Bridge

A solitary man, tall and wearing a teal and silver uniform, stood on a bridge. Below him, worshippers, Cantors and Maestros went about their business, going to and from different sections of the Daath cathedral, all interconnected to the entrance hall. The light from the miasma-filled sky gave the stained-glass windows a very eerie glow.

Even though the man's red eyes watched the passers-by, his mind was very much elsewhere.

Just moments ago, Jade, Luke and the others learned that Asch had made a deal with over 10,000 replicas, all located at the top of the Tower of Rem. In exchange for their lives, he would remove the miasma from the sky, and the brethren that had not made it there would be protected.

Such a move would also cost Asch his life.

Within the chapel, just moments ago, an alternative to that very idea came forth, only half-spoken by the Malkuth Colonel.

"The only alternative I cam imagine would be far crueler."

He wound up not being able to utter the second half, as the red-haired replica had figured it out on his own: Luke would sacrifice his life to save Asch, and remove the miasma. After much shouting, an admonishment from the descendant of Yulia, Tear, to not push the replica into his decision, and Luke's own request to give him time to think, Jade had called for a time-out.

Now, as he stood on the bridge, facing the exit doors, Jade found himself at a loss, not knowing what stand to take, his mind going back into time, starting from when he had received a report that a hyperresonance had brought two people into his country illegally.

Through his travels since then, he had gone from thoroughly despising the spoiled duke's son to begrudgingly giving him a chance to change himself...and beyond it. Through it all, though, Jade had thought that Luke was being a little much about his own self-worth...and more than a little paranoid about the way that people saw replicas.

In the core, he had learned that Sync was a replica of the original Fon Master Ion, thrown into Mt. Zaleho volcano alive, just because he wasn't good enough for the Order...that had stung the Necromancer, even though his face and eyes never showed it.

Once the replicas started being mass-produced and were made public, Jade began to truly see things around him, throughout Auldrant.

A man in Baticul that tried to beat another man to death, and just because he was the replica of his friend who had just died. He had even called the victim a "freak" and "human thing"...

In Chesedonia, of all places, a pair of twin girls that had been killed when the city fell had been replicated, unable to talk. The townspeople were stoning them and shouting obscenities...

In the Tower of Rem, the replica Mary was tending to one of her brethren, explaining that she had been run out of her own town, treated like a slave and was badly injured...

Luke's own White Knights acted strangely, half of them inching away from the young red-head as though he were a disease, the other half as though they were under orders to support an impostor...

With each incident, each revelation, Jade came face-to-face with not only the results of his own creation so many years back, but also the truths that Luke had already seen.

Each time felt like a strike to not Jade's face, but to his heart and soul.

Great Lorelei, he heard himself whisper more than once, just what have I truly caused...?

In a way, it was surprising that the others didn't catch on that something was upsetting him. In other ways, it wasn't surprising at all, considering the fact that he almost never allowed his deeper feelings to surface.

He had to always stay cool and collected, after all. He was the adult of the bunch.

It didn't mean, though, that he didn't feel.

The sound of footsteps approaching him brought Jade out of his reverie. He could tell, just from the sound and pattern, just who the footfalls belonged to.

After a moment, the Colonel said, his voice not as stern as usual, "I would understand if you chose to hate me."

The other person on the bridge stayed silent, but Jade knew he was there, and listening.

He continued, "Even if you died, we would still have an original with stable powers. The miasma would be gone, and fewer replicas would place less strain on resources."

The older man knew that the old Luke would have thought that to be not his problem. As he turned to face the replica, Jade could see some of the thoughts on his face, such as wondering if Jade was really so cold-hearted that he would not think about the lives that would be lost...and if the Malkuthian would even care if he died, so long as they had Asch.

"Jade," he started, then paused before asking out loud, "Would you really ask me to-"

Jade didn't let him finish that remark. "I would ask you to die, yes."

I knew it, Luke thought, even to him, I don't have any real worth.

Jade continued, "If I were an emperor with a country to consider."

Luke nodded, although his expression became stony, which made the older man gaze off, sorrow tinging his eyes.

"But as your friend," Jade admitted in a softer tone, "I feel compelled to stop you."

That surprised the replica.

I don't want you to die...!

Throughout this journey, something within Jade that he had long thought was dead had come back to life. He still didn't realize what exactly that was, but he did know this: If Luke were to go through with his and sacrifice his own life, the Necromancer would die inside. At least a little bit.

"...I never knew that you thought of me as a friend."

In its own way, those words struck Jade as much as any of the things he had seen happen to the guiltless replicas.

Jade had invented fomicry, which had started this incident seven years prior in the first place. When he learned that Luke was the replica of Asch the Bloody, he had kept the information away from not only Luke but as many of the others as he could.

Why had I done that, I wonder...? Not telling him led to Van using the boy to destroy Akzeriuth. Then he found the truth from the one place he should never have learned, from Asch himself...

It had been Jade who had first put the thought of sacrificing 10,000 Seventh Fonists to destroy the miasma...and then the half-spoken statement had put the idea of mass sacrifice in Luke's head.

And through all if it...the Necromancer had remained as cold and logical as ever.

"Really? I suppose that's understandable," he replied to the replica, his voice holding an almost unnoticeable tremor in it, "I am a terribly cold person."

My own mistakes as a child, combining with the ones I've made in these past few months...Luke's paying for them all now.

Jade turned back towards the exit doors of the cathedral and gripped the railing with one hand as he said in the same tone, "...I'm sorry, Luke."

While he had said similar words before, it had always been either in tease or sarcasm. Now, though, he truly meant it, and for so many reasons.

As he heard the young man walk away, Jade was absorbed enough in his thoughts that he wasn't truly aware of something tickling near his eyes as they slipped down his face...not even when wet drops fell onto his hand.

He whispered in a low, soft voice, "...I'm sorry..."