Yay! Last one!

Gotta love Dark's quote from this one. Also, I kinda have to wonder what would happen if I dropped Kairi into Tales of Symphonia... I can just see her confuzzling the heck out of Kratos. And everybody else, for that matter, although Lloyd might possibly just roll with it... (No, this comment was not meant to be Nightmare Fuel... Regardless of what Tea may think.)

Oh well. Enjoy. I'll see you again Monday. Er, tomorrow. (As it is now Sunday.)

"Oops? My brain feels like it's been turned into pudding and all you have to say for yourself is 'oops'?" –Dark

* Right. I'll tell Reighn to stop teasing Jade and start packing.* –Sync

Chapter 4.10 – For Want of Separate Roads
Part 46

I groaned. "Tell the asshole with the sledgehammer to lay off, will ya?" I grumbled.

A familiar chuckle reached my ears. "So lay off, will ya?"

I muttered a few not-so-polite comments and finally managed to blink my eyes open and sit up. "Where are we?" I asked, noting that wherever it was, it was dark.

"Asch claims we're somewhere in the Meggiora Highlands."

"And what is he doing here?"

"You ended up dragging him along with that hyperresonance as well. We've called a truce until we return to civilization," Asch said. I huffed.

"Hyperresonance... How the hell did that happen? I'm not even a seventh fonist!"

"Well, you've done it once before."

"Aramis Spring... Aside from you and Largo, did we drag anyone else along?"

"Dark, Sorylle, and Mieu... I guess he was standing just a little too close to the fighting," Asch said.

"How the hell can you see in here?" Largo asked, the question obviously directed to Asch. The redhead chuckled.

"I'm cheating via one of Kairi's favorite tricks."

"You mean the one I was using earlier to get around blindness a la over-stressed fonslots."

"Yup."

"Ugh... Would you people shut up and be considerate...?"

I sighed. "It'll pass. What happened just before the hyperresonance, does anyone remember? My memory's all foggy."

"You were casting a fonic arte. Splash, I think," Largo said.

"And I'd ordered Dark to use Halo."

And then it hit me. "Oh... Oops."

"Oops? My brain feels like it's been turned into pudding and all you have to say for yourself is 'oops'?" Dark grumbled. I giggled a bit.

"Yep!"

"You're so fucked up in the head."

"I know."

"That wasn't a compliment."

"So?"

I heard an exasperated growl, and laughed a bit before slipping half out of my body. Again. Gosh, I've been doing this a lot recently. I looked around, then stood up and started moving around.

"Careful, that's sand off to your right," Asch warned me. I frowned.

"How long have you been awake?"

"A few hours. Largo was the next one conscious, he's been up about an hour now."

I nodded quietly and continued moving around, pushing Energies around me. Earth, primarily. Earth, some moon Energies, a few water Energies... Not a lot of sun, fire, or wind Energies though. Hmm... That complicated things. Wind Energies moved with the wind. A few dozen of those, and I could find us a way out. But there weren't any. Not in the numbers I'd need if they were naturally-occurring. I wonder... There are plenty of third fonons...

I drew together as many third fonons as I could with what few sun Energies I had, then collected up the moon and earth Energies. Earth, to ground them. Earth, to stabilize... No. I let go of some of the earth Energies and collected water to replace them. Wind was wild. Wind was freedom. They needed to be grounded, yes, returned to their original form... but stabilized? No. Energies were fluid, shifting, not like fonons.

"What are you doing?" Asch asked. So, he was still half-on/half-off. He had just enough spirit Energies for that, so it impressed me that he could hold it for so long.

I sat down, pulling my Energies with me, then slipped out of my body altogether.

I'd done this once before, mutated Energies into seventh fonons. Now, I was going to try to do it in reverse.

I corralled the third fonons with a bit of difficulty, as they hated me, and started filtering the sun and moon Energies into the mix.

Then went the earth and water Energies, and I finally let a bit of one of my spirit Energies connect to the mass.

The mass twitched.

Then it exploded, tripling in size a moment before it started dispersing, the green floating away quietly, leaving behind a small mass of writhing lavender.

I didn't have the strength to control green, poppy-seed third fonons anymore, not after that bit of magic, and I didn't need earth Energies.

Dozens of lavender wind Energies stayed right where I wanted them to, however.

I smiled.

"Oh Lorelei... Did you just do what I think you just did?"

I let myself fall back into my body, holding onto the wind Energies carefully. "Yes... Yes I did."

