"A Thousand Miles", Tales of the Abyss

[cephy]

Title: A Thousand Miles
Author: Cephy
Media Creator: cypher
Word Count: 10,800
Fandom: Tales of the Abyss
Characters: Asch the Bloody, Luke fon Fabre
Pairings: Asch/? mentioned, Asch+Natalia implied, Luke/Guy suggested
Rating: Teen
Warnings: End-game spoilers
Summary: Van was defeated and Lorelei freed, and in the process Luke fon Fabre-- both of him-- went missing for three long years. This is the story of that missing time, and of how he eventually made his way back home.

Now with an awesome accompanying mix by cypher: A Single Step!


When Luke woke, it was with the nagging sensation that something wasn't right. Sitting up, rubbing his eyes and wincing at the throb behind them, he tried to figure out why. He was sleeping on the ground-- nothing unusual anymore, even if he still preferred a bed. He felt bruised from head to toe-- not unusual either, sadly, given how often they ended up fighting. He was cold-- a little stranger, perhaps, but maybe they were up near Keterburg, or somewhere on the shores north of Daath. They'd camped out there once without the proper gear and man, did they learn that lesson quickly-- nothing like waking up with frost on your eyelashes to make you realize the importance of a good tent.

The world around him was completely and utterly silent, and that, there, was probably the problem. If there was one thing he'd learned since Tear had pulled him out of Baticul all those months before, it was that the world was filled with animals and monsters and people and things, and all of them made noise. Even the supposedly friendly ones-- Jade snored, though he'd probably kill anyone who said as much. Natalia hummed to herself when she cooked. Anise didn't so much walk as stomp. He'd gotten used to the low-level buzz that surrounded him, and even if he mostly tuned it out it was still with the knowledge that it was there.

At that moment, all he could hear was the faintest of echoes, like air moving in the distance, and otherwise there was nothing at all. So either they had all been hit by something hard enough to knock them out but good, or--

Or he was alone.

Luke blinked open his eyes, and froze.

For one confused, panicked moment he was convinced he was back in the sephiroth at Akzeriuth. The sweep of scenery before him just had the same look, all high ceilings and twisting paths and open space below, glyphs carved and imprinted and hanging on every available surface. The idea was ridiculous, because Akzeriuth was gone-- he knew that better than anyone-- and his hair was hanging in his eyes, not down his back. But for just that moment he couldn't move, frozen with the certainty that he would turn around and find Van waiting for him there with that awful smile on his face.

Van.

Nearly crashing the Albiore, Guy's eyes gone haunted with remembrance, traps and halls and Legretta and Sync and a long-forgotten grave. Low hum vibrating through his bones, as if he could feel the island continuing to replicate itself beneath his feet. And finally, under blue sky, Van-- shaking with Lorelei's power, grim with intent, falling to his knees.

Van was dead.

The shock of resemblance started to fade as the rest of it came back, and Luke found that he could breathe again. He shifted himself and thought about standing, wincing as the motion set off the persistent ache in his head.

"What the hell?"

The voice was familiar-- too familiar-- and all the more startling because up until that moment Luke would have sworn there was no one else there to speak in the first place. He whipped his head around, not even feeling the ache this time-- and found Asch pushing to his hands and knees a short distance away, blinking dazedly. He looked pale, but not the deathly ashen he'd been the last time Luke had seen him. In fact, with his hair drooping around his face and his usual scowl missing, Luke was momentarily frozen all over again with the shock of seeing himself sitting there in a God-General's uniform.

It didn't last. "You--" Luke said, startled, and drew Asch’s attention.

Asch looked at him and the dazed look was wiped away as the scowl came back in full force. "You," Asch said, and it was a completely different word, somehow, coming out of his mouth. "Figures you wouldn’t actually be able to pull it off."

“What?”

Asch's lip curled. "Killing Van, saving the world? Ring any bells?" He shook his head. "I should have known you’d fuck it up."

"What makes you think I fucked it up?" Luke snapped back, bristling.

"You’re here, aren’t you?" Asch shot back. "And if I’m dead, and you’re here with me--“ He trailed off pointedly, a humourless little smile hanging around his mouth. “Doesn’t take a genius to figure out the logic there, so even you should be able to follow along.”

Luke blinked. "We’re not dead," he said firmly. Somehow, he was sure of that. "This must be the Core," he said then, thinking hard. "After Van was-- after the fight was over, I stayed behind and used the Key to set Lorelei free. I remember sinking down into some kind of light, and--" He frowned. "I guess I don't really remember much after that."

"Hunh." Asch turned away, giving their surroundings a slow sweep. "The Core. I suppose that makes as much sense as anything else," he said grudgingly. "So-- you did it, then?" he added after a moment, his voice sounding a little tight. Luke didn't have to ask to know he was talking about Van.

Luke lifted his chin. "Yeah."

Asch's expression was fierce, but he didn't quite meet Luke’s eyes. "Good."

After a moment of silence Luke climbed to his feet, brushing non-existent dirt from his pants in the process just to have something to do with his hands. Turning a full circle didn't get him any further insights on their location, since it all looked the same. They were standing in the middle of a platform, with bridges extending on three sides, hanging over a misty empty space that was irritatingly reminiscent of the Absorption Gate. Dark, arched doorways in the outer walls led off to who-knew-where, and the slow, aimless drift of memory particles made a constant glow in the air.

Asch started to straighten as well, only to stumble halfway. It was instinct that had Luke reaching out to help him, to catch his arm or just provide a convenient prop. It wasn't entirely a surprise when his reaching arm was slapped away. "None of this answers the question of how the hell we're supposed to get out of here," Asch snapped, steadying his feet with only a faint wince of effort. "Because like hell I’m staying stuck with you."

Luke stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest. "I could say the same," he said. "I can think of a lot of people I'd rather be stranded with, you know."

"If you were smart you'd rather not be stranded at all," Asch muttered, looking around. "Think before you speak, dreck, and maybe you won't sound like quite so much of an idiot. Or better yet, just don't speak at all, and let me think."

"Big words from the guy who can't even stand up on his own." He reached out on impulse and shoved at Asch's shoulder, sending him stumbling with gratifying ease. Asch recovered quickly, though, and in mere seconds was stepping right up to Luke, eyes sparking as he leaned over to growl in Luke's face.

