Okay, running late again. This time, it's only partially my fault. I would have updated MANY hours ago (No, really, ask Kurenai no Musha. I was gonna do it as soon as I sent that PM off...) but Winx started bugging me about Cries in the Night and Boundaries of the Mind. By the way, we're in the final stages of clean-up for BotM, and new updates will resume on the first. Cries in the Night will be coming down about then and will be re-posted sometime in February.

That all said... Here are all the chapters I owe you guys. Once I'm done here, I'm going to go back to bothering—er, helping—Winx.

Oh, one last thing before I turn everyone loose on these updates.

WeGotWinx is currently writing up my (our?) head-canon surrounding Sync. The first chapter is almost entirely mine from Colored Ripples (she's editing it so the verbs are in present tense, since that's how she writes) and the first few paragraphs of the second chapter are also mine from Colored Ripples. But since I couldn't be bothered to write the whole thing up, she's doing it. (And apparently her penchant for depressing material has already struck again. Be warned.) I have no idea when this will be posted.

I think I'm done rambling now. Here you go!

And a huge, HUGE thanks to Coren024 for beta'ing for me while Tea was... indisposed.

*Good afternoon, er... Actually, isn't it morning where you are?* –Kairi

"I just had the most interesting conversation with Van." –Kairi

"Whee—umph!" –Kairi

"Aw, I missed out on that?" –Asch

"There is something that is simply not right with your heads." –Jade

Chapter 4.5 – For Want of Separate Roads
Part 41

"Brr... Remind me again why I hate coming up here?"

"Avalanches?"

"...That too."

I giggled a bit. "Hurry with the seal... It may not be much warmer in there, but at least there's no wind."

"Yeah," Sync agreed, holding up his arms. The usual ringed circle appeared, did its spinning thing, and then disappeared. The three of us—myself, Sync, and Twilight—ran inside to get out of the freezing wind.

I was suddenly very glad Asch had given me his coat, because nothing I had in my wing pack would have stood up to this cold.

We made our way through the sephiroth quietly. It was cold, but at least between the lack of wind and Twilight keeping his warm, furry self between us, we weren't freezing anymore. The three of us stopped on the lift and went down to where the passage ring was waiting. I looked at the golden terminal, feeling a hesitation I'd never really felt before. Of course, I hadn't remembered that I was pretty much killing myself before.

"Kairi? We don't have to—"

"No." My voice hung heavy, not with denial, but with resignation. "We can't stay ignorant of Van's objectives... Or his movements."

I walked over to the terminal. It had been myself, Sync, and Asch running around the sephiroth, but really, the only one of us that needed to be at the passage ring was me. Sync needed to unlock the Daathic Seal, but I was the one that knew how to operate the Dawn Age technology.

I put a hand out, and the terminal opened, that all-so-familiar wave of pain coming over me with a vengeance.

The passage ring lit up, and I glanced up at it. Sure enough, the Albertesque seal was non-existent. That left two of them. The Yulian Seal...

"Va Rei Zue Toue Neu Toue Ryou Toue Kuroa~ Ryou Rei Kuroa Ryou Zue Rei Va Zue Rei~"

And our seal.

_Kairi Balfour.

_Asch fon Fabre.

_Sync Osborne.

Finally having unlocked the passage ring, I glanced up and grimaced. I'd been right.

"Uh... Why does the Shurrey Hill sephiroth have a red ring around it?" Sync asked. I sighed.

"Because Van broke through our seal and closed the passage ring," I said. I started poking around a bit, then scowled. "Of course he did."

"Huh? What?"

"Van's done with his seal what we did with ours, or maybe he just re-wrote ours. At any rate, we'll have to go to Shurrey Hill ourselves to fix it."

"Are we going to go there while the others go to Grand Chokmah?"

"No. If nothing else, we should go see if Emperor Peony wants a new project."

"You're crazy."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious."

Grr...

I glanced at Twilight and opened a connection. *Three clockwise of the red-ringed.*

I looked up and my eyes widened. Sure enough, in addition to the red-ringed Shurrey Hill diagram and the lit-up Mt. Roneal diagram, the Zao Ruins were also lit. I frowned and looked down at the terminal. I wonder...

I closed my eyes and felt around the terminal with my mind, finding with no small degree of surprise that my theory had been correct.

*Good afternoon, er... Actually, isn't it morning where you are?*

Shock, rage, and amusement all echoed back to me as I opened my eyes again and started working. I had a seal to fix... hopefully before Van got to it.

*Wait... Who's finding this funny?* Van asked suspiciously.

Judging from the chuckle I could hear from the other end, I'd say that would be Zion. Huh... A green-haired kid that actually appreciates my humor.

*I thought you said you could break the connection!* Luke grumbled at Zion.

