There were times in Ion's life where, even without the Score, it felt like he could see the future.
"Escape from here with us! You and I are the same!" he'd said, holding out his hand.
Sync had slapped it away and replied, "No, we're not."
Ion hadn't actually lowered his hand as the other Fon Master replica had stood and begun to back away. Despite having already received his answer, he kept it upraised, as if somehow continuing to make the offer would change reality. But as he watched Sync retreat closer and closer to the edge of the Tartarus, listened to words that burned themselves into his mind, Ion felt a premonition of doom stronger than anything he'd ever felt in his brief life.
"I'm only alive so Van can use me."
And yet he remained rooted to the spot, unable to tear his gaze away. Someone stop him, please! he pleaded uselessly in the confines of his head. Nobody moved. Ion felt like he could see several seconds ahead, see Sync falling off the deck into the crushing depths of the core. He could see it so clearly, so brilliantly, that it felt like his whole body was on fire.
"In the end, only those of us who are useful -"
"Stop!" Ion cried, stretching out his hand as if he might stop him from several feet away.
"- are kept alive out of pity. And now my role is over."
Sync's angry, bitter expression changed. How, exactly, Ion couldn't put a finger on; there was so much he still didn't understand about feelings, let alone other people's feelings. Was it regret? Was it sadness? Or was it something else entirely?
Then, as if in slow motion, he began to tilt backwards and disappear from view.
The next instant was a blur to Ion. He hadn't seen any of the others move in the instant that he'd cried out, but all of a sudden Luke and Guy had left Ion's side and gone to Sync's. They'd both grabbed one of his hands each at the same time. Without anything to brace themselves against, they quickly dropped to one knee to try to keep him from falling off the Tartarus. They began to slide towards the edge, but at the same time, without either conferring with the other, Luke and Guy began to drag the unwilling God-General back up.
"What're you doing? Let me go!" Sync's astonished voice rang out. His arms tensed, as if he were trying to pull away.
"Hrrngh! Stop struggling!" Luke yelled.
"Just let us pull you up, you dumb bastard!" Guy snapped through gritted teeth.
Sync's hands twisted around and gripped their wrists. "Then I'm taking you both with me," he growled.
"Luke! Guy! No!" Natalia cried, and the sound of her voice snapped Ion out of his stupor.
"Anise, please!" Ion pleaded.
At the same time, Tear called, "Anise, use Tokunaga!"
"I'm on it!" Anise affirmed, as much to Ion as to Tear, and dropped her stuffed fonic weapon onto the deck.
Ion could barely breathe as he watched Anise lumber over on Tokunaga's back as Luke and Guy both slid forward, unable to brace themselves against anything as the God-General dragged them down. Natalia nocked an arrow, but Tear grabbed her arm and murmured something to her while Jade began to cast a fonic arte.
If there's anyone down here to listen, please - please, Ion pleaded, please, let us save him!
In the next instant, Anise reached the end, and Tokunaga's long, enormous arms swept down and scooped Sync, Guy, and Luke all back to safety. Natalia lowered her bow, Jade canceled his arte, and Ion breathed again, a desperate smile beginning to crease his face.
He started to hurry forward. He stopped when he felt a hand clasp his shoulder, and looked up to see Jade, who met his eyes and shook his head.
"He won't be pleased to have been captured," he murmured. "It's best you keep your distance until we have him properly secured."
"I-I understand," Ion replied, though he wished he didn't.
Jade, as usual, was right. Sync staggered up to his feet, breath still labored from his defeat only a few minutes earlier - to Ion, it seemed like it had been an eternity ago - and glared murderously at the people who now surrounded him.
"You'll regret that," he swore, pulling a previously-hidden Oracle Knights throwing dagger from the sleeve of his jacket. His green eyes fixed on Luke, who had also gotten to his feet, and his hand flicked up to throw.
Guy plowed into him, sending Sync's throw wild. Luke was left with a scratch and an expression of shock. The God-General, though injured, still struggled under Guy's pin, and might have managed to throw him off had it not been for seven words:
"Tue rei ze croa riou tue ze..."
The soporific power of Tear's fonic hymn coursed through Sync's body, and tense seconds later, he slowed and went still. Guy cautiously eased back and off, but Nightmare was as effective as ever.
