-sighs- I sit here after work and muse on my strange brain children. This is a dangerous pastime. Why?

Dark and Dante (from about fifteen years in the future in the latter's case) decided to sit down and discuss, of all things, the differences between Dark's current set of fonic guns and Dante's mana guns. (Yes, you read that right. Don't ask exactly what happens to Dante until the New Year, 'cause that's when I'm gonna start posting that story. (Yes, he gets his own whole story.))

Meanwhile, Elliot, Oswald, and Joseph, characters from an original story of mine, all decided to bother Reighn, Flick, and Selenia. Seth was wise-he made his escape before Oswald even popped off with the first "Hey, hey, hey Master Elliot! What if-". Very wise replica of a not-always-so-wise colonel. Poor Elliot... I feel for the guy, having to deal with Ozzy all the time...

And then there was Ellie. What, exactly, one of Tony/Daniel's characters was doing in my head, I'm not sure. I'm also not certain which one of them she belongs to... I know Zion is mine, Erin is Daniel's, Florian, Sync, and Ion are Namco's, and Valon is Tony's, and Grant is Tea's... But I don't know whose brain-child Ellie is... Actually, she's probably mine, all things considered. I've just never used her.

...See? Watch my brain work... Or don't, because you'll probably get a headache trying to keep up with it. (I know Mithri does, all the time.) So I'm just gonna shut up and let you read about Sync pretending to be Ion.

Yup.

Enjoy!

(Also... Rialle just kind wrote herself in... I'm still cleaning up the mess she and her twin sister made in some of the later chapters...)

Sync's POV

"May the blessings of Lorelei echo in all of us," I finished.

There were a lot of things I didn't like about playing Fon Master. In fact, I could probably count on one hand the number of things I did like about it.

One, I was a higher rank than Mohs for once. So he couldn't stop me from doing a single gods-damned thing. Well, as long as I kept at least one Fon Master Guard with me. He'd gotten a bit cocky the one time I hadn't and had almost caught me.

Two, I had access to literally everything in Daath. Even the four percent of things in Daath I hadn't had access to as a God-General. Mind you, aside from another, really, really well hidden library, none of it was really important.

Three, I could give Cantabile bullshit excuses as to why she could stay with me all day and so long as she didn't argue, Mohs couldn't send her somewhere else.

Four, if I wanted to ditch the Fon Master Guard I kept with me as a defense against Mohs so I could to a bit of sneaking around, it was as easy as saying 'good night.'

See? One hand.

"Fon Master, is something wrong?"

I turned to the girl who'd been my shadow for most of the morning already and smiled. Well, I guess I can add a fifth thing to that list. I got to practice my 'innocent little kid' routine freely without worrying about Asch or Kairi calling me out on it.

"It's nothing, Rialle. I'm just a little tired," I said. Well, that was the truth. I was definitely tired... Tired of having to lead the sermons every gods-damned Remday. It had been a month since I'd gotten back to Daath, and while I was sure my Ion routine was now perfect... Well... There was a reason why I didn't want to be the Fon Master.

Rialle smiled back before brushing a lock of brown hair behind an ear, though it just fell back into place a moment later. I couldn't help it, I thought it was cute. Still, her green eyes kept throwing me off, especially since she wasn't wearing glasses...

I sighed, and it sounded as if I was amused rather than irritated with myself. The minute the mess with Van was cleaned up, I was asking Selenia on a date. Not that that thought lasted long. I had the feeling that when it came down to it, I'd probably be just as bad as Jade and Dark.

I started heading for Ion's room (I refused to think of it as mine, even if I'd been sleeping there for a month), knowing that I had a nice stack of paperwork waiting for me before I could head for one of the libraries. Better to just get the torture over with.

Rialle didn't say a word as I stepped onto the fonic glyph that would take me up to Ion's room. She just stood there, bound by duty to watch as I headed up. Of course, after a month of this, she didn't bother with following me. She'd come to Ion's office in about an hour, which was roughly how long it usually took me to do paperwork. The time until then was hers. There was no way I was going to force her to stand around and watch as I read and signed papers.

Light blinded me for a moment before it (and that disturbing shifting feeling you get from teleporting) disappeared. I didn't waste time, walking up the steps and through the door.

I paused just inside the door, only to break into a grin. "Hi, Mom."

A single golden eye landed on me, and I noted with some amusement that she wasn't wearing her tabard. Just the sleeves, pants, and tunic for once. I stepped up to her, reaching out for the usual hug after propping Ion's staff against the wall.

