I think what a lot of people forget about Asch is that he was first raised to be King and then by Van. He's too distraught to think straight in-game, but you don't last long as Special Operations commander for a bunch like that, let along as a politician unless you can play people. I think the skit's title is Asch & Luke 2 or something, and it's Jade and Guy talking about them. Essentially, Luke put himself back together after Akzeriuth and Asch didn't. Asch is still shattered and has yet to accept his responsibility or the extent to which Luke has been fucked over or any of the other things Luke manages to deal with.

Luke, with his act together, is seven years old and a mass murderer. He's still essentially running the planet for much of the game, in that what gets done is what he wants done and it can't happen without him. And he's doing that without any prior job experience whatsoever. In fact, you can't get much less suited to it than his upbringing.

Asch, with his act together, with actual training in political maneuvering and operational strategies, would be freaking scary. It's too bad for them that Van realizes this and while Luke was meant to be disposable and know what was happening to him as he died Van had Asch in his grasp, under his command, for much longer and was planning for Asch to end up on Eldrant with him.

Luke is as broken as Kaiba Seto after Death-T, coma and all. He loves Van, he wants to include him in his life again, but their bond is broken and Luke's not going to restore it, as much as he wants it back, unless Van not only wants him back (which he does at one point, he asks Luke to join him after Asch refuses), but turns into the man Luke loved (for example, non-genocidal).

Asch knew most of what Van was up to. His bonds with Van are not broken, and in the end the strings don't really break until a few seconds before the puppet does.

And then, according to the contamination sidequest, he gets brought back to life with Luke's memories. Sucks to be him.

In any case, here Asch gets to show off his secret agent bs-ing skills.

-

"Good, you made it." And Guy had joined them? Asch waved for them to put their weapons away. "Stand down. I'm on your side."

Guy stood protectively in front of Luke. "You'll have to forgive us, we've been having a rough time with god-generals lately."

"Guy, this is Asch. He helped us."

"Not all that much, I was under orders until they were countermanded. Putting a prisoner in with the others and talking about a few things with them beforehand certainly wasn't aiding and abetting the kidnappers of Fon Master Ion."

"I wasn't kidnapped." Ion would have been sick of saying this if he wasn't Ion.

"We were told that you were. I reported to General Grants at Kaitzur and received other orders. I am now to escort you to Baticul. However, finding out that Grand Maestro Mohs had misled him like that made it imperative that Van go back to Daath to try to find out what's going on."

"Master Van's not here?"

"I'm sorry, Luke. He gave me a letter for you and asked me to see how far you had progressed. Since we're both his students and training in the same style, I hope I can give you some pointers."

Luke was still disappointed, but that cheered him up a bit. "Sure!"

"The attack on the Tartarus was inexcusable, Colonel Curtiss. Even though the order was given by a Grand Maestro, Largo should have verified the information before wiping out your entire crew. Apparently he had sealed orders that Legretta and I were not informed of in advance." Asch grimaced. "The situation is difficult. Van also left a letter for you, Tear, he's not happy that you were caught up in this, and since you work under Grand Maestro Mohs you need to be warned about what's going on." He held it out. "Burn it after reading it, and stir the ashes well. This is highly classified Order internal affairs information touching on the Closed Score. If your life wasn't in danger already he would not be putting his own life at risk by giving you this information."

"…I'll read it." Tear took it with a grain of salt.

"I have two directives. Two, make sure that you are all placed safely aboard the Katsburg Ferry, and One, escort Lord Luke fon Fabre to Choral Castle."

"Lord Luke fon Fabre?" The young guardian turned to look at him. "Why didn't you tell me you were a lord?"

The Necromancer's expression indicated that he wasn't entirely surprised.

"Actually," Asch corrected her, "Luke is the heir apparent to the Kimlascan throne due to his engagement to Princess Natalia. His kidnapping at the same time as Fon Master Ion, while Commandant Grants was present, by an agent of Grand Maestro Mohs, has made the current situation highly explosive. The problem is that the hyperresonance that brought you here turned him into a child. Apparently it's very possible, but highly technical. If he's returned in this state they're likely to believe that Malkuth is responsible and since he was already kidnapped by Malkuth once this would provide ample casus belli."

"Turned you into a kid? How old were you before?"

"Physically seventeen, functionally seven," Asch answered Anise before Luke could. "That's the reason I'm here to escort him to Choral Castle first. When Van thought that you were kidnapped again, Luke that was the first place he checked and they discovered a secret passage. There's a device there that appears to have been used to attempt to… We'll talk in private later, but it seems to be what's responsible for your amnesia."

"Really?"

"It's technical and I try to avoid Dist, but… This won't be anything resembling a magic cure for your amnesia, but it can probably allow us to fix the problem that caused you to end up seven when you traveled through a hyperresonance, meaning you could be turned back." Asch looked at the rest of them again. "You will all need to come with me as witnesses. Also, you would be much better received in Baticul if you came back with Lord Luke safe, well, and intact."

"Why would you need witnesses?" Guy was cautious? Good.

"Because I am, sadly the only person that Van trusts for oversight on this and I am not someone Kimlasca would trust."

"Not someone Kimlasca would trust?" Jade repeated.

Asch gave him a look. "I'm sure the family resemblance hasn't escaped you. Nor Legretta's 'recognized offspring' or whatever sugarcoated term for bastard she used."

"You're Luke's half-brother?"

