What's up people? Long time reader, first time writer NijiiroNoKishi here! So, this is my first story on this sight and any and all feedback would be appreciated very much! I know Sync and Arietta have little to no interaction at all in the game, but I love them as a couple. Also: yes, the title was a very, unfunny pun... I apologize in advance for any errors, spelling or otherwise. If anything is facutally wrong then I apologize for that too, since I haven't played this game in a while.

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of the Abyss... at all... like really.

Facing the Truth

Sync silently walked through the corridors of Daath, an annoyed looks plastered on his face all the while. Largo had sent an Oracle Knight to fetch Sync and drag him to Largo's room. Sync had recently heard about the defeat of Arietta at the hands of the replica's group, so perhaps Largo wanted to discuss new battle strategies with him. Still, it didn't explain why he wanted to see Sync at this late hour, and without his mask no less! As he walked through the halls of the Headquarters, he could hear the faint talking amongst the soldiers on night duty.

"Does he look like someone to you? I can't quite put my finger on it."

"You moron, he looks just like Fon Master Ion."

"Do you suppose they're related?"

"I never heard anything about the Fon Master having relatives."

Sync mentally cursed. How he hated his face – his resemblance to the late Fon Master angered him to no end. Without his mask, the Oracle Knights all assumed him to be related to him. Oh, how he hated him.

Sync pushed his thoughts of Ion to the back of his mind and reached up to knock on Largo's door. He knocked a few more times, but Largo still wasn't answering. Sync shrugged and simply kicked the door open, but what he saw made him freeze on the spot.

"W-what the-"

"You idiot!" Largo scolded, "Hurry up and close the door, boy!"

Sync quickly closed the door behind him. Despite Largo's scolding, Sync couldn't help but chuckle.

"Heh, I knew you were soft," Sync began, "but I was told that she had been defeated by the replica."

He had to blink a few times to make sure that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, but Sync's eyes didn't deceive him. Lying on Largo's bed, covered in numerous bandages and bruises, was the pink-haired girl that was "supposedly" dead.

Largo glared at the younger boy. He knew that he should have left Arietta to her fate, but he just couldn't let her die like that. She was quickly knocked unconscious by the Necromancer in what was supposed to be a duel between her and Anise, so Largo had no choice but to interfere and only tell them that she was dead. Of course, word travels fast around the Order, so he had to keep her presence a secret. Who knew what the Commandant would say.

"Look, boy, I have business with the Commandant to attend to. You, on the other hand, are to stay here and watch over Arietta."

Sync groaned loudly before protesting, "Why do you need me to babysit? I'm sure Dist is around here somewhere."

"Do you really think Arietta would want to wake up with Dist in the room?" Sync couldn't argue with that: Dist was very, very creepy. "Besides, I need you to do something for me."

"Such as?"

Largo heaved a heavy sigh before continuing, "I see you listened to my messenger and left your mask behind."

"A weird request, but yeah," Sync replied. After a few moments of silence without Largo adding anything, realization hit Sync. "You're not suggesting…?"

Largo simply nodded his head in reply.

"No! Absolutely not! I refuse to tell her the truth!" Sync nearly yelled. Largo knew this would be hard for the boy, but he deemed it necessary.

"Settle down. Do you want the whole Order to hear you?" Sync scoffed, but offered nothing else. "I know this is going to be hard for you, but if Arietta doesn't learn the truth, who's to say she won't go off and try to find Anise again?"

Sync stood there in silence. The larger man made sense, that much Sync couldn't deny, but to ask him to reveal the truth about his birth? Unacceptable!

Before he could protest further, however, Largo began once more, "Well, I have to be going. She'll be waking up soon. Look, boy, I know this will be tough, but either you tell her or I will." Largo walked past Sync and quietly closed the door behind him.

The Tempest stood there confused and angry. Who the hell did Largo think he was? Giving him ultimatum? Sync was two seconds away from running out of the room and strangling Largo, but quiet stirring made him freeze in his tracks.

Arietta was waking up.

"Ugh… where… where am I?"

Crap! He wasn't prepared for this quite yet. It hadn't even been two minutes before Largo left the room and she was already regaining consciousness.

