Yes, a little late. Sue me. Or sue whichever company made our router, since it was doing this weird spazzy thing all day Wednesday, and again Thursday. It finally stopped last night, but I had to finish looking over Chapter 32 of A Demon in the Shadows for Kuro Tamashi, and then Winx said 'Hey, about this chapter...' and once we got that mess cleaned up she popped off with 'hey, can you re-write the Guardian Chronicles for me?' and... yeah. BTW, she's currently re-writing (or has already re-written by now) the last chapter of the (new) first five parts. Which means she'll probably start replacing chapters online soon, after we go over it all one last time. And she finally has an outline. -exasperated sigh-
So yeah. That's been my week.
Enough rambling. Enjoy!
(Oh... And yes, Dark does remember Sorylle mentioning miasma in the factory... He was just more preoccupied with the budding headache from Kairi slamming her frying pan on his head five seconds later. XD)
*Gods, we are a bad influence on you...* -Asch
*What letter was this?* -Dark
*I should never have sent it in the first place, but that's beside the point.* -Sync
Chapter 5.5 – Almost War
Part 52
Dark's POV
Asch and Sync had called it on the monsters.
Fonic golems. Ropers. Bats.
Oh, and the tuning fork. Although that wasn't a monster. It was still a pain. It took Anise hitting the thing with her old mace to unlock the door.
But, we made it to the passage ring. Asch took a deep breath, looking more than a little worried, and stepped up to a golden... thing. The top opened like a book the minute he placed his hand down on it, and I didn't miss the silent gasp or the flash of pain, nor did I mistake the expression that followed as anything other than 'how the hell can someone do this to themselves?' Green eyes glanced up at the dimly lit diagrams above.
"Damn."
"I'm just going to say 'I told you so.'" Asch turned around long enough to whack Sync upside the head before looking up again.
"Second, fourth, and... Damn. Seventh," Asch said. Sync groaned, while Tear stepped forward and started singing. The familiar melody of the second hymn filled the air, followed shortly by the fourth, which was slowly becoming more familiar as Tear became more comfortable with it. It was useful, too.
"Rei Va Zue Kuroa Toue Rei Rei~"
Everyone stared a moment at Sync, who immediately turned red and faced away from the rest of us. Jade was the first to recover.
"What's that?"
Asch glanced up, and rolled his eyes. "Oh, very amusing, Van. Sync, you're the apprentice riddler. Translate."
Sync looked up, and so did I.
What lies here now was not before
Placed here by she whose time is sand
If this, the world of fonic lore
Then what, the name of her far land?
It hit me like a brick to the face, and I wondered how Asch hadn't figured it out. Actually, that's not true. He wasn't even reading it, I don't think.
"Asch, read it. You know the answer. You, Dark, and I are the only ones aside from Zion who do," Sync said.
Asch was quiet for a moment before his eyes widened. "Okay... I admit that's a good riddle... But how the hell does Zion know?!"
Sync shrugged. "No idea. Might have something to do with why he keeps kidnapping her."
"What are you two talking about?" Jade asked. Sync rolled his eyes.
"It's not important. Asch, put in the answer already."
Five letters appeared in quick succession.
_Earth
The rest of the diagram above lit up, and Asch made a few swiping motions. A new screen appeared, and he cursed quietly. "Jade? Can you understand any of this?"
Jade stepped a little closer, and nodded. "Yes. Do you need me to talk you through disabling the seal?" Asch shook his head and stepped away from the book-thing.
"No. Unlocking the passage ring controls is the only part that requires the use of seventh fonons. You should be clear to do it yourself, so long as you keep your hand on the terminal," he said. Jade nodded and stepped up to the 'terminal.' The rest of us watched, bored, as Jade worked. Asch watched for a few minutes before Sync pulled him off to the side a bit. They spoke in hushed whispers, and I had a feeling I knew what they were talking about.
Almost half an hour later, Jade pulled his hand away from the terminal, allowing the book part to close. Of course, the moment it was closed, Jade hit one knee, and Asch was running over to him, mumbling obscenities under his breath.
"I told you not to take your hand off!" Asch yelled, now right next to Jade. The colonel flinched, and Asch sighed, hands already glowing green as he checked the man over.
"What was that?" Jade asked, voice hoarse. Asch bit his lip, then shook his head. "Asch."
The green glow of Scan disappeared, and Asch's head dropped. "I'll... I'll tell you back on the Albiore."
Jade didn't look convinced, but as the redhead helped him back to his feet, Sync crossed his arms. "What all did you do to the passage ring?" he asked. Jade huffed.
"Albiore," he said, sounding a little breathless still. I wondered if the pain Asch had felt, had been prepared for, had caught him off-guard, or if it was worse than Asch had felt.
Then I realized something.
