Okay, these should have been up a week ago. So here's a dump of Chapter 8 and Chapter 9, since I literally just started on Chapter 13 today and this story is only 14 chapters long. (Right now, Chapter 14 has three parts, but I don't like how it looks, so it will be expanded.) Also, if I keep up with the speed I've been typing so far for NaNoWriMo, I should be done typing this story by Sunday, November 15! Yay! -celebrates-

Oh, by the way. I started doing a Harry Potter themed crawl for NaNo, and Reighn decided to jump in with another OC. Yeah. Count on Reighn to multitask and really not give a shit.

Okay, Enjoy!

"Where are your shoes?" -Dark

"Is this my fault for waking you up half an hour early?" -Asch

Chapter 8.1 - Syncopation
Part 74

I stopped and leaned against the wall, standing there for many minutes before deciding it would be a good idea to speak up. "You okay?" I asked. Dark hadn't made it very far from the inn. Only just around the corner and into the nearest alley.

He looked up at me for barely a moment before letting his head fall back down to his knees. "I shouldn't be feeling like this."

I sighed silently. Of course. Count on Dark to run away from his feelings. Asch turns his into anger, I bottle it all up, Sync barely even has names for half of what he feels. Not one of us can have healthy means of coping. That would be too easy.

"And why not?" I asked. Dark's head poked up again just long enough for me to catch sight of the look on his face. I rolled my eyes. "Come on, work with me here. I, personally, think you're overreacting, and I'm trying to play Devil's Advocate to prove it."

Dark grumbled something that probably wasn't flattering. "She's my boss!"

I crossed my arms. "She's not the princess. She doesn't have the money to pay you anymore, ergo, argument invalid. Try again?" Dark glared at me.

"She's engaged to Asch... or Luke..." he stopped here and made a face, and I laughed. He gave me a baffled look, and I shrugged.

"Don't look at me. I'm not sure what's going to happen there either," I admitted. "Let's just assume that it's Asch, since he's the one who proposed to her." I paused a moment. "And that's still assuming that she still wants to marry him."

Dark snorted. "I've seen how ridiculous she could get with Luke, trying to get him to remember the proposal."

I crossed my arms. "Yes. Back before she found out exactly who Asch was."

Dark leveled another glare on me. "I hate you."

I smirked. "Devil's Advocate," I reminded him. He growled something and stood, running a hand through his hair and turning to walk toward me. He froze suddenly, staring at the ground.

"Where are your shoes?"

I blinked and looked down. Oh. "Heh... Whoops."

"Dork," Dark muttered. "Come on. Let's get back to the inn before you step on something."

I shrugged. "Eh. I don't really care. But really, Dark. You should at least find some way to tell Natalia you're interested."

The former assassin sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets as we started walking. Where to, I wasn't sure, nor did I care. I was going to trust Dark to get us back to the inn... eventually.

"Oh, I need to tell Natalia? What about you?" he asked, obviously a bit exasperated. I frowned. I knew what he was talking about.

"I've got a few things to figure out before I can do anything," I said. "You know I'm from another world. Asch knows I'm from another world. And... I don't know, Dark. I want to stay here, it's just... I don't know if I even can. Can my doppelganger body stand up to that? It barely survived replication. I just..." I trailed off, sighed, and shook my head. "There are too many unknown factors for me to just jump in. You don't have to deal with that."

Dark didn't reply for a bit. Quite a bit. It must have been almost half an hour later when he finally spoke again.

"I'm sorry."

I sighed. "What are you apologizing for?"

He wouldn't look at me. "You've got a lot on your plate already. I doubt I've helped much, bringing up Asch like that."

I stared at him a moment before smiling and shaking my head. "You're silly," I said. I stopped and started looking around. "You know how to get to the inn from here, right?"

Dark looked at me, then chuckled. "You're hopeless," he muttered, walking off again. I started following him. Although, somehow, we'd managed to put the Governor's Mansion between us and the inn. It certainly wasn't right next door like in the game, but we'd managed to wander around so we would have to walk past it to get back.

Probably a good thing, since I spotted Spinoza standing on the top step, ear pressed to the door. I frowned. "Dark..."

