Author's Note: Now that we're done with that, let's move on. This chapter should be fun.


The party had an uneventful boat ride from Chesedonia to Sheridan.

Jade, Luke, Tear, Natalia, Guy and Anise immediately started walking over to the aircraft dock. After admiring the town for a few moments, Jade's replica followed, not entirely sure where everyone was going.

En route, the group encountered a young lady with short blond hair, goggles, and a comfortable-looking jacket.

"Hi Noelle!" said Luke, "We were wondering if we could borrow the Albiore for a while."

"Oh, hey everyone! You're just in time. We've finished the Albiore IV! Ginji's going to be taking it out for a test run." said Noelle. "I'll ask if you could borrow it afterwards. Want to watch?"

Guy looked towards Jade's replica with pleading eyes that said "Please say we have time for this, please!"

Jade's replica stepped forward from vaguely behind the group. Noelle looked surprised, but before she could mention the fact that there were two Jades, he said, "Sure, I haven't seen a test flight of anything, besides new chair prototypes. Oh, let me introduce myself. I'm his replica." he pointed his thumb behind him, where Jade was standing.

"Hello. I'm Noelle, one of the Albiores' pilots. My brother Ginji's the other one." replied Noelle. Though she was surprised that Jade had a replica, she wasn't especially so. About half of everyone she'd known, both living and dead, had one. She turned and lead the group over to the observation post.

-[...]-

Though the test flight was just a trip around the Meggiora Highlands, Guy and the replica watched like two children; transfixed and in awe of the flying fon machine.

"Wow, Jade," said Jade's replica, "that thing's more impressive than you are!"

"Ah," replied Jade, "so in your opinion, I've been upstaged by a ton of flying metal" with his customary unreadable smile.

"You know, when you say that, it makes me wonder what exactly you're thinking..." commented his replica.

Noelle returned. "Okay, where did you guys want to go?"

-[...]-

"Stop here."

Noelle stopped the Albiore where Jade's replica said to instead of parking it at the entrance of Ortion Cavern, which is what she thought she was going to do.

"You see those whirlpools over there?" Noelle nodded. "Land the Albiore in the water right next to them." Puzzled, Noelle did as she was told. Jade's replica opened the maintenance hatch on the ceiling of the Albiore and climbed out.

"Hey! What are you doing?" asked Anise.

"Just watch." answered the replica, muffled by the noise of the whirlpool. He stood on the top of the Albiore and the people heard a voice that sounded similar to Dist's, if he had a cold, or plugged his nose, say "Keterburg, Jade, Rose, Nebilim" loudly. Suddenly, the noise stopped, and a 'thunk' was heard. Noelle saw the whirlpools had disappeared and a large opening appeared in the cliff side.

Jade's replica jumped back into the Albiore and landed crouched. He stood up and closed the maintenance hatch. "That was Saphir's passcode you just heard. He nodded to Jade. "I apologize for his tactlessness."

"How were you able to mimic Dist's voice?" asked Guy.

"Because the seventh fonon is the fonon of sound, if you manipulate it the right way, you can sound like anything you want. Since replicas are made mostly with the seventh fonon, I can use it while my original," he put an arm around said original, "can't. If you know Jade, you are probably very afraid right now." He had a broad grin on his face.

Jade looked slightly annoyed, which was much more than anyone remembered him seeming. This meant that he was probably very annoyed. Those who knew him well, which meant no one in the current party, may have been able to see that Jade was also a little disturbed.

Noelle had parked right outside the new entrance and everyone walked into the cavern. The cavern is mostly dirt and rock, with a few glittering stones here and there. The walls are rough, but the floor was leveled, presumably for ease of walking. There were many parts that were not flattened, which are lower than the floor level and flooded with water that flows in from the ocean underneath the cliff wall. A few meters away from the entrance were broken machines. They looked like they were smashed with a large boulder. Further in, the group could see empty cages separated from the main path, literally by a few meters of flooded trench, with control panels beside them.

"Did those cages hold anything recently?" asked Natalia, who was looking around.

