Once again, thanks to Coren024 for beta'ing!

Yay, two updates in a row that are both on time! Shall we try for three in a row Saturday? –is shot-

Okay, gonna post this and go back to my own beta project, since I'm way ahead in NaNo right now.

Enjoy!

"How the hell did you get up there?" –Dark

"I made the mistake of telling Reighn it was shame his coat was in such bad shape 'cause I'd liked it... within earshot of York." –Sync

Chapter 2.15 – Race, Double Agent!
Part 24

"How the hell did you get up there?"

"If I knew, I don't think I'd be here," I deadpanned. 'Here', in this case, meaning 'hanging upside-down from cables ten feet above their heads'.

"Kairi." Oh, here we go. "I have one very important question for you."

"Three."

"Wonderful..."

"Plus really strong pain meds."

Sync's exasperation faded into panic. "Pain meds?"

I cringed. "I'm a physical disaster zone," I said. *And... Asch is going to kill me first if I don't tell at least you the truth... But, that's for later.* "Any brilliant ideas on how to get me down?"

"Let go?"

This sarcastic comment brought to you by Anise.

"And worsen the first thing the doctors found wrong with me? No thank you."

Jade adjusted his glasses. "And that first thing was...?"

"Remnants of blunt force trauma to the head."

Sync groaned. "And you got that doing what, exactly?"

"I decided to piss Van off. He decided to bash my head in. Gotta thank him for getting me in with the Oracle Knights, though."

I watched as a green-haired head turned and walked over to a wall, and hoped quietly that he wouldn't try to give himself blunt force trauma to the head as well. One person in that boat was bad enough.

"Wait, Master Van?"

I sighed. "Yes, Van. He doesn't like me. I don't like him... I wish I was tall enough to bash his head in, because I'd do it in a heartbeat. But unfortunately, I'm not. Oh well."

"Ahem. Getting down?" Jade said, trying to get us back on track. Anise frowned and then enlarged Tokunaga again. I grinned.

"Thanks, Anise."

Then I let go... with my legs, first, hoping the grip I had with my right arm would be enough to get me flipped around in midair.

Good thing Anise had Tokunaga under me, because I didn't quite manage to get my feet under me.

Once I'd rolled off the doll, I walked over to Sync...

And pounded him upside the head.

"...I deserved that..."

I crossed my arms. "I'm going to be merciful. Because I really don't think Asch plans to be."

The look on Sync's face told me that my threat was plenty punishment enough for right now. That having been said... *Also, I have absolutely no idea how doppelgangers are formed in the first place. It would probably have taken me years to get back here, if I made it back at all...*

Then I noticed what Sync was wearing. "I take it your old clothes were trashed?"

Sync's face turned a distinct shade of red. "I made the mistake of telling Reighn it was shame his coat was in such bad shape 'cause I'd liked it... within earshot of York."

I snickered.

"Laugh it up, but it's comfortable," Sync grumbled. Reighn chuckled.

"You don't look too bad in it yourself," he said, probably trying to cool things down.

"Uh..."

I turned around and grinned. "The Dark Wings? The tall one in the blue coat is the tailor of the group. You didn't think they bought their clothes, after all, did you? York will take any excuse for an easy project, just to give himself something to do. He'll charge for the more complicated stuff, but... He and Asch get along real well, so free clothes here and there don't surprise me."

Jade adjusted his glasses. "All things considered, one would assume he wouldn't be quite so charitable..."

I sighed. "I've tried paying Noir for it before, she used those slippery hands of hers to put it back. Asch caught the discrepancy in our finances a week later, when they were long gone."

"They might have a reason, but that doesn't mean they're going to be stingy," Reighn added.

"By the way... When you said Sync looked like Ion, you should have said something about them being identical," Anise said. Sync sighed, and looked the other direction, and I glanced back at Jade. Well, it's not as if we've never mentioned Sync being a replica.

"Replica," Sync grumbled before I had a chance to. "Kinda happens."

I frowned, crossed my arms (carefully, so as not to aggravate my left arm), and started tapping my foot.

It took Sync about four seconds to realize why I was giving him a warning look.

So he hid behind Reighn.

"Uh... Should I have not mentioned it?" Anise asked worriedly. I shook my head.

"It's fine. Sync has... self-esteem issues," I said. "It's... one of the many things Mohs beat into his head that I really don't agree with." I took a moment to look around. "By the way, the exit's there."

