Alright, so, this is one of two chapters in a row from Asch's POV. And once we get past these two, we will be down to just four chapters (out of the remaining 24 I have outlined) that will be in POV's that aren't Kairi's. And half of those will be Asch, again. But, hey, only so much I can do about telling a story.

Anyway... Here you guys go!

(And I still don't own anything... Darn...) Drop me a line on your way out, maybe?

Chapter 5.5 – Friends in Strange Places
Part 37

Asch's POV

It was way too early for her to be moving around.

I groaned and rolled over, checking the clock, or trying to in the darkness of whatever hour Kairi thought it was reasonable to wake up at.

Newsflash, Kairi, three o'clock is not reasonable.

Well, I wasn't sure it was three o'clock. I couldn't see through the gloom to figure out what time it really was.

"Asch?"

"Mm-hmm?"

"Oops... You can go back to sleep. I didn't mean to wake you..." Kairi told me, still in a whisper. I groaned again.

"What time is it?" I muttered. Kairi didn't reply right away, and if the soft padding that I recognized as bare feet on the floor meant anything, I guess she couldn't see the clock from where I'd heard her voice to my right either.

"Four thirty-six."

I yawned. "What the hell are you doing up at this hour?" I grumbled. Kairi giggled quietly, the creaking of her bed telling me that she had probably sat back down on it.

"Same as usual," she replied. "Go back to sleep, Asch. I'll be back by seven."

And then I could hear her boots, somehow making just as little noise as her bare feet had, heading off further to the right. The door opened, faint candlelight flooding in only for it to disappear again as Kairi slipped through and closed it behind her.

Left in the darkness again, I yawned once and decided to take her advice, rolling over again and falling back asleep easily.

When I woke up the second time, it was much lighter out. I glanced up at the clock; seven twenty. I raised my arms over my head to stretch before I sat up, looking around the room. Sync's bed was empty, though not yet made, as opposed to the bed on my right, which was empty, made, and lacking all of Kairi's equipment. I blinked.

When she had headed out the door that morning, I'd have sworn she had only her usual outfit on, minus the black coat. But then, where were her weapons and coat?

I sighed and stretched out my back before crawling out of bed and collecting up my clothes. I had just pulled my t-shirt back on when I heard the door open.

"Have you seen Kairi?"

I blinked, turning around to see Sync standing there. His hair was wet, proving that he'd kept to his usual schedule of showering in the morning as opposed to the evening. One of the oddball habits he picked up from Cantabile. Then his words registered, and I shook my head cautiously.

He frowned, grip strengthening on the door. "Colonel Curtiss sent a message to the innkeeper last night. It looks like Nephry's letter arrived around the same time we did, and since Kairi put the room under the name 'Balfour'..." he trailed off. "And I don't exactly want to go to Military Headquarters and tell him that his sister disappeared on us this morning."

I blinked. "Wait... How long have you been up?" I asked. Sync shrugged.

"About an hour. I was expecting you to be up around seven, but I guess you slept in a little," he replied. I rolled my eyes.

"Someone seems to think that four-thirty is a reasonable time to be awake. She said she'd be back by seven though..." I replied, dropping the sarcasm for the second half before picking up my coat from where it had somehow ended up halfway across the room. It honestly looked like someone had kicked it there... "Ah... that would explain what woke me up," I muttered, pulling it on. Sync looked confused, and I sighed.

"I woke up as Kairi was leaving. I think she might have tripped over my coat," I explained. Sync sighed.

"And you just let her head out? Equipment and all?" he muttered. I shook my head.

"No, her stuff was still here... Coat, weapons, items..." I stated. "She must have come back for it later. What I want to know is why she didn't leave a note."

Sync rolled his eyes. "It's Kairi. We'll probably find her at some point along the way," he replied. "In the meantime, we're going to have to come up with some excuse to tell the colonel."

