Ah. This chapter. Remember the comment I made about foreshadowing a couple chapters back? Yeah. It's here. Duke Fabre's about to slap everyone in the face with something, while Kairi tells us something rather interesting about Energy Cores.

There's more foreshadowing in this chapter, though it really has more to do with the last couple arcs of AEtT than anything else. You'll probably understand it the moment you see it.

Also... Prepare for the fourth (and second extra) Sword Dancer!

"Ignore my ramble and proceed to backtrack to whatever you two came in here for before that confuzzling conversation." –Kairi

Chapter 9.5 – Back on Track
Part 82

We arrived in Belkend after a few hours of flying. Some of the others had discussed Lorelei's message as we went, but I'd ignored them in favor of taking a nap. No one had commented on it, and had left me to sleep in peace. Well, at least until we got there.

"Come on, Kairi. We're here," Asch muttered as he shook me awake. I grumbled something incoherent at him, but got up anyway.

Duke Fabre was still mostly working out of Belkend, so we stopped at the governor's mansion first, to find him talking to Viridian.

"Ah, you're back. The core mission went well?" he asked. I nodded, half-slumped against Asch and still not totally awake.

"Lorelei contacted us through Tear's body. Once Kairi's actually awake again, she'll have to clean up the seventh fonons left over," Jade said. Asch chuckled and poked me in the cheek.

"For a morning person, you're sure taking a long time to wake up," he noted. I mumbled something, yawned, and shook my head. Well, no going back to sleep now...

Once I'd actually made up my mind to wake up, I woke up quickly.

"Wow. Was it Asch poking her or the reminder that she has work to do?" Sync asked. I reached over and smacked him.

"Now I remember why I hate naps..." I grumbled. I huffed and gave Tear a look. "Come on. Let's get this over with."

Tear nodded and followed after me without complaint. Once we were alone, however...

"Kairi... I know you don't like him, but..."

"If you're worried about Van, Zion and Ryndor have it covered," I said. I sat on the bed and made space for the younger woman, and she sat across from me quietly. "Ryndor doesn't have my knowledge of Energies, but he does have more spirit Energies than I do. He's taught Zion what he knows, though it isn't much. Still, it is enough to heal Van... albeit in a much more painful way than I'm about to heal you."

Tear nodded. "Thank you."

Whether she was thanking me for healing her or thanking me for reassuring her, I wasn't sure. Nor did I especially care at that moment. I slipped out onto the second plane and got to work.

Tear's body wasn't nearly as riddled with miasma as mine had been when I started to do this, so it didn't take me long to finish. Like Luke, however, she ended up curled up on the bed by the time I was done. I left her there and stood, heading out the door.

Everyone looked up from where they'd been seated around the table. "She'll be fine. Certainly less problems than I have."

Asch's expression darkened. "And on that note..."

I sighed. "Now?"

"Now."

An annoyed groan and a bit of light shoving later, Asch had me alone in another room. "Lay down. I haven't gotten to do a proper examination in a while, and I know you better than to think you've been taking good enough care of yourself to not need something fixed up."

I nodded and did as he'd told me to, closing my eyes and meditating as he checked me over.

I lost track of the time quickly as I played around with an imaginary flame. Asch's voice brought me back out of it.

"Kairi?"

I opened my eyes after letting the flame splutter out reluctantly. Asch sounded... like he'd sounded when he first told me I had miasma in my body.

"Yeah?"

"How many passage rings have you operated since Akzeriuth?"

I frowned and thought about it. "Mt. Roneal right after Akzeriuth. Mt. Zaleho when our two groups finally met up again. The Meggiora Highlands after Dark got shot, so we could get the frequency for the spry old idiots." Asch cracked a smirk at that one. "Hmm... Nope, I think that's it."

And the frown was back. "Are you sure? Other than in the core and the peace conference in Yulia City, are there any other times you can think of when you were exposed to large amounts of miasma?" he asked. I frowned and thought back.

"Not that I can—" I cut off abruptly as I remembered something. "Guardian's Pain."

"What?"

"In Tataroo Valley, there was a Sword Dancer. Seth got hurt, I got hurt, Dark used Sacrifice... I thought for sure he was dead. I was so angry... I pulled up contaminated fonons from the sephiroth nearby and... it was a dark version of Guardian Field. There was so much miasma, and it hurt like hell, but I was so upset I didn't even give a damn," I said. Asch clenched his fists.

"Do yourself a favor? Try not to use it ever again? Because if the damage spreads any farther than I think it will after operating the Radiation Gate... It'll scar your uterus."

