Okay, on to Chapter 11! Warning: This takes place about a week after the last chapter. Here's what you need to know:

Mohs has been arrested.

There are six God-Generals (In order by Division: Cantabile, Asch, Kairi, Reighn, Sync, Luke) again.

Teodoro (not Tritheim) is Acting Grand Maestro.

Everything else is mentioned either in this chapter or in the next few chapters, I believe... I tried to write the 'Retaking the Order' chapter and it refused to come out. So if it ever changes its mind, I'll probably throw it over in Colored Ripples.

That all said... Enjoy. This chapter brought to you mostly by Sync.

"Hey, Asch was still asleep, I was taking a shower." –Sync

Chapter 11.1 – Dances With Death
Part 90

"This is going to be cruel and unusual punishment for a great number of people, you know that, right?" Sync asked.

"I'd say it already is cruel and unusual punishment."

I glanced over my shoulder and gave Cantabile a sour look. Then I looked back at Sync and helped him fix the headdress he'd just displaced, again. "Remember, first as Ion, then the green coat, then your old uniform, then the new one. Five, ten, twenty, twenty-five, which means you won't have a long time to get changed between the first and second and the third and fourth."

Sync rolled his eyes. "I know, I know, we've gone over this four times already!"

I smirked. "Ion looked rather tempted to shoot me after I reminded him for the sixth time before coming to check on you."

"I kinda wish he had."

"Shush, you. You're not the one who has to half-bullshit a speech for half an hour," I grumbled. Sync snorted.

"Just get sidetracked and talk about the incident with the Kimlascan soldiers on the Tartarus."

I paused and let a smirk cross my lips. Then I patted Sync's head and dislodged the headdress once again. Sync scowled and fixed it as I turned and started walking. Now, to see how many people are really attentive to details.

I walked into the room I'd chose and glanced around. I got a few curious looks, and many more irritated looks. Hmm... Doesn't look like anyone noticed that... I stepped p the podium where Ion was waiting patiently and turned away from the crowd. "None of them noticed, did they?"

"Nope," he confirmed. "I'll leave you to it then."

"See you at fifteen..." I muttered back before turning to face the crowd, which was now nice and orderly. I nodded once before I started speaking. Five minutes in and already most of the way through Reighn's spiel to me about the way the Order used to be, the way we were trying to put it back together, Sync, dressed as Ion, walked in, looked around a bit, then stopped over by me and asked if I knew where Rialle was. A bullshit answer later, he left, and I went back to talking.

By the time he came back, this time in the familiar—if rather worn, now—green coat, I'd started talking about methods of compartmentalization. This part, I'd learned from Reighn and Rialle just a few days previously.

"Hey, Kairi? Do you know where Mom is? She said she'd meet me out front, but isn't there."

I smirked. "Check your room. I think she said something about clothes and a pigsty?"

I got flipped off—albeit sneakily—for my troubles as Sync walked off, and I couldn't hold back the snort. I then turned back to my audience and started talking yet again.

Which Ion came in the second time, he was dressed up as a girl... One of his Fon Master Guardians, to be a little more precise. He ran in, looked around frantically, and immediately ran out again. By then, I'd started in on the Tartarus incident... Though I'd really only gotten to warning Jade about Asch and Sync.

Sync came in for the third time dressed in his old uniform, mask and all. He stopped inside the door, and I paused in my speech about sneaking into the ranks of the Malkuth soldiers. "Do you need something?" I asked politely.

"I was looking for Asch. Since he's obviously not here, I'll leave you to your storytelling," Sync said in that same cold, imperious tone he'd had pretty often in the game.

It took a lot of self-control not to stick my tongue out at his back for that comment, though. I knew it was just subtle revenge for my clothes jab.

I then went back to my story.

By the time I got to informing Asch and Sync of Barton, Sync was coming back in, wearing the white coat he wears for the Eldrant battle in the game. I noted the large number of irritated looks he drew. They either didn't get that memo, had little patience, or both.

"Um, we have a bit of a problem."

That worried me instantly. That hadn't been in the script... "Do I even dare ask?"

Sync looked a bit sheepish. "Anise misplaced someone."

Translation: Florian's on the loose.

I sighed. "If you haven't found him by eleven, I'll help search," I replied. Sync nodded gratefully and left. Well, that was a bit of improvisation... But, I was glad to have the warning.

