Whoops. Forgot to send these off to Coren. Then forgot to beta them myself and post. But I've been sick all week, so I have something of a valid excuse.

Enjoy your extra update this week, courtesy of Thanksgiving!

Also... I think I got all of the telepathy, but if I missed something, let me know... I spaced and didn't fix my telepathy brackets until after I uploaded this. -is shot-

"Of course we'd have to deal with Seal Guardians..." –Flick

"I'm not usually this petty, but... I told you so." –Asch

Chapter 2.19 – Race, Double Agent!
Part 28

I had to admit it. I was impressed. Even with the speed at which our group was moving through the ruins, the boys and Sorylle were catching up.

"Is anyone else getting sick of the bats?" Asch asked with his trademark scowl as he sheathed his sword. Not the one Luke had given him, no, he said he'd lost that one just days after receiving it, no thanks to Van. In fact... it was the exact same sword he usually had in the game.

He wasn't pleased about it, but at least he was getting to fight.

Or at least, that was the mentality he had forced himself to adopt.

I just smirked. "What's the matter with the bats?" I asked teasingly.

"They're annoying."

"You should fit right in then," Flick piped up.

I couldn't help but snicker at the familiar line being spoken by a couple of people who would probably commit suicide if I ever let them know about it.

See, in the game, when you come across a large group of monsters and have Luke in the party, he'll sometimes pop off with 'these guys are annoying,' to which Jade replies 'you should feel right at home, then.'

So, yes. I was amused.

"Ugh. Could we at least attempt to get along?"

I rolled my eyes. "This, from the girl who's started more than half of the arguments we've had so far today." Arietta did a wonderful job of shutting up then. "Come on, let's just get going."

Most of the rest of the walk to the Daathic Seal was quiet. Well, really it was quiet until we hit the bridge. At which point, the entire thing started shaking.

"Son. Of. A."

"Please don't finish that," Asch muttered as we raced off of the bridge. Flick just laughed darkly, and we arrived in front of the Daathic Seal.

Then the trouble started.

Twilight growled a sharp warning, and I drew my sword again quickly. Arietta grabbed Ion and started to retreat toward the seal, only to have something like a rock drop down in front of her.

Another one chased a trio of boys and a small liger right into us.

"And we've been followed..." Flick muttered. Sync scowled.

"Much as I'd love to start an argument with you, we have bigger problems to deal with!" he hissed. Twilight growled to Arietta and Valkyria, and the three managed to get Ion out of the way, while the rest of us split into two groups. Asch and I split up, Asch running off to fight what... honestly looked like some kind of a mutated rock Viera from Final Fantasy XII. The one I had to deal with had the appearance of a saber tooth tiger.

Still made out of rock, of course.

"Of course we'd have to deal with Seal Guardians..." I heard Flick mutter as she raced over to help Asch. Sync decided to come over and assist me instead of Asch. We had Reighn to cover us while Dark helped Asch and Flick.

Arietta, bless her soul, seemed to get that we were temporary allies and was casting Barrier and whatnot on Sync, Reighn, and Dark as often as she was on me, Flick, and Asch.

And Twilight seemed to be talking to Sorylle about something. I didn't bother to open up a connection to figure out what.

The damn tiger was trying too hard to kill me for me to chance losing my concentration.

I ducked under another swipe of the paw and slashed at the monster, then scowled when I realized that my blade was doing literally nothing to it.

"Crackle!"

I took a moment to stare at the arte I recognized from a completely different game before I flipped back, out of the way, and settled into a casting stance of my own.

"O twisted door of distortion, open wide! Negative Gate!"

When not using Energies, it is much, much easier to do as Reighn suggested to me many, many months ago.

"You know, most people just stick with the base artes and leave the field of fonons artes to the fields of fonons."

Thankfully, that at least did some damage, and I contemplated whether to pull out an Energy-influenced Infernal Prison or a normal Splash.

"Sync!" Reighn called out what honestly sounded more like a reprimand than anything else. I glanced over and spotted the second fonons, realizing what he was doing even though I'd heard him say in the factory that Zion had screwed up his fonslots.

I was caught between exasperation at his idiocy and gratefulness for making up my mind for me.

"O roar of the earth! Ground Dasher! Ack!"

I pointedly ignored the third part of that, even though I wanted to run over and make sure the boy I thought of as my little brother was alright.

"Try this, then! Icicle Rain!"