It took me a few moments to figure out what Asch was saying. Once I did, I felt my throat drop into my gut.

No kids. Ever. And that's assuming the miasma from the Radiation Gate doesn't do more damage than Asch thinks it will.

Oh, shit. What about when the miasma comes back after the Absorption Gate? The thing that requires the sacrifice of so many replicas? What happens then? I'd been fortifying the diving line, but...

"And if the dividing line breaks after we lower the Outer Lands?"

Asch's expression told me all I needed to know, and I sat up slowly, still trying to make sense of that revelation. It was disheartening, to say the least.

There was a knock at the door, and I glanced up. "Come in."

Much to my surprise, it was Duke Fabre and Luke who walked through the door. I glanced at Asch. "Do I need to leave?" I asked.

"No. Given your relationship with the elder of my sons, it may be best if you stay."

I swallowed and glanced at Asch. *Should we tell him about...?*

Asch grimaced. *Not yet. Not until...* He pauses. *And dammit, even if it does change his mind, I'll fight him every step of the way.*

I force a small smile before looking up at a now-frowning duke.

"I'm getting the impression you found out something that isn't good."

I bit my lip. "If I'm not very, very careful... It could turn extremely 'not good'. It's fine for now though, so I'm not going to worry about it yet."

"What if I did the Radiation Gate?"

I blinked at the sudden question, and then looked over at Asch. Then I realized what he was saying. "You can flush the miasma as easily as I can, and with me standing over your shoulder, there's not much chance of you screwing up the programming... But won't your hyperresonance be needed to lower the Outer Lands?"

"If we're right about how Van's set things up? Yeah," Luke agreed. Asch looked irritated. "But that doesn't mean we can't send Tear or Jade with you and have one of them operate the terminal."

"Or Seth, or Natalia, or Dark, even," Asch acknowledged, realizing that Luke was right. "Any seventh fonist, so the cleansed seventh fonons will leave their fonslots without complications."

I nodded. "And that just leaves..."

"If that happens, we're all screwed anyway."

"No, actually, we're not, but I'd really rather you two not have to do that. Well, actually, you. Luke's a replica, and I really don't think it'd be a good idea for him to be anywhere nearby during that."

"Huh?"

I sighed. "Ignore my ramble and proceed to backtrack to whatever you two came in here for before that confuzzling conversation."

Duke Fabre sighed. "I've already discussed this before with Asch, but I'd like to bring it up now with you and Luke." Asch suddenly looks up at him, eyes wide enough to show his surprise. "I knew what I was doing when I attacked Hod. I had standing orders for my men to leave Mary and Gailardia, at least, alive, so that the seal that Clan protected wouldn't be broken. The night before we attacked, I wandered off on my own and found an old shrine hidden in a cave under Hod."

I remembered a bit of what Miyagi had told us about the old spirits, and lined up locations with elements and families. "The Shrine of Alvess, spirit of earth and the being used to seal away Sylph, a seal protected by the Gardios lineage."

Duke Fabre looked mildly surprised, and glanced at Asch, who was giving me a rather baffled look. I sighed.

"Guy has an affinity for wind and water, fonon-wise. He's also got an wind affinity and an earth secondary, Energy-wise. Miyagi told us of the six spirits, and their elements, and said each spirit was lined up with an element, and used to seal the fonon sentience of the opposite element. The families guarding the fonons are aligned with that fonon, not the element of the spirit responsible for the seal. Jade's an odd one out, being earth and water, but Nephry is fire and earth, Seth is also fire and earth, and I'm fire and water. And... Jade was adopted out early enough, he may have been fire and earth like Nephry and Seth to begin with," I explained. "The Balfours guard the seal on Ifrit. So, since Guy was a wind affinity, it wasn't hard to figure out that he's guarding Sylph's seal."

Luke looked mildly amused. "And Dark and Danté are...?"

"Rem, which is rather ironic in Dark's case."

The three redheads found this about as amusing as I did, judging from their expressions. "Tear, contrary to her constant use of sixth-fonon artes, is actually more earth-aligned. Earth and water, to be specific, just like Jade. But Van's Energy affinities are water and fire. So those two confused me for a while... before I realized that sun and moon Energies don't align properly. Fende guards Shadow. Tear's strangely backwards Energy Core is why she always uses sixth-fonon artes."

"Right, hers and Dark's both move left to right rather than right to left," Asch realized. I nodded.

