Things you need to know before reading this chapter:

- Character thinking

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss


Chapter 27: Interwoven Lies

Kratos hissed at the pain caused by the acid burning on his arm. The area was too confined and the monstrous sized slime was occupying too much space in the already small area making it difficult for him to avoid getting into contact with the acid ejected from it, especially when it literally showered the whole area with its acid. Kratos was lucky that he could see clearly in the dark and could move faster than normal people to avoid having acid covering his whole body.

His opponent wasn't faring any better. Three of its limbs were cut off and melted into three large puddles of acid on the ground. Yes, the slime was purely made of acid and thus long ranged attack was better suited in this situation. Kratos learned it the hard way when he rushed in and cut off the limbs and only narrowly escaped being corroded to death when acid splashed at him from the severed limbs. He also tried thrusting his sword into its body and found that, once again, acid would splash at him when he withdrew his sword and the slimy substance that made up the slime would just fill the hole from the sword attack.

After that, he had used both Hell Pyre, a mid-ranged fire based attack, and Fireball at the enemy. He mentally cursed his luck when it was obvious that the slime was strong against fire as the attacks didn't do anything at all. In fact, he swore that the slime was even bigger than before his fire based attacks hit it.

Whoever said the best type of offense against slime was slashing with a something sharp and fire elemental based attack need to reevaluate their knowledge on it. Kratos thought as he looked down at the monster, his body hanging down from the ceiling. His uninjured arm gripping tightly on a pipeline sticking out of the ceiling, having jumped up to avoid the showering acid attack. He didn't want to draw out his mana wings nor did he want to use some of his higher level Arte that would cost him a lot of mana. He still needed to fly over the cliff between the abandoned factory and Baticul now that both cable cars were not on this side anymore and decided that it's best to conserve mana for now.

Up till now, apart from fire based attack, he had also tried wind - Lightning Blade - and light - Guardian Field - based attacks, but even though the slime didn't absorb those two elements, they didn't seem to cause much damage either. He looked around and found a spot that was free of acid and far enough from the slime on his right. He started swinging his body to his left then right and let go of his hold on the pipe when he was swinging to the right and landed on the spot he found just now.

The slime turned its face (?) at Kratos and started crawling towards his direction at snail's pace. Hopefully it's not only weak against water or darkness. Judging that he had enough time to cast at least a mid-level spell, Kratos began preparing for an earth based Arte. He resisted the instinct to use mana for it and began directing the newly acquired Fonon of Earth from the pact bracelet to the ground below his feet and then to where the slime was crawling.

"Grave!" Stone spikes broke out of the ground and pierced the slime in eight different directions. It struggled to get free from the stone spikes that pinned it in place.

At least it gets smaller. He thought with slight relief as he saw a small portion of its body seemingly melted along the stone spikes and the acid released dissolved them into nothingness before becoming another large puddle on the ground.

I wouldn't say that earth is its weakness, but seems it's my best bet right now. Kratos glanced at the direction in which Luke had disappeared to along with the cable car and saw the cable had stopped moving, telling him that Luke wasn't on the cable car anymore and he was free to use the attack he was thinking of just now.

He quickly cast another Grave at the slime to stall for time and began preparing a higher level Earth Arte. He held out his sword vertically with the tip pointing downwards before him and called forth a much larger quantity of Fonons than the previous one he used. Some of the energy went to his sword while the other flowed to the ground through his feet. A gigantic magic circle covered with light brown glowing runes appeared underneath his feet.

The slime had finally gotten free and was once again advancing towards Kratos. The moment it crawled to the edge to the glowing circle, Kratos raised the sword slightly before slamming it down into the ground. "Spike Cage!" Brown lights shot out of the point where the sword touches the ground in random directions and started zigzagging across the ground creating a network of webs. Once the whole magic circle was covered with the network of brown light, the ground started shaking violently. The concrete surrounding the slime rose up to form a spherical cage around it, creating a crater.

Although Kratos couldn't see the inside of the earthen cage, he knew the slime was pierced by the numerous stone spikes generated inside the cage. His enhanced hearing picked up movement from inside the cage and knew that most of the spikes were melted away and the cage wall was getting thinner. He pumped more energy into the ground through his sword and the earthquake began again and the crater below the spherical cage increased in size as more of the concrete that made up the floor of the factory flowed to the spherical cage thickening its wall.

