Disregard everything I said about Winx updating Boundaries of the Mind anytime soon. We realized some time Sunday morning that a LOT of what she's got written is incorrect due to a number of facts, a few of which will be listed here, just so you all understand how much has changed in the two+ years since she started Boundaries.

1) We finally managed to get every dimension in our mental universe working on the same clock. Which means that no, two months (approx. 100 days) is no longer a year+ on Kelys. Nor is there a HUGE time differential between Kelys and the Kingdom Hearts dimension. (Xikira was there for three and a half days. A year passed on Kelys.) So yeah. This whole mess is finally getting cleaned up.

2) The addition of 4 new worlds (not including Derris-Kharlan and Aselia from Tales of Symphonia, and yes, as soon as Winx has finished playing the game, those are being added to our list). We've also finally gotten around to making a list of species, and disregarding Nobodies and Heartless, as well as the others we've forgotten so far, that list is 32 species long.

3) Rhunön. Yes, the very same Rhunön from THIS STORY is Allura's mother. If you really, really want to know, then feel free to ask. In the meantime, I'm going to try to draw a family tree for that... clan? Is that the best way to put it? (It's confusing.)

Okay, I'll stop rambling now. But at least I've gotten my point across. (There went the rest of my winter break...)

Last part of Chapter 4! Chapter 5 starts tomorrow! (Since I'm a day late again... –is shot-)

Enjoy Sync throwing up! (Well, maybe not that part, but the second half of the chapter is a little better.)

As I've said before—Dist hates me in every form he takes. –Sync

"I hate to say it, but Dark isn't here, so I'm going to. Two to one, you lose." –Natalia

Chapter 4.11 – For Want of Separate Roads
Part 47

Sync's POV

Retching. That's what Anise walked in on me doing just a few seconds after my eyes had snapped open again. Well, at least I'd made it to the bathroom.

"Oh, eww!"

I groaned. "This... is nothing... I pray you never... have to go through what Kairi and I just went through... Gah... And she walked into Van? Ugh..."

"What's going on in here? Sync, was that you?" Jade, probably wondering why I was throwing up. As if I want to tell him what his sister's insides look like. Ugh, bad thoughts. Something better... Um... Strawberry cake! Fluffy, strawberry cake with orange icing...

I took a deep breath and stood up. "Kairi is definitely alive... Urk..."

"You look like you're about to hurl... again...?" Reighn noted. I swallowed hard and looked around. Somewhere in here there should be... ah-ha!

I grabbed the little glass, filled it up with water, and forced that down my throat. Then I looked up at him. Jade was hovering behind him. I forced myself to look anywhere but his eyes. Black, and rimmed by red, from all of the blood pooled there. It was nothing short of a nightmare to look at. I'd asked him why he wasn't wearing a blindfold like Kairi had done, but it seemed that stress caused by the glyph couldn't be resolved properly like that. He needed to have his eyes open.

I forced myself to think back to what Kairi had said.

"Jade, Reighn, go pack. Anise, start collecting up the others. If you find Tear, ask her what she did with the note Kairi gave her. I'm going to go talk to the emperor. We're going to St. Binah."

Jade frowned. "She doesn't want us to get her, Asch, and Dark first?"

I shook my head, then remembered he couldn't see it. "I asked something similar. She popped off with 'what kind of a question is that?' They'll be fine for a month. We can't say the same about St. Binah," I said. Jade nodded.

"That's logical. Alright... Although I must admit this will be the first time I've ever left Grand Chokmah while blind." Reighn chuckled.

"Don't worry. We've got more than enough fonists. Honestly, I'm more concerned about our lack of short-range fighters right now," he said, gently starting to guide Jade away. Anise looked up at me and crossed her arms.

"I want to leave—"

"No," I cut in.

"But—"

"He's coming with us."

"But he's—"

"Enough, Anise," Reighn barked, butting into what was devolving into an argument. Anise shut up immediately, even though Reighn wasn't her superior. "I'd rather have Ion with us. If nothing else, it means we can keep both him and Sync out of Arietta's hands. Van needs the Daathic Seals opened, after all."

Anise sighed. "Fine."

She turned and stomped off, while I sighed and headed out, grabbing my bag and coat. Unlike a lot of the others, I hadn't bothered to unpack much. Call it paranoia or preparedness. Either way, it meant I had little standing between me and Emperor Peony.

"Saphir!"

Oh hell...

"Oink!"

"Gyah! Bad! Bad rappig!" I yelled, struggling to get a good grip on the damn thing's collar. As I've said before—Dist hates me in every form he takes.

"I am so sorry!" a maid said as she ran over, helping me to restrain the emperor's pet. I muttered something impolite about the rappig under my breath before picking up the things I'd dropped, finally getting a chance to pull my coat on.

