Disclaimer: I don't own rights to the game, the characters, anything—as much as I wish I did.

Thanks to all who gave me ideas for this fic. And especially to all who review.

A/N: Chapter11... :runs and hides from the other Asch fans who don't get an explanation yet:

I'll shut up now.

The blade never left Luke's throat until he was hauled roughly into a dimly lit cell along with the others. Anise squealed, but the other three remained silent. Sync snickered in the darkness, stroking his mask tauntingly. "You're lucky we had a decent hold ready for the traitor!"

"Let us out right now!" demanded Luke. He stood shakily, battering the iron bars of the brig just as the door slammed shut. He fell back, growled, and returned to the door. Sync stared back at him through his mask, unflinching.

"Why should I?"

"Sync! You're needed at the bridge! Leave them for now and get yourself up here this instant!" The voice echoed down the stairway to the cells, and Luke winced at the familiarity of the sound. It was... whoever had captured him. The man with his face.

Sync scowled at them one last time, then spun to return to the deck. Luke relaxed, stumbling back to check for his comrades. Jade stood neatly, unflappable as usual, and Anise was poring over every square inch of Ion's being for the slightest hint of an injury. Natalia placed a hesitant hand on Luke's shoulder, and the boy jolted in surprise. He turned to her suddenly.

"Luke... Do you know who that man was?"

"N-No, I--"

"He's Asch the Bloody, one of the Six God-Generals," Jade informed them. "They wanted Ion, but why do they hold him here with us? There must be some other plan ingrained in this. Any ideas?"

There were muted grunts from the others. Eventually, Ion offered his thoughts. "Could they have only captured Luke because he was the first one to fall into the trap? If it had been anyone else, I'm sure it would have been easy for them to put a blade to their neck and say the same thing...except..."

"Yeah! What the hell did he mean by 'replica'? What kind of an insult is that?"

Ion and Jade's gazes froze.

"I'm sure it's nothing, Luke," Natalia said hurriedly. "How are we going to get out of here?"

Anise released Ion, satisfied that he was unharmed. "If anyone knows the Tartarus, it's the colonel."

"Yes..." Jade hummed absently. "What do they plan to do with us now? Surely there is nothing besides threatening our lives that they needed only us for."

"Maybe they wanted to stop us from helping at Akzeriuth," Ion noted.

"That shouldn't be any interest of theirs, frankly," Jade pointed out, "Unless, however, they have much larger plans than we anticipated. Still, staying here in their custody can't be a good thing. We should find a way to escape."

There was a sudden banging from above, and the door slammed open to admit four Oracle Knights and Sync the Tempest. They halted in front of the door to the cell. One of the Oracle Knights advanced, swiftly unlatching the lock and dragging Ion away.

"Hey! Stop!" Anise protested. The nameless soldier grunted, knocking her back with a heavily armored gauntlet. She scowled as another soldier took Ion, the first bolted the door, and Sync gave them a taunting wave before disappearing behind the steel door again.

Anise groaned, fists sliding down the bars. She sighed and released them, turning to the others. "There you go, Colonel. Now they have Ion."

"It doesn't matter. We still need to focus on getting out of here," Jade told her.

"That's right," said Luke.

"Now, where to start..."

Ion was taken to the bridge. Asch the Bloody seemed to have the most experience with landships of all of them, so the steering had been left to him. As soon as Sync had left the room from delivering Ion, Asch began interrogating him.

"Fon Master, give your report."

"The Sephiroth have been opened. Van took me to each one. He would have done them all at once had I not gotten sick after releasing each one. But that's no matter. All that's left is the Zao Ruins."

Dammit. Opening the Sephiroth could only mean one thing: Van intended to operate them.

"He's programmed them to fall with Akzeriuth," Ion explained. "With the Albertesque Seal in place, we cannot budge the Sephiroth, but we can program them how we like. As soon as that is destroyed at Akzeriuth, all will fall into place."

"Is there anything else to report?" Asch continued curtly.

Ion nodded to him sharply. "The captives plan to escape as well. I doubt they'll be any problem to take care of, though."

"I see. That is all, then, Fon Master. You may leave."

"Thank you, Commander. I'll wait on deck. I don't think I can stand their presence any longer," he said, his voice edging a snarl with his last comment.

"Very well. There's no harm in doing that."

Ion departed calmly, leaving a rather unsettled Asch. He knew it. All that time, he'd seen Ion and Van together, always whispering to each other in hushed tones whenever he did see them. They hardly appeared in public until the whole affair had started. Plotting, Asch had thought. Always plotting. He knew it was nothing good—anything that dealt with interfering with the Sephiroth would be widespread and massively destructive. It seemed that Van was taking the Score's prediction one step too far.

