Wow. 50 Parts.

I'm amazed, really, with how far this story's come since I first started writing it. So far, I've got 111 Parts posted (61 from Re:ARitA and 50 from Re:AST), though sadly, I've only got another 28 written. –sheepishly grins- Yeah, I haven't been writing on this particular story since the end of November... –is shot-

Yeah, I've been more preoccupied with helping Tea, who is completely hopeless when it comes to planning. She's got the first parts of BotM done, and the middle done, and the end, but all the parts in between? I'm not even sure how she's supposed to get from Point A (a few chapters after where she stopped posting) to Point B (where her planning picks back up). So I'm trying to poke her into making some sort of a backbone for the story before she gets too much further in the rewrite.

I'll admit it, I've also kinda been working on other fics. Not much, but a little.

Okay, enough randomness. Enjoy!


"Oh, I'm hurt. Is that all I'm good for?" –Jade

"Wow, you guys know nothing about monsters..." –Dark

"Deal with it, pillow." –Sorylle

"Well, that didn't have the effect I'd hoped it would..." –Jade


Chapter 5.3 – Almost War
Part 50

Dark's POV

"Would you sit down?!" Jade snapped.

I dropped to the floor next to the ligers and glared at him.

Asch sighed. "He's anxious. And he's not the only one. We have an idea of what Van's up to. Zion's a wildcard, and this is the second time he's kidnapped Kairi."

I groaned and leaned back, Twilight suddenly becoming a pillow. Not that he seemed to mind too much. "That's not all that's on my mind. I'm worried..."

"About?"

I chose not to answer for a moment. "Seth and I met one time when I was trying to get a message to Ryndor. We ended up becoming pretty good friends. I sent him a letter asking about what was going on in the Northern Forest while we were in Chesedonia the first time. He slipped a reply letter that he'd apparently meant to send sooner into my bag before we got separated in the Theor Forest," I said.

Sync glanced back, then flipped out of his seat and landed next to me. "Well?"

Jade sighed. "We can't be running around in eight places at once," he reminded us. I shrugged. So? Better to share the knowledge.

"The southern clan has gone feral."

"Um, hello? Ligers are monsters, that tends to happen," Anise said. I shook my head.

"No. Ligers, cheagles, hresvelgrs, uniceri, sea serpents, and dragons are sentient. Far more than any other species of monster. That's why Kairi can create a telepathic connection with Twilight. She wouldn't be able to do the same with a griffin or wolf," I said, feeling very much like a teacher all of a sudden. "None of those can go feral without a serious source of dissolution. I know the uniceri can't stand miasma. Sea serpents don't take well to fresh water or cold temperatures. Dragons turn feral with old age, which is usually something like a few hundred years."

"How do you know all of this?" Jade wondered. I shrugged, remembering months of rummaging around in a dusty old library.

"There's this library, see. I don't remember how to get there anymore, but... well. If we locked you down there, you'd never be bored. Not with the way your mind works."

Natalia crossed her arms. "Can we lock him down there?"

I chuckled. "No. We need his connections to the Malkuth military."

"Oh, I'm hurt. Is that all I'm good for?"

I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, the only thing that can make a liger go feral is a disease unique to ligers. It's normally rather rare, but... It looks like almost all of the southern clan's alphas have caught it. They'll still answer to Arietta, but..." I trailed off. I'd only ever see one liger feral. And I prayed it had died about the same time as its replica. "They've decided the eastern clan, which currently has the lowest number of feral ligers, is a clan of traitors. I'm not sure how that works, but that's their claim. At any rate, the southern clan has declared war on the eastern."

"And the western?"

I sighed. "Tucking their tails between their legs and hightailing it out of there. The packs near the southern and eastern borders have already retreated to northern Rugnica. I think they're waiting for the ice bridges."

Jade started. "Those only last a few days at most..."

"Yeah, but it's a path out of there. They don't want anything to do with the feral southern ligers, and I don't blame them. But if the eastern clan doesn't get out of there, they'll fall to the same fate of the southern," I said. "Sorylle, and Koran before her, are both eastern. I've got a strong attachment to that clan."

Sync frowned. "When does the ice bridge form?" he asked. I frowned, but it was Jade who answered.

"Sometime between Shadow-Decan 30 and Shadow-Redecan 20. It's caused by shifting ocean currents. The current that normally runs through there breaks in two temporarily when the flow starts to change and the two new currents flow to either side of Rugnica for a few days, pulling down cold water and ice from Keterburg," Jade said. "The ice bridges could be a few feet wide where they touch the southern shore, or many kilometers wide. It's difficult to predict their locations or when they'll form."

