have to heft back down to the kitchens but didn't comment. It really was her own fault anyway. She'd arranged it so that only two or three plates would be brought up at specific times by different people whom she knew simply didn't have the time to be nosy. So, of course, none of them would even think to come back up to fetch the dirty dishes since Anise was there and dear sweet Anise could certainly bring a few plates back down on her own. She was such a dear, after all, surely she'd save them the trouble. It was an irritating perception at times, but a useful one nonetheless. It kept the more annoying questions about the Fon Master's concerns and his guests at bay. Not that she didn't doubt that the vast majority of the cathedral wasn't already abuzz about Ion's odd behavior and those strange people that kept going in and out of his quarters. And wasn't one of them that disturbing Malkuth military officer, that Necromancer fellow? People could be such gossips when they were bored, and well, Daath was where fun went to die. She might possibly cough up actual money if somebody could show her someplace more dull and dreary. Hmm, maybe.

"Okay, I guess I'd better get it over with," she grumbled as she reached forward to take up the daunting burden, but halted in thought and turned towards the bed, pointing vaguely in its direction. "Should I bring anything back up for... you know..."

"Ah, I don't think so." Jade shook his head and shot Natalia a winsome smile. "He has so many seventh fonons swimming in him right now thanks to the efforts of certain individuals amongst us that further sustenance would only prove to be a nuisance." Natalia coughed indelicately into her fist but refrained from commenting on that. It was safer that way. She would only succeed in getting teased further if she rose to the bait. This was Jade, after all.

"All right then." Anise simply shrugged and hoisted up the precarious bundle, teetering somewhat until she finally managed to shift it into a secure enough hold where it wouldn't all fall off at the slightest movement.

Ion winced at her and asked, "Are you sure you don't want me to help you, Anise?"

"Nah," Anise piped up from behind her burden, "People would just get curious if they saw you hauling junk down to the kitchens. I'd appreciate it if you'd get the door for me though. I don't think I can handle knobs very well right now."

"Oh certainly," Ion laughed weakly as he scrambled to do just that, "And do be careful, please."

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Anise said grumpily as she tottered out of the room. Ion followed after her to open the outer door before coming back to rejoin the others in his bedroom.

"Well, now that that's taken care of," Jade remarked, his good cheer growing ever more obvious as he reached down and pulled a remarkably sharp looking pair of scissors out of one of his pockets. He snapped them smartly at the group and grinned evilly at their extremely wary expressions. "I think it's about time that we got to work."

"Uh, what do you mean?" Luke asked cautiously and recoiled when Jade waved the shears pointedly at him.

"You," Jade commanded as he gave another pointed wave of the scissors, "Can go make yourself useful by rousing the patient. It's about time we changed his dressings and I'd like to get some of those sutures out of the way in the meantime." Smiling sweet enough to rot teeth, he deliberately ignored Natalia as he turned to Tear. "And that will be where you come in my dear."

Tear simply blinked in surprise as Natalia protested, "But-"

"You've done more than enough today, princess," Jade stated blandly and gave her a rather stern look, "More than you should have, in fact, so I want you to stay right there for the duration. Let somebody else do the work for once. Tear is more than capable of healing flesh wounds and she won't pass out in the process."

"Fine," Natalia humphed in annoyance and looked away.

"Don't worry, Natalia, I'll do my best," Tear said placatingly and gave the Kimlascan princess a soft smile.

Natalia blinked in surprise and then flushed lightly in shame. Foolish of her, she should have realized that her protests might have come across as having doubts in Tear's abilities. "Forgive me, I know that you're an excellent healer, Tear. I would even go so far as to say that you are most likely a better one than I. It's just..." She gestured helplessly into the air and hung her head, unable to put her feelings into words.

"It's all right," Tear murmured quietly as she stepped over and gave Natalia a quick, comforting hug, "I understand how you feel."

Natalia smiled softly in thanks as she returned the embrace. She could be such a fool at times. Of course Tear would understand how she felt. Good friends did that for each other.

"If you're done now," Jade remarked dryly when they finally released each other, "I'd like to get to work." That said, he turned around and offered the scissors demandingly to Ion. "You'll be the one removing the actual stitching, Fon Master."

"I will?" Ion almost squeaked as he gingerly accepted the shears.

"But of course, Fon Master," Jade said airily as he pushed a skeptical Luke ahead of him and towards the bed, "No offense intended, but you are on the small side, thus will actually be able to fit up on the bed."

"What?" Ion actually did squeak that time.

Luke shook his head in disgust and tuned out the rest of the discussion going on behind him. Trust Jade to be as creepy as he possibly could over something so mundane. Well, perhaps not mundane. He thought sadly as he gazed down at Asch, the myriad amount of bandages swathing his body more than obvious even against the paleness of his skin. Too pale. Too weak. The results of the acute loss of blood were still very much in evidence. But even so, it certainly wasn't something to make such a production out of either. Jade's sense of humor left much to be desired at times.

Sighing softly, he leaned over and carefully ran his fingers through his original's hair. Prodding gently through their connection, he waited. It took several moments before there were any signs of his patient diligence being rewarded. Asch was still utterly exhausted, drained to a soul wearying level and far beyond the ability for him to cope with properly. And though death had been decided against, the remnants still lingered. Luke scowled at that train of thought. He needed more rest. And maybe...

Asch's eyes fluttered open sleepily and Luke smiled, his dark thoughts vanishing for the moment. "Hey," he said softly and kneeled down beside the bed, "Jade wants to change your bandages and get some of those cuts healed. Think you're up for it?"

Asch blinked slowly, the question obviously taking a bit of time to work its way through his sleep fogged mind. Finally, he simply shrugged his answer. Whether he was 'up for it' or not didn't really matter in the long run. It was a necessity, so he would bear through it regardless.

"All right," Luke muttered as he rose to his feet. "Do you need me to-," but wasn't even halfway through his question before Asch gave him an annoyed, if pointed, look. Rolling his eyes, he grumbled, "Right right, stupid question. We both know that you don't have the strength to do much of anything, so I'll have to do it for you." Asch scowled up at him in response to that, but then nodded hesitantly in agreement.

Luke turned around to tell the others that they were ready, but was brought up short by Jade who was standing right behind him. Twitching uncontrollably, he took a step back and somehow, though honestly he wasn't sure just exactly how, he managed to not fall back on to the bed. "I... I hate you," he choked out after a few seconds spent trying to find his voice, "Really, really hate you."

"Wonderful," Jade said pleasantly, "And now that we've gotten that ever so lovely revelation out of the way, can we begin?"

Luke nodded shakily as he felt Asch roll over onto his back behind him. The sooner they got started then the sooner it would be over with. Then he could rest. Shaking his head at the lethargy inching its way across their connection, Luke turned back around and carefully crawled up onto the bed. Asch's previous experience in similar situations informed him of what would most likely be required of him.

"Ah, excellent. I don't have to tell you what to do," Jade commented cheerfully, his studious gaze flicking back and forth between the pair before finally settling upon Asch. "Interesting that." Smiling secretively to himself, he shrugged and leaned over, rolling the blankets and sheets down in preparation. "My apologies," he murmured quietly as he snaked an arm underneath the God-General, "But this may hurt a bit."

Luke couldn't help but wince at the sharp echo of pain in his back as Jade lifted Asch up, the wounds present there were not appreciative of the extra pressure being put upon them. He gratefully accepted Asch as Jade handed him off to him, leaning the God-General against him, his face pressing into the crook of his neck.

/Familiar./

Luke smiled softly as that thought wafted across their connection. /Yes, very familiar and welcome,/ he thought back as he felt Asch's arms slide around him. /Very welcome indeed./

But this was not the ocean, and while they were connected together in their thoughts, they were no longer there alone. There were other considerations now. Luke watched with half a mind as Jade first directed Ion up onto the bed behind Asch, then helped Tear up onto the bed after the diminutive Fon Master. She smiled apologetically at Luke as she swept Asch's hair over both of their shoulders and then began to carefully remove the bandages. Too many.

Luke frowned thoughtfully as he watched Tear remove one blood stained cloth after the next. /It hurts, doesn't it?/

There was a very obvious pause before Asch simply answered him with a /Yes./

Luke thinned his lips in suspicion. /Then why haven't I been feeling it?/

Another pause then, this time much longer, and it soon became apparent that Asch was quite unwilling to answer that question. Which was more of an answer than he really needed.

/You've been keeping it from me,/ Luke scowled in accusation, /No wonder you're so weak. And it's probably been hurting you even more to do that. I was paying attention to Jade's theory about our connection, you know./

A heavy mental sigh then.

/Well, stop it already. It's not just your burden anymore, damnit./

/...Fine./

Luke smiled triumphantly at the unhappy mental growl, then grimaced as a harsh, body wide ache immediately crashed over him. /Ow./

/You wanted it./ It seemed as if Asch was apparently taking a good bit of satisfaction out of his reaction.

/You don't have to sound so happy about it,/ Luke groused.

/Far be it for me to not enjoy your pain./

/Funny./

And then they were both wincing as Tear ghosted her fingertips down one of the many stitched up wounds running across Asch's back. "Let's start with this one," she suggested and glanced over at Ion, "Do you know what to do?"

"I think so?" Ion said uncertainly as he gripped the scissors tightly, his knuckles turning white from the strain.

