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It started innocuously enough at first. An echo of bone deep ache in his limbs, then the phantom sensation of his lungs, filled with fluids that most certainly weren’t there physically. Symptoms of some kind of fever or such.
Asch had enough. After two days of constant discomfort, the God-General found himself far more irritated than usual. He knew he wasn’t sick himself, and that left only one option. It was just like the dreck too, nothing ever went right when it came to that worthless replica, and now it seemed he couldn’t even get sick right either.
He brushed the fallen strands of crimson hair from his face with a gloved hand and growled. This couldn’t go on any longer.
Cursing under his breath, Asch surveyed the deck of the Albiore III. When he didn’t find the Dark Wings anywhere on deck, he huffed in relief. Luckily, Ginji was the only one around. The redhead knew the overly friendly pilot wouldn’t have a problem with a change of destination.
The God-General grit his teeth as another chill snaked its way across the link. He’d already tried closing the connection between them multiple times but it seemed something regarding the state of his replica was keeping him from fully blocking him out.
It was far past time to pay the dreck a visit. Admittedly, Asch wasn’t sure what he’d do when he got there, but perhaps the Necromancer would have some solution. If not, thrashing the reject would have to suffice.
No amount of bracing himself had prepared Asch for the intense agony that assaulted him when he widened the connection. He could feel violent shivers rack the pathetic thing’s body. While a raging headache coupled with nearly flooded lungs made the older redhead almost feel bad for his copy. Almost. He’d have been more inclined towards pity if those same symptoms hadn’t been broadcast to him half the time.
Asch withdrew, he knew where the dreck was now, so there was no reason for him to subject himself to that any longer. The God-General made to stand up, but after taking to his feet Asch’s center of gravity seemed to violently spin and he was sent crashing to the floor.
“What’s going on Asch?” Ginji had apparently heard the crash and accompanying swears that resulted from his embarrassing near collapse.
“What’s going on is we’re going to Keterburg. now! Take the shortest route possible.” The redhead tried to instill his usual bite into his voice, but he could tell it failed by the cheery tone of his pilot’s voice when he replied, “You got it!”
Asch quietly groaned as he eased into the chair he’d been occupying earlier. This was going to be a long flight.
As soon as they’d landed, Asch had given the Dark Wings free reign to go off on their own. He didn’t need them following along when he reached the replica and his groupies. The former noble made a beeline directly towards where he felt the dreck’s presence.
He’d weathered through the secondhand symptoms the best he could on the flight there, but even with his Fon slots almost entirely closed off -at least as much as he was able- Asch found the closer he got, the more sensations bled through.
Despite his best effort to ignore the trash’s illness, Asch was stumbling by the time he made it into the Keterburg hotel lobby. He’d completely lost the energy to properly curse his replica for everything by the time he leaned against the wall right next to the elevator.
The God-General panted as he took in the hotel through blurring eyes. The receptionist had given him a few looks but she most likely assumed he was a drunk tourist who’d just come back from a wild night at the casino.
From what he could tell, the waste of space was upstairs, maybe a floor or two up. Not wanting to waste his time searching, Asch gracelessly slid down the wall and prepared himself for however long it would take for one of the dreck’s friends to find him.
However, after a few minutes, and much to his annoyance, the crimson haired man felt his eyes droop closed as he fell into a fitful sleep.
Indistinct voices greeted Asch’s ears as he slowly cracked open his eyes.
“It appears our sleeping beauty has awoken.” Jade punctuated this with a regretful sigh. “And here I thought we’d have to have you kiss him first, Natalia. Better luck next time I suppose.”
“W-Well I never!” Natalia spluttered.
Asch snapped fully awake at this, finding the painful sensations that were coming from his replica had diminished some since he’d rested.
After drinking in his betrothed’s lovely face, the God-General turned his attention towards the matter at hand. Having located Jade in the small crowd around the bed he now found himself in, Asch chose to question him first. “I assume you know what’s going on with us?”
The sandy haired colonel had the decency to look apologetic, at least in that mocking, condescending way of his. “I’m afraid I don’t have any concrete theories regarding this matter at the moment. And I do so hate to share mere speculation.”
At the Necromancer’s words, Asch scowled and tried to push himself out of bed. However, his plans for escape were interrupted by one worried princess, and a spontaneous bout of dizziness.