Once he was sure all the movement inside the cage ceased, he released the spell and let the concrete that formed the cage return to its original position on the floor. As the cage began thinning and the crater below it being filled, acid began pouring down onto the ground. After a while, the floor was returned to normal, though there's still some scratches on it, and all that was left of the slime was a large pool of acid.

Suddenly feeling very tired, from all the injuries, the fightings and the after effect of casting such a high level Arte, Kratos sat down on the ground and started healing himself.


Just a little bit more. Luke told himself again as his right hand got to the top of the wall. He was moving so fast that when he got his body onto the top, he lost his footing and fell forward into the garden.

"Ouch." He closed his eyes and rubbed the part of his head that crashed into the grassland lightly with his hand.

"Master Luke, It's dangerous to run around!" Luke opened his eyes at the sound of his name and looked towards the source. He sat up straighter as he saw what was happening before him.

His mother was standing beside his father some distance from him, apparently hadn't noticed him yet as their focus was on a red haired boy who was running towards one of the maids. The boy crashed into the ground after a few steps and the three maids nearby and his mother rushed to the fallen boy's side while his father didn't move an inch from his place. Luke got up from the ground so he could see what was happening better. The boy clumsily sat up and started crying and his mother knelt down next to him with her arms stretching out towards him.

"Luke, are you hurt?" His mother asked the fake, who turned to her and buried himself into her embrace – the place that should belong to him – and cried his heart out as he laid his head on her shoulder.

No.

"Honestly." His father sighed and Luke, the real one, snapped his head towards his father, hoping against hope that his father was about to say something about his mother having the wrong one in her arms. "He is just like a baby with a big body."

Yes, that's it, there's no way they will think that- that big baby is me.

His father sighed. "To lose all of his memories up until now... what I taught him in order to be a king, the sword lessons, all gone."

His mother turned to her husband and chided him lightly. "Isn't that good enough, dear? After all Luke came back to us unharmed."

It's just a joke, right? He stared dumbfounded at the scene before him as he unconsciously tightened his grip on his sword, the same one that was his only companion after he escaped from Van and before he met up with Kratos. The scene before him started blurring as tears threatened to fall from his eyes.

"Luke, boys shouldn't cry like that."

Luke sought out the source of the voice and saw Natalia approaching from a distance. "Natalia..." Please, look at me.

Natalia walked up and took out a flower crown from behind her. She stopped and placed the crown-

No...

- on the head of the fake.

That's where... that's where I belong!

Luke felt all his energy left him. His legs gave way and his knees hit heavily onto the ground. He knelt there, silently looking at the supposed scene of harmony with unfocused eyes, tears started falling from his eyes uncontrollably. His mind so broken that he failed to notice someone walking up to him from behind.

"Now you understand the truth, right, Luke? Their Selfishness... their stupidity. Even when someone just goes and replaces you, they don't even question it... they just say that you are an important person to this country, but they're all lies." Van said as he came up to the now broken boy.

"I am different. Luke, please forgive me for leaving you with such horrible memories. To me, you, and only you, are an important person. If you are not with me, I would lose all my purpose." He knelt down and placed his hands on the boy's shoulders and looked into his eyes. "Can you come with me once again? I want to be together with you."

"I... no! You are lying... you be- betrayed me... yo- you are just the same!" Luke gasped and batted away his ex-teacher's hands. He scrambled away from Van and fell on his bottom. The scared boy clumsily got up from the ground and began to run away.

Lies... it's all lies... my family, my friend, my whole life... all lies! They are all liars! These words resonated in Luke's head again and again as he clumsily climbed over the wall, eager to get away from those he thought of as family and friends.


"Are we going after him?" Largo asked as he came out from behind one of the trees.

"No. The two of you are going back to Daath. I alone will follow him."

He knew Largo was worried. Although Largo hadn't talked about his family ever since their first encounter, Van knew deep in his heart Largo would always be yearning to have the chance to be with his daughter. Because of that, he knew Largo would be worried about Luke, seeing as Luke was of a similar age as his daughter and was the fiancé of his daughter. However, Largo had decided to follow Van and even vowed to do so and Van trusted his resolve on that. No, the one he worried that would make any unnecessary action wasn't Largo, but-

"Why? I thought we were going to just grab the kid and take him back to Daath where you will persuade him?" His second companion asked.