Arietta the Wild sighed, giving the man at her side a frustrated glare. It was bad enough she had to be back in the Fubras, but of all people, she had to be on a mission with the scum of the God-Generals, the laughing stock of the Oracle Knights, and the most repulsive lizard to walk the face of Auldrant: Dist.

She could put up with his narcissism. She could put up with his feminine makeup. She could not, however, put up with his whining. If he didn't shut up in ten seconds, her liger friends would have his windpipe bare on the ground in an instant. Next to him, the miasma seemed almost pleasant.

"Ugh, all this icky, muddy water! It's going to get my chair all dirty!" The God-General huffed, carefully steering his hovering chair just above the ground. His neck was craned down, and he tried his best to see whether the gathering water was high enough to reach the bottom of the chair. With a grunt, it rose, and Dist continued his rant. "Look at it splashing all over the place! I swear, if it ever comes out--"

"Shut up!" Arietta screeched suddenly. Dist jerked, moving toward the girl swiftly. He raised a finger to begin arguing with her, but the liger that always accompanied the beastmaster gave a dark growl. Dist backed away. He refused to give in, though, and he just settled for countering from a distance.

"Listen, girl! You do not interrupt the beautiful God-General, Dist the Rose! I have--"

"I don't care!" she replied stubbornly. "Just shut up!"

"Why, you ignorant little--!"

The liger's gruff warning swelled. It stepped forward threateningly, separating its master from the God-General. Arietta dug her face into her plush doll, and she gave the liger a slight nod.

With a harsh bark, the liger pounced. Dist wailed, falling back even before it reached him and tumbling into the mud. The liger pinned him to the sodden ground by resting on his chest and arms. Dist began to weep, squirming to get away. "Let me go! Let me go! I'll put this down in my revenge journal, you slimy, filthy, ground-grubbing, mangy, old cat!"

"Don't say that about my friends!" Arietta shouted. The liger shoved its face into Dist's, causing the man to scream again. It uttered another growl that silenced him.

Arietta walked up to him. "You're lucky Van's orders specifically said that I'm not allowed to kill you. You know I would; you know it!" She turned to the liger and said gently, "Release him, but don't let him out of your sight until I say so." It nodded and allowed Dist up. The man sprang to his feet and ran to recover his chair. He wiped as much of the mud off of it as he could, this time without commentary.

Arietta watched him for a while until, growing bored, her gaze wandered off to the horizon. The gloom of the miasma restricted her ability to see very far. The others had to hurry. The miasma was getting worse, and soon she may even have to move closer to the other side of the river to avoid the poison fog. It had all ready grown too thick behind her, which was why she and Dist were somewhere around halfway across. By tomorrow morning, they had to be there. It was Van's promise. Those that followed Van's orders were duly rewarded.

After a few hours of sitting in the cell on the Tartarus, even Luke had run out of complaints. Having exhausted the especially unpleasant description with which he had blessed the place, he had given up and discovered sleep to be out of the question. It was physically impossible for him to get comfortable. He mumbled something no doubt obscene before propping himself up against a wall, arms crossed sullenly. The others had chosen their places against the wall—well, all except for Anise. She had been pacing at the door since Ion had been taken. Her footsteps did not, surprisingly, break the stiff silence that had fallen over them; if anything, it made it worse.

They had grown so used to the steady click of her boots on the steel that when she suddenly stopped, they turned to her. She leaned against the bars slightly, peering down the hall. She gasped as a figure emerged from the door on the other side, shutting the door behind him as softly as possible. Jade stood, joining her.

"Be quiet," the figure hissed. Jade nodded to Anise, and they stepped back from the door when he went to fumble with the lock.

"Asch? Asch the Bloody?" inquired Jade.

The Oracle Knight frowned more deeply at him. "I said no talking. Just get out of here."

"What? You're letting us go?" Luke sprang from his place on the floor. "What's going on here?"

Asch gave him a cold glare.

"Luke, we're at a disadvantage whether he's freeing us or if it's a trap. Just don't let your guard down."

Asch grunted. "Shut up, you hear me?!"

They filed out in silence. Natalia was the last to leave, and as she passed him, she paused for a moment. She gave him a searching look, but he forced his own gaze away. "The exit is over here. Follow me." He led them down the hall and into another room, constantly glancing around as if he expected to be seen by a fellow Oracle Knight.

"Here." He indicated the doorway with a wave. "There's a ladder. You'll have to hurry; Sync won't be long restocking. If you don't go now, you'll lose your chance and have to jump while it's moving."

