Author's Note: Um, I don't own Ar Tonelico, but it's awesome… thumbs up! XD

There's spoilers abound here

The ending I went with was choosing Shurelia on Misha's pathway at the end of the 3rd Phase. However, in this story, Lyner is still in love with all 3 girls, and hasn't yet chosen one.

And away we go

Warning: This chapter has some very violent moments. Not for kids, nor is it especially pertinent to the rest of the story.

Ar Tonelico

Rite of Slumber

Prologue

Michaelis Rade looked up blankly at his father's scarred face. "What's in the box, Dad?"

Bourd Rade's look of excitement was quickly replaced by a scowl. "What the… HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME FATHER!?!" he roared at the green-and-black-striped haired six-year old. He sat his massive bulk down on a red armchair grumpily. He took a sip of champagne to calm his nerves. "It's 'Master.'" He clarified.

Michaelis nodded quickly, "I know, I'm sorry, my apologies Master." He fell into a kind of awkward bow.

"Darn right you are." Bourd snorted. He leaned forward, looking more ambitious, if possible, than Michaelis had ever seen him. He patted the box, eyeing it with both greed and pride. "Go on; open it kid. It's my gift for you, for your help this past year."

Michaelis merely looked at his master. "Oh; that's right," Bourd said (although Michaelis was sure he hadn't forgotten), "I gotta set ya loose."

Bourd stooped and elicited a black key from his pocket. He jut it in the steel collar that Michaelis was wearing, and jerked the key clockwise. As usual, Michaelis's face contorted in a silent scream; every time the key did its work, it twisted the skin on Michaelis's neck, making a spiral bruise of skin that was scarred beyond repair.

Free from the foot's length of free reign that was typically granted him, Michaelis struggled to his shaky legs, but his face was set in stone. He walked without support, albeit shakily, to the plain brown shipment box in front of him. As he was instructed, he ripped open the top of the box. To his shock, a fantastically beautiful redheaded girl his age lay curled up in the box. Her bright, glittering eyes whispered a silent "hello" to him, but beyond that (and like Michaelis's), betrayed no emotion. Enchanted, he extended his hand to the nude girl to help her out. Just as their fingers touched, and Michaelis and the girl shared a private, brief explosion of emotion together, Bourd rested his massive gloved hand on Michaelis's shoulder.

"That won't be necessary, kid," he said with an insane smile, and kicked the box roughly over to prove his point. The girl tumbled out with a grunt from the blow, and stood up, blinking twice to remove the shock from her eyes.

Bourd noticed the flash of emotion and frowned, but went on to introduce the two children to each other . "Michaelis Orion Rade, I would like to introduce you to a beautiful thing indeed; a new order of Reyvateils, a superior generation!" He nodded with pride to the redhead. "This is RT-5Z, the prototype for my personally-designed Omega Generation of Reyvateils."

Michaelis nodded, his eyes slits. "Only a man of your wisdom and knowledge could create something as wonderful as this, Master."

RT-5Z extended her hand, a smile dancing in her eyes. "It is a pleasure to meet you, my handsome Michaelis."

Charmed, Michaelis was about to utter, "The pleasure I feel now is greater than any you could possibly imagine," when Bourd, with an expression of insane rage on his grey-skinned face, hauled his bulk across the room faster than Michaelis believed possible toward RT-5Z.

"Is that some emotion I detect??" Bourd whispered harshly into her ear, then wound back his fist and landed it down with massive force on the child's skull, causing her to scream. "And what's this screaming??" Bourd cried with ludicrous anger, smashing her head again.

He stooped and looked up at his son with a grin. "Sorry kid, I thought I got all the bugs worked out, I'll make sure they're perfectly aligned before I make the next Omega." His face recontorted, and he smacked her with his iron knuckles, splitting a narrow crack in her skull.