"It's all right, Ion. Your job isn't going to be very difficult," Tear explained encouragingly, "We don't want to heal the wound around the stitching, so what I'm going to do is hold the skin together while you cut the thread and pull it out. Once that's done, I can heal the wound up completely. All right?"

Ion nodded slightly in understanding, but hesitantly asked, "Will it hurt?"

Tear grimaced and flicked her gaze up at Luke before turning back to Ion. "I won't lie to any of you. It probably will. But it won't be anywhere near as bad as the actual wound itself. More like a bug bite in comparison really."

Ion nodded again and sighed sadly. "I'm sorry," he murmured apologetically to Asch before he bent himself to the task, following Tear's further instructions to the exact letter.

Luke absently watched them work, doing his best not to wince at the echo of a painful tug here and there. Ion was exceptionally gentle, but it was still thread being drawn through flesh. It hurt. But soon enough the Fon Master had pulled out the final suture and Tear was focusing her energy upon healing the wound. Luke and Asch both let out a relieved mental sigh as the seventh fonons seeped into the skin, suffusing the area in a blanketing warmth. And then it was fading, taking the oppressive ache along with it.

"Oh my!" Ion cried in amazement as Tear removed her hands from the God-General's back, revealing unblemished skin. "That's quite impressive, Tear, you didn't even leave a scar."

"It's nothing really," Tear laughed self-consciously as Luke peered down in curiosity at where the wound had once been.

/Excessive./

/Oh?/ Luke hummed inquisitively at the comment. /What do you mean?/

/She's putting too much into it if it's not even scarring./

/Hmm./

/Yes, hmm./

Luke rolled his eyes at Asch's scorn, then blinked as he felt his original come to some sort of realization or other.

/Tear Grants./

/Eh?/

/Perhaps she feels guilty./

/...Oh./

A sigh then, sounding rather put upon now.

/You don't blame her, do you?/ Luke asked him reluctantly. He wasn't sure what he would or could do if Asch did actually blame her in some way. It was Tear, after all. But this was also Asch. That was a conflict he didn't even want to consider.

/Don't be stupid. She's hardly responsible for his insanity./

/Oh, well that's good then./

Something that resembled a snort then. /Why don't you make yourself useful for once, you idiot, and inform her of that fact already./

/Right./

Luke blinked and briefly wondered how exactly he should do that. "Uh, Tear?" he began hesitantly.

"Yes, Luke?" She responded, but didn't look up from her work. She and Ion had already moved on to the next wound while the pair had been having their silent conversation.

Luke twisted his lips nervously and looked away. "Don't overdo it, okay?"

She did look up then and blinked at him in surprise. "What?"

"The scarring, okay?" Luke muttered unhappily. Why did he always have to do this stuff? He never could figure out what the right thing to say was. "Don't overdo it. It... it's not your fault."

Tear stared at him aghast for a moment before ducking her head down, hiding her eyes. "I'm not-"

"Yes you are," Luke said sharply, cutting her off, "We both know you are."

Tear whipped her head back up again, her horrified gaze fixing on Asch this time. He knew?

"He doesn't blame you," Luke murmured quietly, smiling gently when she looked back up at him, "So don't blame yourself, okay?"

She frowned stubbornly, but finally nodded before ducking back down to focus on her work.

/She doesn't believe you./

Luke scowled, /Well, she's always been a hard sale./

/You'll just have to try harder next time then./

/Why don't you do it?/

/I happen to have better things to do with my time./

/Yeah, right. Sleep./

Luke shook his head slightly in mock exasperation as he felt Asch's lips twist up into something of an amused smile against his skin.

---

At first it was just a touch. A light pressure. Not enough to wake him, but enough to let him know that he was there. But soon enough it became more of a gentle nudge, a mildly insistent prodding, and Asch found himself being dragged back into the land of the living much against his will. What did his idiot replica want now? Surely even he could tell that he was still thoroughly exhausted and still very much in pain regardless of their earlier efforts to heal his body. Even though they had been successful on that particular front, there were still more wounds in need of healing. There always would be.

/Look, I know you're tired. Believe me, I can feel it. And I'd let you sleep, but I'd rather you be awake for this./ The apologetic words wormed their way through his drowsy mind, punctuated by yet another gentle nudge. /Just in case I mess it up and do something stupid./

Asch sighed to himself, too weary to even try working up his usual annoyance at being bothered by anyone, much less his replica, or the expected alarm that he should be feeling at the very idea of Luke doing something stupid. His replica did have a rather horrific track record in that regard. Then again, so did they all. It certainly was a rather bothersome quirk that everyone in this particular group appeared to share to one degree or another. No wonder they all seemed to band together so readily. How gratifying it must be to simply be one single lunatic among many. At the very least, one would appear to be less of a moron when in the company of other like minded individuals.

/Hey!/

Ah yes, the expected indignation. Luke was rather lax there when it came to others calling him on his stupidity, but heaven forbid anyone insinuate that his friends could be and generally were almost as stupid at times as he tended to be. Asch managed to work up a small curl of amusement as he vaguely wondered whether his replica had caught on to the fact that he was actually including himself in that grouping of idiots for once.

/You're not stupid./

He gave a mental snort, one that verged on becoming an outright laugh as he shot back, /I'm listening to you, aren't I?/

/Very funny./ A grumble of annoyance then, one that sounded almost fond in a way. /Are you going to wake up or not?/

/Well, I suppose,/ he answered softly as he latched onto the other presence in his mind and allowed Luke to pull him up the rest of the way into full wakefulness, /If I must./

"It's for the best," Luke murmured quietly as he cupped Asch's face in his hands, absently brushing a few stray strands of hair off of his forehead and frowning mildly at the heat present there. The fever was progressing, not enough to worry the others over just yet, but enough to cause him concern. He couldn't fight this on his own. He needed more strength...

Asch squinted up at him for a moment before allowing his gaze to wander idly around the room. It was dark now, night having fallen some time past while he had slumbered on. The room was empty, strangely enough, save for a small but familiar figure curled up on one of the far cots. The Fon Master was facing the wall, his back to them, and by all appearances Ion was completely dead to the world. Asch blinked curiously at that before looking back up at Luke.

Luke chuckled lightly and stole a quick glance at the sleeping Fon Master. "He was dead on his feet, so Jade put him to bed about an hour or so ago."

Asch blinked again. That explained a little bit but did not account for the other, obvious glaring absences.

"Yeah, well, the others left just a little while ago. It's past everybody's bedtime," Luke said softly as he leaned over further, pressing his elbow into the pillow beside Asch and using it to prop himself up. He figured that he could probably be yelling and it wouldn't wake Ion up, but he didn't want to risk it. This was too important. "Jade went with them, something about tucking Anise in. I... really don't want to know. He'll be back soon enough though, so I wanted to go ahead and get this over with."

Asch squinted up at him in confusion. Get what over with? What in the world was he talking about?

"You're too weak," Luke explained vaguely as he absently ran the fingers of his free hand through Asch's hair, "You have enough seventh fonons in you right now to run a marathon on, but you can barely move. We're healing your body, but you're not recovering. You need more help than they can give you."

Asch shook his head slightly in denial, but the weariness that came over him from that simple movement spoke more truth than he cared to admit. He had nearly died. Had even accepted it. Perhaps that was why he seemed to linger painfully now between life and death. It wasn't willing to let go of him just yet. But Luke was an utter moron in these matters, he shouldn't even know a damned thing about it. Certainly not enough to notice the problem for what it was.

"I don't know how I know," Luke whispered, an eerie golden glint glimmering in the depths of his eyes, "I just do. And somehow I do know how to fix it, or at least, to give you a decent enough boost so that you can fix it on your own. I just..." he trailed off then, looking to the side for a moment in uncertainty before finally nodding to himself, "I just need you to stay awake long enough to stop me in case I screw it up."

Asch could only stare up at him in shock. He couldn't possibly be... but no, he did seem determined enough. But still, Luke had nowhere near the training to do what he was suggesting. Hell, he didn't even know enough crap about anything at all to even know the tiniest damned thing about what he was proposing. So how did he- No, he could wonder about that later, right now he had to stop his idiot replica before he hurt himself. But even as a protest was forming in his mind, a feeling washed over him, instantly sweeping away all such inconsequential concerns. An all-encompassing feeling. Warmth. Safety. Love.

Luke turned back to him now, his eyes no longer twins to his own, but instead a deep, glimmering gold. He smiled down fondly at Asch and brushed his knuckles softly against his cheek.

/Trust me./

"I won't hurt you."

/Trust yourself./

"Either of you."

/You must be whole again./

And then he was leaning closer, taking him up into a gentle embrace. A soft golden glow engulfed them both, painting the world in myriad shades of gleaming gold. In the face of this Asch could not muster up any form of resistance, in fact, found himself completely and utterly unwilling to even say no. So instead he simply reached up and held Luke in return, closed his eyes and let himself fall.

It was warm here.

They were safe.

And loved.

/Is this what it feels like?/ Asch thought sleepily as he felt Luke's presence curl protectively around him. They were floating now, floating again on that strangely familiar sea of gold.

/To be loved?/

/Yes./

/I think so./

/I... I like this feeling./ He admitted hesitantly. More than liked really, but he wasn't quite ready to admit that just yet. Not to anyone. Not even himself.