"No, it would be meaningless if he doesn't come to me of his own accord. And it would raise question if someone were to see the two of you in Baticul." Although they didn't follow the pair to Baticul through the abandoned factory, they, meaning Largo and Dist, did enter the city through illegal means as it would be look weird for three higher ups of the Oracle Knights to enter Kimlasca's capital without any valid reason. It would be problematic if words of two of the Commanders of the Oracle Knights entering Baticul illegally were out.

"Are you sure that's the right thing to do? Won't he do something stupid in his current state?" Dist asked.

"You sound worried." Van said.

"Of course I am worried! If anything happened to him I won't be able to fully analyze the result of the replication process."

Van raised an eyebrow at that. He had heard that Dist had a soft spot for children from some of the people who liked gossips in the Order. Van was sure the whole Order knew about it already, except, of course, Dist himself. And if anyone asked Van, he would say he never saw a gossip spreading this far and fast, but he understood why. After all, it's Dist, the unapproachable and annoying-to-the-extreme crazy scientist they were talking about.

Apparently Dist had been looking after a boy he brought back from one of the missions the Fon Master gave him in Chesedonia. It wasn't so much as Dist took in the boy to adopt him as a son or anything like that, he was just occasionally helping him out here and there and sometimes gave him some of his gadgets to play with, though Dist insisted that he just wanted someone to test out his products and that it was purely experimental when asked.

That was also the reason Van didn't push when Dist asked for Spinoza to substitute for him when creating replica Luke. It wasn't like he couldn't just order Dist to do it, but he didn't feel like forcing someone, especially a scientist who could just add an additional formula in the experiments by 'mistake' to give Van some very unpleasant surprise just to spite him, unwilling to help him to do so. Although it wasn't like Dist was willingly working for him, or anyone at all, at least they still have mutual interest.

Since the man was only working for him to further his own goal, he didn't completely trust him. They were just using each other and both of them were aware of the nature of their partnership. However, this type of relationship was the most volatile and combined with Dist's personality, he would need to tread carefully around him. Fortunately Dist was a very easy to read and manipulate person and Van had learned how to be manipulative and had developed a silver tongue a long time ago.

"Give him some time to cool down. I will follow him and reveal myself when he makes up his mind to come to me. He doesn't have anyone to go to apart from me." Van replied confidently.


He should be glad. That's the first thing that came to his mind when he heard about Luke's kidnap. He should be glad that that man would be able to feel at least part of his pain when his son was kidnapped. But in reality, that's not the first thing he thought of. He cursed his own weakness when he realized that he had been scared for Luke, the son of the man that killed his family. He had told himself again and again not to get too close to the people in this mansion as he was just an avenger that would leave soon after he took his revenge, nothing more, nothing less.

Thus, his second thought, after scolding himself for a long time for becoming soft, was that he was glad, not because Luke's kidnap had hurt his father, but because it meant he could stop himself from getting too close to the boy only to lose him once again after he killed Duke Fabre. Then, his third thought was finally the one he should think of the moment he caught wind of the kidnap: happiness at Duke Fabre's misery. However, even then somewhere in the back of his mind screamed at him that it was not right to involve others in his revenge, even if he was the son of his family's murderer. But then another part of his mind would argue that just killing the man wouldn't be enough, that that man needed to feel what he had been feeling for his revenge to be complete.

That was what he thought. He had been clinging onto his beliefs, trying his best to prevent his resolve from crumbling as days went by with nothing coming up for the search of Luke. He was not supposed to feel anything for his enemy, nor the family of his enemy, he needed to stay focus to his true goal. He didn't want to lose the only thing left that defined him. He was Gailardia Galan Gardios, heir of House Gardios of Malkuth, not Guy Cecil, some servant boy of Duke Fabre dammit!

So when words of Luke being found in Choral Castle came, he wasn't sure what he was feeling. Heck, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to be feeling. When words of Luke on his way back to Baticul came, he thought he was feeling disgusted. Disgusted at what? At Duke Fabre for being happy? At Luke for being found? At himself for feeling relief? At himself for wishing for worse thing to happen to Luke? He had no idea what he was feeling and why.