"Except Dark's elemental affinity isn't distorted from it due to his situs inversus." Asch chuckled and muttered something about a suicidal replica under his breath. "And I don't think I need to tell anyone that Reighn and Aerith favor water. Their hair and eye colors scream it loud enough already, even if their weapons and artes didn't." I sighed. "Now then. What were you saying, before I interrupted?"

Duke Fabre sighed. "I knew what I'd found when I found it, and... Guy's grandfather was there. He knew it was quite possible that my attack on Hod would result in the seal breaking." He paused and glanced at Asch, then me and Luke. Asch's expression was carefully blank as he continued. "I also knew what it would mean for Auldrant if the seal was destroyed. For that reason... I allowed Lyondell Gardios to perform a blood adoption."

My eyes went wide, even though Luke now looked beyond baffled.

"Then... If Guy dies..." I started.

"Asch is the next heir to that bloodline, with Luke behind him," Duke Fabre finished. Luke's confusion faded away slowly, an unidentifiable emotion taking its place. "I can't tell Asch not to get involved with you and the Clans mess, because he already is involved."

"Does Guy know?" I asked. Duke Fabre nodded.

"Yes. I told him after I told Asch."

"Wait, wouldn't that make Natalia involved already, too?" Luke asked, the confusion coming back. I shook my head.

"No. Suzanne can choose to be associated with the Clan or not because she married the duke and he wasn't adopted until after that. Even if the adoption had occurred before their marriage, King Ingobert wouldn't be under any sort of obligation to align himself with the Clan. Natalia isn't involved... with Gardios, at least. Darigan, on the other hand, is another mess altogether, and one that, while Dark and her father agree on... she's fighting," I said. Asch sighed.

"I noticed."

Another knock at the door interrupted him, and Luke, being the closest, walked over and opened it up. Tear stood there.

"I'm sorry for interrupting, but Jade said that since I've recovered and Kairi's medicine is here, we should head to Sheridan. There's no telling how long it will take my brother to come up with something new to stall us," she said. I sighed and nodded.

"No kidding. Alright. Now that Luke and I have some thinking material for the trip to Sheridan..."

Luke sighed. "Great. More things to worry about."

Asch snorted. "Leave that to me, for the time being, at least. You've got enough on your plate already."

Luke shot him something just short of a glare. "Thanks."

Tear sighed. "I'm really not sure I want to know," she said. I giggled and shook my head, hopping off the bed and following after her. Luke, Asch, and Duke Fabre followed me.

Before I really even noticed it, we were all back on the Albiore and flying toward Sheridan. We hit rather heavy mist about halfway, and once it cleared, Guy cursed softly from where he was sitting up front with Noelle.

"What's wrong?" Jade asked.

"That mist was so thick I couldn't see to navigate properly, and I turned us too far west. Well, south, actually. We're really off-course now, and we'll have to either try to fly above the Meggiora Highlands, or go around them," Noelle said. "The winds over Meggiora shouldn't be too bad right now, but after Ginji crashed..."

I stood up and walked up front to join the three of them. "We can always check first. If I'm right about where we are, it'll add another few hours to our trip to go the long way around. I can see wind movement using the wind Energies on the second plane—if it's too rough, I'll steer you away," I said. Jade gave me a grateful look.

"Let's do that. We don't need any more delays at this point."

Noelle nodded, and the Albiore quickly started gaining altitude.

I knew, in the game, that flying over the Meggiora Highlands brought you to the top of your limit for altitude. However, this wasn't the game, and I had a feeling we could actually fly a bit higher than that.

I slid halfway onto the second plane and looked around. There were plenty of wind Energies, but they weren't moving violently. Actually, they were rather calm. There were a few dangerous pockets, but I pointed those out to Noelle with ease.

That's when Natalia pointed out something I hadn't noticed.

"Is that... Oh, what did you call it, Kairi? Ultimatus?"

I glanced in the direction Natalia was pointing and felt ice run down my back.

She was right. It's the Sword Dancer again.

"There's enough space to land, and so long as the winds don't suddenly pick up in the next hour, we should be fine," Noelle said.

"Cool. I wouldn't mind facing off against it again."

"Just don't use Sacrifice this time, okay?"

"Would you like me to heal?"

"That'd be nice."

"Kairi?"

I turned around slowly.

Fun Fact: I was originally going to have them talking about Lorelei's message (since it was different from canon) at the beginning of this. I never pulled it off. It got nixed completely, and then the chapter started flowing. Hint, hint... -facepalm- Sometimes I hate uncooperative characters.