I groaned and picked up my sword and bag and putting them on what had been Kairi's bed. "Get your things, I'll deal with it. If Kairi headed out with her equipment, we'll probably need ours at some point along the way," I told him before turning around and making the bed. He headed around to his own bed to do the same as I was doing, since we were supposed to be coming back. Whether or not we actually would was another story altogether with Kairi.

We finally headed out just ten minutes 'til eight, picking up bagels as we went along. According to Sync, the colonel wanted to talk to Kairi before he was meant to leave at nine this morning, or as soon as he got back. Probably to get it over with, I figured. I'd certainly want to do the same, in his position.

"Why would Kairi run off without telling us?" Sync wondered. I blinked and looked over at him in surprise before yawning and taking another bite out of my bagel, hopefully making it look like I didn't care.

But it was bothering me. In the past, Kairi had always, always, left something at the inn so we knew she'd be back, whether it be her coat and equipment (a sign that she was out in the town) or a note with her planned return time (which generally meant she was outside the town, training on her own for a while).

She had never left our rooms without at least some indication of where she was going or when she'd be back.

My feet led me to the Malkuth Military Headquarters. I'd been here before. In every attempt to avoid Kimlasca, I'd volunteered to do the Order's military inspections in Malkuth. At least doing the Malkuth inspections had gotten me off the roster for a number of duties regarding the militaries of the two warring countries, most of which involved Kimlasca.

"Your business here, gentlemen?" one of the soldiers standing on guard inquired. I sighed. I really didn't want to do this, but... Oh well.

"We're here to see Colonel Curtiss," I replied bluntly. The soldiers seemed to exchange a look.

"You're the two with his little sister?" the other asked.

I blinked and looked back at Sync. "You've seen her?" he asked. The soldiers nodded.

"Left a note for the colonel about two hours ago. Blonde hair, orange highlights, green eyes?" the first soldier described.

"Black coat?" I added. The soldier nodded, and I sighed. "Yeah, that's Kairi alright."

"The colonel's waiting inside for you," the second soldier stated. I nodded.

"Thanks," I muttered stepping past them and through the door. I looked around and sighed. It had been a while since I'd been here, but it wasn't as if I didn't know where I was going. I had to check the officers' offices while I was here, and the colonel's always stuck out in my mind.

Mostly because the first time I'd done it, the emperor had been lounging in there on a couch that the monarch had probably pulled in himself, a small pile of various items already forming in one corner of the floor. The look on the colonel's face had been priceless, before he managed to kick the emperor out and clean up the mess the monarch had created. Checking his office was something I'd done just because of regulations, after that. Most of it was nice and neat, but there was always that pile in the one corner...

"When she said she was traveling with, and I quote, 'two now-former God-Generals,' I certainly didn't expect it to be you two."

I blinked, realizing that my feet had led me to his office easily while I was lost in thought. I sighed. "Have you actually gotten to talk to her, or did she just leave a note?" I muttered. The colonel sighed and held up a piece of paper. I walked over and took it, unfolding it quietly.

Sorry, something came up. Could you keep track of my friends for me for a couple of days? They're two now-former God-Generals, so they shouldn't get in the way. I'll catch up with you three pretty quick. Don't worry about me.

P.S. If Asch asks, yes, I did trip over his coat this morning.

I chuckled, and handed the note off to Sync. The younger boy skimmed through it quickly before sighing and handing it back to Jade. "That's..."

"Kairi?" I supplied. He groaned.

"It would have been nice of her to leave us a note instead of just taking off though," he muttered. I frowned.

"But it almost sounds like she was in a hurry. Depending on where she was going, she may not have had time to stop at the inn," I stated. The colonel nodded.

"The soldier who delivered the note said the girl giving it to him had turned and run off almost as soon as he agreed to bring it to me," he added. Then he frowned. "Well, what are you two going to do? It's rather obvious that she was trying to talk me into bringing the two of you with me."

I frowned. "If that's the case, then we'd better come along, just in case. Her motives might not always make sense at first, but there is logic in there somewhere..." I replied. "Besides, we've already got everything."

