I think this splitting up the updates thing is working for me. Better than trying to do the mass-editing/uploading, at least. So I'm gonna see if I can get it all of it up by Dad's birthday (February 9). That's a little less than one upload a day. I'm thinking two or three every other day-ish, since two's okay and I do work...

Anyway, this is for Chapter 12. Just the 12-part Chapter 13 left, and then it's on to An Echo through Time.

"Anise, remember what you said on the Tartarus when I asked about how Daath had been five-ish months previously?" –Kairi

"Oh, and Ion is in desperate need of your bone-mending help. He's about fed up with the crutches already." –Dark

Chapter 12.13 – Out of Time
Part 110

Asch was the first one to come to, although I'd healed Luke first. He looked up at me.

"We did it?" he asked. I nodded.

"Yeah. Now hold still, your body's still trying to fall apart on me."

He hummed, and looked past me to Fallon.

"You will keep your promise," she said. Her tone was caught between a questioning one and one that was confident in her statement.

Asch nodded. "Yes. If I have to gather them up and bring them to Daath myself, I'll make sure the other replicas are given a safe refuge."

I glanced back, and saw Fallon smiling, even as her body suddenly turned transparent. "Thank you... Thank you both."

"Fallon..."

She turned to look up at Guy, who had walked over to her. "And thank you... for giving me my name..."

Guy looked heartbroken, and he glanced at me. I bit my lip and turned back to Asch. His body would hold for now...

I reached behind me with my spirit, found Fallon's Energy Core, and pulled. She gasped, and I grunted, as it felt like something had just slammed into my back. "Damn..."

Her body disappeared... but the fledgling soul I'd just pulled into my own Energy Core was still alive, and conscious, if a bit weak. *How did... Why did you...?*

I chuckled wearily. *I'm a sucker... And I can't stand Guy making that face at me,* I admitted. I took a few moments to regain my spiritual balance after having to shove aside a number of Energy bonds, again. *Rest, Fallon... And with any luck, you'll wake up in a new body of your own...*

*You saved me...*

*Guy wanted me to.*

Fallon sort of vibrated, but I could tell she was happy. *Okay...* Her presence faded slightly, and I recognized it from when Asch would be asleep when I first woke up of a morning at Aramis Spring.

I sighed and started pulling on Energies so I could finish putting Asch back together completely.

"Damn it..." Guy cursed. I smiled.

"Don't worry. She's still alive."

Guy paused and looked at me. "What do you mean?"

Asch looked up at me with wide eyes. "You didn't..."

I nodded.

"Aramis Spring?"

"Yep... Except this time it's another girl."

His face turned a lovely shade of red.

"Do I even want to know what this conversation is about?" Jade asked. I sighed.

"Asch and I haven't been totally honest about our initial trip to Aramis Spring," I said. I paused, double-checked my handiwork, and smiled. "Okay. You should be fine. Your body's patching itself together faster than it's falling apart now, at least."

"And if you just did what I think you did, you probably shouldn't be pushing yourself trying to heal me anyway," Asch grumbled.

"What's this about Aramis Spring?" Guy asked. "If I remember correctly, didn't you say you and Asch caused a hyperresonance in Daath and ended up there?"

I nodded. "That's what happened... With one discrepancy. We've been telling everyone that Asch and I both ended up there, but... Anise, remember what you said on the Tartarus when I asked about how Daath had been five-ish months previously?"

She frowned, then her eyes went wide. "Wait a second, there was nothing about a hyperresonance!"

"You said Asch was in a coma for a week. That was the week when we were at Aramis Spring. Asch couldn't have been in two places at once, right?"

She tilted her head to the side. "Unless... the coma was a cover-up?"

Asch snorted. "I wish. No... Kairi was using an Energy circle to teleport to Aramis Spring. I stepped in at the wrong time, and the magic literally tore my soul away from my Energy Core."

I nodded. "If I hadn't wrapped my own soul around his, he'd have died, and his body wouldn't have lasted too much longer. We were both stuck in my body for that entire week. And yeah. It was definitely awkward. Funny thing is, Sync actually figured it out on the walk back to Daath," I said.

"So, wait..." I looked up at Guy, and smiled when I saw his wide eyes. "Fallon is..."

"Asleep right now. And she's going to need her own body soon, since I won't be able to hold onto her for long. But she's still here."

Jade adjusted his glasses. "You know... If they held on to Mary's replica data..."

I nodded. "That's what I was thinking."

Guy looked about ecstatic now. "Kairi..."

I sighed. "Well, I guess that's one more Heir for Gardios... But now I have to find Path before Hue does."