"Geez. I didn't think he still had that much fight left in him," Luke remarked, still sounding shocked. He touched his wounded cheek with a wince.
"We're out of time," Jade said, voice carrying across the deck. "Tear and I may have managed to repair the fonic glyph while the rest of you fought, but we need to get into the Albiore immediately if we want to survive."
"Jade's right. I'll take care of Sync," Guy volunteered, pulling the unconscious God-General onto his back. "Let's get out of here!"
They got two steps to the airship before Luke dropped to his knees from one of his usual migraines. When Tear went to heal him, she was possessed by an entity claiming humanity knew it as Lorelei...
Ion stared wordlessly as the previously-theoretical aggregate consciousness spoke unto them. As it did, he came up behind Guy and rested a tentative hand on Sync's back. Lorelei had been among them all along. Had Lorelei granted his unspoken wish...?
Ion never got the chance to ask. Once Lorelei had vanished mid-sentence from Tear's body a mere moment later, all they could do was get onto the Albiore and take off.
It worried him. There was a lot to worry him, now. When they were all buckled up and in the air, Ion kept his eyes on his hands, folded in his lap. There weren't enough seats in the cockpit to actually seat all of them, and normally that wasn't a problem, but Noelle had warned them that with how fast and hard she'd have to fly, it would be dangerous to not be in a proper seat. The group had thus split up.
He, Anise and Natalia were in the passenger room, which felt larger and emptier than usual for it only having the three of them. Jade, Luke and Mieu were all in the cockpit with Noelle. Guy and Tear weren't in either group; they'd left to secure Sync in one of the airship holds, Tear much against everyone else's protests in the wake of Lorelei's possession. She'd won the argument when she pointed out that if Sync awoke before they'd gotten him secure, she was the only one who could reliably put him back to sleep. Ion prayed they were all right.
A tentative touch on his wrist pulled him out of his thoughts. He turned to see Anise, who sat next to him, and Natalia, on Anise's other side, giving him a worried look.
"Ion, are you okay?" his Guardian asked.
"Yes, I'm fine," he replied, forcing himself to smile at them.
She looked unconvinced. "Only... you were crying, earlier."
"What?"
Anise pointed to his cheeks. Ion touched them and felt the remains of wetness. He stared at his fingertips, then wiped his eyes, where more remained.
"You're right," he murmured, surprised. "This is the first time in my life I've ever cried."
"You must have been so glad that we managed to save Sync," Natalia remarked, smiling sympathetically at him. "It would have been awful to lose someone like a brother just as you learned you had him."
Ion didn't have to consider her words to know they were true. He nodded. "It felt like I could see him going over the edge before it happened," he said. "I kept calling in my mind for someone to stop him."
"Wow, really?" Anise uttered, brown eyes widening.
"And then Luke and Guy did exactly that," Natalia said. "Perhaps Lorelei was listening to your wish."
"I wondered the same thing," Ion murmured.
"Luke was the first one who started running for him," Anise pointed out. "If Lorelei's been talking to him all this time, maybe Lorelei put it in his head somehow."
"Oh my! You may be right, Anise," Natalia uttered, moving a hand up to cover her mouth.
Ion shook his head. "I don't know. But I'm glad Luke did it, and that Guy helped him." He squeezed his hands in his lap and steeled himself. "Is it... all right if I apologize?"
"Why, whatever for?" Natalia wondered, tilting her head.
"I've been lying to all of you about who I am," Ion replied glumly. "I'm not really the Fon Master. I'm just one of his replicas..."
"That doesn't bother me," Anise reassured him. "You're the only Ion I've ever known."
"Yes. What's more, you've always done your utmost to support the people and bring about peace," Natalia said, smiling at him. "Replica or no, you're a fine Fon Master and a wonderful human being. It is my honor to be able to call you friend."
"Right!" Anise cheered. "Don't let it get you down, Ion. It wasn't your fault!"
A relieved smile crept onto the replica's face. "You'll still call me Ion...?"
"Of course! Like I said, you've always been Ion to me!"
