Issues of Post-Game Crossovers: Tales of the Abyss and Familiar of Zero

Chapter 4: The Floating Land and Omakes begin

Spoilers for all of Tales of the Abyss. Play the game, It's one of the greatest of all time. Available for 3DS, or PS2 if you can find it. Some head-cannon, but that's inevitable for some of this stuff.

I have no rights to either Familiar of Zero nor to Tales of the Abyss, and I make no money off of this work.

Text key

"Speech" "Thought" "SHOUTING" 'Non-bodied Beings' "Spells/Artes"

This chapter took so long because I felt that the end of the last chapter was a perfect end to the first arc, and I had other stories that I wanted to write. However, it seems that now is the time to continue this, as my other stories have stalled a bit.

And with that, we begin the Second Act

-Albion-

"Die, Bastard!" Asch ripped his blade through the last remaining soldier and spit on the corpse. He glanced back at his two charges. Siesta was visibly afraid, but still stood her ground and fought the hunting dog that had joined the fray. Louise was behind the maid, cowering and shaking, weapon entirely forgotten. The God-General scowled as he dispatched the beast; Even the maid was better than the so-called noble.

Asch didn't fight as Luke rose to take control again. The original was in no mood to deal with the petulant noble.

"Good job Siesta, I'm proud that you fought to defend Louise. Once we find somewhere safe, I'll start teaching you fonic artes." He turned his head to the noble. "Louise, how much further to the nearest village?"

Irritation temporarily overcame fear. "How should I know? I've never been forced to walk the length of Albion! I barely know where we are now!"

Luke let out a patient sigh. "Fine. We'll keep following the river upstream until we find someone who can give us directions or we need to make camp for the night."

Siesta nodded and Louise huffed. There was obviously still a lot of growth that was needed.

-Evening, Town of Duvernum-

"Thank you for giving us shelter, Father Beckett. We don't know what we would have done I had you turned us away."

The priest laid a bowl of soup before each of them, before sitting down himself. "You are safe here children. No one would dare come against you in this place, not even those Reconquista stalking the land for anyone they can claim. Now tell me, how did you come to my parish? Where do you hail from?"

Luke cut in before Louise had the chance to speak. "Our parents were merchants in Malkuth, but we were attacked. I can only guess that we were thrown here by a teleportation spell. Where are we?"

Beckett gestured towards the stained glass that dominated the walls. "You are in Brimir's Cathedral in Duvernum, on the floating land of Albion. Though, given that I've never heard of Malkuth before, that likely doesn't tell you much."

Luke again spoke for the group. "I'm sorry, but I've never even heard of Brimir before. What does he do?" He ignored Louise's scathing glare. He needed more information that Louise could give, and playing up the outsider angle would be the perfect cover to ask more questions.

The man gained an eager smile. "You don't know about Brimir? Let me teach you then!" The priest bounced over to his bookshelf and grabbed an illuminated copy of the Founder's Scriptures. "Brimir is the guardian of humanity, and the one who gives magic to the nobles, skill to the artisans, cunning to the merchants, and strength to the peasants. He gives protection and power to defeat even elves to those who pray earnestly! His teachings give order to the world and make us strong to one day defeat the elves and return to the Holy Land!"

"Interesting." A short glare from Luke stopped the pink haired noble from saying anything. "And what are the teachings of Brimir?"

The pries eagerly flipped to a different page and pointed to a picture of a man standing above a crowd of dead figures with long ears. "Humanity should be everyone's greatest priority. The elves, and any other races that refuse to bend to humanity's will must be eliminated. Only then will we be able to return to the Blessed land." He flipped to another page, showing mages creating houses and fields with their magic. "To that end, everyone must serve humanity to their own degree. Nobles guide and lead with their magics, but always with the goal of improving life for all humans." His face darkened. "Sadly, many nobles refuse to follow this teaching, and the Reconquista, sinners though they are, have been send as punishment from Brimir. I fear that there will be bloodshed until the nobles recognize their sins and repent…"

The table fell silent, each for their own reasons. Sensing the mood, Father Beckett gave them directions to the spare rooms where they could sleep.

The silence was deafening as each of the three mulled over their thoughts while preparing their mats. Finally, Luke turned to the two girls and spoke. "So, the church is actually supposed to be a social force for good this time, and its effectively powerless? Your god seemingly does nothing for their everyday life, and only does something after thousands of years of the nobles disregarding his teachings? Why would people follow this religion? I'm honestly surprised that the peasants haven't revolted multiple times before now, if this is what's supposed to be helping them. Magic can only do so much when there are far more peasants than there are nobles."

Louise cuddled tighter into her blankets, but couldn't ignore the words.

Siesta was the one who answered. "There have been peasant revolts from time to time, but nothing has been very successful. Assassins have killed a few of the worst ones, but the retribution the rest of the nobles take is horrifying."

Luke scoffed, his voice slipping into Asch's tone. "That's the problem with most nobles. They think that just because they were born a certain way means that it doesn't matter what they do to those under them. They're even worse than the mindless fools who can't decide what to eat without consulting the score."