"Path?" Tear muttered. "Apathy." She paused. "Wait a minute... Van's replica wasn't here either." I sighed.

"He's probably doing the same thing as Path; trying to find other replicas," I said. "Either that, or Mohs actually grabbed him and took him to Eldrant."

Tear nodded.

"Now what?" Natalia asked.

"Absorption Gate..."

I looked over at Luke. "Ah. About time you woke up."

Luke grumbled something unintelligible as he rolled over and stood up. "We have to stop the Planet Storm next, right? That means we need to go to the Absorption Gate."

I nodded. "Yeah. You and Asch are as healed as you're going to get right now, so let's go. We can all get some more rest on the Albiore."

"What about supplies?" Reighn asked as we moved over to the elevator. It started lowering. "I remember Dark cursing the Absorption Gate rather creatively."

I sighed and started thinking. That, and Fallon needed a body, and... "Okay, new plan. Make a stop in Chesedonia, reorganize into the party Luke had right before the Isle of Feres, with the exceptions of Ion, Seth, and Flick. Get what you absolutely need and then go to the Absorption Gate."

"So, we're basically dumping you, Asch, Reighn, and Selenia off," Luke said. I nodded.

"You six deal with the Planet Storm. It'll take you a few days, I'm sure, so while you're doing that, I'm going to go with Dark and the ligers to the Isle of Feres."

I got a lot of weird looks for that.

"Two things. Just you four?" Jade asked. I bit my lip and considered it.

"Actually, no. Luke, you're taking Seth with you. I want Jade with me. Aside from him, Dark, the ligers, and Noelle, however, yes, that's all I'm taking with me. I'll leave Reighn, Selenia, Asch, Flick, and Ion to finish restocking on medicines. We're going to need them, badly."

Jade blinked, apparently realizing just what I was up to.

"So, what was that second thing you were going to mention, Jade?" Guy asked.

"You're going to go make Fallon's body now."

I nodded. "I've survived with Asch's much more... Hmm... substantial soul attached to my Energy Core, but I'll strain myself if I do it too long."

"So it really would be a good idea for you to not be carrying her around for long," Tear said. I nodded.

"Yes. There's also the chance that I could possibly choke her out without noticing. She's not as strong as Asch, and our bodies are designed for survival, right down to our Energy Cores. I could easily shove her back out, and without someone to latch onto, she'd die," I said. "I doubt it'll happen in the first couple of days, but it's possible, and not something I want to happen."

Jade nodded. "And you want me to help make sure everything goes right."

"With the fomicry part, yes. Dark and the ligers are to keep the monsters from getting in the way. Once I've got a body to work with, I can do the rest," I said. He nodded.

"What about gald? We may not have as much as we need for the kind of restock we need to do..." Reighn asked.

I dug around in my wing pack for a bit and pulled out a rather large pouch. "Here. There's a couple hundred thousand right there."

Asch chuckled. "Someone was planning to make a trip to Grand Chokmah and never got around to it."

I smirked. "Well, not a whole lot I can do about it now."

Jade chuckled and looked over at Reighn. "If you need any more, talk to Seth. He should have quite a bit of gald himself."

Asch sighed. "Not like I don't have a few hundred thousand gald on me as well. We'll be fine, trust me." He paused and looked over at me. "Just be careful, okay? You've got enough health problems; I don't need Fallon causing you more."

I rolled my eyes. "The biggest problem you caused me was a million and a half headaches from chewing your antagonistic ass out. I think I'll be fine."

Asch ducked his head. "Um, well, I did get us petrified too."

I paused, thought about it, then nodded. "Yeah, I'll give you that one. And that was the reason why I didn't get to get rid of you the day after you walked in on me, too..."

Asch shrugged. "You know what? I don't actually give a damn anymore. Because I know I wouldn't have left Daath with you if I hadn't gotten us petrified. So I'm not even sorry anymore."

I smirked, and then laughed and the look Natalia was wearing. Asch found it pretty amusing too, once he realized what I was laughing at.

Then Natalia figured it out, and the expression she had been making turned into a scowl. "Oh, shush."

Which of course just made us laugh harder.

The elevator reached the bottom floor, and we headed out toward the Albiore. Of course, we didn't make it far before we found ourselves with a bit of a problem.

"Oh. Hello again."

I smiled. "Hi, Path."

Path looked confused for a moment, before he seemed to realize that I'd given him a nickname.

"What was that bright light earlier?" an elderly replica asked. I sighed.

"The stinky purple stuff went away too," a young child added. I crossed my arms.

"The replicas who had already arrived here agreed to help us get rid of the miasma, in exchange for safe refuge for those who had not yet arrived," I said.