Sync quietly walked over to her bed. What was he supposed to say? 'Oh, hi Arietta! Nice to see that you're awake! By the way, the Ion you knew died two years ago, and I'm his replica. Oh, and the Ion you've been chasing around for the past two years is also another replica! Isn't that funny?'

He face palmed at his ridiculous thoughts. Well, it was now or never.

"A-Arietta…" Sync mentally scolded himself. Why was he stuttering? He was Sync the Tempest, for crying out loud!

"Huh…?" Arietta shot up at the sound of her name. She looked around the room, and what, or rather who, she saw made her face light up.

What she said next, however, made Sync want to kill himself where he stood.

"Ion!" Arietta yelled. She couldn't believe it: the Fon Master was waiting for her to wake up! She knew he wasn't really dead! It was just another lie fed to her by that pig Mohs. Arietta knew that her Ion would return to her.

"I-Ion," Arietta repeated, "y-you came back to me! Oh, Ion I k-knew you would never leave me!" Tears began to stream down Arietta's face as she hugged the "Fon Master."

As soon as the name flew out of Arietta's mouth, Sync was filled with anger and hatred towards the dead Fon Master. He had never hated having his face more than in this moment right now. As soon as Arietta glued herself to him, he began to tremble. Arietta was hugging him, Sync the Tempest. To her, however, she was only hugging Ion.

Oh, how he hated him.

Losing his sanity, Sync forcefully pushed Arietta off of him and she fell back on the bed.

"I-Ion?" She stated, confused as to why he would suddenly push her like that. "What's wrong? Aren't you happy t-that we're together again?"

Whatever shred of patience Sync had within him snapped at that moment and he began to yell, "Shut up! Just shut up, Arietta! I'm not your precious Fon Master!"

Arietta simply stared at him. Why was Ion yelling at her like this? "Ion? Why are you-"

"For the last time," Sync began to move towards the pink-haired girl, "Shut up!" He yelled one last time, anger dripping from his voice. He reached out and grabbed her by the collar, violently shaking her small frame.

As he did this, Arietta could finally tell that this most certainly was not the Ion she knew. Upon further inspection, she could only think of one other person that would be so violent with her.

"S-Sync…?" She asked carefully, "Is that you? Why do you look like Ion? Why? Why do you have his face? W-Where's Ion? Where's Ion?" As she asked all of these questions, she began to cry once more, this time out of realization that her Ion was still gone.

Sync let go of her collar, dropping her back onto the bed as he did so. He couldn't face the smaller God-General anymore: not with his face. He contemplated on leaving the room without providing her with an answer, but something in the back of his mind was telling him to stay.

'As if I have a choice,' he thought, remembering Largo's words.

Arietta sat on the bed, her face buried in her hands. She was still quietly sobbing, and Sync couldn't help but feel slightly bad for her. After all, none of this was her fault, but she was suffering the most because of it.

Heaving another heavy sigh, Sync sat on the bed next to her. He took one last look at her before deciding to tell her the truth.

"Do you really want to know why I look like Ion?" Sync asked.

Arietta looked at him, a confused look on her tear-stained face. She offered no words, but nodded for him to continue.

He turned away from her and began to speak, "The reason why I look like him is because I'm his…" Sync tried to finish, but couldn't force himself to do it. 'Largo wasn't kidding when he said this would be hard.'

"His b-brother?" Arietta asked.

Sync chuckled quietly before replying, "If only it were that simple. The reason why I look so much like Ion is because I'm his replica." As soon as the words left his lips he immediately regretted them. Never again would he be able to look at the pink-haired girl.

Arietta sat in shock: Sync a replica? He had to be joking. Sure, he looked a lot like Ion, but his replica?

"That can't be!" Arietta yelled in shock, "You can't be Ion's replica! You're nothing like him! I-Ion," Arietta held back another sob before going on, "Ion was nice and kind! He taught me everything I know! You're nothing like that! You're mean and angry with the world! You treat me like dirt…"

Everything that Arietta said was true. So why did every word that she spoke feel like a dagger to the heart? Sync couldn't blame her though: his stupid existence cause her to become angry with him. Everything she said only caused him to hate his existence even more.