"Yes they did," answered Jade the replica, "Cheagles. Saphir spent a good deal of his free time experimenting on them. He spent the rest of his free time on me. He did take care of them, but minimally. I thought they'd be happier out of the cages, but I'm not entirely sure where they went. When I released them, they headed for the entrance, but when I went to see where they were going, they were all gone."

He lead the party to an incongruous-looking door in the middle of one of the inner walls.

"Before we move on to removing fomicry machines, I want to check on some things." He then opened the door, and he and the party walked in. Immediately, six of little robots gathered around the replica and said "Jade!" "Jade's back!" and various greetings in tinny, electronic voices. Then they noticed the original and three went to crowd him. Sounding confused, they all started to say things like, "Jade?", "Is this Jade...?", and "Saphir, is that you?" Jade's replica laughed.

"He's the original." he said. "You guys still remember I'm a replica, right?" after they nodded in a rather awkward way, he continued. "Guys, meet the robots. They don't have names, so I can't introduce them. They usually kept me company when Saphir wasn't around. You see that one with the green lights? I built him myself. The rest are improvements upon and replicas of the original, now-destroyed Barrelow, who was Saphir's favourite toy. They're rather useful and intelligent. Aren't you?" He said the last part while patting one of the robots on the head.

"We're always happy to help you, Master Jade!" it said.

"Hmm?" he asked, "What's with the 'Master' all of a sudden?"

"Well," it said, "We were thinking, that now there's two Jades, and you are, in many ways, our master, that to reduce confusion, we would call you 'Master Jade' and the other one 'Other Jade'. We hope you don't mind."

"Aren't they the cleverest things?" 'Master' Jade said to the group, while picking up the robot and holding it in his arms.

"They're adorable!" said Natalia, kneeling down to the one the replica Jade had said he made. Tear was blushing, obviously thinking about how cute they are.

"Can I hold one?" asked Guy, looking like he wanted to snatch one and bring it home with him.

"I don't see why not. In fact, if they don't mind, you can bring them home with you. After this, I don't think I'll be coming back here much." he answered

"I still think Tokunaga's cuter." said Anise, while following Guy, who was now holding a robot, Natalia, and Tear. Luke went and looked at the room. He also wanted to play with the robots, but there really wasn't much space left. The room was larger than he expected, and unlike the rest of the cave, could have been a room in practically any house. The walls were smooth and painted white. There was a bed, a dresser, and a desk. The desk and the dresser had several books on it, and the desk had a small bookcase on it, which was already overstuffed with books. The floor had carefully-stacked piles of books, and there was a fishing pole right next to the door. The fishing pole really looked out of place.

"Hey, Jade," he started. Both Jades looked at him. "Um, I mean other Jade," The original Jade had an amused smile as they both said "Yes, Luke?" "Sorry, I meant replica Jade." "Yes, Luke?" he said again. "Do you fish?" said Luke, motioning towards the pole. "Yes, I do." he answered. "Usually when I'd finished reading and was waiting for Saphir to come back. He never actually brought enough books."

Jade's replica then went and picked up a book off the desk and stuck it in his pocket along with and pen that was also on the desk. He then took the fishing pole and put it over his back. He took the hook, pulled it across his front, and attached it to the other end of the pole.

"If everyone's finished," said Jade, "shall we be going?"

They all headed outside the room. Luke saw a door, but didn't say anything as Jade's replica headed to a wall and smashed a hole in it using a fonic arte. He then walked in, and everyone followed, Inside, there was a fomicry machine.

"See that machine there? It's meant to replicate that wall there," he pointed at the part of the wall he broke. The wall was already showing signs of being rebuilt by fomicry, with incomplete material stretching from the sides of the hole. "so that it is pretty much undetectable." He then used a similar fonic arte to the one he used on the wall and destroyed the machine. "I would be destroying these by myself, but, besides this room and possibly a few others, the system is full of replicated monsters and guards, more than I could deal with, even with the robots helping me. But I'm sure that Jade would be able to take care of them by himself." he said with a smile and a wink at Jade. Jade adjusted his glasses and hid his eyes behind the glare that shone off them.

"Well then, let's go!" said the replica Jade, motioning everyone to follow.