"I rest my case. If you were smart, you wouldn't have done that."

"What is your problem?" Luke all but yelled. There was something hot and angry starting to curl up in his chest. "You're being even more of an asshole than usual."

"My problem is that you somehow fucked up and got us stuck here! And now I'm going to have to get us out if I don't want to have to keep listening to your whining for the rest of eternity."

”I fucked up? How is this my fault? You wouldn't take the damned sword when I offered it to you. Why the hell didn't you just go and kill Master Van yourself, then, if I did such a--"

"Stop calling him Master," Asch shouted, teeth bared. "He betrayed you. He used you, just like he used everyone else. Why won't you admit to yourself that he never gave a damn about you in the first place, except as a tool?"

Luke's hands were balled into fists, tight enough to ache, and in that moment he desperately wanted to punch something. The red thing in his chest was growing, swelling up until it was nearly overwhelming-- frustrated, impotent rage and grief and loss that made him want to just lash out, to make something hurt, to destroy the thing in front of him that wore his face--

Instead, he made himself suck in a breath and hiss it out through his teeth, one and then another. He blinked-- and that was all it took, apparently, to break the spell the rest of the way. Whatever he had intended to say next went completely out of his head, leaving them standing there, bare inches between them, red-faced and breathing hard and out of words.

When the silence had stretched long enough to edge into awkward, Asch growled something wordless and whipped around to stalk away, making a bee-line for the nearest doorway. Luke thought for a moment about letting him go-- they'd been awake for only minutes and were already at each other's throats, which didn't bode well for actually travelling together. But the cavern around him felt very big and empty and kind of unnerving, and as much as it pained him to admit it, even the company of a prick like Asch was better than wandering around the place alone.

It took him a few running steps to catch up, but not much more than that-- as if Asch had been waiting for him, at least a little. Maybe he didn't really want to be alone, either.

Wherever they were, the Core or wherever, it really did look like the Sephiroth, or like-- like all of them, with a dash of Hod thrown in for good measure, all mashed together into one big, tangled ruin. The only real difference was that it was eerily empty of any monsters or dust or any sign that anyone had been there, ever. Not that the lack of monsters was a bad thing, really, since neither of them had a weapon, even if the fighting would have given them something to do besides pointedly ignore each other. But there was no clear path to follow, either, so they just kept walking, not knowing if they were going up or down or sideways, or around in circles.

They had just entered another big room, almost exactly like the first, when Asch broke the silence. He gave a frustrated growl as he stopped in his tracks. "This is ridiculous. We might as well be sitting still for all the good this is doing us."

"We could-- I don't know, mark the floor or something?" Luke suggested. "So we'll know where we've been."

Asch rolled his eyes. "That would be a logical move, yes. Assuming we had anything to mark the floor with."

Luke blinked. "Oh. Right."

"I mean, if we had--" Asch stopped, abruptly, falling back into a wary crouch. Luke did the same automatically, scanning the area for whatever had set Asch on alert. There was nothing obvious at first glance, nothing flying for them and no eyes glinting in the shadows--

"Look," Asch said quietly, nodding forward.

Luke looked.

The Key of Lorelei was lying on the ground on the platform ahead, its heavy hilt hanging precariously over the edge of empty space. They approached it warily, looking around for the trap, but they came right up next to it without anything untoward happening. Luke stared down at the familiar weapon with a knot of uneasiness in his stomach.

Asch eventually shrugged and reached down for it, rescuing it from its balancing act. "At least we’ve got one weapon."

Luke moved until he was standing where the Key had been. He looked down over the edge first, then up-- he couldn’t see anything either way, as usual, but he supposed that the sword had to have fallen from somewhere. He wondered if it had fallen with them, had gone over the edge of the platform they'd woken up on and simply kept falling after they had stopped-- or the other way around, if it had hit ground before they had.

Looking down, he eyed the scuffs on the floor caused, presumably, by the Key's landing impact, then held out his hand to Asch. "Here, let me see that for a second."

Asch gave him a narrow look, but did hand it over.

Luke eyed the tip of the blade with a critical eye, then shrugged and dragged it against the ground, making a surprisingly deep scratch. They both winced at the scrape of protesting metal.

"What the hell are you doing? That's our only weapon. If you wreck it--"

"Yeah, and we've really needed it so far. Look," he added, pointing to the floor and the mark there. "Now we can say where we've been." He moved to the path they'd just come from and ran a line across it, blocking it off. His smile was probably a bit smug as he turned back to Asch, enough that he didn't protest when Asch took the Key back from him.

"Yeah, yeah, don't gloat about it or anything." Asch was the one to drag a line across their backtrail when they started down another path, though Luke caught him giving the sword's tip a critical look after he was finished.

"So," Luke said a while later, just to break the silence-- it was kind of smothering, and perversely enough he thought it was giving him a headache. "What are you going to do when we get out of here?"

"If we get out of here," Asch correctly sourly, then shook his head. "Which is a pretty big if.”

“Oh, come on. You’ve got to have some sort of plan.”

“Not really. Even if we find the exit, I'm pretty sure I'll still be dead."

Luke rolled his eyes. "You're not dead," he protested again, then had to wonder at his own conviction. Because he remembered that moment in Hod when he was entirely certain he'd felt Asch die. But that was then, and this was now, and right now he was just as certain that Asch was as alive as he was. It was, he admitted, a weird kind of belief, and thinking about it was making his head start to ache in earnest. He rubbed his forehead, and blinked back a moment of blurred vision.

"Typically," Asch said sharply, crossing his arms, "when you get stabbed badly enough, you die."

"No, I know that," Luke said absently, still rubbing at his head. He also remembered, quite vividly, Asch's body falling towards him, the greyness of his skin and the blood on his clothes and how cold he’d been to touch. How he'd sagged there, totally boneless in a way that no one could fake.

Asch sucked in a startled breath, and muttered a curse. Luke glanced at him. "What?"

"Nothing." Asch hunched his shoulders and turned away, but not before Luke noted and wondered at the startled look lurking in his eyes. "We're wasting time, let's go." He moved off again, but not quite as steadily as he had before. He moved like-- like he was awkward in his skin, as if he was afraid that his body was going to up and vanish from around him.

