Author's Note:

Ignore this is you want, but I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE Arietta and Sync! w They are the absolutely cutest coupling in Tales of The Abyss, and I wanted to create a fan fiction about them. It sucks they die but HUSH! I'll just pretend like that didn't happen ^O^ Enjoy~!

"Would you like to come with me?" A man had been wandering around the forest, when he noticed the short green haired boy. He had stopped him and asked for a duel. After the boy accepted, the man tested his skills and stopped.

"Why should I?" returning the same glare, The green haired boy stood a few feet shorter than the man and looked up to see the man's face.

"What do you seek?" He ignored his question, answering back with another.

"It's nothing you care about!" Turning his back towards him, the boy began to walk away. His feet made crunching sounds as he stepped on the fallen leaves and twigs.

"Revenge, isn't it?" The boy abruptly stopped. The man continued to stand upright in his gray and white uniform as his glare continued. "Your face resembles one who had died recently. Your dark green hair and your green eyes… it's as if you were copied… am I correct?" He shot his words at the boy as his eyes twitched.

"SHUT UP!" He spat. The boy turned his head to see his as his eyes widened and his hands clenched into fists. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ME? ARE YOU LORELI?" He screamed. "EVEN THE SCORE CAN'T TELL MY FUTURE! I WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO HAVE A LIFE!" His breathing became heavy and his eyes welled up in tears. He covered his face with his tattered sleeve. "… Why? Why am I a failure? Why did they create me?"

"You're revenge is on the Score. Am I correct?" The man slowly walked towards him. He held his head high as he looked down on the boy. "You have talent. Join my family, and we can create a new world. A new world where we will be free from the Score and where replicas like you will be accepted."

"A new world? Are you nuts? How the hell are you going to do that?" He dropped arm to his side.

"If you come, it will be possible. We can give you all the details if you say 'yes.'" The boy was cautious of his words, but he had nowhere else to go.

"Fine. I don't care anymore." He gave him a sly smile.

"I'm a man of his words." He had completely closed the space between them, and rested his hand on the boy's pale and thin shoulder. "Let's go, my new son."

They made our way through the forest and to the outskirts of Daath. He gave the boy an old patched cloak saying it would be troublesome if the people recognized his face. Completely covering his face under the shadows of the hood, they entered the church with no problems. They continued their way to the teleportation device planted in the middle of a room. When they stepped on it, their hands and legs disintegrated. The boy flinched at the bright light that followed, and once he opened his eyes, he was reassembled as if it were magic. He continued to follow the sound of the man's shoes, hitting against the tan tiles. Once the man's footsteps disappeared, he began to run down the dim hall, to the end where there was a door. He hesitated, but opened it.

"Good ears." The man complemented.

"Is this the last recruit, Van?" A man even taller and bigger than Van questioned him. His sideburns were abnormally long and his gray hair spiked outwards. He wielded a long scythe.

"Ooh such a fine creation indeed!" Another man with white hair sat in a floating red chair and cynically laughed.

"He just looks like a runt to me." A boy with long red hair pushed back said. His sword was tucked away and his deep green eyes were cold and deadly.

"Sir, are you positive you want him to be a God General?" The only woman pointed at the boy with the cloak while facing Van. Her blond hair was in a ponytail, and her twin guns hung from her belt wrapped around her waist.

"I'm positive. He shows a promising future… where is Arietta?" Van looked around room and saw a girl with long pink hair in the dark corner next to the fireplace. "Why are you there?"

"I don't care about him. I don't care…" she sat in the corner tightly hugging her doll.

"Alright. Do as you wish." Van rested his hand on the boy's shoulder and pulled him into a separate room.

"Alright then, here are some clothes and also, wear this mask." He pointed at the gold beak-like mask resting on a cushion on top of the desk. Van turned away and closed the door behind him. The boy sat on his bed and landed on his back and closed his eyes, shutting the outside world out.

"Sir, are you sure we should keep him? He's a replica of the original Fon Master Ion! If this gets out, our plan could be ruined!" The woman complained.

