A/N: I seem to have killed my creativity--I've been having lots of trouble drawing and writing anything worthwhile. Bah. But I'll still try!

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Part VI: The Grand Tethe'alla Bridge

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Aster was not the average Tethe'allan human. He was a child prodigy with intelligence to rival that of any half-elf, counted half-elves among his friends in a society that condemned them for simply being half-elves, stubborn, and unnaturally sunnily happy-go-lucky. He really could be described as a human "with a few screws loose."

As he bounded (or rather, bounced) through the Imperial Research Academy (to the amusement, befuddlement, and irritation of other scientists), with the Director's memo clenched in his fist, his usual smile was a flat line, his eyes distant in thought. What could the Director want with him? A month ago it had been to assign him to watch over Emil, the disoriented Sylvaranti discovered at the Otherworldly Gate.

Would this new assignment give Emil to some other researcher? He couldn't say he would like that--who knew how the other scientists might treat Emil, especially since he had no restraint in the strange things he said, having half-elf friends among them. Aster was protected by the Academy, so it was fine for him to be flaunting his half-elf relations, but Emil ... wasn't even Tethe'allan.

Or perhaps this meant Emil was now a valid test subject. Richter had expressed concerns for Emil being identical to Aster, as well as being able to wield the power of mana (as demonstrated in the basement before). Humans weren't supposed to be able to use mana. If he had elves in his family tree, that would be fine, except elf-descended humans' magic was pathetically weak. Only an Exsphere would put that magic on par with that of elves' and half-elves' ability. Emil had no Exsphere.

The hallway of the upper floor where the Director's room rested was practically empty. Aster quirked a brow as he knocked on the Director's door. The lack of scientists meandering about meant that the appearance of monsters in Tethe'alla had those researchers cooped up in their labs and busy. His mind went back to the line of cages that contained live monster samples collected throughout Tethe'alla. He clenched his fists. He had his hands full training and tutoring Emil these days, but should he return to his mana-monster research? Ordinarily he'd doubt that someone like Emil would be of much help in that regard, but he had an odd feeling that this wasn't the case.

A few moments after the knocks, the door opened, and the Director's eyes lit up when he saw Aster.

"Ah, Aster! So glad you could make it. Come in, won't you?"

By now Aster knew to watch his step whenever he set foot in the Director's room. The floors were littered with stacks and columns of books, the wooden shelves empty and supporting naught but layers of dust and cobwebs. If Aster had no bookshelves, his room might look like this, but he rather liked not knowing when he'd trip, fall, and break something. Probably his neck. However, he also knew not to mention this to the Director, who sat at his desk.

"Have a seat, please."

Shrugging, Aster folded his arms and sat on a stack of thick hardcover books. When the Director quirked a brow at this, Aster merely smiled sweetly.

"So to what do I owe this honor?" He waved the memo. "I don't much like having to leave Emil locked up in my dorm for long."

"The Sylvaranti," Director Schneider murmured. "We'll get to him eventually. I have a job for you. You saw the surveyors collecting live monsters, yes?"

Aster nodded, recalling the plant monster from the Gaoracchia Wood. The plant monster that disliked sunlight. "Do you want me to study them?"

The Director shook his head. "No, I've something else in mind. I'd like for you to go to the Elemental Research Laboratory in Meltokio. See if they can get permission to study the monsters brought in for the Coliseum before they are loosed in the arena."

That made sense, Aster thought. Sybak must be using so much of its resources to capture live monsters, but those of the Meltokio Royal Army capturing those very same monsters for the Coliseum to pit against criminals would have much more manpower for the task, and capture many more species than what the surveyors have managed so far. The people of Sybak weren't particularly gifted fighters, after all. The surveyor teams must have shuddered every time they were sent to collect the savage beasts.

And the Elemental Research Laboratory was practically right next to the Coliseum, in the perfect position to study those monsters before they were put in the battle arena. Plus the corpses could be studied after the criminals and gladiators were finished with them. All in all, it wasn't such a bad deal for the researchers of both Sybak and Meltokio. And with most of the grunt studying being done by other people, Aster could achieve results with his own work that much faster ...

"All right, Director. I'll do it. It's not such a bad deal, is it?"

The Director clapped his hands. "Very good! I knew I could count on you! How soon will you be prepared to leave?"

Aster looked up to the ceiling, tapping his toe on the ground in thought. "Immediately, actually." He stood, brushing off the pile of books that he had used for a chair. "I guess I'll shove off, then. May I bring Emil with me?"

"As long as you are with him at all times, I don't see why not."

"All right. Director, about Emil ..."

"Hm?"

"Are we really going to turn him into a test subject?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I just thought ... as a Sylvaranti, he's not protected under Tethe'allan law, despite the fact he's human. He's also said some strange things about 'summoning Niflheim,' and he has some ... ability to channel and use mana to an extent."