Kairi, Asch, and Sync had done this before.
"My arm, my knee, my liver and kidney... I'm a mess."
"You four are going to Grand Chokmah."
"She's sick, isn't she?"
And on the Albiore, Sync signing six letters that he didn't dare say out loud.
Miasma.
Sorylle had said Kairi smelled of miasma when we were in the factory. Kairi collapsed in the Qliphoth after the fall of Akzeriuth.
I glanced at Jade and Asch. The miasma was coming from the passage rings. It had to be. That was the only explanation for all of this. Asch knew...
And he still volunteered to do it in an attempt to leave no one the wiser.
I took a deep breath, silently cursing the man who was still a noble at heart. Do what you have to in order to keep the people happy. What they don't know won't hurt them. Typical...
"Hey guys! Back already?"
I glanced up. Sure enough, we'd already made it back to the Albiore. I sighed. Well, I'd find out soon enough. Jade looked ready to skin Asch alive, and Asch looked... Like hell, actually. His face was paler than usual, and his breathing was labored, but he was still supporting Jade, who looked about as badly off.
Once we were all settled in the cockpit again, Tear crossed her arms and looked at Asch and Jade. "Is this normal?" she asked. Asch closed his eyes.
"Yeah."
"And you didn't think to mention that the passage rings make you sick before we did this?" Jade asked. Sync snorted.
"It's not the passage rings themselves making you sick. They pull up seventh fonons out of the core. The core is contaminated by miasma, so of course the seventh fonons they pull up are contaminated as well," the rough replica said. "When the terminal starts up and then closes down, those contaminated seventh fonons slip into the nearest human body. Asch started it up, and you made the mistake of letting it close down."
Jade looked over at Asch. "You knew you'd be poisoning yourself, and you still went in knowing full well what the consequences would be?"
"Yes. And I'm not the first one to do it."
Crimson eyes went from narrowed in frustration to wide in horror. "Kairi."
Asch nodded. "Kairi. I'm the one that caught the miasma in her body, almost six months after we started in on the sephiroth. Her liver and kidney are comparable to someone who's been binge-drinking most of the last decade, an entire lobe in her right lung has shriveled up, and she's still fighting to see Van stopped. The least I can do is help her get the morphine to cover up the pain."
Natalia looked concerned. "But what about the miasma? It'll kill her..."
"Not if she can flush it out fast enough," Asch argued. "She knows it's there now, she can get rid of it. It's a painful process, but she can do it, nonetheless. And Sync and I know the method. I'd been planning to use it myself."
Jade took a deep, if shaky, breath. "Would it be possible for you to teach me?" he asked. Asch nodded.
"Yeah. Of course, there's always the option of me doing it for both of us. It's not hard, just painful, according to Kairi. She would know, she's been doing it for weeks."
Jade shook his head, then put out a hand to steady himself. I frowned. Asch wasn't nearly as dizzy as he was. Why...?
"No. I'd rather learn to do it myself, just in case."
Asch nodded, then frowned and used another Scan to check over Jade again.
Pain flashed across Jade's features, and Asch's eyes widened. Before any of us realized exactly what was going on, Asch had Jade leaned back in his chair, and the redhead was sitting cross-legged on the floor, eyes closed. Sync blinked a few times before he, too, sat down.
Remembering a parallel world filled with bright lights and being able to step out of my body, I sat down as well, closing my eyes and relaxing. Now then... How did this go again?
Reach inside for a light... No, that wasn't right. That's what Kairi said, but... It wasn't so much a light as it was... warmth. Warmth, hidden away from the frigidity that was the rest of my soul. As if my thoughts had summoned it before me, the warmth spread through my body, a feeling that was accompanied by weightlessness. I didn't have to open my eyes, but I did, because everything was so much clearer when my eyes were open.
I stood, my body remaining in a cross-legged position on the floor.
Though Asch and Sync sat almost two yards apart, they both were bent over Jade's form. And, perhaps even more worrying than his pale face and ragged breath, was the way he seemed to be... flickering.
Asch and Sync had strong, steady glows about themselves, and I probably did as well. Their bodies were faded, but the others, looking around, were glowing just as we were. Their souls, probably. But what would disrupt Jade's soul in such a way?
*Instead of just standing there, why don't you help?* Sync asked. The worried tone of voice had me spinning on my heel to step over to Jade.
"What are they doing? Does anyone know?" Anise asked. Reighn crossed his arms.
"I've seen Sync do this before, once, when he got irritated with one of his injuries. It was completely healed a few days later along with a few other minor ones, like nature had sped up his healing processes. I think they're trying to help Jade," he said. Tear frowned.
"But then, what's wrong with Jade?"