Enough, a vaguely embarrassed Asch-voice growled in his head, accompanied by a kind of mental shove that made the headache recede. It didn't go away entirely, but it was still a relief. It took some of those strange thoughts with it, too, and that was about when Luke figured out what was going on.

Oh, he thought.

"Yeah," Asch muttered, turning away. "Oh. Took you long enough, dreck."

"Hey, you're the one usually mucking around in my head; don't blame me for not being used to things going the other way around."

"Trust me, if I could turn it off, I would."

Luke sucked in breath for an automatic retort, then blinked. "Wait, so, you’re not doing this?"

"Why would I want to be in your head?" Asch asked, scathingly. "Or more to the point, why would I want you in mine?"

"You did before, that one time. After Akzeriuth." Luke gave him a curious glance. "Why did you do that, anyway?"

"Stupid impulse."

"You’re lying," Luke said, sure of it. There was a guilty kind of tremor in the back of his thoughts telling him he was right.

Asch rolled his eyes and sighed in heavy frustration. "I wanted to make you understand without giving you the chance to fuck it up by speaking or moving," he said acidly. "I suppose I had the unfortunate notion that you might end up being somewhat useful if you had an idea of what was really going on."

"Screw you," Luke said, though he couldn't work up any real heat to go along with it. "I ended up being plenty useful, and no thanks to anything you did."

"Yeah, you go on and keep believing that," Asch muttered, shaking his head. "Look, if you'd walked into Yulia City and had your little sulk and had to face your so-called friends being completely pissed at you-- if you hadn't had the time to deal with any of it at a distance, what would you have done? Probably gone ahead and kept being stupid, and that wouldn't have helped anyone."

"Hunh." Luke had to admit the point, in the abstract-- he probably would have come around eventually, but it would have taken more time, Asch was right about that much, and at that point they hadn't really had the time to spare. So instead of having to deal with himself and others at the same time, he'd got to weather out the worst of the backlash while riding around in the back of Asch's head, feeling things through the filter of Asch’s emotions. He supposed-- it had been a kind of favour.

Another thought occurred to him at that. "That was your anger I felt earlier, wasn't it?" he asked, subdued. "I thought it didn't feel quite-- right."

Asch gave him a hard look, which meant that he should probably just drop the whole thing, but he wasn't sure he could even if he didn't still have the visceral memory of that anger tightening his chest. "What did I do to make you so angry with me?"

"You want to get into that now?" Asch asked, incredulous.

Luke tried for a casual shrug, but was pretty sure it didn't come out the way he intended. "You got anything better to do?"

Asch shook his head. "I shouldn't have to explain it. It's obvious to anyone with a brain."

You took everything from me, something whispered, and Luke wasn't sure if it was a memory or something more.

"But that wasn't my fault," Luke protested, and then winced at the words, an echo of himself after Akzeriuth. That was different, he told himself firmly. Akzeriuth had been the result of his own bad choices and willful blindness, he could accept that now. But he hadn't chosen to be born. Hadn't even known Asch existed until years later. It really wasn't his fault that Asch had ended up the way he had.

Asch was watching him, and Luke wondered, suddenly, whether he was hearing the internal debate. As Luke watched, Asch sighed, suddenly looking very tired. And then-- a flash-flood of images and feelings and thoughts came cascading into Luke's mind, a red wash of losing his family to a thing with his face, a thing, a bad copy of him, not even a real person, and anger, anger, betrayal--

It was cut off bare seconds after it started, but it still left Luke reeling. When he got hold of himself enough to be aware of his surroundings again, he found Asch standing right in front of him, watching. I'm sorry, he thought but didn't say.

"If it wasn't your fault," Asch said clearly, "then why are you sorry?"

Luke shook his head. "I just am."

Asch's lip curled. "Don't you dare pity me."

"I don’t," Luke protested, exasperated. "I'm just-- you've got a right to be angry, I get that."

"Gee," Asch drawled through his teeth, "thanks."

"For Yulia’s sake," Luke burst out, "would you stop being so defensive? I'm just saying that it sucks that that shit happened to you. Okay? But it's not too late. Van's gone, and all of his plans are gone with him. Mother and Father know about you, they'd be happy to have you come home. You can go back and fix things--"


"Except for the part where I'm dead." Asch turned and started walking away, not waiting for a reply.

"No! You--" Breaking off into a wordless sound of frustration. Luke stalked off after him, resenting having to play catch-up but not wanting to be left behind. He fell in step just behind Asch, where he wouldn't have to see his face.

They kept walking, and walking, marking off their trail as best they could. In between the endless staircases and tunnels, they passed a few more open platforms like the first, but saw no sign of their own marks. And they never saw anything out of the ordinary, either-- no passage rings or weird fontech or other notable scenery, just more of the same, over and over.

Luke eventually shook his head and just stopped. "I'm tired," he announced-- the first words spoken between them in who knew how long.

Asch lifted a skeptical eyebrow. "Really?"

Luke shrugged. "No, not really," he admitted plainly. "But we should still rest. We've been walking for a long time."

It looked for a moment like Asch would protest, but then he shrugged. "Whatever. I don't think it matters either way."

Luke settled down on the floor, arms behind his head. The floor was very hard and cold, but he closed his eyes anyway and tried to just shut down for a while. It was too quiet, though. He caught himself holding his breath after a few minutes, straining his ears for any sound, anything at all. When Asch shifted in place, Luke was listening so hard that the rustle nearly made him jump. Once he'd got his racing heart under control, he let out a long, silent breath and started forcing his muscles to relax again, ignoring the hard stare that he could just feel Asch sending his way.

When he did finally sleep, it wasn't like he was used to. He dropped immediately into vivid dreams-- colours and scents and sharp edges that slowly coalesced into a wobbly kind of focus. It flashed by almost too quickly to register anything but the afterimage-- an impression of hallways, and red, and shadowy people that moved past without slowing.

The emotions that went with the images, though, those were sharply focused, burning through him easily and leaving bits of themselves behind. Anger, mostly. Resentment, fear, anger, grief, confusion, all boiling together and spilling out through the cracks. They lashed out at those shadow-shapes walking by, hit and withdraw, sliding past with no effect except to make them walk a little further away from him.

And then, suddenly, an image-- his own face, framed by long hair, and just like that all of the roiling emotions crystallized into sharp focus. They drove forward at the image, shattering it into a million glittering shards.

