Okay, I haven't submitted fanfiction this site for a while... All I've ever done before is Inuyasha, but um, I don't like Inuyasha much anymore. X3 I am however totally in love with Tales of the Abyss, and especially Sync! He's my favourite character, though god knows why. XDD -such a fangirl- So thus, this fanfiction is about Sync the Tempest mostly from this POV ( I say mostly because occasionally it changes. ) I hope you enjoy!

Oh, one other thing before I begin I suppose, yes I do know about the events of Shiro no Ashita... but I read about it after I made this. xD And I kind of like my own version better. -shot-

Okay really, onto the fanfiction!

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Synchronization

Chapter 1 - A Sorrowful Destiny

"Keep it moving!"

The commanding voice echoed throughout the room, urging the seven young boys forwards, all of them linked to another by a dark solid chain. It was a strange sight to behold, for each boy looked entirely identical to another with their thick green hair and emotionless green eyes. They were lead by a rather stout old man, garbed in priestly robes.

"Now, no need to be so rough." Laughed another voice, belonging to a tall figure with rough features and soft brown hair. He strode forwards and looked about the room - an abandoned rather untidy library. "This place will do. Shall we begin, Grand Maestro Mohs?"

"Naturally, naturally." replied Mohs impatiently, dropping the chain he was leading the young boys from, and turning to face them.

Grand Maestro Mohs was by no means an evil man, but he was not kind either. As a high ranking individual in the Order of Lorelei and a Watcher of the Score, he considered the Score to be absoloute and divine, therefore to be followed at all times without exception, and for this reason his ideals would appear twisted, for it was every so often that Score depicted a future of death and destruction ... and it was he who insured that this was upheld.

The Score had predicted the former Fon Master Ion's death, whom's last consent was to have a replica created to replace him. Between the Fon Master himself, Grand Maestro Mohs, and Commandant Van Grants of the Oracle Knights, there had been a decision to make as many replicas as nessesary before the perfect creation was selected.

The seven boys who stood before Mohs were indeed replicas.

They didn't wilt under his stare, infact, they barely seemed to register what was happening when suddenly Mohs yanked the closest one to him and undid the lock. He shoved the poor boy roughly in an open space apart from the others.

"Now then, you... Show me what you can do." He waited patiently for the boy to do something, but all that happened was that he was greeted by an entirely blank stare and no action whatsoever. Growling, Mohs strode over and shook the boy, "Do your fonic arts you pathetic creature!" he yelled in his face, but still there was nothing - not even a smidge of emotion.

"Leave it," the other man said with a carefree air, "It is obviously a faulty creation. Completely useless."

Mohs shoved the boy from him, who stumbled over his own feet and fell, then sneered, "I suppose you're right, Van."

The next three boys were much the same way, not responding to a single command and instead staring blankly at the area around themselves. Born so shortly ago, they were naive to the world and without ration. In their current state, they couldn't even understand what they were supposed to do, could barely function by themselves, let alone follow any sort of command.

However, the fifth boy was a rather interesting one.

"Are you like the others?" questioned Mohs, looking at the fifth boy with an almost bored expression.

Although the fifth boy had the same blank stare as the rest, there was a different air about him, almost one of defiance. When Mohs stepped forwards and seized his arm, the boy instinctively tore it away, looking up at Mohs with a frown.

Van laughed heartily, "Well, looks like at least one of them has some life." Mohs just looked down at the boy angrily, who had then reverted back to staring blankly ahead.

"So it can move by itself, but can it actually do anything useful?" asked Mohs snidely. Further proding proved that the fifth boy - although having retaliated - would do nothing else, and he was soon cast aside with the rest of his brethren.

Although it was merely a flash that fled in sheer seconds, an angry rejected feeling shot through the fifth boy, and he stared at the one who inflicted this upon him fixedly, not comprehending what it meant but understanding that something unpleasant had occurred.

He watched the sixth boy, who was then brought up to be tested. Mohs began to approach the boy, who then suddenly quivered slightly then turned to run towards the others standing in the group aside. Obviously he had observed what had happened to each one and didn't want to be put into that same position.

Van looked amused at this, while Mohs clenched his jaw tightly then whipped around, bellowing, "Useless, all of you, useless!" He pulled the seventh boy forwards roughly and shook him by the shoulders. "Useless!"

The seventh boy let out a cry of hurt and confusion, and a glowing light emitted from one of his hands, swathing the room in a bask of golden. Mohs grunted and stepped back from the blinding light, his hands covering his face until it died down completely and he was able to see again.