Michaelis was taken aback by shock, but he dared not show it, for his face might be the next to get nailed. So instead he stood with his hands clasped in front of him, watching his new partner bleed on herself at his father's doing. She finally stopped screaming and managed to squeeze her facial expression back into control.

Bourd beckoned Michaelis over, and he walked in front of the beautiful naked girl, the blood cascading down her shoulders. He looked intently into her eyes, trying to communicate without showing it that it was all going to be alright, that he would take care of her as soon as possible. But Bourd must have caught this hint of an emotion in his son, and ordered, "Hit her. Now.'

Michaelis took a deep breath, and replied, "Yes master," not daring to look Bourd in the eye. He slapped RT-5Z hard, the loud echo reverbating throughout the room. She managed to keep her expression under control, to Michaelis's pride.

"What was that?!?! Some kind of pussy slap?!??" Bourd exclaimed, suddenly as jovial as if he were Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. "HIT HER!!!!!!!!! Now." He roared, a waterfall of saliva spraying on Michaelis's set face.

Michaelis briefly closed his eyes, talking himself into it. "She's just a machine that Master made," he thought. Then he punched her with an amount of might Bourd didn't know Michaelis had, snapping RT-5Z's head back swiftly, so that her beautiful, pale neck was exposed to him.

During this action, Bourd watched RT-5Z's expression closely, which miraculously remained steady. "Ah," he said, like a surgeon might say when a patient pulled through an operation okay, "Her programming seems to have returned to Maximum Rate-of Operation."

He nodded behind the kids towards the back of the hideout. "Now, kid, for phase two of my present to you, follow me into the back room. I have a surprise for you!"

"Yes Master." Michaelis said emptily. Inside, however, he felt a flood of curiosity. He had always wondered what was in that back room, while lying on the cold floor of Bourd's secret base. He wrapped an arm around the blood-covered girl and led her as gently as possible into the next room. He forced down a sudden impulse to kiss her passionately. From the first day he had heard about Reyvateils, he had always wanted a partner more than anything else in the world. Sitting in the room by himself with nothing to do but daydream increased his want for a Reyvaleil almost to the breaking point. But somehow, he had pictured the scene where he would meet his partner as occurring slightly differently than what happened in his bedroom just a moment ago.

The two children entered the next room next to the giant that was Bourd, and stared calmly at the massive machine humming to life. There were two pods designed to hold partners, with a complex series of cords, wires and antennas somehow working together towards the same end: a successful diving between two individuals.

Michaelis knew what this was immediately, and kneeled down before his master on one knee. "Master, your benevolence is too great for words. I couldn't be more satisfied right now."

Bourd seemed satisfied with his apprentice's response. "It is yours to use whenever you wish it. I want you to raise RT-5Z as you see fit."

"What is it, exactly?" the beautiful girl whispered in her partner's ear.

"A dive machine," he explained. "It allows me to enter into your cosmosphere and craft spells with you to increase your power."

"Good," the girl said. "Maybe then Master will give me more grace."

"Maybe so," Michaelis said. "But I wouldn't trust to hope if I were you."

Bourd seemed to be waiting for him to say something, so Michaelis ventured to say, "With all due respect, Master, would it be alright if used the machine now, just as a test run?"

"That sounds wise to me," Bourd announced, baring his teeth. Evidently he couldn't wait to try out his two new machines (RT-5Z and the dive machine).

After both children were stowed in their separate dive pods, Bourd revved up the machine further.

Michaelis spontaneously felt his mind zap through space at light speed, until he suddenly arrived, standing in what seemed to be his physical form in a room of pitch-blackness. He looked around warily; he was aware that he should be in RT-5Z's cosmosphere, but it didn't look like the ones he had heard stories about. In fact, it looked like absolute nothingness, other than a lone ice block some feet away. Michaelis swam through empty space to the ice to find, to his shock, a cute green dragon-looking thing frozen to death in the ice block.

"What the…" Michaelis wondered aloud, when he felt a cold hand touch his shoulder.