Ion never thought being called by someone else's name would make him so happy. Basking in Anise's sunshine-warm smile, hearing her reassurances, gave him the feeling that there couldn't be any greater happiness than this. Natalia's support truly warmed his heart as well. He returned both of their smiles with full sincerity.
"Thank you, Anise. Thank you, Natalia. Thank you both so much," he murmured. "I'm so happy to have true friends like you."
Anise's cheeks turned pink. "O-of course! I'll always be there for you, Ion...!"
"It's the least I could do. You've always been a true friend to me," Natalia added. "Being kidnapped by Daath was a trying experience, but having you there too heartened me."
"The same goes for me," Ion replied. He hesitated for a second. "If I may...?" When they nodded him on, he bowed his head. "I know this is changing the subject a bit, and I'm sorry, but... I've actually wanted to sit down and talk to Sync for a long time - ever since he used that curse slot seal on Guy."
"You must have realized right away what that meant," Natalia said.
Ion nodded. "I didn't had the nerve to try when he helped transport me to the Sephiroth in the Zao Ruins. But... seeing him without his mask... Hearing how much pain he's been in..."
"Ion..." Anise murmured.
He swallowed hard, then looked up at his friends. "Listening to him, I realized I don't want to be anyone's replacement. I want to live as myself. But at the same time, I can't just stop being the Fon Master... and even if I could, I don't want to." He rested his hand over Anise's. "Being Fon Master Ion has brought me pain, but it's also let me meet so many wonderful people. I wouldn't trade that for anything."
"I-Ion...!" Anise murmured again, now blushing.
Ion smiled at her, encouraged. "So if there's anything I can do for Sync, I want to do it," he continued. "Maybe one day, he can look back on today and be glad he didn't fall into the core."
Anise grimaced, the pink draining from her cheeks. "I hate to be a downer, but one day' is an awful long time away. Right now, I dunno if he's going to want you to," she pointed out, tone dubious. "He was so angry and bitter. He nearly dragged Luke and Guy down with him!"
"I doubt he'll have any remorse for it, either," Natalia mused, touching her chin. "I sympathize with the difficult life he must have led as a replica, but that doesn't change how absolutely shameless he is. You've seen this for yourself, Fon Master Ion."
"I know, and I have, but please," Ion pleaded. "I have to do something."
"I understand," Natalia replied, lowering her hand. "When it comes to someone who's like family..." She averted her eyes. "...you really can't just ignore them."
Anise sighed. Between Ion's pleas and Natalia's point about family - one she understood well herself - there wasn't any way she'd be able to refuse, even if she'd wanted to. "Okay, Ion," she conceded. "But when you talk to him, I want to be there, okay?" Concern shadowed her face. "There's no telling what he might decide to do when he wakes up."
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Ion replied, a small, relieved smile peeking out from his lips. "Thank you, Anise. I feel a lot better knowing you'll be there, too."
Even so, though, Ion couldn't quite shake a certain sense of trepidation.
I'm not interested in the naive babbling of a replica who has people who need him.
Was that really how Sync viewed them?
Was that really how Sync viewed himself...?
NOTES:
Welcome, readers! The Worthless Treasure is based largely on the video game version of Tales of the Abyss with use of or reference to various side materials, but it has influences from the anime as well. For example, Sync's "And now my role is over" line is exclusive to the anime, but only in the video game does he slap Ion's hand away. Generally speaking, you'll see me use anime-only stuff where it adds to the story rather than subtracts from it. However, I will streamline events where possible and where it doesn't otherwise interfere with the story - see Jade and Tear fixing the fonic glyph while the others are fighting Sync, as opposed to Luke, Tear and Jade doing that after the battle.
Also, you may have noticed that the description of the interior of the Albiore is somewhat off. This is on purpose. The anime explicitly shows that the Albiore isn't very big, and while the video game doesn't make it super-clear one way or another, it's probably about the same size. However, the video game also has Noelle transporting the young, sick, elderly and most of the women of Engeve to Chesedonia in just one or two trips, so it's not unreasonable to say that it's decently large... or at least, that's my excuse. In short, the Albiore is depicted in this story as being a lot bigger than it probably actually is for the sake of narrative convenience. I hope that doesn't bug any of you too much.