Nice to be back... even though I'm not done with Chapter 2... (Oh well. Life goes on.)

Now then... We're doing something a bit different this time. It should entice your minds... (And it's rather obvious what it is...)

Also, to the guest who complained, it's called 'attempting to line up dates'. If you had read the final acknowledgements of Re:ARitA, you'd have known that. Alas, it seems not everyone realized I don't just ramble. That having been said... Enough of my rambles.

I'm only going to say this once, because it drives me up a wall. I don't own Tales of the Abyss. However, any Original Characters and/or Artes belong to me or people I've gotten permission to borrow from.

A HUGE thanks to my beta, WeGotWinx(Tea) for beta'ing, kicking my ass into gear repeatedly, and being a very good friend.

So... Go bask in all of the wonderful sarcasm that is Dark's trademark attitude toward life. I'm even giving you a couple samples this update!

"If they're the Dark Wings, I'm a cheagle." –Dark

'No, we're from the Land of Milk and Cookies. Of course we're Kimlascan!' –Dark

Chapter 1.1 - A (False) Peace
Part 1

Dark's POV

"To Engeve, huh? You realize that'll be seven thousand gald, right?"

I resisted the urge to cringe. Five months ago, I would have. Actually, I wouldn't have even bothered talking to the man five months ago. If I couldn't get there by walking, I'd have ridden on Koran or taken a ferry. But that had been before everything started. Before I met Kairi, before I was almost killed by Mohs, before I became Natalia's bodyguard.

I hadn't had the money to burn, before. It had always been the same thing: take an assignment, disappear for as long as I could on the money earned, and then take another when I started to run low on funds. There was no space for waste.

But Natalia paid me well, to follow her around all day. And it wasn't as if I had to pay for food or rent or anything. Food was provided by the castle servants, and rent? Ha! My door was only a few yards from Natalia's. It was in the job description. So, I had more money than I knew what to do with. Taking a coach to Engeve instead of walking? Why not?

"Whatever," I told the coachman, already counting out the gald for payment. He watched me closely, obviously double-checking my counting, even though I knew it was infallible. I'd had to count my pay rather carefully in my previous line of work, or I'd be shortchanged easily.

"Alright. One ticket to Engeve. You ready to go?" the coachman asked, pocketing the money. I nodded, slipping my only slightly lighter bag of gald back into my own pocket. The man opened the door of the coach for me to get in, and I settled in quietly, relaxing against one side. It had been a long few weeks, and I was just now starting to get calmed down after everything that had happened.

First, Kairi's death. The stranger had shown up first, giving us his riddling comments, and then Van had delivered the news. An accident, he said. Murder, according to the stranger. Natalia and I agreed with the latter.

Then, Koran's death. It wasn't exactly sudden, but I hadn't expected it either. There was nothing I could do, in the end. It had been a hard blow, though. Koran had been my friend, my companion, my brother through the eight years I spent with no one else to really care for me. Rhunön and Ryndor didn't count. They taught me to fight, to survive, but they didn't care enough to rein in Danté when he decided that killing me would be the best way to go.

I was just starting to fall asleep when we hit the bump. My head was knocked against the window frame, and I cringed, shaking myself awake for a moment to make sure everything was alright, since we were coming to a stop.

"Bugger..."

I frowned and stuck my head out of the window, spotting the coachman near the back of the coach, looking around. "Need help?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Looks like the water jug fell off," he said. "I've got a spare, but it's empty. We'll have to find some fresh water..."

I looked around, then pulled my head back and stepped out of the coach. "We're near Tataroo Valley, right?" I asked. "There's a river running through there."

The coachman looked at me and smiled. "Really? Thanks. I'll go get some," he said, already pulling the spare jug out. I frowned, hearing a wolf howl not far off.

"I'll come with you, just in case. It doesn't look like you're armed," I said. The coachman looked over me again, then nodded.

"Thanks again, lad." He turned and headed toward the entrance to the valley, and I followed along quietly.

'Just like with Natalia...' I thought. 'Except with a lot less chatter and a lot higher chance of something happening.'

"There's the way out!" I heard a woman say. I paused, but the coachman seemed to have not heard it.

"It's about time. I'm sick of this place."

My eyes widened. There was no way...

"Someone's coming!"

I ran after the coachman in time to hear him cry out in surprise. "D-don't tell me you're with the Dark Wings!"

I rolled my eyes. "If they're with the Dark Wings, I'm a cheagle," I called, sarcasm dripping from every word. Sure enough, standing across the way from the coachman were two people, one whom I recognized quite well. "By the way, Luke... You and I are going to be having a long talk once we get to Engeve."

