A/N: Second try at a real crackfic. Crossover, you have been warned, and if you've been raised off the PSX like me, perhaps you will also be haunted by childhood memories.

Disclaimer: I own nothing and do not make a material profit from this work. It is purely fan made (crack) fun.

--

The world hummed with the lively energy of aer's offspring, mana. Being the media through which many of the most powerful spirits were born, Estelle could feel, sense, communicate with any of the spirits at will. In a particular season some spirits could be sensed more strongly than the others, such as Efreet being more prominent in summer while Undine was more so in winter. She could feel the power of the spirits, of mana, humming in her very bones.

Sometimes she dreamed of the previous lives the spirits had as Entelexeia. Many of those dreams were the lives of Entelexeia during the Great War. Mt. Temza's earth layers were littered with the bones of those Entelexeia who died during the war against the Hermes blastia. Of those nightmares, she recorded in her journals, intending to publish them. Whether or not they were regarded as fiction, the product of her imagination (which she supposed was true to some extent), that made the horrors of the Great War no less true. It was high time that the people knew the Entelexeia's side of the story.

The handwritten volumes of the illustrious lives of the Entelexeia took up entire bookshelves, the wood bowing under the weight. Numerous times Estelle wondered if she was the only one (besides Judith, for obvious reasons) who felt guilty about murdering many of the remaining Entelexeia. They had done it so they could convert them to spirits, but in the end, killing them for their apatheia ... did that make them any different from Alexei, truly? He had killed many Entelexeia for their apatheia, after all.

There were only two Entelexeia left. Krones, the airborne jellyfish-like creature that kept Myorzo in the skies, and Judith's own Ba'ul, the dragon who flew without wings, and resembled a giant whale. Ba'ul had expressed his own discontent with the idea of humans killing his fellow Entelexeia. Yuri had promised him they wouldn't just demand the apatheia right away ... but after every encounter, they walked away with a new spirit at their side.

Yuri had said repeatedly, he didn't care if other people called him evil. That had been in regard to the idea of giving up all the blastia by way of eliminating the cores, the remnants of the apatheia of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Entelexeia. But was only toward the idea of giving up the blastia? Did he not feel that way about killing the Entelexeia as well?

She had another dream one night, from a particular Entelexeia. The one who had walked among them in an illusion, and had walked beside Duke.

--

They had no other means of flying, really, but it would have been nice if they could defy the laws of physics (and aerodynamics ... though it was a pretty safe bet they already were). Really, they didn't mind having Ba'ul carry the Fiertia to fly them around ... it was just that ... the way Ba'ul held it (the only way the Entelexeia could hold it) and flew, the boat did tend to rock violently this way and that when they flew at such impossible speeds.

Judith, who was already used to the idea of flight itself with Ba'ul, did not mind the constant violent rocking. Neither did Yuri, or Estelle (though it did take a rather long while before she did get used to it). However, a mister Flynn Scifo was not so lucky. He'd never been onboard the Fiertia while Ba'ul carried it. He spent much of the flight holed up in the cabin, downing every kind of motion sickness drug there was available.

Leaning on the wall outside the cabin door, Yuri called in to Flynn, "I never knew you could get motion sickness. Fun fact for the day, I guess."

Flynn venomously muttered something incoherent on the other side of the door.

Ignoring it, Yuri continued, "So, is it really okay to leave your post, Commandant?"

The cabin door opened, and despite the violent rocking of the boat in midair, out came Flynn, all decked out in armor, sword and shield belted to his waist. He did look rather green in the face, but not as if he'd keel over or start emptying the contents of his stomach, something Tokunaga was very grateful for. Slowly, in time with the rocking, Flynn managed to step outside, next to Yuri.

"Sodia isn't my second in command for nothing. She'll handle things until I get back to the Knights. Besides, even His Highness Ioder can't protest when Her Highness Lady Estellise makes a request such as this."

"Just call her Estelle already," Yuri said, smirking as he remembered the first time Rita had called the princess by that nickname when she had so adamantly stuck to the full name before. "Wonder why she had us come out here with Ba'ul."

