Big shout-out to Coren024 for beta'ing, since Tea is preoccupied! ...Although then I went and forgot to post... Yeah... I got a PM...

Coren024: "So I did my best to get the chapters proofread in a reasonable time and then you forget to post them on the day you were planning to? :(..."

Me: "-is shot- I have no excuses..."

So yeah. Sorry. I will try to be on time Saturday.

*Tear? What tear?* –Asch

"You've raised a monster." –Asch

Chapter 2.13 – Race, Double Agent!
Part 22

I stepped along the walkway carefully. Stupid Legretta and her stupid orders to detain the group if they try to go through the factory. Did she not remember I had a broken arm from not even a week ago?! And yes, I realize that sounds very Arietta-ish. I looked around, sat down, and hugged my knees to my chest, wishing the voices would just stop echoing in my head.

"Do you want me to do a full check-up, just in case?"

I shouldn't have said yes. Then again, I guess I'd figured that if anything was wrong, at least Asch was in another room, practicing healing artes on a fonon-sensitive dummy. He wouldn't have had to know.

"You are one mess of a human woman, you know that?"

It figured that the medic had said that, just as Asch walked in. Then he'd gone and had Asch use the arte they'd started him practicing. A useful scanning arte, not something you see in the game, but that doesn't surprise me, all things considered. It wouldn't be that helpful in battle, after all.

And Asch had done it. He'd walked over, muttered a fonic verse I hadn't caught, and started checking over me the same way the medic had.

Except, he'd listed everything out loud as he caught it.

"Remnants of head trauma... heart murmur... right lung... kidneys... liver..."

Some of it, I'd expected. But as Asch had gone on, it had just gotten worse, and worse...

And the worst part was, I hadn't had any idea where it had come from. Oh, I'd felt the pain from all of it before. In fact, a lot of the pain I'd been in after waking up to find myself Zion's captive made sense now. But how had all the damage happened? That was what had been biting at me.

At least, until Asch had frozen, let the fonons disperse (a second time, since my knee had shocked him into doing it the first time), and looked up at the medic who had been looking at me before with an expression I hoped I'd never again see on his face.

Desperation.

"Was that... Miasma?"

And just like that, everything had slammed into place.

The passage rings.

The wave of pain that hit me whenever I activated a terminal.

The utter exhaustion afterwards, as if I'd been sapped of more energy than I should.

I'd wanted to find a wall and knock my head off it.

Repeatedly.

*Kairi? Talk to me... Please!* Asch's voice in my head. Right. I'd never actually severed the connection. *Kairi?!*

*Tear.*

Asch was sitting on another bed nearby as the medic went about setting and wrapping my broken arm. The man trying to treat me was writing it off as shock, which it was, but not for the reasons he thought.

*Tear? What tear?*

I almost laughed. *Not what, who. Tear Grants... Van's little sister... I should have known.*

Asch looked like he was ready to come over and strangle me. *You're dying! What the hell does Van's sister have to do with anything?!*

I flinched at the volume Asch had reached in his mind, and Asch's temper seemed to vanish just like that, turning back into a deep-set depression that I knew I'd have trouble forcing back out of him.

I took a deep breath, then let it out in a sigh.

*Tales of the Abyss,* I started. *Tear is the one operating the terminals. And she gets sick. Because of miasma-tainted seventh fonons that won't exit her body properly.*

Asch's green eyes, already wide from the shock, seemed to get even wider. *You knew? You knew what operating the sephiroth would do to you and you still...* he trailed off, not able to finish that, even in his head. I had the decency to cringe.

*I forgot.*

Asch groaned and let himself fall back so he was laying across the cot.

"Are you alright?" the medic asked worriedly. Asch let out something that probably should have been a nervous chuckle, but sounded more like a whimper... which in turn made me look at him worriedly.

"At least I know I'll be following you rather quickly... Your brother is going to murder me..." he said. *Especially since I'm going to be murdering you before the miasma can finish the job.*

I frowned. "We're not telling him."

Asch shot back up. "But—"

I looked up at the medic. "No one is going to hear about this. Make sure that other woman knows too," I said, voice suddenly colder than ice. The medic paled.

"She's already recording it though..." he started. I narrowed my eyes.

"Don't let her put the miasma down," I ordered. "Write everything else off as excessive alcohol consumption. I used to drink. I'll admit that. But there's no miasma in my body."