"Is Emperor Peony in his rooms?" I asked. The maid nodded.

"I think he's tucked himself away in one of the side-rooms, yes. He tends to do that when he's working on one of his sewing projects... Odd hobby, but I can think of a lot of them that are worse," she said. I sighed. Great. Three guesses who he's going to give the next one to, and the first two don't count.

"Thanks," I muttered, walking past the maid and heading for the emperor's quarters. I knew exactly which side-room the maid was talking about, because I'd tried hiding in there one time just to get away from the rappigs.

I managed to wade past Kairi, Jade, and Aslan, then had to hop over Gelda, who couldn't be bothered to move. In fact, the only one who wasn't in my way was Nephry. I then stepped into Peony's 'project room'.

Blue eyes shot up away from black and silver fabric to look at me, and a wide grin spread across Peony's face. It took every ounce of my self-control to avoid stepping away right then.

"Kairi's pretty good at this stuff," he said. I crossed my arms, trying (and probably failing) to keep a neutral face.

"She, Asch, and Dark are in the Meggiora Highlands. We're going to help St. Binah first, then we're going to go get them... Assuming they don't find some way to get here, first," I said.

Peony nodded before looking back down at what he was doing. "Come back to get the clothes after that. I should have both outfits done by then."

"Both?" The word slipped out before I could even stop myself.

Peony grinned again and stuck the needle in his mouth, reaching over to grab a piece of paper and waving it at me. I reluctantly took the paper, and he went back to stitching.

Scribbled on the paper was a request for clothing. Kairi had, of course, given him mostly free reign with hers, simply asking for there to be a blue flame design on some part of it. Asch's was a bit more constraining, but from the doodles that had covered the backside, I'd say Peony had already figured out what he was doing for both of them. Well, I suppose that's fitting. Still...

"Okay. We'll make sure to come back..." I said before handing the paper back. I suppose that answers Kairi's question about the note, too.

I turned and left before he could get it into his head to make me clothes, too. I hadn't gotten the ones from York that long ago. They still had plenty of wear in them.

Reighn and Jade were, of course, the first two to meet me in the courtyard. Tear was the next, followed by Guy, then Natalia, then Twilight, then Seth, surprisingly. I'd thought he was going to leave soon. Ion and Anise were last, though that was to be expected, as I'd had Anise rounding everyone up.

"We're going to help the people in St. Binah?" Ion asked hopefully. I nodded.

"Yeah. Kairi will have my hide if we don't," I admitted. Ion smiled, and I forced myself to look elsewhere. What was I supposed to do about his dead Energies? Kairi hadn't gotten a chance to explain it to me yet. And what was I supposed to tell him about it, anyway?

It didn't take long to get everyone moving. Jade ended up on Twilight's back, courtesy of a stubborn Reighn, and Ion insisted on walking. I didn't argue. A little walking here and there meant he'd be able to build up his stamina.

Almost a week later, we reached St. Binah. Or at least, the outskirts of St. Binah. How did we find this out?

"Sync!"

"Eek!"

"As adorable as you two are, we don't exactly have the time for that kind of stuff."

Half of the people nearby laughed. The other half groaned. Selenia's face turned red. Mine probably did too, to be honest. Selenia got up and held a hand out, helping me to my feet so I could glare up at Jade.

As nice as him being able to see again was, I'd have preferred it if he hadn't made that kind of a comment. Well then... I put my hands on my hips and braced myself.

"Keep it up, I'll tell Mom you wanna go on a date."

Now it was Jade's turn to look embarrassed, while Natalia sighed.

"I hate to say it, but Dark isn't here, so I'm going to. Two to one, you lose."

Jade mumbled something that I didn't quite catch. It probably wasn't very polite, either.

"Are you guys here to tell Papa to evacuate?" Selenia asked. Jade adjusted his glasses.

"Yes. What are you doing out here, anyway?"

"Grams told me to see if I can find some of her herbs before we go anywhere. Most of the city's ready for an evacuation. We've just been waiting for the order... Though the military's ready to face the Kimlascan army as well, if necessary," Selenia said.

I frowned. "We'll go deliver the order to the general. You should get back to your grandmother."

Selenia nodded, turned, and ran off, and the rest of us followed her. The guards at the entrance to St. Binah took one glance at us and let us through. I stopped the group in the central plaza and looked around.

"Jade, you and Ion go deliver the order to Glenn. Everyone else, split up into groups of two. Selenia said they're already preparing to evacuate, probably to Engeve. Someone needs to keep an eye out for Kimlascan soldiers or Oracle Knights."

Jade and Ion had, thankfully, run off about halfway through the second sentence. Twilight growled something, and I sighed.