For it was Estelle who one day showed up with Judith and Ba'ul, demanding that Yuri and Flynn come with her. Where, she wouldn't say, nor why, only that it was of great importance. They humored her, Yuri because he really didn't have anything better to do, Flynn because he was a prim and proper knight and those knights did not refuse a request from one of imperial blood.

"I don't know, either." Flynn said. "I don't think this has anything to do with the blastia, or lack thereof."

That wasn't quite true, Yuri thought. Rita had developed a way to work with mana to create a new kind of blastia, one that didn't use aer, modeled from none other than Raven's blastia heart. However, high-output models like barriers were probably impossible, but hey, something was better than nothing. But he said nothing; he had no idea what kind of crazy goose-chase Estelle was taking them on next.

The where of it soon became clear as they tasted the dusty air of the Weccea canyons on the winds. There was only one place worth noting on the entire continent. He and Flynn were thinking the same thing as they said simultaneously,

"Releweise Hollow?"

Ba'ul lowered his altitude nearest to the cavernous depression in the canyons. When the ship hovered only a few feet above the red clay ground, Judith leapt down. Estelle emerged from the cabin, following suit. Yuri and Flynn exchanged looks as the emulated Judith's action. Ba'ul once again took to the skies; that didn't bother them, as Judith could call Ba'ul at any time.

"Why are we here?" Yuri asked, though he had a nagging feeling he knew why. There was only one thing of interest in this place: the oldest spring in the world, the aer krene at the bottom of the deep canyons.

Estelle nodded, an odd glimmer in her emerald eyes. "We're going down to the aer krene."

"May I ask why, Lady Estellise?" Flynn reiterated Yuri's query with a quirked eyebrow. He'd heard the story of the last time the group had visited this particular aer krene. That included a little encounter with Duke, and a tussle with one of the strongest Entelexeia left in existence. What more could be down there?

There was a small smile on Estelle's face, one that reminded Yuri of Judith. For some reason, that smile unsettled him. She gave a little twirl, leading the way down the sloping path. Judith followed the imperial princess, her own enigmatic smile giving no reassurance. Before following the two women, Flynn stopped by Yuri's side.

"This has something to do with you, doesn't it?" He whispered, so the echoes that sounded so easily in this place would not reach the others.

Yuri gulped down the lump in his throat, his grip on his sheathed Second Star katana tightening. " ... Yeah, I think so, too."

-

Fighting on sloping terrain was no fun. It was a mighty tricky business. So Yuri was very grateful that when they did end up having to fight monsters, it was on a piece of flat, somewhat level ground halfway to the aer krene below. The monsters were the usual for Releweise--those armadillo like creatures, the giant turtles, and the strange bird-snakes with claws. Cockatrices. Whatever their names were, it didn't matter.

Yuri began by slicing away at the giant turtle (some strike artes were trickier to pull off without his bohdi blastia), Judith was jumping from one armadillo to the next, sticking one through with a Moonbeam. In the back, Estelle and Flynn supported those two with healing artes and some magical artes. Estelle was casting a Barrier around Judith, while Yuri heard Flynn's voice carry on the dry, dusty winds,

"O divine spear, run mine enemies through!"

Yuri had to make actual effort to suppress his instinct of running away from Flynn as fast as humanly possible. Those countless times he fought Flynn in Nordopolica had beaten that response into him. Flynn might have roughly the same magic as Estelle (with a few spells all his own), but he was a lot stronger than her, as befit the new Commandant of the Imperial Knights.

"Holy Lance!"

The cockatrices in a brilliant blaze of gold light ceased to exist. The rest of the monster fights proceeded in like manner (where Flynn and Judith competed to see who would kill their enemies first), where Flynn showed off his wider arsenal of attack magic, including Prism Sword, Divine Saber, Ray, and even an Eclair d'Larmes for good measure. Yuri had a feeling that Flynn hadn't even fought full force in Nordopolica.

It didn't seem to take so long to reach the bottom of Releweise Hollow, where the aer krene rested within a cave. The coolness by the river would be most welcome after the drying, blistering winds of the canyons. Already Yuri could see the soft green glow of the pool of aer in the spring ahead. Just because the majority of aer had been converted to mana didn't mean that aer had just vanished from existence.