Sync ran back in toward the monster, mostly just trying to hold it off while Reighn huffed and started casting something that was definitely not Crackle.

I heard him muttering a fonic verse behind me, and vaguely recognized it as the one he'd used to summon the blade of his scythe back in the factory. Then he ran past me, swinging the scythe around to attack the monster.

It was a good thing the monster had relatively low 'fonic defense,' since the blade was entirely made of fonons. Sync stepped back to cast Turbulence repeatedly, while I was sending off Splash over and over again to help Reighn.

Then Twilight and Sorylle roared in conjunction, both shooting off bolts of lightning (Sorylle aiming for our tiger, Twilight for the Viera thing). The two Seal Guardians seemed to lock up as the damage was done, and then they fell apart, Sorylle staring for a few minutes before growling up at Twilight happily.

Arietta made a series of hand signals, and I grabbed Sync before he could notice them.

Dark caught the message, though, and since I was already busy restraining my little brother, he managed to slip past me. Reighn scowled, but a pointed glare from Sync had him, Dark, and Sorylle (who had just barely slipped between Twilight's legs) running back the other direction.

"Pft... Real nice, Arietta. Turn around and attack us the minute the Seal Guardians are gone," Sync grumbled. The pink-haired girl looked like she was shaking, though.

"You... you look like Ion..." I resisted the urge to flinch, realizing that Arietta still thought Ion was the original. "Why...? Why do you look like Ion?!"

"Arietta..." Ion started. Sync scoffed.

"Isn't it obvious?" My grip on his arms tightened. That tone of voice... I hadn't heard that tone of voice... since I'd played the game.

Arietta's eyes widened. "You're a replica..." Then she turned to Ion, even more shock showing on her expression, if that was even possible. "This is why you're weaker, isn't it?! You were replicated...!" She trailed off for a moment, studying Ion's expression even as he started to speak.

"Arietta, I'm—"

"You knew!"

Ion shut his mouth... more due to the glare Sync was giving him than the one Arietta had leveled on the poor Fon Master.

"That doesn't change much right now," Asch said. "Dark and Reighn left Sync behind, which means the others are probably right behind them."

"Whose side are you on, anyway?!" Sync hissed. "You said you'd never go back! Said you'd never let Van use you like this! What the hell changed?!"

I wasn't sure whether to knock Sync upside the head for his idiocy or pat him on the back for his acting. Mostly because I wasn't sure if he was acting or not.

Asch's expression became a cold mask that I barely recognized from those few weeks when we had first set out from Daath. "I thought you and Kairi were dead. Where else was I supposed to go?"

The icy tone in his voice sent a shiver down my spine, and I realized that they weren't acting. Not really. Just throwing a little more emphasis on their current irritation with each other.

Sync finally became slack in my grip, and I tightened it softly as a form of encouragement.

Arietta's anger dissipated, and she glanced between Sync and Ion before her eyes grew steely. "Sync."

The boy lifted her head just enough to send a weak glare her direction.

"Can you undo the seal on the sephiroth?"

Ion's eyes widened as he realized what Arietta was suggesting. "No! He can't—"

"I can," Sync cut in. Ion looked at him, fear in those wide green eyes. A few shades lighter than Sync's, actually, now that I cared to look.

"No you can't! The stress it'll put on your body—"

"It doesn't matter anymore," Sync said.

"How the hell can you say that?!"

We all turned. Sure enough, there stood a wide-eyed Luke, a slightly winded Jade right behind him with an irritated Natalia and Dark catching up.

Asch huffed and turned to Arietta. "I'm not usually this petty, but... I told you so."

Arietta growled something at him and Twilight, Dark, and Sorylle hung their heads. It took every ounce of my self-control to NOT bust up laughing.

Sync refused to meet Luke's eyes. "Figure it out on your own time," he said, turning his head to look over his shoulder. "Let me go. I'll do it."

I took a moment to push against his mind, and he opened a connection even as I released him. *I take it you're planning on putting your excellent acting skills to the test?* I asked.

*Yeah. Can't let Arietta know I'm stronger than Ion, right?*

I turned back to the others while Arietta, Twilight, Valkyria, and Ion moved to keep Asch and Sync away from the rest of us. Unfortunately, this left just myself and Flick against the entire Abyss group, plus Reighn and Dark.