"What are you talking about? I can't see a blasted thing!" Dark grumbled. Sorylle growled an agreement.

"Mieuuuu... I just felt a bunch of fonons go away..."

It came on slowly, and then it was there, and Asch had everyone's attention as he laughed. "We can get out of here now..."

"Yep!"

I stood up carefully. "Asch, you don't have a torch or anything of the like, do you?"

He shrugged, pulling off his coat. Right, he'd been in need of new clothes too. A few strips of cloth were wrapped around the end of Largo's scythe, where the blade curved away from the handle. Those were then set ablaze, startling Largo, who had never witnessed our magic. Or, in this case, tricks.

He blinked a few times, then looked around the cavern, noting me off to one side, and Dark, Sorylle, and Mieu off to another. Asch was holding the scythe aloft, the rest of his coat still hanging from one hand.

"To the exit... Wherever it may be," the redhead said in a poor attempt at optimism. I giggled and turned around, finally letting the wind Energies move about a bit.

A few wandered off away from the group, but most of them started moving through the cavern. Yes, Energies could go through walls, but most preferred to move around them, unless there was no other solution. Wind Energies, especially. They didn't want to risk getting caught between earth Energies. Which meant that wind Energies were great for getting out of caves.

I led the way, following nothing at all, as far as Largo knew. Dark knew about Energies, so he probably had an idea what I was doing. And Asch had watched me reverse-mutate them.

It was slow going at first. The Energies were isolated from others of their kind, and so found more solace in the bundle they formed than in the path they were revealing to us.

Then came the first breeze, and with it, another few dozen Energies. My little floating bubble doubled in size, and I urged them out. Out of the caverns, out into the open air.

They flitted about happily, back in the direction the wave of Energies had come from.

It took us maybe three hours of following the lackadaisical Energies to find the exit. At one point, they'd gotten us lost, and Largo was treated to me cursing the damn things, while Asch just laughed his ass off. That led to me cursing at Asch and almost losing sight of the damn mass of wind Energies.

Needless to say, Largo was rather disheartened to find that Asch had been right. We had landed in the middle of the Meggiora Highlands. How did we know? Because you know those puzzle booths around the sephiroth in Meggiora Highlands? Yeah, we fell—and I do mean fell—out of the cavern into one of those. The furthest one from the exit, if I remember correctly. And yes, Asch, Sync, and I had gone through and solved each and every one of them.

And then we'd messed them up again before putting the repair-bot's power cell back. No reason to make it easy for the next people, right? Especially since the 'next people' should be Van, Zion, and Luke. (Even though we'd only known it would be Van at that time.)

However, as it was dark outside, we decided it would be a wonderful idea to camp inside the puzzle booth. We put Mieu on guard duty, and told him to wake all of us up when the sun rose. I think Sorylle threatened to eat him if he fell asleep, then told him she'd carry him while he slept if he did it.

This was why I was next woken by a high, squeaky voice. While my body was all too happy to be up again... Well...

"I hate morning people..."

Dark, Largo, and I exchanged a look before we chuckled at Asch's misfortune. The redhead then went about giving us a few rather rude nicknames, which stuck for something like half an hour before he finally quit grumbling. I shook my head.

"See? This is why I let them sleep when we're on the road. Just because I get up at four in the morning, doesn't mean everyone is going to see my schedule the same way I do," I commented as we finally made it out of the puzzle booth. Asch grumbled something unintelligible, but that sounded something like 'dumb impressionable replicas.' Probably something to do with my sleeping schedule wearing off on Sync.

I hadn't been looking in front of me, so imagine my surprise when I look forward and walk through Sync.

I shiver at the horrid sensation and then turn around, watching with some, morbid fascination as Sync's skin tries to turn about as green as his hair.

Hi... he says slowly. I bite my lip.

"Can we please not do that?"

Okay... Now I know why you were throwing up that one time...

I stepped off to one side and finally let my stomach heave. "Round Three... Once was definitely enough. Oh gods..."

Largo coughed. "Why is there a... ghost of Sync here?"

Sync blinked a few times, then sighed. Oh well. At least you three are okay. And Sorylle... and Mieu? Whatever.

I finally finished throwing up what little I'd taken in that morning and stood up again. "Why are you here?"

Sync crossed his arms. Jade had the Malkuth military track the hyperresonance as close as they could. I just got lucky... or unlucky enough to land right on top of you guys. We weren't even sure if you guys were alive.

