So... This particular chapter is really, really long. Nineteen parts, to be exact. So we're finally past the halfway point of Chapter Two. (Finally!)

Anyway, enough of my rambling. I must post these, and I'd like to get back to typing the last few pages before NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. I'd like to have an easy way to keep track of my progress, after all... (-is currently at 145,394 words-)

Also, beware the slight OOC on Jade's part at the end. (Of course, I'd be irritated by Dark, too, if he was doing THAT.)

Enjoy!

"Oh yes, her scent tells me she was very 'worried.'" –Sorylle

"Colonel... what happened to your 'plausible deniability'?" –Anise

"Finish that and I will string your intestines on my mantle." –Jade

Chapter 2.11 – Race, Double Agent!
Part 20

Dark's POV

"Luke!"

"Ugh..."

"What kind of attitude is that?! Do you realize how worried I was?!"

"Oh yes, her scent tells me she was very 'worried.'"

I couldn't help it, I snorted at Sorylle's comment.

"Dark! I thought you were in Malkuth!"

I sighed, running a hand through my bangs, and then pointed to the redhead Natalia was standing in front of. "So, I was in a coach, headed for Engeve, and we hit a bump and the jug with the drinking water fell off." Natalia blinked a few times, and I raised my hand in a 'hold on' gesture. "The coachman decides to go fill the spare jug at the stream in Tataroo Valley. And, since I know there are monsters there, I can't in good conscience let him go alone. Alas, my 'vacation' really only lasted about twenty-four hours, since I had to deal with your cousin the rest of the time."

Luke scowled. "You're the one who conveniently failed to mention the fact that you were headed in the opposite direction from Baticul," he said. I shrugged.

"So? Your dad looked amused."

"More because of Jade's comment than yours."

Natalia looked back and forth between me and Luke before she sighed and shook her head. "I don't know what I'm going to do with you two."

"Lock them up?"

I kicked Sorylle—gently—for that comment, since she was too small for me to elbow her like I would have Koran. The exchange brought her to Natalia's attention, though, and she looked surprised.

"Oh? Who's this?"

I smiled, bent down, lifted Sorylle (who was easily twice the size she'd been in the Cheagle Woods, mind you) and held her out like a little kid who'd picked up a puppy off the streets and brought it home to his parents.

Well, it was a fitting analogy, given that Natalia had the final yay or nay on if she could stay.

"Princess, this is Sorylle. Sorylle, Princess Natalia, my boss," I said by way of introduction.

Sorylle and Natalia stared at each other for a few moments before Sorylle mewed a meek 'hello.'

Natalia's blank, 'what in the world?' expression melted as she seemed to register the scene in front of her as 'cute.' I know, because I recognize that expression.

And then she shocked me into almost dropping the young liger in my arms.

"Hello."

Sorylle yipped at me as I fumbled her, and I end up hugging her to my chest with an apologetic growl. I looked up at Natalia, who was looking extremely worried now.

"Oh... Did I not do it correctly...?" she asked, assuming she'd said something rude, probably. I blinked a few times before swallowing and shaking my head.

"No... In fact... That was perfect..." I said. "Ah... When'd you learn to...?"

Natalia's face flushed pink. "I may have talked Koran into helping me learn a few basic words and phrases whenever you were busy..." she said, looking very much like a shy schoolgirl.

"Hm... And here you were teasing me about a God-General..."

I give myself credit for calmly placing Sorylle on the ground before stalking over to Jade and nailing the smirking bastard in the gut.

Maybe he shouldn't have had his eyes closed.

"Dark!" Guy was trying to sound scolding, but I could hear that hint of laughter in his tone. "Socking the emissary of peace from Malkuth in the gut isn't the greatest way to smooth over relations between them and Kimlasca!"

I chuckled darkly. "He's had it coming to him to him since the docks."

Jade couldn't even have the decency to look hurt, the dumbass. He just stood there looking smug as ever. "Yes. And you shouldn't pick on frail old men anyway."

I raised an eyebrow.

And then proceeded to punch him again.

This time in the face.

I couldn't help but... ugh, dare I call it giggle? Either way, any protest Natalia was about to put up was silenced, and if the odd stares I was getting were any indication, I was definitely giving off a nice aura of 'psycho.' Ah... I hadn't gotten to do this in a while.

"'Frail old man' my ass," I said. "I almost wish Kairi wasn't busy. I'd love to hear some of what she could come up with for that one..."

"Dark... Are you okay?"

I frowned and turned, realizing that Natalia was looking at me like I'd really gone off my rocker. Then I realized.

