And here is another excellent example of characters not cooperating. Oh well. I hadn't intended for her to show this off until AEtT, but Kade brought up a good point. She's still got something else to show off in AEtT.

Of course it would actually be Gungnir. –Kairi

Chapter 12.7 – Out of Time
Part 104

'Ancient melody of newborn stars... Resound... Resound... into... into... Dammit, still not coming to me...' I grumbled mentally, dodging another shockwave and sending a Demon Fang back. And I still didn't even have a clue what this was about!

Asch signaled that he was about to unleash an over-limit, and I nodded. He ran in, knocked the Sword Dancer back a ways, and then summoned up a massive amount of seventh fonons. "Agent of annihilation! Rending Saber!"

My own mass of sixth fonons filled the void easily, and I smirked, even as things clicked into place in my head. 'O ancient melody of newborn stars...' "What's the matter?" 'Resound...' "Don't want to lay down and die?" '...into these broken souls...' "How about I help you!" '...and give them hope!' "Shadow's scorn!" 'This is it!' "Fae's Ire!"

The Sword Dancer looked very, very angry, and it unleashed a very strong shockwave... bringing me to the point of being able to use my over-limit, I noted.

:Use it!:

"I will!" I shot back, signaling for Asch to get clear.

He looked concerned—and no wonder, I don't think anyone other than me heard the Sword Dancer's demands—but moved anyway. So did Twilight. Flick had been off to the side swallowing down an Orange Gel, so she was out of the way already when I ran in and unleashed my over-limit.

Then I let go of the first and sixth fonons I'd been drawing in, allowing them to rush away from me. The world faded out, and to me, it looked like I was in space, floating among the stars.

"O ancient melody of newborn stars..." Honestly, this sounded more like a song than anything else. I noted the 'stars' around us starting to swirl into... almost a galaxy shape, like the Milky Way... "Resound into these broken souls..." The 'galaxy' finished forming, with me and the Sword Dancer at its center. I noted the massive number of first fonons collecting. Hmm... Well, I knew stars could go supernova and then black hole, but... "And give them hope!"

The galaxy collapsed, unleashing the power of the first fonons. "Twilight's Requiem!" This is where the black hole part came in, an explosion of darkness that made the Sword Dancer screech yet again.

The world faded back in, and I hit the ground hard. Damn... that had been more exhausting than the first couple of times I'd done two MA Extensions in a row.

The Sword Dancer loomed over me for a minute.

Then it seemed to decide that no, this battle was not over.

I cursed a few times as I jumped to the side, rolling away from it and then getting back to my feet. Asch ran over to me to help me up, and then he half-dragged me back away from the Sword Dancer.

"I thought you said you weren't going to try to create a Mystic Arte of your own?" he asked. I nodded.

"Yeah... I was just gonna stick to the Extensions, but..." I looked up at the Sword Dancer and frowned. "What are you preparing me for...?"

He didn't respond. Not verbally, at least. But he did send Flick and Twilight flying with the release of his own over-limit. I scowled. "Great. Just great."

Asch frowned. "Kairi?"

"Don't ask. We'll figure it out later. For now, we just need to beat him... Oh, fuck!"

The world faded out, with me and Asch still visible. Neither of us could move all of a sudden, and I did my best to brace myself.

The Sword Dancer roared, and black fire consumed the two of us.

"Ow, ow, ow..." I muttered, allowing myself to drop to one knee for a moment. Damn it, I felt like I'd just woken up after the burning of Keterburg again.

"Kairi? Asch?"

"Healing Wind!"

I took a deep breath. "Thanks, Reighn." I got to my feet and ran at the Sword Dancer, spinning around in a Guardian Field that healed me and Flick and hurt him. He shook it off and then attacked again, and I let out a groan and retreated, once more casting Cluster Raid... Or trying to, at least. Flick's habit of favoring Dragon Dance meant they got turned into Dragons' Hearts again, but that was fine too. Anything that would do damage, at this point.

Flick jumped up, using DelQues. The Sword Dancer swatted her out of the air, and I ran over to her, noticing that she was having trouble getting back up. Asch used another Cure, and I let off a Demon Fang to deter the Sword Dancer... hopefully.

Then I sighed and ran around to where Reighn was using another Crackle.

"Oh, oh, Final Embrace, Final Embrace!" Flick started shouting suddenly. I couldn't help it, I laughed and started doing it.

It took a moment to realize Reighn was doing the same.

"O maiden of ice who sleeps in the silent forest—" And damn did our chorused chanting sound haunting. "Grace my enemies with your pure smile and offer them thy bosom!"