He looked up, noting the old man, and glanced at me, hands going to his thighs for his guns... only to find that they weren't there. I scowled, letting Silver Clematis flash into my hand as I walked up toward Spinoza. If he was here, that meant Jade and the others were inside talking to Viridian, Henken, and Cathy. It had been long enough, I wouldn't have been surprised if that really was the case. Either way, snooping around at the Governor's Mansion is suspicious enough activity to warrant an inquiry.

Spinoza glanced back, spotted me, and made a break for it. I moved to cut him off, only for a sharp, jabbing pain to shoot up my foot. I hissed, hitting the ground as Spinoza ran past, and glanced down at my foot. I moved so I could look at the bottom, which was already bleeding pretty hard. A piece of glass was lodged there in the bridge of my foot, and I made a face, because it really, really hurt. And it didn't look pretty, either.

"Kairi?!"

I looked up and forced a laugh. "Hi. I forgot my shoes earlier."

Asch face-palmed. "Is this my fault for waking you up half an hour early?"

I didn't have to force the next laugh. "No. I just kinda spaced," I admitted, before looking at my foot, making a face, and then pulling the big piece of glass out. Then I started in with the Energies. I used those to get rid of the smaller pieces that had gotten detached from the big piece.

"Do I even want to know why you're running around barefoot?"

I paused, looked up, blinked a couple of times, and then went back to healing. "I decided to follow Dark out and didn't initially realize I'd forgotten to put shoes on," I admitted.

"Hey, why was Spinoza running off, anyway?" Luke asked. I glanced up, finding the sight of Asch, Duke Fabre, and Luke standing in a line somewhat amusing before my eyes were drawn back to my foot again.

"He was listening in. If whatever was being discussed was something you don't want getting out, I suggest going after him," I said. The silence that followed was almost deafening.

"We've only got the Albiore. We can't really split up three ways," Asch commented.

I frowned and looked up again. "What? Why were we splitting up two ways already?"

Jade looked down at me and sighed. "Someone has to go get Sync. And Duke Fabre has asked for our assistance in fortifying Belkend."

"You realize we've still got our carriage and amicaydras, yes?" Noir asked as she, York, and Urushi walked up with Noelle. She paused and smirked at Natalia. "And you look gorgeous, honey."

The blonde turned a rather amusing shade of red, while Duke Fabre looked a bit confused. Asch sighed.

"That's normal for Noir," he said. He looked around. "Well, I guess we could spare someone from the team that's going to go get Sync, but..."

"I'll go with the Dark Wings to catch Spinoza," Luke said. "I don't think we should really put more than one or two extra people on that."

Asch nodded. "Alright. We'll leave Spinoza to the four of you, okay?" He turned to Noir at the last word, and she nodded, then looked at Luke.

"Whenever you're ready."

Luke sighed. "Spinoza was headed for the exit to town. We'll have to stop at the inn to pick up my equipment, but that's it." The four of them walked off, and Asch started looking around. He glanced at me, made a face, and sighed.

"Do you want to come with us to Daath and risk all hell breaking loose as usual, or would you rather stay with Father and Jade?" he asked.

I frowned and thought about it, absent-mindedly letting Energies heal my foot. Now that the glass was gone, this part was just routine.

"I think I'll come to Daath with you."

Jade crossed his arms. "We were planning on only sending four or five to Daath. Who do you want to go with you?"

I looked around. If I was right, then this would be the trip where Guy remembered why he was terrified of women. So, he had to come... But then, so did Anise, if we were going to talk to Pamela.

"Do you mind if I come along?" Natalia asked. Dark shot me a look, and I sighed. If Natalia came, Dark was going to want to come, and that was my five. So, unless I could talk Jade into letting Anise come with us...

Nope. I don't think that's going to work. Fine. Not like things aren't already screwed up. I'll tell Guy myself if it comes to it.

"Guy, Dark, Natalia, me, and Asch. We'll go get Sync," I said, finally deeming my foot healed enough to stand on. Of course, then my knee decided to give out. I growled as I hit the ground a second time, and Dark hung his head, Twilight and Sorylle both making exasperated noises.

"Well. I can't say I haven't called Danté that before," Dark muttered. I scowled, sitting once again to stabilize my knee and try to stand again.

This time, the fire was in my torso, and I growled something else, gritting my teeth and ignoring it as well as I could in favor of stalking off toward the inn.

"Kairi? Do you want me to go get more—"

"That won't be necessary. I've got almost half a bottle in my bag," I called back to Asch. I'm sure I heard him muttering something along the lines of 'why aren't you using it' before I was out of earshot.