"None of us can translate for you, Twilight," I reminded him. Again.

Twilight grumbled something irritably.

"Do these pairs need to be fighters or is a fighter and non-fighter pair alright?" Anise asked. Reighn crossed his arms.

"If you and Ion stay inside the city, making sure we don't miss anyone, we should be fine. Twilight should stay by the gates to give us a warning. His nose and ears are good. If there are enemies coming, he'll be the first to smell or hear them," Reighn noted. "I'll move around with Jade. Seth? You're a seventh fonist, too, right?"

Seth nodded. "If we're splitting seventh fonists up among non-seventh fonists, then Anise and Ion are going to have to split up."

Anise pouted. "Fine. I call Reighn."

Reighn rolled his eyes. "Fine... Seth can take Guy, then, and Ion will stick with Tear. Sync... You want to be with Natalia, or do you want to be our watch on the gate?"

I crossed my arms, forcibly ignoring the irritating sound filtering into my mind again. Why did this always happen at the most inconvenient of times? Oh well...

"I'll stick with Twilight. I'm the fastest in the group. If we need to get help at the gates, I should be there to run the message." Not to mention the fact that Twilight was there with me and Kairi while we were being strange people.

Reighn nodded. "Alright. Natalia, that leaves you with Jade. Get people moving, it looks like Jade and Ion are already back."

We all nodded, Twilight and I glancing at each other before making a break for the gates, stopping outside on the opposite side of the road. Twilight sat back on his haunches, while I leaned against his shoulder and started humming. It helped to relieve the stress that the weird music kept putting on my brain.

Kairi and I had had a long talk about it on the way through Deo Pass, and she had identified all of the songs I'd learned this way. Some of the names and lyrics made me really wonder what was wrong with people in her world, but some of them really did make sense.

She'd also started explaining genres... If I was right, this one was country. I'd probably have to ask her about it later, but oh well.

Twilight growled softly, and my humming stopped immediately as I started glancing around. Ah. Jade and Natalia.

One group off, who knows how many to go.

The two stopped near us, Jade adjusting his glasses. "Nothing?"

I shook my head. "Nope. Not yet at least. I'm not going to relax until the evacuation's over."

Natalia nodded. "That's wise. We're going in for the next group. Reighn and Anise should be coming out next, if Jade and Anise don't switch," she said before turning and heading back into the city. I watched as Jade followed along behind her before starting to hum again. It was odd... Songs didn't usually repeat themselves over and over and over again, but it happened sometimes. Oh well. Might as well get it memorized so I can ask Kairi about it.

Another short growl, another pause in humming, and another group of refugees gone. Reighn and Anise walked back, Anise waving to me cheerfully before looking up at Reighn and, presumably, asking him a question. I crossed my arms and frowned as a slightly larger group came out. Tear motioned for Ion to stay with me and Twilight while she, Seth, and Guy took the refugees to the far edge of the forest around St. Binah.

Ion walked over and sat down next to me with a sigh, not a care in the world for his white clothing. That made me smirk a bit.

"Sync? What do you think is going to happen to the Order of Lorelei?"

I blinked a few times and looked down at Ion, who looked much younger than his physical fourteen years. I frowned and looked up at the sky. Clear and blue... Weird. Oh well. Order of Lorelei... Order of Lorelei...

"Why ask me? I'm not a God-General anymore."

"But you know more about the real workings of the Order than I do. And with Van and the God-Generals now acting independently... What's going to happen with the Oracle Knights?"

I shrugged. "Honestly? You should ask Asch when we pick him up, or Mom if we run into her."

"Mom?"

I cringed. Whoops. "Cantabile adopted me," I admitted. No reason to try to hide it now.

Ion's smile was so genuinely happy that I wondered for a moment what was wrong with him. "That's wonderful! It's good to have family behind you."

I nodded. That was true... It wasn't something I'd expected to learn a year ago, but... It was true. "What about you?" I caught myself asking. Somehow, I couldn't be bothered to care that I'd spoken.

"Hmm... Well... I suppose I've got Anise, and... Never mind." Something struck me then, harder than it ever had before.

"You've got me." I didn't even register that I had spoken until after the words were said.

If Ion looked happy upon finding out I had adoptive family, it was nothing compared to the utter joy he wore on his face after those three words.

"Sync... thank you."

"Ion!"

Ion stood up, brushed a bit of dust off of himself, and then raced after Tear. And as I started humming again, I couldn't help but smile after him. Kairi was right. Being an older sibling was a pain... But it was worth it.

Twilight growled, and I spun around.

"Aerith!"

Fun Fact: The song Sync was humming was Dust by the Eli Young Band. Yes. Randomness. –nods smartly-