Disclaimer: I do not own or have privelege of claiming rights to anything involved with Tales of the Abyss. That's all Namco, and they do it well. I can only lay word that the way I choose to parody the story is my own idea.

Key
Text Narration
"Text" Dialogue
'Text' Sarcasm, Saying's, and/or so-called... quotes
Text Character Thoughts, and/or Character Tittle
Text Sound Effects

Chapter 5

The returning trip to awareness was a slow one for Luke. He was pulled from forgotten dreams as he gradually began to get the sense of someone being close by. As he struggled to regain full consciousness he heard a voice talking. Concentrating on that voice he was finally able to come around and understand the words being said.

Wake up, Luke!" The voice demanded.

Now fully aware, Luke was able to open his eyes and look at whomever was speaking to him. He didn't recognize the person. It was a girl, looking to be close to his own age, with long pale brown hair and light blue eyes. Under normal circumstances he wold say she was quite pretty, but he was still feeling very off center. "Who are you?" He asked her, his confusion seeping into his voice.

"Oh good, you're ok." The strange woman told him.

She didn't answer his question, but from where he was sitting down another question became more important. "Where are we?" He could see grass, hills and beautiful flowers he had never seen before.

"I don't know, that was pretty strong. I almost thought we'd been caught in the planet storm." Her words brought him no reassurance. It seemed he had somehow found himself in a place he had never been with a person he had never known.

As he looked a little more closely at the girl kneeling in front of him, to try and place her face, he recognized her as the intruder. "Wait a minute, you were tryin to..." He tried to get up, only to grimace in pain from moving too fast while injured. "Oww!"

The girl who had tried to kill Master Van was now acting as if nothing happened and she wasn't an assassin. "Stop, don't try to move so suddenly. Are you injured? Where does it hurt?" She asked him, and he was finding it hard to remember why he was upset at her. She had her head bent downwards and the long bangs of her hair obscured her face.

He had to push her away and step backwards a few steps, his pain faded. "I'm fine" He answered her. "What the hell happened, and who are you?" He had enough of her avoiding the question. He needed to know where they stood, was she really an evil killer or what ... her actions were contradicting.

She came closer to him, standing at arms length. "I'm Tear." She started off, finally answering Luke's most pertinent question. "It would seem that a hyperresonance occurred between us." She said. Just when I thought she would start making sense. Luke thought annoyed.

The completely unfamiliar word just added to his disorientation. "A hyperresonance? What's that?"

He had barely finished asking her when she was instantly in his face, so close he couldn't stop himself from leaning back from the sudden intrusion. "An isofon-induced resonance. I didn't expect you to be a seventh fonist, too. That was careless of me." She said to him as if it actually explained anything and all these words were not all new to him. She stayed at that very close position as she continue to not make any sense. "That would explain why the royal family is protecting you."

Luke was'nt intimidated by her closeness, but he felt he had to get some distance between them again, thinking maybe her words would make more sense from afar. It didn't really help so he was left with no choice but to interrupt her. "Gah, shut up for a second. I don't understand a thing you're saying." He was happy to note she finally stopped talking about odd things, but she wasn't explaining anything either.

A few seconds passed with her staring at him without uttering a word. The only sound he could hear was the chirping of the crickets and the howl of the wind. "Well, say something!" Luke ordered her when she remained silent.

She said to him. "First you tell me to shut up, now you're telling me to talk. Save the discussion for later." Such a smart response she gave, he wished he was more on game so he could give her back the same. Speaking of back, she provided him with a nice view of her's just now. His natural appreciation for a good looking girl couldn't be repressed fully despite the situation. "Save the discussion for later." He stopped checking her out when she talked again. "You don't seem to know anything, so talking here would be a waste of time."

Luke mentally added rudeness along with cheek to the qualities of this girl, this Tear. Unfortunately he seemed to be left with no choice but to follow her lead. "So ... what now?" He asked.

She walked away from him saying. "I'll escort you back to your manor in Baticul."

It was a relief that she wasn't going to try and kill him like what she tried on Van. "How? We don't even know where we are." All Luke knew was the manor, he would have to stick close to Tear if she knew the way back.

Tear stopped walking to point behind him. "You see the sea just over there, don't you?" She asked. He hadn't seen much of anything just yet, he was too busy paying attention to her words. When she mentioned the sea however he started to get a more expansive look around.

Luke turned around to look out across the sea that Tear mentioned, having never seen one before he was curious. He found the site breathetaking. Far acoss a long patch of bright blooming flowers he saw a valley of cliffs with the middle being filled with blue. He knew the blue was water, but it didn't look like any water he had known before. It was moving and the color was different. "So that's what the sea looks like." He said, as he took it all in.

Tear did not seem to care to give him anytime to appreciate the view because she interrupted his watching. "At any rate, let's head out of this ravine and down to the coast. If we can find a road, there should be carriages passing along, and we should be able to find a way back."

Torn from his gazing at the sea Luke looked back to the girl. So straight foward she was, but he was starting to find himself warming up to her. She had been kind to him and hadn't treated him like a burden, an improvement over people like his father. He wondered if she would like to stay around to get better acquainted when they got back to the manor, that whole scene with Van must have been a mistake.

"And just how are we supposed to get to the sea from here?" Luke asked.

"Stop and listen, do you hear that water running? That flowing water is a river and we can follow it to the sea." She said.

Luke was bemused by the logic. "Huh, is that how it works?"

"Let's go." Tear said. It seemed to Luke she was getting short with him. But, it's not his fault that he was never taught about these things. Maybe, he could use this outing to learn more about the things he had been missing.