However, when Luke, being carried by General Goldberg, finally arrived at the mansion, when Duchess Fabre and Princess Natalia eagerly reached out to the boy, when the boy looked at his two most trusted people with fear and started crying into the General's chest, he felt numb. When they were told of Luke's condition when he was found, and how he was apparently traumatized by whatever horrible thing the kidnapper did to him to the point of losing all his memories, even basic human functioning, his mind became blank.

He had been trying his best to center his hatred at the Fabre family. He had trained to the bone each and everyday when no one but Pere was looking so that he could be strong enough to take his revenge. He had been pushing away both Luke and Natalia – which was much easier due to his gynophobia – whilst telling himself any bonds he formed here would just hinder his revenge. He had tried his best to cut off his other emotions as they weren't needed for his revenge. He had been telling himself that Luke was a necessary casualty in his revenge these past weeks. He had tried his best to ignore the small but irritating noise in the back of his mind telling him that this was wrong.

Yet, why was it that when he looked at Luke, none of the above came up in his mind? Why was it that when he looked at the son of his family's murderer, he could see nothing but a scared child?

The first few days after Luke returned, he had avoided going anywhere near his room, where Luke had been staying in whole day. He knew that Duchess Fabre, Princess Natalia and some of the servants had spent nearly their whole day inside that room, sitting next to Luke, talking to him and assuring him that he was safe, not that it mattered as Luke even forgot how to talk. He occasionally heard crying from the room and, though the crying would cease soon after it started, the sound of it made him sick.

On the eighth day, he finally decided that he shouldn't be afraid to face a boy four years his junior. He gathered his courage and walked up to Luke's room. He was going to knock but stopped at the last moment at the weird feeling in his stomach and decided to just take a peek inside first. He knew he was being silly, but for some reason he didn't want to face Luke right now, though Duchess Fabre and Princess Natalia being inside the room was also one of the reason he didn't want to go in. However, when he saw Luke for the first time after he came back, he couldn't keep it down anymore and rushed to the toilet and vomited.

He would never forget what he saw when he peeked inside the room. How Luke fon Fabre, the proud boy who was so sure of himself, who had been pushing himself to learn as much as he could, was crawling on the floor! Not just that, his eyes were so full of childish curiosity that Guy didn't know what to make of it. He didn't know how he would feel if he himself were to suddenly lost everything he had been working for and had to relearn everything.

He felt horrible at himself for having any ill feelings towards the boy, for thinking that this was what he wanted for the Fabre family. He still wanted his revenge, he doubted his own hatred and pain would leave, but he was disgusted at himself for wanting to involve Duke Fabre's family in it, for justifying wanting to involve his family in it, for convincing himself that Luke was just a necessary casualty.

He had been doing a lot of thinking since then, he even talked to Pere about his 'problems'. And when Luke was 'released' from his 'ward' on the tenth day, he greeted the boy with a small smile and together with Duchess Fabre, helped Luke practice walking in the garden by holding onto his hands.

It had been seven days after Luke first tried walking under his and Duchess Fabre's guidance. Although Luke's father had at times showed his annoyance at his son for needing to relearn everything, Guy could tell that he was actually blaming himself for Luke's kidnap, whereas his mother was just proud of Luke at his progress in walking. He remembered hearing the doctor telling Luke's parents how although he was like a baby mentally, he was still a ten year old boy physically and thus would be able to learn much faster than a newborn at least in the physical aspects.

Apart from walking, Guy also helped in teaching Luke how to talk, read and write. The process was very slow, as Luke needed to learn everything from scratch, but he was determined to help the younger boy regain the things he had lost. He didn't know what his drive in doing this was, he didn't know why he did it in the first place.

Sure, he had been thinking and had been talking with Pere and had come to the conclusion to leave Luke and Duchess Fabre out of his revenge, but the fact still remained that he would one day kill Duke Fabre. He also didn't want to get close to the boy for that exact reason, but at the same time he wanted to help Luke. It had been so contradicting that he didn't want to think about it anymore. Well, he had to think about it and sort out his emotions and thoughts, but it's so tedious and he decided to leave it for another day.

Guy looked up and immediately jumped back. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he nearly crashed into an old lady! Apparently the old lady also didn't notice him so he was saved from explaining why instead of simply sidestepping, he did a double take and had to jump back several meters.

He sighed tiredly and took out a piece of paper from his pocket. Pere is right, I shouldn't think too much about it, at least not when I am on an errand.