*Why bother? We're not doing anything she isn't already aware of. In case you didn't notice, the Mt. Roneal sephiroth was already lit up when we arrived. Besides, listening to you two is so amusing.*

It bothered me that I was starting to find disturbing similarities between Zion and Jade, of all people.

*I'm surprised you haven't let Asch and Sync in on this yet. Seeing as you survived Akzeriuth, I figure they likely did as well.*

I smirked. *Ask Mohs about his failed attempt at an execution, would you? And remind me again why I need to stay away from Daath...*

I took a moment to finish up with the seal while listening to Zion and Luke bickering. *Well, if you gentle... er... Scratch that one. If you boys will excuse me...*

I broke the connection and closed up the sephiroth, noting that my new lock had fallen into place quite nicely. Then, after bearing through a second wave of pain and exhaustion, I turned to Sync and Twilight.

"I just had the most interesting conversation with Van."

Sync stared at me like I'd suddenly told him I was male instead of female, and I couldn't help but laugh at the expression.

"How?" he asked, finally finding his voice again. I smiled and pointed to the terminal.

"The passage rings are directly connected to each other. I just used this one to connect to the one in the Zao Ruins and... well, it wasn't so much a conversation as it was me confusing the shit out of Luke and amusing your original. Van wasn't very happy with him, actually..."

Sync rolled his eyes. "Are we heading back now?"

I nodded. "Yes. Also, you, Asch, and Dark know the answer to unlock this passage ring. I don't think Zion will be able to figure it out, and Van certainly won't," I said. Sync tilted his head to the side, wondering just what I was talking about, before his eyes widened.

"Tales of the Abyss."

"The game of truth."

Sync chuckled. "Oh yeah. That one will certainly confuse Van."

I nodded again. "Yes, now then... Back to Keterburg!"

"Ice slides?"

"Of course!"

Twilight growled a bit. *Ice slides?*

"Fastest way down the mountain. Not much help going up, but..." I trailed off and headed off, Sync and Twilight following me quietly. There was one ice slide that connected a path coming from the passage ring to a lower path, and then there was another one, the one that had landed Asch, Sync and I in a pile at the end of it.

Twilight, rather than sliding down the first one, just jumped down from one path to the other. Then we reached the second one. I grinned.

"Ready?"

Sync nodded. "Yeah."

"Just try not to scream too loud. We don't want the mountain to come down on our heads," I reminded him before shoving him onto the ice.

I would at least be polite enough to not laugh at the squeak he let off as he started slipping.

Twilight growled quietly. *Are you sure this is safe?*

I nodded. "Yep. We've all done it before. Just try not to dig your claws in, okay?"

Twilight took a deep breath, stepped onto the ice carefully, and then pulled his legs in, inching forward until gravity started to pull him along. A final growl of uncertainty slipped out before he was sliding down the ice, and I grinned, keeping an eye on where he was. Since my telepathic field was rather wide, I had waited until Sync had left it to send Twilight down.

Then Twilight blinked out of range, and I grinned, racing for the ice, jumping, and sliding at quite a speed down the slope. I couldn't help but laugh a bit. It was fun. I didn't care for the cold, but this was exhilarating.

"Whee—umph!" And that, my friends, is the sound of me slamming into a snowbank.

I heard laughter, both human and liger, and I pulled myself out of the snow with a grin. "See? I told you it's fun!"

Twilight shook his head. *Fun, yes. Safe? ...Well. Mostly.*

I laughed and ran over, hopping up onto the liger's back and pulling Sync on in front of me. Twilight was up and running almost immediately. *With that much time cut off, we might even make it back in time for dinner,* he admitted. I grinned.

"Dinner would be nice."

Twilight didn't even bother to pause as we passed by Dark's old home. We wouldn't be staying there two nights in a row. No, this time, we were sleeping in our nice, warm rooms at Nephry's mansion.

The sun was just dipping down to the horizon when Twilight slowed. I hopped off his back and frowned, then shrugged. "Whatever. Come on."

It's probably a good thing there weren't that many people around as we made our way through town. Twilight attracted stares, but a pointed glare turned most of them away.

Stepping into the mansion was heaven, if for no other reason than because it was warm. A sneaky smirk worked its way onto my face, and Sync watched warily as I headed over to the hallway that led to the dining room. Seeing that everyone was not only gathered in the room, but also eating, I contemplated how to announce my arrival, though there really wasn't much of a question about it.

Sorylle looked up at me, and I raised a finger to my lips in a 'don't tell' gesture. The little liger laid down and put her paws over her head. Probably a wise move...

"Honey, I'm home!"

Amidst all of the choking and laughter, I somehow ended up trapped in Nephry's arms while my older sister jabbered on and attempted to squeeze the life out of me.

Once airways were cleared and Sync and I were given plates of food, Natalia crossed her arms and gave me a haughty glare. "That was highly unnecessary."