"Everything will be fine, Legretta. I've given him the mask, and I will train him to make sure he can avoid having it come off during combat." Van sat in his chair and sighed. "Dist, Largo and Asch, you better not tell Arietta about this. Agreed?"

"I promise I will never tell her." Largo excused himself from the meeting and left.

"Well, it doesn't matter to me as long as I can continue with my research. Now if you excuse me, I have some business to do." Dist followed on his rouge floating lounge chair.

"I don't care." Asch opened the window on the side, and jumped through it landing on a tree and climbed down.

"Well, that was easy." Van leaned back on his chair and crossed his legs on his desk.

"Sir. What's his name?"

"Hmm… That's a good question." Van smiled.

"Should we give him a new identity?" she sat next to him and waited for is response.

"I think we should… his name will be… Sync... Sync the Tempest."

"Sync the Tempest." Legretta digested the name and agreed.

"Welcome to the family. Sync."

"Alright, I'm heading back to Baticul and I won't be back for a while." Van announced.

"Training the Duke's replica again?" Dist snickered.

"Yes. I'll try to keep my visit short this time… Arietta." Arietta looked up from her corner. "You will be in charge of looking after Sync." She flinched.

"Why me?" She protested.

"You both are around the 'same age'. You should be able to relate to each other." Van said sarcastically. Sync knew they were far from being the "same age". He had been alive for no more than four months. "I shall be on my way then. Legretta, you're in charge while I'm gone." He turned the silver knob and disappeared.

"There isn't much to do while Van is gone. So these few days will more or less be a vacation. Arietta, you and Sync should go somewhere. Do some bonding or whatever Van had told you to do." Legretta ordered. She stretched her legs out on the cushiony couch and yawned.

"Fine." Arietta grumbled slung her black bag over her tiny shoulder and walked towards the door. Sync stared at her suspiciously while she left, and quietly followed.

"Young people." Legretta sighed and massaged her forehead.

They exited the Church and weaved through the crowds formulating on the streets of Daath where they caught a carriage. They traveled outside of the city and along a dirt road leading to Daath Bay. Once they had reached the bay, Arietta requested for two tickets.

"Arietta, where are we going?" Sync questioned. She ignored him and instead, handed his ticket to him gently. He twitched and began to quietly fume while they boarded they ship. The boat soon departed and traveled along the ocean waves. Sync leaned against the railing on the deck, and watched the sea pass by. He examined the boat and the ocean, and thought it was nothing special. He had never been on a boat before, and yet he was already bored.

"A-are you tired?" Arietta timidly approached him from behind.

"Kind of. Where are we going?" He looked at her with a tinge of annoyance.

"St. Binah…" She avoided his gaze.

"Where?" He asked again.

"St. Binah? Y-you've never been there?" continued to look at the floor.

"No. I've never gotten off this continent." Sync went back to watching the waves.

"For all these years?"

"Well… you can say that." He mumbled. Years? More like months. He thought. They continued to talk and adjust to each other on their ride towards the next port. Whenever she would return to their cabin, she would sit on the lower bunk bed and yawn. Sync would hang his head from the top, grab her doll and make a run for it. She chased him down the creaking halls and onto the deck. Sync always climbed onto the lifeboat hanging from the side and mocked her for not having the courage to climb down herself to get it. She would puff her cheeks and call him names while he simply laughed. He loved seeing her flustered even though she would ignore him for the next ten minutes, then giving in to his smile. After a few days they arrived and they resumed their land transportation on carriage to St. Binah.

"This is it…" Sync fixed his eyes on the beige fortification built surrounding the town, and then to the guarded gates. Arietta grabbed his slender hand and dragged him along past the guards and into the city. "This place looks so different from Daath…" Sync made a 360 circle examining his new surroundings.