I nodded, making a half-hearted signal because I couldn't be bothered to speak the request. "What have we missed? Oh, and ask Tear if she gave my note to Peony when you go back, would you?"

Sync shook his head. You haven't missed much. Jade's temporarily blind because his glasses got busted in the confusion after the hyperresonance and he didn't get the fonic glyph suppressed fast enough. The emperor is practically begging us to go to St. Binah to evacuate. Apparently the land around there is already sagging.

I nodded and handed the canteen I'd been given back to Asch. "Shurrey Hill's been locked down. There isn't enough flow to keep the land afloat."

So... Should we go to St. Binah, or do we need to come get you first?

I crossed my arms. "What kind of question is that?"

Sync smirked. Right. I'll tell Reighn to stop teasing Jade and start packing. But what about the passage ring?

"We can deal with that later. It's too late to stop it now."

Sync nodded one last time, then faded out with a flash of green. I turned back to the others, noting that Largo was still staring at the space where Sync had been, while Dark and Sorylle were have a growled conversation. Asch looked uncomfortable, and he made a fist, thumb just sticking out between his ring and pinky fingers, before gesturing between the two of us. I formed a connection.

What's wrong?

Is it okay, Largo knowing about this?

Zion has, for someone raised in Auldrant, an extensive knowledge of Energies. Van's going to find out one way or another.

What about the passage ring here in the Meggiora Highlands?

We can't get in without Sync, Ion, or Zion. We'll have to leave it for later.

"Are we going to keep moving or are we taking a break?" Largo asked suddenly. I glanced over at him and frowned.

"It is getting really hot, and my stomach simply refuses to settle now. Might as well find a ledge," I decided. Largo nodded and immediately ambled over to the nearest shady place. Asch, Dark, the monsters and I took cover under another ledge. I tucked one leg in toward my body and pulled the other up, resting my right arm on my bad knee, though it wasn't hurting.

Asch sat back against the rock, legs straight out in front of him as was usual. Dark had his right leg stretched out, left leg tucked up against his body, and Sorylle was flopped out with her head on his right thigh. Mieu lay sprawled on his back nearby.

"It looks like Largo's planning on writing it off as a hallucination brought on by the heat," Dark commented. I nodded.

"That's a good thing for us. The more tricks up our sleeves, the better," I said. Asch frowned.

"What about the passage rings, though? You said Van closed the valve in Shurrey Hill and the Zao Ruins. Where do you think he'll go next?"

"Tataroo Valley?" Dark guessed. "It's closest."

"Or here," I said quietly, looking up at the sky. Asch looked at me worriedly. "I mentioned something about being in Daath before going to—damn it."

Asch sighed. "I think we were all a bit more worried about getting out alive than dealing with the passage ring."

I groaned. "But that means we have to go back to Daath... again..."

"Continue the previous line of thought, please," Dark said. I frowned.

"Van knew we were in Daath before Keterburg. He's smart enough, he probably knows we'd be heading for Grand Chokmah to try to stop the war. It's not quite the opposite direction, but it's keeping plenty of distance between our two groups."

Dark fiddled around with the dry dirt in front of him, and I watched as a rough map of Auldrant formed in front of me. A mark here for Daath, two more for Keterburg and Grand Chokmah, and then he made a few motions over the map, as if calculating the figures in his head.

Then he cursed. "Tataroo Valley, Mt. Roneal, Daath, Meggiora Highlands, or one of the two Gates. Those are the open passage rings, right?" I nodded.

He made an 'x' near Daath, then Mt. Roneal and the two Gates.

"If they have griffins, then we should hope they came here first. If no griffins, then pray they stopped at Tataroo Valley. Otherwise, you two do not want to know the chances of us running into them on our way out of here."

I cringed. "Unfortunately, I kinda do, for planning's sake. Assuming one of the favorable conditions is fulfilled, how high is the chance of an encounter?"

"About ten percent."

"Unfavorable?"

"Seventy-something? Probably close to eighty?"

"Ouch," Asch muttered. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Then I turned to Asch.

"Then I'm going to need to teach you a few things within the next couple of days."

Asch gave me a look, and I sighed.

This wouldn't be fun.

Fun Fact: While Kairi on the second plane walking through someone on the first plane means Kairi gets a good view of their insides, they don't have to see hers. Unfortunately, Sync's astral projection doesn't work like that... It's a two-way street. And not a pleasant one, either.