Authoress Notes · I'm working on my other stories, okay? I guess I want to see how this story goes first. If it's popular, I'll work on Chapter 2. If it's not, I'll work more on Flickering Flame Chapter 3. It's gradually closing a completion; Flickering Flame Chapter 3, that is.

Disclaimer · I don't own Tales of the Abyss.

· Chapter 1: Shut up! ·

· BEGIN ·

Asch the Bloody

I was coming back from a long and dreary mission. I was tired as hell.

I wanted to sleep.

We God-Generals appeared refined and always battle ready.

That was not the case behind the scenes.

I could call my family one name.

That name was stupid.

They should be called stupid though.

These people are the very essence of idiocy and stupidity materialized into fonons.

I don't why I even bothered with these guys.

"Oh, Asch, good timing!" I watched Dist cackle. I didn't want anything to do with his experiments. I began walking away, but Arietta came after me.

"Asch, we're playing Poker," She announced, "Sync said he can totally beat you." The God-Generals did their homework. They know I can't turn down a challenge.

This was the current status of everyone.

Legretta with her emotionless poker face, she's been winning occasionally. The worse she lost was her red scarf and overcoat.

Most people thought it was a shirt, but it's a coat. Apparently, she wears a sleeveless black turtle-neck under.

Why am I talking like a girl?

Largo had a real poker face. He didn't show any weakness. Damn guy lost nothing so far.

I myself… lost my coat with the oral design on it and a glove. This is the only time I thank my bulky armor.

Arietta lost her hat, boots, and a glove. Luckily, we almost finished this round.

Dist was surprisingly good at poker. He lost nothing so far.

The strategist who said he could beat me… Let's say he's not doing too hot. He lost all the cards on his coat, his coat-shirt in general, his gloves, pants, and shoes. If he loses this round it's his boxers or his mask.

This is going to be interesting.

"3 Queens and 2 Aces." Largo announced, putting his cards on the floor, over Legretta's cards. She sighed, knowing she was defeated, and removed one of her gloves, ready to dump them in the pile when someone won.

"2 Aces and 3 Kings." Arietta said, topping off Largo's stack. It was his first loss. The large man removed one of his two red gloves.

"Pass." Dist said, sighing. I also passed. Dist also pulled off one of his white gloves. Why was everyone giving up their gloves? Because it wasn't shameful to show your hands; I pulled off my leftover glove as well.

"This means that Arietta won this round. Place your bets in the pile." Legretta stated, but…

"Hahaha! Don't forget me!" Sync cackled and we all looked at him. He slapped down three Twos and a pair of Aces. He grinned smugly, but we all looked at him like he was a damn idiot.

"What?" He blinked, and we all sighed, "Sync, ending the game with a two is an automatic loss." We all said in unison and watched as terror fell on his face. He reached to the card pile, ready to take back his cards, but Dist slapped his hand on it first.

"No, you already placed them down Now choose; your mask, or your boxers." Dist said, grinning widely. Sync glared at him, "Is this one of your things that are in your Revenge Journal…?" Sync sneered and Dist nodded with pride.

"C'mon, Sync, hurry up." I teased, but Legretta and Arietta shifted uncomfortably.

"Take off your mask, Sync. There are girls here." Largo advised. Sync threw down the rest of his cards and stood up. Oh Yulia, no, I think I know what he's going to do. Sync put his hands on his boxers, and Legretta stood up. Sync watched and his face turned to horror.

"Searing Sorrow," She said.

I fell onto my bed. That game turned into an every-man-for-yourself fight. Sync dodged it; he ended up knocking Dist over. Dist, being stupid, called out another Kaiser Dist. On its way to hit Sync, it hit Arietta. She then called over her little friends and Legretta was busy trying to stop everyone with Largo. I stood there most of the time, until Sync used me as a shield against Arietta's Negative Gate.

That didn't end pretty after that. We even broke out Mystic Artes. I Rending Saber'd Sync's ass. In order to stop me from causing more chaos with Sync, Legretta practically shot us down with Prism Bullet. We got up and ran and Largo came after me with a very, very painful Brimstone Tempest coming my way. Arietta helped me though, with Evil Light. Sync came after me after surviving a second Prism Bullet by Legretta and came after me. I moved out of the way, and so did Arietta, who was behind me. Of course, instead of coming my way, he went to Largo by accident and used Akashic Torment on him, which, I assume made Largo angry, because oh hell, did Sync get his ass beat with Brimstone Tempest or what.

I went to Arietta again. Apparently, we were a team for some reason. Sync made his way to us again and started with a Harrowing Gale that I avoided. Arietta was not so fortunate. Of course, the Wild titled God-General was not the Tempest's target.

We all pretty much left with aching joints when Arietta threw a Big Bang at us.

I hated today.

My family is filled with idiots.

Unfortunately, I won't deny that I'm one of them.

To us, the God-Generals were really like a family, in a way. Most of us didn't have anywhere to return to now; not family, anyway. Dist, Largo, and Legretta's families were long gone. I was replaced by that disgusting replica, and Arietta's mommy was killed. Sync didn't have a family from the start.

So we supported each other in the stupidest way ever.

Whenever we had our crisis… well, most of them were stupid.

