A/N: Do not own Tales of the Abyss.

"Luck is not a factor. Hope is not a strategy. Fear is not an option."

– James Cameron

Chapter 4 – The God-Generals

"We aren't helping them by standing around, Guy," Jade said sternly as Guy stared wide-eyed down into the darkness that the others had fallen into. The bridge now had a gaping hole on its side, leaving only a small part of the other side for them to walk on whenever they left the ruins. He wondered if it would even hold.

"We need to move on."

Guy nodded numbly and turned to face Jade.

"I'm worried about Master and the others!" Mieu squeaked from Guy's shoulder.

"I'm sure they'll all fine," Jade replied as he turned away from the crumbled remains of the bridge and continued onward, "Tear and Anise are both reasonably skilled fighters, the monsters inhabiting these ruins will be of little challenge to them. We need to keep moving downward if we're going to regroup."

They walked in silence. Guy was worried about the others. Alex and Natalia were still new to fighting, and Luke was still no expert either. His only forms of comfort were the facts that Tear and Natalia were both healers, and Anise was seriously skilled with Tokunaga, as Jade explained.

Still though, they'd fallen pretty far, considering Guy was unable to see where they had landed. He hoped they survived, and that they regrouped before either side ran into the God-Generals.

He was also worried about how difficult it would be to get through the ruins with just Jade and Mieu with him. There were definitely monsters in the ruins, and they had no healers. At least Guy was the one carrying the Wing Pack and Jade had the item bag, so they had some apple gels if they needed them.

It would still be a pain if they were attacked by a group of monsters with Guy being the only one fending them off as Jade chanted incantations. They would have to avoid as many monsters as possible.

"We should hurry," Jade said suddenly, "Having just two of us could become a problem later on. It would be easier if Largo hadn't put that fon slot seal on me on the Tartarus."

Guy wondered briefly if Jade could read minds. "But you've been able to make progress on that seal, right?"

"Hardly," the older man replied, a somewhat bitter tone to his voice, "I'm more or less capable of the artes I learned as a child at the moment. The useful artes drain my energy far too much to even attempt, and the seal has slowed my movements too much to be of much use on the frontlines as well. With just my artes and your sword, we may run into complications."

"I'm here too, Colonel!" Mieu piped up, raising a tiny paw in the air.

"Yes, of course," Jade replied, smiling bemusedly at the cheagle, "My apologies Mieu. At any rate, we need to regroup as quickly as possible; I'm worried about how Luke might act when I don't have my eye on him."

Guy smiled slightly, "I wouldn't worry about it too much; Tear seems to have him whipped. Natalia's pretty good at keeping him in check too. Whatever she blackmailed him with in the factory is helping her do that. Besides, he may not ever admit it, but Alex did help with a lot of raising him after he lost his memory, so he does care what she thinks about him. He won't do anything too stupid."

Jade pushed his glasses up his nose, and Guy could see from the corner of his eye that he was smirking, "Regardless, we still don't have a healer. It would of course be ideal to meet up with the others before confronting the God-Generals and taking Ion back. I doubt they'll just hand him over without a fight."

Guy's smile faded, he was worried about how Natalia and Alex would take fighting other people. And of all the people they could have as their first human opponents, it was the God-Generals. They would be merciless and take any hesitation as an advantage. It would be just another battle Guy spent looking out for them.

"That's true."

They continued in silence as they made their way through what appeared to be the remains of a neighborhood. The small clusters of buildings along the path were all destroyed, and Guy swore he saw some old, deteriorated bones littered around the area, but tried not to think about it.

Hardly halfway through the neighborhood, two large pans emerged from behind a destroyed building; brandishing scythes made of sticks, leaves, and sharpened stones. Guy briefly thought it was incredible how monsters were smart enough to make weapons like that. Humans didn't give them enough credit sometimes.

They didn't attack, but instead pointed their weapons at them and started speaking to them in their language.

The monsters continued their uproar, and Jade turned to their cheagle companion, "Mieu, could you translate?"

"They say that we're trespassing," Mieu replied in his high voice, "They say that we aren't welcome here and we need to leave at once or they'll have to kill us!"

"Can you explain to them that we're only here to save a friend and we'll leave as soon as we're done?" Guy asked him.