There was another image behind it, still his face, but with short hair, and this self held out a glowing shape that he recognized in the way of dreams to be the Jewel of Lorelei. The anger lashed out at that one, too, but instead of shattering the image just rippled and reformed, still holding out the sphere. He lashed out at it again and again, to no effect, until even the anger started to sputter like a dying flame and a sick kind of guilt came creeping up to replace it--

When Luke woke, it was with a sour taste in his mouth and a vague ache centered over his eyes. Both went away quickly enough once he was up and moving. Asch wouldn't quite meet his eyes as they started out, and was surlier than usual when Luke tried to start up a conversation.

After a moment's consideration, Luke fell in at Asch's shoulder when they started walking again. Asch didn't push him away.

Once again, they walked-- room after room, open platforms over nothing, or tall narrow staircases. It became hypnotic after a while, the act of putting one foot in front of the other, their forward progress broken only by the occasional stop to mark a neat line on the floor, blocking their retreat.

"We've been here," Asch said suddenly, holding up a hand to stop them. He pointed down, and Luke followed the gesture to see one of their marks, a ragged scratch marring the smooth finish of the floor.

He looked around curiously-- it didn't look any more or less familiar than anywhere else, just one more room like all the rest. But there at his feet was that line, blocking off one of the exits. They took the unmarked option, feeling a little more hopeful-- and not only because their marking system was working. No, if they were coming back around to where they'd already been, then the place must be finite, after all, and maybe they actually would find the way out eventually.

Luke, in a rather good mood all of a sudden and tired of the silence, decided to strike up a conversation. "What was it actually like in the Oracle Knights?" he asked, picking a topic at random.

Asch glanced at him, puzzled. "Where the hell did that come from?"

"I dunno," Luke said, shrugging. "I'm just curious, I guess. I mean, all I really saw of them was when we were fighting them. But from hearing Anise and Tear talk, there had to be more to it."

Asch looked at him like he was crazy for asking, but he shrugged and started talking anyway. He must have been in a good mood, too. "It was like any army, I suppose. Training schedules, paperwork. Getting yelled at by your superiors. Living in barracks, so, no privacy, not unless you got promoted high enough."

"Ugh," Luke said. He remembered the small inns where they'd had to go three or more to a room, and camping out where there hadn't been any rooms at all. He'd got used to it-- had had to get used to it, no choice-- but he'd always thought rather fondly of his own private suite of rooms at the manor. It was a aspect of his admittedly spoiled childhood that he would probably never quite lose, but he liked his space.

Asch shot him a wryly understanding look, but shook his head. "It wasn't so bad, once you got used to it. It did have its benefits--"

And at that, Luke was startled by the sudden, vivid and completely unexpected image of a strange man in an Oracle uniform on his knees in front of him, mouth open and sucking hard. He yelped at the stab of lust the image brought with it, and Asch whipped around with an equally startled expression that quickly morphed into realization.

"Shit," Asch muttered, and there came another odd mental push that made the image vanish.

"Uh," Luke said, fighting down the hot flush in his cheeks.

Asch sniffed haughtily, though his face was also a bit red. "What, don't tell me you never--"

"Well-- no," Luke admitted, embarrassed. "I never really, uh. Had the opportunity."

"Bullshit," Asch said with a snort and a sharp grin. "You traveled the entire world, you mean to say you never saw one person you wanted to sneak off with when you stopped for the night? The girl behind the fruit counter? Some soldier guarding a warehouse? No one?"

"We were a bit busy," Luke protested dutifully. "The whole saving the world thing, and all. I couldn’t really stop to chat someone up in the middle of it all."

Asch shook his head again, still grinning. "Who said anything about talking?"

Luke blinked at him. "You mean you'd just--" And then he caught a wisp of emotion, a thread of mischief with Asch's flavour, and scowled. "Asshole."

"Whatever." Asch shrugged. "Seriously, though, you had opportunity. It wouldn't have even had to be a stranger, if that's your problem; Guy would have gone to his knees for you, I bet, if you'd asked."

The words triggered a memory-- Guy kneeling with his father's sword in front of him-- and when Asch blinked Luke knew he'd seen it too. "Oh," Asch said, "I guess he did." Except he didn't really sound like he was teasing anymore, and his voice had gone tight again. He sounded--

"Are you jealous?" Luke asked incredulously.

He almost regretted saying it when the dregs of Asch's relative good humour vanished entirely. "What do you think? Me, he was waiting around to kill, and you he's pledging his eternal loyalty. Of course I'm fucking jealous, he’s the closest thing to a friend I had."

Startled at the candour, Luke was silent for a moment. He drew a careful breath, sorting through his words before he spoke. "He could be your friend again," he tried. "I mean, the thing with his family was a long time ago, and I really think he's put all that behind him. It's not so much you versus me, but then versus now. Right?"

Asch shook his head. "Whatever." A touch of his grin returned when he glanced sidelong at Luke. "You're determined to make everything better, aren't you. You really want him and me patching things up?"

"Well, why not? Guy's a good friend to have." Wish he was here now, Luke thought, and only realized what it might sound like when he saw Asch's shoulders twitch like he'd been hit. "Not like that! I didn't mean-- I just miss him, that's all."

"Yeah, I know," Asch cut him off. Another mental shove, firmer this time, and Luke blinked through a blurry moment in which they kind of overlapped, when the sense of Asch's presence was all around him. Luke muttered something unflattering under his breath and did his best to push back against Asch's shove, and after a second it seemed to work to give them back some distance.

"That is getting really annoying," Asch commented, frowning. "It's getting harder to keep us apart."

"It isn't really-- normal, is it?" Luke asked, vaguely worried. Even then, with both of them making an effort to hold back, he was very aware of Asch, like he was standing just at the edge of his brain. Like it wouldn't take much more than a moment's slipped concentration to have them sharing thoughts again. It had to have something to do with the original-replica relationship, but even so, it was more than a little strange.

"Who the hell knows what's normal for us?" Asch replied dryly. "Even the so-called experts didn't have any clue, when it came down to it. Besides," he added, "we're in the Core after at least one of us died. I think that's a little beyond the realm of normal, itself."

"Point," Luke admitted with a crooked grin. He thought about it a bit more, then shrugged and decided to let it go. It wasn't really bothering him, exactly. The headaches weren't as bad anymore, and they could learn to keep up their concentration to stay separate. And y'know, when there was absolutely no one else around-- it wasn't a bad thing to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you weren't alone.

