Disclaimer: I have no ownership of Tales of the Abyss.

Arietta the Wild

"Back to the matter," Luke said, "Jade, please tell us"

"Yeah, come on Jade," Guy said, "You know something about this fomicry machine."

Jade sighed, "Look—"

Jade was interrupted by a roar. Luke and the others looked over and saw a Liger on the other side.

"A Liger, here?" Anise spoke surprised.

"Well well," Cantabile said, "looks like one of Arietta's friends came to greet us."

The Liger stood and looked directly at Luke and Ion.

"Mieu, talk to him," Luke requested.

"Okay Luke," Mieu spoke and looked at the Liger, "Mieu, mieu. Mieu, mieu, mieu, mieu, mieu. Mieu, mieu, mieu!"

The Liger spoke to Mieu and then took off.

"Luke, he said to hurry and follow or it will be the end of the chief engineer," Mieu said.

"No, no!" Luke said upset.

"Luke, let's hurry," Ion said with urgency.

"Yeah," Luke said and turned to Jade, "Jade, will continue with this later. We need to hurry."

Luke and Ion rushed to follow that Liger.

"Hey wait for me!" Anise said as she rushed to catch up with them.

"I'm going to!" Mieu said as he rushed to catch up.

"Wait, it could be a trap!" Tear called out and then was annoyed to see them run off.

"Hold it, stop!" Cantabile said and then slumped, "Ah damn it. There they go."

"My my, there they go," Jade said with a shrug, "impetuous little ones, aren't they?"

"I understand that they're worried but I really wish they would use their heads," Guy said and then he sighed, "Especially Luke, always rushing to help someone that he ends up blind about everything else around him."

"That boy," Cantabile said as she shook her head, "well, we better hurry."

Jade, Tear, and Guy agreed and ran to catch up with Luke, Ion, Mieu, and Anise. As they were leaving the room Jade glanced back at the fomicry machine and Cantabile narrowed her eye at Jade. Luke, Ion, Anise, and Mieu continued chasing a Liger and they chased the creature up the stairs. Jade, Tear, Guy, and Cantabile continued chasing their comrades and they were calling for Luke and the others to stop but they were ignored. They chased the Liger up the stairs.

"To the roof…?" Luke asked in his head.

Luke, Ion, Anise, and Mieu got to roof of Choral Castle. When they arrived, they saw Arietta with and the chief engineer that was tied up and on the back of another Liger.

"Chuck!" Luke called.

The chief engineer named Luke up and was surprised to see Luke.

"Master Luke?" Chuck said surprised.

Luke ran towards Arietta and Chuck but was suddenly picked up by Arietta's flying monster Hresvelgr and the monster flew around carrying Luke. Luke cursed himself for being careless.

"Damn it, Master Cantabile probably won't let me hear the end of it," Luke said in his head, "Damn it, I should have known better. I'm such an idiot."

Hresvelgr swoop down seeing Ion and Anise and it grabbed Anise when Anise pushed Ion out of the way.

"Oh, I covered for Ion," Anise said feeling ashamed, "I'm sorry Luke."

"Don't worry Anise, I would have done the same thing," Luke assured, "in fact in my opinion, you did exactly what it's expected of you as Fon Master Guardian."

"Aw thanks Luke," Anise said blushing and feeling happy.

Arietta looked on and Chuck was worried for Luke's safety.

"Master Luke," Chuck said.

Arietta signaled Hresvelgr and Anise was dropped on the floor hard. Anise got feeling pain from being dropped so suddenly. Ion and Mieu went to Anise.

"Owww!" Anise complained, "Not funny Arietta, that hurt!'

"You hurt me first," Arietta countered, "you took Ion away from me!"

"Arietta, that's not true," Ion said, "it wasn't anything like that. The reason you were distanced from the Fon Master Guardians was—"

"Luke!" Guy said suddenly.

Ion stopped himself and looked seeing Tear, Cantabile, Jade, and Guy had caught up.

"Honestly, if only he had been a little more careful," Tear said.

"That is true," Cantabile said and then she frowned as she shook her head, "that boy…"

Luke was suddenly dropped and was picked up by someone who suddenly appeared and it was Dist in his flying chair. They were surprised to see what was going on.

"Oh Luke!" Mieu said with worry.

The two Ligers left with Arietta and the captured Chuck.

"Dist is involved in this too?" Jade asked annoyed, "Oh brother…"

"Well now, this just got even more irritating," Cantabile complained, "the stupidity that goes on…"

"Ohh…what are we going to do now?" Tear asked quietly with a worried tone.

"Hmm? Tear, did you say something?" Guy asked.

"Oh, uh n-nothing," Tear replied, "we should hurry and rescue Luke and the chief."

"It's my fault," Anise said upset, "oh, I can't believe I let this happen. That stupid Arietta."