"And a whole liger pack wants to use that to get to Keterburg?" Anise asked, incredulous.

I sighed. "Not just one pack, Anise. One pack of ligers can be anywhere from five to twenty ligers. We're talking about dozens of packs... almost three hundred ligers. And that's just the western clan. That number could easily double if just a third of the eastern clan makes it out."

No one spoke for a while, and I rolled my eyes. "You guys realize, as princess... actually, no. As High Queen of the southern liger clan, Arietta has almost a thousand ligers at her beck and call, right?" A lot of shocked eyes looked at me, and I huffed. "Wow, you guys know nothing about monsters..."

Jade adjusted his glasses. "So not only does Arietta have an entire division of Oracle soldiers behind her, she's got a veritable army of ligers as well, discounting all of her other monsters? I know you're technically eastern clan yourself, Dark, but I'm suddenly very glad that the southern clan is preoccupied with the eastern."

I sighed. "Keep in mind, only alpha ligers grow to the size Twilight is. The other ligers that were in the Cheagle Woods, and the others we've fought up 'til now, have all been delta rank. No omegas, thank heavens, those guys are tricky, but..." I trailed off, seeing that Jade had gotten my point.

"Still, throw in the rest of her monsters... I'm going to have to agree with Jade on this one," Anise said.

"We're nearing St. Binah," Noelle called.

Our rescue of Ginji had gone perfectly, with one small little problem called a large monster attacking the other group. Thankfully, it hadn't slowed them down too much. Of course, Ginji needed to rest after that, and since his grandfather had gotten the Albiore II ready while we were out, his little sister had volunteered to pilot it for us instead.

Which is why we were now flying over Rugnica.

Noelle brought the Albiore II down slowly, giving the remaining citizens more than enough time to clear space for it to land. Guy and Seth herding everyone to one side probably had something to do with that as well. I didn't bother to get up from where I was now lounging behind the pilot/copilot/passenger seats. Twilight didn't seem inclined to get up either, and Sorylle made it a point to drape herself across my legs.

"You're so helpful," Sync commented, sitting next to me. I smirked.

"I don't see you helping your girlfriend to get her city's people onboard."

"You're not helping your girlfriend either."

"She is not my girlfriend!"

"Dark! Get out here and help!" Natalia called. I sighed.

"But, she is my boss. Sorylle, I need up." Silver eyes looked up at me like I was nuts, but she did move... into Sync's lap.

"Oh, come on! I was gonna get up too, you know."

"Deal with it, pillow."

I chuckled, heading outside to help Natalia with the elderly before doing a final sweep of the town. We'd just gotten back into sight of the Albiore when the ground jolted underneath us. My eyes widened, and I grabbed Natalia, picking her up bridal style and running the last few meters.

Asch stood at the top of the ramp, grabbing my arm and hauling me in even as Jade closed the hatch behind us. Natalia and I fell to the floor in a heap, only for gravity to suddenly cease on us.

"What's happening?!"

Jade scowled. "It looks like we've passed the Dividing Line Tear was talking about."

The Albiore's engines whirred, and the floor was once again under us. I held onto Natalia, who was clutching onto me for dear life.

I don't blame her, given how close we came to not making it onto the Albiore in time.

"Aww. You two are so cute!"

I leveled a glare at Selenia at an intensity I hadn't reached in many a month. "We almost died. If she doesn't want to let go of me after that, I'm not going to make her."

Selenia gulped, turned, and ran off, while Jade sighed. "You didn't have to be that acidic."

"I'm not happy about nearly dying either," I grumbled, moving to stand. I sighed, noting that Natalia had gone from hyperventilating to shaking. "Hey... Can you walk?" A moment of struggling to move her legs the way she needed to in order to stand, and then a quick shake of the head. I smiled a bit. I guess that's to be expected. You stop collapsing in fear after the third or fourth near-death experience.

I reached down and picked her up again, standing on perfectly steady legs.

Natalia buried her face in my shoulder, while Asch looked at us with an expression I couldn't read. I tilted my head to the side, then, carefully, signed five letters, grateful Kairi had taught me this while we were in the Meggiora Highlands. 'Later?'

Asch shook his head and looked away, crossing his arms. Jade glanced between him and me for a moment before shrugging it off.

I, on the other hand, really wanted to know what was up with him all of a sudden. Still, with Natalia in my arms, there wasn't a lot I could do about it.