Estelle in the lead, as she had been since they came to the Releweise Hollow, they ducked into the cavern, cool air caressing their hot sunburnt faces. Fields of flowers greeted them before the impossibly huge expanse of liquid emerald green aer that could have passed for water if not for the glimmering, glittering green color. The scent of the air had changed as well, not at all hot and sandy and dusty, but something else altogether.

Even though most aer had converted to mana, the aer that was left over, particularly those in the aer krene, still had the potential to cause aersickness. High density aer was still poisonous when it was exposed to living creatures, whether they be plant, animal, monster, or human.

Estelle stopped at the lip of the jade pool, the aer krene's light casting eerie neon shadows. She turned to face the others who had accompanied her this far.

"Flynn, come here, won't you."

Flynn quirked a brow but nonetheless obeyed. Estelle held out her hand. The Imperial Knight was still confused, but it wasn't like she would do anything like push him into the aer krene. Aersickness could be life-threatening. So he took her hand.

"Estelle, what are you doing?" Yuri asked from the sidelines, near Judith.

"I'm summoning Sylph's power." Was her simple answer.

Sylph's power ... not Sylph itself? Just what was going on?

A soft golden light enveloped the two hands Flynn and Estelle were holding. Estelle's eyes were closed, her lips moving in silent incantation. As Yuri watched, wondering, he came to a conclusion of some sort--even though Estelle was more powerful than the average mage, Flynn was more powerful, and used the same kind of magic she did. Thus their combined strengths could accomplish what Estelle hoped to.

There were ripples in the aer krene. Quite suddenly, the air was charged, something changed that made Yuri tense, made his hair stand on end. It was similar to the time Estelle had healed the barrier tree of Halure, but then he had sensed gentleness, not ... whatever this was. Tensity. His grip on his katana tightened, but he did not draw it. He trusted Estelle.

"Judy, what's going on?" He whispered, indicating the restless aer spring.

"It wasn't just this spring Duke and Khroma were protecting." The Krityan replied cryptically. Yuri quirked a brow, his mouth opening to reiterate his question, when the waves in the aer krene became steadily more violent.

For a moment Yuri thought a monster would emerge, rendered crazy and sick with aer poisoning. He was ready to flick off his scabbard and jump to the fray, but no such creature emerged from the depths of the aer krene. Indeed, it was not a living thing but an inanimate object. He was half-right.

Estelle opened her eyes, her emerald irises and Flynn's sapphire ones drawn to the object floating above the center of the pool of jade. Their hands parted. She held out her arms, and something within her called the object to her. She gently took it from midair. It was big, looked heavy, about the size (perhaps a little bigger) of Belius's apatheia. Since there was so little sunlight, Yuri couldn't be sure of the color (plus there was the green light of the aer krene), only that the object was oval--egg--shaped.

Estelle cradled the thing from the aer krene, looking upon it as if she were looking upon the face of her child. She moved from the green pool, stopped in front of Yuri. Ignoring the confused look on his face, she deposited the object in his arms. It was much heavier than he expected it would be.

"Whoa. What's this, Estelle? And I know you know something, Judy." Granite grey eyes flickered back and forth between the imperial princess and the Krityan. Flynn's face wore a similar mask of confusion as he approached, hovering over Estelle's shoulder to try and get a better look at the thing Yuri held.

Judith had a wry smile on her face. Placing her hand just under her chin like she always did, she said, "That ... is Khroma's legacy."

Yuri frowned. Images of a Krityan woman with an unusually dark shade of skin appeared in his mind. "Khroma? The Entelexeia?" But ... Khroma was dead ... was Sylph, the spirit of the winds. What did she mean, her legacy?

Flynn's voice broke his train of thought. "Khroma was the dragon Entelexeia besides Ba'ul, correct?"

Yuri looked at the thing in his arms, granite eyes widening in horror. There was no way ... it just couldn't be ... He cleared his throat, looking back to Judith.