"Oh! Kairi's still alive," I said bluntly. "She's currently acting as a double-agent."

"Are you sure about that one?"

Jade and I both looked at Luke, shocked that he'd been the one to speak up. "What do you mean?" Jade asked. Luke clenched his fists, and looked away from us.

"How do we know she wasn't telling the truth on the ferry? She certainly didn't seem to have any problems with delivering those folders to Dist," he said, a hint of bitterness underneath. I cringed. So that's what was up. "And why did you hand them over to her anyway? I saw you hesitate and look her way before she even asked to see them, Jade."

I didn't even have to see Jade to know he'd gone rigid from that comment.

"What are you talking about?"

Luke turned around to glare at him, and I realized that there were only two things scarier than the glare of Crimson Fabre.

The glares of his sons.

"On the ferry, you reached for the folders, went to open one, and paused. Your eyes drifted off to your right, and Kairi was standing behind your right shoulder. All at least twenty seconds before she asked to look at the folders!"

I mentally cursed at myself for training Luke to be so observant before I looked up at Jade. "I take it you latched on?" I asked. I'd noticed it too, that odd feeling floating on the edge of my consciousness.

The way Jade openly flinched told me everything I needed to know.

"Did she tell you?" I asked. Jade adjusted his glasses, trying to regain some semblance of control... over himself, if nothing else.

"No, not really. She just apologized... repeatedly."

"What the hell are you two talking about?!"

This time, Jade and I cringed together. I stuffed my hands in my pockets as I looked over the group. Natalia, Luke, Jade, Guy, Tear, Anise, Ion, Sorylle, Mieu, myself...

I realized then that, aside from myself and Sorylle, I'd just listed off the 'Abyss group' as Kairi had told me months ago. My eyes widened slightly as I contemplated this, before I nodded to myself, steeling my resolve.

"Kairi's telepathic."

"Dark!"

"She was going to tell them anyway."

"That's not the point."

"And I will take the heat for it when she finds out."

"...You understand you've basically signed your own death certificate, yes?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Very well."

"Where are you going?"

"Plausible deniability."

"Ah. Okay. See ya."

I turned back to the rest of the group, and needless to say, the expressions ranged from 'what the hell just happened?' to 'you've got to be kidding me.' I crossed my arms, waiting for someone to speak up. It wouldn't take long, I knew that, but I was going to stand here and enjoy the funny faces until then.

"You don't seriously expect us to believe that, do you?"

Predictably, this came from Tear. I smirked.

"Well, the thirty-five-year-old colonel just walked out of the room so he can claim that he had nothing to do with you all finding out about his little sister's ability, so..." I trailed off and watched as she digested that bit of logic. Natalia, on the other hand, sighed.

"No, it makes sense. All those times she seemed to know we were there before she should have, some of the things she said, like she knew us even though she'd just met us..." she started. Guy nodded.

"And that's not even including what we've seen on our journey. Jade's seemingly easy acceptance of the fact that his little sister is working with the Oracle Knights being one of them," he said. Tear sighed.

"Yes, and she was chuckling at something none of the rest of us could make sense of when she was cornered on the Tartarus. Didn't Cantabile say Asch was onboard later?" she asked. I nodded.

"Yeah. And Asch and Sync are the only two people aside from myself and Jade who knew before this," I admitted.

Ion smirked, a very Sync-esque expression that had a shiver running down my spine. "I just realized... That first day on the Tartarus... You were dropping hints all over the place about her telepathy. I remember one time in particular while we were walking around, you started chuckling, and when I asked you what was so funny you said..."

"'Kairi. Thoughts of her pop up with about as much warning as she herself does.' Yeah, she wasn't too amused by all the hints I was dropping," I admitted. Then I snapped. "Oh! Luke, remember the comment she made about me forfeiting my right to candy? And how I said later I'd jinxed her?"

Luke nodded. I smirked. "She contacted me and Jade while we were in Choral Castle, and I made the comment about her getting an assignment from the God-Generals that would keep her away from the Tartarus then."

Luke sighed. "That... explains so much."

"She also had a field spread over the entire ferry," I said.

"Huh?"

I smiled sadly. "Kairi. She had a telepathic field, a very loose one at that, mind you, spread over the entire ferry. My guess is, she's been using telepathy to communicate with Twilight this whole time, too," I said. "I felt her field on the edges of my mind, but I didn't bother to latch onto it."

Natalia's eyes widened. "That's what you meant earlier by 'you latched on' when you were talking to Jade, wasn't it?"