"Now now, calm down," Jade said, "if they're going to this much trouble, then I doubt they'll take his life. Plus the one they really want, Ion is still with us."

Cantabile pondered and had her thoughts, "If they went through this trouble to actually get Luke instead of Ion…" Cantabile thought of it a bit further and had her suspicions, "it must be with the fomicry machine here…so this is what you intended for, isn't it Asch?"

The party went back down to go rescue Luke. Back in the area with fomicry machine, Luke was laid on the platform while the fomicry machine was activated. Two God-General that were overseeing things were Dist and Sync.

"Ah, I see," Dist said feeling very pleased, "the fonon frequency is the same. This is a perfect creation indeed."

"That's not important," Sync said, "we have to erase the data before they get back."

"Perfect creation…? Data…?" Luke said, "What…?"

Luke looked over seeing the two God-Generals.

"If the data here is so important, you shouldn't have had Asch use Choral Castle in the first place," Dist pointed out.

"That idiot came here on his own," Sync with a shrug, "we'll have to have Van punish him later," Sync then noticed Luke, "oh look, this idiot is coming around."

"Bastard!" Luke responded as he was offended.

"No matter, I've already opened his synchronized fon slots," Dist said and the he piloted his flying chair, "I'll be going now. I can't wait to analyze this data."

Dist laughed as he was pleased and left Choral Castle. Sync looked on seeing Dist leave.

"Sync the Tempest!" Luke said angrily, "What the hell are you doing to me?"

"I see no reason to answer that question," Sync replied.

"You bastard, I swear I'll make you pay for pay for this!"

Sync scoffed, "You're welcome to try idiot."

Luke tried to move but was retrained within the machine but kept trying, wanting to wring Sync's neck.

"Just you wait, I'll wring your scrawny neck!" Luke said, "I don't care if you are one of the God-Generals!"

There were footsteps and Sync and Luke saw someone coming and it was Guy with his drawn katana. Guy jumped and swung his blade at Sync and Sync jumped back. He then noticed something and was not pleased and saw that Guy had in his hand something that Sync had in his person and it was a disc.

"A disc?" Guy asked.

Sync rushed performing his kicks against Guy and Guy countered with his blocks and swings with his sword and he was able to knock off the mask off of Sync's face. Guy and Luke saw Sync's face and were shocked.

"What?" Guy said surprised.

Luke was seeing full view of Sync's face, "N-No way, it can't be."

Sync clenched his teeth as he was irritated that they saw his face.

"Guy, what is it?" Anise called out.

Guy was distracted by Anise's voice and that gave the opportunity that Sync needed to kick Guy back and Guy fell off to another area. Sync went to pick up his mask and put it on.

"Damn, they're already here," Sync said.

The others arrived and Jade went to turn the machine off and Cantabile saw and glared at Sync.

"Sync, I see you're involved in this as well," Cantabile said.

"Cantabile, you're here as well?" Sync replied, "Oh well, it doesn't really matter. This was an unauthorized mission anyway. It's really a shame that I can't kill you all myself, but I'll leave it in Arietta's capable hands," Sync retreated, "she's on the roof with the hostage. Hope you enjoyed our little game."

Jade had just deactivated the machine and Luke was getting up and was able to move.

"Whew…I can move again," Luke said.

"Guy, what is it?" Ion asked approaching Guy.

"Oh…um, I just got hold this disc so I was wondering what it was," Guy said.

"Let's have Jade look into it later," Ion suggested.

Luke was on his feet and he sighed.

"Luke, are you okay?" Tear asked, "What in the world did they want to kidnap you for?"

"I don't know but this is really annoying," Luke said upset, "although really I'm more angry at myself for being careless."

"It's Arietta's fault," Anise said upset, "she's going to pay!"

"Arietta…" Luke said looking away with a frown.

"She's on the roof, right?" Jade said, "I really hate running around like this but we have no choice."

"In that case, let's move," Cantabile said, "and Luke, you and I are going to have a talk later."

Luke slumped and nodded, "Yes I know Master Cantabile."

The party headed back to get to the roof and Luke went and walked beside Guy.

"Hey Guy, you saw, didn't you?" Luke asked.

"Huh?"

"Sync's face," Luke clarified, "you saw his face and how he looked exactly like Ion."

"…I see, so you actually saw too," Guy deduced.

"Yeah I did," Luke said, "my first guess is that he is Ion's twin but…"

"But?"

"I'm not so sure, I have this gnawing feeling it could be more than that…"

"Yeah, I felt the same way," Guy said.

"We need to tell the others."

"Um actually, let's hold off on that for now," Guy suggested.

"Huh, why?" Luke asked.

"You and I have no real clue about Sync and his face and the resemblance of Ion."

"But that's why we should tell them. Maybe Ion knows something."

"I know but let's hold off on that after we rescue Chuck and stop Arietta, then we can discuss about Sync's face."

