Authour's Note: Though the main focus of this story is Jade's replica, there will be one chapter for Asch. It is (I hope) an AU fic, or more correctly, an AT (Alternate Timeline) fic, due to what is considered canon and the fact that my story has a replica of Jade in it. I don't own Tales of the Abyss, I don't own Jade, I don't own replication, and I don't own the concept of replicating Jade. I do, however, own this one Jade replica. Steal him if you will/dare. Oh, and Jade will be a little OOC, due to the shock of Dist's action of having made a replica of him, and the replica himself is not like really like Jade. Who would ever have thought that it would be so...awkward...
"We should be heading back soon. The valley is dangerous at night." said Jade. Tear thought of when she first came to the valley with Luke. It was night, and he was a senseless, idiotic, and childish noble. So much had changed now. Her brother's plans to destroy Auldrant and replace it with a replica world had failed and ended with his demise.
She turned to leave, along with Anise, Natalia, Jade, and Guy, but thought she saw something, and turned back. It was a red-haired young man with white clothes and a black cloak walking towards the group. She gasped, and everyone else turned back to see the person. Tear got up and walked towards him, stopping only a few feet away.
"Why are... you here?" she asked.
"This place has a nice view of Hod... and also... I promised someone."
Tear walked over to him and hugged him, crying. Guy, Anise, and Natalia followed. Anise reached Tear and Luke first, hugging them both tightly. Natalia joined in as well. Guy hesitated, eying the three women, but joined the group hug. Jade merely looked at him and smiled faintly.
After the hugs were over, Jade nodded in acknowledgement over to Luke, not wanting to hug him. Luke nodded back.
"Well then, shall we be going?" asked Jade to the overly, but rightly happy group of people. They all turned around to exit the valley. Jade was in the front with Anise and Guy close behind, keeping a respectful distance from each other. Natalia walked behind them, almost in between Guy and Anise, though Guy didn't notice. Tear and Luke were in the back, holding each others hands. The walk was peaceful, besides a couple easily-dealt-with monsters.
"Oh, Natalia, I have to tell you something." said Luke, walking away from Tear and towards Natalia to walk beside her.
"What is it, Luke?" replied Natalia.
"Asch is alive." Natalia stopped in her tracks, mouth agape in surprise. "He's going back to Baticul."
"But... but how is that possible?" asked a pleasantly shocked Natalia.
"It was Lorelei. After we freed it, it healed Asch, and brought him back to life." Natalia smiled. Jade smiled too, listening in, but no one noticed.
"That's wonderful! I'll have Father prepare a room for him in the palace."
"Didn't he say he was never going back to Baticul?" asked Guy, rubbing the back of his head.
"As a matter of fact, he said he was never returning to the Fon Fabre manor, though I doubt his parents would allow that. By the way, how did you manage to persuade Asch to return to Baticul?" said Jade, without turning around.
"Well, I told him that Natalia would miss him, and he agreed." answered Luke, certain that answer would be enough. Jade smiled knowingly, but didn't press the matter. It was obvious enough as it is. He glanced back, seeing that Luke had indeed gone back to holding Tear's hand. He looked back to where he was going and stopped. Everyone else stopped as well, confused. There was someone, a little less than a hundred meters away, waving at the party, and approaching them. The party could tell that the figure either had brownish hair, or was wearing something on their head, and was wearing something long and white.
"Hey, who's that over there? Do you know them, Jade?" asked Luke.
Jade regained his composure. "I highly doubt it. They seem to be wanting our attention, though I'm wondering what anyone would be doing out here at this time."
The person had approached substantially closer, and everyone could make them out a little better. The brown stuff was indeed long, brown, hair, and the white thing seemed to be some kind of lab coat. They seemed to be about six feet tall, but their gender wasn't clearly discernible at the distance. Something about them seemed very familiar to the party, especially to Luke. The way they walked, their height, almost everything they could see at their current distance looked like something the group was certain they had seen before, many times. Luke turned to Guy and asked.
"Hey, Guy, do you recognize that person? She seems familiar. I think she may have been one of the maids or something."
"No. I know all of the maids, and whoever they are, they certainly aren't one of them. But you're right, they do look familiar." answered Guy, turning to face Luke. Guy was very popular among the maids, and though his gynophobia had improved, he still didn't feel comfortable to their attentions the few times he returned to Luke's manor in Baticul.
"I agree. I'm certain I've seen them. It may be someone we've seen frequently." said Tear. Guy and Luke turned to Tear and started discussing about people they know, male and female alike, and how likely it would be for the same person they didn't know to pass them by frequently enough for them to recognize them.
Anise turned to Jade as if she were going to say something, but said nothing and turned back to Luke, Guy, and Tear. Natalia seemed to have her head in the clouds, and wasn't paying enough attention to notice that everyone, including herself, had stopped walking.
By this point in the conversation, the person in question was within earshot and said to the group, "May I be directed to Grand Chokmah? I fear I've become rather lost."
Everyone, including Natalia and excluding Jade, spun around to face what sounded like Jade's voice. Jade didn't have to turn, as he was already looking at the source.