A chuckle. /Better watch it, or you're gonna start sounding like me soon enough./

/...Idiot./

---

Jade hummed thoughtfully to himself as he made his way back from the Tatlins' quarters. Anise had supplied him with ample enough names of interesting individuals around Daath to keep him busy well into the afternoon for the following day. He was quite pleased with this. The more people he had to chat with for information, the more likely it would be to find out something or other about the various activities of Commandant Grants and Grand Maestro Mohs. The first was more of an intrigue at this point, really. Van Grants fate would come soon enough. It was Mohs that was starting to become more of an immediate concern now.

The man's continued absence was beginning to become worrisome. None of the people present in the cathedral seemed to know where he had gotten off to. The Oracle Knights were keeping themselves as tight lipped as always, not that he really needed them to say anything. Their nervous behavior told him more than enough. They didn't know what the Grand Maestro was up to either. That was a problem. He'd rather have such an obvious enemy within reach than off doing Score knew what. And whatever scheme he was off concocting, it would no doubt be quite bothersome for them at one point or another in the near future.

Frankly, the longer they stayed in one spot, the more of a target they became for the circling vultures. If it wasn't Mohs, then it would be Grants. If it wasn't Grants, then it would be the Kimlascans. If it wasn't the Kimlascans, then it may, in fact, turn out to be his own people. Such a bother. They were sitting ducks, as it were, for the moment and he did not like it. Not one bit.

And yet, regardless of the danger, Asch could not be moved. His health teetered on a razor's edge at the moment. All it would take was one upset and everything would come crashing down like a veritable house of cards. If he died, if they allowed him to die... Jade stopped and looked down across the cathedral's entrance hall below. He did not like having all of his eggs in one basket. It left him feeling quite apprehensive. But if all indicators were to be believed, and yes, he did believe them, then the world only had two eggs left to it. And if one cracked... then the other would follow suit.

If Asch died, then Luke would follow him into that endless dream.

And the world would become their funeral pyre.

Logically, Jade knew better than to give in to such romantic notions. But he couldn't deny what his eyes had seen. He couldn't deny what he felt in them. There was a strange sort of power that lurked in their existence, one that could free them all if they could just see their way through. And he would see them through. Even if he had to kill every single thing, living or otherwise, that stood in their way, he would see them through. The world needed to be freed of the shackles placed around it, and they were the key. His key.

He would use them, but he would also care for them. Something that the others would never have even considered. Of that, he was sure. Van Grants had quite obviously failed in that regard as far as Asch was concerned. And he had certainly dropped the ball at Akzeriuth with Luke.

Jade smiled faintly to himself as he turned and continued his trek back to Ion's quarters. Commandant Grants may have started the process, with Dist's help, no doubt, but in the end it was all ultimately a result of his work. His research. He'd be damned if he'd allow anyone else to reap the rewards. They were his children now. Granted, he considered everyone in their group to be his children in one way or another. More or less. But still, there was a possessive sentiment in there somewhere, one that had been growing on him for awhile now. They were his. His responsibility. His... friends. And that was not a concept that Jade Curtiss took lightly.

Frowning, his ponderous ruminations coming to a halt as he entered the Fon Master's outer office, Jade took immediate note of the unnatural golden radiance seeping out from under the bedroom door. Oh dear, now what? Swiftly striding forward, he threw the door open and stepped within.

The Fon Master slept on, his rest undisturbed even by Jade's abrupt entrance. He had either been too exhausted by the day's work or something was encouraging him to stay asleep. Either way, he was only a brief consideration for Jade. As long as Ion stayed that way then he was probably safe. It was the pair on the bed that were the actual problem.

Jade rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he stepped up next to them. Asch was where he was supposed to be. It was Luke who was out of place, sprawled out over the God-General, his legs hanging precariously off of the bed. His head was nestled upon Asch's shoulder, both of their eyes closed as if in slumber. But they were holding on to each other, which spoke of some conscious will buried in there somewhere.

Such a bother.

Sighing in mild annoyance, Jade reached down and was pleased to note that this time the light seemed more than willing to allow him entrance. Good. That was a most welcome development. Trust was a necessary component to their relationship. The more they trusted him, the less they would fight against him. A win-win situation if ever there was one. Humming pleasantly, Jade gave Luke a rather hard shake before he forcibly began to drag him away from Asch. Unfortunately, the God-General's grip on his replica seemed to tighten as he did so, preventing him from separating them completely.

Asch's eyes opened then, gleaming an eerie, but expected, gold as he peered up at Jade. The colonel smiled tightly as he gave Luke a rather pointed tug. "You've done enough now," he said quietly, his voice hard and uncompromising, "Let them go."

The entity known as Lorelei stared up at him for a moment, studying him, perhaps even gauging his worth. Then he smiled softly and released his hold upon them both, allowing them to sink back into the world. To rest.

Jade nodded to himself as the glow died down, bathing the room in deepening shadows as he pulled Luke the rest of the way off of Asch and shook the young man awake. "Luke, what were you doing?" he asked conversationally as he guided him over to his cot, steadying him when it seemed that he might trip himself up.

"Uhm," Luke mumbled sleepily as he reached up to rub wearily at his eyes. He had been doing something? What had he been doing? Oh! Asch! That's right, he had been helping Asch. "I thought I'd give him some of my strength. He needs the extra help, you know."

"Ah, yes, I suppose so," Jade nodded again in agreement as he lowered the drooping, naive idiot down onto the cot. Of course. He should have expected something like that. Leaning down, he draped the covers over Luke and whispered in his ear, his tone clear and dangerous, "Don't do it again. Not unless I am present. Understand?"

"Mmm, sure thing, Jade, whatever you say," Luke murmured as he rolled over and promptly fell asleep.

Jade scowled slightly as he straightened up. He'd have to drive that point home when the young fool was awake enough to understand the severity of his command. He would not allow them to do something so hazardous without his supervision, not again. Lorelei or no Lorelei. He did not appreciate that creature's continued addition to his equation. It was an unknown quantity, one that could prove disastrous if left unchecked.

Shaking his head, Jade turned back to check on Asch and couldn't say that he wasn't pleased by the results of this unexpected development. Even in the dark, he could see that the God-General's color had improved considerably. He was no longer a pale, almost grayish white, instead he now seemed to be just a few steps shy of a healthy glow. One that would no doubt be achieved in the next day or so through continued healing. He was also warm to the touch, not a feverish heat, but the normal warmth of a living being. Something that had been lacking ever since they had arrived.

That... that was good, very good, in fact. Their stay in Daath had just been shortened to days now instead of the weeks he had been dourly projecting. While he was still displeased at this being done without his knowledge, he was content enough with the results. The sooner they could leave, the sooner they would be safe.

And this time, Asch would be going with them. Regardless of his feelings on the subject. He had just become a permanent member of their group, whether he'd realized it yet or not.

Description
Nezach
Day 15 through 19
A 'Tales of the Abyss' Story
by Meimi

---

"It is almost time for lunch."

The others looked up in disinterest at his comment as Jade preceded Ion into the room. He had spent a good deal of the morning scouring the cathedral for information, a task that had been made infinitely easier and yet sometimes more difficult with the Fon Master in tow. He was quite sure that Grand Maestro Mohs was aware of their presence in Daath by now, even though the man had been suspiciously scarce for the entire morning. It was worrisome, but ultimately, Mohs was the least of their concerns. If the Grand Maestro decided to make a nuisance out of himself, then the Necromancer would be more than happy to show him just exactly how he had gotten that title. It would certainly be a most satisfying encounter for one of them. But regardless of the machinations of men with too much power in their hands, he hadn't been able to discover much along the lines of Commandant Grants' activities. Not that he had been expecting much, but you never can tell what you might come up with if you take the time to go digging around for it. However, even with the lack of results, there really wasn't much to worry about there. As long as they continued to oppose Van Grants, then eventually they would cross paths with him again. And then he would die. Good things come to those who wait, so to speak.

His other point of interest, any sort of information regarding the Sephiroth Trees and the Passage Rings, had come up just about as empty. They had found a few books in one of the moldier libraries courtesy of a researcher, with a remarkably sharp photographic memory, who had been able to point them in the right direction. Unfortunately, a precursory examination of them had shown the books to be of little use to him. What pertinent information they may have once possessed had been systematically torn out, it seemed, perhaps by some fanatic or other. Religion could be such a bother when it came to censorship.

"I guess so," Anise murmured mournfully, glancing up through the window to check the location of the sun from her slouch on Ion's cot. "The bell to break fast again will probably be ringing soon." Jade frowned at her, it didn't appear as if she had moved at all since they had last been in. That was troublesome.

"I'm not very hungry," Ion muttered sadly as he plopped down beside his former Guardian and leaned wearily against her, his head drooping down onto her shoulder.

Jade shrugged. "Very well, I suppose missing one meal won't harm you too much in the long run."

Anise snorted, but didn't comment. Shaking his head at her lethargy, Jade crossed the room, ignoring Tear, Guy and the focus of their concern for the moment. Natalia still sat vigil at Asch's side, though Jade noticed with some small amount of relief that she was no longer attempting to heal anything. That was good. He could appreciate the sentiment behind her actions, easing the suffering of others was always a noble goal. However, he'd toyed with the vexing idea of eventually having to force her to stop for her own continued health. But it appeared as if she'd had the presence of mind to know when to do so herself, and thankfully she'd done so before managing to drain herself too far. He did frown slightly at the glint of metal in her lap. A cursory glance at Asch showed that his wrist had been unwrapped. The metal rods. Oh dear. Well, as long as she didn't collapse he would hold his tongue. For now.