"…I suppose we should and we have nothing to go by…except maybe…"

"Luke?"

"…I'm worried…maybe it's…"

The party continued to go to get to the roof where Arietta and Chuck were.

"Just what are the God-Generals up to anyway?" Guy asked, "There was talk about them starting a war, but…"

"The Oracle Knights in general aren't trying to start a war," Anise said.

"No, it more like the God-Generals themselves are acting independently under someone's orders," Tear said, "Perhaps Arietta will tell us…"

"I really doubt that Gloomietta really knows anything," Anise said.

"Are you sure?" Guy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, she's not really the secret orders kind of person anyway."

"Well she did say she was following Asch's instructions in Kaitzur," Tear recalled.

"Right, Asch the Bloody," Guy said, "well, it's not like we'll be able to figure things out ourselves."

"Yeah and besides, if we get Ion and the Colonel to get to Baticul before the war breaks out, they won't be able to do anything anyway," Anise said.

"That's right," Guy said with a nod.

They were almost at the roof and Luke signaled Mieu to go to him as Luke had an idea. They soon got to the roof. Hresvelgr swooped toward Luke and Luke quickly pulled Mieu in front of him and Mieu breathed fire right at Hresvelgr's face and the monster retreated back. Arietta was mortified in what she saw Luke had just done.

"You're not going to get me this time," Luke said.

"Oh Luke, you're amazing," Anise said very pleased and wooing over Luke.

"Not bad indeed," Jade said.

"That was clever Luke," Cantabile said.

"It wasn't much," Luke said rubbing the back of his head.

"Luke, you shot fire at my friend," Arietta said upset, "How could you do that?"

"You are in no position to get upset with Luke, Gloomietta," Anise said, "not after what you did."

"You didn't give me much choice Arietta," Luke said, "you unleashed your monsters at the harbor, kidnapped Chuck the chief engineer, and had me taken to Dist and Sync. You're really haven't given me much options Arietta."

Arietta looked down upset, "I didn't want to. I really didn't want to do that to you Luke but Asch…"

"So now you're letting Asch tell you what to do?" Cantabile asked disgusted, "Are you that weak-willed Arietta?"

"Leave me alone Cantabile!" Arietta replied with a tear from her eye, "You don't understand anything; you never did with your rude and condescending way of speaking to people."

"You and the others really piss me off and I've had it," Cantabile said as she drew her katana.

Jade formed his spear and Tear brought out her staff and one of her knives. Luke looked down on the floor very upset and he drew his broadsword. Arietta was shocked to see Luke's action.

"Luke, are you…going to fight me as well?" Arietta asked.

"I don't have a choice," Luke said as he looked straight at Arietta, "I don't want to fight you but I can't ignore what you've done."

"Luke…" Arietta was sad but then kept her resolve, "then there's no choice. I won't kill you Luke but I won't be defeated either as for you two," Arietta looked at Tear and Jade, "you two tried to kill Mommy and now you will pay so I will kill the both of you."

The two Ligers and Hresvelgr charged towards and Jade, Tear, Luke, and Cantabile moved out of the way while Guy and Anise were shielding Ion and Mieu. The two Ligers went after Jade and Tear; Hresvelgr went after Luke while Cantabile went after Arietta. Arietta chanted one of her fonic artes but saw that Cantabile was right close to her with speed and Arietta dodged Cantabile's sword swing but Cantabile went for another swing. Arietta quickly used her doll as a shield but still felt the effects and was pushed back hard. Luke was defending himself again Hresvelgr. The bird monster used its talons to grab the blade of Luke's sword and Luke was unable to move. Hresvelgr cawed at Luke and Luke glared at the flying monster and brought out of his palms.

"O maddening gale of the spirits of the earth...Stalagmite!"

Jagged rocks burst through the ground and struck Hresvelgr forcing the bird monster to let go of Luke's blade.

"Fang Blade! Havoc Strike!" Luke roared as he used two of his strike artes against Hresvelgr.

"O violet torrent…Splash!" Luke chanted.

The blast of water that came from above struck Hresvelgr and brought the monster down and Luke charged with his right hand on the monster.

"Raging Blast!" Luke roared.

The attack pushed Hresvelgr back hard and it fell on the ground unable to move and it screamed in pain. Tear had just defeated one of the Liger using her three knives on the Liger and followed up with her Nightmare fonic hymn and the Liger fell on the floor unable to move. Jade struck the other Ligers using Stalagmite and created a Field of Fonons for the second fonons and performed his Sonic Spear that turned to Crushing Spear and used it to take down the Liger and caused the second Liger to not be able to move. Meanwhile Arietta was just defeated by Cantabile when she used her Thunder Blade fonic artes and followed up with a devastating sword swing that struck and injured Arietta. Arietta fell on the floor and was not able to get up to continue. Hresvelgr suddenly got up and charged towards Cantabile. Cantabile saw this and was about to do something but Luke got in front of her and used the Field of Fonon for the third fonon that was created by the result of the Thunder Blade and performed the artes using his Fang Blade.

