Ha, whoops... Got pretty busy for a bit there, so... surprise! Triple-update to make up for it! That said...

Okay, remember at the Isle of Feres? Here's a little refresher of how the scene in question went:

Kairi: He doesn't have a name of his own. 'Ion' was his original's name. Zion couldn't keep it, but he tried his hardest to stay close.

Anise: That is really sad... –looks at Ion- You know... if you want to pick a new name, I don't think anyone will mind.

Ion: O.O

Asch: In your case, I have to agree with Anise, but if Luke tries it, I'm gonna knock him upside the head.

I was very tempted to knock Ion upside the head myself in this chapter. Seriously.

Also, Arietta turned around and became a bearable person in my head... right before demanding that I go through with my original plans for her. Damn it. I kinda wanted to see what would become of it... Oh well. Onward we go...

If Tokunaga could break Kairi's arm, it was tough enough to deal with a little wooden puppet. –Luke

Chapter 13.7 – End Game
Part 117

Luke's POV

I was grateful that I'd gotten Asch's warning when we stepped into the next hallway and found Star and Arietta waiting for us. Arietta had only two monsters by her side for once—a liger and that damn blue bird she used to kidnap me at Choral Castle—but Star had all three of the puppets she'd had at the Tower of Rem. Well, the sword-wielding one and the blue fairy. The silver fairy had obviously replaced the white one.

Since the two fairies were hovering, the swordsman was standing, and Star had her arms crossed, I guessed she'd already used the arte Natalia said she could use to make them act on their own.

"Well now. Lookie what we have here."

I scowled. So did most of the others, though Ion—I mentally slapped myself for calling him that again—just kinda sighed.

Arietta looked upset, but who she was upset with now, I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

"Ion said we have to keep you from freeing Lorelei before he gets Kairi to the monolith," Star continued speaking. Judging from Arietta's expression, she and her former friend had had a bit of a falling out.

"And why is that?" Seth asked. "Come to think of it, I've heard you talk about the monolith before, I've just never seen it."

Star snorted. "No kidding. Ion never trusted you not to run off at the first sign of trouble. Now then... We've got orders to detain you." Her glare focused on Luke's friend. "But I've got something of my own to settle with Seven!"

Pine green eyes raised to look at me, and I nodded.

Golden guns were drawn with a speed that would have made Dark proud. "My name is Solace Fende!" he shouted. I drew Flamberge easily, and noted the surprise on everyone's faces, except for Tear's. She'd been the only other one to hear his decision the night before, and it was mostly because he was adopting her real surname and wanted to make sure that was alright.

Star, especially, seemed shocked, while I'd have sworn I saw pride in Arietta's eyes.

Then the two fairies shot toward us, and Solace started shooting. I glanced at Guy, and he nodded at me before we ran forward to fight the damn puppets. Anise and Tear stayed back with Ion—Solace—as Arietta's monsters and the third puppet moved.

I hadn't fought these puppets before, but Guy was full of helpful advice for dealing with the annoying little fairies and their damn sharp knives.

I ducked under one attack, let off a Guardian Field, then used a Raging Blast for good measure to get the blue one away from me.

"Luke!"

I glanced back, and noticed Solace casting. I nodded once, then jumped back and started pulling in fifth fonons. I'd need them here in a moment...

Fifth and sixth fonons came together more easily that I'd been expecting, and I smirked as Solace started speaking.

"O flurry of dancing flames..."

I could always see someone in my mind's eye—a teen about his age, with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a black coat.

"The twin keys of destiny!" I added, suddenly seeing a part of the image I'd never seen before—two key-shaped weapons, one black and the other white. Huh, odd... I'd have to ask Kairi about it later.

"Sunset Faith!"

Star hissed, but didn't really seem to be too hurt by the arte. Damn, that meant she was going to be a pain to kill...

The blue fairy puppet was back to bothering me, and I let off a Devil's Inferno, an arte Asch had taught me.

That thought actually pissed me off a bit, and I took out my frustration on the blue fairy.

Asch had taught me half of my strike artes.

Van, who'd been my tutor forever, who'd taken me away from Akzeriuth... He'd never really trained me before then. He'd left me basically defenseless... until he realized that he'd never be able to manipulate Asch.

He'd only taken me away because he wanted my hyperresonance. He didn't actually care about me as a person—I was just his attempt at not losing all the time he wasted on Asch.

A Guardian Field sent the blue fairy flying.

Rather than give it mercy, I ran over and used another one right on top of it—literally!

