Authoress Notes · Update!? Yes, it's an update! Thanks Faia Sakura for showing me the Score reading line. I'll go fix that in a bit. As for Kitty Katz Katz, whether that reason is good is your choice. As for Arietta, well, readers wanted some Luke/Arietta interaction and I perceived that as a good, healthy relationship, unless you want her to hate him, I can make arrangements…? As for cameos, I planned to use OCs, but I thought back and I dislike OC use more then cameos (in fanfictions, as I make OCs a lot for fun), unless the series calls for an OC. I did rush Chapter 2, since I wanted to get it over with.

Disclaimer · I don't own anything.

Warning · Spoilers.


· Chapter 2: Documents ·

· BEGIN ·

Ortion Cave was dripping with water, like when it's completely silent while you watch four faucet's water run, drop by drop. The scenery was an icy blue that gave fear rather then comfort. In other words, it wasn't pleasant scenery. It might have been, if there were no monsters or train tracks.

"I wonder…" Tear began, her voice trailed off quickly. The group gave her an odd stare.

"When we'd saw Luke, we left Mieu in the inn. What're we going to tell him?" She said answering the group's confused stares. When Luke slept in Akzeriuth, Mieu wanted to stay, but Anise took him regardless, saying Mieu was too nice to be with a stupid boy like Luke. Mieu was sleeping in the hang bag as they went to see Van, so Jade said it would be best to leave Mieu at the inn. They'd left Mieu in the care of the inn's owner. They'd decided it might be best to leave Mieu at the inn; he might get hurt while in Ortion Cave.

"Oh yes, that's right. Mieu will not take it will if he finds out about Luke." Jade commented as they walked on the train tracks. The red-eyed Colonel pushed his glasses up further.

"I think it'd be best not to tell Mieu at all." Guy suggested, and Natalia nodded.

"Mieu loves Luke very much. To find out that Luke is now our enemy… He will refuse to believe it." Natalia explained which was probably true. Mieu could not accept his master's new way of living. They felt bad though.

"I know it's for the best, but don't you feel a little bad…?" Anise commented and the others nodded. It was cruel, but they really had no choice.

"Hurry it up!" Asch shouted from ahead of the group and the slacking members ran to catch up to the former God-General.


The group entered the room where the fomicry machinery lied. Asch and Jade went to check it out, while the rest of the group inquired about those Cheagles in the cages. Their visit was and remained uneventful, without counting their new found information, anyway.

"It looks like this is all we're going to get." Asch grumbled. The Necromancer playfully shrugged, as it was always amusing to watch the red-haired swordsman get angry… all the time.

"Everyone, we're going!" Jade called out to his teammates and Guy got up first from playing with the Cheagles. The rest of them followed suit.


The group made their way near the entrance of Ortion Cave. They have enough of that disgusting cave. It was moist and the only thing nice in it was the mirror rocks.

"Stop," Asch ordered. The group paused their movement.

"I hear something." He stated and they listened closely and heard a feminine voice.

"Major Legretta?! Wait, no…" Tear began, but her voice trailed off. The voice was too young to match the blonde-haired God-General. They silently stood until they heard footsteps and Asch shouted, "There!" and ran to the large mirror and slashed his sword through it. They ran to Asch, and watched as the mirror rock was sliced in half, revealing what was like a hide out beyond it.

"Wow…" Anise looked in awe. It was like a cave inside a cave.

"It looks man-made." Guy said, knocking on the rock walls as he peered inside.

"It probably is. These walls look too smooth to be created by nature. Furthermore, going beyond here could be dangerous." Jade informed them, but neither Anise nor Natalia figured there could be that much danger in a cave that wasn't even a third of Ortion Cave.

"It's pretty small and harmless if you ask me." Anise said; Natalia nodded in agreement. It actually looked the save of a living room. It had some furniture too. The ceiling was about as high as it could go, without making a hole in the pathway above it. It had a rug, a small box, and a pile of sheets with a pillow that probably served as a bed.

"Why don't we go in? What if we find information about Luke in here?" Natalia proposed and the group took this is a chance now and entered.

"Hey, for a caveman's house, the stuff here is pretty nice." Anise said, crouching down and poking the softness of the sheets.

"It's a fitting house for you, Anise." Jade said, and Anise pouted at him.

"Enough talk. Just see if there's anything useful in here." Asch ordered and most of them sighed.

"Hm…? Hey, guys, is it me, or is the rug really lumpy?" Anise asked as tapped the rug with her feet. Tear bent down and tore the rug off, revealing a considerably flat boulder, but it wasn't flat enough to match the floor smoothness.