He looked at the list of groceries on the piece of paper and then the basket he was holding and blinked. When did I buy all these things? Did I go into autopilot again? It sounded ridiculously, but he had so much on his mind these days that it wasn't the first time he finished whatever tasks he was asked to do without himself actively taking part in it.

He shook his head and started to check if he already had everything in the list. He had been concentrating very hard to interpret the scribble on the paper – does that mean my autopilot self is more capable than the real me? – and didn't saw a certain red haired boy running straight towards him. He fell down when the boy rushed by and his elbow crashed into his side. He lost his grip on the basket due to the sudden hit and the contents of the basket fell off and scattered across the road. Only then did Guy register what just happened.

Seriously, the street was not so narrow or crowded that he couldn't avoid hitting me. He frowned and was about to turn his head to the direction where the boy had run off to to see who knocked him dow-

"Master Gailardia?" A voice inquired and Guy snapped his head to the owner of the voice.

"Van? What are you doing here?" Guy asked, surprised at the presence of his friend and ex-servant and completely forgot about the boy that just elbowed him. It was true that Van would show up in Baticul at least once a week to train Luke, but he hadn't shown up since Luke was rescued. He knew Duke Fabre told Van not to come as his son was not up to learning from Van due to his memory lost and didn't want to hold the Commandant of Oracle Knights up from performing his own duties.

Without answering the question, Van helped Guy get up from the ground and the two started picking up the scattered groceries. It was only after everything was picked up and the basket returned to Guy that Van answered his question. "I know Duke Fabre told me specifically that there's no need for me to come and continue my lesson with Luke, but I am still curious as to the condition of him and come to check it out."

Guy looked around to make sure he knew which part of the city he was in. After all, there were so many places his autopilot self would take him to. "Then why are you here? This is quite far away from the elevator that would take you to the upper part of the city."

"I was about to get to the elevator when I saw someone that looked like Luke rushing past and decided to follow."

"Huh? Why? I mean, we are in Baticul and it isn't uncommon for kids with red hair running around." Guy had automatically assumed that looking like Luke equals to kid with red hair. It wasn't the first time he had seen kids with red hair running in the streets so he didn't see any problem in it.

"I heard that someone was impersonating Luke since he was kidnapped and it just seemed suspicious to see someone who looked like him running around in Baticul." Van explained.

Guy shrugged. "Maybe it's just some orphans wanting to become rich or something like that? Anyway, the real one is already back home and chances are that one just realized he was several weeks too late to pretend to be Luke or something like that."

Van nodded. "That may be the case, but impersonating royalty is not something that we should just overlook and I needed to catch up with the boy."

Guy sighed. "Give him a rest. He's just a kid." He then raised a piece of paper between the two of them and looked at Van. "By the way, could you help me out? I can't understand what is written here. And you should come with me to see Luke after. You know how he always looked up to you? Maybe you being there will trigger his memory."

Van closed his eyes as if thinking of something before looking at Guy with a smile. "Of course, young master."

Guy frowned. "You shouldn't call me that in public."

"The only ones in this alley are the two of us," he pointed at the old lady that Guy nearly crashed into a while ago, "and that old lady who is unlikely to hear what we are saying."

"Fine."

As Van helped him figure out what was written on the piece of paper, he couldn't help but feel that there was a slight hint of irritation in Van's tone and that the smile was a bit strained.


It was another busy day in Green Lizard's Nest, the largest tavern in the lower city of Baticul. Although today was a workday and it was only three hours after lunchtime, the tavern was still very much crowded. Apart from the waiters, workers that decided to take a day off and came here to get a beer and travelers that had heard of the most famous tavern in the lower city and decided to pay a visit, there were also many mercenaries lingering around. Most of the taverns in Auldrant had boards with notices offering mercenary jobs pinned onto it, but Green Lizard's Nest was more than that.

Unlike the other taverns where people just stuck their job offers randomly onto the board, the job notices here were posted in an organized way. Each notice board had their own job category: one with only delivery jobs, one with only escort jobs, one with only retrieval jobs, etc. It was the second closest to a mercenary guild Kratos had seen before in Aselia, the first being The Border Dwellers in Chesedonia, which was the tavern Kratos frequented the most when looking for mercenary jobs himself.