Letting The blonde woman gently guide him back to a reclining position, the flustered redhead could only mutter a small, “I’m not sick.” He knew it was a childish thing to say, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.
Twisting around, Asch craned his neck in the direction of his replica as Natalia’s grip on his shoulders loosened. Following his gaze, she turned towards the only other bed in the room as her green eyes sparkled apologetically.
“I hope you don’t mind. We had gotten him his own room to recover in. And when Tear and I found you in the lobby, she suggested letting you rest in here with him.” Natalia had taken her hands off him and clasped them nervously against her chest while she spoke.
Asch knew he couldn’t hold any ill will towards her, especially when she looked at him like that. And besides, her worried fidgeting had already cooled nearly all of his earlier anger.
Unfortunately, it seemed nobody in the dreck’s group had any intention of letting him leave now that he was here. And for once, as much as it irked him, the redhead agreed with them. If he were to run off now, no doubt he’d collapse again before he could get far enough away for the effects to subside.
“What’s wrong with him?” Asch wasn’t asking out of concern, it would just be useful if he knew what that failure had gotten them into. That’s all.
Tear spoke up while Guy went to attend to the replica. “We found ourselves caught in a blizzard three or four miles from town. It was incredibly sudden, and we could barely see each other through the heavy snowfall. While trying to find our way to shelter, a pack of wolves ambushed us, separating Luke and Anise. It took us too long to gain our bearings in battle. After which, we fumbled around in the storm for some time before finding Luke and Anise. Luke passed out shortly after we’d reunited.”
Guy picked up where she left off as he leaned against the wall between the two beds. “Once the storm calmed down, we found quite a few nasty wounds on him. Tear and Natalia went to work on the worst of them right away, of course. But by that time a pretty awful infection had set in, and his body, as well as our healers, were already too overworked to consider trying anything else. Oddly enough, the panacea bottles we had didn’t do much either.”
Pushing off the wall, the blonde servant reflexively checked Asch’s forehead before jumping back, horror written across his face. Rubbing the back of his neck, Guy blinked awkwardly a few times before saying. “Sorry, force of habit.”
Asch gave the Malkuthian noble his finest glare before a sensation from his replica caught his attention. Shuffling uncomfortably under the sheets, Asch snapped, “Go check his temperature, idiot.”
The older redhead turned away from the bumbling mother hen and caught the Necromancer’s eye. There was an almost excited gleam in those red eyes that made Asch’s skin prickle. No doubt the older man was enjoying this, at least a little bit. That thought only served to prod Asch’s temper.
The former noble let out an indignant huff and closed his eyes. Hopefully if he pretended to sleep, they’d get bored and leave the room eventually. To Asch’s frustration, he found the exhaustion radiating off the replica next to him completely overpowering. And the God-General found himself drifting off to join his copy.
Luke was lost in relentless waves of pain. Every time the replica thought he had gotten his bearings in the void he found himself in, something new and terrible would tear at his senses.
At some point however, through the disorienting haze, he’d felt a presence approaching. He couldn’t put a name to whoever was there in his blurred, sluggish thoughts. But whoever had come was familiar. And as soon as that person had gotten close enough to sense clearly, Luke immediately latched on.
Everything ached, and it seemed like his mind was melting from the outside in. But as the one he’d grabbed on to moved even closer, the pain encompassing him became easier and easier to bear.
Once the worst of the agony had subsided, Luke realized the one he’d reached out to over their connection was Asch. In hindsight that should have been pretty obvious, but whatever was going on with him had made it pretty difficult to think straight.
Unusually, his crimson haired counterpart hadn’t already blocked him out. And as he looked closer, the replica realized something was wrong with Asch too. Luke guessed his original’s issues were also his fault, so he immediately tried to shut off their link, but found himself unable to. In all honesty, he didn’t entirely mind the closeness. It reminded him of when he’d been taken into Asch’s mind after Akzeriuth, and how safe he’d felt then.
As embarrassing as that particular thought was, it was the truth. But Luke knew the God-General wouldn’t take so kindly to the mental intrusion once he woke up.
