Ashi: I'm free! Woo hoo!

Aschlyn: Congrats for almost being in High School! Err, and for finally doing chapter 14.

Ashi: Yep! Anyway, KarateCat211 has decided (err…forced) me to have her Oc, Alex appear (in cameo until I say otherwise, un!)

Aschlyn: Of course. Whatever. Anyway, DeathhunterAshi does not own Tales of the Abyss or the Kage Bushin no Jutsu. She also does not own Squalo's yell or Hibari's Kamikurosu. Those belong to Bandai Namco, Masashi Kishimoto, and Akira Amano. I and all the otherworlders belong to Ashi.

? : Ugh….Where on Azarath am I?

Ashi: Oh crap! You're here!

To be continued…..

Chapter 14

(Katsuya's POV)

"Crappy crap crap crap! Not only did they take Ion, but they took Aschlyn as well!" I yelled while I viciously shot at a monster, who I obviously knew was dead already.

"Katsu! We get it! Stop wasting your damn bullets!" Ashton yelled with a frown on his face.

Everyone knew by now that the 4'9 fifteen year old hated anything that had to deal with the heat. Heck, when we were going to take a trip to Death Valley, he flat-out refused. Anyway, he was currently wearing his rolled up pants, a white tank top, and ninja shoes he stole from somewhere.

Here we are, walking to the Desert Oasis so that we could "rescue" Aschlyn and Ion. Needless to say about that, I laughed, I laughed very hard at the fact.

"Ha! From the way I see it, it's the Oracle Knights that need rescuing from Aschlyn the Bloody Strider!" I laughed while flicking off my white headband, letting the wind smack into my forehead.

"I've got to agree with Katsu on this one. I mean seriously, where we had to fight those monsters, she beat them to death using nothing but her guitar!" Luke said while wiping off some of the sweat that was on his forehead.

I snorted, seeing the bloody redhead do far worse with a rusty Spork.

"We're here! We're finally here!" Ashton yelled as he ran to the lake where the fonstone resided and jumped in, splashing water at everyone who was near.

"Hey! What was that for?" Luke yelled as Ashton blew a raspberry at him (maybe reading Icha Icha Paradise in front of him was a bad idea.)

"Okay guys, after we rest up, we need to head to the Zao-"I started but then Luke collapsed on his knees from Asch contacting him.

Making this a win-win situation (for me anyway), I walked towards Luke and grabbed Luke's ear and shouted.

"VOOOOOOOOOOI! ASCH THE IDIOT! I THINK THE FREAKING HEADACHE WAS PRETTY FREAKING OBIOUS! We're coming after Aschlyn you ginger-haired freak!" I yelled, most likely hurting several people's eardrums.

"Don't forget about Ion, Katsuya!" Ashton yelled from the lake.

"Him too!" I yelled again as Luke kicked me with enough forced into the lake while holding his aching head.

I floated back to the surface on my back while holding onto my abused stomach.

"That really hurt…." I grumbled while Tear simply said "Idiot."

(Aschlyn's POV)

Well this is just fan-f***ing-tastic! Today is such a perfect freaking day! First off, I get kicked out of bed by Asch (who was still stuck in his Valen-dork outfit with the hair to match), then I almost drunk the laxative-induced water (that would've been anti-climactic), and lastly, we've been walking in these damn ruins for the PAST. FIVE. HOURS! Luckily, Largo had Asch give back ALL of my weapons and now I am currently hacking away at any monster that dared crossed my path. As Hibari Kyoya would put,

"Kamikurosu." I mumbled as I threw a shuriken straight at a monster's head, instantly killing it.

Silently after my monster killing spree, I switched my communicator back on and was welcomed to a screaming male.

"VOOOOOOOOOOI!"

H-Holy Jashin…..That was Katsuya. She's the only one stupid enough to actually join the Varia division of the Reborn! Club. Looks like stupid little Asch the Bloody is going to be harboring a migraine for a good 16 hours.

Shaking my head, I walked ahead with a confused Ion and a facepalming Largo to where the entrance to the Sephiroth was.

"Damn it, they should be here by now. What's taking them so long?" I thought angrily, thinking of sending a Kage Bushin after the troublesome group, when I heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, we don't have time for useless side-trips like this!" I heard Luke say and my eye twitched as I turned around in anger and flipped him the bird.