"This way!" She held her hands next to her mouth and called out to him. Her long pink hair blew in the wind as she smiled. I've never seen her smile like that before. Hidden under his mask, he could feel his face getting warmer and warmer. Oh dammit. Am I getting a fever? He wondered. He felt his heart start pounding, but he shook it off and continued to follow her. Once he turned the corner, she was nowhere in sight. He stood there, baffled until he heard her voice calling from above.

"Climb up here!" Her head poked out from behind a wooden platform resting on top of a branch of a large tree inside the town. Sync grabbed the wooden ladder and climbed to the top to where Arietta was waiting. He lugged himself over the edge and sat a few inches away from her, looking at the city.

"This place is actually kind of nice." He smiled. "How did you find this place?"

"Well…" Her smile faded. "I used to come up here… with Fon Master Ion. He showed me this place whenever I was sad." Sync flinched and quickly went to his feet.

"Ion? Why would you come up here with him?"

"I used to be his Guardian… until someone took him away from me four months ago." She tucked her head into her knees.

"You were that bastard's Guardian! What the hell!"

"Don't say stuff like that!" Arietta brought her self to her feet and slapped him across the face knocking off his mask that fell off the platform and onto the ground below. Sync clenched his teeth, lightly touching his cheek. He slowly opened his eyes and adjusted his eyes to the light. Sync looked at her face and could see the blood slowly drain from her face. Shaking her head left and right, she backed away from him.

"Y-you… you look exactly like him… why?" She stopped at the ledge. Her pink eyes were stricken with confusion and pain. Sync turned away and remained soundless. "Answer me! Please!" She sobbed.

"I'm a replica." He couldn't stand hearing her like this. "I… I was an experiment on Ion. He-" Sync paused. He knew if he told her the real Ion died, she would be devastated. "He volunteered to be a test subject." He lied.

"That a lie!" He flinched. "He would never do that!" Sync sighed, thinking Arietta saw through his lie.

"It's true… I've been alive since… four months ago."

"You… are you the reason Ion was taken away from me?" Arietta squeezed her doll tightly.

"Yes." He whispered. "I'm the one to blame." They stood in an awkward silence.

"This is the truth…" The tears in her eyes, fell as she silently cried. Suddenly, a gust of wind hit. Sync blocked the wind with his arm but in the corner of his eye, he could see Arietta slowly being pushed off.

"Arietta!" Arietta came to the edge of the wooden platform and lost her balance. She shrieked and started to plummet to the ground below. Sync dashed to her end and dove off. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to his body. He rested his head on hers and held her tightly. As they were about to hit the ground, he pulled his body upright. His feet hit the ground and placed her feet on the ground. His knees gave out and fell to the floor, shaking.

"Sync!" She knelt next to him and placed her hand on his back. "You're hurt…"

"I'm fine. You don't need to show sympathy to a piece of trash like me.

"I-I-I'm sorry." She forced the tears out even harder than before. She dropped her doll and whipped her eyes with both sleeves as the tears continued.

"Don't be. I'm the one who should be sorry…" he flipped his body to face the sky. "I'm the one who took Ion away from you." He continued to lie. "I shouldn't have been the one you brought to the tree. I shouldn't have been the one to have saved you." Sync felt his heart pounding hard in his chest. He tried to breath as calmly as he could, but he couldn't stop it. He was baffled to have such a feeling. Through the four months he had been alive, he was confident he had experienced all emotions possible… this one though, was still a mystery.

"You're not the one who took him away. It was the people who reassigned me." She started to gather herself. "I-I s-still have t-to wait for him." Her voice wavered.

"Waiting might take a while… are you sure?"

"Yes… I'll wait forever." She softly smiled. "Because I really love him."

I guess this is what they call love. Sync brought himself to sit straight and sighed.

"You sound like a princess waiting for prince charming. I guess I found something else to tease you about." Sync smiled and laughed. Arietta grabbed her cheeks in embarrassment and lightly pounded his arm. Sync closed the space in between them, passed in front of her face and kissed her next to her mouth. Her face started to burn and she placed her hands on her mouth.

"When will prince charming come? I wonder… but I hope when that day comes, it'll be me."