Luke crossed his arms. "So, he was going to open the folders, but latched onto Kairi's field... what would that do, anyway?" he asked. I smirked.

"It opens a telepathic channel. He probably latched on and asked her why she'd been doing it for so long."

"Which she followed up with asking, out loud, to see the folders," Luke guessed. "Did Jade even suspect that she was gonna run off like that, though?"

I frowned and opened my mouth, but didn't get a chance to answer.

"No."

Anise giggled. "Colonel... what happened to your 'plausible deniability'?" she teased. Jade sighed.

"I figured at this point, my grave's already been dug. Might as well help make the coffin," he said. "And no... Honestly, since Kairi was supposed to be acting as an informant, I didn't think Dist would pull her out so quickly. I guess he really didn't want me reading those files."

"Informant?"

We all looked at Natalia, and I sighed. "Kairi got separated from us on the Tartarus, and ended up going after Van on her own."

"What? Why'd she go after Master Van?" Luke asked. Jade and I exchanged a look before I crossed my arms.

"Kairi got into the position she's in now because the God-Generals believe she's suffering from amnesia, a side-effect of head trauma dealt to her by none other than the Dorian General. Also, Kairi has information that points to Van as being responsible for Sync's near-death. And I believe we've already mentioned her feelings regarding Sync and Asch," I said. "Oh!"

I then turned to Natalia and smirked. "And I now have a name for our stranger, who was probably following orders from Sync when he told us it had been murder, rather than an accident," I told her. She raised an eyebrow. "Reighn."

Jade frowned. "Reighn... Reighn Aurelius?"

Now it was Anise's turn to look shocked. "What?! No way! You can't be talking about... Okay, a guy about Guy's height, long blue hair, and—"

"Silver eyes?" Natalia, Jade and I chorused. While the three of us glanced between each other in amusement, Anise's eyes widened almost comically.

"You've actually met him?! Really actually met him?!"

"What the hell's gotten into you all of a sudden?" Luke asked, looking at her like she'd turned into some new species of glowing monster. Tear looked wary too, while Ion...

"Reighn Aurelius was the head of my Fon Master Guardians for five years. He served Evenos as such for a year before me, and had been serving as a Fon Master Guard before then for Evenos, ever since he was ten," Ion explained. "He retired two years ago, and the position was supposed to go to his long-time partner, Starlorne Arlynde, but she disappeared out of Daath, and the next most eligible, Arietta, was moved into a different division. The position's been empty since then."

I crossed my arms. "How old is he, exactly?" I asked. Ion looked thoughtful.

"He should be twenty-two."

Tear looked surprised, and Anise sighed. "Head of the Fon Master Guardians at fourteen. That's impressive, and something I kinda hope to achieve," she admitted. "Most of us aspire to reach his level, but really, Reighn's something of a mystery. No one seems to know why he left or where he went."

It was quiet for a while as we all processed this information. Then I sighed and turned to Natalia. "Well, Your Highness? It's been a long day and I personally would like to get some sleep, since I have every intention of wandering around Baticul and trying to find Sync and Reighn tomorrow."

Natalia raised an eyebrow. "They're here in Baticul?"

I shrugged. "Kairi said they took the ferry before us. With any luck, they'll still be here, yes. But, you're probably going to be in a meeting tomorrow, regarding the letter we delivered to your father earlier, so I figure I might as well use the time to do something a bit more productive than usual... no offence..."

Natalia sighed. "None taken. I didn't blame Koran for running off during those meetings and I won't blame you for doing the same, especially if Sync is in Baticul," she said.

And this is why I seriously love my job. My employer is so understanding.

"Are you absolutely certain there is nothing but a business relationship between the two of you?"

I smirked, and any comment Natalia was about to make was silenced in favor of a worried and very understandably cautious look.

"Jade and Cantabile, sittin' in a tree..."

"Finish that and I will string your intestines on my mantle."

I put a finger to my lips, as if I was actually thinking about it.

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

I don't think Ramdas was expecting me to run cackling out of the manor with a pink-faced Jade on my heels. Oh, did I mention he had his spear out?

Were it not for the fact that I knew Ramdas knew better than to make assumptions, I'd have been worried for Jade's freedom.

Fun Fact: The thing with Jade and Dark was a running gag that actually started (in my mind) as soon as I decided to write Cantabile forcing Jade onto the dance floor at Asch's birthday party. It will be popping up plenty in the future. (And their teasing of each other is the reason why throwing Kairi and Reighn into the mix is so dangerous.) Also, I think Dark was getting a little stir-crazy from having to be all nice and polite for so long... O.o