I jerked awake as a cold wet spot pressed itself against my back. Blinking, trying to get that whole 'see in the dark' thing working, I made out a light-and-dark shape eyeing me. Then I got my face licked.

"Wha? Dog? Repede?" The warrior dog gave me a look, before carefully pulling a piece of paper out from behind his sheath.

"whls adjnga lknv five more minutes, it's not even light out." My sister had woke from my muttering, and Repede backed away from my bed to go give her the same treatment, by her yelp. Squinting, man, Yuri had horrible handwriting, I scanned the note. What's this about bounty hunters and... oh. Dark Enforcer Sidequest.

Why was he waking us up?

... oh. We'd been seen talking with them, heading to the inn.

Crap.

"Jade, we need to get up now." I pull the blanket up because dog or no, Repede was a guy.

"Wwhhhyyy." Despite the groan, I could hear her getting up.

"Because we're part of the Yuri Lowell Gang."

"What."

"Remember the person who started muttering as Yuri got a room?"

"No."

"Well, we gotta go."

"Fine."

A flurry of movement had both of us dressed and our belongings gathered.

"You're wearing the scarf." And my sister putting clothing on me without me wanting it. I gacked and flailed. "It's going to be cold, you keep complaining, unless you want to ask to share clothes, you're wearing the scarf." She wrapped it around my neck and shoved my jacket into my arms, pulling her own on and following it up with the case for her Bari, and the case for her Alto.

We probably looked really ridiculous, following a blue and white dog out a window in the middle of the night, but it was the middle of the night. Who was watching?

Oh, right. Yuri.

The dark haired swordsman fit really well in with the night, so if Repede hadn't given a woof of 'mission complete', Jade might have walked into him. She wasn't wearing her glasses, which might have been the problem.

"Sorry about that." Yuri told us after giving us a once over. "Apparently, you're part of my criminal gang now."

Jade gave a grunt and pulled out her glasses.

"Sorry?" Yuri gave my sister a questioning look.

"She says it's too early to be coherent. Try again in a few hours." I translated for him.

"Ah. Well, in any case, we'll take you two to the next town, given as you're now wanted." Yuri turned to the others, who, clad in far brighter colors, were further into the woods. "Any problems?"

"I wanna sleep." Karol complained.

"I agree." My sister tacked on, rubbing her eyes behind her glasses.

"Sorry." Gasp, two apologies out of Yuri Lowell in one night? "I guess some people actually pay attention to the wanted posters."

"So those really were of you?" I asked, getting the remaining eye-crusts gone. "It... didn't really share too many resemblances."

"Hair color. Smirk." Jade mumbled coherently. "Name."

"Oh, yes!" Estelle blinked and smiled, cheerful despite the fact we had hours to go till dawn. Probably. "So what's your name?" She looked at me. "I never got it yesterday."

"Nephry and Jade Brunel." I indicated my sister with her name. She might have mumbled something along the lines of "hehe, nephrite", but I wasn't sure.

"And you know who I am, and this is Repede." Yuri gave us one more look over before he started walking. "I hope you don't mind that we're taking a detour before we get to the next town. Got some people to find."

"Ah, no." That would mean... Caer Bocram. Not that we didn't already know when and where we were in terms of plot, the Old Man gave it away.

The sky had just begun to get light when Jade decided she wanted to hug Yuri. I knew this happened because all of the sudden Yuri made a noise somewhere near a yelp but much quieter.

"Um... Jade?" Estelle was very confused by my sibling's turn in behavior.

"I know I'm good looking and all, but isn't there something you should say before you start hugging me?" Yuri asked, walking still.

"Hiiiiii."

"Um... Sorry." I decide to take pity on the poor ex-knight and free him from my sister. "Her mind's still not here yet."

"She's a zombie?" Ah, Captain Karol the Cowardly...

"At this point in time, yes?" I don't really reassure Karol, because Jade was awake enough to flail her arms up and groan "Braaaiiiinnnnsss" at the zombie comment.

"Aaaahhh!" Karol took refuge behind Rita, and got hit on the head for it.

"No, she's just not a morning person."

"We've been walking for three hours." Rita frowned.