Sap.

"Bite me," Luke tossed over his shoulder.

Asch actually chuckled.

The further they walked, the more Luke started to think that the laws of the regular world just didn't work for them anymore. Gravity, for example-- he could have sworn they'd already passed that weird statue thing up there in the corner of the ceiling, but the last time it had been sitting on the floor. There were indentations on that wall that could have been stairs, if they were upside down, and ridges on the floor over there that might have made a ladder if the whole thing was tipped on its side. All of the curves and angles and levels were screwing with his sense of direction, and that wasn't even counting those warping portals that showed up every now and then. They could have been anywhere.

Maybe, he thought once in a surge of fancy, they weren’t even on the planet anymore at all, maybe they were up in the fon belt. Maybe they'd come out some final door and find themselves surrounded by stars, floating there and looking down on the world below.

"Yeah," Asch said with a grunt as he rammed his shoulder into something that should have been a door-- it looked like one, had a handle and everything, but refused to budge. "And then we'd go falling all the way back down to the ground, most likely, and splatter across the entire Rugnican Plain. Stop imagining such stupid things, all right?"

Stop listening in on my stupid thoughts, then, he thought back, concentrating.

Asch stepped back with a huff, rubbing his shoulder and glaring at the non-door. "Stop thinking so damned loud and I will."

They stopped to sleep a few rooms on, more to retain some sense of normalcy than out of an actual need for rest. They both felt that they should be weary after so much walking, for all that nothing ever came of it, so resting for a while satisfied that nagging sense of necessity.

Luke didn't dream again, not like that first time. The images behind his eyelids when he woke were the more usual mix of things from his subconscious-- for example, his tutor from years past in Astor's gardens, trying to run away from a too-large Tokunaga, that one was actually pretty amusing. And if the dreams occasionally included images from a life that wasn't his, he didn't mention it.

It didn't escape either of their attention that they hadn’t needed to eat, either. "You still sure we're not dead?" Asch asked darkly, and Luke shook his head. "Why are you so convinced, anyway? Despite all of the evidence to the contrary."

"I dunno, just--" He thought for a second, then shrugged helplessly. "Just a feeling, I guess. Wishful thinking? We're here, we feel alive, so we can't be dead. Besides," he added after a second, smiling a bit wistfully, "I promised I’d be back."

Asch just looked at him, at that, incredulous-- but a pang of something wistful seeped over before Asch could smother it entirely. Luke pursued it, sending out a mental question, and received the equivalent of an eyeroll in return. At least you have something to go back for.

Out loud, Asch said, "Well, we’ll have to make sure you keep your word, then."

"You, too."

Asch rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

"No, I mean it."

"Look," Asch said, exasperated. "It's very nice that you're so insistent on us both walking away from this healthy and whole, but I quite clearly remember being killed." He pushed it over to Luke as if to prove the point-- swords and struggle and too many soldiers, pain and choking and cold, can't breathe, can't move-- and Luke flinched. "So even if you’re not dead," Asch went on, point made, "I am. I know that. You know that, if you’d stop being stubborn about it, so stop insisting otherwise. Whatever is happening here, it does not have the slightest impact on the fact that I died."

Luke shook his head, the need to protest still panging in his chest. "Then why are you here?"

"Maybe to keep your ass out of trouble. I don’t fucking know, all right?" He turned away, as if he hadn't already made it clear that the conversation was over.

I don't want you to be dead, Luke thought after him, on impulse. Asch's steps slowed, but didn't stop.

That makes two of us.

Wanting to shake off the dark mood that had somehow taken over, Luke scrambled for another topic and ended up voicing one of the other concerns that had been on his mind. “How long have we been here, do you think?"

"Too long, if you’re asking that." Asch shrugged. "Maybe a few weeks?"

"Hunh." Luke thought about it, tried to count back but failed without having any kind of useful reference to start from. "Feels like longer, somehow."

"It's going to feel like eternity if you keep asking stupid questions.” Asch huffed an exasperated sigh as he cast an irritated look around. "There’s not even any monsters to fight. That would at least make things go a bit faster."

"Don’t say that," Luke groaned. "Now we’re bound to run into an entire pack of them around the next corner. Seriously, though," he went on, "doesn't it feel like more than just a few weeks? What if we've been in here for months already? Do you think time goes differently in here than it does in the real world?"

"Nothing we can do about it if it does," Asch said with a dismissive shrug. "We're moving about as fast as we can."

"What do you think happened to everyone?" Luke went on after a second. "You know, after."

Another shrug. "The world is saved, everyone goes home and lives happily ever after. Isn't that how it's supposed to work?"

"You think they'll hold the treaty?"

”They'd better,” Asch said with a dark frown. “After all the running around you guys did, holding their hands to make them sign--“

Luke huffed a laugh. "That was a lot of travelling," he agreed. "I think even Guy was sick of airships by the end of it." He grinned a bit at Asch's put-on look of shock.

”The treaty is probably the least of anyone’s worries," Asch went on, expression fading into a thoughtful frown. "I’m more worried about how people will react to the loss of the Score. Or how they'll manage integrating the remaining replicas. There will probably be a lot of unhappy people for a lot of years, on both counts.”

”And unhappy people are pretty close to being violent people?” Luke guessed.

Asch glanced over at him. "Something like that." He cast a frustrated look up, towards the distant and invisible ceiling that was, presumably, up there somewhere. “One of us at least should be there to help. In Kimlasca if nowhere else.”

"Natalia's probably got things well in hand," Luke reassured. "I can't think of anyone else who'd do a better job. Unless--" He gave Asch a sly grin. "You just want to be there for her. Still planning on keeping your promise?"

It was the curse of their fair colouration that had even Asch's faint flush fully visible. "Shut up," he said.

Luke's smile widened, softened, as he considered the emotions he could feel in the back of his head. "You really love her, don't you?" he asked softly.

Asch didn't answer, but in the back of Luke's mind he thought he heard a whisper. Always.

Luke smiled to himself and let the matter drop.

It was some 'days' later before they had a break-- they entered yet another room and discovered that the far wall, instead of being more of the same, contained a large, gated door. They could only stare at it for a while, not entirely sure they believed what they were seeing after so long of nothing-- then they exchanged fierce grins and moved forward with new enthusiasm.