"Dragons wouldn't happen to reproduce by laying eggs ... would they?"

Judith's clever smile only grew wider. "Why, yes they do. Although there are different kinds of dragons, like how Ba'ul and Khroma were so different."

His eyes cast over to Estelle. She cheerfully nodded, half-bowing.

"Yes! Sylph herself told me. Dragon eggs take a long time to hatch; she laid that egg decades ago. She kept it safe here in the aer krene, where nothing could harm it."

"In the aer krene?" Flynn said, looking over his shoulder at the emerald pool. "But isn't that dangerous? I thought--"

"Even Entelexeia can get aersick, like with Gusios." Judith interjected. "Only bits of aer can get past the thick shell of that egg. And the aer that does get past the shell only adds to the apatheia the dragon is going to have."

"It being in the aer krene protected it," Estelle added, "Since no other creature can go into the pool without getting aersick."

"That makes sense." Flynn replied, looking thoughtfully over to the dragon egg. "But why give it to Yuri?"

All eyes turned to Yuri Lowell. His heart sank; he had a nagging feeling he knew why.

"Does this have to do with ... the spirit conversion?"

Judith's voice was cold, even if she hadn't meant it to be. "You killed the Entelexeia. The only reason Khroma agreed to the spirit conversion was because Estelle promised her she'd find someone to take care of the egg. You murdered Khroma, and now you will take responsibility for the life she left behind."

The weight in Yuri's arms felt so much heavier, even heavier than how he felt his shoulders bow under the weight of the world under the oppressive Adephagos. He must take care of and raise ... an Entelexeia? All by himself? He felt his face grow pale, drain of all blood.

"But I don't know the first thing about--"

"I'll help you." Judith interrupted. "I have been living with Ba'ul a substantial part of my life, after all. And he can help as well."

Yuri thought Judith had been talking about Ba'ul, but as she spoke that last part of her sentence, her wine red eyes flickered over to where Flynn stood. He blinked, uncomprehending.

"Uhm, me? I'm not sure I ..."

"Nonsense; you'll do fine, both of you. And it'll be good preparation for you, Flynn."

"Preparation for what, pray tell?"

--

Yuri sat in the cabin on the way back to Zaphias, the dragon egg--Khroma's egg--in his lap. Out of the light of the aer krene, he saw the egg had a pebbly texture, like scales. It was a light lavender, darker blue, almost like sapphire, in other spots of the round eggshell. He tapped a fingertip on it; it was pretty hard and solid, unlike fragile chicken eggshells.

"We're not going back to Zaphias, you know." Flynn said as he entered the cabin, the sunlight from outside briefly illuminating the dragon egg before the door shut again. The Imperial Knight took a seat beside his friend, looking at the egg he cradled. A small smirk cracked on the blond's face.

"Hehe. Yuri, you're going to be a father!"

"Shut up, Flynn." Yuri had a flat frown, eyes narrowed. "It's not a human child."

"Ah," Amusement glittered in Flynn's clear sapphire blue eyes, "but Entelexeia are intelligent, and they can talk."

"And if Judy's words are anything to go by," Yuri shot back scathingly, "then you're going to have one of your own."

At that Flynn's own face paled, eyes wide. "Seriously? Is that why we're not going back to Zaphias right away?"

Yuri leaned back on the bed, making sure the egg was safely in the crook of his arm. He secretly doubted that even a fall from the Enduring Shrine of Zaude was enough to break it. But despite how different Khroma seemed after becoming Sylph, he'd rather not have an angry spirit-mommy hovering over him.

"Beats me. It's what it sounded like Judy was saying. I mean, come on, preparation for what besides raising a baby Entelexeia of your own?"

Flynn's voice was scarcely more than a frightened whisper. "Will this hurt our chances of actually getting married and having families of our own?"

"Flynn. We're twenty-one. We are way too damn young to be getting married and having kids. Okay?"

"And twenty-one is way too damn young to be Commandant of the Imperial Knights."

"Hey, can't help it if Alexei kicked the bucket."

"Wait ... Ba'ul isn't having a baby, is he?"

