Summary: Because there are so many exceptions. No pairings. Spoilers for both games. –BK:EWLO and BK:O-

Disclaimer: Not mine.

I - Life

I couldn't bear to live without you, he had said. His voice had been weary yet sincere, and she couldn't disbelieve his words. Her grandfather wasn't a man inclined to lie and he had never lied to her before (except about this, and it wasn't precisely an outright lie; he lied only by omission and how could she blame him? What sort of person wondered whether or not they had been brought back from the dead?).

But that was exactly what had happened with her. He had brought her back from the dead.

So am I really alive? She couldn't help but wonder this on a daily basis. Am I just the walking dead?

She read every book she could get her thin hands on, but not even the most renowned philosophers had any answers to that particular question (after all, most people didn't question these things, for they had no need to do so and thus there was no reason to try an answer a question no one should logically have). She couldn't help but think the answer she would receive (if anyone could give her one) would be that You're the undead: neither living nor dead, caught in the middle, caught in between.

"But I won't accept that," she vowed softly. "Surely I am either one or the other."

She may be an exception to life and to death, but she was going to find a definitive answer. It was what kept her going now. Not everyone had a second chance at life, after all.

Melodia couldn't help but think that that was probably a good thing.

II – Birth

What happened to Mom and Dad? he had asked curiously from time to time. Why don't they live with us too?

And his grandfather had always answered him in terms a small child could understand but not be worried by. As he had grown, he had stopped asking; as he had grown, he had come to realize what must have been the truth: his parents had died in a tragic accident which his grandfather had not thought fit to inform a small child about.

Once he had realized this, he had stopped asking about his parents. He wasn't sure he wanted to know the details yet anyway. There was still plenty of time to ask his grandfather again; they had years and years left together. There would always be time for more questions.

But his grandfather died too, sooner than expected, and he was left alone with all his questions left quite unanswered. He decided not to be bothered by it; what was the point? If they couldn't be answered there was no need to worry about them.

You were a successful experiment, the first life he created solely from a Magnus.

And then that had changed everything.

"I have no parents," he whispered to her one night, "I've never had any parents. I'm hardly even human. How can I be human without a real mother and a real father?"

"You had Georg," she pointed out. A pause, and she added, "And besides, I don't think 'humanity' is determined by your way of birth."

And Kalas couldn't help but hope that she was right.

III – Queen

We guard a very important thing, each queen said to her daughter through the ages, A secret that no one outside of our ice world must know about.

Each queen and each princess took this to heart; they guarded their secret in an ice world where the secret was out in the open and yet hidden from all eyes. They were queens of ice, queens of secrets. She wasn't sure if she liked being a queen of secrets, but it was necessary so she didn't complain. Royalty of any sort weren't allowed to complain; that was a luxury only commons could afford. (She wished she was a common girl, allowed to complain, to love, to not have to keep such important secrets).

But the Guardian-Queen could not even think of complaining. The Guardian-Queen couldn't let a stray thought slip out of her mouth that would reveal her secret. She hated being a Guardian-Queen, and at the same time, she loved it. I'll never tell anyone.

When she met him, it all changed, because she remembered her childhood fantasy. A common girl falling in love with a common boy: a fantasy she could never make reality, because she was far from common (in more ways than just one).

Hey...I have a secret.

But you can't tell me.

No.

And Xelha had never felt more upset about being a queen of ice who wasn't really a queen at all, much less a queen who wasn't really a queen of ice (because guardians don't count as queens, as far as she was concerned, and she wasn't guarding ice).

IV – Death

"What do you suppose it feels like to...y'know...die?" the largest of the group asked in a small voice.

The others glanced at him from across the fire. "I don't know," the eldest said.

"I wonder if it hurts..." the other said.

"It depends on how you go," the dark one said. "If you get skewered by a sword well then I suppose it would hurt--"

"Stop that!" the tall female said sharply. "There's no need to scare him."

"If we let Wiseman have his way," the youngest piped up, "I don't think it would hurt at all."

"Stop!" the tall female said shrilly. "Stop this talk."

"It won't hurt," the eldest said in a firm tone to settle the matter, "So long as we're together."