"Lightning Tiger Blade!" Luke roared.

Hresvelgr was pushed back again and fell on the floor hard and was couldn't move and moaned in pain.

Cantabile tapped Luke's shoulder and nodded at him for what he had just did and then told Luke to go help Chuck and Luke thanked her. Guy and Anise along with Ion and Mieu they went to go help Chuck to make sure he was okay.

"N-No, I lost…" Arietta said weakly.

"Arietta…" Luke said with concern and then he then went over and checked on Chuck as he untied him, "Chuck, are you okay?"

"Master Luke, you came to save me," Chuck said, "thank you."

"I'm just doing what I needed to do," Luke assured, "I'm glad you're okay. Floyd and Ned will be happy as well."

"Yes," Chuck said with a smile, "I'm most grateful to you Master Luke and your companions."

Luke smiled and nodded at what Chuck said and Guy mentioned how glad he was as was Mieu and Ion and then Ion was seeing Jade and Cantabile glaring at Arietta and he went to them.

"I knew letting her live would come back to haunt us," Jade said.

"No choice," Cantabile said as she pointed her blade at Arietta, "remember Arietta, you brought this on yourself."

Cantabile raised her katana in the air and Luke was worried and then Ion suddenly ran and stood in front of Arietta.

"Wait please!" Ion pleaded raising his arms on the side acting as a shield for Arietta, "I'll take Arietta back for an inquiry before the Order of Lorelei, so please don't take her life."

"Fon Master…" Cantabile said upset.

"Yes, that would be best," Van's voice spoke.

They were surprised and everyone looked and saw Van as the Commandant of the Oracle Knights approached them. He stopped and looked seeing Arietta and Chuck and was surprised to see Cantabile.

"Master Van," Luke said.

"Van, how bold of you to pick this time to show up," Cantabile said.

"Cantabile, I'm surprised you're here," Van said, "but why are you here?" Van shook his head, "No, never mind, it no longer matters. Anyway, there was no word of the Fon Master's arrival in Kaitzur so I came here just in case…and it seems that I was correct."

"I'm sorry Van," Ion said.

Van shook his head, "There's no point in dwelling on what's already been done. I'll take Arietta into my custody. Is that all right with you?"

"Yes," Ion said feeling glad, "please do and please treat her wounds."

Cantabile clenched her teeth and glared at Arietta as she gripped the hilt of her katana. Van went and got in front of Cantabile.

"I'll be handling this Cantabile, it's out of your hands," Van said.

"Master Cantabile…" Luke said.

Cantabile frowned and then she sheathed her katana, "I'll let it go…for now."

Van picked up Arietta and carried her.

"There's going to need some explaining to His Majesty and the military for her crimes," Luke pointed out.

"That's right," Guy said, "how do you plan to do that?"

"Will you even explain?" Cantabile asked with a glare and she crossed her arms.

"We will follow proper Order procedure, punish her, and issue a report," Ion said, "that's how lawful societies operate."

Cantabile simply scoffed and Ion was sad as he knew she wasn't sold of the idea of just letting Arietta just be put into custody.

"I have a coach and soldiers from Count Almandine, the Kaitzur commander. I'll escort the maintenance chief as well. What will you do Ion? I'd prefer that you come with me."

"It seems that some of us are still interested in this castle," Ion said looking at Luke and Cantabile.

"It's fine," Cantabile said, "I came did what I needed to confirm here so I'm done here."

"Yeah, me too," Luke said.

"Are you sure Luke?" Guy asked.

"Yeah and besides, I have a clue now about myself and I doubt I'll find anything further so I'm done here and besides, my real concern was for Chuck so…"

"Understood," Van said, "in that case, let us all go together to Kaitzur."

"We'll be stopping at Chesedonia, won't we?" Luke spoke.

"That's right," Guy said, "it's part of our route."

"All right, let's go," Van said as he went on ahead and had Ion, Anise, and Chuck follow.

Jade, Tear, and Guy followed suit as well and Luke and Cantabile moved as well.

"Luke," Cantabile said.

Luke looked over to Cantabile as she walked next to him.

"Yes Master Cantabile?" Luke replied.

Cantabile went to speak in Luke's ear.

"When we're on the ship, we need to talk," Cantabile whispered.

"Yeah, I agree," Luke replied with a whisper.

Tear looked back and saw Luke and Cantabile whispering to each other and Tear frowned. The people all left Choral Castle and headed back to Kaitzur.

That's it for this chapter. Next chapter: Luke and Cantabile discuss what they discovered in Choral Castle as the group rides the Katsbert Ferry.