The Director furrowed his brow, frowning with an expression of bewilderment.

"The existence of the demonic realm is completely hypothetical. As for his ability to use mana, can that not be explained as his having elves in his family tree?"

Aster shook his head. "No, it was too strong for that."

"Does he have an Exsphere?"

There was a long pause. Aster's gaze was unfaltering; he looked the Director in the eye. Slowly, he clenched his fists tightly at his sides.

"Yes."

"Well, then, there you go. Such a trivial thing need not be a test subject, wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes, I do, Director Schneider."

--

Emil had finished showering and dressed, drying his hair off with a towel. He looked about the room--his shoes and broadsword were lying at the foot of his bed (the covers of which were unkept), as were his travel bags full of medicinal supplies along with his Gald and spare equipment. The latter had begun gathering dust, unused for the last month he had been cooped up here in Sybak.

He frowned. Cooped up ... he shouldn't think like that. Rilena hadn't brought him here to imprison him, nor did Richter or Aster seek to do that. It wasn't a bad life--he had a place to stay, he ate every day, he could shower daily with hot water, and he received a free education, the quality of which only the wealthiest could afford in Sylvarant. Yet all this, in exchange for his freedom. Well ... it wouldn't have been so different in the Ginnungagap, would it?

It's not that bad, y'know.

Emil stood by the desk, flipping through the pages of the physics textbook. Forces, heat, thermodynamics, wavelengths, electricity ... pretty dense stuff. Yet Aster made it look so very easy, the way he always seemed to regurgitate the textbook whenever Emil asked him a question. Aster's intelligence and breadth of knowledge probably rivaled even that of the Sage siblings, the smartest people Emil had known before. That intelligence had led him to discover Ratatosk and his Centurions. That in turn would also lead--

This is becoming a bothersome habit of yours.

Emil slammed the physics book shut, a bent frown on his lips.

"Th-that's not all I was thinking."

You do have a tendency to dwell on dark thoughts, such as Aster's death.

"No, really!" Emil folded his arms, sitting down on his bed, his frown turned into a pout. "Aster's really smart. One of Sybak's best and brightest."

Well, yeah, he didn't get to work here from the age of nine if he wasn't.

"I just thought ... Aster might figure out who we are."

... There hasn't been much time we're without him in the last month. And we can't go anywhere without him unless the Director says otherwise.

Emil clenched his fists. "What'll we do if he does realize it?"

I see what you mean. We haven't been exactly doing a good job of hiding things.

The incident in the basement laboratory when he had awakened flashed back in Emil's mind. Both he and his other self had called out Richter for trying to summon the demons of Niflheim, tried to summon the Centurions Aqua and Tenebrae, fought with Richter, and almost unleashed Ain Soph Aur. Pile on the strange things that kept slipping out of his mouth, and he may as well go around telling everyone he met his true identity.

If it were just Emil's other personality, that wouldn't be such a difficult thing for him to do. He had been about to break free back in the basement, after all. It wouldn't be such a big deal--he was the primeval being of this world, even older than the elves themselves. Like these meager mortals had any business locking him up anywhere!

But his gentler self liked to make things complicated.

"N-no I don't!"

Pardon me for leading an uncomplicated life unrestricted by the rules mortals make.

"That's anarchy." Emil said flatly.

Exactly. Summon Spirits have no need for governance. Not like we go around warring with one another.

Emil sighed, leaning against the wall. His other self wasn't wrong. If Summon Spirits had taken part in any war, it was at their summoners' behest, and in a war that involved only humans and half-elves. No Summon Spirit could be killed unless there was an absence of mana, or Ratatosk's core was destroyed. Emil didn't know whether or not the other Summon Spirits had cores, too.

"What would he do, though? Maybe ask about the mana balance, but if he knew about his death--" Emil started, clamping his mouth shut and hitting the back of his head on the wall. He cringed, rubbing the bump as the door opened, and in walked Aster with a knit brow.

"Emil, did you hit your head? Are you okay?"

Emil nodded, looked at his hand--no blood. "I'm fine. What did the Director want?"

Aster pulled the swivel chair close to him, sitting in it backward, resting his elbows on the backrest. "I'm supposed to go to Meltokio's Elemental Research Laboratory and help them get an okay to study the monsters the Royal Army captures for the Coliseum before they're sent to the Arena."

"Really now?" Emil asked, pointedly ignoring Ratatosk's mental jab of, You've got to stop thinking aloud like that.

Aster nodded, standing up. "Yeah. Get ready; you're coming with me."

"What, we're leaving today?"

"Uh-huh." Aster flashed a mischievous grin. "I want to you to see the Grand Tethe'alla Bridge with your own two eyes."