And he wasn't even finished.

"There's more…" He managed to say.

"W-what?"

"The Ion that you knew, the Ion that taught you everything…" Sync paused. He wondered if it was really a good idea to continue. Despite his hesitation, he did so anyway. "Your Ion died two years ago."

Arietta couldn't believe what she was hearing. Did Sync even know what he was saying anymore? She saw Ion as recently as a few months ago, traveling with Anise.

"B-but I saw him! We saw him! He was," Arietta sobbed once more, "he was with Anise."

Arietta hated Anise. She took her Ion away from her and replaced her as his Fon Master Guardian. But Sync knew that this wasn't the case.

"That Ion was a replica too," Sync added.

And with those words, Arietta's whole life was changed.

"No. No! He… he wasn't… Anise took him away from me two years ag-" Arietta stopped in her tracks. Two years ago was when Sync said Ion had died, and coincidentally, it was when she was replaced. This realization made Sync's story seem somewhat plausible. Maybe everything he said was true. Maybe Sync was really a replica.

"Perhaps I should tell you the whole story. The original Ion, your Ion, had a deadly sickness. In order to prevent panic, and to stick to the Score, Mohs and Van worked together to create replicas of Ion. The seventh replica, the one that's been with Anise, was chosen to replace him after the original died," Sync stopped. He forced himself to look at Arietta, seeing if she was going to speak. When she didn't he continued, "The rest of the replicas were thrown into Mt. Zaleho… like trash. For some Score-forsaken reason, I survived and Van convinced me to join the Order of Lorelei as a God-General."

Arietta felt like she was in a dream. Her Ion was sick and she hadn't even known! Still, the things Sync said made sense. She knew Mohs was involved in fomicry, as she had witnessed on Feres Isle. But to go as far as to replicate the Fon Master of the Order of Lorelei? That was out of line, and she would never forgive that pig for what he did.

What was even worse was that she mistook the Ion traveling with Anise's group for the original Ion, the Ion that she loved. Now that she thought about it, the recently deceased Ion was much too nice – naïve even. Her Ion hated the Score; Anise's Ion thought the Score was just one outcome for the future. And to think, she almost killed herself fighting Anise for a replica Ion, an Ion that didn't even matter.

She mentally hit herself for thinking like that. Sitting next to her was another one of Ion's replicas, and while she didn't really know him all too well, she still cared for him. Arietta looked at Sync: he was tightly clutching the bed covers and he looked angry and, surprisingly, sad. She had never known Sync to show any sort of emotions, but seeing him sad made Arietta feel bad for him. She wondered how hard it must have been being thrown away into a volcano like garbage, and she knew that this had to be the reason why he hated the Score.

He never wanted to be born.

"S-Sync?"

"What?" Sync asked without looking up at her.

"Why didn't anyone ever tell me? Why didn't anyone tell me that the Ion I was following around wasn't the same Ion?"

"Simple. We all thought you'd kill yourself if you ever found out."

Arietta thought about what Sync just said. Surely they all didn't think she was that weak… did they? Hearing about the Fon Master's death was crushing, and she didn't know if she'd ever get over it, but she knew deep down that Ion, both Ions, wouldn't want her to take her own life.

Lost in thought, Arietta almost forgot about Sync. Telling her all of this must be really hard for him, and she had just told him that he was nothing like Ion. She wished she had never said that; he probably hates being compared to Ion. Arietta laughed at the irony of it all: she had called Sync mean when she was unknowingly being mean to him.

Sync sat there in pure agony. Why did Largo make him do this? He knew he should've just shrugged off the Oracle Knight that relayed Largo's message to him. He wanted to just run away and never return to Daath. He wanted…

He wanted to die.

Consumed in his own thoughts, Sync didn't catch what Arietta had just said. "What?"

"I said that… I'm sorry," Arietta stated. She felt so ashamed of herself for treating him like he didn't have any feelings of his own.

Sync scoffed, "Sorry? None of this is your fault. I should apologize to you for being born. I took Ion away from you."