"Asch sent word by messenger pigeon. Kairi's on her way here, and he's following," she said, wrapping her arms around me for just a moment before letting go. "Which means Ion's on the way as well."

I nodded, moving around the desk and sitting down, leveling a glare at the paperwork scattered across it. "Great. I want out of this getup."

Mom sighed and shook her head. "So do I. It was one thing seeing you in your God-General uniform. But that thing?" She snorted, apparently deciding that finishing that sentence wasn't a good idea. I pulled out a folder and reluctantly got to work. "Kairi's also dragging Luke along," Mom added.

I paused, brain screeching to a halt for a moment as supply reports and Luke clashed. I blinked, finished reading the report, signed it off in Ion's pretty flourish (that had been the hardest part to get right), and then looked up at her.

"Bound or willing?" I asked.

"Willing. Asch said Luke opened a channel via their fonslots and Kairi piggybacked on that to communicate," she said, staring off into space. Well, all I could see was her hair and a bit of the eyepatch. "Sounds like it would have been pretty hard to force Luke to do that."

I frowned, looking down at the reports and realizing that I wasn't going to get them all done without my brain bothering me about that the whole time. I groaned and set my pen down (mine, not Ion's, since I'd asked Mom to get it out of my old room for me), leaning over and finding a blank piece of lined paper in one of the drawers in Ion's desk.

Once that was there, I started scribbling lines of runes across it. I knew Mom couldn't read it, but then, neither could anyone else, save for Asch and Kairi. Well, maybe someone else knew, but Kairi hadn't told me about it.

It took me about ten minutes to work everything out in my brain, and I sighed. "Any idea when they're supposed to arrive?" I asked. I was worried. Mom wasn't the only God-General in town. Dist and Aerith were both here too, and that's not even getting started on Mohs.

Mom was silent for a few minutes. "Sometime in the next seventy-two hours. They shouldn't be here yet, we'd be hearing the screams already if that was the case..."

I reached over the desk and flicked her with the end of my pen. I don't care if she adopted me, she deserved it. Then again, maybe I'm being a hypocrite. "The screaming doesn't start until she tries to leave."

"Mm..."

I rolled my eyes and scribbled a couple more things down before sighing. "Damn..."

"Sync..." I gave her a pointed look, and she sighed. "I know."

I ran a hand through my hair, groaning as I displaced that damn headdress. Fixing it (and the rest of my hair), I put the piece of paper away and went back to supply reports. "Then we have to intercept Luke and Natalia before Mohs catches them. He's looking for any excuse to restart the war. Even with most of Rugnica in the Qliphoth, he's stubborn."

"Score, Score, Score. And he wonders why Van and the others have run off," Mom muttered. I felt something catch in my throat at that, and I paused, pen hovering over the paper.

"Mom?"

She turned to me, that look making me feel like the little kid I really was.

"If Van's plan wasn't so drastic... would you still be sitting here?"

That gold eye watched me for a moment before it turned away. "I don't know."

I let my head drop and went back to the paperwork, signing where necessary and checking all of the boxes I needed to in the supply requests and such. There were a few things that made me wonder if Ion even knew what was being addressed, since those were for the military branch, but having grown up with nothing but the nuances of that part of the Oracle Knights being pounded into my head, I had no problems accepting or vetoing the requests.

"I'd like to think I'd still be here, though."

I stopped again, blinking and looking up at Mom. A small, hesitant smile formed on my lips for just a moment before I went back to the paperwork.

It was just ten minutes before Rialle was due to return that Mom stood and made to leave. She stopped before opening the door, though, and turned to give me a smile that I'd learned long ago either heralded something really, really good, or really, really bad.

"You know, if we can keep Kairi out of trouble for a few days... we might all be able to celebrate your birthday here in Daath."

She left before I could formulate any sort of a response to that. The reason?

I'd completely forgotten that my birthday was on Ifritday!

That made me pause. Mom had remembered, yes, but... What about Kairi and Asch? Did they remember it was coming up?

Had I ever even told them?

Now certain that my mind would be permanently plagued by those kinds of thoughts, I glanced at the final folder of paperwork, and decided that I wasn't going to bother with it. I'd leave it there and deal with it before I went to bed.

I stood, walking around the desk and picking up the staff before heading out of the office. If I missed Rialle, then so be it. I wasn't going to sit there any longer than necessary.