Mieu nodded and approached the monsters, keeping a safe distance from them. He spoke to them for a few moments in their monster language before turning back to Guy and Jade.

"They say that four others already came this way and three of them killed a lot of their friends. They don't trust us."

Jade sighed, "Well, at least now we know Luke wasn't merely hallucinating. The God-Generals are here. It may be harsh, but we'll have to eliminate these monsters if we want to continue."

Guy felt bad about it, but it seemed that there was no other choice. He wasn't about to turn around when Luke, Alex, and the others were somewhere below them, and the God-Generals still had Ion.

He unsheathed his sword and took stance, but the second he did more Pans made appearances from every direction, and what he thought were just rocks started moving and he realized that they were in fact stone elements lying in wait.

"Damn it, we're outnumbered!"

To his annoyance, Jade was actually laughing, "This is terrible!"

Ignoring him, Guy charged at the closest monsters. He wondered why he had to be stuck with Jade of all their group members. Even Natalia's constant reprimanding about his phobia might have been preferable.

"I'll take care of the rock elements," Jade said as he began to cast, the blue light of his fonic glyph signifying a Fourth Fonon arte, "I'll leave the rest to you, don't let them interfere with my casting."

It was easier said than done.

There were so many of the pans, at least twelve of them, for just Guy alone to handle. He took care of the smallest ones first, since they were pretty easy to deal with and it seemed that they were able to cast as well, which would become a problem.

Guy cut them down one by one, narrowly avoiding the rock blasts, not letting himself feel remorse for the creatures, even when they were only trying to protect their home.

Once the smaller ones were taken care of, there were seven Pans left. Five medium sized ones with spears, and the two large ones Mieu had tried to speak to. He went after the big ones first, since they looked more dangerous. Jade was strong enough to protect himself from the smaller ones if they came at him while he was casting.

"O violent torrent," Jade chanted as a glowing circle erupted around him, his long hair floating around his shoulders, "Splash!"

Waves appeared from thin air above the rock elements as they tried to cast, crashing on top of them. The currents pulled them right over the edge of pathway, down into the darkness.

Well, that took care of them, at least, and Guy didn't have to worry about being hit by any stalagmites or rock blasts.

Instead of going back to casting, Jade's spear appeared in his hand and he joined Guy in taking care of the remaining two Pans.

The second the monsters were all taken care of, Guy started walking again, faster than before. He paid no attention to the bloodstains on his clothes.

"I feel bad for them..." Mieu said, hovering to take a spot on Guy's shoulder again, "They were only protecting their home."

Guy spared a glance at the cheagle and saw that he was genuinely upset; his ears were drooping and his eyes watery, "I know, Mieu. It's unfortunate, but it can't be helped. You want to meet up with Luke right?" The cheagle nodded. "Well, we can't do that if we let monsters kill us."

Mieu nodded again, "Yeah, I want to make sure Master and Tear are all right!"

Guy looked back after noticing Jade was being too quiet to see that he was walking slowly a few feet behind them, he didn't seem to even be trying to keep up.

"Jade, come on! Hurry it up!"

"Must you treat your elders so poorly?" Jade sighed as Guy rolled his eyes impatiently, "What's your hurry? The worst that could happen is they all die."

Guy glared at him.

"Relax, I'm joking."

"That's hardly something to joke about! Especially at a time like this!"

"I suppose you're right, my apologies. You shouldn't worry too much about them regardless, it'll only interfere with your fighting. Keep in mind that they have both our healers with them, there's only so much an apple gel can do if you get hurt."

Guy sighed, "Alright, you have a point. But we still can't be wasting time!"

They continued walking for some time, and eventually they heard voices coming from a pathway adjacent to them that led downward.

"Would you stop swinging your sword around like that? You're going to hurt somebody one of these days!"

"It's these damn bats! I wouldn't have to swing my sword around if they weren't here!"

Guy sighed. He never thought he would be happy to hear Luke and Alex arguing.

...

When Natalia insisted on accompanying Luke's group to aid Akzeriuth despite her father's doubts, nearly falling to her death while traversing ancient ruins in a desert and listening to Alex and Luke bicker back and forth on their way to save the Fon Master, wasn't exactly what she'd had in mind.

She couldn't deny the experience wasn't eye opening, as she'd never seen Luke outside the settings of the manor. He was different, somehow, since the day he and Tear vanished from Baticul.

