Okay. And this is about where I gave up editing on New Years' Eve. Onward! I want this finished so I can focus fully on AEtT!

And possibly start posting it. Because we're now a month and a half ahead of the AEtT timeline. –growls-

Lol... I love the last few lines of this chapter. Jade's second quote should be enough to tell you why.

"Oi! Stop infecting people with your lagginess!" –Anise

"Collecting his rappigs is not my day job..." –Jade

"Well, we'll have to deal with it later. If Kairi wants us to go chase down a floating island, we'd better go chase down a floating island... Good heavens, that sounded ridiculous." –Jade

Chapter 12.4 – Out of Time
Part 101

Luke's POV

Grand Chokmah was as peaceful and blue as ever.

I stopped on a bridge, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath.

Nothing against Baticul, but... If I ever get the choice of where to live, this would be it. A large enough city I won't feel out of place, but not so foreign that I won't be comfortable. And this place... this was peaceful. The water, the birds, the breeze...

"Luke! You're falling behind!"

I sighed. Too bad Natalia couldn't figure that out. "Sorry," I called back, jogging to catch up to her. I noticed the glances that were shot our direction. Most of the people passing us seemed to focus on Jade—no wonder, he was pretty well known in Malkuth, after all—but I saw a lot of them glancing at me... Or more correctly, the scars clearly visible on my abdomen.

I really needed to get a new coat. The scars didn't bother me in the least. They were proof that I'd been through hell and come out the other side still kicking. The problem, however, was that other people didn't always see it like that.

"You like it here, don't you?"

I glanced over at Tear and nodded, then found myself stopping and reflecting. Tear... Man, to think I'd thought so little of her when she first showed up in the manor. I mean, yeah, she was trying to kill Van, but... She never meant to harm me. Then when we'd found Dark...

"Tear?"

"Yes, Luke?"

"I'm sorry."

She actually stopped and stared at me, visible eye wide. "What... are you apologizing for?"

I gave her a small, insincere smile. I couldn't force anything more realistic, to be honest. "For the way I treated you in the beginning, before Akzeriuth. Before we got back to Baticul, even. You were just trying to protect everyone, and I..." I stopped and shook my head. "Come on. There's nothing we can do to change the past, so I guess we'd better make sure the future is a good one."

Tear smiled and nodded. "Yes. And Luke... I forgave you for your attitude a long time ago. You weren't exactly raised to be a gentleman, from what I've seen. Guy admitted that they spoiled you after the kidnapping... Well, I suppose after you and Asch were switched... And I wouldn't expect any child brought up in that sort of situation to be much different than you were." She paused in her little speech and looked up at me. "But you changed. Whether it was Akzeriuth, or Van, or Kairi... Regardless of what, exactly, was responsible, you changed into a young man I'm proud to know."

I smiled a bit. "Thanks, Tear."

"Oi! Stop infecting people with your lagginess!" Anise yelled.

I chuckled. "I don't think that's a word, but okay. Whatever floats your boat."

"How about whatever floats our landship? Keep in mind, the Tartarus can't handle much more pressure than is already being exerted on it," Jade noted. "We really should hurry. The sooner we get Emperor Peony's cooperation, the sooner we can start looking for the traveling Scorers who are more than likely responsible for the replica data Dist is using for Mohs' replica army."

I sighed. "There's another reminder I really didn't want. Oh well."

Guy turned and started walking backwards. "Well, think of it this way. Kairi's probably going to stop Eldrant in its tracks, because it's Kairi and Dawn Age tech and stuff I wish I understood, and we've got the other half of the job. Can't be letting her and Asch down, now can we?" he asked. I couldn't help but chuckled.

"How can you grin all the time?"

Guy's grin widened. "It's a learned habit. Besides, despite all the 'world-may-end' stuff going on, it's been a fairly good day and I'm in a fairly good mood."

Natalia giggled. "Yes. And I can't let Dark down either. So let's go talk to Emperor Peony. I'm sure he'll agree to attend the summit."

Jade snorted. "Especially since Keterburg, the only place he really doesn't like going, is no longer an option."

I laughed a bit. "Yeah, yeah, okay. Let's get going, then."

Guy turned back around and led the way to the palace, Natalia behind him, and Anise skipping along behind her. Jade, Tear, and I brought up the rear, with Mieu sitting on my shoulder and bouncing happily.

"You're in a good mood too, Mieu," Tear noted. Mieu nodded.

"Yup! Master gave me a bunch of carrots this morning! They're really tasty!"