I received a number of stares for that one, and it was Sync's turn to laugh as he stepped out from behind his human shield.

"Conversational whiplash... One of the many hazards involved when talking to Kairi..."

I shrugged. "At least I'm not as bad as you."

"Nope."

"That wasn't meant to be a compliment."

"So?"

"Pokémon."

"Huh?"

I busted up laughing, and Sync sighed. "Is this another one of those things I really shouldn't question?"

"Probably."

"Hey, guys?" Luke said, sounding just a little bit annoyed as he stood next to the exit. "I get that you haven't seen each other in months and all, but Kairi's right. And we should get going. Master Van took a ferry, we'll be running behind him as it is."

I nodded. "Right. I'll see you guys at some point. Oh, and Anise? Pain. I promise you a lot of pain as soon as I'm sure they can afford to be down a fighter."

Anise cringed. "I'm sorry?"

"You will be."

"For what?" Sync asked as I was walking over to the aircar. I stopped and held up my left arm, and he blinked twice before cringing. "Ouch."

Sync made to follow me then, and I held my hand up, then pointed to Jade and the others. "Go with them. If I end up dragging you back to the Tartarus, I'll blow my cover."

Sync stopped, looking conflicted, then nodded. "Alright. But what about Asch?"

I sighed. "I'm... working on that. He's on the Tartarus right now, cooperating with the God-Generals for the time being, if for no other reason than because he's a seventh fonist and the medics they have on board are willing to teach him healing artes."

"...I shouldn't ask, but I'm going to. Is Cantabile...?"

"Sent back to Daath to... actually, I don't know why she was sent back. I just know she was. That having been said... I might tell Asch to attempt to rein in his fury because she doesn't know you're alive yet," I said. Sync's gaze fell to the floor.

"I'll tell her. In person." Whenever I see her.

Which could be a while. But that would be okay.

"Be careful, Kairi," Jade said. I shrugged.

"I'll be fine. See ya!"

I stepped onto the aircar and sent it back up without another word.

I didn't tell Jade, but I hadn't gotten into the factory the same way they had. I'd come from the direction they were about to leave it. And, while it was shorter, I couldn't risk being spotted with them.

Okay, so maybe they'd figure that out, and it'd piss a couple of them off, but...

The field I had up around us? I could touch Asch's mind. And Ion's. And Noir, York, and Urushi. And Twilight. And most of the God-Generals.

Which meant that they were definitely outside.

I'd told Asch that Luke's fonslots had been adjusted. Dist hadn't, because he didn't want Asch to know he had a contact off the Tartarus. But I'd told him.

And Asch knew Tales of the Abyss.

Maybe nowhere near as well as I did, but he knew it. Well enough to know that he'd have to direct Luke to the Zao Ruins.

The jerking motion of the aircar coming to a stop again brought me out of my thoughts for a bit, and I glanced around. No monsters too close, but...

Just my luck, a trio of bats were flapping around the pathway I needed to take. I scowled and slipped into a casting stance.

I'd managed to pull off a Crimson Riot earlier with just fonons, but that had resulted in a small fire that had taken a Splash to put out.

Energy-influenced fonons, though? They didn't light up the residual oil around the factory. Which was a good thing, because two of my three artes (I needed my bow for Demonic Star, unfortunately) were fifth fonon-based. "O demonic gate, burn to ashes! Sapphire Riot!"

The arte hit all three bats, though it didn't kill any of them. I just scowled and slipped the fonons of my sword off my arm, running in and slashing through one.

At this point in the game, if you're playing it without the extra experience things you can buy in the Grade Shop between each play-through, you're at about level fifteen.

Between getting out of practice while Danté's prisoner and the shape my body was in because of the miasma, plus being forced to use my right arm, I was about level twenty-five, I guessed.

Before you gripe about Infernal Prison being a level forty-something arte, I'd like to mention something.

Jade loses all of his artes in the game due to a fon slot seal. He's pretty much pointless as a melee fighter as it is, so we can assume that, in terms of physical strength, nothing really happened. Fonic strength, on the other hand...

In my case, however... My opening fon slots meant I had another way to cast fonic artes, and that was probably lined up well with my estimated 'level' (Negative Gate is a level twenty-one arte, normally). However, I can't lose any of my spirit Energies, and since I use sun Energies to control fonons for fonic artes normally (which results in my green fonic glyph and off-colored artes), there's no difference in skill level.

So, my fonic artes are pretty much non-reliant on 'level'. Which is a good thing.