"Obviously not. Lady Suzanne was too sickly for more than one child and Duke Fabre is Belkendian, not Kimlascan royalty. There are doubts about Princess Natalia's parentage because she possesses blonde hair, even though there are people with hair of that color relatively recently on both sides of her family tree due to alliance marriages with Malkuth. I, however, have red hair." Asch pulled a strand of it forward. "It's even darker than Luke's. The Kimlascan throne has always been held by someone with hair of red. There are legends that claim this is essential. Natalia's children won't inherit red hair from her unless she marries a redhead. Hence, she was betrothed to Luke as soon as they verified his gender. However, many are not happy with the idea of the next king being the son of the duke of Belkend."

"And in that scenario a son of King Ingobert, legitimate or not, would become a natural gathering point for those opposed to Luke's ascension to the throne."

"Exactly. If Luke dies while I am with you I will be the prime suspect and Van, who has been my foster father since I was sent to the Oracle Knights, will also be held responsible. However, since we were going to be blamed anyway, he decided that there was no reason not to get even further caught up in this mess, especially since Luke is family and also his student and there are currently a great many parties that want him dead."

"Is that why they kept me in the manor?"

"One of several reasons. Your condition meant that you didn't exactly act the part of a proper future monarch, for one. It was stupid of them to think that your memories would just appear one day out of the fon belt." Ridiculous. "If they'd trained you hard instead of giving up on you then you would be a lot further along. Van's very impressed with you. To get up to your level of swordplay you normally need to start very young, and with all the nerve and muscle damage plus your age you essentially… If you didn't have a great aptitude for it your current level of competence would have been forever out of your reach. He told me that you even had to learn how to walk from scratch. I think you might have told me that and I didn't believe you. That was why he had to focus on training muscle memory and skimp on subjects like fonon fields. They aren't much use if you can't manage to use any strike artes because you lack the coordination."

"How old are you?" Luke asked next.

"Younger than Princess Natalia, thank Lorelei, but not by all that much. The Queen had a rough pregnancy." Which would have given Ingobert reason to look elsewhere if he weren't so devoted. "So we're about the same age, and apparently we looked a lot alike before I was shipped off to Daath. There were some parties that thought your amnesia was false and that the kidnappers had switched the two of us, which means that… Oh, Lorelei, I hate politics. Princess Natalia can have that snake pit and welcome to it."

"So I really have to go back or you and Master Van will get in trouble too?"

"Well, when you reach twenty you'll have your majority and he won't be able to confine you against your will without sowing doubts about your competence that would make it almost impossible for you to take the throne. Van was planning to ask you to come join us then. I think he hoped I would want to go back to Baticul with you when you married Natalia, either that or succeed him as head of the Oracle Knights. If I pledged you my sword, that would remove the doubts of the loyal and I'd make a rather durable lightning rod when it came to the disloyal."

"Really? Do you think you would?" Of course Luke wouldn't turn down an invitation from Master Van like that.

"Who knows? Except Lorelei, of course." Asch's smile was only partially at the hidden joke. "Of course, I'd rather live in Daath than Baticul and you'd rather live in Engave."

"Engave?" Guy turned around halfway and looked down at Luke.

"St. Binah is pretty cool too. I got to see how they make gels."

Guy laughed. "Yeah, he's been having a regular second childhood."

"Well, it's the first he remembers," Asch pointed out. "Van didn't tell me all that much about you, Luke, since he wasn't allowed to tell you about me, but from you told me… I wish there was some way to keep you from having to go to Baticul, Luke. We'll try to arrange things so that you can get out of there soon, but I can't make promises."

"I'll be fine. It's only three more years."

"Which is almost half the length of the life you remember," Asch pointed out.

"…I don't really remember the first four years that well. I keep a diary, so I'm fine, but I haven't told them because I don't want them to worry anymore. Do you think this machine could help with that? If I don't remember more than three years back all my life I'm not going to be a very good king."

"So double the life you remember. But yes, it should be able to help with that."

"Oh?" Jade seemed surprised with this.

"Apparently whatever they did attempting to get his memories had side effects. Dist says he can fix all of those, but not the main effect. If he can't then I'll stand over him with my sword until he does."

"How long will this detour to Choral Castle take?"

"As long as it takes. Oh, you can leave in advance but if you go to Baticul with a Luke who is still a child or no Luke at all there will be a declaration of war."

"I didn't know it was that bad." Ion seemed surprised.

"Well, it is. Kimlasca wasn't able to keep most of the territory it conquered in the Hod war, and they seem to feel that they're about ready to give it another shot. Mohs isn't helping matters. Unless Van can find something in the Score to contradict his reading before the end of this year there's going to be a war."

"It's predicted in the Score?"

"Mohs thinks so."

"Why are you telling us this?" Jade asked him.

"Because we're sitting on a powder keg and if one of you fumbles around in the dark and sets something off we're in a lot more danger than we are if you have some idea of what you're doing. Also, in for a penny, in for a pound." Van and Asch would be in trouble with the Order and Kimlasca no matter what they did. "Van is a descendant of Yulia, which means there isn't any part of the Score he can't read, even if it's not as easy for him to find what he wants as it is for a Fon Master. There may be a way to avert the war, but it's tied to Luke's birth score." Asch's, technically.

"Mine?" He could do something?

Asch nodded. "We need to find out more, but I'll tell you what I can when we're alone." He turned to the others. "I have disguises and false passports hidden nearby."