Speaking of semi-cliffhangers... I guess that last chapter was kinda one, too, huh? Oh well. Here we go again! Back to Kairi now! (And then we get to see the only chapter where Zion isn't an asshole.)

Also, hints of stuff that will be majorly important in the sequel.

I will give points to Zion for a dramatic entrance, at least. –Kairi

Chapter 10.4 – Divergent
Part 87

I knew, the minute we landed at the Radiation Gate, something was wrong.

"Kairi?"

"Zion's here," I realized, my field brushing against his mind and withdrawing immediately. It hurt like a bitch whenever he cut me off.

"Oh, no..." Sync muttered. I nodded.

"Zion's alone, but he's expecting us. I've no doubt he's already got his scythe ready," I said.

"I'm suddenly really glad we switched Guy and Anise," Seth muttered. "We'll need his sword."

I nodded. "Yeah... Let's go." I started walking off the Albiore, hand wrapped around my bow. I hadn't used it regularly since before Danté shot me in Grand Chokmah, but it still felt as familiar as ever, especially after the arte and target practice in Keterburg.

"What about the group at the Absorption Gate?" Luke asked once we were off the airship.

"If Van suddenly feels like being useful again, they'll be dead by now."

I will give points to Zion for a dramatic entrance, at least.

"You heard the Albiore land," I said. Zion scowled.

"I'd originally intended to deal with you closer to the passage ring. Then I remembered the little stunt you pulled at Tataroo Valley."

I smirked. "Oh, that? Yeah, Van didn't look too happy with me for that."

"What do you want, Zion?" Luke asked, getting us back on topic. The former Fon Master shot him a glare, then turned back to me.

"The same thing I've always wanted. I was willing to try the replica, but she didn't work. I've given those two a new job for now."

I frowned. "You have yet to give me a good reason why I should help you."

Zion snorted. "You don't need to know. You'll find out soon enough, anyway." He lifted his scythe—I'd been right, the blade was already summoned—and let loose a Demon Wing.

I jumped back, staying in the air just long enough to avoid getting hit.

"I'm really starting to understand why Kairi always seems to be in a bad mood around you," Ion said, drawing the Aska guns and leveling them on Zion amazingly quickly.

"Humph. I'm glad my little replacement is finally growing a spine, at least," Zion grumbled in response. Ion's expression flashed darkly.

"I prefer thinking of myself as your successor, not your replacement. I am not you, and I don't ever want to be." Zion dodged an Infernal Prison I'd sent his way.

"I notice you've kept the name, though," Zion taunted.

"You didn't exactly keep it," I shot back, charging up an Icicle Rain next.

"I stayed pretty close, didn't I? Demon Wing!"

I cursed, cancelled the arte, and jumped. Once I landed, I let off a few arrows followed up by a Blast Edge.

Then I found myself in the air again, letting off a Star Stroke. Once I landed, I realized what I'd just done.

My usual combo from Tales of the Abyss. I almost always played as Natalia.

I couldn't help it. I grinned. That was just too cool.

Then I had to start running, since Zion was on my ass.

"Maelstrom!"

Zion cursed loudly as Seth's arte landed.

"Prism Gale!"

And then I had to stop and stare, even as I started casting again, because damn that was a pretty arte.

"Damn you little brat!" Zion cursed as he stumbled out of the arte's aftermath. I smirked, already half-finished casting.

"Definitely not your naïve little replacement," I noted. "Cluster Raid!"

This one, Zion dodged, only to have to engage Guy and Luke. I smiled when I realized which swords they were using. Blue, red, and black clashed, and I started casting again. Seth's Dragon's Flower landed a bit too close to Guy and Luke for comfort, and they retreated a ways before my Infernal Prison landed.

"O fragments of brilliant light, converge! Prism—Oh no! No, no, look out!"

I watched as Ion quickly lost control of the arte. A good thing Luke and Guy had already been hightailing it out of there. Zion even looked concerned, and no wonder, since he was now trapped by the fonic glyph—the only part that had formed correctly.

Twilight, on the other hand, ran right into the middle of the mess, pulling in the field of fonons mine and Seth's artes had left behind as he went and roaring at the top of his lungs. Ion gasped and reached out, as if to grab the arte he'd likely put way too much power behind. Then something flashed in his eyes, and he crossed his arms again in a casting stance.

"O flurry of dancing flames..." Ion chanted.

Twilight growled what I guessed was the next part of the verse. I didn't catch it, since I wasn't listening telepathically.