"My mind guardian," RT-5Z said, smiling faintly sadly. In this sub-dimension, she appeared unblemished, her beautiful white skin as desirable as ever. "He isn't allowed to exist here, not with that mask here," she said gesturing off into the distance. Michael followed her gesture with his eyes to see a large, pulsating blue Mardi Gras mask draped around an even larger black, marble tower.

"I also can't…feel…anything…" the girl said, searching her soul in desperation for some feeling.

Michaelis hugged her close, wary that his Master was watching, but also wanting to show the beautiful child some glimmer of the appreciation he felt so strongly since he had met her. "I think you need a name," Michaelis said, pulling back and facing her, once again holding his urge to kiss as tightly reigned-in as possible.

RT-5Z cocked a eyebrow. "If you insist, master." With a mere gesture, she clothed herself with a male magician's outfit, and proceeded to pull a scrap of paper from her top hat. "And the winner is…'Blaire'!" she announced, and then, noticing Michaelis's shocked expression, elaborated, "I can do anything you command me to here. My power is only as limited as your imagination."

Michaelis smiled, and nodded to himself. "Alright then," he said, pacing around behind her. "Let's craft some spells then shall we?"

"Okay, then let's." Blaire agreed, once again returning to her former attire (that of wearing absolutely nothing).

Michaelis stroked his beardless chin in thought. 'What sort of spell would please Master, I wonder?" Michaelis pondered. Making up his mind, he whirled to face Blaire.

"Make me a spell that will massacre the church and all who ever worship with its walls," he said with a feral anger.

Blaire curtsied and said, "As you wish." She began to sing, filling up the void of emptiness which they floated in before. As the dark song formed, the darkness itself was whirled into an entire reality made from the images invoked spiritually by Blaire's instant masterpiece. Michaelis and Blaire suddenly seemed to stand at the base of a giant church, and people dressed in white walked all among them, picking flowers and enjoying life to the fullest. Suddenly, a demon's roar unfolded across the land, and a grotesque maw appeared over the town. The people suddenly became overcome by fear, and one by one, their heads exploded into flame. Suddenly, a bloody slash pierced the entire scene, wiping the church and all the people's remains off the face of the planet.

Blaire and Michaelis were all that was left. She turned to face him. "[Red Magic Demon Stare & Slash crafted, Master."

Michaelis smiled, and decided to dare to kiss her, whipping her tongue with his as passionately as possible. He pulled away and looked her in her blank eyes and said, "Y-you're amazing, Blaire."

Blaire nodded in response, concentration evident in her eyes. "Thank you. I hope that [Blue Magic Snogging With Michaelis was sufficiently pleasureable?"

Michaelis laughed. "Yes, you might go so far as to say that."

Bourd smiled and leaned back in his chair. His apprentice showed remarkable ambition, and thus allowed him this moment of passion with his new partner. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. The Omega Generation would be a smash hit in both the general public and the operants of Tenba, he knew it.

----------------------------------------------16 years later---------------------------------------------

Rain spewed down on the public of Firefly Alley as Michaelis helped his exceedingly beautiful Reyvateil Blaire off the deep-seek class starship docked at the airport. He took the moment of proximity to kiss Blaire briefly, knowing that it was for his pleasure only, not hers now or forever.

The captain of said ship had been watching the two from the shadow of his ship's wing. He walked into the neon light cast by the city and held his hand out to say goodbye.

Michaelis looked down at the hand briefly, and shook it firmly, with a smile. "Thanks for the lift, sir."

The captain shook his head, his long navy hair flowing through the wind. "Not a problem. And in case we meet again, call me 'Jack.'"

Michaelis smiled, and bowed, his spiky black-and-green hair impressively standing stiffly tall in the downpour. "Until next time then…"

"Wait," Jack said, beckoning him closer, out of Blaire's hearing range. "Is she alright?" Jack said, concerned for the quiet Reyvateil, scars obvious around the back of her head.

