Chapter One

Ringabel closed his journal just as a knock echoed upon the iron door. He glanced up in surprise, not expecting any visitors. Who would visit the Dark Knight, Alternis Dim, anyway? A mumbled thanks had been given the previous day, appreciation all around for his help in the battle against Airy and everything afterwards, but they didn't accept him as their friend. He'd done too much in the past in this world to deserve that title. Yet he craved it above all else; he wanted them to see him as nothing less.

"Who is it?" he called, rising from the bed.

"Uh, it's Edea," came her usually spirited voice, muted somewhat by the door.

He felt a jolt of surprise, then anxiety, for where the other Edea knew him well, this Edea knew only the Dark Knight.

"Come in," he said, clearing his throat a little.

The door creaked open and Edea entered, flaxen hair spilling across her shoulders, bright red ribbon tying back the loose locks, dressed in her usual homeland attire. Her face was somewhere between apprehension and gratitude—or was it bliss? Ringabel couldn't tell. But she looked guarded, and he didn't blame her. How else was she to react to the man who chased her around the world in order to stop her but then decided to aid her instead?

"Edea." Her name slipped off his tongue so easy, like feathers in a breeze, so effortless to catch on the wind. "How are you?" It was a ridiculous question, an excuse to begin an undoubtedly awkward conversation.

"I'm fine," she answered, shutting the door behind her. She held her hands at her waist, fingers intertwined, though her gaze was boldly upon his face and he found he had to flicker his eyes away, unable to contain the blush creeping up his neck. "I… uh… your face… it's been a long time since I've seen it."

"Yes…" Ringabel nodded solemnly. She didn't know how much he regretted not taking off that damn helmet before now, how much he wished he could and couldn't. It was a mask to him, a protection… yet he was quick to realize after travelling the world that he hadn't needed it as much as he thought he did. "I apologize for keeping myself from you."

The phrase caused another blush to spread up his face and he mentally swore. "I-I mean—that didn't come out right—"

Edea held up a hand and Ringabel silenced himself, surprised how her authority could control him so easily when it couldn't before. "I know what you meant, Alternis. I'm sure father will be pleased to see you've decided to unmask yourself, as well."

Of course… Templar Braev would be thrilled to see his Dark Knight coming into himself at last. The shadows of regret stretched deeper within Ringabel's mind.

Edea stepped across the room, nearing him, and Ringabel felt the need to shift away and wondered why. She stopped a few feet away, eyes scrutinizing him. "It's so weird. You'd think I'd remember your face a little, but I guess we were so young when you left to become a Dark Knight." She tilted her head to the side. "Are you always going to keep your armour off now?"

Would he? Ringabel nodded. "Yes, I plan on it—except in battle, but I suppose we won't be seeing any fighting on the horizon."

Edea shrugged. "Well, there's still training."

Ringabel blinked in surprise. "Truly, Edea? After all I've done?"

"Oh, come on, Alternis!" She crossed her arms and huffed out a sigh. "You swooped in at the last moment and proved yourself. Of course we'll train again." Her voice then grew quiet, a bit of awkwardness filling her tone. "I mean… that's what I came down here to say: thank you. I don't think I said it when the others did. You really saved us. I'm not sure… I'm not sure we would have survived without you."

And didn't he know it.

He cleared his throat. "Think nothing of it. I came back to save you, after all."

"Came… back?"

Damn it. He didn't mean to slip that out.

"Alternis… what do you mean? Does this have something to do with those other worlds Airy mentioned? The worlds we helped protect?" Edea was looking at him intently now, brows drawn down, and Ringabel wasn't sure what to say. Looking so closely at her, he could see the woman lying on the Grandship's deck, her blood pooling around her still body, and the memory terrified him even now. "Alternis…?"

"I…" He breathed out a long sigh and glanced over his shoulder at the bed. He retrieved his journal and held it tightly between his fingers before glancing back to Edea. "Are you really sure you want to know?"

She leaned slightly back in surprise, and then her arms crossed. "If you're hiding something from me, I want to know it."

Stubborn as usual. It caused Ringabel to smile. He sat down on the bed and patted the place next to him. Edea only stared, that strange apprehensive look overtaking her face again. Perhaps she wasn't used to Alternis being so friendly. That made two of them.

