Whoomph. Sorry this is so late. I really did mean to have everything posted by the end of November... Though, given that it took me two weeks to write the last 22% of this story (~65k words), I think I can be forgiven.

On that note... Here ya go!

"Sorylle must've told him about a certain, over-fluffed, half-camoflier cheagle being in the city. I hope he doesn't do anything rash..." –Kairi

"Is this what you two have been doing all morning? ... We're doomed." –Sync

Chapter 9.1 – Back on Track
Part 78

It was a peaceful moment. The busy citizens of Baticul hadn't yet awoken. The sun was just lightening the eastern sky as the stars disappeared, one by one. I made up imaginary shapes, since the stars here weren't the same as those from Earth.

It left me to wonder if one of those stars I saw could have been the sun of my home solar system.

"Eeyagh!"

I sighed. Peaceful moment broken.

I looked over my shoulder to give Seth and Flick a reproving look. The girl just grinned, completely unabashed as she skipped over to me, silver bells of her new clothes jingling all the way.

"What? I used to do that all the time. Not my fault he's forgotten that."

I rolled my eyes. "You're hopeless." Seth chuckled.

"Well? What do you think will happen later?" he asked. I looked up at the eastern skies, and viewed the sunrise with hope.

Natalia had been even more confident than she had been in the game, and I had no doubt that it was because of Dark. Asch was right. Her heart was torn between him and Dark, and somehow, I had the feeling that Dark was the one she needed by her side more than Asch. Which was probably a good thing, given what had happened in Sheridan between me and the redhead.

Asch seemed to be beating himself up over the kiss, while I had decided that it may just be better to let him work it out. Jade had pointed out one thing. Regardless of my current status as a doppelganger, I was still me.

Even knowing full well that ours was likely a doomed love, I was willing to jump right in, because it was the most genuine thing I'd ever known.

Of course, there was no way I was telling Anise about this. She was ridiculous enough, what with having so many people to tease about their relationships.

"I think King Ingobert will change his mind," I said. Seth didn't reply. He didn't exactly have a chance to. Flick pulled him down the stairs nearby headed for Miyagi's dojo. Right. He'd returned to Baticul after having a chance to recuperate, hadn't he?

Still, Flick was rather unpredictable.

"Her destructive programming is taking effect," I muttered. "She will be irresistibly drawn to large cities, where she will back up sewers—"

"—reverse streets signs, and steal everyone's left shoe. What's the thing with the left shoe, anyway?"

I couldn't help it, I busted up laughing. "I have no idea how many times I've asked that question, honestly!" Asch chuckled right along with me, and I figured, either he'd made up his mind, or he was going to hold off on dealing with it until after this was all over.

Asch didn't speak for a while. Neither of us did. We just watched as Baticul slowly woke up. Our audience with Ingobert wasn't until nine, and it was barely seven, so all we could really do was relax.

"Natalia and I were talking last night... She's ready to go talk to Uncle again. Although Dark seems to have vanished."

I frowned. Why would Dark... Oh. Oh boy.

"Sorylle must've told him about a certain, over-fluffed, half-camoflier cheagle being in the city. I hope he doesn't do anything rash..."

"Huh?!"

I laughed at the expression on Asch's face. "Mohs."

"Oh... That... Explains a lot." A pause. "Over-fluffed, half-camoflier cheagle?"

"That's what Twilight called him."

Asch snorted, then finally let it devolve into laughter. "The worst part about liger curses is... you really have to understand ligers to know that they're curses. Otherwise, it just sounds really..."

"Goofy?" I supplied when Asch didn't finish that sentence after a moment. We exchanged a look before the laughter started up again.

In fact, we were still having difficulty keeping straight faces when we joined up with the others.

Ion was dressed up in his Fon Master garb again, while Sync looked downright grateful to be wearing his green coat. Natalia, I noted, was still wearing Noir's gift. Either the rest of her clothes were in bad shape, or she had really come to like it. Aside from that, and Luke's coat, the rest of the Abyss group was in what you'd expect them to be in.

"Flick and Seth won't be coming up with us," Jade said as I looked around for the duo in question.

"Contingency plan? Or are they just goofing off?" Selenia asked. Jade shrugged.

"Considering that it was Flick who informed me, I'm honestly not sure."

Asch and I exchanged looks and once again broke up in laughter. "Definitely Stitch."

"But wouldn't that make Seth Lilo?"

