Whoo! Posting on time!

So, finally got my artistic muse back, and instead of doing Ripples artwork like I wanted, I'm doing Darklight artwork. –is shot- Oh well.

Enjoy!

"Dark. You killed my stress ball." –Kairi

Chapter 2.4 – Expected Unexpected Delays
Part 10

"I think that's everyone out of the city, now, at least," Natalia said. "Thank goodness... Grand Chokmah is so much larger than Engeve."

I nodded, but didn't really reply. I was more preoccupied with the child I was carrying... and the other three who were either clinging to my coat, or clinging to their sibling, who was clinging to my coat. "It may be everyone out of the city, but I've got four kids here who have no idea where their parents are."

"Funny. I've got two parents panicking because they can't find their daughter. You think one of your kids might be it?" Asch asked. Despite the almost teasing wording, he didn't sound amused at all.

"Nope. The two girls are siblings, and the two boys are, well, boys." Which meant we had another child running around who knew where.

"I've got another three children here who can't find their parents," Tear announced, walking over with a toddler on one hip and holding the hand of another. A third child was sticking close by.

I sighed. "Okay, new mission. Leave the majority of the population to the Malkuth Military. Asch, round up the other men, have them track down all the parents who can't find their children. Natalia, Tear, the other girls, and I will find the children who can't find their parents," I said. Asch nodded and walked off, as did Natalia a moment later, while Tear and I kept an eye on the seven children we'd found already.

It didn't take long for seven to become thirteen when Selenia and Anise joined us with the six they'd found, nor did thirteen stay thirteen when Cantabile stalked over with her own sizable group of eight. How she'd managed to keep track of all of them, I wasn't sure I wanted to know. I'd been having enough problems with just the four I'd started with.

By the time Guy came over with the first group of parents, we had a total of twenty-six children that Cantabile, Tear, and I were watching over.

That number continued to bounce up and down over the course of the next hour as Natalia and the other girls found more misplaced children and Asch and the other men came across other sets of concerned parents. I think the most we had to keep track of at one time was thirty-three, while the smallest number we had was six.

At the end of the day, we still had three children whose parents couldn't be found. Siblings, at that, though the eldest was about Selenia's age and was perfectly capable of taking care of his younger siblings, it appeared, though his sister was a few years younger and his brother only a newborn. Cantabile ushered the three along, apparently in the mood to be the motherly sort for a little while, though with all the grumbling and stalking she'd been doing earlier, it left me wondering what was going on in her head.

Still, with most of the children and parents reunited, and the last three under the watchful eyes of a God-General, I was free to relax slightly. And the manner in which I did this?

"Die, you stupid, half-chirpee, son-of-a—"

"Why do you always insult the chirpees so?" Dark asked, a White Lotus chakram flying out of nowhere to kill the wolf I'd been happily slaughtering. I kinda wilted.

"Dark. You killed my stress ball."

Dark chuckled. "Wasn't that the point?"

"Well, sort of... And the chirpees are annoying. So, since ligers don't like mandrakes and like using them for curses, I use chirpees."

Which may have sounded like rather wonky logic, but it made sense to me. It seemed to make sense to Dark, as well, since he didn't make any comments about it, instead just watched as I moved on to the next monster. We were part of the group setting up a sort-of perimeter around the large 'camp' the refugees had made.

Grand Chokmah wasn't safe. But then again, where was?

We didn't know. So for now, we were headed to the hidden Archives the Council had previously been guarding. Reighn had hinted at their existence previously, and Dark had confirmed them, so that was our tentative destination.

Then there was Myre's comment. "If you're looking for someone to answer questions, I'm not him. He and his sister are waiting."

Ryndor. Ryndor and Rhunön. Or at least, we were guessing. Right now, even Peony, who had all of his people to worry about, was willing to place his faith in a guess. Because really, what could we do but hope?

And maybe I shouldn't have been slaughtering monsters to try to calm down. It either wasn't working, or was just making me more irritable.

I sighed as another monster died. "What do we do when we don't have any idea what we're facing?"