"Who're you calling a useless side-trip you redheaded furball!" I yelled while pointing at said redhead.

As soon as the battle started, I stood in front of Ion, making sure he didn't get hurt by any of the backlash artes. As soon as Guy weakened Sync enough, I jumped with Ion, using Sync's back as momentum, and landed near Luke.

"Whose side am I on now? Swallow Waltz!" I yelled while throwing Sync into the air with my strike arte.

Sync jumped away from us as our battle with them started to cause the Zao Ruins to crumble.

"Guys, it's time to make like a banana, and split!" Katsuya shouted as we dashed out of the Zao Ruins, just in time.

"Phew, that was a close one!" I said as I put down Ion from his unwilling piggyback ride.
"Uh…..Aschlyn?" Luke started and I turned towards him while rubbing my neck.

Geeze, no wonder my neck was hurting, Ion was squeezing it so hardly. He has a really strong grip.

"Yeah, what is it?" I asked with a dumbfounded look on my face.

"…Why was Sync in a dress and Asch wearing all pink?" He asked and I grinned while starting to laugh.

"That was all me Luke…...All me." I grinned as we started to walk towards Deo Pass.

"Geeze, now we'll never catch up to Master Van. We should've never wasted so much time in the desert." Luke said as Katsuya gripped the handle of her gun, threatening to shoot the annoying redhead with no questions asked.

"Hey, but would "master" Van be disappointed that you didn't save Ion and Aschlyn?" Katsuya said snarky as I smacked her with a paper fan (Grande size for idiots)

"Shut up. I was more than capable of saving myself and Ion." I said while putting a hand up, covering my face.

The sun was beating down on my face and I felt dizzy, falling down on my knees.

"Ugh….I feel so sick….." I thought as I steadily tried to stand up, legs starting to shake.

"Shunshin…..use the Shunshin…..your speed…my power…." I heard somebody echo and stood up again, ignoring everyone's worried remarks and felt myself move.

The next thing I knew was that I was on top of the cliff with everyone staring at me.

"What the-how'd you learn how to do the shunshin!" Ashton yelled while pointing at me.

The fog that was covering my mind cleared as I jumped off, skidding along the ground and landing in front of Luke.

"I don't exactly know how, but my legs aren't locking up anymore! I feel as light as a feather!" I said while doing a quick job around the group.

"Anyway, if you're feeling better, we should get going. We're almost to Akzeriuth." Jade said while adjusting his glasses, a look of seriousness and amusement present on his face.

"We've got some time to spare, but Ion looks tired." Ashton said, looking at the pocketwatch he got in Chesedonia

Before anyone could say anything, I picked up Ion and put him on my back.

"He can rest on my back for a while. I'll stay back and cast fonic artes in battle." I said as Ion held onto my neck in a death-grip again.

"Are you sure? I don't want to be too much of a burden to you." Ion said softly as I shook my head.

"It's nothing. Trust me, carrying Luke when he sprains his ankle when training is much harder; especially when you're wearing 94 lbs. of weights." I said as Luke screamed "Hey!" in the background.

True to my word, we got into a few battles and I mainly used fonic artes, while kicking any monsters that tried to attack us. In the meantime, Luke just got punched (courtesy of Katsuya), kicked (Ashton this time), and slapped (Tear did it!) by the fact that he called Ion a burden and that we should keep going. I myself got a steer talking to for agreeing. I only agreed because I was getting anxious from being so close to the Mining Town.

Anyway while everyone else was relaxing for that night, I was sitting down and meditating, opening the connection between me, Baltheir, and Jessie.

"Hey Jessie, why am I feeling so much stronger all of a sudden? More so, how come I can move so fast now?" I asked while Jessie started to nervously laugh.

"Eh heh heh…well, I wanted to test your limits, so I looked through and got rid of the tension problems in your legs and made it so you could use the shunshin. Your strength is still the same, along with your ability to use fonic artes. So don't fret! You're not a Mary-sue yet!" Jessie said as I scowled at the mention of that term.

"You said yet. Don't you DARE make me into one. I want to grow stronger at own one and not at a break neck pace." I said to Jessie as a glint showed in my brother's eyes.

"...We're Team Rocket." He said as I recognized what I said and stood up in the mindscape next to my brother.

"We're in your face!" We said together with the pose.

Facepalming, Jessie hit the both of us with a paper fan at our own idiocy.