"Well, sit down, Edea," he said lightly, a bit of his newfound personality slipping into his voice. "I won't bite."

Her mouth popped open a little at that and she wandered across the room as though in thought, sitting promptly down beside him. She shook her head a bit, her daze lifting, and held out a hand, palm up, for the book.

"Take note: most of this is just entries from when I chased the three of you across the world. The fun stuff begins much later…"

"Fun stuff? Here I thought your idea of fun was obeying father's orders and nothing else," retorted Edea. She took the journal and flipped towards the middle, skimming over a large portion of Ringabel's notes—thankfully. There were quite a few entries regarding her in there, and some she wouldn't find amusing.

She stopped somewhere near the back, her fingers running over the sketch of himself and her sitting at a coffee shop in Florem, teacups on the floral-patterned table outside the shop. "I don't remember… No… this never happened." She glanced quickly up at him. "Why are you drawing pictures of us in your creepy diary?"

Ringabel rolled his eyes and took the journal from her, snapping it shut. "Listen, before you get all worked up about nothing, remember that the girl in that picture isn't you."

She recoiled in shock—or anger. He again couldn't tell. "What do you mean?" she asked quietly, dangerously. "She looks exactly like me."

"Yes, she is you, in a sense. She is the Edea of the world I was sucked into." Ringabel opened the journal again and Edea straightened, her eyebrows furrowed in both annoyance and confusion. "You may find this hard to believe, but… the first time you fought Airy, you were slaughtered at her hands."

"What!?"

"That's right. Airy killed the three of you and I was drawn into the beam of light." Ringabel stared intently at the picture he'd sketched the same night they'd all gone to that little shop. He'd fallen in love with that Edea over time, but he couldn't understand the allure at the time. She was beautiful—that much was certain—but it was something else, as well. When his memories returned, he knew exactly what drew him to her: the fact that she looked exactly like his own Edea, who'd been killed before his eyes.

"What you're saying—"

"I know it's hard to believe, but it's the truth." Ringabel handed the book back to her. "After we destroyed Ouroboros in the other world, we were given the choice to return to our own worlds… and I chose to return to this one instead of remaining with my friends, because I needed to save you—all of you," he quickly added, though he didn't know why.

"So…" Edea took the book and flipped a few pages further, revealing more unfamiliar sketches, "there were other versions of ourselves. We weren't sure… not really. At least, we were told about them but none of us saw them." She paused at the drawing of Alternis—another Alternis—kneeling on the deck of the Grandship with his helmet riven in half. "So many different stories… Is this you?"

Ringabel shook his head. "No, that's a different me."

"And the you without the armour… Why did you take it off?"

"I…" Ringabel was at a loss for words suddenly. His answer must seem so ridiculous to say aloud. "I lost my memories when I fell through the light. They returned after going through it time and again, but until then…" He swallowed, wincing as he remembered how he'd spoken to the other Edea. "Well, I was a bit of a fool, to be honest."

Edea raised her eyebrows in surprise. "I see." She flipped to the end of the journal, pages rustling, and stopped at an illustration of Ouroboros. "How awful," she murmured, and closed the book. "So you're the real Alternis, the one who grew up with me, and in the other world you were… who?"

"Ringabel," he said weakly. He cleared his throat. "And the other Alternis, I'm afraid, saw me—or himself—before the end. He's still alive but I guess no one escaped unscarred from all of it."

"And… and the other Edea?" The girl beside him ran a hand along the cursive 'D' on the book's cover. "What was she like?"

"She was… She was like you in most ways—nearly identical, save perhaps her temper is wilder because of me."

"You?" Edea glanced up in surprise. "Good-natured, yet mostly silent Alternis? I don't believe you."

"Well, good-natured, yet mostly silent Alternis wasn't exactly himself in that other world," said Ringabel gloomily. "He was 'Ringabel' and 'Ringabel' wasn't silent in the least."

Edea giggled then, a soft, musical sound Ringabel had missed hearing. This Edea had hardly laughed before the quest began, and even less afterwards. He was glad to see her content once more.