Dark shrugged. "Keep moving. And maybe stop and brainstorm a bit. Because, come on. We've got you, and Jade, and Reighn, and all sorts of brilliant people. You'd think we'd be able to figure something out."

I sighed. Yeah. That was true. I looked up at the sky. Late afternoon... "We'll have to stop and make camp in about an hour. Let the Malkuth military deal with the refugees. Gather up the others. Everyone that went to Eldrant, Cantabile, Peony... Let me know if there's anyone missing," I said. Dark chuckled. "What?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. Just can't help but find amusement in the fact that you went from confused nomad to God-General in less time than it took me to blink."

I rolled my eyes. "Smartass. Go. I've got the perimeter."

"Um..."

"Telepathic, remember?"

Dark nodded. "True. Just... remember to contact someone if you find yourself needing help, okay?"

I smiled and nodded. "Of course."

Dark turned and headed off back toward the main part of the mess, while I headed after every monster that tried to attack the line. The military had enough problems trying to keep the refugees corralled. They really didn't need the monsters to make things worse.

Which meant catching the monsters before they could cause problems was my job. And now that I was less worried about figuring things out immediately, I was doing a much better job of that.

Dark was right. I didn't have to do this alone, and I really did have to tell everyone what I knew, anyway.

That thought in mind, calming down became damn easy. Because I trusted the others. They knew now, they understood, and even if some of them were skeptical... I could survive with that.

We'd been through hell together, and I knew we'd be facing even more of it—together.

So when the sun finally set, I headed toward where everyone had set up camp, feeling around for the oh-so familiar brush of Asch's mind. Because his was like a beacon now, one I recognized so easily...

I stepped into a loose circle and glanced around. It looked like everyone was here.

"Nice of you to finally join us," Reighn said. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah? Missed you too, smartass."

Asch chuckled. "Now, now, let's not start fighting..." He sobered. "That's probably the last thing we can afford to do right now."

Jade adjusted his glasses and sighed. "And here I'd actually dared to hope that we wouldn't have to worry so much about this sort of a thing. I honestly hoped that Eldrant would be the worst of it." He shook his head. "Well, wishing things were different isn't going to fix anything, so we'll have to figure out what to do."

Dark hummed. "We're headed for the Hidden Archives... But I have to wonder. If Gnome can cause as much destruction as he did in Grand Chokmah with just an earthquake... what could he do to the Archives? They're underground."

"So we're walking straight into a trap," Reighn noted. I crossed my arms.

"I dunno... The Clans three thousand years ago had to have some reason for sealing Gnome and the other sentiences away, and as far as I know, the Archives were built before that. It's very possible that they could be protected by some sort of a barrier," I pointed out. "I know there were a hell of a lot of Energies down there, at least, and I don't think Natalia and I were even in the Archives themselves."

Dark shook his head. "No, but... how much good would Energies do against fonons?"

I shrugged. "Well, I was using Energies to control fonons for a while there before Lorelei decided it was an oh-so-brilliant idea to open my fonslots and give me a few memory problems while I was at it."

Which had most of the group frowning at me.

"Huh?"

I sighed. "Asch, Sync. That first time we were in Akzeriuth, on our way down to the passage ring when I was going to fix the Energy blockage in Sync's Core. Remember when I collapsed and then was having trouble remembering something I'd told you just a minute previously?"

They both still looked confused... Until Sync's eyes went wide. "Oh! Oh, you started complaining about seventh fonons not cooperating, too!"

I nodded. "Lorelei apparently decided he wanted to try to help us out... Though, given all the shit I've been through since then, I have to wonder why he bothered. Half the time I end up using the Energies anyway. It's the Energies that make my artes go off-color... Though we don't have a clue why my casting glyph ends up green regardless of Energy use."

"Well, thank you for that lovely bit of backstory, but at least now we know that there may be a barrier," Jade said. "With any luck, that will slow Gnome down long enough for us to figure... something... out. The Archives will have to be a temporary solution."

I nodded. "I think we should at least try to ask Myre. She may not like us, but I'm fairly certain she's from some point in the future. They had to have figured out some sort of a safe haven, right?"

The others nodded. "Right," Guy agreed. "And until we can talk to her, we'll just have to make do... But I'm really not sure how long that will last. Luke... You said there was a lot of destruction, right?"