Snapping fully awake, the young replica wriggled into an upright position on the bed he found himself in, wincing as his sore muscles pulled, and looked around. The early dawn rays lazily filtered through the curtains as Luke’s eyes found a crimson haired lump curled up in his own bed across the room.
Luke attempted to slide out of bed, but stopped as the aching made itself known once again. Sliding back under the sheets, the redhead bit back a groan of pain. The last thing he remembered was the snowstorm, and then him and Anise getting separated from the others. After that, everything was a confusing blur of teeth, snow, and claws.
Taking stock of his condition, Luke felt dozens of small cuts, accompanied by an overall dull ache that encompassed his entire body. On top of that, he guessed he’d caught a fever. If the sore throat, clammy skin, and weird temperature were any indication.
Not wanting to wake his original, the replica quietly turned over in bed to face the wall. He didn’t feel as awful as he had before he’d been fully conscious, and it probably had something to do with whatever brought Asch here.
Just as Luke had begun drifting off, a smooth voice from behind startled him.
“If you go back to sleep now, you’ll miss our dear princess’ lovely cooking.” The voice was close, too close.
With a crackly squeak, Luke nearly launched himself off the bed. Turning around, Jade’s amused gaze glittered back at him from behind his glasses.
“I do hope you’re okay, all this excitement isn’t good for the ill.” The colonel purred.
Luke inched away and fully sat up. Once Jade had made sure his charge was fully awake, the Necromancer turned to the other bed and sauntered over.
“Wait!” Luke rasped. “He’s- He's asleep. Don’t bother him. It’s probably all my fault he’s like this anyways!”
Unfortunately for the replica, his initial cry was far too loud. They both watched as the lump on the other bed stirred, grumbling and muttering. The younger redhead couldn’t hear what was being said, but he was sure it included some choice insults for him in some way.
“How nice of you to join the land of the living, Asch.” It seemed Jade was in a teasing mood this morning. That did not bode well for the two.
“Shut up Necromancer! I only came here so you could fix this.” If Luke wasn’t mistaken, Asch’s voice sounded just as rough as his did.
“Whatever gave you the impression I’d have the solution? I’m afraid my old noggin hasn’t the foggiest clue as to what’s happening.” The entertainment was clear in Jade’s voice as he spoke. Luke had no doubt in his mind that the man had most likely already come up with two or three theories regarding their situation.
The two redheads pushed off their beds and followed the man down the hall.
As Jade pushed a door open, a terrible stench that only vaguely reminded the young replica of burnt food assaulted Luke’s nose. Both he and Asch paled, but they stepped inside behind the colonel.
Once inside, it was obvious Natalia had gone all out in an attempt to make everyone ‘breakfast’.
The moment she turned from the bubbling pile of sludge she’d been working on, her emerald eyes lit with joy at the sight of her fiancé, and she nearly tripped over herself in an effort to reach him.
“Asch! And Luke. Are you two okay? Jade really shouldn’t have dragged you over here, I would have been happy to bring you your meals in bed.” Her concern was written clearly on his face and Luke watched his original shift uncomfortably at the attention.
“I’m fi-“ Asch cleared his throat hurriedly after his garbled attempt at speech. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“Yeah. I’m feeling a whole lot better too.” The younger redhead added, combing his sweaty vermillion bangs out of his eyes. The replica idly wondered just how long he was asleep for as he messed with his hair.
“Well if you two insist. Tear and Anise left earlier this morning to grab some supplies in town. And Guy ran off somewhere when I asked him to sample for me while I cooked. He looked so worried that I just let him go.” Natalia smiled then, and clasped her hands in front of her. “We’ll just have to enjoy breakfast without them.”
The isofons looked to Jade for help, but their hearts simultaneously dropped to their stomachs when the man put on an over-exaggerated expression of remorse. “I’m afraid I have some data to go over from earlier. I need absolute quiet if I’m to figure out what’s going on with our these two.” The Necromancer’s voice dripped with false apology, but the princess seemed too distracted by her betrothed’s presence to care as she turned back to Asch with a smile.
“I suppose it’ll just be us three then.” Natalia said as Jade cruelly abandoned them and slipped out the door.
Luke’s head had already been pounding all morning so he wasn’t exactly sure when Asch had fully opened the connection, but as he gazed apprehensively at the ‘food’ Natalia was lovingly plating, he heard his original say.