He was still nothing like the Luke she had loved, the one who had made that promise with her all those years ago.

Perhaps it was selfish of her, but she wanted that Luke back. She wanted his memories to return to him, and for him to keep his promise. She didn't want him to leave her behind and go to Daath.

Even after the few days since she and Alex had joined their group, Natalia had noticed how much more alive Luke seemed outside the confines of the manor. Even though she couldn't say she would be happy to see him go with the Commandant to Daath, the last thing she wanted was to get in the way of his happiness.

Besides, it was possible that the new surroundings would start something in his mind and help restore his memories. He might even be more willing to fulfill his promise to her if she showed him that she could be supportive of his decisions, even if they made things more difficult for her.

Perhaps he would even return from Daath a better man.

She was pulled from her thoughts just in time to see Luke nearly take Tear's head off with his sword. Natalia sighed. Just what had the Commandant taught him about using the weapon? Didn't he warn him at all to be careful with it?

"Luke!" the melodist said in a dangerous voice, narrowing her visible eye at him in a way that made him shiver even in the dry heat of the ruins, "Put your sword away. Now."

Luke looked like he was going to argue, but upon her murderous gaze he shrank away slightly and did as he was told. Natalia respected Tear's ability to command a situation if it was needed, but the princess also couldn't deny the faintest trace of jealousy that Luke seemed to listen to the stranger more willingly than if Natalia had asked him to sheathe his blade.

"Told you," Alex said, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at him.

"Sh-shut up."

Natalia couldn't understand why Luke was so riled in the first place. It was only a single bat hovering harmlessly above them. Despite Luke threatening its life with his blade, it didn't seem to have any desire to attack.

"Oh!" Anise said, pointing ahead of them at a fork in the pathway, "There they are!"

Natalia almost had to squint to see where Anise was pointing, but the dark blues of Jade's uniform stood out tremendously against the browns of the sand and dirt that made up the ruins.

Both parties picked up their pace, although it looked like Jade was dragging behind Guy a bit. Likely on purpose, from what Natalia could see of the blond's irritated expression.

Guy opened his mouth to greet them as they got closer, but Mieu darted past him, cutting him off as he latched onto Luke.

"Master! I was so worried about you!"

"I don't need you to worry about me, Thing!" Luke yelled, shoving Mieu away from him. Natalia shook her head. What reason could Luke possibly have to treat the Cheagle so poorly? What a horrible name to call him by!

"Do you need to treat him so badly?" Alex asked, as if reading the princess' mind.

"Indeed," Natalia agreed, hands on her hips, "You should treat him more kindly. What has Mieu ever done to you?"

"He's annoying!"

Tear sighed, and Natalia could swear that she saw the brunette's eye twitch slightly at Luke's behavior. "We should be hurrying to find the Fon Master."

"What happened?" Guy asked. His eyes were on the large tear in Alex's sleeve, and the now-dried blood on the material of her shirt.

Alex shrugged, "I'm fine. It was just a scratch."

The blond's eyes narrowed, "Looks like it was more than a scratch to me."

"She said she's fine," Luke told him, "I made sure she didn't get too hurt, and Natalia healed her. Let's just get Ion and get out of here, I'm tired of these stupid ruins."

"Yeah," Anise agreed loudly, "I'm worried about Ion and what those God-Generals want with him!"

Alex cast Luke a glance, "I wonder if Asch'll be with them?"

"If Luke really did hear him in the Oasis, it's more than likely he is," Jade replied.

Luke looked understandably put off.

"Is everyone ready?" Tear asked, "We'd best be prepared for a battle when we find them. I doubt the God-Generals will give the Fon Master up easily."

"Maybe we should take a bit of a breather first?" Alex suggested.

Natalia nodded, "Yes. I agree our first priority is to rescue the Fon Master and hurry to Akzeriuth, but if we're forced to battle the God-Generals when we're all exhausted..."

Right on time, Luke's stomach growled, "Damn it. I want to get out of here, but I'm starving."

"Let's stop for lunch, shall we?" Guy asked.

"Good idea," Alex replied, "I'm pretty famished, too."

"Anise, you cook," Luke said simply.

"Huh? But I cooked last time!"

Luke shrugged, "So?"

Anise pouted, "So I'm tired! Someone else can take a turn!"