But their death had hurt, if only instantaneously. Even together, the pain could not be kept at bay. But it wasn't really death was it? It isn't death when you live on, even as an incorporeal spirit. And Marno couldn't help but wish they had died since they were human and they should have died.

But Malpercio is eternal; Malpercio does not die—he overshadows all things from a place on the brink of a death he eternally eludes.

V – Malideiter

I'm a spiriter, the first in centuries.

I'm a spiriter, and for the first time ever, there are more than just me!

And the truths he had known all his life suddenly came crashing down around his ears, because they were no longer truths, no longer facts. He wasn't what he had always thought he was, he had never been what he thought he was, and it hurt to realize this. How do you live when all you had thought you knew turns out to be nothing but lies? Lies that you can't blame anyone for, because no one else knew that they were lies either.

You're Malpercio, aren't you? Does that mean I'm not a spiriter? Are you not a spirit?

...I don't know what I am.

...And that makes two of us.

VI – Spiriter

There's a distinct difference between what he appears to be (a normal person) and what he actually is (a spiriter). And of course, there's a difference between being a normal person and being a spiriter (just like there's a difference between being a malideiter and spiriter). So of course, he doesn't want anyone to know that because it's not something that anyone needs to know. He just wants to be seen as a normal person who can be a normal Emperor who can better the lives for all the normal people of the world.

And a spiriter just isn't normal. Spiriters have the power to sway the world's future.

But normal people can change the world too, right?

I am a spiriter, Baelheit shouts, And I will change this world!

(I'll change the world in a way no normal person could)

VII – Human (I)

He gazes over the crowd approvingly (not that anyone can tell he approves). So many have come today, ready to shed their carnal robes and become what they were meant to be. They sit and hail him as he approaches, his long blue robe barely fluttering in the warm Cujam breeze. Some people reach to touch its hem. He ignores this. Soon, they will be above such petty desires. Soon, these people will become more than they are or could ever have dreamed to be without his help.

He speaks slowly, glorifying the heart. He is mildly annoyed by the interruption of one of the audience; but he uses this to his advantage. He needs the hearts of the people; having devoured so many already, he cannot afford to lose the faith of those who trust him now.

Join your hearts with mine, he whispers seductively, A heart of Magnus is eternal.

And so they do. He is made of hearts, of essences. He is no longer human. He is no longer even a single person.

And Wiseman does not care; is it not better to be eternal? Humanity is an obstacle. Essences are eternal. And he would do anything to gain eternity, even if that means becoming more than one person, more than one heart.

VIII – Machina

How old is your paramachina, anyway?

He was quite used to hearing these people snicker and point as he walked side by side with his only friend in the world. He was not human, naturally, but even so...he felt a strange prickly feeling welling up inside his mind whenever he heard these comments. Was this frustration? He wasn't sure.

What was he? Not machina, he thought to himself. Whatever I am, I'm not machina and I wasn't made in Alfard.

And in some ways, Guillo felt almost happy about that.

IX – Human (II)

He had never strictly forbade her from telling anyone about her make-up, but she never did. It was embarrassing to even think about telling anyone (and who would she tell anyway? She didn't have that many friends). What would their reaction be, if she did say? Oh, by the way, more than half my body is made up of machina. So, where do you want to go for lunch?

The idea of anyone accepting a cyborg like herself as a friend was laughable. She felt miserable and couldn't help imagining that anyone who knew wouldn't see her as anything more than a paramachina (and she was more!).

Hey...now that you know my secret...do you think that...I'm more like a paramachina than a human?

Does it matter?

Yes.

To me, you'll always be you.

But that wasn't an answer, and Milly not only needed an answer but she needed to know she was still human, regardless of how her body was built (but she can't believe herself; she needs someone else to say it first).

X – Dimensionality

She's not the only one who ends up in another world. He's not the only one who loses himself in what he thought were only dreams. They aren't the first to find their way into a dark forest in a world so far from the ones they come from. They won't be the last to find their way to a world they had no idea existed. The fabric between dimensions isn't strong enough to keep them away, but somehow it does eventually pull them away.

Even so, it's not usual to cross dimensions so easily and so normally. And it shouldn't be this sad to leave a world they aren't native to.

We want to come back across dimensions...but it's a one-time experience.