Emil grabbed his shoes, slipping them on. The Grand Tethe'alla Bridge ... there had been no such bridge in all his travels of the Tethe'allan lands on his previous journey, and none of his Tethe'allan friends said anything about it. Such a structure must have been pretty significant to bear a name like that.

"Is it a special bridge?"

Aster laughed. "Does the word 'grand' say nothing to you? It connects the Fooji and Altamira continents, spanning the ocean between."

Emil belted his broadsword to his waist, doing the same for his travel bags (how weird it felt to be wearing them after not doing any kind of traveling for a month now). "A bridge that spans the entire ocean? Wow ..."

"I know, aren't you bursting with excitement! It's almost noon. We can reach the bridge by late afternoon if we hurry."

"It's that close?"

"Yeah. Just a ways south of Sybak, if we follow the road."

"Right, then. Let's go!"

--

The day was bright and sunny as the unrelated identical twins set out on the road south of the University Town. The sky was a rich blue, mostly clear (wisps of grey clouds lurked near the horizon). Aster led the way despite the being the inexperienced fighter against monsters, though Emil wasn't too far behind. The road seemed pretty desolate, which could be attributed to the appearance of monsters in the flourishing world. If they did come across any other travelers, it was either by horseback or stagecoach. Not that either of them minded this. Neither liked crowds very much.

Emil had promised himself he'd begin forging pacts with monsters again, but as long as he was with Aster, the feat would prove difficult. It wasn't easy to pass off a savage beast as a stray pet, either. Inwardly he wondered if the pact making could just wait, but his other self wouldn't give in to that request. As they had unintentionally traversed the stream of time, there was no telling if and when their power could be cut off from their Centurions and their bonds with monsters. If they were wrong, fine, but they had no way of knowing whether or not they were wrong. Bonding with monsters again would be a form of insurance against the worst case scenario.

Ratatosk had no qualms of pact making out in the open. It was Emil with the reservations. Those stemmed particularly from his life in Luin, being bullied by the townspeople, accused of setting his "monster friends" loose to attack people. Quite strange that he was able to make pacts and bond with monsters so easily after the fact ... then again he had been egged on a certain Centurion of Darkness.

It hadn't been long before the first pack of monsters found them. Three wolves, and riven enough with hunger that they would take a pair of humans over their natural prey. Aster quickly equipped his spinner, unlocking the blades. He forced the first wolf away with Crescent Dance, one of the artes Emil taught him (Emil may use a sword, but he knew Marta's style like the back of his hand). Like Aster originally thought, the spinning blades sliced through the thick fur and flesh easily enough, beads of blood raining on the packed dirt of the road.

Emil was having difficulty. Not in the actual fighting, of course (he beat down one wolf easily enough), but rather which persona would do the fighting. That was a delicate enough relationship in itself, one that merited mental strain if they fought over control of the body. Emil clumsily blocked a lunge by the wolf he was fighting, Aster's battle nothing more than background noise.

C'mon, Emil, lemme at him! I haven't sliced anything open in ages!

I've got it! And don't say it like that! You sound like a crazy serial killer.

I thought you didn't like fighting?

I don't like it, Emil forced the wolf off, dodging a bite and leaping over it in a Ravaging Tiger. But that's no reason to let you go crazy!

What? There's no one here but Aster. I won't hurt him. I never hurt anyone else, did I?

Emil almost rolled his eyes; his other self nearly sounded like a puppy whining for its favorite snack. There were those poor fishermen in Izoold, there was Magnar in Luin, and those two guards in the Temple of Lightning that almost lost their heads thanks to his other self's infamously short temper.

You know what I mean. Colette and the others--I never hurt them whenever I "went crazy."

The wolf went down with a howl and Emil's Dual Death arcane arte. The other wolf went right for him, which Emil not-so-gladly obliged. From the corner of his eye he saw Aster engaging his wolf in a dance of death (more like Crescent Dances and Swallow Waltzes). However, the scientist's greenness showed through, and in a miscalculation, the wolf lunged, pinning him to the ground. Belatedly Aster blocked the beast's fangs with the spinner, grunting with the effort.

"Aster!" Emil was distracted in that one moment, all that was needed. Green eyes darkened to red, and a smirk came to his lips. With a single Demon Fang he tore through the wolf blocking his path, bounding over to his fallen living mirror.

Emil's Heavenly Tempest sent the beast flying, allowing Aster to scramble to his feet. The swordsman landed on his feet, in front of the scientist. The wolf limped, its coat matted with blood. Aster moved to put the beast out of its misery, but Emil flung out an arm, stopping him.

"No need. I've got this." He sheathed his sword, stepping toward the monster. He extended a hand, and underneath his feet and the wolf's appeared a magic circle, a glyph of red gold light in the most curious design. He held the wolf's gaze within his own.