"It's still morning." I lightly shove my sister in the shoulder and she corrects her walking so she wouldn't trip over Repede.

"Oh look, a squirrel! Sing a song of sixpence, a bundle full of rye." Jade pointed off to the right, and as some of us looked – she had pointed out a few squirrels earlier today – the singing tipped me off that she hadn't actually found another harmless animal. "Four and twenty blackbirdies baked in a pie."

"That's not a squirrel!" Rita snapped, flicking out her scarf as Repede darted for the basilisk that was now finding itself swarmed with blackbirds. Flute, no flute, flute, no fl- oh, a Repede and a Yuri. No flute it is. The poor lizard, or maybe not so poor, it wasn't as if it was Tkaa or something, fell quickly.

And no blackbirdies were harmed.

"You're doing something weird – what are you doing to that formula?" Rita had nearly jumped Jade, who hadn't gotten further then "little bo peep" before the basilisk fell.

"Formula? I don't wanna work on math!" This didn't make Rita's mood any better, but Yuri was amused.

"... Formula?" I flip open my bag and look for that folder. "You mean these, then?" There was a sheet of music – for Karma, but I pushed it toward the mage before Jade got it into her head that she should start flailing her arms back at Rita. She snatched it and scanned the lines.

"This makes no sense."

"Well, it's only one page of three..." I spread the other two out for her, and she looks at them as well.

"... This isn't a formula."

"That's because it's a Score." Jade stated. "And I'm hungry now." After telling us that, she produced an orange from one of her coat pockets and set to peeling it.

"Oh, so you're awake now?" Yuri asked.

"...Did I start talking to the nargles?" Jade replied, completely sincere, as far as they could tell.

"... never heard of a nargle."

"No, you weren't talking to things." Estelle reassured my sister. "You just hugged Yuri."

"…Why do you have a Satsuma?" I pointed at the orange-that-was-too-small-to-be-an-orange.

"Not a sat-on-a-suma." Jade popped a piece into her mouth and grinned. Her teeth were coated in a bright red.

Karol yelped.

"Wh-what?" Estelle gasped.

"Blood orange~!" My sister offered me a slice. I happily accepted it and ate it. Though, unlike her, I accidentally squirted Rita with some of the juice.

"Sorry Rita." I mumbled, offering her a scrap of blue cloth from my bag.

Rita grabbed it and wiped off her cheek, muttering semi-angrily as she did so.

….Why do I have All your friends are gone. The one true fact that kept you strong has moved on… stuck in my head? I started humming the song. "Hey, Jade, do you know why I'm thinking of Tony Stark right now?"

"No."

"Neither do I." I sighed slightly. Well, it is better than listening to Final Countdown. Lloyd wouldn't stop whistling that the last day we had science together before we found ourselves in Terca Lumiries. No, 'Lloyd' didn't come with us; that second 'we' was my sister and myself. Aw come on….really? Now I have the Final Countdown, the pep band version, stuck in my head. Thanks a lot, Lloyd the Trumpet.

"Tony Stark?" Estelle asked, tilting her head to one side.

"Character from a….." I paused. "Hey, is that what you guys are heading toward?" I pointed toward a broken piece of what looked like a wall. Now I miss Lloyd (Jade, Hikaru), Guy (Yuan, Kaoru), Anise (also known as Zelos and Kyouya), Tear (Raine, Rieko), Mieu (Sylph, Tamaki), Natalia(Sheena?), Noelle, Luke (Gnome), the third Lavi(Kasanoda), and even Dist(Tweedle A). I forgot how homesick thinking of any of them makes me.

Well, maybe not Dist.

"No, that's just a piece of rubble." Karol replied, looking at it. "We shouldn't reach where we're going for a while."

"Kay." I stretched.

"Hey, let's stop for a bit. We need to eat some breakfast." Yuri called.

"Kay!" I turned around. "Who's gonna cook?"

"I'll cook this time," Yuri sighed. "Maybe we need to take turns for who cooks…."

Estelle frowned. "We could draw a name out of a bag or a hat or something…"

"Good idea, Estelle," Rita seemed very thoughtful. "This way, the person with the best cooking isn't always the one who cooks and the person with the worst cooking isn't always cooking either…"

"Alright, alright." Yuri put his free hand in his pocket. "Give me some room so I can cook. Riceballs fine for everyone?"