"But what about--" Anise sputtered.

"Don't worry about the Fon Master. I'll take care of him."

Luke snorted. "This, from the one that threatened my life?! Who the hell are you, anyway?!"

Asch gave no response. Jade nodded knowingly, then started down the ladder. Luke looked back to Asch one last time. "I--"

"Don't waste your time, dreck." Asch spun, walking back down the hall. Luke looked perplexed, and Natalia sighed, gently pulling Luke to the ladder.

"He's right, Luke. We don't have much time. Let's just get out of here," she told him.

Luke nodded, placing a hesitant foot on the first rung. He made an effort not to look anywhere but to the next place he prepared to put his foot. The Tartarus was an enormous vehicle, and falling from three or four stories up wasn't exactly appealing. Eventually, he made it to the bottom.

Jade sighed. For the second time since the Tartarus had been captured, he had been on it and off again. Until there were less God-Generals controlling it, though, he figured there was nothing he could do.

From inside the ship, another being watched their descent. It scuffled over to the hatch just as the last person was making its way down. It looked on, wide-eyed, and dashed back to the deck.

The group moved away from the Tartarus as it began to stir again. It hummed, then began to slide across the sand, gathering speed. The heat of the desert air warped the dark blob it became, and Jade glared after it regretfully. No time for that. He turned to the others.

Luke was the first to form a question. "What do we--"

"An oasis." Jade gazed past the noble at the small town clustered around what appeared to be an enormous fonstone. "We go there and ask for information. There may be another town nearby or we could even get to Chesedonia."

"Ion..." Anise stared at the point on the horizon where the Tartarus' shadow still lingered.

"We'll rescue Ion," Natalia assured her. "Let's get to safe ground first."

Luke, too, watched the Tartarus. He refrained from voicing the myriad of complaints that swarmed his mind. It was not the time for that, and besides, there were more important things to worry about, like who Asch the Bloody really was. So far, all he was was an Oracle Knight that appeared out of the blue, tried to kill him not once but twice, captured him and his friends, and then released them. It made no sense at all.

The others' conversation became a dull noise in the background. Luke winced and ran a finger through his hair. He shook his head slightly, as though the motion would ward off the dizziness that had enveloped him. It began to pass eventually, but it hadn't been enough of a headache for him to hear voices.

"Luke? Luke, are you all right?" Natalia asked for the second time.

"Huh?! Oh right, yeah," said Luke halfheartedly.

"Let's head to the town," Jade suggested. "We should rest as well. Some of us appear to be more vulnerable to the desert's heat than others."

Luke gave a dry grunt, and Jade chuckled. They started for the town, but it turned out to be further than they had anticipated thanks to the tricks of the desert atmosphere. Still, it only took a matter of minutes to arrive.

The town was indeed very small—it could hardly even be called that. The only building there was a store. A well sat just in front of the store, and a pool of shimmering water could be seen inside. A man stood near it, guarding it like it was treasure, which was no surprise. The spring which had been tapped must not have been very deep, and they must have been worried that it would run dry any day. The fonstone they had seen from afar protruded from a tiny lake. That lake had to have been the only thing attracting life in the otherwise barren grounds.

Luke groaned again just as they entered the city. Natalia began to berate him for whining, but her words sounded empty and faraway to Luke. His head was throbbing, and he fell to his knees, moaning in pain. The other three moved around him, but all Luke sensed was the pain and a voice. The voice itself was only of normal volume, but being contained to his head and the—the pain—amplified it.

"Hey, dreck! Can you hear me?!" it demanded.

"Asch?" Luke asked, unconscious of the others' listening. "Where are--"

"Shut up, dreck! Listen to me!"

"What do you want?!"

"Ion is in the Zao Ruins. Meet him there."

"Why are you telling me that?"

Luke heard his last question fade into silence. The pain receded, but the entire ordeal left him panting. He opened his eyes slowly to see Natalia just beside him with a healing arte ready. Anise crouched opposite of her, and Jade stood further away, observing everything calmly.

"Are you okay, Luke?" Anise asked.

"I-I think it's gone now..." he said brokenly.

"You said something about that Oracle Knight, Asch." Natalia muttered. She raised her voice. "What did you say about Asch?"

"I heard him." Luke stood slowly, and he managed to keep his balance.

Natalia gasped. "What did he say?"

"Ion is in the Zao Ruins."

"Ion!" Anise nearly jumped a foot into the air. "We have to rescue him, Luke!"

"We don't have time!" the noble countered. "We're late for Akzeriuth as it stands!"