Jade nodded a silent greeting to her as he leaned over and checked Asch's pulse. Strangely enough, there didn't seem to be any change at all in his condition. Odd that. His pulse, while still dreadfully weak, remained steady for the most part. Jade adjusted his glasses absently as he straightened up. Stubborn child, what was he waiting for? Why would he still- His thought process was cut short by a brief flash of gold behind him followed swiftly by a soft, low groan.

"Luke?"

Jade whirled around, steadying Natalia when she nearly tripped herself up scrambling out of her chair. Tear and Guy were leaning over the cot, both wearing expressions of expectant, if tentative, hope. Amusingly enough, both Ion and Anise had already zoomed across the room and were now hanging off of Guy in anticipation. It would be quite interesting to see just how long it would take him to realize that a girl was touching him and whether the resulting scream of terror would succeed in shaking off some of the plaster from the ceiling.

Luke, if it truly was Luke who was rousing, had gripped his head in the meantime as if in pain and was even now slowly curling up on his side. And he was mumbling something or other, which Jade managed to catch the tail end of as he apologetically shouldered his way past Guy and his limpets. "...didn't have to kick me..." Odd. "...bastard..." Even odder.

Humming in curiosity, Jade leaned over and pried one of Luke's hands off of his head long enough to check his eyes. They blinked up at him, clear and green, before Luke grunted irritably and rolled over, burying his face into the pillow. Well, at least it wasn't Lorelei. And while he didn't want to leap to conclusions, the grumbling did sound remarkably like the Luke they all knew ever so well.

Tear, her brows drawn together in worried consternation, leaned down until her head was practically resting on the pillow beside Luke's and called his name again, "Luke?"

At first, she just got another pained grunt for her trouble, but then he eventually shifted and blinked blearily at her from underneath his arm. "Tear?"

She laughed weakly in relief and nodded at him.

He frowned in confusion and shifted again, lowering his arm as he glanced around at all of the people -his friends- hovering over him. "What are you guys doing here?"

Guy snorted happily in disbelief. "What do you think, you idiot?"

"Oh please, not you too," Luke grumbled halfheartedly as he rolled the rest of the way onto his back and peered curiously up at the ceiling. "Hmm, oh! I remember now." His eyes widened from some realization or other as he quickly sat up and gave Ion an apologetic look, "Sorry about that, Ion."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Ion said with a cheery smile on his face, "I didn't mind."

"No, really, I'm really sorry," Luke babbled as he levered himself up onto his knees and leaned out over the side of the cot, "I'm sure it was kind of shocking, but I really didn't know where else to go, I mean, come on, it's Daath. You're about the only safe thing about Daath."

"Ah, yes," Ion winced almost painfully at that and reached up to hold his cheek self-consciously, "I must apologize for that. My city really ought to be a better place than it actually is."

"Oh, oops. I put my foot in it again, didn't I?" Luke muttered in embarrassment and hung his head. "But it's not your fault Ion, it's Mohs and Master Van and-" He stopped then, his expression turning dark and dangerous. Glaring around at them, he growled, "Where is he?" But seemed disinclined to wait for an answer as he slid off of the cot and abruptly shoved his way past his friends, stopping short for a second before resolutely walking over to the only other bed in use.

Luke skirted around the chair and instead slumped down against the bed, perching on his hip. His face lost the dark edge, instead turning soft and thoughtful as he stared down at his original. Blowing out a breath that almost sounded relieved, he reached down and gently cupped Asch's cheek, rubbing the skin softly with his thumb. The others watched him silently with growing apprehension, but he paid them no heed, his attention focused completely on Asch. After a moment he frowned, his expression turning annoyed. "Oi," he grumbled as he gave the God-General a little poke.

"Oh," Tear gasped in shock and took a step towards the pair, her hand reaching out to stop Luke. Of course he wouldn't know how bad Asch's condition was. He needed to be told. "Luke, I don't-"

Luke jerked his free hand up and waved his finger at her. "Not right now, Tear," he stated firmly as he leaned over and gave Asch a few gentle pats on the cheek. "Hey, come on, wake up." He scowled at Asch's unresponsiveness and sighed in a very put upon manner, "I'm not going to be the only one here, now wake up already." This time, he got results.

The others could only watch on in varying degrees of surprise and shock as Asch's brows twitched and then slowly, ever so slowly, his eyes cracked open. He squinted wearily up at his now cheerfully grinning replica. "See, that wasn't so hard, now was it?" Luke crowed happily. Asch simply stared up at him for several seconds, then blinked drowsily, dragged his right arm up, grabbed Luke by the face and pushed him off the bed.

Luke landed with a very audible thud on the floor between the bed and Natalia's chair. "Ow," he groused as he sat up and rubbed his head. "You didn't have to-" Then stopped and stared at his right hand.

Asch too was staring blankly at his own right hand, or to be more precise, his right wrist. Frowning slightly, he flexed the joint and blinked at the lack of pain. Sighing silently at this strange discovery, he shrugged minutely and lowered his arm across his middle. He could ask about it later. He was too tired to even consider bothering with it at the moment.

Luke climbed to his feet as Asch closed his eyes to rest and turned to the others, shaking his right arm pointedly. "Not that I really mind and all, but what's up with this?"

Jade chuckled. "I'm afraid the responsibility for that falls solely upon Princess Natalia's shoulders. She was quite intent on overdoing it." That said, he stepped up next to the bed and took up the wrist in question. "Now that's interesting," he murmured as he checked Asch's pulse again then leaned over and felt his forehead, "Very interesting."

Luke watched Jade warily for a moment, then shrugged and crossed over to Natalia. He smiled gently as he gave her a quick hug and whispered in her ear, "Thanks, from the both of us."

Natalia blushed as he released her and ducked her head down, smiling tremulously. "I'm glad that you're okay."

"What did you do?" Jade asked sharply as he turned around and gave Luke a harsh glare.

"Uh," Luke began hesitantly and couldn't help but take a step back at the obvious severity in Jade's stare. He hadn't done anything bad, had he? "What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what I said," Jade stated icily, "What did you do? He was dying, Luke. You are Luke, are you not? And now he is not, so please tell me just what it is that you did."

"Colonel," Anise murmured uncertainly as she disengaged herself from Guy, who still had yet to realize that a girl had been touching him, and trotted over to Jade's side. Why couldn't he just be happy about what had happened? There wasn't anything wrong here... was there?

"Not right now, Anise, this is important." Jade spared her a glance, then pinned Luke with his glare again. "Are you Luke?"

"I... I would hope so," Luke muttered timidly and reached up to scratch the back of his head self-consciously, "I mean, I know I'm a replica and all, but Guy said that I had as much right to the name as anybody else. I guess."

Jade rolled his eyes in mild exasperation and reached up to adjust his glasses. "All right, we've established that you are Luke. Now do please inform the class of just exactly what it is that you did."

"Well, I didn't do anything," Luke grumbled and shrugged, looking everywhere but at Jade, "He did everything himself."

Jade crossed his arms. "Explain."

"Uhm." Luke glanced guiltily around at the others, his eyes lingering the longest on Guy and Tear before letting his shoulders slump in defeat. "I told him that if he was going to die then I'd go with him. We argued about it for awhile. Man, but he's a stubborn bastard. Well, anyway, he finally just said 'Fine!' and kicked me out."

"You what?!" Guy and Tear cried at practically the same time and Luke flinched. Damn Jade and his prying, now he would never hear the end of it.

"How could you do something so stupid?" Guy growled.

"I know we've talked about this already," Tear muttered sourly at the same time.

They both stopped then, glanced at each other, nodded solemnly, crossed their arms and turned to glare pointedly at Luke. "You are in so much trouble."

Luke blanched and backed away from them, his hands held up as if to ward them off, not that that would help him much in the long run. "Look, I'm sorry, but it was important. I swear." He grimaced when his protests only received an arched eyebrow from Tear. "Okay, I'm sorry. It won't happen again." His eyes turned hard then as he quietly snarled to himself, "It had better not."

Tear and Guy looked at each other questioningly, then shrugged. There wasn't too much they could say in this sort of situation. They could both understand where he was coming from, sort of. Maybe. But at least he was back, and that's what mattered the most.

Luke frowned in confusion as something odd finally occurred to him and he started to look around. Humming curiously, he crouched down and peered under the bed and the cots. He scowled at the telltale stain on the floor, but still didn't find what he was searching for. Straightening back up, he rubbed his chin and looked at the others. "Uh, not to sound ungrateful or anything at this oh so pleasant reunion we've got going here, but where's Mieu?"

The others just blinked at him for several seconds before glancing around at each other. Now that they thought about it, they hadn't seen the little cheagle since... Keterburg.

"Oh dear," Jade murmured, a small amused grin curling at the corners of his mouth, "I'm afraid we may have forgotten him."

"Oh, poor Mieu," Tear said, completely ashamed with herself for not having noticed his absence sooner. That poor, cute little dear all alone amidst all of that snow. Surely he was a cheagle popsicle by now.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," Jade commented cheerfully and shrugged, "I'm sure that someone has found him by now and delivered him into my sister's tender care. He'll be perfectly fine until we have the chance to go pick him up."