The arte felt like it was dancing underneath my hands, and I grinned and looked over at Reighn, who looked caught between panicking and celebrating.

"Seek the eternal sleep! Deep Freeze!" we finished.

Well, to be quite frank, it was definitely more destructive than usual. And bright. It was pretty bright, too.

The Sword Dancer fell to one knee and looked over at me.

:Perhaps... You will succeed... Where the others have failed... For now... I must rest...: he said. His body vanished into the usual black wisps, and I smiled when I saw the five weapons left behind... Ultimatus proudly rooted into the ground in the middle.

I stepped forward and lifted the bow he'd dropped, and smiled at Flick, who was still carrying around mine. "Trade you?"

She giggled, but did so, giving me my quiver back as well and placing a hand on the bow string, as if to draw it. A phantom arrow appeared, and she drew the bow, aimed, and fired.

The arrow put a nice little chip in the wall she'd fired at, and I smiled. "All yours."

She looked down at it again and then seemed to notice something etched into it. "Yutis..." I smiled, recognizing it now. One of the weapons available from the casino in Keterburg. Well, it should have been...

"I found us another two flower weapons," Reighn noted, lifting one of them and swinging it carefully. I tilted my head to the side.

"Oh?"

He smiled. "This one's Gold Wisteria." He looked over at Seth, who was playing around with the other weapon. It was a dual-bladed weapon like his usual 'sparrow blade', but with the usual floral vines and whatnot that came with the territory of being one of the 'flower' weapons.

"Blood Lily," Seth murmured.

Jade stepped over next and picked up the spear that had been left behind. To be quite honest, it looked like Gungnir, the spear from the movie Thor. It was beautiful, and golden, and... really just kinda fit him.

"Gungnir... That shouldn't be possible..."

I resisted the urge to face-palm. Of course it would actually be Gungnir.

"Colonel?"

"If I'm right... This spear was lost over a thousand years ago. It's the symbol of one of the greatest emperors Malkuth has ever seen..."

I smiled. "Given what we know of the Sword Dancer... who's to say he didn't give said emperor the spear in the first place?"

Guy chuckled. "Heh. Looks like you've got quite the legacy to live up to now, Jade. You're the only one that can wield a spear with any sort of grace."

The rest of us got a good laugh out of that before I turned to Asch.

While we'd been getting the other four weapons passed out, he had stepped over to Ultimatus and was now kneeling in front of it, hands gripping the hilt. I frowned and tilted my head to the side. What was he up to...?

The darkness flared around the sword—and Asch—as his eyes snapped open, and in a single, fluid movement, he stood, drawing Ultimatus out of the ground.

He then glanced back at the rest of us. "Don't ask. You don't really want to know."

I shrugged. "Whatever. Shall we be going? Now that he's gone, we really should leave. We've got a summit to go to, remember?"

Natalia sighed. "Yes. So, back in the same groups that we traveled here with?"

I looked over my shoulder. "With two exceptions... Seth and Flick come with us. I still kinda need to talk to those two," I said. "You guys go to Kimlasca, we'll head to Grand Chokmah."

Numerous nods went around, and we headed off, aiming to get back to the Albiores before night fell.

Well, that was the plan. Thankfully, all of the human replicas had left the island, which just left us to contend with the monsters and the monster replicas.

Well... And two humans.

"...Fuck."

I sighed as Danté and Arietta turned around. "Yeah, Dark, I think you just summed it up."

Danté frowned, glancing among us. I noted that his eyes lingered on those of us who had fought the Sword Dancer—AKA, the ones who were still tired.

Arietta turned around with a glare that was aimed at, of all people, Ion. "Why did you never tell me you were a replica?!"

Huh. So she'd found out.

Ion looked upset. "I'm sorry. I tried to—many times. But Mohs had all of the new Fon Master Guards under strict orders not to let me say anything, and... Van wanted you to believe I was the real Ion, too."

Arietta's glare turned onto Reighn. "Is that why you left?!"

Reighn shook his head. "No. I had to go take care of my siblings. I found out about it when I got back because Mohs trusted me to keep my mouth shut... I also didn't have a clue that Zion was alive until Kairi told me," he said. Danté frowned.

"So it's Mohs' fault."

"Completely. Ryndor and Zion mentioned something about him poisoning Zion, then using that as an excuse to create the replicas. He just wanted someone easy to manipulate," I said. Arietta looked about ready to fly off the handle. Danté grabbed her arm gently.