‘You’re going to pretend you like it. I won’t have trash like you making her feel bad about her admittedly questionable cooking.’ Asch’s own sentiments about his betrothed’s skill in the kitchen came across the connection loud and clear as Luke mutely nodded.
The throbbing in his skull hadn’t gotten any worse when Asch had spoken to him. So he thankfully hadn’t made a single sound to alert Natalia to their conversation.Truthfully, he didn’t want to hurt her feelings either, but when everything she touched turned out like that, it was near impossible to keep from reacting.
The two redheads looked down in apprehension at their plates as soon as the princess set them on the table. Luke had poked around with his fork before stopping suddenly, as he found part of what looked like a lemon gel mixed into the unappetizing grey sludge.
Natalia sat next to Asch, who had unsurprisingly seated himself as far away from his replica as was possible in the small hotel room. Turning to her fiancé, she flashed the pallid God-General a dazzling smile.
Luke desperately tried to hold in his laughter as he watched the typically uptight man nearly melt in his seat.
The time had come to actually try the monstrosity Natalia called breakfast, and neither redhead wanted to be the first to sacrifice their tastebuds.
Luke thought he saw a smirk on his original’s face for a moment, but before he could begin to wonder what that was about, the pain in his head intensified. Horror gripped him as his right hand moved on its own, he wasn’t even right handed! If Asch wanted this to be believable he could’ve at least put in a little effort. The young replica desperately tried to regain control as he felt the foreign influence spread to his mouth before it froze his entire body.
‘Asch! Stop!’ Luke knew his pleas would fall on deaf ears, but as the rest of his body refused to follow his command, he had to at least try talking his original out of it once.
By the time his right hand, which trembled from the battle of wills, made its way up to his mouth, Luke had given up. The smell coming off the slimy looking scoop would have made him vomit, but even that bodily function was unavailable to him.
Cursing Asch internally, the replica could only watch as the spoon made its way in-between his lips. Once the ‘food’ touched his tongue, both isofons violently flinched.
Eyes watering, Luke glared triumphantly up at his original, celebrating his vengeance while Asch discreetly gagged. That’s what he got for abusing their link.
At least justice had been served, if he had to taste it, then Asch would too.
Putting on a false smile to hide the stinging in his throat, Luke distantly wondered if the two of them could act ill enough that they’d be sent back to bed. He locked eyes with the God-General while the blonde princess daintily ate her portion. How she managed to put that in her mouth, Luke didn’t know.
‘You think we could?’ Luke began.
‘We have to.’ Asch responded.
With a plan now in place, the young replica began with a hacking cough. After which, he and his original proceeded to groan as they each rubbed a hand on their heads.
Taking a moment to gauge Natalia’s reaction, Asch let out a skillfully faked growl of pain as he pushed his chair back.
At that, the princess, concern lighting her eyes asked, “Are you two alright? I thought you both had gotten better.”
With a decidedly un-Asch-like whimper, the God-General turned to her and gave his fiancée a mangled version of the most pathetic puppy eyes Luke had ever seen. The young noble found himself torn between amusement and horror at the sight.
They seemed to work well enough on Natalia however, as she immediately ushered the two back to bed and before leaving, said, “Promise me you won’t overexert yourselves any longer.”
Both isofons nodded their assent and waited for the door to close behind her.
As soon as Natalia was out of hearing range, Luke turned to Asch, laughter threatening to erupt as he spoke. “I had no idea you were such a good actor! Were those puppy eyes?”
Huffing angrily, the older redhead crossed his arms as he turned away to hide the blush that had begin to tint his cheeks.
“I don’t know what you think you're talking about, dreck.”
The replica was about to press the topic further when Asch spoke, with one of his signature glares leveled right at Luke.
“Let me go now.” Luke frowned in confusion at the change of tone as his original continued. “You’re fine now, so let go. Whatever you did earlier won’t let me close the connection.”
Asch’s frustration came across to Luke plain and clear, but he really didn’t know how to ‘let go’. When it came to their synchronized Fon slots, Asch was the one in charge, the younger redhead had no clue how those worked.
“I really don’t know what I did, and I’m not really sure how to stop it either.” Luke nervously scratched the back of his head as he spoke, though the action seemed to further incense his short-tempered counterpart.