An impressive display of light and fire erupted on top of Zion, and I almost felt sorry for the teen who'd been trapped by the malforming arte.

"Sunset Faith!" Ion cried as Twilight roared again.

Once it was over, Twilight growled something at Ion that didn't sound polite in the least.

I rolled my eyes. "Berate him later!" I ordered, aiming another arrow at Zion. He scowled, then frowned, looking past me. I glanced back, spotting Sync sitting on the ramp of the Albiore III with Ginji in front of him. Odd... had he been sitting there this whole time?

Zion moved to attack him, only to find Luke in the way.

Luke and Zion fought for a bit before Sync called out.

"Enough!"

Zion jumped back and glared at him.

"Van is dead," Sync started. "But he managed to set up the Absorption Gate to remote override all the other passage rings. Once it hits us, the Outer Lands will fall and we'll all be dead. The Zao Ruins is the only other sephiroth that hasn't been overwritten yet."

Zion's eyes went wide. "He used the master override..."

I glanced back, just in time to see Sync nod.

Zion turned around and raced down into the Radiation Gate. "Come on, Kairi! Tear doesn't know the seventh hymn, and the others will never disable it without the override! Not in time, at least!"

I realized what he needed immediately.

The Grand Fonic Hymn.

I ran after Zion, with Luke, Tear, Seth, and Sync right behind me. Seth and Twilight were lagging a bit. Then again, they didn't have a clue what was going on.

Even I wasn't quite sure, but I knew it wasn't good.

Damn... I hadn't realized the Grand Fonic Hymn could override my seals...

Then I remembered the other thing.

"Van's dead? Really dead?" Hey, I had a reason to be skeptical.

"He's apparently wrapped in a blanket in Dark's wing pack," Sync replied. "I honestly didn't know you could do that..."

"Only with dead bodies," Zion called back, slashing through another monster as he ran. I couldn't help but be a bit amused. First I'd had one of these guys (Sync). Then I'd had two (Sync and Ion). Now I had three... for the time being. I knew Zion too well now. Once the danger was past, he'd go right back to being an enemy.

We reached the passage ring, and Zion didn't even hesitate to slap his hand down on the terminal. "Kairi!"

I nodded, stood next to him, and started singing.

"Toue Rei Zue Kuroa Ryou Toue Zue~ Kuroa Ryou Zue Toue Ryou Neu Rei Va Zue~ Va Rei Zue Toue Neu Toue Ryou Toue Kuroa~ Ryou Rei Kuroa Ryou Zue Rei Va Zue Rei~ Va Neu Va Rei Va Neu Va Zue Rei~ Kuroa Ryou Kuroa Neu Toue Rei Kuroa Ryou Zue Rei Va~ Rei Va Neu Kuroa Toue Rei Rei~

It was obvious, the moment I sang the last note, that the Grand Fonic Hymn truly was a master key. The entire passage ring lit up, and Zion got to work. I glanced up at it myself and frowned at the roundabout method he was using.

"Can't you just input an interference code into a stop gap?"

Zion gave me the most confused look. "How?"

I pointed. "Up there, in layer four, there's a gap in the coding. If you input the code SS42B, it'll stop the shutdown."

Zion did so, and watched, apparently amazed, as the self-destruct sequence Van had planted stopped instantly. He stared at it for a moment before sighing. "Obviously I'm out of my league here..."

Sync chuckled. "It's Kairi. Anything Dawn Age is child's play for her."

Zion sighed again. "Alright... Well, I'm already down here. What are you going to do now?"

I reached out on the second plane and started manipulating things. "We've got to lower the Outer Lands, now. All the passage rings are under a lot of stress thanks to Van's little stunt. They could fail and send everyone plummeting into the Qliphoth at any time."

Zion nodded. "I thought I'd have some time to work since you'd sealed off the other six sephiroth, but apparently Van had other ideas."

I frowned and glanced at Zion. "Don't cut me off. This'll go faster if I've got help from the other side." I then opened a channel into his mind, and worked through the passage rings to find Asch, Jade, and the others. Once all of us were connected...

*And Zion is in this because...?*

Heh, count on Asch to notice that. *He's the one holding the terminal open,* I answered easily, still poking around with things.

*Van went behind my back. I need Auldrant in relatively one piece if my plans are going to work out right,* Zion added. *Also, if he'd succeeded, I'd have fallen to my death as well.*

*Self-preservation is powerful motivator...* Jade mumbled.

*Kairi, we've got a bit of a problem. The self-destruct sequence ended, but now we're locked out of the system on this end,* Asch said. Zion glanced at me.