I looked at him warily, "Are you planning on putting shrimp in them?"

"No."

"Then I'm fine with 'em." I looked at Jade. "Are you fine with it, Jade?"

Jade walked in a circle a couple of times before sitting.

I sighed. "I'll take that as a yes, then…" I walked over and sat next to my sister. Shortly after Yuri started cooking, I got an idea. "Hey, Estelle, do you have any books on magical theory with you?"

The princess tilted her head, "Yeah, but why?"

"I wanna see what elements I'd be able to learn." I shrugged, remembering the skit where Yuri says he can't do magic because he can't study. "You can look at one of our books, if you want…"

Jade glared at me, "Why are you offering my books?"

"Because she won't write on them."

"Right." I hope that translation spell Jade tried making worked… it's not like we could really test it considering we could already read the books….

Estelle's green eyes lit up. "You have books?"

Jade gave her a look."Why would I go anywhere without books?"

Estelle frowned, "Because you might not like reading?"

Jade stared at her before pulling out The Queen of the Damned. That was an….interesting book, to say the very least. "Does this answer your question?"

Estelle tilted her head and reached out for the book.

"You might not want to read that Estelle." I sighed.

"What do you mean?" Estelle looked at me.

"It's awkward." Jade replied.

"What do you mean awkward?" Estelle looked very confused, just like Meiu/Sylph/Estelle. Maybe that's why she's Estelle.

"The purple coated man awkward." Jade tried to explain. "Let me get a more…" she paused, "suitable book out."

"How about The Eye of the World?" I reached into my bag and pulled out the 670 page book. "It doesn't have anything awkward in it, and Estelle might like the back-story more than we did…"

"What do you mean more than you did?" Rita asked, looking over at the three of us.

"They spent 200 pages telling us false rumors." Jade paused. "Well, it might've been less than 200 but it felt like 200."

"Oh." Estelle walked over to her bag and pulled out a couple semi-thick books. They didn't look to have more pages than my 9th grade math book.

"Thanks Estelle!" I smiled at the pinkette as she swapped her books for my offered one.

"Rita, do you have any on you?" Jade asked.

"Any what?"

"Books on magical theory."

"Oh, yeah." Rita grabbed a stack of semi-thicker books and handed them to Jade. I opened the first book Estelle had given me.

….

…..

"So, if I go like this I should be able to cast Photon?" I tried to cast the spell. "Light! Photon!"

Nothing happened.

"So…..Like this?" Jade snapped, pointing into the distance like Roy Mustang. "This doesn't have a chant. Dark Sphere!"

Nothing happened.

"….I can't use Dark Sphere…." Jade frowned at her fingers.

"Trade books?" I offered Estelle's Light book.

"Sure." I got Rita's Dark book in exchange for Estelle's Light book. "So….." Jade snapped in a direction again. "Light! Photon!" A tiny, pale sphere of light appeared and blew up some ten feet away. "Whoo!" Jade threw her arms up.

"This doesn't have a chant. Dark Sphere!" I managed to say it in rhythm, and the area blasted by Jade's Photon got blasted by my sphere made of darkness. I grinned. "Alright!"

Estelle blinked. "That was fast….Though, it does make sense that it's so small your first time casting…"

Yuri grabbed a pot and walked over to a nearby stream, getting some water. "I hope there isn't any fish in here…" he muttered as he poured rice into it. He looked up as he walked back over to the group. "Who has the flint and steel?"

"That'd be me!" Karol cried, digging through his bag to give the fire starters to Yuri.

"Thanks Captain." Yuri ruffled Karol's hair. I stopped paying attention to them after that, preferring to concentrate on my magic practice.

"So….." I concentrated on a pile of leaves. "Get 'em! Icicle!" A small spear of ice pierced a few leaves, quickly followed by others.

"Crackle! Lightning!"

Nothing happened. So, Jade can't use Lightning, Dark, and Ice, and I can't use Light, Earth, and Water. Both of us can use Fire and Wind, though.

"Get 'em! Lightning!" I concentrated on the pile of leaves again. A single stroke of lightning weakly scattered some leaves.