"Luke! You can't mean that!" Natalia huffed indignantly.

"Though what Luke says is true, I doubt leaving Ion in the hands of the God-Generals will be any good." Jade cut in.

"Colonel! You don't suppose they'd--" Anise began.

"No, they wouldn't kill him," he said levelly. "Still, I don't think what they intend to use him for is anything pleasant."

"Augh, so now it'll take even longer!" grumbled Luke. "Fine, fine."

Natalia gave him a sour glare. "I don't believe you..."

"Anyway," Jade continued. "We should rest here until it gets dark. It'll be easier to travel through the desert at night. Besides, we should at least replenish our supplies. It will no doubt be a harsh journey."

Luke moaned again. "Why do we have to go after Ion's sorry--"

"Luke!" Natalia grabbed him roughly. "I'll have not another word out of you! I've heard enough! We're staying here until nightfall, buying new supplies, then heading out at dusk to rescue the Fon Master, like it or not!"

"Back off, Natalia!" Luke shoved the princess from his chest. "Jeez, I don't need you on top of me, too!"

"Hmph." Natalia turned her back to Luke.

"Now, now, kids," Jade added airily. "Be nice to each other."

"Somebody needs to learn how to calm down!" Luke said loudly.

"And somebody needs to learn how to respect his superiors!" Natalia parroted in the same tone.

Anise smirked. "Why don't we leave you two lovers alone now?"

"Shut up!" cried Luke. "Damn, you're annoying!"

"Language, Master Luke," corrected Jade. "You must set a good example for Anise, now."

"Luke, you need to cool it!" Anise snapped. "We've been putting up with you for this long, and all we get is insulted! I'm sick of it!"

"Well, what are you going to do about it?!" he shot back.

"Colonel," Anise turned to Jade. "I say we leave Luke here. We'll go look for Ion ourselves."

Luke could hardly believe what he was hearing. "W-What?! You wouldn't--"

"An excellent idea," Natalia said happily. She shot Luke a sneaky grin as she walked past him to the colonel and Anise.

"Hey!" Luke sputtered. "You can't just--"

"Anise," Jade carried on the separate conversation, his usual placid self. "Here's a cut of our traveling money. It'll be your job to purchase the gels and bottles we need. Natalia, would you mind coming with me to check out their selection on armor? We may need some poison-resistant charms with all the nasty monsters around here. Also, we should ask if anyone knows where the Zao Ruins are. We can't just wander around blindly..."

Luke stood rooted to the spot, stunned. The other three wandered off to accomplish their allotted tasks, their jovial banter making his gut turn over itself. They really intended to leave him? Literally? No, he didn't need them. He would be a hero like Master Van said—he could do it without their help. Of course. He would bring prosperity to Kimlasca! First, he would have to get to Akzeriuth. And the fastest way there would be by ship. Right. They had all ready been seen by the God-Generals, so the decoy was a complete flop. The closest city would have to be Chesedonia. Ask for directions. Yes. He could do this.

Luke cleared his throat nervously. He glanced around for the nearest townsperson that, hopefully, hadn't witnessed his spat with the other three. There. He would have to do.

He approached the man confidently. "Hey, you. Can you tell me which way Chesedonia is?"

The man turned to him and gave him a sneer dripping with disgust. "Yeah, I can."

Luke flinched slightly at his curt tone, but decided not to say anything yet. He waited patiently for an answer. Half a minute passed. "Well?"

"What, you didn't come from that way?" the man grumbled. "It's north-northeast o' here. Now get out; I got work to do."

"Hey!" Luke clenched his fists, and the man seemed amused at his anger.

"What? You want to fight?"

"Do you know who I am?! You do not speak to nobility like that!"

"Who do you think yer kiddin'?" The man glared at him. "You ain't a noble, boy. You'd get sand in your fancy little boots out here."

Luke roughly grabbed the man's collar. "Take that back, you old son of a--"

"Luke!" Natalia dashed up from behind him and seized the boy's jacket.

"Natalia! Get away from me!" he barked.

Jade sighed extravagantly from Natalia's side. Luke dropped the man and spun to face the Kimlascan princess. "Stay out of this, Natalia!"

"How dare you threaten an innocent citizen!" Natalia roared. If anyone had been lucky enough to not hear the argument that had taken place not ten minutes ago, they could very well hear Natalia this time. "It's unfitting of an heir to the throne! You'd make a horrible king andhusband! You used to be a good person, Luke. Then you just had to--" She dropped the sentence off abruptly. Luke could see her hands shaking and her eyes welling. She released him, then stormed off to the small item shop, unable to stand the sight of him any longer.