"Yeah, don't worry yourself," Michaelis said, a hint of a warning glare glancing off his eyes at the celebrity.

"Alright, alright," Jack said, raising his arms in an "I meant no offense" gesture.

"Oh," Michaelis said, stopping and turning on his heel to say one last thing to Jack. "Good luck – with…you know…" he said, gesturing with his eyes at the figure in the cockpit, who was currently obscured by darkness.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Jack grinned. "I can never catch a break!"

Michaelis laughed. "We'll meet again, be sure of that," he said, and stalked off with Blaire into the night-lit city, all the while fingering the missile launcher strapped to his back.

"Weird guy" Jack muttered to himself, and reboarded his ship to continue his errands, such as they were.

Michaelis looked up at the huge city surrounding him, his hand still in Blaire's. "It's odd," he murmured. "I don't recognize this place at all."

"Technology certainly has outdone itself in the time that we were away," Blaire said, matter-of-factly.

As Michaelis grunted his agreement, a loud video broadcast drew their attention on a neon billboard a hundred feet above the pedestrians.

"We would like to invite you to join Ar Tonelico Today News for an exclusive interview with the hero who defeated Mir and saved the tower from destruction a third time," a reporter with curly blonde hair dictated with lust and breathlessness evident in her voice, "Lyner Barsett!!!!"

The camera swiveled to reveal a Lyner of age 33 grinning sheepishly from behind a podium. A roar from the crowd welcomed the towerwide hero, who typically declined these interviews (he considered them little more than idol-worshipping propaganda). Both Lady Shurelia and Leard Barsett were visible behind the broad-shouldered hero, Shurelia rising and falling rhythmically using the flotation powers of her Linkage armor.

"H-hi, everybody!" Lyner said, blushing a little. People with balloons were bouncing up and down, and countless hands near the stage reached up and wanted to touch his feet.

"What are your thoughts on Bourd Rade?" the reporter asked him enthusiastically, lending the mike to his face.

Relieved for the relevant question, Lyner grinned and leaned forward. "Bourd was an evil, evil monster of a man. His wrongful experimentations on Reyvateils, including my friend Misha, are inexcusable." He racked his brain for something else to say, but deciding that that was satisfactory, he nodded to himself and stood up straight again, continuing to grin goofily. "Next!"

Another reporter piped up. "And what of the newfound evidence of Bourd having a bastard son? How do you think he feels about you?"

"Well…" Lyner said, mulling it over, and then noticed the mike shoved in his face. "Oh, right!" He leaned over again. "I'm sorry to say this, but one ruined life is preferable to the thousands of ruined lives Bourd would have caused had he lived through the Mir crisis…"

Here, Michaelis stopped listening, and threw his head back, releasing a primal howl. His eyes gleamed red with unkempt rage and insanity, and Blaire calmly surveyed him. Any time he saw Lyner, Michaelis fell prey to both his and his master's rage. Hatred of Lyner was his ultimate goal now, his radical experiments just a handy side effect of his quest for revenge.

Once Michaelis calmed down, Blaire asked him, "Are you alright, Master?"

"No," Michaelis admitted. "What I need now is a friend; someone who could suffer with me, and feel what I feel." He closed his eyes and yearned lustfully for just one explosion of passion like what had occurred when he first met RT-5Z. He looked at Blaire. "I know what you would propose, Blaire, but as all of your emotions are fake, that kind of ruins the point, don't you think?" Blaire closed her mouth and nodded.

Michaelis took a deep breath and looked at the neon metropolis glowing in the near distance. "Now we do what we came here for!" he whispered, and he pulled Blaire along with him.

Inside a busy workplace, late-night researchers organized documents and typed in their manually-decorated cubicles. One such worker slurped his cappuccino, and saw to his alarm that the coffee suddenly glowed a fiery red! All the workers stood up and peered over the tops of their cubicles at the wide window series on the North wall, which had now begun to vibrate, and the red intensified.