"O servant of Nature," His voice reverberated, layered with power, "bend to mine will!"

Aster stared, eyes wide, jaw slack as his companion--the Sylvaranti--performed this strange ritual. After a time of nothing but the swordsman and beast staring one another down, the magic glyph disappeared. Emil lowered his hand, and the monster meekly approached him and nudged his hand. Aster almost dropped the spinner at this unnatural display of a beast being subservient to a human.

"Wh-what was that?" Aster demanded as Emil applied gels to the wolf's numerous wounds. "It's a monster! Why are you--"

"His name's Titan." Emil answered calmly, giving the wolf a scratch behind the ears. It leaned into the touch, wagging its tail like a dog. "Guess he lived a pretty tough life, to have to hunt hapless travelers instead of his usual."

Aster fell silent. There was the display of magic again. None of the elves or half-elves he'd seen using magic had any spells like that, and no mage would ever dream of trying to capture a monster like this. No, maybe "capture" wasn't the right word. It looked more like Emil had ... bonded with the monster. But that was totally absurd, wasn't it?

"How did you do that? It was perfectly fine with trying to eat us a moment ago!"

"Pact magic." Emil said flatly. "I just forged a pact with this monster. If I take him under my wing, he'll help me. Plain and simple."

"No mage has ever been able--or willing--to do something like that before!" Aster protested. He stopped, a sudden thought coming to him. "You said you forged a pact. Is that like making pacts with Summon Spirits?"

"Basically, yes. You have to force your opponent to yield to you in battle. However, the two are different. Monsters and Summon Spirits, you know."

Instantly Aster knew this had something to do with the monsters possessing mana of their own, though the particulars of it escaped him. He also noticed that Emil had suddenly become more aggressive, and that his eyes had changed. Red Eyed Emil had displayed a change like this back in the basement lab of Sybak, too. Green Eyed Emil was different on so many levels. But Red Eyes hadn't appeared since then, before now. Was Emil only capable of using magic when those red eyes showed themselves? It certainly looked that way.

Emil gave Aster a sideways glance, a bent frown on his face.

" ... It's an ancient ritual, from the original elves who descended from the Great Motherland."

"You mean the Derris-Elves."

"The very same."

"So are you affiliated with the elves?"

"I doubt they'd recognize me like this."

"Meaning?"

" ... I am from Sylvarant."

Aster didn't look convinced, but he dropped the subject for now, with a shrug. Locking the blades on his spinner, he continued down the road. If they didn't make it to the Grand Tethe'alla Bridge by sunset, they'd be stuck camping in the Sybak grasslands, something he'd rather avoid. Unless this red-eyed Emil was willing to go forging pacts with all the monsters that would attack them in the night.

Emil followed, throwing for Titan a bit of dried beef jerky--something more satisfying would be cooked when they stopped for a rest. The wolf chomped down the jerky gratefully, never too far from his new master.

Tch. Now look what you did. Aster suspects us even more!

Emil shrugged, though he did so halfheartedly--he felt a headache coming on.

I told you, I don't care whether or not Aster finds out who we are.

But if he does, he'll find out what'll happen two years from now--

Chill. We have two years. Besides, who's to say he'll find out we killed him before? It's not as if anybody else came back in time.

... You're sure about that?

Positive. It was a warp of my power that flung us back here, and only those affected by my power would have been pulled in. The only one that would have been is Marta, and I don't sense her or the Centurions. So we're the only ones here.

... Hey.

What is it?

I wonder what Lloyd and the others were like in this time. Do you think we'll meet them?

As the sun sank toward the horizon, the sky fading from blue to orange to blood red, Emil frowned. He quickly up turned it into a smile when Aster looked over his shoulder, pointing ahead to the impossible long Grand Tethe'alla Bridge just a little ways off. Even from this far it looked so big. Once they crossed this bridge, the Imperial City of Meltokio was just a stone's throw away.

"This bridge is the greatest investment in Tethe'allan knowledge and technology--its control system incorporates an estimated total of 10,000 Exspheres."

"I'm glad that power's being used for the bridge, instead of some war machine."

Aster paused, looking out to the bridge and the ocean underneath it. "Yeah, me too."

I think we will meet them.

Really? That'd be great if we did!

But I have a feeling we won't like it one bit.

--

A/N: Argh, I know, it's slow and crawling and not much has happened yet ... But the time travel is really super important. Emil's gonna be interfering with much of the original ToS's storyline (Lloyd & Co coming to Tethe'alla the first time, the Desians in Tethe'alla, etc). Though since his main focus is preventing Aster's death, I don't think he'll go off to fight Mithos, but Ratatosk might be tempted to ("That filthy half-elf and his friends betrayed me!").