Jade closed his eyes and inhaled slowly. Luke stared down at his shoes sullenly, and when Jade spoke it startled him into jerking up to look at him.

"The princess is wrong." Jade eyed Luke carefully, and the redhead sighed with relief. Jade's expression didn't falter as he finished his statement. "But you are, as well." With that, he pivoted on his heel neatly and entered the building.

Luke grunted. Those bastards could talk about him behind his back all they wanted, but it would never make him apologize. Unsure of what else to do, Luke wandered over to the pool at the base of the fonstone. He sat under one of the scrawny trees that had managed to poke up through the infertile sand and gazed over the water. Dusk was just beginning to creep over the clear sky. It was ironic, he thought, that he had just been drenched by rain and now the sky was devoid of clouds.

Was it... always this hot? It wasa desert, so it wasn't surprising. But even then, at that hour, it should have been cooling off, at least a little. Luke ran a damp hand through his hair and brushed it out of his eyes carelessly. For a moment, he considered how nice it would feel to take a dip in that pool. That would no doubt anger the people, though, and bringing more hatred upon himself was the last thing he needed.

Night persisted to drown out the daylight. Once it began, it quickly swallowed up the sun in dusk, and Luke heard the last shufflings and calls of the townspeople as they bid each other good night. The lights flickered on at the shop, and he noticed that from where he was, it was a lot larger than it had appeared. Of course, why hadn't he seen it before? It had to be an inn as well. That was where the others would be staying, and he would be, too, if he had any trust left in himself to be able to rent a room like a civil human being.

Luke mindlessly groped through his pockets, searching for his cut of the money. With a bolt of realization, he remembered that Jade had divvied up the money after the fight. That, of course, left him with—he drew his hand from the pocket and counted out the handful of coins that he had left from the monsters in the factory—thirty gald. He groaned. No money, no help, no food, and how was he supposed to make it all the way to Chesedonia like that?! He would have to. He would be a hero, right?

Suddenly the headache came back. A torrent of pain engulfed him, and he couldn't contain a whine of surprise. In his shock, he had forgotten what would come next—Asch's voice.

"Hey, dreck. What are you doing out there in the cold all by yourself?"

"Shut up! It's none of your concern!"

"You must be lonely," Asch taunted. "Why not visit the others?"

"What do you want from me?!"

There was a pause. Luke waited in tense silence, doing his best to cope with the pain. Asch gave a snort of impatience. "I want you to go see your friends!"

With his last word, another wave of pain gripped Luke. He moaned, falling forward onto the sand. Then he stood slowly. Panic overtook the noble when he realized that he wasn't moving on his own. "A-Asch! What are you--?! Why can't I--?!"

Asch sighed again. "I thought you liked your friends. Let's pay them a visit, shall we?"

Luke walked all the way into the shop and banged the door open. The keeper turned to him grouchily. "Hey, it's you again! Get out of here, kid! I've got a business to run he--"

Luke watched in pure horror as Asch ignored the man and unsheathed the sword Luke wore across his back. Through him, Asch was going to--! Luke tried to cry out in protest, but Asch seemed to have a grip onhis throat as well, and Luke couldn't do anything.With two neat swipes, the man lay dead, and Luke was utterly astounded. He had never seen anything so gruesome in his entire life.He had killed countless monsters himself, but this was different—he was—that man was—breathing just four seconds ago! Alive! Luke shook violently, and Asch's grip on him seemed to fade. Luke fell to his knees, sobbing. He had done this! Not Asch—he, Luke fon Fabre—had killed a man that had been alive. Luke could not process anything beyond the body and the crimson liquid that stained his blade.

The door to the inn behind him clattered open, and none other than Jade, Anise, and Natalia appeared. The girls gasped at first, and Natalia darted to the man's side. She checked for a pulse, but of course there was none, Luke could have told her that. The princess stood, speaking, but Luke could hear nothing that was said. Others had awakened, and soon a cluster of the merchants and travelers that had been staying at the inn had formed in the lobby, all chattering to themselves rapidly. Natalia looked straight into Luke's eyes, shouting and yelling for all she was worth as Jade did his best to restrain her. Luke just shook his head slowly; he heard her, but he was notlistening.Even Anise was against Natalia. And then--

Without warning, he came back. Asch swelled in Luke's mind again and, sword still in hand, lashed out at the Fon Master Guardian. Anise shrieked and jumped aside, and the crowd dissolved instantly. Jade stepped forward, and the last thing Luke saw before passing out was a flash of green.

Thanks to Medomai (Apakoha) for betaing!