"If you say so."

---

"He really said that, did he?" Nephry asked before taking a sip of her tea and snuggling further back into her plump armchair.

"Mieu, yes he did," the little cheagle squeaked as he jumped down from the coffee table and blew a quick breath onto the flickering fire, making it roar up. "He wouldn't really eat me though, would he?"

"It's my brother," Nephry replied plainly and shrugged, "You can never tell with him."

"Miieeeuuu."

---

Natalia winced slightly as she leaned back and stretched her arms up. Jade had forced them all to eat something shortly after the excitement from their very pleasant surprise had died down somewhat. But that had been quite some time ago now, and she was starting to feel the lack. She couldn't help a little exultant grin of elation though as she reached forward to sweep a few stray wisps of crimson colored hair that had slipped down back up onto the bed. He was alive. They both were. And they were going to stay that way. Asch hadn't stirred much since his rather rude, if profoundly welcome, awakening, but that really wasn't very much of a surprise. He was still in a very bad state. His wounds had been and were still quite serious. And while she'd managed to heal what little she could bit by bit, it would still take time for him to completely recover. But he would recover, and that's what was important. He would live.

And at least when he woke next he wouldn't have any further pain from broken bones, she had seen to that. Which was, no doubt, the very reason she was feeling faint at the moment. Well, at least it was almost dinner time. She was certain that she had heard Anise announce in the periphery of her extremely vague attention that she would have their dinners brought up for them. Granted, healing broken bones took a horrendous amount of concentration -and energy-, but she was certain that she had heard that correctly. Now if it would just arrive before her stomach decided to fall out of her and take the rest of her body with it. It was either that or she might just end up falling asleep while sitting up. She couldn't help but frown a bit as she didn't quite manage to stifle a yawn after that thought.

Reaching up to rub tiredly at her bleary, aching eyes, she missed the first faint stirrings. So it was with some surprise that when she lowered her arms back down she found him staring sleepily at her. "Oh," she murmured and blinked, and couldn't help a short, soft, relieved giggle when he blinked back at her in return, "Good afternoon."

A minor grimace was his only response to that before he shifted his gaze up to the ceiling. He seemed disinclined to speak, or perhaps he simply couldn't at the moment. It was probably in his best interest to conserve energy at any rate, and surely he had already realized that. She didn't even want to consider the possibility that those ghastly neck wounds he still bore pained him too much to even try. But still... it would be better to check.

Standing up, and leaning against the bed to hide her distressingly wobbly knees, Natalia reached down, her right hand just shy of touching the thick bandages wrapped around his neck. "It- it doesn't hurt you too much, does it?" she asked nervously.

He closed his eyes wearily and shook his head slightly in answer.

"Oh, that's good then," she whispered, then reached up with her other hand and carefully placed it on his forehead, mindful to keep her touch light so as not to cause any possible discomfort. "You're running a bit of a fever now, but Colonel Curtiss said that was a good sign. That your body was finally starting to fight against what was done to it."

His eyes were open again, looking up at her solemnly and she feared that she might start crying again, so instead she plopped back down into her chair ungracefully and stared forlornly at her hands, wringing them apprehensively. How unladylike of her. She needed to stop falling apart at every little thing. Everything would be fine now. He would be fine now.

An almost inaudible sigh caught her ear and she glanced up as he shifted. "No, you shouldn't-" she stammered, reaching out as if to stop his motion as he rolled over towards her, completely ignoring her efforts until he was on his side. "You might hurt yourself," Natalia finished lamely as a very obvious grimace of pain flickered across his face.

He arched an eyebrow at her after a moment's time as if asking something along the lines of, 'And your point is?'

Natalia frowned, doing her best to smother the first nigglings of irritation. "You probably pulled your stitches."

He blinked and gave her a negligent shrug. The very concept apparently didn't even register as a concern with him.

Natalia allowed herself something of a scowl as she muttered under her breath, "Luke is entirely correct, you are ungodly stubborn."

He almost smiled then and Natalia had to force down an oncoming blush. He had heard her. And then she truly did blush as he slid his free arm up and gently grasped her left hand. So that was why. He had wanted to give her comfort. Idiot, she thought fondly as she twisted her hand in his grasp until she could hold him in return. He should be concerned with his own health, not her ever changing mental state. But even so, she couldn't help but smile. He could be so exceptionally kind when he would just allow himself to be. But then, they were both like that. Asch and Luke appeared to share the best of traits... and some of the more annoying ones, as well.

Then, as if her thoughts had summoned it, a hand came to rest briefly on her shoulder, causing her to look up. Luke grinned down at her cheekily and gave her a light pat before leaning over to gently stroke Asch's hair. "You should get some more rest," he said softly, "I know you're tired."

Natalia couldn't help but stare at him. It was such a strange reversal of his usual behavior concerning Asch, but then he had, reluctantly, admitted to the fact that he had been quite intent on dying along with Asch earlier. Perhaps something else, something even more profound had happened between them. It would stand to reason, but she doubted that any of the rest of them would ever find out the particulars. Something like that was, perhaps, too personal to share. It had to have been something deeply soul changing at the very least.

Asch blinked up at Luke, the nodded slightly in acceptance and closed his eyes once more. Luke continued to softly stroke his hair, a gentle smile on his face, until he felt the pained tension of wakefulness pass from beneath his touch. Nodding to himself, he straightened up and then looked down at Natalia speculatively. "You've been doing a lot."

Natalia laughed weakly and looked away. "Not especially."

"You're a horrible liar," Luke groused good-naturedly as he leaned down until they were almost face to face; then he put his hands upon his hips and gave her a thoroughly disapproving look. "Don't go overboard."

She scowled back at him. "I am not overdoing it."

He smirked knowingly at her. "Then why are you trembling?"

"Uh," she blinked and finally realized that she was trembling. Oh dear. Well, maybe she had overdone it. Just a bit. It's not like he could blame her, it was for a good cause, after all. "Okay," she muttered as she gently extricated her hand from Asch's relaxed grasp. Then she crossed her arms and her legs primly, did her level best to not pout and pointedly looked away from Luke. "Maybe I did overdo it a little. But just a little."

Luke chuckled at her. "Well, as long as you realize it." Then he gave her a quick peck on the cheek and rose to leave.

Natalia froze, a brilliant blush suffusing her face before she shakily reached up and touched the cheek he had kissed. What in the world? "Luke," she called after him, the shock she was feeling quite evident in her voice, "Why did you do that?"

"Huh?" He glanced over his shoulder at her in mild confusion. "Do what?"

"Why did you kiss me?" She managed with some difficulty, her disbelief almost choking her. He had never done anything like that before, at least not something so obviously impulsive.

"Eh? I did?" Luke turned back to her and scratched the back of his head in thought. Then, as if he had finally realized just what had happened, he blushed a bright crimson. "Oh! Yeah, right. Sorry about that. It's kinda hard right now to filter stuff out, so sometimes I just do stuff without even realizing it."

"Wait wait wait," Natalia said quickly, holding her hand up to forestall any further babble from him. "Filter stuff out? What do you mean?"

"Well, it's just so open right now," Luke tried to explain, his shoulders drooping when Natalia just gave him an utterly perplexed look, "He's just too weak to keep stuff back and I don't really want to risk doing anything bad by trying to close it off, so it just comes through and if I'm not paying attention it gets right through to whatever I'm doing."

"Wait," Natalia interrupted again, and then simply asked, "Are you talking about Asch?"

"Who else would I be talking about?" Luke responded irritably and crossed his arms.

"That was from Asch?" Natalia asked again for clarification.

"Oh come on," Luke grumbled as he rolled his eyes, leaned forward and gave her an annoyed glare, "You'd have to be blind, deaf and dumb to not realize that he has some sort of affection for you. Though, honestly, I have to wonder where his brain is. You're so irritating."

Natalia stuck her tongue out at him, but couldn't resist a brilliant smile as she looked back at the slumbering God-General. He had kissed her! Well, by proxy through Luke and he probably never would have done it himself if he had been awake and paying attention. But it had still been something from him.

"Weirdo," Luke muttered as he shook his head at her and turned to leave.

"Luke?"

He sighed in acute aggravation and turned back around, quirking an eyebrow at her questioningly. "Yeah?"

"Doesn't it, you know, hurt?" She asked and waved her hand, vaguely pointing at his head.

"What do you mean?" He blinked at her in confusion.

"Your... connection," she explained, tilting her head slightly in concern, "Doesn't it hurt? It always gave you such awful headaches whenever Asch tried to contact you before. And you did collapse that one time too."

"Oh, that," Luke remarked airily, then frowned in concentration and held his chin thoughtfully, "I really don't know why, but it doesn't hurt anymore. It's just... there. Though, I am kinda glad about it. Those damned headaches could be pretty awful. I'd rather not have my head explode every time he decides to yell at me for something or other."

"I might have a theory about that," Jade commented blandly as he snuck up behind Luke, smirking in a rather pleased manner when Luke jerked away from him in fright. It was so very amusing to unsettle them at times. And they made it so terribly easy for him to do so. Though it would be quite disappointing if they died of heart failure one day. Perhaps he should lay off them, as it were, every now and then. It was so hard to find good entertainment, after all.