"Do you miss them?" she asked next, quiet again.

"Of course I do." Ringabel regretted the look of subtle dejection upon Edea's face once he'd said it, but it was the truth. "I'd travelled with them from the beginning—from when you first arrived in Caldisla with Crowe. In this world…"

"You know us but we don't know you," supplied Edea softly, starting to understand it all now.

Ringabel grimly nodded. "Yes, exactly."

"Then why come back to this world?" Edea was looking at the picture of the two of them sitting at the coffee shop again, and her nose turned slightly pink. "Why come back when you seemed to have everything there?"

Ringabel was startled a bit by her question. He supposed he did have everything, perhaps even the other Edea's affections towards the end, but it wasn't his Edea and it wasn't his homeland. Despite everything he'd been through with Tiz, Agnes, and Edea… they weren't the people he'd followed around the world in pursuit and that world certainly didn't need two Alternis Dim's wandering it.

Gently, Ringabel slid his hand under the book and folded it shut, laying his fingers across the cover. They lightly brushed Edea's and she refused to look up at him, her flush growing.

"I didn't belong in that world," he said softly, "and that world wasn't home to me. This one is, and I still had unfinished business with a certain evil fairy."

"To save us," said Edea quietly.

"Yes," confirmed Ringabel. He then took the journal and placed it on his table next to his dark armour, leaving it be. When he turned to look back at Edea, she'd already risen from the bed and was heading towards the door.

"I won't tell Tiz and Agnes," she said, stopping by the exit, fingers brushing the handle. "Your secret is safe with me… unless you want them to know."

"It's fine," said Ringabel with a shrug of his shoulders. "If you want to tell them, go ahead. I won't stop you."

Edea lifted a hand to her chest, fingers curled tight to her palm. "Maybe it can be our secret? I know how confusing this multiple worlds stuff is anyway," she added quickly.

"If you'd like." Ringabel approached her, hands in his pockets, heart beating nervously now for some reason. "I'm glad I was able to share this with you, if only to get it off my chest."

"Sure." Edea curled her bottom lip in and eyed the room as a distraction before looking back to him, a little surprise in her eyes once more. "You know… I might never get used to seeing you without that helmet. You just… you don't look…" She winced and clenched her jaw.

"I don't look hideous?" supplied Ringabel, grinning like a fox.

Edea laughed into the awkwardness. "Oh, you look far worse. My eyes burn from the ugliness!"

Ringabel smirked and crossed his arms, studying her guarded expression. "What a liar you are, Edea. But, out of curiosity, should I don my helmet once more?"

Her mouth opened to speak and then closed, lips twisting into a sneer. "Maybe you should, but I think it needs a good cleaning first. Let it air out a bit, but preferably away from the restaurant. We don't want your stench flooding the kitchen."

Sharp as ever, my Edea. He braced a hand to her left against the door, shutting the bit of distance she'd opened, and her face slackened in shock, cheeks flushed with either anger or discomfort at his closeness. He hoped for the latter. "I remember the other Edea once mentioned she liked my hair. I can only imagine what she thought of my face."

"Well, that wasn't me," argued Edea, voice clipped.

And then Ringabel suddenly remembered who she was—who he was—and he slid his hand away from the door, stepped back, and inwardly winced. Alternis would never act this way around Braev's daughter; he would never disgrace himself in such a way.

Shouting proposals on the bridge of an airship, however… Yes, that was fine, apparently.

"Alternis…?" Edea sounded almost afraid to say his name, and he couldn't blame her after his curious-at-best behaviour. He must seem so strange to her, this newly reformed Dark Knight.

"Forgive me," he murmured, crossing his arms again. "It's been a confusing year for me. You should check on the others."

"O-okay." Edea paused, fingers curling slowly around the handle, and asked, "Are you sure you're all right, Alternis?"

"Yes," he lied, and then attempted a smile. "Go on. I'll be fine."

Edea nodded once, her gaze drifting to the floor, and then she left the room. Ringabel hung back his head and sighed; he ran his fingers through his hair and returned to his bed, collapsing upon it.

Sure, Ringabel was quite the idiot in the other world, but Alternis didn't seem to be faring any better in this one.