Disclaimer: Unfortunately I do not have the amazing honor of owning Tales of the Abyss or any of its characters or in-game story line… It would be full of smut like this if I did own it, believe me…

Note: Once again… I have a bit of dyslexia so please let me know if there are mistakes I missed and whatever else. R&R and let me know how I'm doing as well please! also, I will have to up the rating to m when I upload the next chapter so, make sure to look for it if you want to read it.

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Chapter 2: Life and Death

Death… What did it matter if he died… he wasn't needed… he was only a substitute after all… Just a tool to be used for his teacher's cruel visions… Was there something better after death? Would it be painful? What could he say to them? What would Jade say if he knew? Luke… hadn't even thought of Jade since their encounter in Daath after Ion's death… But perhaps it was for the best.

Luke sat alone on a small bench outside of the inn in Belkend, the city of fonmachines. Natalia, Guy, Anise and Jade were all inside, waiting for him to return from his physical. How could Luke tell them he only had a little time left? Miserably he hung his head. After all that… I thought I'd die then for sure… But when I didn't… I thought it would be okay… and that was the end of it… But I'm going to die anyway…

In the end… Luke decided there was only one thing he could do…

With a heavy sigh he entered the inn to see the lobby filled with all of his companions. As soon as he entered they turned to look nervously, none of them daring to ask the dreaded question… After all… Jade had told them that Luke should have died at the tower… It was only a matter of time. Taking a deep breath, Luke stepped over the threshold and shut the door behind him.

"My blood fonons are a little low, but I'll be fine." He said, smiling. Luke wanted to enjoy what was left of his life, so rather than having his companions worried, he wanted everything to be the way it normally was, even if he had to lie to them.

After a short conversation they decided to leave, but Jade grabbed Luke's arm as he tried to follow the others out.

"What is it?" Luke asked, nervously looking out the door.

"Didn't I tell you…? You're a terrible liar." Jade said and released him. Luke felt horrible, noticing that for once, Jade was not smiling.

"Please don't tell them." He whispered.

"Come on, Luke!" Guy shouted from outside.

"Luke. Tonight." Jade whispered, close to Luke's ear.

"W-What?!" Luke stuttered, images of the last time he had been alone at night with Jade floating across his mind. He swallowed hard.

"I will ask Noelle to take us to Grand Chokmah. Stay with the others a while then once they've gone to bed, come and meet me in my office." Luke blushed. Now what did he have in mind? And did he have to stand so close to him…? "Sorry for keeping you all! There's nothing to worry about! Shall we?" Jade said, lying perfectly as usual as he exited the inn. Luke followed, trying to not let his nervousness show.

"Right! So let's head to Baticul then!" Guy said, leaping up from the bench that Luke had been occupying before with a sideways glance at the redhead. Luke looked away, towards a scientist scurrying on his way to the fontech lab in the other end of town.

"No, we've had a change of plans." Jade told the others smoothly. "We need to go to Grand Chokmah first. Luke has something he wishes to discuss with the emperor."

"Huh? …What is it Luke?" Natalia asked, folding her arms and glaring at him as if to say 'you're hiding something, aren't you?'.

"…It's nothing. Just something he asked me to report about the tower of Rem… Don't worry, I can take care of it myself." Luke said disarmingly. "It won't take long, we can leave in the morning, I'll make my report as soon as we get there." Jade had to admit… Luke was doing a halfway decent job of covering up his plan for once… Oh… but what he had in store for the poor, naïve, innocent replica… Jade doubted he could possibly think of Luke as innocent afterwards… Well… that depended on if everything would go according to plan…

"Is something wrong, Colonel?" Anise said, looking up at Jade in that creepy, fangirlish way she always did.

"Not at all Anise." He said and patted her on her head, his smile ever so slightly more annoying than usual. The others all laughed, Luke included, as Anise proceeded to glare indignantly and call Jade a bastard and several other choice insults on their way back to the Albiore where the pilot, Noelle, was waiting for them.