This time, the fairy was kinda torn to pieces by the arte.

I watched it for a moment, nodded once to myself when I realized it wouldn't be getting up again, and then ran off to find the next puppet.

"Well, I guess that works," Guy commented. "Seth took one out with a Dragon Flower," he added when I realized the swordsman puppet was the only one left. "Luke... did you know about Ion, er, Solace making up his mind?"

I nodded. "He decided just last night."

"So that's what you two and Tear were talking about."

"Well, he is her Heir," I pointed out. Guy nodded and used a Tempest. I made a face at the arte, and he chuckled. "That would make me so disoriented..." I mumbled.

Guy just kept laughing, even as he ran off to go fight the blue bird monster... Erg, what the heck is that thing called, again? I knew it, I knew I did, I just couldn't...

Hresvelgr! It was a hresvelgr!

Smug with my success at actually remembering what the monster was called, I Raging Blasted the swordsman across the battlefield and then chased after it, once again using a Guardian Field right on top of it.

Well, it was a pretty effective method of dismantling them, at least...

Except this one was bigger, and therefore, not as easy to put down permanently.

The Dragon Flower that followed up my Guardian Field did the trick, though.

I called a distracted thanks before looking around. Star looked exasperated, and... uh-oh.

"Damn, I guess she had more than just the three puppets," Guy said, running back over to avoid a nasty-looking ice attack.

Sure enough, Star then let out another four puppets.

One of these was a cat-like one. One was human-sized, though this one was carrying an axe instead of a sword.

There was another fairy, this time painted in a golden color.

And a dwarf, wielding a frickin' hammer.

I grumbled under my breath, decided the little fairy needed to be my first priority, and took off after it to stop it from bothering Anise too much. Solace and Tear were having enough trouble with Arietta's monsters, and Arietta and Star weren't going to let up with the fonic artes, though I noted absently that Arietta focused on first-fonon artes while Star's focus had been on the sixth fonon.

The gold fairy was downright irritating, though. Faster than the other two had been, and one hell of a lot harder to—oh, shit!

Star hadn't used her animation technique. That's why these four were harder to fight than the last three! She was actually controlling them herself!

I cursed, then groaned and ran over to a spot a little ways away. Well... here's hoping the others could figure out what I'm up to... Especially since I've only got one arte for each fonon, and there's a reason I don't use the second fonon arte often.

And judging from how everyone started to spread out in a wide circle, they recognized it. Perfect...

"O earthen force that keeps us rooted—"

"Oh, fuck!" Heh, sounds like Star recognized it too. No wonder, Zion was the one that taught me, albeit with Kairi's help.

Her puppet didn't quite make it to me before I finished the arte. "Gravity Altar!"

The familiar stone pillar reached up out of the ground, and the rest of us ran in. Guy, Tear, Natalia, and I all used our over-limit, and then started into a quick cycle of letting off Mystic Artes.

Solace somehow linked his Akashic Torment onto my Radiant Howl, but since it didn't make him fall over like using it by itself, I didn't bother to comment on it.

Star only had the little dwarf puppet left now, and the hresvelgr was down and not getting back up. Arietta and her liger both looked like they kinda wanted to lay down and let that be the end of it, too. Star scowled, apparently seeing what I had, and refocused her efforts on Solace while I ran past her to deal with Arietta.

I noted that she'd used the Animation arte by the time the liger was defeated, though her dwarf seemed to be having problems with Anise and Tokunaga. Good. Anise was primarily a fonist, but Tokunaga was large and she was pretty safe from the puppet and its hammer from where she was riding on his head.

That and... well... If Tokunaga could break Kairi's arm, it was tough enough to deal with a little wooden puppet.

I ran over to help Solace. Let Guy and the others finish dealing with Arietta—Solace was my best friend and I wasn't going to let Star kill him.

I heard Arietta scream, and Star jumped back and glanced behind her. Then the silver-haired girl scowled and ran, and I stopped next to Solace, who smiled up at me before looking over at Arietta worriedly.

I turned just as two shots rang out. Guy cried out and stumbled back, sword dropped on the floor. No wonder—Danté had shot him through the hand.

"Guy!"

I ran over and helped hm up. The fonic bullet had hit his hand. The other one had hit his leg—there was no way he was gonna be able to get out of this fight without help.

Danté looked pissed. "Leave. Mirage is waiting outside the temple at the center of Hod. She's the last one here. Mohs and Dist ditched us the moment they saw the troops gathering in Chesedonia, and Rhunön and Ryndor went with Zion and Kairi. Star won't stick around much longer."