Sync blinked out of existence for a moment before re-appearing with a strong green glow around him. Everyone started, save for Selenia, and I rolled my eyes, drawing as many Energies together as I could. I wasn't nearly as good at this as Sync or Asch, and certainly nowhere near Kairi's level, but at least I was more help than the rest of them, standing around doing nothing.
*Moon Energies,* I announced, herding them over to Asch carefully. He muttered something that might have been 'thanks' and started siphoning them into Jade's fingers. Or rather, I realized, his fonslots. A very pale pink glow lit up a moment and then faded, and I blinked in surprise as a few seventh fonons danced past, hesitated, and then darted into his body.
*That... shouldn't be possible...* I muttered. Asch gave me a wry smile and started in on the fonslots in Jade's other hand. I noted that he was quickly running low on Energies, so I started collecting up a few more.
*Everyone recovered from the shock, now?* Sync asked, lips moving but voice in my head regardless.
"What... how...?" Tear muttered. Selenia grinned.
"Astral projection. He can appear literally anywhere on the planet."
*Ah, anywhere I've been, at least. I'd rather not try to go somewhere I'm not familiar with,* Sync corrected. *At any rate... You were asking about Jade. His body isn't just rejecting the miasma, it's rejecting the seventh fonons the miasma is latched onto. Asch is trying to fix it.*
*And I can't grip Energies as easily as fonons, so would you please get back onto the second plane?* I grumbled. Sync rolled his eyes, waved a hand, and pulled another few dozen Energies over to me. I blinked a few times, and the other replica shrugged.
"What was that about?" Natalia asked. Sync shook his head.
*Dark's hopeless.*
I rolled my eyes. *We can't all be masters of Energies.*
*No. But you're still hopeless.*
"Um... You're talking to nothing...?" Guy noted. Sync grinned, an evil, malicious expression that honestly made me want to run for my life.
*That's what you think.*
*Gods, we are a bad influence on you...* Asch mumbled. Sync threw his head back and laughed.
*This, from the idiot who pulled a random letter out of Kairi's bag and read it out loud.*
Asch's ears on the first plane turned pink, a pale comparison to the brilliant red his face was on the second plane. Still...
*What letter was this?*
*No. We are not going there,* Asch insisted, drawing fonons down toward Jade's eyes. Sync snickered and disappeared a moment, before re-appearing on the second plane.
*Aw, why not? I'm not embarrassed by it anymore.*
*Because you've actually learned how to write letters finally.*
*And riddles.*
*Yes, and riddles. But that first letter was awful.*
*You're the one that made stupid comments while reading it out loud.*
*She should have burned it before leaving Keterburg.*
*I should never have sent it in the first place, but that's beside the point.*
I sighed and slowly let myself fade back to my body, Sync taking hold of the moon Energies as I left to keep them available for Asch.
The warmth faded, and it took every ounce of my willpower not to go right back onto the second plane. I opened my eyes and looked up.
"Sync really needs a pastime that doesn't involve irritating people simply because he can," I said. Natalia looked down at me in surprise.
"What in the world were you three doing? Were you talking to each other in a way we couldn't hear? Because that's what it sounded like," she asked. I nodded.
"Pretty much. So... Back to the surface, then?"
Tear nodded. "Yes. Do we know how long Jade is going to be down for the count?" she asked. Sync's eyes fluttered open then.
"Wait for Asch to finish checking Jade over one last time, and then ask him," he said, standing carefully. "That said... Ion? Can I talk to you?"
Ion looked up at him with wide eyes and nodded. "Of course."
The two of them left the cockpit, and we all waited for Asch to 'wake up.' This took another fifteen minutes, and Asch sighed. "Jade will recover... But it'll probably be a few days before he wakes up now," he admitted. "Noelle? Any chance you could drop us off just south of Theor Forest when we go back up?"
"That won't be a problem. Where to after that?" she asked. I crossed my arms.
"Engeve. That area would have been connected to the Shurrey Hill sephiroth, yes? Grand Chokmah is part of the Mt. Roneal area, but with Shurrey Hill gone, Engeve will fall soon as well," I said.
Asch nodded. "Yeah. I'm gonna take Jade to Grand Chokmah for now. The rest of you, evacuate Engeve."
Fun Fact: Yes, I did just turn Jade into a Seventh Fonist. –sticks out tongue- I hadn't planned to, but I was stuck halfway through the chapter and I realized rather suddenly that, if someone who isn't a seventh fonist isn't supposed to have lots of seventh fonons in their body, then... Shouldn't the seventh fonons be causing Jade just as many problems as the miasma? And I've already made Flick a seventh fonist when she didn't start Re:ARitA as one... So yeah. (Jade's reaction will be properly written in a CR chapter.) Also... Guess what? Any guesses as to how many updates are left until we catch up to where I left off last time? Really, guess. We're close. That's my only hint.