Jade's plan had gone surprisingly well and before long they were in Grand Chokmah. To cover up for not making an appointment with the emperor, Jade and Luke managed to escape and go to palace alone. All along Luke tried to question Jade about what his intentions were, but Jade would only smile warmly and give Luke a sharp glance that told him quite plainly to stop asking.

While they were at the palace, Jade and Luke stayed in the library after greeting Peony and telling him what had happened, even though he hadn't actually asked for a report of any kind from Luke.

The colonel stood with his back to Luke and the rest of the library as he stared blankly out one of the cathedral like windows, pondering his next move…

Behind him, Luke was searching through the bookshelves for something interesting, not wanting to let his boredom lead him to thinking about death. …until he found one of thr books that Jade had written about fomicry. Luke let out a small sound that sounded something like a mouse being strangled as he skipped to a random page and began reading….

"It is fairly normal for replicas of living beings created at an adult, or young adult, stage of life to be on a different level of maturity than their originals in certain areas of life including (but limited to) intellect, unique skills or talents, personality, sexuali-"

"Luke, let's go." Jade said, suddenly turning from the window. Like a child caught with something bad, Luke quickly shoved the book he had been reading into an empty space on the shelf near him before getting to his feet.

"Was that… a romance novel, Luke?" Jade asked sarcastically, his crimson eyes sparkling. "I didn't know you had such a soft spot."

"N-no!" Luke cried frantically. "I-It was one of the books you wrote about fomicry!" Jade suppressed the desire to laugh. That was almost better than Luke reading a romance novel… seeing as the only thing Jade had actually published let alone made publicly available…

"Let's go then. We don't want the others to be suspicious." Jade said, glancing at the book as he passed. Physical Maturity Vs. Mental Maturity in Living Replicas. Then Jade did laugh, but not loud enough for Luke to hear him, thankfully. Oh… this would be good… A little ways ahead he stopped in the entrance hall and turned back to Luke.

"What?" The replica asked sheepishly, his face bright red. Again Jade had to force himself not to laugh. It wasn't part of the plan… but…

"I'm going ahead to my office, I have something else I need to do. See you later." The colonel said and winked. Luke could feel himself blushing. When he looked up, Jade was gone.

Irritably Luke made his way back to the inn and fabricated some lie about where he had been. They didn't even notice that Jade wasn't there.

Again he was unable to sleep for thinking about jade. So he decided to leave early and explore the city for a little while as he waited for midnight.

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Grand Chokmah was even more beautiful at night than it was during the day. The aqueducts glinted like liquid silver when the moonlight touched them, sending minute droplets of light that looked like little pieces of white glitter everywhere. But for it it's beauty, the city was disturbingly quiet at night. The only thing Luke could hear was his own footsteps and the sound of the ocean beyond the port. On the way to the Malkuth Military Headquarters, a sleeping cat was the only sign of life that Luke had seen.

In a way… Grand Chokmah at night reminded Luke of Jade's usual personality: cold, unforgiving, and overbearing. It wasn't long before Luke grew tired of sneaking around and just went the usual route… it wasn't like anyone was there to see him… or was there?

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Guy had noticed Luke sneaking out of the inn. It wasn't exactly hard to miss… seeing as Luke had tripped over his shoes and swore rather loudly on the way out. That was when guy realized that Jade hadn't returned. Immediately he wanted in on whatever they were planning and had followed Luke out of the inn and through the streets of Grand Chokmah…

But what Guy didn't realize… is that he probably never really wanted to know what Luke and Jade were planning…

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…Because Guy totally needs to walk in on them. XD. …Or maybe not? I dunno. Keep reading and find out! R&R please. Suggestions etc are appreciated. I will have to change my rating to mature when I upload chapter three so… be sure to look for it if you want. (Yes! You want to!!!!) But anyway… -cough-