"Jade could pull Nani."

Sync's face-palm brought us back to the group quickly enough that we did get to catch Jade's completely baffled look.

Sync, on the other hand, looked caught somewhere between wanting to laugh his head off and exasperated. "Is this what you two have been doing all morning?"

Another exchanged glance. "Yes."

"We're doomed."

Natalia's frustrated huff, on the other hand, did manage to sober us up, and we headed up to the castle. I glanced off to the left as we made our way across the courtyard. Ion had slipped over to the Fabre Manor with Sync the day before, and the two had come back with Ion grinning like a little kid and Sync smirking. Then again, there are days when I wonder if it's actually possible for Sync to smile consciously.

Dark joined us once we entered the castle. We arrived in the audience hall on time, and I took quick note of the people in attendance. King Ingobert, Alpine, General Goldberg, General Cecille... Suzanne?

And Mohs. Of course. Although he suddenly looked a bit paranoid.

Suzanne was sat in what must have been her sister-in-law's throne. I smiled. That was a good sign. It meant Natalia's throne was still open to be reclaimed.

"I looked over your letter last night," King Ingobert started. "Is there really no other way? The sephiroth have held the land afloat for two thousand years."

Most of the eyes in the group turned to me. I was, after all, the resident expert in Dawn Age machinery.

I took a deep breath. "If, from the start, the passage rings had been properly maintained, and the core's vibration had been monitored, and the proper measures taken to release that extra pressure on the passage rings... None of this would be necessary at all. Even if the lapse had started just a couple centuries ago, it would have been nothing to get the entire system back into top shape. But that machinery was put in place and then basically left to rot. The only way to fix any of it now would require shutting everything down anyway. Which means we'd have to lower the Outer Lands regardless of whether we were planning on leaving them there or not."

"Your Majesty, she is but a little girl, playing with things she can't possibly know of," Mohs said almost immediately.

"I would appreciate it if you wouldn't call my adult sister a little girl," Jade added. Mohs scoffed.

"Adult? Ha! That girl is barely sixteen!"

"Nineteen, as of two and a half months ago. Now then, if we're done questioning my age..." I turned back to King Ingobert, who looked about as irritated with Mohs as I did.

Bets on how long it's going to take him to kick Mohs out, anybody?

"I see. But you plan to silence the core's vibration, so that the liquefaction stops and it would be safe to leave the Outer Lands in the Qliphoth. What of the miasma?"

I took a deep breath. "The dividing line between the Qliphoth and the Outer Lands is currently holding it back. When we lower the land, that dividing line will drop along with the land, and push the miasma back into the core."

"Are you sure?"

This time, the questioning came from behind me. I sighed. "That field's too dense for it to do anything else, and I've already started solidifying it further. It helps that I've managed to pull all but the two Gates out of Van's hands. All of the active sephiroth, save for those two, are dumping just a few hundred extra fonons into the force field every time they complete a cycle. Which is once every three hours or so. By the time we actually get around to dropping the land, I'll be very, very surprised if the dividing line breaks for even a moment, let alone let any amount of miasma through."

"Fa—Your Majesty. Kairi is confident in her knowledge of the passage rings. However..." Natalia started. She took a moment to take a deep breath. "Lowering the Outer Lands to escape our deaths should the passage rings fail will be pointless if we simply send more soldiers to their deaths against Malkuth."

"Your Majesty, she speaks nonsense. The Score—"

"Dark."

The former assassin grinned and finally drew the gun he'd been fingering, lifting it and aiming for an extremely startled Grand Maestro.

What shocked most of the gathering, however, was that it was King Ingobert who had spoken the teen's name. He stood and stepped off the dais. Mohs didn't dare move, not with Dark's gun aiming for his face. Ammunition or not (and I'm sure there was ammunition there), a shot to the face hurt.

"Did you really think I would agree so easily to the murder of a girl I've raised the past eighteen years?" Ingobert asked. "We may not be related by blood, but Natalia is my daughter."

"But... but..." Mohs floundered for a moment, before his eyes caught on Dark's. The boy raised an eyebrow.

"You were willing to set a trap for me, an assassin who you knew just wanted to get by. I couldn't risk that you would do something to Natalia, my charge, just to monopolize the king's ear," he said.

"And I'm glad Dark warned me. The Score? Your Score would have me sacrifice my nephew simply to start a war."

"Father!"