"Alex and I haven't done any cooking yet," Natalia said thoughtfully, "Perhaps we could give it a try?"

"I don't have a problem with that," Alex shrugged.

Luke narrowed his eyes at them, "Can you two cook?"

"How hard could it be?" Alex asked.

"We won't make anything extravagant," Natalia told him, "Something like sandwiches couldn't be that difficult."

"As long as I don't have to cook, I'm okay with it," Anise said.

"Fine," Luke said, "But I'm starving, so don't mess it up!"

"You'll find the ingredients you need in here," Guy said, tossing the Wing Pack to Alex, "You remember how to use it?"

"Yeah, we got it," she waved him off, "Relax."

The two girls set up the little supplies they needed a small distance away from the others, taking a series of vegetables and uncooked meats, as well as some bread, from the Wing Pack, as well as a small frying pan and a stand for it. They called Mieu over to light the fire underneath, unhappy about having to add more heat to the area.

They bickered back and forth about who had to cut the raw meat, and eventually Natalia had set to preparing the vegetables while Alex grumbled about how gross the feeling of the meat was. Both were annoyed with how difficult it was to keep sand out of all the food.

Everything seemed to be going well, until…

"What is that?" Alex asked, tentatively prodding the blackened outside of the food inside the frying pan.

"It's a tomato."

Alex looked up at her, "A tomato?! Natalia, you weren't supposed to cook the vegetables!"

"This is food?" Luke asked, incredulous.

"It doesn't look that bad," Guy said, trying and failing to be sincere, "For a first attempt."

"It's inedible!" Luke shouted, "How do you mess up sandwiches?!"

"Told you you weren't supposed to cook the vegetables," Alex muttered, pointing out the soggy, discolored lettuce on her own sandwich.

"Well!" Natalia placed her hands on her hips, "I wasn't the one who burned the meat!"

"At least that's a mistake that makes sense! How do you burn lettuce?!"

"Calm down," Guy tried before Natalia could respond, "You'll say something you might regret."

"I think everyone's hunger is getting to them," Tear agreed, calm as ever, "This is a fixable mistake."

"Yeah," Anise said slowly, "The meat isn't that charred, so if we take the vegetables off, it'll be fine."

An awkward silence fell over the group as they all did as Anise suggested and ate. Only Jade appeared to have been enjoying the display moments before.

Though it wasn't the best meal, the meat was salty and hard to chew, Natalia did feel much better with something in her stomach.

"Even if we didn't do well the first time, it's still good learning experience for when I'm married."

"What?" Alex narrowed her eyes, "Natalia, you'll be queen! People will do that for you."

"No kidding," Luke muttered, "Who would want to eat your cooking every day?"

Natalia shot Luke a glare before replying to Alex, "That's no excuse for me not to improve my skills. Can you deny that it would be romantic to give your husband a home-cooked meal, even if only once in a while? You should be thinking about these things as well, you'll be married soon enough."

The look on Alex's face changed instantly, and Natalia regretted the words. The blonde knew how Alex dreaded meeting the suitors her father had been lining up for her; she shouldn't have said something like that.

Anise perked and tilted her head at Alex, "You're getting married?"

"No," she replied shortly, staring straight ahead of her.

The younger girl looked confusedly from Natalia back to Alex, "But-"

"Drop it," Luke whispered to her in warning. Natalia noticed how uncomfortable both he and Guy looked with the topic. She expected she wasn't the only one Alex had complained to about the Duke's insistence on her meeting her suitors despite her reluctance.

Natalia thought desperately for a change of subject.

Alex did need to get over her problem with the situation, though, and soon. She would be of age in just a couple months. What confused Natalia most was Alex's reluctance to admit that she could potentially meet a man who she may end up liking.

Jade cleared his throat, gaining everyone's attention. "We should focus on the task at hand."

"Task at hand?" Luke repeated, confused, "You mean saving Ion and getting out of here? But I'm still hungry! And there's no way I'm eating this!"

Jade ignored his comment altogether, "I propose we come up with a system of cooking pairs and alternate. It would be beneficial for us to have edible food every day."

"Totally," Anise agreed, "We can't afford to lose that many ingredients again. It's a waste of gald."

Natalia's shoulders fell at the comment. She didn't think the first attempt was that bad.

Tear nodded, "Perhaps we should pair the most skilled cooks with the least skilled?"