I remember when I became a God-General. I looked disgusting like my replica, from my hair to my figure. I remember seeing Sync and almost calling him Fon Master.

We had a similar problem; we looked a little too much like our originals.

We came to the only girl God-General at the time, Legretta the Quick.

She… styled our hair with hair gel. After that, she taught us how to do it and after that, every morning we'd wake up with flat hair and then gel it to make it spike.

Yeah, we looked so bad-ass… is something I would never say.

A week later, when everyone felt fine and ready to go, the Commandant was able to do his work on his own. We were all pretty much hanging out.

Largo and Legretta visited him in Belkend to ask if he wanted help, but Van said that he was fine on his own and helping involved associating with Lorelei; they could get hurt and Van couldn't afford to have his soldiers getting injured. Instead, he relieved us for our duties for a week; in fact, according to Legretta, he ordered us to go on a Camping Trip or something because the Cathedral was stuffy.

So here we are, on Mt. Roneal with our camping bags.

"Let me ask one more time… why the hell are we camping at Mt. Roneal!?" I growled, and Largo faced me.

"The Commandant ordered us to go camping."

"I know that much! Why Mt. Roneal though!?"

"It was either here, or Mt. Zaleho. Understand?"

I grumbled under my breath a line of profanities and kept walking. Mt. Zaleho was the hottest place in Auldrant, I'd bet. At least if Mt. Roneal got too cold, we could run to Keterburg or something.

Legretta found our camping spot. I was wondering why we didn't camp out in the pathway to the Passage Rings. I knew the actual road leading to the Rings itself was still locked by Yulian Seals, but what about the small, short pathway to it? I didn't bother asking though.

We set up camp, and set inside our cramped tent, freezing our God-General asses off.

Sync sneezed and sighed, "Cold." He muttered. We were all cold, really. I pitied Legretta and Arietta the most; Arietta more though, because Legretta was able to makeshift sleeves by wrapping them with her scarf. It was pretty damn long, although her arms were a bit constrained, it was probably worth it.

Arietta the Wild had nothing.

Why didn't we bring coats?

Because we were idiocy materialized into fonons, of course.

I wonder if there's a secret eighth fonon of stupidity, which is us. We're really concentrated Fon slots that gathered a material human form… as if.

Although, considering our rag-tag group of morons, I'm not so sure I can totally doubt my theory.

The night time was the worst though. Absolutely terrible, honestly.

It was so cramped; I'm shocked we were capable of lying down.

Arietta slept in Legretta's sleeping bag since we barely had space; they were both girls and friends, so neither really minded. Largo was big, so he slept sitting up, since he didn't really mind. The tent itself was pretty big, it just wasn't made it accommodate so many people. Dist also slept sitting up on his chair.

My head were near Sync's feet.

It was the most unfortunate time of my life.

I'd rather be talking to that replica then having Sync kick my head every damn movement he made.

In fact… I think I'll go tease him now, just to burn some time.

"Oi, replica, wake up!"

Nngh… Go away… damnit…

"Get up, you defect!"

Asch, I'm going to beat your face so it's unrecognizable.

"You want to try?"

Bring it on, you moody girl.

"You bastard!"

That's right, I said it!

"Hmph; like I need to hear that from an emo kid."

I'm not emo and I'm not a kid!

"You're seven damnit."

… Good night, Asch.

"Wait dreck!" No response. I'm going to beat the bastard up so hard, it'll be worse then that fight that was a few days ago between my family.

We were a dysfunctional family, really. Our daddy was Largo and our mommy was Legretta. Dist was our uncle from Legretta's side and I was the eldest child. Arietta was the second oldest and Sync was the youngest.

It was sort of funny, actually. Usually, you'd think Arietta and Sync swapped roles, but it was for naught, because Arietta was older then that bratty green-haired kid.

That next morning, we were already packing our bags.

We were running to Keterburg.

Aren't we the most determined family ever? I rolled my eyes as I picked my bag and hauled it over my shoulder, like the others. We made our way out of Mt. Roneal and to Keterburg Hotel, where we made it to the Spa. We planned to go into the other Spa, but decided against it. The Keterburg Spa was a two part now. I was wondering why the Hotel looked like it got bigger. Recently, instead of a pool-sauna Spa, they built an old-fashioned Hot Spring as well, seeing as it was recently discovered. The hot spring was under construction, but upon finding we were God-Generals, we were given early admission. It's not like the place was falling apart; all these people were doing was building up public attention to get people pouring in on the Grand Opening.

I felt a bit special to be allowed in early.

Only one thing sucked the most.

I found out two things… okay, two things that sucked.

One; the replica and his posy were here.

Two; this hot-spring was mixed gender.

Authoress Notes · Yes, I'm finally done! I hope you liked it. I think I did semi-okay on it. These Chronicles are continuous, so don't worry. I'm going to continue the aftermath of all this. Also, if you can guess, each chapter is told at the perspective of a different God-General. I'm not setting a specific timeline for this since the God-Generals (spoilers) and I don't want to have some people (spoiler) if you get it. It's definitely after Luke destroys (spoiler) and cuts (spoiler). There will be 6 Chapters in total, for each General. Next up is Legretta!

God-Generals · Please review.