"We got what we came for, Arietta. And then some. We should leave before Zion and Mohs realize we're missing," he said. Then he shot the nastiest look at Dark. "If you can kill Mohs, I think I might stop trying to kill you."

He then turned and walked off, Arietta following behind him, arms shaking with her rage. I frowned after them and crossed my arms.

"Well. Isn't that just peachy?"

"Damn. Danté's about as pissed off as Arietta. Wonder what crawled up his ass and died?" Flick said, voice soft. Jade looked over his shoulder at her.

"I'm going to disregard your language for a moment and ask this instead: How do you know Danté's angry? Arietta did look about ready to kill someone, I'll admit that, but..."

"He was fingering his guns even before he spotted Dark. He's pissed, and wanting to shoot something. I think we should just be glad he didn't decide to take his temper out on us," she said. I nodded.

"Yeah. Which means something must have happened... Other than Arietta finding out about Zion, finally," I said. "Well, we'll have to figure it out either on the go or just save it for later. It's late, and I don't want to try to navigate this place in the dark."

Seth sighed. "I've got some firewood in my wing pack."

"I've got food stuffs," Luke added. I grinned.

"I'll cook. Or help cook, at least."

Jobs got passed around, a fire got built up—and then lit by Mieu, happy to help as always—tents started forming, and Asch, Reighn, Jade, and I ended up at the fire to cook dinner, which was really more of a potluck thing than anything else. I made a pasta salad (with plenty of pasta left over), Asch cooked up a not-quite beef stew (meat and gravy and no vegetables), Reighn made fried rice—with some plain white rice on the side—and Jade rooted through random wing packs to find ingredients for us, and for everyone else to throw in with everything else.

To say the least, dinner was more interesting than it had been in a while.

The next morning found me the first awake, as usual. I wandered around a bit, making sure to keep within shouting distance of our camp at all times. Well, and Flick had seen me leave, anyway.

I was standing on top of a nearby building when Asch and Sync joined me. I raised an eyebrow at Asch "Up a bit early, aren't we?"

He shrugged. "To be honest, I couldn't sleep. I've been up most of the night."

Sync looked up at me, and for the first time since St. Binah, when my father had died, he stepped up close to me and... cuddled, would be the best way to put it. "I'm scared, Kairi."

I bit my lip, turned, and hugged him. "I know. I know..." There was just so much that could go wrong, and dammit... Sync was only a couple years old. I was surprised Flick wasn't having this problem. Then again, she'd been programmed to fight. Sync hadn't. Flick was also just so... innocent sometimes.

She wasn't like Sync. She wasn't like my little brother, who'd been through so much already and was still fighting... just because I'd asked him to, basically.

"If I thought we could just run away and not fight, I'd go. This very instant. I'd take you two and run... But we can't." Asch stepped over and joined the little group hug. "We have to stop this... And it terrifies me, because I don't know if Asch and Luke are going to survive what they'll have to do to get rid of the miasma. I don't know if we'll survive the infiltration of Eldrant. But dammit... We can't just sit here and do nothing."

Asch nodded. "I don't want to lose either of you. Not after everything we've been through... You two brought me out of the darkest days of my life, and if I'm going to bear any sort of darkness now, I'll bear it knowing you two are right behind me."

I frowned. "Is that was the thing with Ultimatus was?"

Asch nodded. "That sword is inherently dark. I won't be able to wield the Sword of Lorelei after we add the Jewel... Once it becomes the Key, it'll be light, and unless I want to basically kill myself with conflicting fonons..."

"That's fine... I'd meant for Luke to wield the Key of Lorelei, anyway," I admitted. I sighed. "I never wanted to get this involved."

Asch chuckled and pulled us closer.

Fun Fact: Kairi—and I—really did never mean for her to get so involved in things. She was supposed to start as a nomad, be a help only for as long as it took for her to get Asch, Sync, Dark, and Reighn together, and then basically run off and do her own thing.

Dark veto'ed that when Natalia went and offered him a job as her bodyguard. Okay, fine, whatever, have fun running around with the main group.

Asch said he wouldn't leave until Luke was back with the main party. Ugh, fine, Luke comes back after Natalia gets kidnapped, and Kairi's being held captive at that point anyway, so fine.

Sync got attached to Selenia, which wouldn't have been much of a problem, since Selenia would have just come with them, but then he also got attached to his 'innocent little brother'. Who then decided he was sick of being useless and was going to learn to fight. Grr...

Reighn... Well, you saw what happened at Baticul. Do I have to explain this one?

Needless to say, no one really cooperated with Kairi's wishes.