Sync nodded. "We might as well. Not like we've got anything else to do as it is," he added. Colonel Curtiss nodded and stood.

"Then we'd best be headed down to the port. We're heading out in half an hour, and while I trust the lieutenant with most things, I would like to go oversee the final preparations myself," he stated. I shrugged.

"After you..." I replied, before my eyes were drawn to the emperor's pile of junk in the corner. "He never changes, does he?" I asked. The colonel groaned.

"Don't remind me. If you've left the Order, that means I have to clean all of that up before the fiftieth," he replied. I cringed.

"Just hope he doesn't show up while the inspector's in here. The only other two God-Generals I could see giving you a break with his messes are Largo and Cantabile, and the second only if you're lucky and he's actually in here when she comes through," I told him. He adjusted his glasses.

"If I have to unleash his damn rappigs in the palace to preoccupy him during the inspection, I will... I just hope he doesn't decide that he needs to bother me about it in the process..." he stated. I chuckled. Just once seeing the colonel and the emperor in a room together told me enough to know that the two had a friendly, if sometimes strained, relationship.

The colonel wasted no time in going to the port. I followed quietly, my mind wandering. Where was Kairi? What was so important that she wanted us to go with her brother? Why couldn't she have brought us with her?

"You're thinking rather hard," the colonel stated. I frowned.

"Sorry..." I muttered. But I was still mentally occupied. The only thing that came to my mind that would explain why Kairi wanted us with the colonel was that she was planning on sneaking onto the ship he was supposed to be commanding. But that made no sense either.

"Need a second mind?" Sync asked quietly. The colonel was up ahead of us, and the odd thought came to me that we had somehow known, instinctively, that we needed to fall back a ways to talk a little more privately. I mulled this over in my head, and came to the realization that I trusted Sync.

"Maybe. The only thing I can come up with makes no sense," I admitted. Sync frowned.

"You mean the guess that she might be sneaking onto the very ship we're about to get on?"

I looked over at him in surprise before looking away again, my eyes catching sight of the ocean as we neared the harbor. "But why?" I wondered. Sync didn't answer for a while, and before we knew it, we were standing on the dock and I realized that the 'ship' we were about to step onto was actually a landship. I couldn't help but smile slightly. Why pull a battleship off of patrol duty when it would be so much easier to just send the training troops out on a landship with operational buoys? Less hassle, at least.

"You two seem to have gotten a bit slow," the colonel commented. I blinked, realizing that he was right. Kairi was never in a hurry to get anywhere, she had proven that on the way to Akzeriuth when she was repeatedly falling behind us. I exchanged a look with Sync, and he seemed just as surprised. We hadn't just dropped behind to talk, after all.

"Sorry. Kairi likes taking her time," Sync explained. The colonel shrugged.

"No matter to me. Now then, you two know your ways around a landship, correct?" he asked. We nodded. "Good. I'll have someone designate a cabin for the two of you later. Right now, I have to head to the bridge and make sure that everything's ready for our departure."

And with that, he turned around and headed onboard. I sighed and followed him up, intending to head for the deck and find someplace to stay out of the way. Sync wandered along behind me at his own pace. He didn't seem too concerned about getting in the way of the soldiers, but with his small size and ability to easily jump out of the way, it was no wonder.

Once up on the deck, I chose a railing and leaned against it to pick up my previous train of thought. I didn't get far though.

"She's caught wind of something wrong."

I looked over at Sync, a questioning glance being enough to make the green-haired boy sigh and continue his trail of thought. "Something's not right with this training exercise. There's something off... A few of the soldiers gave me this weird feeling earlier..." he continued. I frowned, looking around at the men milling about on the deck. Sync was right. Now that I was looking for it, trying to find something off, there was this impression of something... wrong.

"Yeah... Now that I'm looking for it, it's definitely there. I didn't notice before because..."

"Because it wasn't something you'd even consider, unless the circumstances brought it to your attention."