I landed on the fonic glyph on the ground floor, and tilted my head to the side when I spotted the Fon Master Guard in question sitting against the wall, writing something. I walked over, peeking over the top edge curiously. Then my eyes widened.

"You know Reighn?!"

Rialle squeaked, jumping about a foot in the air before realizing it was me. She giggled, pushing her hair behind her ear for a moment before nodding. "Yeah... Sync."

I let my eyes widen a little further, and Rialle smirked. "Reighn doesn't know I joined the Fon Master Guardians. But you know, you should try to be a bit less confrontational with Mohs. I know you don't like him, but if it had been any of the others, they'd have called you out on it on day three."

I'll admit it. I was embarrassed. Not only was this girl one of Reighn's contacts, it seemed she was as perceptive as he was. Figures.

I sighed. "Well then, I guess there's no more need for me to ditch you for hours on end. Besides, another set of eyes might just help," I admitted. She looked up at me, green eyes curious, and I shook my head, turning and waving for her to follow me. This wasn't something that I could talk about out in the open.

Rialle walked along behind me as I led the way through the labyrinth that was Daath's cathedral. I knew the moment we'd stepped out of familiar territory for her, because she was suddenly following me rather than walking with me. But I'd been down these halls so many times over the past few weeks that I didn't even hesitate. I knew where I was going, and if I was totally honest with myself, I was a lot more comfortable with Rialle behind me.

I stopped in front of the right door and opened it, stepping in and flipping the lights on. Rialle walked in behind me and made a face.

"Eek. Dusty."

I chuckled. "Yep. And I have to find something helpful in all of this."

The girl crossed her arms, looked up at me (yes, up, since I'm about three inches taller than her), and tilted her head to the side. "What constitutes 'helpful'?"

I smirked. "Anything related to the world's core vibrating and/or the liquefaction of the surface."

She nodded once and headed off in one direction, and I went the other way, brushing dust off of the spines of books I couldn't read the titles of. Nothing looked like it would help. Most of it was about religions that existed before the Order of Lorelei, and some very, very old texts (that were written in a completely different language, to boot) that seemed to detail some other kind of magic source.

I huffed and put another book back, skimming through the next shelf and finding nothing of relevance.

That was when Rialle came around to my side of the library, old, large book open in her arms as she muttered to herself. She flipped a few pages, muttered a bit more, and then looked up, realizing that she was about four steps from plowing into me. Her face flushed pink before she turned the book around and held it out for me.

"This the kind of thing you're looking for?" she asked. I looked over the passage she was pointing at, and found out almost immediately why this had been placed here.

...and in conjunction with the newly-built passage rings, the Sephiroth have had little difficulty in producing the Planet Storm and in extension the mass number of fonons necessary for the fonic technology currently being developed. Of course, this has brought about a rather unforeseen consequence, as the land has begun to liquefy due to vibrations that seem to stem from the very core of Auldrant...

I would have grinned, if it weren't for the fact that I'd only known about it because Kairi had told me about certain events in Tales of the Abyss.

"It's not pretty. Most of the God-Generals 'die' twice. Your first 'death' was in the core, when the party went down there to stop the vibrating. The second time... Well, with the exception of Van, you lasted the longest. Even longer than Asch."

I continued to scan the pages, and nodded to myself as I went. This was definitely the text they needed. Right down to the theoretical fon machine outlined five pages after the first passage Rialle had pointed out to me.

I closed the book, having every intention of slipping it under my tabard, but paused. If Rialle was right, then Mohs probably suspected me enough already. So.

Rialle looked shocked when I held the book out again. "Would you make sure this gets to Cantabile for me? I'm going to the public library to do a bit more poking around with something interesting I found the other day," I said.

The brunette took the book, nodded once, and slipped it under her own tabard. Then she smiled, turning and heading for the door.

If all else failed, at least Cantabile would know what to do with that. I'd told her what I was up to, after all. And even if I hadn't, she was my mom. She'd have gotten her answers eventually.

Before I left that library, however, I dropped my mental shields and grinned.

Fun Fact: Rialle's uniform consists of a very light pink dress (as opposed to Anise's usual pink) and a white tabard with emerald green lining and a brown underside. She's also a Guardian in every other continuity and will be making an appearance in Boundaries. That said, can anyone guess her element? (I'll give you a hint: It's the same as Arani's.)

Another note... Mozilla Firefox thinks 'bastard' is an appropriate correction for the apparently misspelled word 'tabard'. Imagine reading some of these sentences if I replaced those words...