Emerald green eyes widened in shock and familiarity the minute I stepped out of the shade cast by a tree. "Dark!"

The woman frowned slightly, but the coachman didn't notice, his attention locked solely on me. "You know them?" he asked. I glanced at the girl again, noting her similarity to a certain Dorian General I was seeing an awful lot more than I would have preferred.

"Luke is my cousin," I lied. "And that's his best friend's sister." The girl blinked a couple of times, glanced at Luke, who had frowned but was now trying to cover it up, and then looked back at me, seeming to realize that she could trust me.

"I see... I'll go get the water, then," the coachman said, walking past the duo. I crossed my arms and stared at the girl.

"Name, now," I said quietly.

"Tear," she replied simply. "And you are?"

"Dark Daemione. Luke's bodyguard."

Luke rolled his eyes. "He's Natalia's bodyguard, not mine," he corrected me. So, this girl knew Luke's status.

"Regardless, you're obviously not out here by plan, and Natalia would skin me alive if she found out I let you get hurt. You're coming with me to Engeve," I told him. Tear frowned.

"I told him I'd take him back to his manor," she said. I sighed.

"Then you can come with us, if you want. I don't really care. I just want to make sure he doesn't get himself hurt." Tear hesitated a moment before nodding.

The coachman came back then, and I reached into my pocket for my gald. "Excuse me, sir? We're going to need another two tickets to Engeve," I told him. He blinked, looked at the two behind me, then shrugged.

"Same fee as before, times two," he commented, obviously a straining a little to carry the water back to the coach. I rolled my eyes.

"Well I figured that out..." I muttered sarcastically, quietly enough that only Luke and Tear heard me. Luke, I noted, had that slight quirk of the lips that usually meant he was trying not to laugh.

"But we don't have any gald..." Tear started. I shrugged.

"Don't worry about it," I told her. "I have little use for what Natalia pays me anyway, since I don't have to buy much anymore. Food for Koran, but that is... was... about it." I turned around and headed back for the coach, and I could hear footsteps behind me. I absently identified them as Luke's.

"Koran was a pet?" Tear asked. I hunched my shoulders, refusing to answer that with anything more than the 'no' I managed to force out. I walked up to the coachman and started counting out gald again. It took a little longer than before, mostly because there was twice as much to count out, but also because I had to pause at one point as a memory hit me.

"This'll be enough for months, huh, Koran?"

Once the money was counted out and the three of us were settled into the coach, Luke crossed his arms. "Natalia said you were going to the Northern Forest."

I nodded. "I'll be stopping in Engeve on the way in, and also on the way out. It's easiest, that way," I said. Tear frowned.

"The Northern Forest isn't exactly safe, though. The ligers—"

"They know me," I interrupted. She blinked.

"How?"

I turned away, leaning against the side of the coach and refusing to speak. Luke answered her, anyway.

"Remember how you asked about Koran earlier? He... He was a liger. Koran and Dark were friends since Dark was a little kid, and for a while, he was the only company Dark had. He died a week and a half ago."

Tear was silent for a while. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up."

I shrugged, leaning back against the seat and closing my eyes. "Don't worry about it. The past is the past, there's nothing we can do to change it."

If anything else was said, I fell asleep before then.

*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*

Kra-boom!

The coach jerked, and my head smacked against the window frame... again.

I groaned. "Ow... Did someone erase the word 'gentle' from the dictionary...?"

Tear sighed as Luke woke up as well. And of course, the first thing the redhead did was stick his head out the window.

"Hey! That coach is under attack!" he cried.

"The army's chasing those bandits! It's those Dark Wings I mistook you for!" the coachman yelled back. I cringed.

'Remind me to drop Noir a notice that Jade's tolerance level has fallen to one percent again,' I thought to myself. 'If it even is Jade...'

"You there! Move your coach before you get caught in the crossfire!"

Well, that was blunt.

I grabbed Luke's jacket before he could fall out of the coach as it shifted. I didn't bother to watch what was going on outside. I was kinda hoping that Noir and the others would escape, though. I didn't really want to have to tell Asch that Jade (or someone under his command, more likely) had killed one of Kairi's favorite contacts. Then I heard the explosion, and started hoping avidly that Noir had made it across the bridge before dropping it.

"Whoa!" I looked up and rolled my eyes, seeing Luke now standing over Tear to look out the other window. "That was cool!"