I felt my cheeks warm up at the look Tear gave me. "Wh-what?"

She smiled. "Nothing. Just remembering you calling him 'Thing' and kicking him one time when he annoyed you."

I flinched. Yeah, I really had been an ass to Mieu in the beginning.

"Guys, come on!"

I sighed. "Just because we're not in the mood to run!" I yelled back at Natalia. Anise groaned.

"Great. Now he's infected the colonel with his lagginess too..."

Guy laughed. "We are moving pretty fast," he said. Anise huffed and stopped, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at me. So, apparently it's entirely my fault that we're not walking as fast as she is.

Once we all got grouped up again, it was just a short walk to the palace.

Hue was walking out with General Frings and a redhead as we approached.

"Ah, Alex. Are you heading back to Engeve?" Jade asked. Alex shook his head.

"No. I put my request for discharge a few days ago. General Frings signed off on it this morning. I'm taking Hue back to Daath," he said. To be honest, Hue looked like the walking dead.

Jade adjusted his glasses. "So you're leaving the Malkuth military to join the Oracle Knights?"

Alex shrugged. "Maybe. I'll be talking to your sister at some point, that's for sure, but I haven't got any solid plans yet, other than keeping an eye on Hue."

Jade nodded. "Right."

Hue glanced up, then let his head hang again. I opened my mouth to say something... then realized that I really had nothing to say that wouldn't be totally inappropriate. So I chose not to say anything, and just watched as he and Alex walked past.

"I hope you don't mind that I signed off on his discharge," Frings said, obviously talking to Jade. "Ari was a good friend, and I hated seeing his little brother like that."

Jade nodded. "I know, and I'm glad you did. I don't want Hue to be by himself right now either," he admitted. Frings nodded, then walked away, and Jade sighed. "Let's go."

"Jade!"

All eyes turned toward the palace, where a maid was racing after a rappig. Jade groaned, but intercepted the rappig with a practiced ease that told me this happened rather often. The maid raced over and grabbed its collar.

"Oh, Colonel! Good timing! I'm sorry, he and Kairi just slipped out earlier, and I saw General Frings and those two men leaving and... Oh, come on you stubborn rappig!"

Jade chuckled. "Are you sure this one isn't Kairi?"

"Blue collar. We never take off more than a single collar at a time for fear of getting them mixed up," the maid replied, still struggling with getting the rappig to move. Jade nudged its hind leg with a foot, and it finally started moving, much to the maid's relief. "Thanks..."

"Have you found Kairi?"

"Nope."

He sighed and looked at the rest of us. "Why don't you all head to the audience chamber? I'm going to go find the stray rappig."

I bit my lip. "Um... Okay..." I really wasn't sure I wanted to question the emperor's choices in names for the rappigs...

Jade caught back up to us a few minutes later, looking decidedly miffed. He was muttering something that didn't sound at all polite regarding Emperor Peony, and I guessed it had to do with the rappig he'd gone to help collect.

"Let's go," he grumbled. "I want to get this over with... Collecting his rappigs is not my day job..."

Anise giggled a bit. "You could've just asked for help, Colonel."

Jade shrugged. "Well, regardless, it's a moot point now." He paused in front of the doors into the audience chamber. "The maid I spoke to said he should be in here. If he isn't, he'll be in the library."

He opened the door, and I noted that the audience hall was empty.

"Library it is then," Guy said. I nodded, and followed Jade as he walked off.

When we walked into the library, it was to the rather amusing scene of Flick sitting on Seth's shoulders—Seth looked like he was about to fall over—and the emperor trying to point out a book. Flick still couldn't reach it with the extra height sitting on Seth's shoulders gave her, and Jade sighed.

"Would you like some help?" he asked. Seth grunted something that sounded vaguely affirmative, and I chuckled a bit myself.

"Flick, why don't you get down? I think Anise and I can get that for you."

She looked over her shoulder. "Uh, okay..." She leaned back and basically did a back-flip off of Seth, who started rubbing his left shoulder where it connected to his neck, even as Anise walked over. Since some of the bookshelves in Daath were pretty tall, too, Anise and I had done this a few times previously for Ion. I knew this wouldn't be too much harder.

It started with her sitting on my shoulders the way Flick had been with Seth. Then Anise actually stood up, using the bookshelf for extra support. Once she was standing, it was an easy matter to grab the book, pass it down to someone else, and then sit down again so I could kneel and let her down.

"You two do that pretty often, don't you?" Seth asked. I scratched the back of my head.