I then went back to talking about scattering lines of a poem around for Jade to find. By the time Ion returned, this time in the outfit Rialle had made him, I'd almost finished.

Ion was trying to find Luke, apparently to get him to help search for Florian. I told him what I'd told Sync, and he left, leaving me to finish my story. Ion had one more appearance to make, and I had five minutes to kill with about one minute of story left.

Of course, as soon as I finished, Florian ran in, only to be immediately captured and dragged out by Cantabile.

*Cantabile got him!* I announced to Sync and Ion telepathically. *And that's one 'Ion' appearance I didn't plan for, but oh well...*

I sighed, shook my head, and turned back to the crowd again. It didn't take me long to launch into a basic explanation of the only other time I'd gone under cover since then, that being the situation where Van had given me amnesia.

I also made a few comments about pros and cons of pretending to have amnesia while under cover.

Then Ion came back, once again dressed as himself. I frowned. "Now who's lost?"

Ion smiled. "No one. I was headed down to the cathedral, and Asch asked me if I'd deliver this on my way," he said as he walked over with a slip of paper in his hand. I accepted it and unfolded it, a bit surprised to see Ion's neat handwriting.

Thanks. Finding Florian was becoming a pain.

I smiled. "Thanks." *And you're welcome.*

"You're welcome!" Ion smiled and left, and I sighed.

"Okay, I need to wrap this up. Before I leave... Did everyone remember to bring a pencil and piece of paper?" Everyone did. Not surprising, since I'd put that one somewhere very obvious. "Alright. I need everyone's names written at the top... then I want you to write when I was supposed to arrive and when I actually did arrive." I got a lot of glares, and had to force down a smirk. "Second, I want to know how many times I was interrupted, and by whom each time. Please include Fon Master Ion's visit at the very beginning."

Once everyone was done writing, I collected the papers and left after asking them to return in two hours.

Two hours would give me more than enough time to weed out the completely hopeless cases.

I finally made it to Ion's office to find a bit of a crowd waiting for me. Ion, of course, Rialle, Reighn, Cantabile, Asch, and Sync. I stood in front of Ion's desk and started sorting the papers into two piles—those who had noticed my note at the edges of the letter I'd sent out, and those who hadn't. Sadly, only eight of the forty-some people I'd just spent half an hour talking at had noticed, and none of them had seen the clock in the back of the room.

"Oh boy..." Rialle muttered. I sighed.

"Yeah. You wanna sort these into who noticed all nine interruptions while I look at these?" I asked, holding out the larger pile. She shrugged and accepted the pile, getting to work quickly as I started leafing through the pile that had noticed my notes. The first two got put into one pile, the next three got put into a second pile, another got put with the first, and then I had to stop and laugh.

Everyone looked up from whatever they were doing to stare at me.

"Ari's little brother's got spunk."

"Oh? Hue noticed your notes?" Asch asked. I grinned.

"Yeah, and you wanna know what he put for the answer to the second question?" Now everyone looked curious. "This is a loaded question. There are obviously far too many Ion replicas running around to answer without screwing at least three up."

Thus was Ion's office suddenly filled with laughter, and this was how it was when Luke and Aerith walked in.

"What's so funny?" Aerith asked. I handed her the 'answer sheet' of one Hubris Miles. (And on that subject, are they all named after sins?) She then started giggling as well, and passed it off to Luke. The redhead sighed.

"There were only two of them..."

"Three," I corrected automatically. "Florian ran in and then got hauled back out by Cantabile before most of the group noticed." I glanced over the last paper and put it in the second group, then took Hue's paper back. He would get his own little pile for that, because that was just too neat.

Rialle was about finished with her large pile now, and I went ahead and started going through the ones who had noticed all nine interruptions. None of them were exactly right, but I sat the ones that were only one or two answers wrong off to the side.

Piles all beautifully separated now, I looked up at Asch. "So... Lunch?"

He smiled slightly. "Lunch sounds nice."

It didn't take me long to clip all the different groups together, make a neat pile, and leave. I'd been looking forward to having lunch with Asch for a few days now... basically ever since we'd gotten back to Daath. Asch was wearing his old uniform for now until he decided on a new one, Sync had his new uniform, I had a black, blue, and silver version of the uniform I'd gotten from the God-Generals, and Luke was still just running around in his red and black coat.