"There might be something down there. C'mon, let's move the boulder aside." Guy commanded and Asch and he bent down, trying to move the boulder.

"Hey, you help here too, Necromancer!" Asch demanded, but Jade shrugged.

"Oh, I'm getting old and my joints ache." He said playfully and Asch made a face.

"There's no use asking Jade." Guy sighed and he and Asch began moving the boulder. It took about ten minutes, considering you have to lift it up first. After a few minutes of breathing, the group looked into the whole to see stairs.

"Although I'd say it'd be in our best interest to leave this place alone… I suppose now that we've gone through the trouble, we should look." Guy and Asch gave him a look; he didn't do anything after all. The group went down into the stairs. The walk was shockingly short; the hallway as a few steps, until they passed through a rug hanging, serving as a doorway. The wall was cracked and it looked chaos outside might've caused this place to began falling, as it was very low underground. The crack could've actually fit refugees or something.

"Huh? Look, a grave!" Anise said and bent down. They were written in a language that Anise didn't know.

"What is this…?" Tear asked as she crouched down with Anise, looking at the unreadable language.

"It's melnics." Asch said as he looked at the language.

"Asch, you can read it?!" Natalia asked, but Asch shook his head.

"No, melnics is an ancient language. It's not used anymore, so no one teaches it anymore." Asch replied, and Jade looked at the grave with suspicion.

"Melnics was used back in the Dawn Age. It wasn't as fluently used as Fonic Language, and eventually, people stopped teaching it. People who know melnics are extremely rare to find. Chances are you will not meet someone who knows it." Jade informed them, but rather then trying to read a language he didn't know, he turned to see the hundreds of documents hanging on the wall on top of each other.

"Forbidden experiments and death records… Tear, Asch, Anise, do you know anything about these?" Jade asked and the three Oracle Knights faced Jade with a curiosity. They came to him and read a document he picked out on the wall.

"What the hell…" Asch mumbled as he read the document. Tear and Anise were in awe as well.

"Experiments to create a vessel for Yulia…?" Tear asked out loud unconsciously and the others, shocked, came over to read as well.

"I never heard of anything like this." Anise answered and the other two knights nodded in agreement. They never heard of any experiments of creating a vessel who could uphold the powers of Yulia.

"This is like making a Fon Master from scratch." Guy commented as he looked, skimming through the other documents. They were strewn all over the walls.

"It must've been painful." Natalia ran her gloved fingers over a sheet detailing results.

"Hmm… I don't know anything about that, but do you think Ion does?" Guy asked, and the others considered the thoughts.

"Most of the data on this subject looks like it was a while back. It might have been with Fon Master Evenos was presuming the role. And if that's the case and these are all the documents on the experimentation, then Ion might not know." Asch replied, but Anise shrugged.

"Well, he's the Fon Master and it's probably our best shot." Anise replied, and Jade shrugged as well.

"Then do you mind getting him for us, Anise?" Jade asked and Anise nodded. Anise stood up and left to retrieve Ion. Tear watched her leave and then something caught her eye. She turned and looked as she saw purple cape that was carelessly laid strewn upon the dirt of the grave. Under it was two wrapped items, concealed in another pink cape. She opened it and stared at the objects in it.

"Hey, guys, what's this?" Tear asked and the others came to her. They looked and saw two swords.

"It looks like old equipment. They look they've seen better days though." Jade explained and he picked up one of the swords. Natalia immediately scolded him.

"Colonel, these must belong to the person who lay under this grave! Put them down! It's disrespectful to the dead to be simply pawning through their belongings!" Natalia said and Jade apologized, placing the item on the ground.

"There are flowers here too." Tear said and picked up one of the irises laid there.

"Someone is probably still maintaining this place." Guy said and they turned to see Anise and Ion come through the rug-door.

"I brought Ion!" Anise replied cheerfully and Ion smiled, happy to be of use.

"Fon Master, do you know of any experiments to create a vessel that could hold Yulia's spirit and power…?" Jade asked, getting straight to the point.

"To re-create Yulia…? Yes, I know of it." Ion replied, and Tear looked around before facing the Fon Master again.

"Can you tell us more about it?" She asked and Ion nodded.

"Unfortunately, Fon Master Evenos was the Fon Master at the time, so I don't know a lot about details. The Grand Maestro at the time proposed the idea of creating a vessel with Yulia's powers. It was said to go against Yulia's teachings, but the Grand Maestro conducted secret experiments involving it anyway. I don't know what happened in the midst of it, like whom the subject was, or who her comrades were, but they later escaped. They took nearly every document detailing the experiment with them and the Order found out about it and arrested everyone involved in it. People who know about consider it a taboo and don't really talk about it anymore. I'm assuming this is where the subject and her friends live; or lived in?" Ion explained and asked.