"Baka siblings! Anyway, I'll let you level up at your own pace and only help if you need it. I'll even help you make a link mystic arte to execute with Luke." Jessie said as I grinned, nodding and breaking off the connection to go back to sleep.

The next day, we started to rush towards the end of Deo Pass. The feeling in the pit of my stomach wasn't going away and my friends we're feeling the same way. I remember what we talked about last night. Well, what my shadow clone talked about to them.

(Flashback) (Aschlyn's Kage bushin POV)

"Asch, what are we going to do? It's almost time." Katsuya said from behind the cliff where we were having our meeting.

The three of us met here so that we could discuss about what to do with Luke.

"M-Maybe we should just tell them the truth that we're from another world. I mean, Luke and Guy are most likely to believe us since they saw you fall from the sky." Ashton said while pointing at me.

I was still deep in thought, pondering about what boss would do.

"And risk Jade badgering us for questions? I say we just keep lying to them and let them figure it out. Also, we could tie up Luke until all of this is over." Katsuya suggested while I glared at her.

Idiot, that would mess up the entire storyline and lead to something else happening that could kill Luke or everyone else.

"…We won't tell them anything. As for Akzeriuth, as cruel as it seems, we have to let it fall." I said while putting up my hands to my ears to block out their annoying protests.

"What? But why? Shouldn't we try to save it then? If we do, then we'll be just as responsible!" Katsuya practically yelled and I silenced her with a shuriken fizzing by her cheek that I threw.

"I know that. That's why I'm going to try and defeat Van there before anything else happens." It feels like such an empty promise to me…. "I want you two to save as many people as you can before it falls." I said while taking the shuriken out of where it was embedded.

"Alright then, I'm in." Katsuya said as her eyes shone with determination.

"I'll try my best guys!" Ashton said, his eyes showing how serious he was.

"Right then, let's get back to boss and everyone else before they start to worry" I said as Katsuya said "Boss…? Wait a minute, so you're a-!" while doing the hand seal and poofing out of existence.

The original Aschlyn opened her half-lidded eyes, still hazy from sleep and chuckled to herself at what her shadow clone did.

"Heh heh, how funny." She said as she went back to snoozeville.

(End of flashback) (Back to Aschlyn's POV)

Sooner than later, Katsuya screamed and dodge rolling away when she heard the gunshot coming towards her.

"Legrettie! She's here?" Ashton said while I facepalmed.

Legrettie, seriously? I already know you're not as innocent as you look, Ashton.

"Major Legretta? What are you doing here?" Both Tear and Katsuya asked at the same time.

After a long draught conversation that I don't want to go into, Legretta finally started to attack.

I unsheathed by sword and pulled up the necessary hand seals, shunshining away towards Tear and zigzagging towards Legretta.

"Take this, Fang Blade!" I yelled, adding a spin kick at said god-general.

"Alright take this, piercing edge!" Katsuya yelled as she furiously shot at Legretta, missing Ashton by a few hairs.

"Watch where you're aiming that, Katsu! You're supposed to aim at the enemy, not the ally, damn it!" Ashton yelled as he slashed Legretta's arm with a Demon Fang.

"Luke, come on! Let's do a double chain!" I said as Luke nodded and we both ran at Legretta at the exact same time and swung.

"Double Fang Blade!" We yelled as Legretta fell to the ground on one knee.

Another long draught conversation later, I took a leaf from Luke's book.

"We don't have time for useless side-battles like this! We have to hurry to Akzeriuth!" I said as everyone turned towards me, Katsuya giving me a "really?" look.

We don't have time to waste. The turning point is here now.

I looked towards Akzeriuth and frowned, digging my nails into my leather gloves.

"It's time, we're in Akzeriuth." I thought as we walked towards the miasma-covered Mining Town with everyone, knowing that the worse has just begun its first disc of destiny.

Anyway, this chapter's song is One Night Star by The Arrows (Katsuya's Song)

Character Fact: Katsuya was diagnosed with dyslexia when she was nine due to the brain trauma she received during the car accident.

-Dodges tonfas and swords- I'm sorry for not updating! I've been busy with school, but now it's over, okay? I can bring you more chapters now! Anyway, the end of the "Pre-Akzeriuth arc is upon us in chapter 15, which I will begin to write this week! Well, that's it for now, Ja ku ne!