Ingobert turned away from Mohs, made it two steps toward Natalia, and was practically tackled to the ground by the blonde. He looked past Natalia, glanced at Dark, and nodded.

Dark smirked and motioned to a number of the soldiers standing around. "Escort the Grand Maestro out of the castle," he ordered. General Cecille started, and he raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong, ma'am?"

"Lieutenant, you don't have the authority—"

"Actually, Colonel Daemione does have that authority, Brigadier General," General Goldberg interrupted. I blinked a few times and looked over my shoulder at Dark.

"Colonel?!" Anise sounded surprised. No wonder. So was I.

Dark just chuckled and waited for Mohs to leave the audience hall. That didn't take long. He was being escorted, after all. "As of this morning..."

Jade adjusted his glasses. "So that's where you disappeared off to..."

Ingobert and Natalia stood, the king turning to us. "Yes. I've had Dark keeping me informed of everything. Especially Mohs' involvement. I realized after you all escaped from Baticul that a number of the men Dark and Kairi had to knock out were higher rank than him. Besides, he'd earned it."

It was quiet for a moment as things settled down a bit. King Ingobert looked over our group. "We agreed last night, without Mohs' interference, that we would attend this peace conference," he said. "All I ask is that you leave Dark and my daughter in Baticul until that time."

I crossed my arms. That made sense. "Alright."

The rest of us turned and left, Twilight growling a goodbye to Sorylle as we went.

The next stop, once we'd collected up Seth and Flick, was Grand Chokmah, and that one wouldn't take near as long, we hoped.

Since he wasn't necessarily required to be the Fon Master for this one, Ion didn't wear the Order of Lorelei robes, instead changing back into his white and green clothes. I guess a couple months of not wearing them made them a bit uncomfortable.

We made it to the palace without too much trouble. And then found out that Emperor Peony was already in the audience hall. How helpful. We didn't even have to fight past the damn rappigs.

"Ah! Good to see all of you in one place again finally! Well... Maybe not all of you. No Natalia or Dark?" Peony asked. I shrugged.

"They're setting things up in Kimlasca. Still willing to go through with that peace treaty?"

The man grinned, and Jade (and a number of the people nearby) groaned. "Have you two no sense of propriety?" Sesemann grumbled. I shrugged.

"Why be proper when you get the important parts done quickly? We still have to make another stop before we can even think about holding the peace conference, because as things stand now, we have no reasonable means of getting to Yulia City," I stated. Peony nodded.

"As long as it's not Keterburg, I'm there."

Asch and I exchanged a look. "We'll leave Jade here while we go get the flightstone," he said. Jade gave us a glance, and I raised an eyebrow, which resulted in an eye-roll, a sigh, and a mumbled complaint about troublesome siblings.

It was about an hour later, when we were all settled in on the Albiore again, that Asch and Sync grabbed me and pulled me into the back. Asch crossed his arms, and Sync had his hands on his hips.

"You told Jade, didn't you?" Asch asked. I nodded.

"He was kinda eavesdropping on us back in Sheridan," I admitted. Asch groaned, turning a nice shade of red, while Sync looked confused.

"What happened back in Sheridan?" he asked. Asch moved to tell Sync it was none of his business, but...

Well, he hadn't given me much of an idea of where he stood yet, and I was really starting to worry about it, so...

Asch actually squeaked when I covered his lips with mine again. Sync flushed a bright, bright red, and it was worth the red I'm sure was dusting my own cheeks to see just how embarrassed my little brother was all of a sudden.

Asch looked a little lost, but at least the both of us got a bit of amusement out of Sync's floundering attempts at speech. The green-haired teen finally gave up and left, and Asch looked at me.

Something collapsed in around my heart, because for a moment, I was sure I'd screwed up everything. And then Asch moved, and I didn't fight back. It was only the second time I'd let him lead when not in a fight, I realized later.

The first time had been months previously, back when I still childishly believed that I held Asch as just a friend, though that was likely about the time when things started to change. I wondered if it would be different now. It probably would.

We broke apart, and I grinned. "We have got to dance again."

Asch just laughed.

Fun Fact: There's a chapter in Re:ARitA that starts like this one. Peaceful moment on a ferry... "Sync's awake." Peaceful moment broken. –grins- One has to wonder if that's gonna happen in AEtT, too... (I wouldn't know. I'm still trying to figure out what the hell Dist is up to. Which really ought to be warning enough right there.)