Mere moments later, though-- "Locked," Asch said in disgust. "Of course it's locked. I'm surprised it doesn't have a Daathic seal on it as well, just to make things really interesting."

"It's gotta be like all those seals in the sephiroth," Luke said, frowning, looking around intently. "There'll be some sort of-- some mechanism, or something. Something to unlock it."

They split up, searching-- it was one of those two-story rooms, with a balcony and alcoves and nooks under the stairs, and they searched the whole thing. "Here," Asch eventually called, prompting Luke to run over and see where he was looking. There was a round bump on the ceiling, almost like a button. It didn't really look like much, but it was the only thing out of place about the room at all. "There's another on the other side," he added. "I haven't checked upstairs."

"Okay," Luke said slowly, studying it. "So how do we push it?" It was too far up for them to reach, even if they somehow managed to balance on each other's shoulders without breaking one or both of their necks.

Asch gave him a crooked eyebrow. "Don't suppose you're still carrying around a cheagle in your pocket?" he asked, with a sour smile that said he already knew the answer.

"If only," Luke muttered regardless. He looked around again without much hope, searching for anything that could help. All he saw were empty alcoves and polished stone and that damnably locked door. He shook his head, though, refusing to give up when they finally, finally might have been getting somewhere. "There's got to be something," he said, heading back the way they'd come.

Two rooms back, they found their answer-- a chunk of stone broken off a pillar, round enough that they might stand a chance of rolling it, tall enough that it stood a chance of giving them the height boost they needed. They looked at it, then looked at each other.

Asch sighed as he pulled off his loose uniform tunic, leaving him in just the shirt and pants beneath. Luke blinked at him, not sure he'd ever seen him out of uniform before; Asch just shrugged. "It would be just my luck to get the damned thing caught under this monster and end up getting crushed. I'd rather not see if I can die twice." He rolled his shoulders. "All right, let's do this."

It was a very good thing, Luke later reflected, that in this place they didn't get tired the way they normally would. Even working constantly, the both of them straining to get the massive block rolling the right way, it took them what felt like ages until it was in position. And then they had to deal with getting on top of it, and bracing each other until finally one of them could reach high enough to jab the Key against that round knob of stone.

It moved, with a grinding sound that echoed back into the wall. They looked at the door, waiting, but nothing changed.

They looked at each other. “The other one, then?” Luke asked, resigned, eyeing the stone.

Asch’s only answer was a muttered curse.

When they pressed the second button, the grinding sound just kept going-- and slowly, slowly, the gates in that massive doorway began to swing back, showering dust down in a steady fog. And beyond it--

Another hallway. Luke groaned out loud and sank down to sit against the wall.

For once, Asch was the voice of optimism. “We've got to be going the right way,” he said. “Why would there be a gate like that if this isn't the way out? Come on, let's go.”

The light was the first thing to change-- not really growing any brighter, but gaining a different quality. It was probably just wishful thinking that made it remind Luke of daylight. The terrain gradually grew rougher as they went, too, the glyphs and polished floors devolving into plain stone. Eventually even the path was reduced to a narrow ledge hanging over empty space, and instead of stairs they were forced to help each other clamber up piles of broken rock.

There was another doorway some distance on, this one sitting open, one of its gates flat on the ground to one side. The air between the doorposts wavered like a heat mirage. Luke hesitated, letting Asch pass him. "I--" he started, then stopped, not knowing what to say. "Something doesn't feel right," he eventually finished.

Asch slowed, but he didn't stop and didn't look back. "Yeah, well, what other choice do we have?"

Luke noticed that he wasn't arguing. He took a breath, then lengthened his stride so that they passed through the door at the same time.

A shock, a tingle, running over his skin--

"Shit!" Asch shouted, and Luke heard the ring of steel as he swung the Key of Lorelei. A few seconds later, Luke's mind caught up with his eyes and he realized why: there were monsters everywhere, darting through the air and crawling on the ground and climbing all over each other in their urge to get forward. The press of them was overwhelming, like they'd been drawn there, waiting there for the two foolish humans to arrive.

Luke was reaching for his sword before he remember that he didn't have one-- and then he lost precious seconds in the panicked rush of wondering what the hell he was going to do next. Long enough, anyway, for something to get in close and rake claws over his arm. He fell back with a yelp, struggling to keep the thing's teeth at arm’s length until it was swept away by a rake of steel.

"Get up," Asch yelled, swinging again. "You're useless without a sword-- here." And he pushed the Key into Luke's hands, whirling away again to nail the next monster in the face with a well-aimed kick.

A flash, then, a blurred moment of instructor fixing his stance after a bloody lip indicated his guard was weak, punch like so, kick like so, because you won't always have a blade at hand, and Luke felt a surge of relief that at least one of them had been trained bare-handed. He'd possibly never been more grateful for anything in his life.

He did his best to go back to back with Asch, as much as their very restricted location allowed, and laid about with the sword. They were pushed back, of course-- Luke was glad of that at first, thinking they would be pushed right back through the door into the dubious safety beyond, but the gateway that had brought them there was just gone, an empty arch of stone all that marked its location. And so instead they ended up being edged closer and closer to an exposed ledge with a whole lot of nothing on the other side of it. There were just too many of them, too many to hold back or break through, and--

Crack.

Luke let out an entirely undignified screech as the ground vanished from beneath his feet, and he began to fall. Under any other circumstances it would have been mollifying to hear Asch make a similar yelp beside him, but the ledge was getting further away with every second, and the dull misty light was closing it away from view and he was falling, falling--

Asch was just a flash of red to one side; Luke tried to reach out and grab only to have it slip through his fingers. He couldn't help but remember the broken passages in the Absorption Gate and how their party got split up there, and he didn't entirely care whether Asch picked up his very real fear at that because he really didn’t want to be separated like that again, not here. Assuming they survived the fall.

He reached out again and managed to snag a handful of Asch's sleeve, and he hung on as tight as he could until they hit the bottom.

He must have blacked out for a while, because the next thing he was really aware of was lying flat on a hard surface while Asch's voice cursed out a harsh stream of syllables somewhere nearby.

