Chapter 11! Finally! ^o^ I bet we're all happy. Well, think of this as my late Thanksgiving present. XD Read the chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of the Abyss

Chapter 11

"Just who the hell are you?!" Luke demanded as our swords clashed, sparks glinting off of them as they rapidly switched position.

"Wouldn't you like to know," I smirked, gathering fifth fonons for a strike arte. "Raging Blast!" Luke dodged the blast, but only barely. It still nicked him in the side.

Unfortunately, it slowed my speed down a bit, opening myself up for a direct attack. I didn't have much time to react, and as I was about to move out of the way when a shout caught my ear.

"Piercing Line!" It was the princess' voice- Natalia. Great to know that she can use a bow and arrow. NOT!

I turned to see where her voice was coming from just as an arrow lodged itself into my arm, quickly followed by three more. The only good thing to this was that it was my right hand- my sword hand was my left.

"Dammit!" I cursed, as Luke's sword came round on me. I leaned back as far as I could, and managed to only get my abdomen sliced. It was thankfully not that deep and it wasn't fatal.

However, before I could completely get back to fighting, Luke had to bring a strike arte of his own.

"Guardian Field!" He cried, a circled forming around him, catching me in it. I barely had time to react as I was caught in the burning of Rem fonons.

I collapsed to the ground with a cry of pain, disgusted with myself that I couldn't even put up a decent fight. I saw the Sword of Lorelei point towards my head, right between my eyes, and I got to thinking. If I could let them think they've won, only for a few seconds…

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In a bedroom, a black dog paced back in forth of a door, whining at it. She knew something was wrong, she just knew it.

You will not die my medium. I will make sure of that. You are my last hope.

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Luke couldn't believe how easy it had been to take this girl down after she had used her strike arte. Now, she was staring down the length of his sword, hers hanging limply from her left arm and her right arm hanging useless by her side.

Yet, she didn't seem frightened at all. In fact, she seemed the exact opposite. Calm. Unnaturally so. It was like she was calculating something or some other thing.

Then, all of a sudden, her eyes flickered to the side quickly, then settled back to staring at his sword. Before Luke could utter a syllable, her leg had swung up and was aimed for his head. He drew back, and her foot came in contact with his hands instead. The force of her hit caused him to let go of the Sword of Lorelei, letting it clatter to the ground.

Her reaction was immediate. She dove for the sword, her own rapier clattering to the ground. She scooped up the sword, and darted out of the way just as a little red ball came down and plopped on the ground with a small click!

As it started to blow up, Natalia called "Barrier!" covering them, anticipating the explosion from the ones earlier.

When the smoke cleared, Natalia and Luke stood on one side and Lacey and Trace on the other side with the Sword of Lorelei. Trace smirked, the mask still on. He subtly took it off, Lacey not noticing. She was too busy concentrating on her wounds.

The Sword of Lorelei was hanging oddly from Lacey's sword belt as she yanked Natalia's arrows from her arm, wincing as more blood flowed down her arm.

"Mission complete," She murmured loudly to Trace, her voice being heard by Luke and Natalia. She didn't look up, she just examined her arm wounds more. "It's time to go Trace. We still have work to do." Trace looked unhappy of her telling him what to do, but he didn't say anything of it.

"Who are you?!" Luke demanded. He had picked up Lacey's discarded rapier, as he had been robbed of his sword, and held it awkwardly in his hand, like he wasn't used to a girl's style sword. Lacey looked up at him, her eyes finally off of her still bleeding wounds.

"Maybe the question should be who are you?" Lacey countered. "You are a replica, are you not?" Luke glared at her, his grip tightening on the sword.

"What does that have anything to do with it?" He growled, and Lacey just stared at him, no emotion masking her features. It was just a blank look, one that could easily be mistaken for curiosity.

"Now you're getting off track, Lacey," Trace interrupted. "We don't want to fall behind the expected timeline. Stacey and Runo are probably done by now." Lacey nodded.

"Alright, let's get going." She agreed. Luke's grip tightened on the sword.

"You can't have the Sword of Lorelei," He said, racing towards Lacey. She froze, knowing there was no chance she could do anything to prevent her getting impaled by her own rapier.

There was an odd squelching noise as the rapier entered Lacey's abdomen, cutting through it like butter and heading straight out the other side.

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The dog stopped pacing in front of the door and sat in front of it, ears pricked, letting out a high pitched whine. Her ears fell back on her head flat, her whining getting louder and louder and higher and higher.

You will not die. I shall not allow it. You are far too priceless to fall to some meager sword.

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Luke didn't know what happened. One minute, the sword was cutting through the girl- Lacey, had she been called? –well, it had been cutting through her stomach, then the next, it was forcibly ejected from her stomach, a black aura enveloping her.

Then, her wounds started healing themselves. The black aura still surrounded her, but it was like she wasn't even aware. It was like she was conscious yet not.

Yet, First fonons were swarming around Lacey, and it was unnatural for them to reside in such a mass in Baticul, the city of light.

Then, when she cast her arte, it didn't sound like the voice she had been using. It was… more evil.

"Let the revenge of hell engulf you!" Lacey said. "Demon's Crest!"

The entire courtyard was engulfed in darkness.

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So, there's chapter 11. I hope you liked it. I'll try and update as soon as I can.

Read and Review please!

-Scarpaw signing out-