Luke nodded, and I snorted. "'A lot' is understating it. From what Doppel managed to see, it was... well. 'Hell on earth' comes to mind as an appropriate phrase."

Jade sighed. "Gnome... We know Ifrit is free, even before he decided to show up and ruin the rather lovely evening I'm sure all of us were having. We need to figure out who else is freed already and if it's possible to stop one or two of the sentiences from being broken loose."

I smirked, because this was something I had an idea of already, and therefore would be able to help with.

"Rem is freed. Alvess, and therefore Sylph, should be in the Zao Desert somewhere, probably fairly close to the Zao Ruins. Myno and Undine out to be around Keterburg somewhere..." A thought struck me, and I frowned. "No... they couldn't be there, could they...?"

"Kairi?" Dark prompted. I glanced over at Jade.

"You know where Nebillim's crag is, do you not?"

Jade look rather confused. "No. Or, rather, I don't think I'm quite sure what you're talking about."

"The Nebillim replica. She's sealed north of Mt. Roneal. That area is called Nebillim's Crag." Jade's eyes went wide. Right... he hadn't seemed to realize that that was where the replica was sealed in the game, so I suppose he didn't know this time.

"I... wasn't aware she was still alive..." he admitted.

Okay then. "Well, anyway... How much you wanna bet that's where Myno and Undine are?"

Everyone just kinda looked around for a bit. Anise was the one to break the silence.

"Um... Who the hell is Nebillim?"

Jade looked distinctly uncomfortable, and I sighed. "I can explain if you'd like," I offered.

He shook his head. "No. Nebillim was my mistake... So I may as well own up to it." Which had most of the others giving Jade an odd look. "Back... when we were still working on the replica theory... Well. It wasn't perfected yet. We weren't using Seventh fonons to bind the replica's body together. Saphir and I.. we used all six of the original fonons. And... you're all aware of my... disdain... of my status as a Seventh fonist?" Nods went around.

"As a child, I was fascinated with the seventh fonon. I was a master of the other six fonons already... And I made the mistake of trying to harness the seventh. Professor Nebillim walked in just as I lost control of the arte... It struck her, and set her house, where I'd been practicing, on fire. Saphir showed up in time to help me drag the professor out... but... She was dying. And with no other seventh fonist in the area, we saw no way to save her," Jade continued. He paused and bowed his head.

"Fomicry. You tried to make a replica." Asch didn't quite sound accusatory, but he also wasn't sympathetic.

Jade nodded. "Not 'tried'. We did make a replica... but even by today's standards, she didn't turn out right. What we created... was a monster." Jade shook his head. "I... It started killing people, because it lacked fonons. I actually wasn't sure what had become of the replica... all I knew was that it was gone..." He shook his head again. "That was when Saphir and I redesigned the fomicry process, so that it used seventh fonons instead of the first six. At least then, the replica was stable... I gave up on trying to resurrect the professor a long time ago... I'm... not sure if Dist has given up yet or not."

I sighed. "Okay... Well, now that we know about that..."

Asch nodded. "What about Shadow? You said you had an idea where Undine and Sylph would be... I remember Luke saying something about Lorelei suggesting Shadow would be an ally..."

I shrugged. "I'm not sure... Most of the sephiroth are either extremely balanced, or extremely biased toward a single fonon. That's how I was able to figure out where Sylph and Undine would be. Despite being underground and in the desert... well, the Zao Ruins sephiroth is practically flooded by third fonons. Just another reason for me to hate that place, as if I didn't have enough already..." I stopped and shook my head. "Anyway, I have no clue where Shadow could be."

Guy frowned. "What... about Hod?"

I wanted to smack myself.

Of course. The last sephiroth, the one I hadn't bothered to think of, was Hod.

"Eldrant," I said aloud.

Noelle sighed. "Well, that's excellent... One problem. Both Albiores are currently in Sheridan. We all took ferries to Grand Chokmah."

I smirked anyways.

Fun Fact: Ah, the foreshadowing in this chapter. Some of it's obvious. Some of it... less obvious.