It was Jade. It looked exactly like Jade. Same light brown hair, same dark red eyes, even the same glasses. Actually, everyone immediately figured that it was Jade's replica, as recently, replicas had become a very common occurrence in their lives. They all stared at him for a moment, wondering who and how a replica of Jade even came about, until the replica spoke again.
"Seriously, Jade? How disappointing." said the replica, smiling more broadly than anyone in the current company had seen Jade smile, "I was expecting a more... verbose response." Jade quickly regained his composure, if he had lost it at all, and replied,
"My apologies. I was merely astounded by the sheer audacity of Dist's act to perform fomicry in such a manner. Was that sufficiently verbose?"
The replica chuckled. "Yep, got it in one. Dist the Whiny, or "Saphir" as he liked to call himself. I expect a lot of questions from you. You too, if you'd like." he motioned to the rest of the party. "First, you would probably want to know why I was heading to Grand Chokmah. I was planning to tell the Emperor about an illicit replication facility in Ortion cavern and ask him to have it deactivated. But I'm sure you and your troupe would be fine."
"Great... First Dist says we're the 'Jade Gang' and now we're his 'troupe?' What next? Jade and company?" said Guy, who didn't like the idea of putting Jade in charge, considering how he ordered them around when he wasn't in charge, getting Guy to explain the situation to others at every possible opportunity.
The replica found this amusing and laughed. "Ha, ha, ha. No need to worry. Since I'm the only one who knows how to get to that part of the cavern, I'll be leading you people for this expedition."
"At least he laughs like Jade." said Luke, who was noticing how this replica was saying things he never expected to hear in Jade's voice.
"I thought everyone would be glad that he isn't like the Colonel." said Anise.
"Well, yeah, but... It's just so weird listening to him. I mean, Jade inviting us to ask questions? Heh, I bet it was like this when you and Natalia first met me after the so-called 'rescue.'" said Luke.
"It wasn't really that bad. Back then, we just blamed it on amnesia." responded Guy.
"Yes. Myself especially." added Natalia.
"You mentioned something about a replication facililty?" said Jade, trying to get the group back on track.
"Yes I did. If you know how to get to Ortion Cavern, I can lead the way." replied his replica
"Then we'll take a boat from Chesedonia to Sheridan. Let's find a more suitable camp site for the night"
-[...]-
Luke was on night watch and Jade's replica wasn't asleep yet.
"So, umm... Hey, what should we call you? I mean... do you have a name?" asked Luke, nervously. He wasn't entirely sure how to ask the question.
"Well, Dist called me Jade, but it would be rather confusing if you called both of us by the same name. Still, there are plenty of options; You could call me Jade's Replica, and embarrass yourselves, you could call me Jade and call him Colonel, you could call us by our last names, which would mean calling him 'Curtiss' and myself 'Balfour'. You could also call me by some other name, but I can't promise that I will respond. If those choices do not appeal to you, I do answer to 'Hey, you!'." answered Replica Jade Balfour, aka "Hey, you!"
"Okay... Well, I was wondering... How old are you?"
Jade's replica grinned. He was finally being asked questions.
"I was created on my original's thirtieth birthday. That was approximately six years ago. After finding out that perfect replicas were possible without harming the original, Saphir tried to find a way to get Jade's replica data. He wanted Jade to return to what he thought was normal, and thought a replica would be like him. Although, I have no idea why he would think making a replica of Jade as a grown man would be similar to having Jade as if he were still a child in Keterburg. Perhaps he was an idiot after all."
Luke was once again surprised by the replica. Jade didn't like explaining things and went out of everyone's way to explain as little as possible. The replica in question noticed this and widened his grin.
"As you can see, " he continued, "He failed. Epically. I'm sure you haven't finished asking questions...?"
"What was it like, being raised by Dist?" asked Luke, less awkwardly than he asked the first two questions.
"I liked it. It was funny seeing him react every time I didn't act like the Jade he knew. Which was often, and usually deliberate. Saphir would go on and on about Jade. He would talk about how great a friend Jade was to him, then go on in great detail about how Jade made him do errands and frequently left him out in the cold. Time like this made me wonder whether or not he was an idiot. He also let me read a lot of books. He got excited whenever I asked for a book on fomicry, and always ended up getting about half a dozen books written by Jade. When Saphir left for his job as a God-General, I used to get worried. Sometimes he'd leave for months. Later I just assumed he was immortal, as he would always return to the cavern, sometimes with terrible injuries. Then he didn't come back, so when I was sure he wouldn't come back, I left."
Jade's replica was still grinning, but noticeably less.
"You know, he isn't dead. Last time I saw, he was getting arrested in Grand Chokmah for breaking the ban on replicating living things. He's probably still there. He broke a bunch of other laws as well." informed Luke.
"You mean like murder, theft, and bribery? I know what he did. Saphir always told me what he was doing when he was away. He made everything sound like a grand adventure and boasted about every little thing he did."
The two of them sat there for a bit. Luke decided that he didn't feel comfortable asking any more question that night.
"Well, I guess I should be getting some sleep." said Jade's replica. And he did.
Author's Note: Sorry for people being OOC. Jade's replica is six years old. The next chapter is the one which is more focused on Asch. It won't be very relevant to the rest of the plot. This story in general is supposed to be a little fluffy.