"Don't talk like that!" Arietta yelled. Sync was surprised by her sudden outburst. "Ion… Ion was already sick and dying by the time you were born. You had nothing to do with what happened to him!" She knew she shouldn't be yelling, but she hated the way he thought of himself. Why couldn't he be happy that he had a life?

"Stop! I don't care what you say anymore! I'm sick of everything: of this stupid face, of this world, and of this meaningless life!"

"You think you're life is meaningless, but you're wrong!" Arietta exclaimed. "Everyone's life has meaning, whether they think so or not!"

"Oh please! How can my life have meaning? I was thrown away, Arietta! I'm nothing but garbage!" Sync couldn't believe how angry he was, but nonetheless he went on, "And now without my mask, everyone sees me as him: Everyone sees me as that pathetic Fon Master!"

Arietta was starting to grow angry as well, "Don't talk about Ion like that! And don't talk about yourself like that either! I don't see you as Ion. You're your own person! You're Sync."

You're Sync. Arietta didn't know how much those words meant to him. But why wasn't she treating him like he was Ion anymore? They shared the same face. That reason alone should be enough for her to cling to him and treat him like he was the Fon Master. Instead, however, she was trying her hardest to convince him that he was his own person, and that he wasn't just some cheap knock-off of Ion.

"But… my face. I look just like him, Arietta. How can I be my own person with his face?"

Arietta could visibly see Sync loosening up: he wasn't as angry as he was a few minutes ago. She nervously put a hand to his face and forced him to look at her, blushing while she did so. "Ion never scowled. He never really got angry at anything. Sure, he might have been a little mean to people sometimes, but he never showed any signs of anger."

Sync blushed at the sudden contact, but didn't say anything; it actually felt comforting. "Why are you telling me this?"

Arietta smiled at him. "You said that you two have the same face, but you can make faces that Ion never made in his life. So… don't worry too much about it."

Sync looked at her wide-eyed. For once in his life, he felt… accepted. Arietta truly accepted him for him, and despite his face, she didn't think of him as Ion.

"Sync!" Arietta suddenly shouted.

"Uh, what?"

"You're… you're crying!" Arietta stated in surprise.

Sync's hand shot up to his face. He really was crying! For the first time in his life, he, Sync the Tempest, was crying, and because of Arietta!

"But why?" Sync asked in shock, "It's not like I'm sad or anything like that."

"Maybe you're just… happy?"

Sync thought about it for a moment before replying, "Yeah, I think I am."

Although she didn't say it, Arietta was happy as well. She had just learned that she had been lied to by everyone, but seeing Sync finally realize that his life isn't worthless made her feel strangely happy.

After a few minutes of silence, Sync stood up from the bed. "Well, I, uh, think I should report back to Largo… you know, to let him know that you're okay. He was pretty worried about you and everything. I was too… I mean, you know, because we're comrades and everything." Sync cursed himself for being so awkward.

Arietta stifled a laugh at his sudden nervousness. "Okay. Maybe you could… come back again later?" Arietta asked. She was blushing, that much she was sure of, but she really wanted to see him again. She didn't want things to go back to the way they were before, with Sync barely acknowledging her at all.

She wanted to get to know Sync.

He turned a few shades of red himself before responding, "Um… sure, I mean if you want. I'll be back later."

"Promise?"

Sync sighed, but flashed her a smile of his own, "Yeah, yeah I promise. Now get some rest. The replica's group knocked you around pretty good in your fight."

Arietta nodded her head in response, and Sync turned to leave. Before he did, however, Arietta called out to him.

At the sound of his name Sync walked back over to the bed. "What is it?"

"Thank you. Thank you for telling me the truth. I-It means a lot to me."

"And thank you for not thinking of me as… as Ion."

"I would never think of you as Ion. You're Sync, and I'll only think of you as Sync."

Before she knew what was happening, Sync leaned down and closed the distance between them. He kissed her on the lips, and after a few seconds she returned the kiss. It only lasted for a few seconds, but to both of them, it was the greatest few seconds of their young lives.

From that moment forward, Arietta only thought of him as Sync.

From that moment forward, Sync could only think about how happy he was to be alive.