"Gah!" Luke shuddered and slinked behind Natalia. "Please don't ever do that again."

Jade grinned menacingly, not unlike the cat who had caught the proverbial canary, before continuing with his original thought, "As I was saying, I might have a working theory about your lack of pain so far as your connection with Asch is concerned, if you'd care to hear it."

Luke grimaced sourly but nodded hesitantly for Jade to carry on with his theory. He might be a thoroughly creepy bastard at times, and took great enjoyment out of being so, no doubt, but he did always seem to know what he was talking about.

"Yes, well, I believe it started with the initial assault," Jade explained as he picked imaginary dust off of his uniform, "I'm quite sure that none of you have realized it yet, but Asch is also suffering under the effects of a fon slot seal." He nodded grimly at their horrified looks. "However, it was only partially successful, mostly because of your connection."

"What?" Luke croaked out as he unconsciously reached over towards Asch. Jade observed this with narrowed eyes. Interesting.

Mentally shrugging to himself, Jade continued on with his explanation, "When it happened the connection flew open. No doubt, a survival instinct of some sort. At any rate, it was completely open when we checked into the hotel in Keterburg. But you didn't feel any pain, did you? At least, not where you head was concerned."

Luke slowly shook his head in answer. He hadn't had any pain in his head. But... His eyes widening in realization, Luke glanced down at his right hand before looking back up at Jade questioningly.

"Exactly," Jade nodded in response, "There was no headache at all, but you were feeling the echoes of his pain."

"I-," Luke looked down at Asch and shook his head again, "I don't understand."

"I think I understand the nature of your connection now," Jade smiled triumphantly, as if he had just solved a rather difficult puzzle, "It has always been there, was perhaps even created at your birth. But you've always kept it closed, both of you, whether you realized it or not. The pain came from forcing that barrier open, but only just enough for minimal contact. There was always the intent to close it back up afterwards."

Natalia nodded slowly in dawning understanding. "That... does make sense," she said sadly as she glanced over at Asch, "He has seemed quite intent on keeping people out."

"Exactly." Jade smiled charmingly at her. Clever girl. "But there is no barrier now and neither of you are trying to close it back up again. There is no pain because you're not fighting it anymore."

Luke blinked and realized that Jade had directed his last comment at the both of them. He and Asch. And he further realized that the drowsy presence curled up in the back of his mind -Asch- had heard it. And had simply accepted it without any sort of argument.

Never alone.

---

"That is that then, I suppose," Jade said cheerfully as he placed the last of their used dishes up on top of the already substantial stack of trays.

Anise warily eyed the veritable leaning tower that she'd have to heft back down to the kitchens but didn't comment. It really was her own fault anyway. She'd arranged it so that only two or three plates would be brought up at specific times by different people whom she knew simply didn't have the time to be nosy. So, of course, none of them would even think to come back up to fetch the dirty dishes since Anise was there and dear sweet Anise could certainly bring a few plates back down on her own. She was such a dear, after all, surely she'd save them the trouble. It was an irritating perception at times, but a useful one nonetheless. It kept the more annoying questions about the Fon Master's concerns and his guests at bay. Not that she didn't doubt that the vast majority of the cathedral wasn't already abuzz about Ion's odd behavior and those strange people that kept going in and out of his quarters. And wasn't one of them that disturbing Malkuth military officer, that Necromancer fellow? People could be such gossips when they were bored, and well, Daath was where fun went to die. She might possibly cough up actual money if somebody could show her someplace more dull and dreary. Hmm, maybe.

"Okay, I guess I'd better get it over with," she grumbled as she reached forward to take up the daunting burden, but halted in thought and turned towards the bed, pointing vaguely in its direction. "Should I bring anything back up for... you know..."

"Ah, I don't think so." Jade shook his head and shot Natalia a winsome smile. "He has so many seventh fonons swimming in him right now thanks to the efforts of certain individuals amongst us that further sustenance would only prove to be a nuisance." Natalia coughed indelicately into her fist but refrained from commenting on that. It was safer that way. She would only succeed in getting teased further if she rose to the bait. This was Jade, after all.

"All right then." Anise simply shrugged and hoisted up the precarious bundle, teetering somewhat until she finally managed to shift it into a secure enough hold where it wouldn't all fall off at the slightest movement.

Ion winced at her and asked, "Are you sure you don't want me to help you, Anise?"

"Nah," Anise piped up from behind her burden, "People would just get curious if they saw you hauling junk down to the kitchens. I'd appreciate it if you'd get the door for me though. I don't think I can handle knobs very well right now."

"Oh certainly," Ion laughed weakly as he scrambled to do just that, "And do be careful, please."

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Anise said grumpily as she tottered out of the room. Ion followed after her to open the outer door before coming back to rejoin the others in his bedroom.

"Well, now that that's taken care of," Jade remarked, his good cheer growing ever more obvious as he reached down and pulled a remarkably sharp looking pair of scissors out of one of his pockets. He snapped them smartly at the group and grinned evilly at their extremely wary expressions. "I think it's about time that we got to work."

"Uh, what do you mean?" Luke asked cautiously and recoiled when Jade waved the shears pointedly at him.

"You," Jade commanded as he gave another pointed wave of the scissors, "Can go make yourself useful by rousing the patient. It's about time we changed his dressings and I'd like to get some of those sutures out of the way in the meantime." Smiling sweet enough to rot teeth, he deliberately ignored Natalia as he turned to Tear. "And that will be where you come in my dear."

Tear simply blinked in surprise as Natalia protested, "But-"

"You've done more than enough today, princess," Jade stated blandly and gave her a rather stern look, "More than you should have, in fact, so I want you to stay right there for the duration. Let somebody else do the work for once. Tear is more than capable of healing flesh wounds and she won't pass out in the process."

"Fine," Natalia humphed in annoyance and looked away.

"Don't worry, Natalia, I'll do my best," Tear said placatingly and gave the Kimlascan princess a soft smile.

Natalia blinked in surprise and then flushed lightly in shame. Foolish of her, she should have realized that her protests might have come across as having doubts in Tear's abilities. "Forgive me, I know that you're an excellent healer, Tear. I would even go so far as to say that you are most likely a better one than I. It's just..." She gestured helplessly into the air and hung her head, unable to put her feelings into words.

"It's all right," Tear murmured quietly as she stepped over and gave Natalia a quick, comforting hug, "I understand how you feel."

Natalia smiled softly in thanks as she returned the embrace. She could be such a fool at times. Of course Tear would understand how she felt. Good friends did that for each other.

"If you're done now," Jade remarked dryly when they finally released each other, "I'd like to get to work." That said, he turned around and offered the scissors demandingly to Ion. "You'll be the one removing the actual stitching, Fon Master."

"I will?" Ion almost squeaked as he gingerly accepted the shears.

"But of course, Fon Master," Jade said airily as he pushed a skeptical Luke ahead of him and towards the bed, "No offense intended, but you are on the small side, thus will actually be able to fit up on the bed."

"What?" Ion actually did squeak that time.

Luke shook his head in disgust and tuned out the rest of the discussion going on behind him. Trust Jade to be as creepy as he possibly could over something so mundane. Well, perhaps not mundane. He thought sadly as he gazed down at Asch, the myriad amount of bandages swathing his body more than obvious even against the paleness of his skin. Too pale. Too weak. The results of the acute loss of blood were still very much in evidence. But even so, it certainly wasn't something to make such a production out of either. Jade's sense of humor left much to be desired at times.

Sighing softly, he leaned over and carefully ran his fingers through his original's hair. Prodding gently through their connection, he waited. It took several moments before there were any signs of his patient diligence being rewarded. Asch was still utterly exhausted, drained to a soul wearying level and far beyond the ability for him to cope with properly. And though death had been decided against, the remnants still lingered. Luke scowled at that train of thought. He needed more rest. And maybe...

Asch's eyes fluttered open sleepily and Luke smiled, his dark thoughts vanishing for the moment. "Hey," he said softly and kneeled down beside the bed, "Jade wants to change your bandages and get some of those cuts healed. Think you're up for it?"

Asch blinked slowly, the question obviously taking a bit of time to work its way through his sleep fogged mind. Finally, he simply shrugged his answer. Whether he was 'up for it' or not didn't really matter in the long run. It was a necessity, so he would bear through it regardless.

"All right," Luke muttered as he rose to his feet. "Do you need me to-," but wasn't even halfway through his question before Asch gave him an annoyed, if pointed, look. Rolling his eyes, he grumbled, "Right right, stupid question. We both know that you don't have the strength to do much of anything, so I'll have to do it for you." Asch scowled up at him in response to that, but then nodded hesitantly in agreement.

Luke turned around to tell the others that they were ready, but was brought up short by Jade who was standing right behind him. Twitching uncontrollably, he took a step back and somehow, though honestly he wasn't sure just exactly how, he managed to not fall back on to the bed. "I... I hate you," he choked out after a few seconds spent trying to find his voice, "Really, really hate you."

"Wonderful," Jade said pleasantly, "And now that we've gotten that ever so lovely revelation out of the way, can we begin?"

Luke nodded shakily as he felt Asch roll over onto his back behind him. The sooner they got started then the sooner it would be over with. Then he could rest. Shaking his head at the lethargy inching its way across their connection, Luke turned back around and carefully crawled up onto the bed. Asch's previous experience in similar situations informed him of what would most likely be required of him.