That having been said, level twenty-five in a level fifteen dungeon?

While it wasn't as easy as it should have been, I knew I'd be fine.

As long as I didn't have to fight more than three at a time.

I stabbed the second bat and then kicked the third away from me so I could finish off the second with a slash.

"Trembling cage that bends empty space, drive the wedge of freedom into those who would be captured! Negative Blade!"

I watched in shock as a black blade shot through the last bat, killing it before I could race after it. I looked around, spotting the dark blue cloak after a moment, and watching as the boy walked forward. His hood hid his face, but that voice...

"Who are you?"

The boy stopped, then slipped his hands into his pockets. "That's rather rude of you, demanding my name like that when I've just helped you. You haven't even sheathed your sword yet... where is its sheath, anyway?"

I frowned, but reluctantly let my sword's fonons drop back into place on my arm. "It's in my wing pack, because I'm bad enough wielding a sword with my right hand without having to fight drawing it," I said.

The thing with this guy's voice, though... it sounded like someone had taken Jade's voice, thrown in the voice of Jay from Tales of Legendia (that voice actor does Young Jade in a flashback in the game) and had found the perfect middle ground between the two.

"Now then, who are you?" I repeated.

The boy seemed to be fidgeting while holding still, if that was possible.

"Promise you won't kill me?"

That made me raise an eyebrow. "Why the hell do you think I'd want to kill someone I don't think I've ever met before?"

This seemed to relax the poor boy's nerves a little, and he lowered his hood.

If anyone asked later, I'd deny that I sat down out of shock. I'd claim that my knee had been hurting instead.

Standing in front of me, and looking twenty years younger than when I'd seen him not twenty minutes ago, was Jade.

Or, as I corrected myself when my brain finally turned back on, a replica of him.

"...Kairi?"

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and slipped onto the second plane.

I'd told Jade multiple times that spirit Energies couldn't be replicated. Jade had six spirit Energies, more due to the fact that they were more abundant on Auldrant and he was thirty-five than anything else.

The boy in front of me had three.

I slipped back into my body and took another deep breath, then stood up again.

"Two questions," I started. "What's your name? And how old are you?"

The boy blinked. "Physically or literally?" he asked, obviously referring to my second question. I shrugged.

"Both."

He smirked, an all-too-familiar expression that looked a little odd on a younger—and notably glasses-free—face. "Seth. I'm four years old. The replica data was taken when Jade was eleven."

So, my guess of twenty years was spot-on.

And I was more bothered by the fact that Seth was the same height as me than the fact that my brother probably had no idea his replica data had even been taken. Dist's fault, no doubt.

I flinched, realizing that if Jade ever found out about Seth, he'd probably murder the poor kid. No wonder he was worried about me wanting to kill him.

I took a deep breath. "So. You're a fonist, too?"

Seth ducked his head. "I know a few fonic artes, but I wouldn't say I'm a fonist. I've got a healing arte, though, and when Zion found out they'd sent you in alone... I was in the area, and... I was told you focus in melee, though..."

I shrugged. "Usually. Then again, I usually don't have to deal with a broken left arm. My left is my sword arm," I said. Seth cringed.

"That... definitely explains why he sounded so exasperated when he told me Legretta had ordered you to detain the ambassadors... Which I'm going to guess you didn't do, anyway."

I grinned. "Oh, I did. Not intentionally, but I did. So... Shall we go?"

He looked at me, seeming to consider me for a few minutes. "You're weird."

I just kept grinning and started past him. There was a nice mess of monsters ahead of us, and I was much more inclined to get the drop on them than attempt to get Seth to talk about something when he was obviously uncomfortable around me.

I briefly considered my rather limited arte choices, before slipping into a casting stance. Before I actually unleashed the arte, though...

"You take the two on the left, I'll deal with the two on the right?" Seth asked cautiously.

I chuckled. "Infernal Prison!"

"...Never mind."

Fun Fact: The name I'd originally picked for Jade's replica was Flynn. However, given that we (Tony/Marluxia of Avalon and I) were working on Gifted at the time and had a Flynn there, I decided to change it. Danté was the next name I picked. Then I added Dark and Danté to this story, which meant I once again needed a new name for Jade's replica. Third time's a charm, I guess. I now have Seth Jackman from Steel Angels, and Seth Balfour from Ripples, and unless I'm talking to someone who knows very little about them, I have no difficulties keeping them apart.