"Well, Ion's always trying to find something new to read, and some of the ladders in the libraries in Daath just don't do the trick."

The emperor found this amusing, apparently.

"So, what are you all doing here? I'd have thought Kairi would have been with you or something..."

Jade adjusted his glasses. "Kairi went with the other group. We seem to have a duo of traveling Scorers on the loose, and if her theory is correct, they're responsible for the extraction of the replica data that made the army that attacked the training platoon in Northern Chesedonia," he reported. "On that note..."

"I'd like to arrange a summit in regards to the Score," Natalia picked up. "Due to the amount of controversy surrounding the subject, we need to figure out exactly what we want to do before the citizens begin to worry much more. They don't know why we've suddenly halted all Score readings, nor do they know why we're suddenly in the Qliphoth. We haven't been able to tell them anything, and until we do, they're going to continue to panic."

Jade nodded. "She suggested this back in Daath and Ion and the God-Generals have all agreed to it already."

"Father has agreed as well," Natalia added.

I nodded. "Kairi's group was going to bring it up with Yulia City's mayor as well, and—" I cut off mid-sentence as I felt Asch open our connection. *Hold up a sec,* I muttered to him. "She's also trying to see if we can't slow down or stop the rise of... what did Largo call it? Eldrant?"

Jade adjusted his glasses. "Yes. What does Asch want?"

"How did... Nevermind..." *I'll never understand how he does that.*

*Too used to watching me or Kairi cutting off mid-sentence to hold a telepathic conversation he can't hear,* Asch replied. *Teodoro agreed to the summit, and Kairi just got back up from the underbelly. She was right—they were siphoning the extra energy out of the reservoirs again. Oh, and the Isle of Feres is already floating around. She wants us all to meet up there as soon as possible.*

*Did she stop the energy drain?*

*Yeah, but she's worried it wasn't soon enough. At this point, they may be self-sustaining,* he admitted.

*Alright. Where are we supposed to look for a floating island?* I asked.

*Around Yulia City...* He paused, apparently listening to something on his end. I could have pushed in a little closer and listened, but we'd discovered that usually led to headaches, so I didn't. Bad enough dealing with Jade when I didn't have a headache. *Northwest of Yulia City, on the water. It'll be easy to spot from the air, apparently.*

*Right. We'll be there,* I said before cutting the connection. I looked up from the floor to Jade. "Kairi thinks she was too late. Eldrant may already be self-sustaining, if not ready to leave the ocean floor just yet. Also... We're under orders to head northwest of Yulia City and look for a floating island."

"And grandfather?"

"Um, he agreed."

"What was with the 'um'?" Guy asked, giving me a wary look. I chuckled a bit.

"Well, the conversation went from Jade being way too used to people having telepathic conversations, to, and I quote, 'Teodoro agreed to the summit', to Kairi got back from her errand... and that last one took up about eighty-five percent of the conversation," I said.

Natalia crossed her arms. "Five words. He dedicated five words to this. You two are hopeless."

Guy chuckled. "In their defense, Largo did say Eldrant was supposed to be a replica of Hod. That's a huge expenditure of seventh fonons right there, and I'm not sure I want to know the mechanics behind the floating island we got pointed to just now."

Natalia's shoulders dropped a bit. "When you put it like that..."

"Yeah, kinda puts the summit on a back burner, doesn't it?" Anise said. She looked up at the emperor. "So I take it you'll come? I'm guessing it's gonna be in Daath, now that we've got things mostly straightened out again."

Emperor Peony nodded. "Come back and get me as soon as you're ready," he agreed. "This is important. I've been swamped with people demanding answers for why we can't let them have the Score."

Seth nodded. "Everywhere we go, we get asked if we might possibly be traveling Scorers. To be quite honest, if it weren't for the fact that you mentioned something about replica data, I wouldn't be surprised if the ones you mentioned were just doing it for the money."

Jade sighed. "Well, we'll have to deal with it later. If Kairi wants us to go chase down a floating island, we'd better go chase down a floating island... Good heavens, that sounded ridiculous."

"Especially coming out of your mouth..." Guy said, grinning. I couldn't help it, I snorted.

"The worst part is, that's exactly what Kairi wants us to do."

Jade sighed again. Yeah, that about summed it up.

Fun Fact: You know... I pretty sure Asch and Luke didn't have the exact same style for indicating them talking across their fonslots as Kairi has for her telepathy in the original version. (Er, second version.) ...However, I'm not going back to look. I'm just saying, I'm mostly sure those two versions of telepathy weren't indicated in the same manner previously.