Asch, Sync, Nephry, and a familiar blonde maid standing behind Nephry all laughed along with me. "Ah, no, that was very much necessary," I said.

Arielle, for it was indeed the girl I'd tutored in English, stepped forward a bit. "Kairi, Asch, and Sync have a bad habit of arriving at mealtimes... And actually, Asch was the one that started the whole thing."

"I was being sarcastic!"

"You still started it," Sync said.

Nephry giggled. "Regardless of who started it, I don't think it would feel right if they walked in during a meal without saying that."

Asch sighed and shook his head. "Yeah, but it was so completely out of place with the conversation we were having that I honestly don't think we're going to be able to get back to that for a while now."

"Not tonight, anyway," Jade said. "Though, I thought you said you'd be hard-pressed to get back before we left?"

I grinned. "I forgot about the slides."

"Aw, I missed out on that?"

Sync and I stared at Asch, who, upon realizing that he had said that out loud, turned a shade of red just a little short of his hair color and brought a hand up to attempt to hide his face.

"...Slides?" Guy asked, apparently trying to be merciful to Asch. That, or just confused.

I smiled. "The ice on Mt. Roneal is really, really smooth in a couple of places. There's one really long stretch that, if you hop on at the top, will carry you all the way to the bottom."

"And smack into a snowdrift."

"Yes, but the ice has to stop somewhere."

"Which is where the 'Whee-oomph' from earlier came from?"

I laughed. "Yes."

Sorylle growled at Twilight, who growled back, and the two started in on their own little conversation.

Natalia looked at Asch in shock. "You wanted slide down a mountain? On ice?"

He chuckled. "It was fun... Even the parts where Sync shoved me down and we all ended up in a pile at the bottom."

Sync snorted. "I didn't appreciate getting a mouthful of your hair, though."

"I didn't appreciate having both of you on top of me," I said. Sync paused.

"Is that why you went last this time?"

I shrugged. "Actually... It was more a matter of making sure Twilight went down than anything else. By the way, you should try getting a running start next time."

It was a good thing Jade's plate was long gone, because his head hit the table.

"Jade?!"

My brother shook his head slightly. "You three... are talking about throwing yourselves down an ice sheet on Mt. Roneal... There is something that is simply not right with your heads."

"Tell us something we don't know," Asch, Sync, and I chorused. Nephry sighed.

"You need hobbies..."

"We have hobbies," I said.

"Kairi draws, I train, Asch... Well, Asch might need a hobby." Aforementioned redhead shot Sync a nasty look.

"But this one's something all three of us can do... As long as Sync doesn't freak out on the way up." Now the nasty look was sent back the other direction.

"Why would Sync freak out?" Anise asked.

Ah, Anise. All of her questions asked with innocent intentions, none of them easy to answer. "Avalanches."

All eyes turned to Sync, who was quite pale suddenly. I put an arm around him, since we'd ended up next to each other. "Sync and I met because he got caught in an avalanche and Koran heard it. The two of us dug him out. Sync invited me to Daath later, which is where I met Asch," I said. "And while I'd never want him to have to go through that again, I'm not going to say that I wish it had never happened."

Sync looked up and nodded. "Yeah."

Asch nodded as well, then frowned, giving me a pointed look. I rolled my eyes, reluctantly opening a connection. *Yes, your paranoid-ness?*

*Miasma?*

*I'm already filtering it out, as quickly as I can without too much pain.*

*Please tell me there's no more than there was when I checked you in Akzeriuth.*

I shook my head. *I don't know. I'd have to check, but... I don't know, Asch.*

"Really, you two?" Nephry crossed her arms. She'd known about my telepathy since the 'birthday party' we had held for Asch, since I'd accidently wrapped her up in it at one point.

"Doctor-patient confidentiality," Asch muttered. "I wouldn't be bothering otherwise."

I scowled and went back to finishing my dinner. Once it was done, I stood. "I'm going to bed."

"We dumped Dark and the monsters in your room," Nephry said. Dark shrugged.

"I'll sleep on the floor."

I rolled my eyes. "Take the bed. I don't think I'd be able to handle laying on something soft tonight. Besides, I'm probably going to end up in a pile with Mieu and the ligers."

Twilight growled something behind me, and Dark cracked a smile. I figured it had something to do with me using his leg as a pillow regularly.

I headed upstairs and slipped into my room, pulling off my equipment and then sitting down, mentally bracing myself for the pain that was about to come.

I slipped out of my body and started clearing out the miasma.

Fun Fact: I had a lot more fun writing this chapter than I thought I would when I started. I got really stuck, and then... Kairi just kinda took the reins and ran with them. Therefore, this was born. And poor Jade. He, who has lived in Keterburg and knows how dangerous it is, listening to his sister and her best friends talking about sliding down a mountain on ice. I think his reaction was rather subdued, all things considered.