Suddenly, a gigantic missle burst in, exploding all the cubicles into fragments, which then sliced up their human occupants by blasting into them.

Wet on the ground, far below, Michaelis sneered. "A perfect hit!" He glanced at Blaire. "Dragonspirit, now!"

"Anything for you," Blaire said, and performed a blue burst magic that allowed both her and Michaelis to sprout wings and fly up to the newly opened hole in the side of Tenba Corp. (Dragonspirit also increases its targets' rage and fighting skills)

Upon landing, they were received by an assault of machine gun fire. "Ack," Michaelis said, blocking Blaire with his armor and rolling out of the way on the broken glass. He stowed his rocket launcher and replaced it with a custom flogging whip, which he slashed the group of guards with, displacing an array of blood and organs across the floor. Michaelis then rolled under the ensuing crossfire, stood up, ripped a guard's mask off with one swipe of the whip, and then whipped again, ripping most of the man's face off. Michaelis laughed maniacally, taking pleasure in his acts of destruction.

Blaire vaulted off his back, leapt high in the air, and hit two more guards in the face with a mid-air split kick. Within a few more seconds both she and Michaelis wiped out the entire battalion and continued through the building.

The partners came to a corridor filled with lasers. "Alright Blaire, you know what to do," Michaelis said.

"What? Do a little dance?" Blaire quipped, changing her outfit to a floozie dancer's, and then did a little honky-tonk strip dance.

"…Um, no." Michaelis said. "Use [Green Magic Security Suction."

"Blehh, you're no fun" Blaire said, and then cast the magic, which undetectably but efficiently disarmed all the security devices in the corridor, which she sucked into a pulsating white ball floating overhead.

Another legion of guards came running down the corridor, and Michaelis timed his command…"Now!!"

Blaire released the security energy on the guards, which caused all the mechanisms to open fire on and destroy the countless soldiers before them. As the guards were massacred, Michaelis reflected on the beauty of Class Omega Reyvateils – with them, the impossible was quite, quite possible.

After the floor was carpeted with a slew of still corpses, Michaelis led Blaire down the hall.

Soon, they arrived at a huge oak door. "Okay," Michaelis whispered in Blaire's ear. "Ready the spell we prepared especially for her."

"Yes Master," Blaire replied, and began casting.

Michaelis cracked his whip a few times in preparation, and then kicked open the door with his boot. Two massive bodyguards easily the size of his old master awaited him. "You'll go no further," one said.

"Why is it that the big and burly are ALWAYS so stupid?" Michaelis wondered aloud, and then decapitated the two of them with a bladed disk dangling from one of the cords of his flogging whip.

A woman in her late fifties sat behind a desk in the pitch-black room. "I won't go down without a fight!" she cried, and drew a sword from her desk.

"I'm proud of you, Ayano." Michaelis said with contempt. "NOW!!!!!!!!!"

Blaire released her spell, which charged in the form of a black drake. Upon freedom, the spell caused President Ayano to explode from the inside out, coating the entire office with cakey blood. All that remained were two perfectly carved halves of skin and bone lying on the floor.

Michaelis spat a little blood out from the explosion. "Cleanse and Cloak, if you would be so kind, Blaire." The two disappeared, and the blood and rubble that had been on the partners fell to the floor with a 'sploosh.' "And so it begins," Michaelis said to himself, as he and Blaire flew out the open window to cool freedom in Firefly Alley.

Author's Note

Okay, WOW that was dark. Oops. Oh well. Michaelis is the main antagonist. Don't worry, he'll get what's coming to him. Please review, and I'll listen to whatever you have to say, because this is my first fic. :D

And no, WOW doesn't stand for 'World of Warcraft' in this context. Nice try though.

Oh, also, how can I suggest Ar Tonelico as a separate gaming category? I just stuck it in Atelier Iris because they're both made by the same company…