However, he wasn't here to take a job today, he was waiting for a certain red haired boy. Luke never replied whether he would come here tolook for him or not, but knowing the boy, he would find the time to make sure Kratos didn't get too injured from the last fight. There was just one problem with that logic: he wasn't sure what Luke would be like after he finished his own business. He also didn't know how Van was going to approach this matter. If Van successfully convinced the boy to go with him to Daath, then there wasn't much he could do.

He knew what he told Dist about Luke being in the most vulnerable state and how easily it would be for Van to snatch him away. He could only hope his silent support during their trip from Chesedonia to Baticul was enough to make the distraught boy understand that Van was not the only person he could go to. The most ideal case was for Luke to try to rein in the raging emotions Kratos was sure he was feeling right now and made himself known to his family and friends. It might take some convincing after that, but Kratos was sure at least the Duke would be able to tell which was his real son. Though if that happened, he couldn't imagine what the fate of the replica would be.

Kratos knew it was just wishful thinking. From what he knew of Luke, though it's subtle, the boy still exerted a certain amount of self-consciousness, especially when it came to his father. If Luke was to hear and see his father accepting another boy as his replacement, his mind would become so broken that he wouldn't be able to think straight to realize that it didn't have to be like this if he just showed himself to his family. Kratos was also pretty sure that Van would do anything to prevent Luke from being seen by his family and friends.

Kratos didn't like what Van was doing to the boy, but he also didn't like what he was doing to the boy. Ever since he came to Auldrant, it didn't matter that what he was doing might ultimately save this world, he still felt like being a puppet master manipulating the others, which was one of the only things he truly hated doing but more often than not found himself in situations that could only be solved through such foul deeds. At least in Dist's case the scientist knew that he was being manipulated and still chose to help him on his own... maybe a bit forcefully... but it's still not that bad. Though Kratos never outright lied to Luke, he still concealed what he knew of the situation from the boy. It was like lying to his son about his own identity and real motives all over again.

That's why Kratos decided to let Luke know he had more choices than he first thought and tried not to interfere with Luke's decision as much as possible. He just hoped that the boy would choose wisely and not go with the man who just betrayed him, and might very well betray him again in the future. He also decided that if Luke were to come to him, he would let him know what he should know as much as possible. It would be hard for someone at such a young age who just underwent such emotional wreck to take in, but it's still better than keeping him in the dark. And he would let him decide for himself what he would want to do with his current situation after giving him some advice.

Speaking of telling the others what they need to know, Kratos knew that both Dist and Cantabile were still discreetly investigating on him on their own, though in Cantabile's case it was near non-existent, as the girl was the type to know when to stop prying into other's secret, and she also didn't have as much information on him as the the other did. Dist was just the type that hated unsolved mysteries and could be pretty nosy at times. Although he did know when to keep his mouth shut sometimes - well, only when Kratos made it clear he didn't want to talk about it - Kratos knew that he was getting ever closer. However, he was still not sure if he should let the others know about Derris Kharlan and him not being as human as they had been thinking.

From how Dist worded his question when he asked Kratos if there's anything he could do to help, he realized that the scientist might know more about him than he thought. There's also this whole thing about mana and Seventh Fonon that Kratos needed to take care of and he wasn't sure he could handle all this alone. He was still relatively new to this world and the only knowledge he knew about this world was from books and conversing with others. There was only so much he could learn from reading and talking to others. If he required other's help to analyze and solve the problem at hand, who better to ask than Dist? The scientist might still have many flaws, but Kratos knew he could trust him to keep his secret and help him. He knew he could also trust Cantabile, but if the girl was fine with not knowing, he didn't see the reason to let her in on the secret right now, maybe at a later time he would tell her. Depending of Luke's action from now on, Kratos might also have to tell him about it.

It was very noisy in the tavern, with all the activities happening in it, but Kratos still picked up the hurried footsteps of someone running to the tavern and knew that his wait was over. He remained in his seat in one of the more secluded corner and watched as the door opened to reveal none other than Luke fon Fabre.


~ Omake: Not-So-Boring Duty ~

"Did you hear that?"

"What?" Despite the other's question, Guard A just continued to look at the street in front of him with a boring look.

"It sounds like the cable is moving." Guard B turned around to look at the cable car he was guarding.

"Huh, maybe you are just hearing things?" Guard A shrugged.

"But..." Guard B furrowed his brow as he looked closely at the cable car and the cable above it, but he didn't think to check the other cable.