Luke took one more chance to look around before catching up to Tear, the view was that nice. Pere would kill to plant some of these flowers at the manor. He was almost to where Tear was waiting when some bushes ahead started to rustle. He didn't know what to think, he half expected to have stumbled upon some couple having a night of fun.

Luke was soon shown how wrong he was, when Tear held out her hand signaling a stop. "Monsters.." She said.

That surprised Luke, it was the last thing he thought of. "Monsters?" He repeated. Now, that he thought about it, this was exactly the thing he was waiting for. Ever since Master Van and Guy had started to teach him swordplay, he had been achingly eager to test those skills against something better then that training dummy.

"Here they come." Tear said, as she got into a fighting stance.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Luke said. He wanted to test his skills sure, but this was all happening a little too fast. He tensed up as the monster jumped out, startling him from his first look at a monster.

The beast was large, a head taller then Luke. It was some kind of huge purple and tan boar with thick tusks. "What's that?" Luke asked.

"It's a Rhinossus, it won't give us any trouble." Tear said.

Luke still acted hesitant, backing away cautiously from the creature as he drew out his sword. The beast reared up on to its hind legs looking like it was about to charge, but suddenly the familiar haunting melody echoed through the woods. Luke was keeping an eye on Tear this time so he saw what happened.

She held her staff in front of herself and sang while a circle of light appeared by her feet, then swirling dark purple bubbles surrounded the enemy. When the bubbles went away the boar was revealed to be not moving.

"It's asleep, Luke. Now, attack quickly before it wakes up." Tear said, after he looked back at her to see her reaction. Finally he was able to master up the resolution to fight, and when he started it all came together and his earlier hesitation seemed silly.

Luke made short work of the Rhinossus now that he stopped worrying. A combination strong slice attack going into a three hit followup and finishing with a fang blade later, and it was dead. In victory he performed a little trick he'd work on in his spare time with his sword. He flipped it up into the air, spun around and caught it again. "Too easy." He said, sure it would impress Tear.

"Your footwork was sloppy, you missed its vital points! You were a mess." Tear told Luke, showing him it wasn't gonna be that easy.

He never took well to criticism though, so he stutteringly told her. "Sh- shut up." To save face he quickly changed the subject. "What was that attack you used?"

"It's called Nightmare, it uses the first fonon to put the enemy to sleep." Tear said.

Luke sat down for a moment to catch his breath, him still being slightly hurt from the accident. He wasn't even down for more then five seconds before Tear was telling him to get back up again.

"Don't relax just yet. Look, there's more." She said. After she said that, he saw a different monster going by ahead looking like some kind of flying vegetable. "If you come into contact with monsters like that you'll have to fight them. Be careful." Tear lectured him.

"Think you know everything, don't you?" Luke grumbled. He didn't like to be seen as helpless and all these common sense tips she was giving him were somewhat insulting.

She gave no response to him, which was fine since he wasn't in an arguing mood. They then proceeded to make their way down the valley, opening chests of useful items on the way and dodging the wandering monsters. Every now and then one of the monsters or its companions would catch up to them and they would be forced to fight, but after the initial beginnings Luke and Tear started to get good in their teamwork and there was no challenge.

It wasn't until they reached the bottom that something happened. Luke and Tear followed the path to the exit, meeting a man carrying a bucket there.

When he saw them he stopped walking and said. "Uah, d-don't tell me you're with the Dark Wings?" Luke had no idea what he was talking about, but before he could ask Tear beat him to it.

"The Dark Wings?" Tear asked. It seems that she didn't know everything afterall, a fact Luke was most happy about.

"They're bandits, two men and a woman." The guy said, looking like he was about to run away. "Wait a minute, there's only two of you." He then observed with a relieved tone, apparently no longer thinking they were bandits.

Luke felt pretty mad that he could be mistaken for a bandit, he was royalty for crying out loud. "Humph. Don't go comparing me to some pathetic bandits." He arrogantly said.

"Yes, you might upset the bandits." Tear said.

"Hey..." Luke complained. "Like you're so hot." For some supposed great assassin she wasn't all that more powerful then himself, someone who was kept locked away. Or maybe he was just that good. She's so cold too. Despite his best efforts she did not seem to be warming up to him at all, and somehow he didn't thing she would accept some overt advances. If I knew I was going to be stuck together with such a person I would've spent more time with the maids yesterday.

Soon after they found out that the man was a coachman who had stopped to refill his water jugs. Luke said. "A coachman, that's perfect." He was just a short trip on a coach away from home now.

Tear just had to show him up again by asking the man. "Do you go to the capital?" It didn't occur to Luke to ask that, why wouldn't the coach go to the capital... what else is there.

It turned out that the coach does go to the capital, it being the last stop. But, the man wouldn't let them ride it unless they payed 12,000Gald each. Tear was aprehensive saying that it was expensive. Luke however finally found something he could be the superior in.

"That sounds cheap to me. My dad'll take care of it when we reach the capital." Luke told the coachman. Afterall, that little amount of money his dad would probably have in his pockets.

The coachman was not helpful in the least, demanding payment in advance. Luke wracked his brain trying to think of anything he could do, but he was coming up empty. Tear once again came though when she offered a pendant she wore as payment.

Aggrivated from his lack of success Luke said. "Huh, you got some nice stuff. Now I don't have to get my shoes dirty." With his best self centered voice. He regretted it immediately after though, because Tear gave him an emotionally blank look before walking ahead on her own.

Maybe I went too far. Luke didn't like how crummy he felt after that. Unfortunately he fell asleep on the coach soon after and forgot about any thoughts of the pendant.

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Ana Paula92: I thank you again. Ill keep at this, tryn to change it to slowly fit the ideal I had in mind. . . You might notice the last part of this chapter was less word for word.. thats what i wanna try. Now im just rambling... hope u still like what i write.