But, for now, it worked for us.

Lunch was a simple affair—we hadn't planned on much, really—that involved me having to pat Asch on the back at one point after I made a comment and he almost started choking. Once we'd finished eating and exchanging a few chaste kisses, we headed our separate ways, Asch to go find Cantabile to talk about the new recruits they were trying to get, and me to go get my piles of papers and start embarrassing people.

I stepped back into the room, glanced around, and smirked when I saw Hue staring up at the clock on the back wall with an unreadable expression.

"Finally noticed that, did you?" I asked softly. He jumped a bit, but nodded. I grinned, grabbed his arm, and dragged him up to the front. Everyone seemed to notice, and I suddenly had the attention of all forty-seven people on me. Except Hue, trying to look unremarkable.

"Ladies and gentlemen," I started. "I'm about to list off sixteen names. If yours is one of them, please vacate the room and go talk to one of Sync's aids about being transferred elsewhere."

Once the sixteen hopeless cases were gone, I glanced around at the rest. "This next group needs to join me up front here with Hue." I called up the other seven who'd seen my notes. "Alright... Sergeant Hallis. Would you please tell us what you found in the border of my letter?"

The blonde woman I'd named smirked. "A warning that you'd be late, as well as a note to ignore your rambling because it bears no importance after the first five minutes."

I smirked. "What time did I say I would arrive at in that note?"

"Ten fifteen," she answered easily.

"You got here at ten ten," one man among the others said. I gave Hue an amused look, and he sighed.

"That would depend on which clock you were looking at."

The group started muttering confusedly. "There's only one clock," someone said. I pointed to the back of the room... more specifically, at the clock that read 12:55, rather than 12:50, like the one behind me.

I watched as the entire group just kinda slumped in shock. "Now then, on to the second one... Hue. I dragged you up here for a reason. Care to repeat your answer for the crowd?"

Hue turned a nice shade of pink. "Word for word?" I nodded, smirk still in place, and he took a deep breath. "This is a loaded question. There are obviously far too many Ion replicas running around to answer without screwing at least three up."

Once again, everyone looked baffled, and I smirked. "Boys?" Ion, Sync, and Florian stepped into the room, standing in a perfect line, and all dressed up as the Fon Master. Though, like this, it was easy to spot the differences. It took everything I had not to laugh like a maniac at the faces of the people in front of me.

"The full answer to the question, by the way, was Ion, Sync, Sync, Ion, Sync, Sync, Ion, Florian, Ion. If anyone was watching the clock, they'd have noticed that Ion and Sync always showed up at five minute intervals... Florian was an unplanned addition, one that only about a third of you noticed. Also, Ion's second appearance was spotted by even less," I announced.

"You did this just to test us..." a girl said softly. I raised a eyebrow.

"Well, I did basically warn you. Not my fault you didn't catch the rather obvious message in the border."

"So, that story about the landship..."

"Oh, that? Totally true, and mostly Sync's idea... Me telling you about it, at least. If you were paying attention to that you know he was still asleep at the time."

"Hey, Asch was still asleep, I was taking a shower," Sync corrected me.

Most of the group found this amusing, and I smirked. Now to get back to business... "Ladies and gentlemen... Congratulations. You survived round one of me screwing with your minds. Meet me up on the arching path in the cathedral common tomorrow morning at eight... and brace yourselves. Reighn's going to be driving everyone nuts tomorrow, and we get to watch." I paused. "Dismissed!"

"Yes, Ma'am!"

With the exceptions of Hue, Ion, Sync, and Florian, everyone left then. I raised an eyebrow at Hue.

"You know, when I told Ari you were taking over the Intelligence Division, he told me to be ready for anything. And yet... You still managed to surprise me."

I grinned. "Gotta keep you on your toes! Sync, grab Florian before he gets too far. So, Ari say anything else about me?"

Hue, apparently not at all fazed by my mid-thought divergence, crossed his arms. "He also mentioned something about you saving his life during the Tartarus infiltration you were talking about... Maes Hughes, wasn't it?"

I smirked.

Fun Fact: Maes Hughes strikes again! Hehe... You know, I actually had to go back and read those chapters to write this one? Which is where Sync's quote came from...