Asch and the others I'd named off found me at the inn ten minutes later, once again dressed in the new outfit I'd gotten from Peony. The cleaning staff had attacked our laundry about the same time Dark and I had left.

I was standing against a wall, practically tapping my—now shoed—foot as the four of them walked in. Natalia headed for her room, probably planning on changing out of that dress, if Dark's comments that she looked good in it were any indication. Asch, Guy, and Dark were headed to change clothes too, it seemed, since we'd all been wearing rather more casual things.

I raised an eyebrow when Natalia came back out, still wearing the dress Noir had asked York to make. Her quiver was in place, bow unstrung on her back as well. Her usual bag had been replaced by a smaller, brown leather pouch. I noted that the whole ensemble was rather similar to Norma's outfit in Tales of Legendia, though it was definitely different enough that you wouldn't notice it right off.

"Those sleeves won't get in the way?" I asked, nodding to the wide hems. Natalia shook her head.

"No. The ribbon stitched around the edges hides whatever York added to weight them down. The hems are heavy enough that, with my fighting style, I won't have any problems. My bowstring goes over my arm, after all," she said, demonstrating. Sure enough, gravity kept her sleeves out of the way of where her bowstring would be.

I nodded, then smiled at Asch and Dark as they came back out. Guy was the last, but not by much, and the five of us headed for the port.

"Noelle's waiting there with the Albiore," Asch had said before anyone could question where we were going.

Which was probably a good thing, because it meant I didn't have to explain myself. I'd gone ahead and dosed myself up with morphine again, which meant I wasn't completely thinking straight.

Sorylle and Twilight padded along behind us, apparently having decided that no, they did not want to stay in Belkend and wait for us. Once onboard the Albiore things became rather routine. Sit, read for a bit, draw for a bit, move, read for a while more... Not much was said out loud. Asch handed out sandwiches at one point, and Dark pulled Asch back into the cabins area for a conversation none of the rest of us were privy to, but beyond that, the trip was rather silent.

Of course, once we got to Daath, or at least, the outskirts of the city, things got a bit more interesting... and not necessarily in a good way.

A loud, almost-familiar growl rang out, and judging from the way Dark had drawn his guns, my initial guess was right. I turned, spotting Kallig immediately. Behind him were two southern ligers, and in front of all three...

"What?! What are they doing here?" Guy asked. I scowled. Danté, like his replica, had his guns drawn. Except, one gun was visible in its holster on his thigh. So, one was loaded with proper ammunition.

"Van sent us to get Ion," Arietta said. "You people are here for Ion too, aren't you?!"

I sighed, drawing my katana and settling into a defensive stance. "No."

Danté snorted. "I don't believe that in the..." he paused, eyes widening. "Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me!" Arietta blinked and looked up at Danté in shock. Danté just looked pissed off now. "It's Sync, isn't it? Ion's back in Belkend with the rest of your little troupe! It's Sync playing Fon Master here in Daath, isn't it?!"

Arietta looked at the rest of us, now thoroughly pissed off herself, though it seemed to be focused more at Danté than the rest of us. "That can't be right! I heard Sync was one of the people fighting to get Natalia out of Baticul! He killed almost a dozen soldiers! That couldn't have been Ion!"

I gave the others a pointed look before looking back at Arietta. "It wasn't. Sync wasn't the only replica," I said. "We left the real Ion somewhere safe." I felt Asch's mind reaching out for mine and reluctantly connected everyone in our group. *What?* I grumbled mentally.

*Florian?* Asch asked. I sent along a general agreement.

"Where is he now, then?" Danté asked. I rolled my eyes.

"Hell if I know. We sent Luke and the Dark Wings to move him before he got caught while we came to get Sync."

Danté growled, and Dark shot something back.

Then one gun came up, aimed for Natalia, and Danté's finger tightened on the trigger, his irritation with us and his replica finally forcing a release.

Natalia froze, but Dark certainly didn't. He moved.

Right into Danté's line of fire, just as his original fired.

Danté turned and left, dragging Arietta and the ligers with him.

I raced to stop the bleeding.

Fun Fact: Do you know? ...I didn't plan this. Dante didn't plan this. Dark planned it. Why? ...It's relevant to part of what I'm currently calling Dying Embers. (I really want a new name for that story...)