Just when it looked like Asch was about to start yelling, the door opened. The two redheads whipped their heads towards the doorway, fearing Natalia had returned with plans of breakfast in bed, only to see the blue-clad colonel stroll in instead.
“I see you’ve made a daring escape from breakfast.” Jade taunted as he made his way in-between the two beds before he swept the room with a meaningful look.
“Now I’d appreciate it if you two boys elucidated me on what you were discussing before I came in. Perhaps with some more information, I could help solve your little . . . issue.”
At his words, Asch turned to Luke, “You. Explain.”
The young noble wasn’t sure what all he could explain. He wasn’t even entirely sure what had happened himself, but there was no getting out of this now. And he didn’t dare risk Jade prying the story out of him either.
“All I remember was a whole lot of pain, so much I couldn’t even think straight. At some point I felt Asch getting closer, but I couldn’t tell it was him and I honestly don’t even know how I did what I did. Once he was really close, I just kind of . . . reached out for him? And once I made it to him, I felt a lot better.” Luke had tried to explain, but most of the details were too hard for him to grasp himself, much less put into words.
Still, the replica felt the tension drain from him when he saw Jade nod thoughtfully. Surely he’d have figured everything out by now. The necromancer pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose and hummed in thought.
“I can’t say for sure . . . But if I had to throw together a quick hypothesis, I’d say you saved Luke’s life, Asch.” Both redheads faces twisted with confusion as Jade continued.
“I didn’t want to worry the others earlier, though I suspect Tear already had some suspicions, but our dear replica here was actually rather close to death. With how long it took us to find them, as well as the severity of his wounds, part of me feared he wouldn’t see sunrise.”
Luke paled at this, and he glanced over at Asch for reassurance, only to find the God-General’s expression had hardened with something like frustration.
“So this worthless idiot nearly gets himself killed, and I have to pick up the slack?!” The older isofon’s voice had held all of its normal bite despite the sickly rasp it had taken on, and Luke flinched.
Once again, Asch was suffering, and it was all his fault. The replica shrunk in on himself and pinned his gaze to the floor. He didn’t need to see his original’s face to know that he was glaring. All he ever did was cause trouble for Asch. No matter how many times Luke had tried to prove he could be useful, the God-General had made sure he knew just how unworthy he was of the life he’d been given.
‘I’m sorry Asch, I didn’t mean-‘
‘Shut up! Quit whining and fix this already!’ Asch snapped, it seemed he’d quickly gone back to his default setting of bluster and unapproachability after Natalia had left.
The potential fight brewing was interrupted by an obnoxiously haughty sounding cough from the Necromancer, who had immediately caught on to the inaudible conversation going on around him. And was surprisingly enough, looking rather amused at being talked over. After waiting a moment, Jade turned and analyzed Asch closely for a few seconds before sighing and readjusting his glasses.
“Judging by the stricken look on young Luke’s face, he's currently beating himself up over this. And Asch, I have no doubt you’ve been demanding him fix your current entanglement for a while now as well.” Jade slid his hands into his pockets before continuing, “I do have an idea as to how we could go about solving this issue, but you’re not going to like it.”
“Stop stalling, Necromancer.” Asch growled.
“If you insist. I believe this may have been an automatic response to Luke finding himself so close to death in the manner he did. Perhaps something akin to instinct. No doubt another fun side effect of your connection. It should go away once Luke fully recovers, and in any case, I’d prefer to have you stay where I can keep an eye on you just in case any further development makes itself known, Asch.” Jade’s words had mostly flown over Luke’s head, but the replica could tell his original understood from the dark look that has taken over his face.
Asch’s frustration lashed at Luke across their connection, only adding to the pain leftover from his injuries.
At the young replica’s flinch, the colonel cleared his throat before adding, “And do try to play nice with each other.”
The God-General scowled and turned away while Luke made himself comfortable. They both knew there’d be no arguing with Jade.
While he settled in, Luke’s thoughts wandered back to the earlier bombshell. Would he really have died earlier if not for Asch? Just thinking about it made him feel weird.
In all honesty, Luke knew he should have felt more disturbed about his supposed brush with death. But ever since he’d found out he was a replica, it felt like some weight that had previously tied him down his whole -admittedly short life- had lifted. He’d felt oddly detached from the idea of death for a while now.