"Ah, excellent. I don't have to tell you what to do," Jade commented cheerfully, his studious gaze flicking back and forth between the pair before finally settling upon Asch. "Interesting that." Smiling secretively to himself, he shrugged and leaned over, rolling the blankets and sheets down in preparation. "My apologies," he murmured quietly as he snaked an arm underneath the God-General, "But this may hurt a bit."

Luke couldn't help but wince at the sharp echo of pain in his back as Jade lifted Asch up, the wounds present there were not appreciative of the extra pressure being put upon them. He gratefully accepted Asch as Jade handed him off to him, leaning the God-General against him, his face pressing into the crook of his neck.

/Familiar./

Luke smiled softly as that thought wafted across their connection. /Yes, very familiar and welcome,/ he thought back as he felt Asch's arms slide around him. /Very welcome indeed./

But this was not the ocean, and while they were connected together in their thoughts, they were no longer there alone. There were other considerations now. Luke watched with half a mind as Jade first directed Ion up onto the bed behind Asch, then helped Tear up onto the bed after the diminutive Fon Master. She smiled apologetically at Luke as she swept Asch's hair over both of their shoulders and then began to carefully remove the bandages. Too many.

Luke frowned thoughtfully as he watched Tear remove one blood stained cloth after the next. /It hurts, doesn't it?/

There was a very obvious pause before Asch simply answered him with a /Yes./

Luke thinned his lips in suspicion. /Then why haven't I been feeling it?/

Another pause then, this time much longer, and it soon became apparent that Asch was quite unwilling to answer that question. Which was more of an answer than he really needed.

/You've been keeping it from me,/ Luke scowled in accusation, /No wonder you're so weak. And it's probably been hurting you even more to do that. I was paying attention to Jade's theory about our connection, you know./

A heavy mental sigh then.

/Well, stop it already. It's not just your burden anymore, damnit./

/...Fine./

Luke smiled triumphantly at the unhappy mental growl, then grimaced as a harsh, body wide ache immediately crashed over him. /Ow./

/You wanted it./ It seemed as if Asch was apparently taking a good bit of satisfaction out of his reaction.

/You don't have to sound so happy about it,/ Luke groused.

/Far be it for me to not enjoy your pain./

/Funny./

And then they were both wincing as Tear ghosted her fingertips down one of the many stitched up wounds running across Asch's back. "Let's start with this one," she suggested and glanced over at Ion, "Do you know what to do?"

"I think so?" Ion said uncertainly as he gripped the scissors tightly, his knuckles turning white from the strain.

"It's all right, Ion. Your job isn't going to be very difficult," Tear explained encouragingly, "We don't want to heal the wound around the stitching, so what I'm going to do is hold the skin together while you cut the thread and pull it out. Once that's done, I can heal the wound up completely. All right?"

Ion nodded slightly in understanding, but hesitantly asked, "Will it hurt?"

Tear grimaced and flicked her gaze up at Luke before turning back to Ion. "I won't lie to any of you. It probably will. But it won't be anywhere near as bad as the actual wound itself. More like a bug bite in comparison really."

Ion nodded again and sighed sadly. "I'm sorry," he murmured apologetically to Asch before he bent himself to the task, following Tear's further instructions to the exact letter.

Luke absently watched them work, doing his best not to wince at the echo of a painful tug here and there. Ion was exceptionally gentle, but it was still thread being drawn through flesh. It hurt. But soon enough the Fon Master had pulled out the final suture and Tear was focusing her energy upon healing the wound. Luke and Asch both let out a relieved mental sigh as the seventh fonons seeped into the skin, suffusing the area in a blanketing warmth. And then it was fading, taking the oppressive ache along with it.

"Oh my!" Ion cried in amazement as Tear removed her hands from the God-General's back, revealing unblemished skin. "That's quite impressive, Tear, you didn't even leave a scar."

"It's nothing really," Tear laughed self-consciously as Luke peered down in curiosity at where the wound had once been.

/Excessive./

/Oh?/ Luke hummed inquisitively at the comment. /What do you mean?/

/She's putting too much into it if it's not even scarring./

/Hmm./

/Yes, hmm./

Luke rolled his eyes at Asch's scorn, then blinked as he felt his original come to some sort of realization or other.

/Tear Grants./

/Eh?/

/Perhaps she feels guilty./

/...Oh./

A sigh then, sounding rather put upon now.

/You don't blame her, do you?/ Luke asked him reluctantly. He wasn't sure what he would or could do if Asch did actually blame her in some way. It was Tear, after all. But this was also Asch. That was a conflict he didn't even want to consider.

/Don't be stupid. She's hardly responsible for his insanity./

/Oh, well that's good then./

Something that resembled a snort then. /Why don't you make yourself useful for once, you idiot, and inform her of that fact already./

/Right./

Luke blinked and briefly wondered how exactly he should do that. "Uh, Tear?" he began hesitantly.

"Yes, Luke?" She responded, but didn't look up from her work. She and Ion had already moved on to the next wound while the pair had been having their silent conversation.

Luke twisted his lips nervously and looked away. "Don't overdo it, okay?"

She did look up then and blinked at him in surprise. "What?"

"The scarring, okay?" Luke muttered unhappily. Why did he always have to do this stuff? He never could figure out what the right thing to say was. "Don't overdo it. It... it's not your fault."

Tear stared at him aghast for a moment before ducking her head down, hiding her eyes. "I'm not-"

"Yes you are," Luke said sharply, cutting her off, "We both know you are."

Tear whipped her head back up again, her horrified gaze fixing on Asch this time. He knew?

"He doesn't blame you," Luke murmured quietly, smiling gently when she looked back up at him, "So don't blame yourself, okay?"

She frowned stubbornly, but finally nodded before ducking back down to focus on her work.

/She doesn't believe you./

Luke scowled, /Well, she's always been a hard sale./

/You'll just have to try harder next time then./

/Why don't you do it?/

/I happen to have better things to do with my time./

/Yeah, right. Sleep./

Luke shook his head slightly in mock exasperation as he felt Asch's lips twist up into something of an amused smile against his skin.

---

At first it was just a touch. A light pressure. Not enough to wake him, but enough to let him know that he was there. But soon enough it became more of a gentle nudge, a mildly insistent prodding, and Asch found himself being dragged back into the land of the living much against his will. What did his idiot replica want now? Surely even he could tell that he was still thoroughly exhausted and still very much in pain regardless of their earlier efforts to heal his body. Even though they had been successful on that particular front, there were still more wounds in need of healing. There always would be.

/Look, I know you're tired. Believe me, I can feel it. And I'd let you sleep, but I'd rather you be awake for this./ The apologetic words wormed their way through his drowsy mind, punctuated by yet another gentle nudge. /Just in case I mess it up and do something stupid./

Asch sighed to himself, too weary to even try working up his usual annoyance at being bothered by anyone, much less his replica, or the expected alarm that he should be feeling at the very idea of Luke doing something stupid. His replica did have a rather horrific track record in that regard. Then again, so did they all. It certainly was a rather bothersome quirk that everyone in this particular group appeared to share to one degree or another. No wonder they all seemed to band together so readily. How gratifying it must be to simply be one single lunatic among many. At the very least, one would appear to be less of a moron when in the company of other like minded individuals.

/Hey!/

Ah yes, the expected indignation. Luke was rather lax there when it came to others calling him on his stupidity, but heaven forbid anyone insinuate that his friends could be and generally were almost as stupid at times as he tended to be. Asch managed to work up a small curl of amusement as he vaguely wondered whether his replica had caught on to the fact that he was actually including himself in that grouping of idiots for once.

/You're not stupid./

He gave a mental snort, one that verged on becoming an outright laugh as he shot back, /I'm listening to you, aren't I?/

/Very funny./ A grumble of annoyance then, one that sounded almost fond in a way. /Are you going to wake up or not?/

/Well, I suppose,/ he answered softly as he latched onto the other presence in his mind and allowed Luke to pull him up the rest of the way into full wakefulness, /If I must./

"It's for the best," Luke murmured quietly as he cupped Asch's face in his hands, absently brushing a few stray strands of hair off of his forehead and frowning mildly at the heat present there. The fever was progressing, not enough to worry the others over just yet, but enough to cause him concern. He couldn't fight this on his own. He needed more strength...

Asch squinted up at him for a moment before allowing his gaze to wander idly around the room. It was dark now, night having fallen some time past while he had slumbered on. The room was empty, strangely enough, save for a small but familiar figure curled up on one of the far cots. The Fon Master was facing the wall, his back to them, and by all appearances Ion was completely dead to the world. Asch blinked curiously at that before looking back up at Luke.

Luke chuckled lightly and stole a quick glance at the sleeping Fon Master. "He was dead on his feet, so Jade put him to bed about an hour or so ago."

Asch blinked again. That explained a little bit but did not account for the other, obvious glaring absences.

"Yeah, well, the others left just a little while ago. It's past everybody's bedtime," Luke said softly as he leaned over further, pressing his elbow into the pillow beside Asch and using it to prop himself up. He figured that he could probably be yelling and it wouldn't wake Ion up, but he didn't want to risk it. This was too important. "Jade went with them, something about tucking Anise in. I... really don't want to know. He'll be back soon enough though, so I wanted to go ahead and get this over with."