Path kinda slumped. "So Fallon... and everyone else who had already gotten here... They're dead, aren't they?"

I smiled slightly. "Well... Not Fallon. She's asleep right now." I paused and frowned. "You know, more replicas are going to come here, and we still need to get things worked out. It could be a few weeks before we can set up anything permanent, or even temporary, to be honest."

Path looked interested. "You want me to stay here and help the others?"

"Please?"

He blinked a couple times, then offered up a small, shy smile. "Okay."

I smiled back, much more confident. "We'll be back in a week or two. This might be a good gathering place, but it's hard to take care of everyone here."

Path nodded. "Okay. We should be okay for a little while," he said. "You... You really won't forget us, right?"

I giggled. "Fallon won't let us, I'm sure."

I then stepped to the side, and Path and the other replicas with him headed inside.

"Shouldn't we just bring them with us?" Anise asked after they were gone. I shook my head.

"No. It's a good thing we ran into them here. Now they can explain things to the other replicas who will inevitably arrive."

Natalia nodded. "Yes, and Apathy looked rather happy that you asked him to look after the others so nicely."

I sighed. "I think I've picked up another little brother..."

Asch groaned. "Well, you did name him..."

I nodded a couple times. "True. Also, this keeps Path here, so I can hopefully find a chance to tell Hue about this before those two end up face to face. Path wouldn't have a clue who Hue was, but Hue would either make him uncomfortable by assuming he was Ari or, more likely, would try to kill him."

Jade flinched. "Good point."

We all climbed up into the Albiore, and Ginji took us to Chesedonia as I asked him to. The flight there was quiet, and he landed next to the Albiore II. We split into a few different groups and hit the marketplace, and Asch and I made a beeline for Din's shop.

"Cool. We'll have to tell the others about this stuff," Sync was saying as we walked in. I smirked.

"How did I know you'd be here?"

Sync, Dark, Din, and—surprise, surprise!—Miyagi looked up at me, and Dark blinked a few times before he tilted his head to the side.

"Okay... Do I want to know why you're here and not at the Absorption Gate?"

I smirked. "Hm. Funny story that. Hey, Sync, remember what really happened with me and Asch and Aramis Spring that first time?"

Sync looked totally baffled for about a minute before he finally realized what I was talking about. "Wait, what does that have to do with anything?"

I shrugged. "Oh, nothing much. Except for the fact that Fallon is... sort of alive."

The expression on Sync's face told me he'd just figured out exactly what I'd done.

"So, what are you gonna have to tell us about?" I asked cheerfully, as if I hadn't just dropped the bomb that there were once again two different souls in my body.

Dark reached over and grabbed something off the counter, then tossed it to me. "Catch."

I did, and immediately recognized it. "Oh, these! Yeah, I was gonna ask about these before, wasn't I?"

Sync chuckled. "We got a bit distracted, I'd say."

I nodded. "That's an understatement. Yeesh. Okay, and on that note... Dark, find the ligers and get to the Albiore II. I have to find Seth and tell him to get to the Albiore III... Sync, you get to help Asch and the others that are staying in Chesedonia with stocking up on medicines."

Sync flinched. "Oh, oww. Yeah, we definitely need that stuff... We're completely out of Life Bottles..."

I grimaced. "On your end too?"

Sync nodded and glanced at Dark, who sighed.

"Well, on the plus side, we know I can use Sacrifice without killing myself now. Oh, and Ion is in desperate need of your bone-mending help. He's about fed up with the crutches already," he said. I scowled.

"Thrill a fucking minute."

"Well, at least Sync wasn't around for your comment to Luke about—"

"Don't even go there, Asch."

Sync looked curious. "Um... Do I want to know?"

I sighed. "Well, Natalia didn't get it, but then, I'm honestly not sure if she's had The Talk yet, even..."

Sync turned a nice shade of red. "Okay, no, I didn't want to know."

I grinned. "Good. Now then, I'm going to find Ion and Seth. Looks like Ion's coming with us to the Isle of Feres."

Sync frowned. "Why...?"

"Fomicry machine."

He sighed.

Fun Fact: Next chapter is going to make someone very unhappy. Very unhappy... But that's beside the point.

I'd meant to kill Fallon here. Really. But Guy gave me those ridiculous puppy eyes, and when I said no, he ran off, found Flynn (from Tales of Vesperia), and I suddenly found myself being pestered by a puppy-dog-eyed Guy and a confuzzled but puppy-dog-eyed Guy-look-alike.

The moment I caved, Flynn just gave Guy this baffled look and was like 'Okay, so what was that for?'

...Yeah. I give up. I just... I give up.