The medic nodded and hurried off, and I turned on Asch, who looked like he could use a blood infusion, honestly. "That goes for you, too. Not Jade, not Sync, not Nephry... You will tell no one. Doctor-patient confidentiality. You're the one who made the verbal diagnosis."

Asch didn't reply verbally or telepathically, but I could practically hear him screaming at me to change my mind, to tell someone.

And then he ducked his head, swallowed, and nodded. "I won't tell anyone..." he said, before looking up at me. I felt my heart start to shatter again when I saw the emotions dancing in his eyes. "But you should. Jade and Nephry may not be your siblings by blood, but they should know this..."

He let his head fall again, and I bit my lip and turned away.

"Wait..."

I blinked. Okay... Sync doing an emotional one-eighty? Sure. Because he doesn't have any clue what to do with his emotions. Asch?

I turned and raised an eyebrow.

"Sync's dead."

I smiled. "That's what he wants you think."

Poor Asch. And he'd just gotten some color back in his cheeks.

"You've raised a monster."

I don't think my cackling helped to convince Asch otherwise, but oh well.

"I guess Dark couldn't find them after all."

I looked down at the scene below me and smiled. Luke, Jade, Anise, Tear, Guy... Now, where was...

"Actually, Sync's waiting for us further in."

The five that I could see turned, and I silently cursed the metal pipe that was between me and wherever Dark and Natalia had to be standing.

Though, I wasn't exactly expecting Reighn to walk out with the two of them.

I quietly mourned what must have been the end of Reighn's old coat when I realized he was wearing something vaguely oriental, rather than the outfit I'd grown used to.

"Natalia? What are you doing here?" Luke asked suspiciously. Natalia crossed her arms, looking smug.

"What else? Dark and I are coming with you."

"No," Luke blurted out. Natalia sniffed.

"Oh, come on. I'm not helpless. I'm a master of Lanvaldear-style archery and I'm a healer as well," she started. Dark chuckled.

"So am I, for that matter," he said. "You turn us away, you're forcing Tear to handle healing for herself and six other people."

"Um, I'm a seventh fonist too," Reighn added quietly. Luke crossed his arms.

"Oh look, now we have two healers for seven people. That better?"

Natalia looked like she was ready to shoot her cousin. "Luke," she started, stepping forward. Then she added something more quietly, and while I couldn't hear it, I knew what she was saying. "I'll tell them about you know what... I heard you talking to Dorian General Grants under the castle..."

And, sure enough... There goes Luke, dragging poor little Natalia along.

"What's that about?" Anise asked.

Bang!

Dark moved, just barely, before the bullet tore through his left arm, eyes already seeking out the perpetrator. "Danté."

A mass of black detached itself from the rafters and dropped to the ground... only to jump back again as Jade's spear nearly skewered it.

If I'd been close enough, I'm sure I'd have been just as frozen by the amount of killing intent Jade was letting off.

"What are you so pissed off about? She's alive, isn't she?" Danté muttered, loud enough for me to hear. Jade's spear reappeared in his hand, and it was obvious he was still having trouble with words. So I decided to join the party.

"Perhaps," I called, just before I landed, and carefully putting most of my weight on my left leg. "But I can thank you for the royal mess my knee's turned into."

My sword appeared in my right hand. I'd spent hours playing around with this, so that I could have both my sword and my frying pan latched onto my right arm, but I didn't have the patience to fight with a sheath. Not with my off hand.

"Kairi? What are you doing here?" Dark asked.

Danté scowled, slipping one gun into a holster behind him and drawing one from his leg. Remembering what Dark had said before, I smirked. So, he wasn't going to bother with trying to reload the gun that used ammunition, huh?

Then I rushed in, sword swinging to force a shot aimed at Jade away.

Luke, Guy, and Reighn weren't far behind me, and once I was sure they were keeping Danté occupied, I ran back to where Jade and Anise were standing, keeping a few yards to Jade's right while Anise was further away to his left. Tear was busy trying to heal Dark's arm behind us, and Natalia was shooting her dear little heart out between us and the short-range boys.

"What happened to your arm?" Jade asked before unleashing a Stalagmite on Danté. I scowled.

"Ask Anise in an hour. If she's conscious at that point... Sapphire Riot!"

Jade cringed. "You have my pity. At least when Arietta's monster dropped me it was just a sprained wrist. Healing artes can't fix a broken arm without doing even more damage. Splash!"

I huffed. "I know. Why do you think my knee's so fucked up? Splash!"

Jade faltered for a moment before he went back to casting. "Was that...?"