Tear looked slightly irritated as she grabbed his belt and forced him back into his seat. I smiled slightly and gave her a thumbs-up that Luke thankfully didn't see.

"Wow! That's Malkuth's newest land dreadnaught, the Tartarus!" the coachman told us. I crossed my arms, not sure whether to smile or cringe. On the one hand, it meant that it was definitely Jade. On the other...

"Wait, Malkuth?"

I rolled my eyes at the look of surprise on Luke's face. "We're already in Malkuth?" Tear asked, slightly less surprised. Luke looked at her in shock, then at me, an almost betrayed expression on his face.

"You're acting strange... are you three Kimlascan?" the coachman asked. I rolled my eyes.

'No, we're from the Land of Milk and Cookies,' I thought sarcastically. 'Of course we're Kimlascan!' He hadn't asked any questions back in Chesedonia, anyway... "No, we're from Daath. I've got business in Engeve, they're just along for the ride," I answered, seeing that Luke was clueless and Tear didn't seem quite sure of what to say.

Luke opened his mouth, and I shook my head, growling the liger word for 'later.'

Bless his soul, Luke recognized it and stayed quiet, while Tear gave me an odd look. I just shrugged it off, watching the white landship receding in the distance. It was weird, thinking that Kairi had been on it once. Weirder, thinking that Kairi's older brother was in charge of it.

"So, are you a Scorer?"

I blinked, then knocked my head backwards against the wood behind me. "No," I replied bluntly. "I'm just doing a favor for a friend."

Luke frowned. "Which friend, again?" he asked, sounding as if he'd genuinely forgotten. I had to give the kid credit. So long as you weren't watching his facial expressions, you'd never guess that he was acting. One of the weirder things I managed to pound into his head.

"Kairi. She said something about her brother being in Engeve," I said. And I wasn't completely lying. The Tartarus had been headed toward the farming village.

Luke's eyes widened, a dozen questions killing themselves on his tongue, and only barely at that. "So, we're going to go meet him?" he finally guessed. I shrugged, pointing in the direction the landship had gone.

"Who knows? I mean, he is in the military. He could be gone before we arrive."

Luke blinked a couple of times, before he got this really confused look on his face. I bit my lip, trying my hardest not to laugh at the poor kid. Tear sighed.

"Good point. That landship looked like it was headed in the right direction," she agreed.

"Lucky man, if he does end up on the Tartarus. We're not far out from Engeve right now, actually... Hey, I think the landship's still there!" the coachman said. Luke stuck his head out the window again and nodded an affirmative. I shrugged.

"I've never actually met him. I've heard plenty, but if we do catch up to her brother, this'll be the first time I get a chance to talk to him," I said. Then I frowned, wondering what we'd do if we did catch up to the infamous Jade Curtiss. He'd just chased Noir across Rotelro Bridge. Who was to say he wouldn't arrest me and Luke for being on the wrong side of the border?

Somehow, I doubted that would happen. Kairi had always spoken highly of him, especially his intelligence. Noir had probably done something to warrant being attacked, and besides... Jade was mourning, too.

"Here we go! Engeve!"

I blinked in surprise. Had I really spent the last fifteen minutes of the voyage just sitting there and thinking about what might happen if I met Jade?

I shook my head and stepped out of the coach, holding a hand out to help Tear and then making sure Luke didn't trip on his way out. The redhead was amazed by the sight of the small village, which really wasn't a surprise. He'd been locked in the manor for years, after all.

I thanked the coachman and he headed on his way. Then I turned to Tear and Luke, the latter of whom had his arms crossed.

"So, Kairi's brother might be here?" he asked. I nodded.

"Jade was the officer in charge of the Tartarus a month ago, I highly doubt that's changed," I said. "That having been said, be careful. He'll recognize you, and so might a few of the soldiers in the third division. I'm not sure if Kairi ever mentioned this, but you look a lot like Asch, and I know she made that fact clear to Jade and a few others."

Luke frowned. "When you say a lot, how much are we talking?" he asked. I sighed.

"Let's put it this way. Natalia caught sight of Asch when Kairi was in Baticul that first time, and she thought he was you."

"Oh..."

Ah, the infamous 'Land of Milk and Cookies' quote. I'm sorry, Dark, I don't think the readers would ever forgive me if I didn't include it in the rewrite. Fun fact: that particular quote is one of the few belonging to Dark that actually survived all three versions of 'A Spatial Tear', including the one I never had a chance to post.

Colored Ripples: Green - Agreeing With Dist