He rolled over and groaned. "Ow." He moved each of his limbs carefully, testing, but miraculously nothing seemed broken or otherwise incapacitated. His right shoulder felt bruised to hell and back, his entire right side tingled like it was just waking up, and he'd apparently knocked himself on the head hard enough to make him seriously dizzy. Still-- remembering the fall, he supposed it could have been a lot worse. Should have been a lot worse.

He supposed there might be some merit to the theory of them being dead, after all.

Opening his eyes in a squint, he discovered why Asch was cursing. They were surrounded by glyphs and lights and pathways, an all too familiar décor. And-- he tilted his head carefully, checked the floor as far as he could see, then checked again-- there was no sign of their marks anywhere in sight. "Fuck," he muttered.

"Damned right, fuck," Asch snarled, stalking over. His clothes were torn in more than one place, showing the effects of sharp claws, but Luke couldn't see any blood. "We're right back where we started. We were almost out. We were almost fucking out," he shouted at the ceiling, and his voice echoed back sharply in the open space. "This is bullshit!"

Luke winced, not only at the volume but at the spike of raw, frustrated anger that accompanied the words. "At least we've still got the Key," he offered weakly, gesturing to the weapon itself where it lay nearby.

Asch looked down at him incredulously, eyes blazing. "Oh, yes, that's just great news." He growled something else that Luke couldn't make out, rubbed a hand over his face and sighed sharply. "You all right?" he muttered.

Luke started to nod, then winced as his head swam. "I'm fine," he tried.

"Like hell you are, I can feel that from here." Asch shook his head and turned away, eyes on the ground. "Stay put for a bit," he ordered. "I'll go and see if I can figure out where we are." He walked away before Luke could give in to the irrational urge to call him back, which was probably for the best. Objectively, he knew that Asch wouldn't just leave him there but-- he still couldn't shake the notion that splitting up at all was a bad, bad idea.

He laid his dizzy head back down and closed his eyes. For a while, he drifted between vertigo and confusion-- falling, always falling, and he supposed that was what guided his dreams when he finally did sleep, because he dreamed of Akzeriuth. Only this time he was trying to stop it, stop himself, only his hands were as see-through as they had been at the top of the Tower of Rem, and he could only watch while an earlier version of him triggered the hyperresonance and shattered the passage ring and brought the entire thing tumbling down into the Qliphoth.

He woke up gasping and blurry-eyed with Asch's hand heavy on his shoulder, shaking. The ringing in his ears made any other sound impossible to hear, but he did pick up the thin thread of thought in his head as it muttered, not your fault.

He shook his head, ignoring the residual ache. It is, he thought back fiercely, and that other presence seemed to blink and draw back at his vehemence.

Not all your fault, it amended ruefully. Master Van--

Asch’s shock of realization hit just a moment before Luke's, and Luke sat up. “Master Van?” he said sharply.

"Forget it."

"What happened to 'stop calling him Mas--'"

"I said fuck off." The words were sharp, and Luke was already drawing breath for an indignant reply when he felt the hurt that lay beneath Asch's ire. His budding indignation dissipated. They both sat there in silence until Luke sent a wordless kind of apology as a peace offering. Asch snorted, but nodded.

"I guess there's part of each of us that's probably always going to call him that, hunh," Luke eventually said.

Asch gave a low growl. "He's not any kind of master to me anymore."

"But he was," Luke argued simply. "You--" He struggled briefly to find the right words, then gave up on words altogether and just thought about it, knowing that Asch would be listening in-- it was harder not to, these days. He remembered how it had been, isolated in the manor, all but worshiping the man who came to him with praise and encouragement and attention. Remembered Van's words in the dungeon and how he would have been willing to do anything for him-- if he had outright asked Luke to die for him at Akzeriuth, he was uncomfortably certain that he would have said yes.

And yet even knowing the reasons behind it all, now, he couldn't help but feel some of that loyalty still, a sense of gratitude for everything Van had given him.

"He was the same to you," he said, knowing it was the truth.

Asch shook his head, but not to deny the point. If he'd asked me to die for him, I would have, his thoughts said. No questions asked. "But that," he went on aloud, his voice quiet, "was a long time ago. I started seeing through his mask long before you did."

They stayed put and rested for long enough that Luke's head stopped hurting every time he moved. It didn't take long-- he healed very quickly, more easily than he ever had before without the help of one of the really good gels. But that was simply one more weirdness in this place, and a benign one at that, so they didn't bother questioning it.

During that time, Asch kept making short, exploratory forays into the surrounding hallways. After one such, he returned with news that he'd found a marked path. "That way," he clarified, pointing. "Two rooms over. But-- we won't be able to fight through those monsters," he admitted grudgingly. "So it wouldn't do us any good to go back that way, even if we could reliably retrace our steps all the way to that door."

"So let's try something new, hunh?" Luke shrugged, and turned to look at their other options. More doors, just like all the rest. "Why not?"

When they moved on, they marked off their trail with a deep, angry gash in the floor, and didn't look back.

If he had to guess, Luke would have said that they were heading deeper, this time. It felt rather like going down, somehow, as they worked their way forward. There were fewer branches to the path-- fewer that were intact, anyway, and not broken off in a rough shear of stone. Conversely, though, the lights seemed brighter, the memory particles thick in the air like a starry snowstorm.

They kept well away from all of the edges, and tested questionable ground with the tip of the Key before setting a foot on it.

There was no locked door warning them before they emerged at the end of the path, this time-- no monsters either, thank Yulia, just a big round area with no obvious ways out. They both struggled against a sense of hopelessness at the sight-- Luke could feel it from Asch, clear as anything since he didn't seem to be bothering to hide it.

I am so tired of this.

"Tell me about it," Luke muttered. "So-- what? Do we go back?" They hadn't seen another viable branch in-- it was impossible to know. They'd slept at least twice since then, anyway.

"Back to where?" Asch asked, and his thoughts said, sure, there are paths we haven't taken yet, there are probably millions of them, and we'll never find the exact one we need. If it even exists. Luke got the impression he probably wasn't meant to hear that part, because out loud Asch just shook his head and said: "No, you're right, we'll have one last look around and then start back. One of these times we're bound to get it right."