Both girls wondered about the outburst, but were too afraid to ask. Finally, Siesta spoke up. "M Master Luke… May I begin learning magic?"

Asch gave a grunt in response, before placing one hand on the maid's shoulder to turn her around. He placed both hands on her shoulder blades and the two gained a faint glow. "The first step in learning how to use fonic artes properly is learning how to open your fon slots. I'm channeling a small amount of wind fonons through your body to show you how it should feel. Once I stop, you need to try to recreate that feeling."

Louise did her best to look like she wasn't listening in, but her eavesdropping was still blatantly obvious.

Siesta, meanwhile, was completely lost on how exactly any of it was supposed to work. It almost would have been easier to lift a boulder with her little finger, because at least then she would know where to start more than a vague feeling.

Asch pulled his hands away and watched her unfocused efforts. He glanced over at Louise and saw the noble's air of smug satisfaction at another's struggles. The sight reminded him of the entire reason behind this unplanned trip; the girl needed to learn how the real world worked, and how to use her powers in a manner befitting of a noble.

'or like any decent human. Being noble doesn't have anything to do with it.'

Asch made a point of ignoring his other self's voice, and refocused on the maid. "Try holding your breath. The way you breath can drastically change the flow of fonons in your body."

"Perhaps the commoner just isn't capable of understanding how magic works. It's impossible for someone like her to understand faux-nons." The way that the noble said the word showed that she clearly didn't know either.

Asch barely repressed a growl, but continued his explanation. "This area is rick in wind fonons, so it shouldn't be an issue to draw on them, even without the Planet Storm."

"That doesn't explain what a foe-non is!"

"Do you think I was talking to you, Drek?"

"You're a useless, barbaric-"

"You're an annoying, -"

"I've got it!"

Both of the red-heads turned to the maid, who now held a triumphant smile. Asch let a smirk grow as he saw the small noble next to him try to comprehend just how much the world had changed.

There was still hope for her…

Chapter 4 end

Making a short chapter to get back into the swing of this story. My original intention was to end it with last chapter and maybe do some short Omakes, but since I'm continuing it, I'll put one here, and do more in the following chapters.

-What if Miu was Summoned instead?-

"Somewhere in the universe, my beautiful and sacred familiar, Hear my call. I summon you! Come!"

The explosion that followed really should have been expected, and if the previous trends of the petite mage's magical attempts were anything to go by, there would be nothing more. Or maybe she would manage to surprise everyone and summon something completely unheard of, like a human familiar. One could never be certain with Louise the Zero.

And so, with the tiny flicker of hope in everyone's chests, dozens of eyes did their best to pierce the smoke and dust of the explosion. For several seconds, there was nothing. At the five second mark, everyone had put on their masks of mockery to claim that they all knew that Louise would never be able to summon something. At ten seconds, the first person opened her mouth to launch the opening barb.

"What do you know? Louise summoned an explosion for a familiar!"

The pink haired noble took a furious step toward her tormentor, but all thoughts of revenge flew out of her head when she heard that majestic cry.

"Mieuuuuuu…"

Louise lifted her foot, and realized that she had stepped on something. She stared in equal shock and confusion. The… Thing… reminder her of a stuffed rabbit doll from her younger days. Indeed, it had two large fluffy ears that were almost as large as the creature's body itself, a large head adorned with eyes that take up most of its face, and stubby limbs. It even had a ring that it was carrying around like an oversized belt. If there was one word to describe it, it would be adorable.

After multiple seconds of staring, her mind finally registered what she was seeing, and what it meant. She quickly scooped it up and shoved it into Kirche's face. "You were wrong, Zerbst, I did summon a familiar!"

The redhead had to lean back to get a look at the small creature, but eventually her smirk returned. "Well congratulations, Valliere! You've managed to summon something just as small and worthless as you are!"

"Mieuu. That was mean."

Both girls stared in shock at the familiar that had apparently just spoke. Louise checked all around the animal, checking to see if there were any runes on it, even going so far as shaking the poor thing to see if it was real.

"s-s-sto-o-o-op sha-a-aking me-e-e-e!" The poor thing had swirls for eyes by the time Louise actually listened.

"What exactly are you!" The short noble was equal parts excited and scared. Here was an entirely un-heard of animal, and it was going to be her familiar. "Please be something magical, something that can help me control my magic! Or at least something that's easy to take care of…"

"I'm a cheagle, they're the sacred beasts of the order of Loreli!"

That was… maybe good? It was at least a respectable animal where it came from. Now she just needed to make sure she bound it… "I summoned you, so now you're going to be my familiar and I'm going to be your master. Paragon of the five elements, hear my cry and make this creature my familiar!" Everything was going well. Too well.

As her face drew close to the cheagle's head, a gout of flame flew from the monster's mouth. Louise drew back with a shout, surrounded by the laughter of her classmates.

Louise never did manage to complete the familiar binding…

-What if Jade was Summoned instead?-

-What if Natalia was Summoned instead?-

-What if Guy were Summoned Instead?-

-What if Van was Summoned Instead?-

-What if Lorelei was Summoned instead?-

-What if Dist was Summoned Instead?-

-What if Kirby were Summoned Instead?-