I headed for the cockpit, noting that Selenia, Sync, Glenn and Elder McGovern, Tear, and Seth were the only ones here, aside from Noelle. Asch hadn't followed me, though Jade had.

Seth's eyes locked onto Natalia. "Is she...?"

"She'll be fine. It's not like this was her hundredth near-death experience," I said. He sighed in relief.

"At least we're all okay. Guy, Anise, Ion, Reighn, and the ligers are making sure everyone's settled in for now. It'll be another few hours at the least before we can reach Yulia City," he said. I put Natalia down carefully in the area I'd been sitting in before, and she reluctantly released the grip she'd had on my neck, only to grab my arm before I could pull away. I sighed and crouched there next to her.

Her eyes were still unfocused, though I could tell she'd gotten most of her thought processes back.

"How can you do it?" she whispered. I tilted my head to the side.

"Do it...? You mean, brush off dying like that?" I asked. A tiny nod was my only response, and I let my head drop. The others were giving us some space, thankfully. "It didn't used to be easy. I remember the first time it really hit me that Danté had almost killed me. I was so scared. I didn't want to leave Koran without anyone. I didn't want to just disappear."

I was quiet for a bit. "But... then it happened again, and again. By the third or fourth time, I realized something. I'm going to die someday. No, I'm not going to be ready for it, I'm not going to happy about it, but there's nothing I can do to avoid it. It took Danté coming after me while I was still recovering from the most recent bout, but I ended up developing the opinion I have now. If I can still get up and keep going after one of these experiences, then I need to get up and keep going, or I'll leave myself open to really be killed."

Natalia's breathing finally leveled out completely, and she looked up at me, warm hazel eyes finally getting a bit of life back.

"Dark... Thank you."

I smiled, finally prying my arm from her grip and standing. "I'm going to go talk to Asch. He looked like there was something he was having trouble with earlier," I said. Natalia nodded and moved to stand, only to fall to the floor again. She giggled.

"It seems I'm not as recovered from the shock as I thought I was. I'll stay here."

I smiled, nodded, and turned to leave the cockpit again.

Jade followed me, tapping my shoulder as soon as we were out of earshot of the others. "You know, a few years of actual military service could probably earn you a high-enough ranking promotion that King Ingobert wouldn't be able to automatically turn you down if you ask for her hand."

I snorted. "She's already engaged... Technically. Now that everyone knows the truth, Asch might decide to go back to Baticul."

"Or he might decide to formally renounce the engagement," Jade said. "Which I think is why he's so confused now."

I raised an eyebrow. "Confused? That didn't look like confusion earlier. More like jealousy to me. Jealousy, or longing. Either way..."

Jade shook his head. "My guess is, it wasn't so much that he wanted Natalia back, it was more a matter of wishing Kairi were here. At the same time, he knows exactly what you mentioned earlier, and he's not sure he can bring himself to call off the engagement."

I crossed my arms and thought about it for a minute. Then I tried to think about the whole thing from Asch's point of view.

"You're making almost the exact same face Asch was earlier," Jade noted. I huffed.

"Thank you, Colonel Pointless."

"Any time, Lieutenant Snarky."

"What the hell were you two talking about that led to that?" Asch asked as he walked up. I smirked.

"Nothing. Well, nothing important. At any rate, I should go see if Natalia's back on her feet yet," I said. I heard Jade muttering something under his breath and froze, turning to look at him in shock. He stopped and blinked at me, as if he was innocent, while Asch crossed his arms.

"What was that, Jade?" he asked, genuinely curious. It built slowly, then erupted. I laughed, realizing that I really had heard Jade correctly.

"Ha! You actually...! Ha! Oh... Kairi's hearing about that one..."

Jade sighed. "Well, that didn't have the effect I'd hoped it would..."

I just laughed harder. Poor Jade. He never could win this game, could he?

Asch looked back and forth between us like we'd suddenly turned into women. "What in the world is wrong with you two?"

I shrugged and headed into the cockpit, chanting an all-too-familiar little ditty that Jade was probably starting to hate by now.

"Jade and Cantabile sittin' in a tree ~"

"Are you two ever going to stop teasing each other?" Natalia asked. I grinned.

"Well, given how horribly Jade's most recent plan failed..." I trailed off. Sync smirked.

"You two should keep count. First one to ten losses asks the girl on a date."

I grinned. "Yes."

"No," Jade muttered.

"Too late, we're doing it."

Jade groaned.


Fun Fact: Ah, Jade. Epic failure is to be expected when your opponent is Dark.