"I don't suppose asking you to hand over Ion is going to get us anywhere?" Jade asked. Arietta scowled.

"Forget it! I'm not handing over Sync, either! The more Daathic Seals Sync can undo, the less Ion will be hurt."

Luke seemed to go from horrified at what he'd translated to be Sync not caring about dying—though for those of us who knew better, it was Sync's attempt at telling Ion he'd be fine—to completely and totally pissed off. "Fine! Then we'll take them back by force!"

Asch groaned quietly, and I sighed, drawing my sword as Arietta growled at Twilight. The silver liger stepped up next to me as the others readied their own weapons.

Then all hell broke loose.

I'd fought Jade, Tear, Luke, Dark, Guy, and Anise before, on the ferry, with Dist's—admittedly pathetic—robot and Twilight as my allies.

This time, I was forced to fight right-handed, there were three extra opponents who needed consideration (I hadn't counted Sorylle the first time because she was too small to really be much more than a nuisance to distract Valkyria), and I had Flick as an ally instead of Dist's robot.

We were still doomed, I was sure.

There were three of us, and, counting Sorylle, nine of them.

Sorylle, Reighn, and Luke attacked me.

And, in keeping with my previous train of thought, Sorylle was a nuisance. Luke was a heavy hitter, if not a fast one (which was the main problem Twilight was having with Guy), and Reighn's Crackle and Photon were irritating to try to avoid.

So I wasn't too surprised when I was the first to fall, followed quickly by Flick and then Twilight.

"All three of you together and you still couldn't beat them...? Humph," Arietta grumbled. Behind her, Sync was on his knees, breathing hard, and I frowned.

*That doesn't look like acting to me, no matter how good you are.*

*Fon slots...* Sync mumbled back.

I cringed, now that I was able to write it off as a wound, since I had many.

Arietta looked around, and Flick stood shakily and walked over to her, murmuring something that I didn't hear. The pink-haired girl looked unhappy, but she nodded and Flick turned to look at the others.

"We'll let Sync and the Fon Master go for now. I suggest you all leave, however. We're standing under the desert. I have no qualms about bringing it down on our heads just to stop you," she said.

I sighed quietly. So, not only had Flick taken Sync's God-General uniform (albeit a feminine, purple version), she also seemed to have completely taken his place on the antagonist line-up.

So long as she doesn't suddenly pull out a Curse Slot, I'm okay.

Then I made another face, which could still be written off as pain, as I realized that with Zion on their side, they didn't need Flick to be able to make the Curse Slot.

That was when I remembered that they hadn't been attacked in Chesedonia.

I groaned and slumped against Twilight as Ion, who was mostly supporting Sync, much to the other replica's chagrin, walked past.

Luke slipped Sync's other arm over his shoulder and took over from Ion, and Sync reluctantly let the redhead carry most of his weight.

*Take care of him,* I ordered Reighn. He glanced back.

*I will.*

Once they were gone, Asch crouched down in front of me. He'd already healed Flick, so he went about healing me next.

This was the main reason why he had gotten to come along.

Asch muttered the fonic verse for the scanning arte once he'd healed the obvious damage. I frowned, but didn't argue, because that would probably result in Arietta and Flick finding out about the horrible condition I was in. But I was worried about the way Asch's brow was furrowed.

*Asch...?*

*Akzeriuth has been enveloped by miasma, hasn't it?* he asked. I blinked a few times, trying to keep a bored expression.

*Yes...*

Asch finished with checking me over and stood up. "We should stay here tonight, if for no other reason than because they're in as bad a shape as we are. I don't want to come across them on the way out if it's possible," he said aloud. Once the two girls had started going about setting up camp, he turned back to me, and glanced at Twilight. "Kairi and I will see if there's anything down here to add to our meal tonight. We'll leave Twilight here."

While Twilight didn't look happy with this arrangement, he didn't argue, and Asch was able to drag me out of earshot. I snapped the connection, since I figured it was now a moot point.

"I don't want you going to Akzeriuth."

I scowled. "I'll be fine, Asch."

The redhead stopped in front of me and I ran right into him and a strangely vice-like grip.

"Kairi, please..."

I looked up at Asch, and sighed.

"I won't promise anything. But I'll try."

Fun Fact: I'm so far ahead and so unused to Reighn being in the party at that point that when I came back to beta this and saw Reighn's name I was like 'wait, what?!' Yeah... NaNo devours your soul...