"That's not a bad idea," Jade replied, turning to the youngest member of their group, "Anise-"

"I'll be paired with Ion when we get him back," she insisted, crossing her arms, "He's always insisting on chipping in somehow, I want to keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't hurt himself."

Honestly, did the Fon Master truly need to be babied so much? Natalia hadn't had the chance to get to know him, but Anise's concern for him did appear sincere.

"Then perhaps I should take on Natalia," Tear said. The princess narrowed her eyes at her, not particularly caring for her choice of words. The melodist noticed, and stumbled to correct herself, "I wouldn't mind teaching you what I know, is what I meant."

"She'd probably be the best one to teach you, too, Natalia," Guy added helpfully. Anise muttered something about Tear being the most patient out of them, and the princess chose to ignore the comment.

"If you expect me to cook, I'll be with Guy," Luke stated, with no room for argument.

Alex sighed, "So that leaves me with…"

Jade adjusted his glasses, "I suppose this means you and I are partners."

"Great…"

Everyone looked from Jade to Alex. Natalia certainly didn't envy her in that moment.

"Good luck," Luke said, even he had stopped looking bored long enough to spare her an apologetic glance.

"Maybe we could trade off partners every once in a while?" Alex suggested hopefully.

"I don't see any problem with that," Guy agreed.

"Nonsense," Jade replied, "This could be fun. It would be the perfect opportunity for me to pass on all my expertise with experimental drugs and their effects on the human race."

"Wh-what?!"

It didn't take them long at all to reach the end of the ruins after they had finished their meal.

They watched their steps much more carefully than they had before the fall, and eventually, the group entered a large chamber of the ruins. Looking up, Natalia was amazed they were underground. She couldn't even see the ceiling if she squinted, it was too dark.

"Over there," Alex pointed out, snapping Natalia out of her thoughts.

She looked in the direction her friend was pointing, and saw the Fon Master surrounded by three men. One wore a mask, another was rather large in stature, and the third was clearly Asch, though he had his back to them at the moment.

Ion had his hands held out in front of an overly large door, with intricate, multi-colored patterns on it. Light appeared from his hands, and he had a look of concentration on his sweaty face. Being a healer, Natalia was immediately concerned with his health.

"The Fon Master is in the middle of a ritual," the largest man said in a booming voice as they approached, "We'll have no interference from you."

"Such impudence!" Natalia crossed her arms, glaring at the man, as Asch and Ion turned to face the group. He and the younger General with the mask stood in front of the other two as if on guard.

The door disappeared, and Ion and Asch turned to face them. The Master looked unsteady on his feet.

Ion looked happy to see them despite how tired he clearly was, and went to move forward when Asch held his arm out in front of him. The red-haired God-General's expression was unreadable.

Natalia noticed his eyes on Luke for a long moment, before they rested on her. Why did she feel butterflies in her stomach the second their eyes met?

She tried to ignore him. Why did he look so much like Luke? Aunt Susanne would never be the type to abandon a second son, if they happened to be twins. Natalia couldn't see her going along with that even if the Score and her husband told her to.

She squashed her thoughts, focusing on the task at hand. Inquiries could wait. "And after kidnapping the one you're supposed to serve!"

Anise ran forward, one hand on Tokunaga, "Sync, Largo! Give Ion back!"

"I think not," the masked one, Sync, replied, "We still have work for him."

"Then we'll just take him back by force!" Luke yelled, pulling out his sword.

Natalia sighed. She had been hoping they could somehow save Ion without it coming to a fight. They were all far too tired for this. The princess knew it wasn't going to happen, but that didn't make her any less disappointed as she bowed an arrow and pulled back the string, her aim on the biggest target: Largo.

The others drew their weapons alongside her.

She could only hope that the God-Generals had used most of their own energy making their way through the ruins as well.

"This should be fun," Largo said, snapping Natalia out of her thoughts. Largo was looking directly at her, more amused than anything else at her aiming for him. His gaze shifted to Luke, and she felt a rush of irritation at being so obviously underestimated. She would make him regret that.

"Let's see how much you've grown since I last saw you, cowering on the Tartarus."

"That's nice, coming from someone who was half-dead after one shot by Jade."

Largo laughed, "Yeah, well, we won't be losing so easily this time, boy."