There were pillars around the edge, and nothing but light below, and a marked lack of ceilings in which to hide buttons. When he was walking back to the entry, though, Luke heard a click under his foot and slowed down to investigate. There was a little circle in the middle of the floor, barely visible unless the light caught it just right. Luke knelt down, squinting and angling his head to see better. The circle appeared solid at first, but if he pressed it down, the floor in the centre of it sank and split with that same click, just enough to leave a little space in the middle. "Hey," he called, "bring the Key over here, would you?"

He kept his hands on the circle, pressing, while Asch walked over. Cluing in quickly, Asch drew the Key and slotted it in. The blade slid down smoothly all the way to the guard, and Luke, at least, might have held his breath a little while he waited for a reaction.

Nothing happened.

They waited a while longer. Luke grimaced. "So much for that idea."

"Maybe--" Asch walked a full circle around it, stooping to peer at the ground. "Maybe we need to turn it, or--"

Asch was reaching for the Key when they were both thrown bodily away from it, knocked flying by an electric sort of charge in the air. Something swelled, concentrated, flared-- a presence loomed over them, an angry presence, flooding both of their minds near to bursting with a voice loud enough to deafen. Reeling and lost, Luke clung to the vague little knot in his head that he'd come to associate with Asch, and felt Asch grimly clinging back. Something shifted and stretched and nearly snapped but they held on.

The presence hesitated, focused-- and faded, leaving them gasping and limp on the ground, ears ringing in the sudden mental silence. Luke shifted and-- no, Asch shifted and got up first, holding out a hand to Luke who shook his head in an attempt to clear it of a strange double-vision-- his own face, overlain with Asch's, shifting from one to the other. They were--

Overlapping, Asch confirmed. Must have held on too tight back there.

"Right," Luke said vaguely, allowing himself to be hoisted up. His left wrist throbbed, and he shook it out, only that did nothing to help because it wasn't his pain. The wrist had never been quite as strong after he'd broken it in a training accident when he was twelve. When Asch was twelve. Asch's wrist, not his.

Concentrate, damn it.

Luke shook off Asch's hand and took a deep breath, concentrating, feeling Asch do the same. They slowly pulled themselves apart, just a little, and Luke blinked as his thoughts started to clear. Not all the way, and it was a tremendous effort not to backslide, but it helped.

They both turned and found a figure standing next to the Key, looking at them. It wasn't anything solid, more like an image on water, rippling and indistinct, and it had no recognizable features. But it was Lorelei; Luke knew because his entire body recognized him, seventh fonon to seventh fonon. When Lorelei's full attention landed on him, it felt almost like he was going to shake himself apart again, prompting Asch to give him an alarmed look.

What are you doing here? Lorelei demanded. Why have you summoned me to this place? I will not be bound again.

“What do you mean?” Asch-- no, Luke-- protested. "From what I remember, you brought us here. And we've been walking around in this maze of yours for what feels like forever."

I did not bring you. Maybe it did. The heavy sense of attention shifted to the Key. When I was first bound, so long ago, that is the tool that was used to do it. It has a certain will of its own.

"Key of Lorelei," Asch muttered. "Always thought that sounded kind of suspicious." He raised his voice. "Look, fine, we're sorry we used the damned Key, we're not trying to bind you into anything-- though if there's any way you can send us out of here and back to the real world, we wouldn't say no."

To send you-- Lorelei grew thoughtful, they could feel his attention go from one of them to the other. Eventually, though-- No, he said slowly. I don’t believe I can. I do remember now. Two bodies entered the Core. One was made of seventh fonons and was dissolved. The one of flesh no longer lived, and was also reduced to its base components.

"Told you," Asch said in an undertone.

"But-- there's got to be something you can do!” Luke protested. “We can't just stay stuck here forever."

I can easily remake the replica's body. Perhaps given that you are isofons to each other and to me, I could make a second body as well and have it be suitable. But--

"That's never a good word in these sorts of situations."

Lorelei shook his head. You must understand the difficulties. At one time you may have been two distinct souls, but at the moment you are so intertwined that I'm not sure I could separate you into two bodies. The bond between you, original to replica-- it draws you together, and would interfere with my efforts. I fear I would destroy you both in the attempt.

"So that's it, then," Asch said. No, Luke said it, he could feel his lips moving-- they were slipping again, and that was probably exactly what Lorelei was talking about. They could try to sort themselves out, but he could see it now-- they'd been coming closer and closer to this the entire time, slowly absorbing bits of each other into themselves. Their combined defense against the swell of Lorelei's arrival had just sped up the process.

"No, I don't accept that," one of them-- probably Asch-- said.

I am sorry, Lorelei said, sounding genuinely regretful. The two of you cannot leave here separately.

So we go together, the thought came to them, and neither could say who had started it. They looked at each other, blinking.

Both of us--

In one body?

I'll end up punching myself in the face within a week.

Do we have any other choice?

Not if the alternative is staying here.

They turned to Lorelei as one. "If we're trying to merge, anyway, can you put both of us into one body?"

They got a sense of surprise from the misty shape. Possibly. Since you are perfect isofons-- possibly, yes.

"Then do it, and send us the hell home. If I never see another fonic glyph again it'll be too soon."

Lorelei hesitated, his uncertainty evident in the curl of his shoulders. Are you certain? I do not know what you may be hoping, but-- this will be irreversible. You will grow together much more rapidly, confined in flesh. Eventually, you truly will become one person.

"I don't want to die," they told him quite bluntly. "I never have. If this is what it takes not to, then I say go for it."

Lorelei hesitated again, then nodded, just once. On one condition-- that you take that with you. He gestured to the Key. I don't want it here.

"Why don't you destroy it," they asked, curious. "Then you'd never be bound again."

I can't, he said helplessly. You take it, take it as far from here as you can. It will end up here again eventually, because it always does, but for now that will be enough.

Shrugging, they walked over and pulled the sword up from its slit in the floor. It came up slowly, reluctantly, and rang like a bell as it finally came loose, a sound that they could feel as much as hear. Lorelei’s image shivered until the sound faded away, and then he held out a hand towards them.

Standing shoulder to shoulder, they waited.

Lorelei's touch was like fire, like ice-- a wash of hotcold and pressure and smothering until suddenly-- release, and they were moving, or the world was moving around them. The light and the stone and the tunnels all blurred away like running paint, muddying into a dull sort of roil like liquefied miasma.

The first breath of air on the other side was sweet. They opened their eyes on a field of flowers, and the closing echoes of a song.