"Yes. We've also found these, if you recognize it." Tear lifted up the items on the floor. Ion looked at them and his eyes widened.

"This is…!" He touched the items and closed his eyes, "It may be wrong… but I think we need to take the swords with us back to Daath later on."

"No, you can't! Those belong to Judas!" A voice came from the crack and a young girl came out, "Leave them here!" The group looked at her with suspicion.

"Are you the girl who was used for the experiments?" Tear asked and the group stood up to defend Ion.

"Yes! Those items belong to my friend! Return them!" She demanded.

"Fon Master, why do you need them, or more importantly, the sword?" Natalia asked, in battle stance as were the others. The girl before them was in stance as well.

"These were experimental weapons; weapons in which had souls and could speak to its chosen master, whom they made a pact with," Ion explained, "The Order may attempt to take them by force and raid everything else here as well. I think it would be best to return it now, but…" He was feeling remorse now that the girl defended the weapon and belongings with all her heart.

"If that's the case, then it probably would be best to take them." Jade stated and the others felt it would be more logical to do so, but such an act felt so cruel.

"Chaltier belongs to Judas—no, Leon! Please, give it back to him. And Atwight too, she belongs to Rutee!" She begged and the group felt more remorse. They were taking things that weren't theirs, just like thieves. The young girl spoke of these weapons as if they were people.

"I'd be happy if you leave it there too, Fon Master." The group turned and saw the empty shell of the man they once saw not too long ago.

"Luke…! Luke, is that really you?!" The young girl looked at Luke with tears of happiness, even if he looked like a completely different person.

"Hey, Reala, long time no see." Luke replied, and the girl identified as Reala would've ran to hug him, had it not been for the others.

"Why're you here?" She asked and Luke smiled a little, "I came to tell you… that I'm still alive. I can't stay with you now, because I have to help the Commandant, but I want to tell you that I'm going to get stronger, so I can protect you as well, and Rutee and Judas too." He replied, and stared down the group separating him and Reala.

"Luke! Why're you here?!" Tear demanded an answer, but returned to his emotionless self. It seemed like he didn't mind showing his true face in public, but only talked like that to friends.

"I just said so. Anyway, since I'm here, I'd like to put those swords back where you found them." Luke ordered, and Ion opened his mouth to say he would return those if the pair really wanted them that bad, but Anise shushed him.

"Why should we listen to you?" Anise asked and Luke pulled out his sword.

"Because being a grave-robber is very disgraceful for two knights, a colonel, a Fon Master, 2 nobles, and a princess." Luke informed them with a blank face. He looked at Guy, who made a shocked face, which quickly transferred to anger.

"Yes, Van told me… Gailardia Galan Gardios." Luke said, but as tempted as some were to look at Guy, they kept their eyes on Luke. The God-General didn't flinch at their glares though.

"Well, if you don't put them back… I'll just make you do it. I might as well take the Fon Master along the way. It's not like he's a necessary component now though; we have a replacement if needed. He may not be able to read the Score, but he can certainly undo Yulian Seals. It'd just take him a little more time, effort, and energy." Luke explained, in a sinister way that made the group feel like he was mocking them. Reala felt a little shocked. The Luke there… was not the Luke she met a while back.

"You can't mean…!" Ion began, but Luke cut him off.

"Yes, Fon Master Ion, the first replica of the original Ion." He said, and this time the group was really in awe, looking at Ion in shock.

"The original!?" They all asked in a chorus; even Asch was never told this.


· Chapter 2: Documents ·

· END ·

Authoress Notes · If you're wondering about the scenery where the room appears, then it's the scene where you're leaving and that sea monster appears, and you have to boss battle it. There should be a large mirror rock there, right? Oh, and sorry, this chapter was mostly talk, I guess. Sorry if it bored you guys. There ended up being a lot of connections in this story, more the intended. And sorry if anyone is out of character as well. Twisting the plot around is actually pretty fun.

Oh, and if you want to know how Luke might look now as a God-General, if any of you have the Tales of the Abyss Anthology, then you should see a page with Asch and Luke both wearing their Viscount outfits. The Luke in there is probably how Luke looks in this story. Of course, some what like he has a complex, his face returns to the happy Luke in the game when he's being nice.

Judas and Rutee · Please review!