"Maybe the boredom finally gets to you? It's the busiest time of the day and many people are passing by, maybe you are just hearing the others doing whatever they are doing and think it's the cable. As if anyone's coming out of that forsaken place." Guard B just waved dismissively and still not looking at his colleague.

"I am not sure about the boring part... I heard from the others that they heard the cable moving every once in a while during the night... but they never saw the cable car coming here..."

"The night shift bunch? You have got to have some problems in the head to believe their blabbering."

"What do you mean?" Guard B crossed his arms as he looked at Guard A, a bit offended at the other's comment.

"Guard duty, especially guarding a rundown factory that was abandoned more than ten years ago, is the most boring job a soldier can get. And night shift? Doing nothing but standing in the dead of night? At least now I can do some cloud watching and people watching and try eavesdropping to entertain myself. I bet the silence got to them after the first few nights and they just started imagining things."

"But I swear-" Guard B heard the noise getting louder and saw a green thing out of the corner of his eyes. "Look!" He turned around and pointed at the now identified cable car coming from a distance. "It really is moving!"

Guard A stared at the oncoming cable car and stuttered. "Wha- but-"

"Should I go and report it to the boss?" Guard B asked uncertainly, he was new to the ranks and wanted to make sure he was doing the correct thing.

Guard A snapped out of his stupor at the other's word, remembering that he's the senior here and needed to make the decision. "No, we don't know how many is coming and we don't have enough time to ask for reinforcement. We need to stay here and fight off whoever is or are coming. We have the advantage here as whoever is or are coming will be trapped inside the car."

The two got into fighting stance and waited with baited breath. Guard A told the other that they would surround the car and took out those inside it before they even stepped out of it. When the car got close enough and before it stopped totally, both guards thrust their swords into the small compartment. Hearing nothing and not feeling their swords colliding with anything, the two looked at each other. Guard A then kicked open the door to the small compartment.

"What's the meaning of this?" Guard A furrowed his brows as he looked at the empty cable car.

"It's them..." Guard B whispered with a haunted look.

"Who?"

"The ones that moved the cable car but never got into the city during the nights... th- the ghosts are finally coming!"

"Stop being so superstitious! As if ghost really exis-" Guard A was cut off when the cable cars, even the other stationary one, suddenly began swinging to their right and left. The two guards looked up and saw that the cause of the swinging was the cables vibrating violently.

They stared at the vibrating cables and started swearing after the violent vibration stopped, though the cars were still swinging. "What the-" Guard A was cut off again when the cables started shaking again for another few seconds and the swinging of the cars resumed with vigor.

The two guards looked at each other silently and after a while, Guard B started screaming. "I told you! It's the ghost!"

Though he was also not very sure of what was happening and a bit scared, Guard A just sighed and shook his head at the other's hysterical cries, not knowing what to say to the young man who had clearly lost it, and he blamed it on the boredom at the most undesirable duty a soldier could get. Because blaming it all on ghost, something he was sure didn't exist, was not something a trained soldier, newbie or not, should be doing in such situation.


Author's Note:

I know I am dragging it, but I wanted to write out Guy's POV on this matter first... and yes, the one that ran into Guy was Luke, who was feeling so hurt that either he didn't see Guy, or he did see him but thought that Guy would just be the same as the others and angrily pushed him to the ground, I will leave that to your own interpretation. Van needed to do something to prevent Guy from seeing the real Luke, so he had to call out to him to avert his attention to Luke and thus lost sight of him.

Many thanks to the reviewers for their reviews again! I see that some of you are looking forward to seeing Asch coming up to his parents and declared that he's the real one. I know it would get interesting if things come to that... sorry to disappoint you, but that won't happen in this fic, as there's already a very well written fanfic about Asch showing himself to his family and getting to be raised alongside replica Luke as brothers. It would be like a repeat of that fic if I am to do something like that and I don't want to accidentally copy over some of the ideas used in that fic. And the story would become too different from the original for my not so creative brain to come up with ideas to still keep all the significant events if Luke were to become Asch and vice versa, not to mention it would also be confusing as hell.

For those who are interested, the fic I am talking about is titled Reflections by . I highly recommend it to you if you want to read a fic where everyone knew beforehand that Asch is the real one and Luke is the replica.

Uploaded on 18 May 2013.