Wow, we actually got it up. Helps that this one was already written, though :) Hope you enjoy :)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Tales copyright or the characters; I am merely a fan who enjoys writing about them. All rights belong to Namco/Namco Bandai; character designs (c) Kosuke Fujishima.

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Something Lost, Something Gained

The question it had started with was not an old one, not at all. It was a question present in all of their minds ever since they had begun to lower the Outer Lands. But they hadn't the time to worry about it then; they had too many other things to deal with, what with the Commandant's plans and finding a way to save everyone. They simply couldn't worry about it. That had been four years ago, then. Three years since those insane plans were laid to a final rest, two since their friend had returned to them.

They had recently gathered for their semiannual conference. Each member of the old group was present, helping to represent their countries, alongside their leaders: the new Fonmaster for Daath - the first female to ever be Fonmaster - and alongside her, the new Commandant, who was the second female to ever hold this position. Astor of Chesedonia was there as well. From Kimlasca, beside the King, were the Princess, Duke, and Viscount. From Malkuth hailed the Emperor - and of course, a certain count and necromancer.

It had been off to a good start. But when one advisor to the King - one whose haughty demeanor never failed to annoy him - had responded to one of their rather pressing issues (one that was still being figured out after three years) that "This was why the Score was needed!".

Funny, it had never really bothered them before. They had questioned it, certainly. But for some reason, today it struck a chord with all of them...yes, for this decision, perhaps a Score would have come in handy. The King had quickly quieted the advisor, however, saying that the world had left the Score behind - that now, they must learn to grow up and walk on their own two feet. Though obviously angry at the King's dismissal of his notions, the advisor said nothing more. The meeting continued without further outbursts.

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"Sometimes I wonder...Do you really think that deviating from the Score was a good thing?" she inquired, after the meeting had ended.

"Well, there's no way to know now..." the Count mused.

"Yes...but I still wonder..."

"Me too." The youngest voice.

"I do too, to be honest." A familiar, normally boisterous voice unexpectedly joined in. "Still, it's good to be able to choose our own futures, yanno? We made the right choice!"

"I suppose..." But still she could not help but brood. "What I mean to say is...do we really know...that it would have been a poor conclusion had we continued to follow it?"

"It's best not to dwell on that which cannot be changed," the older man finally added his two gald, "we have made our decisions. For better or worse, we cannot go back now."

"He's right," affirmed the younger Count. "Believe me, he's right."

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"...Do you wonder?" she asked her father later.

"I do, my dear," he answered honestly, "But, I also believe in everything I said before - men are learning to walk on their own again. We must make our own decisions now and take real responsibility, without the Score to blame for what happens.

"A part of me, however, cannot help but wonder at what was foretold - would it have been a poor future, in the long run? Or would it have been the prosperous one that Mohs insisted it would be?

"In any case," he smiled at her now, "we have made our choices - whether for better or worse, we cannot go back now."

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"Do you wonder, Fonmaster?"

"Sometimes. And cut that Fonmaster crap, Commandant," she grinned. The woman glared, but it only held for a minute before she shook her head, amused.

"Do you?" the younger woman finally asked.

"I do," the Commandant responded, "although I don't mind choosing my path."

"Yeah," the younger girl added, "...I guess it is good that we can make our own way now. But sometimes I still just wonder if it was really the right way to go."

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He thought and wondered, too, of course, that night as they were all going to bed. The boisterous noble, though ever so confident - perhaps the most confident of them all - that they had chosen a better way, yes, even he harbored secret doubts, doubts that he confided to no one - not even his best friend.

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The man lay awake that night; certainly, he had spoken with confidence to the young noble earlier. Certainly, he believed those words, to a degree.

But he had questions too - unlike the others, however, he had only himself to blame. Suppose there was something horrible in their future, one that wouldn't have happened had they continued to live by the Score? Ultimately, the path to break away from it had been made because of his invention. Whatever happened to the world now, wasn't he ultimately responsible? It was not a concept he relished, and though he had resigned himself to these things long ago...tonight, what with that incident at the conference, and the questions of his younger friends, his own doubts resurfacing and the doubts he knew his friend never spoke of...

It was some time yet before he was able to sleep.

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His heart twisted at the sight. He had seen these scenes thousands of times over his forty-one years...His grievances over the Seventh Fonon becoming an obsession, his professor's untimely passing - even now, twenty-nine years later, he could still feel the searing heat from the flames as he lived that horrible incident yet again. Then the mixed feelings that always came with the adoption.

There were many things in his life he wished he could erase from his past forever; Lorelei, how he wished that. But he had learned long ago that such thinking was a waste. Time did not go back and mistakes could not always be undone - so many had he made in his life - but it was best to accept it, learn from it, and move on.

It was not an easy thing to do, far from it, in fact. He would never tell anyone this - "never", of course, was relative, he reflected now, in the face of the many things he'd admitted to their group over the course of their journey - but like the count, nightmares still plagued him, too. While he rarely shook or trembled afterward anymore, there were still times when he would wake up, broken out in a cold sweat. They still bothered him far more than he cared to admit.

He watched these scenes, however, with a sense of growing confusion, the notion that something wasn't quite right; after seeing these dreams so many times, he should know - there was something missing.

It hit him when one piece...the familiar, terrible scene in the snowbanks played out.

Where was her replica?

To those who are confused: GOOD! You're supposed to be! I wrote it this way completely on purpose. (For those who don't get it before the final chapter (a ways away yet), I will include a full explanation there. Hopefully everyone will keep on until then!)

Hope you enjoyed it; thank you all for reading!