"Frisbee!" I turned to stare at my sister. "Aqua Edge!"

"Why do you keep making up chants?"

"It's fun." She gave me a look. "Burn! Fire!" a single fireball set some of the leaves on fire. "Frisbee! Aqua Edge!"

"Scatter! Wind Arrow!" I smirked at my sister as I scattered the leaves she was trying to hit.

She stuck her tongue out at me. "I'ma stop."

Yuri paused in his rice ball making. "Maybe you guys could try that with cleaning this pot."

"Sounds like a plan." Jade shrugged.

"That'd be Earth and Water, wouldn't it?"

"Earth makes soap?" Jade gave me a look.

"No, but it scours." I shrugged.

"I think it'd be safer just to put some sand in there, then water to swish it about." Jade gave me a look.

"Probably."

"I don't wanna punch holes in things with flying rocks. It just seems like a bad idea to use Stone Blast on a pot, seriously."

I laughed a little. "Either way, I can't use those elements."

"This is true."

"So, I gather sand and you use a water spell?" I tapped the ground around us.

"Sounds like a plan." Jade repeated with a bit of a smirk. "I think eating comes first though."

"Oh yes." I grinned. "That way we don't get sand in the rice." Jade hummed in agreement.

"Rice balls are done!" Yuri called from the campfire.

"Kay~!" I walked over and grabbed one. Jade's hand followed mine and snagged another, followed by the rest of - well, not "Brave Vesperia", they aren't Brave Vesperia yet, and two of them don't ever join officially…yet the coliseum seemed to think that they were part of Brave Vesperia. Well, given that they never leave...

Karol blinked after taking a large bite, "This is really good…" Jade made a hum-like noise of agreement, reaching for another. Estelle, Rita and I followed my sister's example.

"I know it's good and all, but feed the cook!" Yuri grabbed several and moved away from the rest. Jade grabbed a third, then inched back. She quickly set herself up with the fire book in her lap and rice ball in hand to read and eat without getting stray rice-grains in the book.

I grabbed a third as well, and sat next to Jade. I grabbed the lightning book and set myself up the same way, with my rice ball away from Jade.

"Damn, foiled." Jade muttered, noticing the placement of my rice ball.

I stuck my tongue out at her, and took a bite, looking at the contents of the First Tier chapter.

Karol looked between the both of us. "You're mirrored." He comments, picking rice off his face.

"Are we?" I asked, tilting my head to the right.

Jade tilted her head to the left. "Really? Didn't notice."

"We've always done things this way." I shrugged.

"It's fun. You should try it some time." Jade picked scraps of her rice ball from her hand and ate them, eyeing the remaining rice balls.

"So much fun." I sighed, noticing three of the four remaining rice balls get picked up by Yuri, Estelle, and Rita.

Jade quickly leaned over and snagged the remaining one. She eyed it, then me, and the rice ball again.

I grinned. "I don't want it, Jade." I stood up, putting the purple book down carefully. "I'll get some sand." As soon as I was a ways away from the group, two bandits and a sorceress appeared. "Aw, come on! Really?" I said, moving out of the way of a dagger. I pulled my flute out of the holster I had put on earlier. I need to play something….. Festive Dance from Faust! That should work….

I skipped the slow parts of the song, watching how a bandit got attacked by musical notes. I am so glad I have this song memorized.

"That sounds like Faust." Jade must have been talking loud on purpose, because I heard her over my playing.

Oh crap. I'm at the end of Faust.

Just before my mind scrambled to find another song, I heard a very familiar Bari Sax start playing…. Did she really?

Oh yes… "You're playing that wrong!" I grinned, hearing my sister's wrong rhythm. "It's like this!"

Now dance, baby, dance! Man, he never had a chance, and no one even knew it was really only you.

Even though we were just playing the song and not singing, a man's voice rang out above the sound of our music.

And now you steal away, take him out today, nice work you did~, you're gonna go far, kid~. With a thousand lies and a good disguise, hit 'em right between the eyes, hit 'em right between the eyes.

I was so absorbed in the music, I didn't notice the bandits drop dead at "hit 'em right between the eyes". Yuri and the rest took care of the sorceress as soon as they caught up.