"A normal-colored fonic arte? From me? Yes."

Jade let loose with a second Splash, since Reighn had wiped out the FoF we'd made with a strike arte. "I thought all of your artes were off-color?"

I sighed. "Yeah... we'll talk about that later. It's a long story."

"O noble heart, loose thy flame to raze mine enemies!"

I glanced back at Dark, noting that Tear seemed to be casting, too. Probably a healing arte, in her case. But what was Dark doing?

"Witches' Circle!"

I couldn't help but stare at the symbol that went up in flames just before I dropped a Sapphire Riot on top of it.

Danté didn't seem pleased at all as he back-flipped two, three times and came to a stop in a casting stance.

"O demon of the earth, open thy jaws and crush mine enemies! Chasm!"

I pride myself on not screaming in front of an enemy.

Usually.

Unfortunately, my leg chose right then, when I really needed to move, to act up.

At least my scream was half frustration.

Of course, Jade then followed up with a Turbulence.

I grinned as both artes faded. "Nice. Wanna help me up?"

Jade gave me a worried look, but held a hand out anyway so I could haul myself up onto my left leg with my right arm.

I looked over at Danté just in time to watch Reighn get a lucky blow in and knock the bastard away. The assassin rolled, came to a stop on one knee, and scowled, finally seeming to realize he was outnumbered.

"Damn... Fine. I was supposed to wait for Seth, but I'm not stupid. The two of us together wouldn't be able to get past all of you..." he muttered. Then he jumped back, stepped over to the edge of the walkway, and jumped down.

I'd have sworn I saw a gray shape catch him and run off.

A small growl behind me caught my attention, and I looked down at Sorylle, blinking a couple of times.

"Where's Twilight?" Dark asked, obviously translating. I sighed.

"With Asch," I said. Then I hissed as another wave of fire ripped through me.

This had started months ago, and now I knew why. It had been getting worse, too, and more frequent. But I'd always brushed it aside before. Especially recently, since it had usually started near my knee. Now I knew better. The pain started around my knee because that's where the worst of the damage was right now.

I took a moment to stop and count hours.

"Are you alright?" Tear asked before settling into a casting stance. "What am I saying? You took that arte full-on."

I smiled weakly as the gashes on my body healed up, and I let my Oracle Knight uniform patch itself together before pulling out my wing pack and digging around.

"Now what are you looking for?" Dark asked. I cringed, yet another flash of pain shooting through my body, thanks to Tear's arte aggravating the seventh fonons already there.

"Pain meds," I answered honestly. "Though these are only temporary, until we can get the order in from Belkend." I pulled out the little brown bottle and flinched again.

Pain medication... like what my dad was on for months before he died.

I bit my lip and forced that thought away, opening the bottle and popping two of the pills into my mouth before making a face and shoving the god-forsaken bottle back into my wing pack.

"Ooh... I did that to your arm, didn't I?"

I glared at Anise and flipped her off, honestly not up to much more than that. Reighn looked worried though.

"When was the last time you took those?" he asked. I scowled, putting my wing pack away and standing—carefully—before I shoved my right hand into a pocket.

"Five hours."

It was quiet for a moment before Jade took a deep breath. "Reighn?"

"Are you trying to kill yourself by drug overdose?"

I pulled out a piece of folded paper and held it out in his general direction, refusing to look up at him. I felt someone tug it out of my hands, but in the wrong direction. So, Jade.

I heard his breath hitch before the whisper of paper against cloth told me it was handed off to someone else.

"This... isn't just for your arm... is it?" Reighn asked slowly. I sighed and moved to cross my arms, before my tightly-bound left arm reminded me I couldn't do that. Natalia's gasp made me look up, though I wondered what had warranted the action when I realized she hadn't seen the paper yet.

"You said you had a health condition before... when you first came to Baticul..."

I could have run over and hugged the dear thing.

*I owe her something very, very pretty,* I told Dark. Outwardly, I just nodded.

"My arm, my knee, my liver and kidney... I'm a mess. And it hurts."

"I can see that," Reighn said wryly, handing over the paper.

The paper that gave me permission to choke down two pills every four hours as necessary.

Fun Fact: So, when I wrote the Colored Ripples chapter that goes with this (almost a month before I wrote this chapter), I hadn't been planning on throwing in that flashback. But, it worked. Also, most of the flashbacks (AKA, the big one) happened after the CR chapter.

Colored Ripples: Red – Diagnosis (Yes, I really, really need to update these... (I may start putting them up out of order...))