Asch squinted up at him in confusion. Get what over with? What in the world was he talking about?

"You're too weak," Luke explained vaguely as he absently ran the fingers of his free hand through Asch's hair, "You have enough seventh fonons in you right now to run a marathon on, but you can barely move. We're healing your body, but you're not recovering. You need more help than they can give you."

Asch shook his head slightly in denial, but the weariness that came over him from that simple movement spoke more truth than he cared to admit. He had nearly died. Had even accepted it. Perhaps that was why he seemed to linger painfully now between life and death. It wasn't willing to let go of him just yet. But Luke was an utter moron in these matters, he shouldn't even know a damned thing about it. Certainly not enough to notice the problem for what it was.

"I don't know how I know," Luke whispered, an eerie golden glint glimmering in the depths of his eyes, "I just do. And somehow I do know how to fix it, or at least, to give you a decent enough boost so that you can fix it on your own. I just..." he trailed off then, looking to the side for a moment in uncertainty before finally nodding to himself, "I just need you to stay awake long enough to stop me in case I screw it up."

Asch could only stare up at him in shock. He couldn't possibly be... but no, he did seem determined enough. But still, Luke had nowhere near the training to do what he was suggesting. Hell, he didn't even know enough crap about anything at all to even know the tiniest damned thing about what he was proposing. So how did he- No, he could wonder about that later, right now he had to stop his idiot replica before he hurt himself. But even as a protest was forming in his mind, a feeling washed over him, instantly sweeping away all such inconsequential concerns. An all-encompassing feeling. Warmth. Safety. Love.

Luke turned back to him now, his eyes no longer twins to his own, but instead a deep, glimmering gold. He smiled down fondly at Asch and brushed his knuckles softly against his cheek.

/Trust me./

"I won't hurt you."

/Trust yourself./

"Either of you."

/You must be whole again./

And then he was leaning closer, taking him up into a gentle embrace. A soft golden glow engulfed them both, painting the world in myriad shades of gleaming gold. In the face of this Asch could not muster up any form of resistance, in fact, found himself completely and utterly unwilling to even say no. So instead he simply reached up and held Luke in return, closed his eyes and let himself fall.

It was warm here.

They were safe.

And loved.

/Is this what it feels like?/ Asch thought sleepily as he felt Luke's presence curl protectively around him. They were floating now, floating again on that strangely familiar sea of gold.

/To be loved?/

/Yes./

/I think so./

/I... I like this feeling./ He admitted hesitantly. More than liked really, but he wasn't quite ready to admit that just yet. Not to anyone. Not even himself.

A chuckle. /Better watch it, or you're gonna start sounding like me soon enough./

/...Idiot./

---

Jade hummed thoughtfully to himself as he made his way back from the Tatlins' quarters. Anise had supplied him with ample enough names of interesting individuals around Daath to keep him busy well into the afternoon for the following day. He was quite pleased with this. The more people he had to chat with for information, the more likely it would be to find out something or other about the various activities of Commandant Grants and Grand Maestro Mohs. The first was more of an intrigue at this point, really. Van Grants fate would come soon enough. It was Mohs that was starting to become more of an immediate concern now.

The man's continued absence was beginning to become worrisome. None of the people present in the cathedral seemed to know where he had gotten off to. The Oracle Knights were keeping themselves as tight lipped as always, not that he really needed them to say anything. Their nervous behavior told him more than enough. They didn't know what the Grand Maestro was up to either. That was a problem. He'd rather have such an obvious enemy within reach than off doing Score knew what. And whatever scheme he was off concocting, it would no doubt be quite bothersome for them at one point or another in the near future.

Frankly, the longer they stayed in one spot, the more of a target they became for the circling vultures. If it wasn't Mohs, then it would be Grants. If it wasn't Grants, then it would be the Kimlascans. If it wasn't the Kimlascans, then it may, in fact, turn out to be his own people. Such a bother. They were sitting ducks, as it were, for the moment and he did not like it. Not one bit.

And yet, regardless of the danger, Asch could not be moved. His health teetered on a razor's edge at the moment. All it would take was one upset and everything would come crashing down like a veritable house of cards. If he died, if they allowed him to die... Jade stopped and looked down across the cathedral's entrance hall below. He did not like having all of his eggs in one basket. It left him feeling quite apprehensive. But if all indicators were to be believed, and yes, he did believe them, then the world only had two eggs left to it. And if one cracked... then the other would follow suit.

If Asch died, then Luke would follow him into that endless dream.

And the world would become their funeral pyre.

Logically, Jade knew better than to give in to such romantic notions. But he couldn't deny what his eyes had seen. He couldn't deny what he felt in them. There was a strange sort of power that lurked in their existence, one that could free them all if they could just see their way through. And he would see them through. Even if he had to kill every single thing, living or otherwise, that stood in their way, he would see them through. The world needed to be freed of the shackles placed around it, and they were the key. His key.

He would use them, but he would also care for them. Something that the others would never have even considered. Of that, he was sure. Van Grants had quite obviously failed in that regard as far as Asch was concerned. And he had certainly dropped the ball at Akzeriuth with Luke.

Jade smiled faintly to himself as he turned and continued his trek back to Ion's quarters. Commandant Grants may have started the process, with Dist's help, no doubt, but in the end it was all ultimately a result of his work. His research. He'd be damned if he'd allow anyone else to reap the rewards. They were his children now. Granted, he considered everyone in their group to be his children in one way or another. More or less. But still, there was a possessive sentiment in there somewhere, one that had been growing on him for awhile now. They were his. His responsibility. His... friends. And that was not a concept that Jade Curtiss took lightly.

Frowning, his ponderous ruminations coming to a halt as he entered the Fon Master's outer office, Jade took immediate note of the unnatural golden radiance seeping out from under the bedroom door. Oh dear, now what? Swiftly striding forward, he threw the door open and stepped within.

The Fon Master slept on, his rest undisturbed even by Jade's abrupt entrance. He had either been too exhausted by the day's work or something was encouraging him to stay asleep. Either way, he was only a brief consideration for Jade. As long as Ion stayed that way then he was probably safe. It was the pair on the bed that were the actual problem.

Jade rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he stepped up next to them. Asch was where he was supposed to be. It was Luke who was out of place, sprawled out over the God-General, his legs hanging precariously off of the bed. His head was nestled upon Asch's shoulder, both of their eyes closed as if in slumber. But they were holding on to each other, which spoke of some conscious will buried in there somewhere.

Such a bother.

Sighing in mild annoyance, Jade reached down and was pleased to note that this time the light seemed more than willing to allow him entrance. Good. That was a most welcome development. Trust was a necessary component to their relationship. The more they trusted him, the less they would fight against him. A win-win situation if ever there was one. Humming pleasantly, Jade gave Luke a rather hard shake before he forcibly began to drag him away from Asch. Unfortunately, the God-General's grip on his replica seemed to tighten as he did so, preventing him from separating them completely.

Asch's eyes opened then, gleaming an eerie, but expected, gold as he peered up at Jade. The colonel smiled tightly as he gave Luke a rather pointed tug. "You've done enough now," he said quietly, his voice hard and uncompromising, "Let them go."

The entity known as Lorelei stared up at him for a moment, studying him, perhaps even gauging his worth. Then he smiled softly and released his hold upon them both, allowing them to sink back into the world. To rest.

Jade nodded to himself as the glow died down, bathing the room in deepening shadows as he pulled Luke the rest of the way off of Asch and shook the young man awake. "Luke, what were you doing?" he asked conversationally as he guided him over to his cot, steadying him when it seemed that he might trip himself up.

"Uhm," Luke mumbled sleepily as he reached up to rub wearily at his eyes. He had been doing something? What had he been doing? Oh! Asch! That's right, he had been helping Asch. "I thought I'd give him some of my strength. He needs the extra help, you know."

"Ah, yes, I suppose so," Jade nodded again in agreement as he lowered the drooping, naive idiot down onto the cot. Of course. He should have expected something like that. Leaning down, he draped the covers over Luke and whispered in his ear, his tone clear and dangerous, "Don't do it again. Not unless I am present. Understand?"

"Mmm, sure thing, Jade, whatever you say," Luke murmured as he rolled over and promptly fell asleep.

Jade scowled slightly as he straightened up. He'd have to drive that point home when the young fool was awake enough to understand the severity of his command. He would not allow them to do something so hazardous without his supervision, not again. Lorelei or no Lorelei. He did not appreciate that creature's continued addition to his equation. It was an unknown quantity, one that could prove disastrous if left unchecked.

Shaking his head, Jade turned back to check on Asch and couldn't say that he wasn't pleased by the results of this unexpected development. Even in the dark, he could see that the God-General's color had improved considerably. He was no longer a pale, almost grayish white, instead he now seemed to be just a few steps shy of a healthy glow. One that would no doubt be achieved in the next day or so through continued healing. He was also warm to the touch, not a feverish heat, but the normal warmth of a living being. Something that had been lacking ever since they had arrived.

That... that was good, very good, in fact. Their stay in Daath had just been shortened to days now instead of the weeks he had been dourly projecting. While he was still displeased at this being done without his knowledge, he was content enough with the results. The sooner they could leave, the sooner they would be safe.

And this time, Asch would be going with them. Regardless of his feelings on the subject. He had just become a permanent member of their group, whether he'd realized it yet or not.