The seventh boy sank to his knees, uttering in a soft voice, "D-don't..."

Both Mohs and Van looked equally surprised and impressed. "A Daathic fonic art!" proclaimed Mohs, beaming brightly.

"Well, the beginnings of one in any case." added Van, striding over to stand before the seventh child, still upon his knees, "Very impressive of a replica made so shortly ago."

Looking up from his kneeling position, the seventh child stared straight at Mohs with all the innocence of a child. "D-don't... Hurt..." The soft voice sounded strained and fearful.

"So it can speak too." Mohs blatantly stated. "Van ... I believe we have found our new Fon Master Ion."

"So it would appear. He has a long way to go before he is anything reminiscent to the former Fon Master, but he is certainly the most advanced of our collection." Van collected the dark chain from the ground, and turned to Mohs.

"Yes, we know that at least this one can use the Daathic fonic arts." Mohs lifted the seventh child to his feet, and faced him. "From now on, your name is Ion," he declared loudly, "Fon Master of the Order of Lorelei."

Ion's look intensified slightly, and he repeated the name given to him with vague understanding. "Ion..." he said in a curious way "Ion..."

The other replicas had their attention on Ion now, drawn in by the mysterious light and familiar allure of the spoken name. In their memory, the name had significance to them, even if they didn't know exactly how or why.

The fifth replica particularly stared hard at Ion, far more wary then the rest around him. He felt something strange, a kind of forboding feeling that settled in the pit of his stomach and washed over him. He knew something was about to happen.

"Well, now that this is sorted, what shall we do about the rejects?" Van began to walk over to the group of six.

"It doesn't matter," Mohs said dismissively, "Deposit them into the volcano where they can die without being seen by anyone." With that, Mohs led the brand new Fon Master from the room and disappeared.

"Very well then." Van turned to the replicas, and snapped the chains back upon their wrists, binding them all together again. Silently he lead them to the opposite end of the room, where he triggered the secret trap door that led into the fiery pits of Mt. Zaleho.

- - - -

On Moh's orders, Van had deposited them into the volcano to die, and surely enough most of them did.

For the majority of their short lifespan, they lived in fear of their surroundings and own existance. The bright bubbling lava around them, and suffocatingly hot air hardly presented a calming atmosphere, and they spent their time trying in vain to escape from it. Besides that, there was scarcely any food besides fire rats as the climate was unconditional for any plant-life, and most of them could barely function enough to walk, let alone trap or scavenge for something edible.

So it was only natural that two days later after being abandoned in the depths of Mt. Zaleho, only three replicas remained of the original six. The three replicas who had perished had been weaker then the other replicas to begin with, their health frail and their instincts non-existant. Two of them died in an un-natural way, while one of them had been attacked and killed by one of the many monsters dwelling in the volcano.

However, already another one of the replicas was weakening, and soon it would perish in the same un-natural way the others did, leaving behind only two of the original group of six.

The one who was known as the fifth child was likely the most advanced of his group, progressing rapidly in intelligence and strength, it was unlikely he would suffer the same fate as the others. Although he did not understand alot of what happened around him, he observed what he could warily and eventually he learnt the most important rule of his life; to survive, one must fight or be killed, although the idea of death wasn't something he could yet comprehend.

The other two surviving replicas, the sixth and the second children, were far more reserved then himself and as such hadn't yet learnt as much as he. The sixth child for the most part spent his time hiding with the second child, but soon the second child would die. Only he, the fifth child, had dared to venture somewhat despite his fears, although it had gotten him into a few tight spots that he had barely escaped.

Also he, unlike the others, had started practicing his speech. For some untold reason, something like fragments of a memory would rush to him, and suddenly he had that knowledge. His ability to speak was incredibly sparse however, his entire vocabulary comprised of a few basic words that he clung desperately to while he attempted to dig deeper into his mind for more information about who he may be.

Who was he? Where did he come from? These thoughts nagged at him constantly.

Due to his advanced abilities over the others, he was in a way like a big brother to the other replicas, doing the main share of the hunting and sharing his kills with the others. They all tried to do what they knew they could, even if some of them - such as the dying second replica - could do hardly more then perhaps finding a safe place to sleep.

They lived in greater fear then he did, but no one would of been able to tell by their stoic expressions. However even then still they breathed, felt, and lived. Despite their child-like mentalities, they always lived.

Then, one day, he came for him. That person from before.