*Okay. I knew about the master key, but since I apparently have no clue what I'm doing compared to you...*

I snorted. *I'm seeing that... Okay, we need to open up an intermediary so we can have two terminals fully active at the same time. And given the lovely mess Van made with the shutdown sequence, we'll have to install a bypass generator.*

*In a language the rest of us can understand, please,* Asch grumbled.

I sighed. *I can do it myself. Just don't let the terminal deactivate, Zion.*

*Kairi...*

*As long as I'm not physically touching it, it won't hurt me any more than it already has,* I said quickly before an actual argument could start. *Now then...*

It took me a few moments to open up permissions for Asch and Jade up at the Absorption Gate and then we got to work fixing the mess Van had made. Once that was done...

*Asch, Luke... It's up to you, now.*

The two redheads sent back confirmation, and I watched as Luke stepped up on Zion's other side, arms raised above his head toward the diagram above us. The familiar golden-orange glow of his and Asch's hyperresonance surrounded him, and I smiled.

Between Asch and Luke, lowering the Outer Lands was a mostly simple affair.

As soon as it was done, I broke the telepathic connection with everyone, and Zion removed his hand from the terminal before turning to face the rest of us.

"I really hope you don't want a fight right now..." Seth said. Zion shot him a glare, then walked past him—and the rest of us—silently.

"Well, I think that answers that question," I said. Luke looked up at me from where he'd ended up kneeling on the ground, and I caught sight of something pink. "Is that...?"

He forced himself into a standing position and held his arm out.

Sure enough, there, sitting innocently in the palm of his hand, was the Jewel of Lorelei.

"Lorelei asked me and Asch to free him from the core, but he also said something about the miasma, and an agent of the miasma. I didn't understand much of it, but I think Asch memorized it, so you should ask him when we meet up with them again," he said. "In the meantime... I'm not sure I'm the best person to hold onto this."

I snorted. "Don't give it to me. I'm the one that's always getting kidnapped or in some other form of trouble, remember?"

Luke nodded, then turned to Ion. "Ion... Would you guard this for me? I don't think Asch and I are going to be able to do much about Lorelei's request right away."

Ion looked surprised, but he nodded anyway. "Of course, Luke."

Once the Jewel was safely squared away, Luke turned to me. "Now what? Asch wants to know if you want to meet up in Keterburg again."

Guessing that Luke and Asch were communicating via fonslots, I crossed my arms. "Actually, I vaguely remember a certain blue-haired someone giving us a hint right after reciting Clan Precepts at us... Well, Asch and your father, at least. Anyway, Tataroo Valley's a bit closer to a proper halfway point... assuming their trip back up through the Absorption Gate doesn't take as long as it took going down."

"Apparently they all got separated partway down when half a platform collapsed," Luke said after a moment. "But Asch agrees. We really need that information on the Clans. I think we've been putting it off long enough."

"Who ended up with whom, to satisfy my curiosity?"

"Dark and Flick fell the farthest, then Natalia and Selenia, then Anise and Sorylle, and Jade and Asch were still up on the platform. Also, Dark said he, Selenia, and Flick have a strike arte in need of a new name. Apparently the name Flick gave it isn't quite accurate," Luke said, making a face. I giggled.

"Right. Okay. Let's head on up. Hopefully Zion's gone by now and not harassing Ginji."

The others nodded, and we turned and headed up to the Albiore again. Sync and I kinda fell back a bit, and he looked up at me. "Did the split-up thing happen in the game?" he asked softly. I nodded.

"Yeah. Luke and Tear, Anise and Jade, and Guy and Natalia. I always hated trying to play that part of the game... I use Luke and Tear for pre-return-to-Baticul, and Natalia was my usual, but dammit, Anise drives me up a wall and Jade's no good as a melee fighter... even in real life."

Those last four words had Sync chuckling. "So what happened to Ion?" he asked once he'd suppressed his laughter.

"Got left behind in Keterburg with Nephry. They didn't know they'd need Asch and Luke at both Gates, either. Good thing Asch thought ahead and got to the Albiore III, or they'd have never succeeded."

"Did Van do something there, too?"

"Yeah. Rigged the passage rings to redirect the Planet Storm to flow in reverse."

"Which would drop the Outer Lands..."

"Yup."

"Hurry up, you two!" Luke called. Sync and I laughed.

Fun Fact: Zion, while immensely unhelpful most of the time, wrote most of this chapter himself... He also wrote most of the next Keterburg sequence. When you read that mini-arc, you'll understand why this is so exasperating.