I frowned. Why would he tell us something like this, unless—

Arietta.

He was trying to protect Arietta.

I nodded. He hadn't even shot to kill Guy. For that, I could let her go. And he was right. We still had Mirage to contend with, and she was damn tough. We'd need everyone alive... and with as tired as some of the others were and as injured as Guy was, there was no doubt Danté would be able to kill at least a couple of us before we could kill him.

"Let's go, guys."

Solace stepped around me to pick up the Vorpal Blade, and then we started moving, Tear and Natalia ever-wary of Dark's original. Danté barely spared them a glance, I noticed, seeing him put the gun he'd still had out away and turn to kneel.

Arietta wouldn't make it. That much was pretty obvious, even though I couldn't really look over her wounds myself.

We didn't make it far before Seth grunted and sat down. Tear ran over to heal him, but regardless, half-carrying Guy was starting to get to me, and Anise couldn't even walk straight at this point.

That fight had taken a lot out of us, and I suddenly appreciated that Kairi had originally meant for all of us to face Eldrant together.

This... This was exhausting.

And we still had to get to the replicated Hod and fight Mirage?

I helped Guy sit next to Seth, and then looked around. This area was filled with a lot of debris and stuff... I started poking around, and smiled when I found an area that was mostly closed off from the rest of the room. "Hey, guys! Over here."

Seth grumbled a few curses at me as he stood up, but I didn't worry about it too much. I was more concerned about finding us someplace safe to rest.

"Anybody know what time it is?" Anise asked.

Guy sighed as Natalia helped him move to the area I'd found. "Not exactly, but it can't be much later than noon."

Seth was murmuring under his breath as Tear and I started setting up a camp. Seth was pretty heavily wounded, Guy couldn't walk on his own and—according to Natalia—wouldn't be able to for hours yet, and everyone else was tired.

Even me, despite all the hell Van and Zion had put me through over those couple of months. We'd found out later that I now had the greatest stamina of the group, and Aerith had done her best to make sure I kept up with the ridiculous level of training Van had put me through...

Heh.

He'd only turned around and started training me like that because he didn't have a choice. But if he hadn't, I'd still be the weak little brat he pulled out of Akzeriuth.

Maybe I should thank him sometime for giving me the strength to do something like this instead of mentally griping. Because it was true. He hadn't meant for me to leave him. Hadn't meant for me to start trying to tear his plans apart.

But he had given me the strength and knowledge to do it.

That thought in mind, I stood and walked out of our little camp.

"Luke? Where are you going?"

I turned and smiled at Solace. Solace, who'd been through so much in the two and a half years he'd been alive. Who'd just recently chosen a name all his own... And what a fitting name it was. Comfort, peace... Sure, he fought... but he was fighting so that others wouldn't have to. And he was the sort of person anyone could turn to looking for comfort.

I was proud to call him my best friend, but right now... "I need a little time alone."

Sorylle padded over and growled softly, and while I'd originally meant to tell her to stay... Well. She was relatively unharmed from the battle, having been slammed into the wall by Arietta's liger and knocked out early on. She'd woken just as Danté had shown up, and...

"If you want to," I said. Sorylle nodded once, and Solace smiled before walking over to Guy and pulling out his guns. Gifts from the Sword Dancer or not, our weapons still needed maintenance.

Sorylle followed me as I headed back in the general direction Danté and Arietta had been in. I figured they'd be gone by now... But I was wrong. I stopped and watched as Arietta's hand, which had been brushing away a bit of Danté's hair, fell away limply.

Danté's expression was impossible to read, but when a replicated Oracle Knight came clanking over, mistaking them for enemies, the easy way he rose, aimed a gun, and then fired enough fonic bullets to kill him before letting the gun drop to the floor told me enough.

Danté was the least of our worries.

Sorylle and I headed back.

Fun Fact: And this right here is the source of Danté's omnipresent bad mood recently.

Arietta fell in love with him after finding out who Zion really was and having rather a large argument with our resident arsonist (who will thankfully be dying soon). Danté didn't really want to acknowledge it, so he did his best to tolerate her shadowing him. Unfortunately, by the time we get here... Danté's kinda started to acknowledge that she's not so bad.

If you're interested in more details, you'll have to go read the Tales of Symphonia spin-off. Or at least the first Chapter. (Yeah, it's set up the same way as these stories.) Danté's a bit more preoccupied with thinking about the past to worry much about the future.