Van had gone into Mt. Zaleho to scout the area and insure that the replicas were destroyed, but what he found instead was quite an interesting sight. One of the replicas was face-to-face with a snarling monster, brandishing his fists defensively, while two replicas were huddled behind him - one of the replicas was slumped over with misted eyes, obviously dead, while another was holding onto the dead replica while bleeding profusely through a great gash in his body.

That morning the final two children awoke to find the second boy dead, although not understanding death didn't realize the reason why he was so unresponsive. Slowly the second child's body started to fade, but didn't vanish instantly like most replicas upon death, assumedly since he was less advanced then the others. The sixth boy had immediately rushed to his side, a far more caring individual then that of the fifth child who looked upon the second with a small amount of confusion and regret.

The fifth replica had then turned away and went to hunt, his ever-growing responsive body telling him he was hungry. After some minimal searching around the area, he had found an unwary fire rat, but when he lept forwards to snatch it a monster intercepted him with a vicious snap of it's jaws that was barely dodged. Apparently it had it's eyes on the fire rat aswell, but upon finding this larger prey it was forgotten and turned to him.

His first instinct was to run back to the others, but it was an unwise decision for as soon as he reached them, the monster swung around and attacked the sixth child, leaving the devastating wound. The fifth child butted in and stood before the monster, determined not to let it cause more hurt to the ones who he was born with.

The monster screamed it's battlecry, and rushed forwards to impale the defiant replica before it upon it's claws, when suddenly a sword was thrusted through it's skull and it died in a bloody instant.

Van removed his sword from the corpse, and turned to the replica who still had it's fists raised. He went to stride forwards for a better look, when suddenly the replica threw itself upon him, punching and kicking at his stomach and legs spiritedly, but only recieved the painful sting of the armour rebounding his fist and he let out an angry cry. The commandant laughed heartily at the boy's attack - although he had to admit the strength and speed of his attack was quite impressive for such a newly-made replica - then lifted him up by the collar of his grimy long shirt. "You're quite the spirited one, aren't you?"

The boy glared at him angrily, a contorted look upon his face. "... Y-you!" He stumbled over his words, "W-who? Who you?"

Van dropped the boy with surprise, who landed roughly on his behind and scrambled a safe distance away. "So, you can speak too, can you?" He mused, "Your progress seems to matching that of Ion's himself. What an interesting development."

"Who?! Who?!" The boy repeated insistently, suspicion and anger in his voice.

The commandant laughed again. "I suppose I should introduce myself then. I am Van ... but who are you, brazen replica?"

"Van." the boy said flatly, "You Van. Me... Me..." at this point he started stuttering, searching himself for answers. Who ... me? Name... name...

"So, you are without a name naturally." Positive that the boy would no longer attack him, Van approached him and looked straight into his eyes. He saw great defiance, and an amount of potencial. He was sure this one could be useful to his purposes, and if he was even somewhat close to Ion's Daathic abilities...

He held out his hand in the gesture of a handshake. "I could give you a name... if you agree to come with me and serve me."

"A name." The boy began to understand what was being said, and he stared at the hand offered to him. He raised his own hand slightly, but then remembered his brethren and looked behind him at the figures upon the ground. "Them..."

"They are dead." came the prompt reply.

"Dead...?" whispered the boy, "Dead..." He took in the sight of the sixth's bloody body, and the still corpse of the second. "Dead..." So he had been unable to prevent the hurt afterall.

"Yes, death is a terrible thing..." Van replied soothingly, placing a hand upon the boy's shoulder, "...but it is inevitable. There is nothing left for you here. Will you join me?"

The boy looked up and into Van's eyes, blazing with determination. "Yes." He said simply.

"Excellent. From now on, you will train hard and when you are ready, I will permit you to join my charge, the Oracle Knights." Van began to walk away, back towards the secret entrance leading to Daath. He expected the boy to follow him, but he just stood there as if expecting something.

"Name." the boy said simply, a small frown on his face.

"Ah yes, I promised that, didn't I?" chuckled Van, facing the green-haired boy with an amused expression.

"A song that is repeated to create a harmony... only a mirror of the original melody yet inevitably and significantly involved... that which is synchronization. From this day forth, you shall be named Sync, one who is fated to always live as the echo of his predecessors."

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Okay, what do you guys think? Too short? Not emotional enough? Not enough action? I don't know, I get those feelings from my fanfiction constantly, which is why I tried to renovate this chapter before I submitted it... it was originally less in-depth. I love comments and always respond. Thank you for reading, and don't be afraid to post any suggestions! Oh, and I have chapter 2 done already but I'm going to try renovating that one too first. Okay, so until next time, Eternal out!