After learning where he came from, and what he’d taken from the real Luke just because he was born, even merely existing made the young redhead feel vile and disgusting.
In the past, when he’d brought up how he’d felt, his friends would always be quick to reassure him. They'd tell him it wasn’t his fault he was born, and try their best to alleviate his worries. Luke wanted to believe them, he really did. Just . . . none of them really understood. How could they? The situation he and Asch found themselves in was . . . unnatural. Fomicry itself was plenty unnatural sure, but in most cases either the original or the replica died of complications. And here the two of them were, still alive, and still vying for the same place in the world. Luke would give anything to see Asch take back his rightful place, and he’d be lying to himself if he said he hadn’t thought of his own death as the answer to his original’s -and everyone else’s- problems.
He knew he wasn’t supposed to think that way, everyone had made that perfectly clear the first couple of times he’d brought it up. But those thoughts never quite left him. Even though dying still scared him more than he could possibly describe, Luke couldn’t shake the nagging feeling if he’d just disappear, everything would be better for the people around him.
‘Shut up dreck! I can’t tell exactly what you’re thinking right now but I know it’s something pathetic!’ Asch’s voice shocked Luke out of his downward spiral.
With a wet chuckle, the young redhead belatedly realized Jade had long since left. ‘You’re right . . . it was pathetic . . .‘ Maybe something in Luke’s admittedly shaky mental voice bothered Asch. Because after that, the replica felt his original’s presence withdraw with an only slight sense of discomfort left echoing over their connection.
It was only morning, but Luke already felt his energy flagging. Assumedly Asch also sensed that same pull to unconsciousness, as they both drifted off to sleep in uncomfortable silence.
Asch groaned while he pushed himself up in bed.
In the now-dark hotel room, the original held a hand to his painfully dry throat and turned towards the window. Gentle moonlight now painted the floor nearest to the window, leading Asch to assume it was sometime past midnight.
He and the reject must have slept through the whole day. No wonder he felt so dehydrated.
Besides his aching throat though, Asch felt better. The lingering pain that hounded him ever since he opened his replica’s synchronized Fon slots was still there, but the new side effects he’d been feeling through the connection had either fully disappeared, or were just too subtle to notice.
The God-General held his breath as he strained his ears. Once Asch was sure the coast was clear, he slid out from under the sheets and padded toward the door. Stopping only to grab the outer parts of his armor the dreck’s gang had removed sometime earlier.
Once in the hallway, the crimson haired man carefully snuck toward the elevator. With any luck, by the time everyone woke up, he’d be long gone.
Once at the elevator however, Asch found himself stopped, his finger just an inch from the button, by a hand on his elbow. He turned slowly, biting down a startled shout, and locked eyes with none other than Jade. The knowing look in the Necromancer’s eerily glowing red eyes setting him on edge.
The original wrenched his arm out of Jade’s grasp with a fierce glare and asked in a furious whisper,
“What do you want, Necromancer?” Asch thought he might have seen a thoughtful frown cross the older man’s face before being quickly smothered by indifference.
“I was merely about to to take a walk around my old hometown. What I’m curious about in is what you’re up to this time of night.” The colonel shrugged as he spoke.
Asch scoffed and turned back to the elevator, he knew Jade wouldn’t take any action to keep him there. The only ones who actually seemed to care for his presence, embarrassingly enough, were his replica and Natalia.
“None of us would mind if you chose to stick around a little while longer, but I won’t stop you if you insist on leaving.”
The Necromancer’s words made something in the redhead’s chest clench, but Asch shrugged the sensation away. He’d made his choice long ago, and the time would soon come when he’d have to leave everything to that trash anyways.
He could feel it. The pain that now tore at the very foundations of his body. He wouldn’t have much longer before . . .
Asch pressed the button to summon the elevator, distantly registering the retreating presence of Jade out of the corner of his eye.
Stepping inside, the God-General let out a tired sigh as the doors closed behind him with a icy finality he felt in his bones.
LadyLilaBlue Thu 25 Dec 2025 04:55PM UTC
Last Edited Thu 25 Dec 2025 04:55PM UTC
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That1ObsessedTalesoftheAbyssFan Thu 25 Dec 2025 07:23PM UTC
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