"Flynn, do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound? Ba'ul's a male."

There was an immensely pressured silence in the cabin thenceforth, where Flynn and Yuri sat on their respective beds, lost in thought at this new and strange situation. Being a young single parent was bad enough, but being a young single parent of an entirely different species was something else altogether. And it wasn't as if they were raising a pet. There was a big difference between raising a dog and an Entelexeia.

Finally, Flynn released a long sigh. "How else do you think I'm going to have to raise a baby Entelexeia, if what Judith said is true?"

"Probably like this one." Yuri answered, tapping the eggshell of Khroma's egg. "We're likely going to another aer krene, where Estelle will find that egg."

Flynn quirked a brow. "What makes you so sure it's a dragon egg?"

"Meh, just a feeling."

--

Flynn just hated it to death whenever Yuri was right. And dammit, he was right again as Ba'ul stopped his flight at another aer krene, this time the Weasand of Cados. Flynn winced as he disembarked with the others, remembering all too vividly blindly following Alexei's orders to block off the only road between Mantaic and Nordopolica. That had helped lead to Belius's death.

The aer krene was not a pool like in Releweise Hollow, but it once had been when the spring had been going out of control the last time Yuri and Company had come here. The pool had been a deep red, like a ruby jewel, like blood. And it had been Khroma herself who had come and taken in the excess aer, calming the krene that Estelle had unintentionally stirred up.

Flynn bent over, looking into the vast expanse of darkness below. It looked just like an ordinary drop off to him. At least he was sure that the spring at Releweise Hollow had a bottom. But once again he took Estelle's hand, the golden light illuminating the otherwise pitch dark cavern. His heart pounded, feeling Yuri's eyes on him. He could almost hear that smug smirk as Estelle took from the air a hovering object, one that largely resembled Khroma's dragon egg.

And surely enough, this time Estelle handed it to Flynn. It was heavier than he expected; if this truly was a dragon egg, then this must surely be the weight of the life he was supposed to raise. Judith's eyes seemed to glow in the dark.

"That is a dragon egg, but it's not Khroma's. That egg had been laid by a friend of hers, who died during the Great War. Khroma took it from Mt. Temza and hid it here, in the depths of the aer krene. Now it is your responsibility, Flynn Scifo."

Flynn winced, facing the Krityan. "Full name basis? Ouch. But, why? I haven't fought any Entelexeia ..." At Yuri's flat look, devoid of emotion, he stopped himself. He stood up, straightened his spine, standing at his tallest as he held the dragon egg. "Of course. I understand."

When he had placed that infernal road block in the Weasand of Cados, this passageway had been chock full of Imperial Knights, and not all of them had been under his command. In addition to that, that very roadblock had indirectly led to the death of Belius, so he shared some the burden of the responsibility for the Entelexeia's death. All on Alexei's orders for apatheia ...

Out of the Weasand, into the sun, Flynn could see it wasn't at all like Yuri's dragon egg, bright lavender and sapphire. Though it shared the same pebbly, scaly texture, it was ashy grey, black in places. He gently tapped it with a finger. The digit rebounded, and it hurt. The eggshell certainly wasn't very fragile. In fact, it seemed tougher than even his knight armor. This degree of hardness made diamonds seem soft.

As they treaded the fine golden sands of the desert near Mantaic, Yuri fell into step beside Flynn, whispering in the shell of the knight's ear, "Now you're a father, too, Commandant."

Flynn hated it to death when Yuri was right.

--

Zaphias was the only place to go with two dragon eggs, due to hatch anytime with bouncing baby dragon Entelexeia. It was the heart of the Empire, and even without its barrier blastia was the safest place for the eggs by far. For anywhere within the reaches of the guilds would be exposed to the Hunting Blades sooner or later, and Clint and Tison were dead set on exterminating the Entelexeia that remained, convinced they were not intelligent creatures, but merely beasts that enjoyed tormenting humanity. Though the Hunting Blades had chased Ba'ul all the way to the summit of Mt. Temza, certainly they had decency enough not to storm the castle.

"Flynn, you're being paranoid." Yuri said as the knight paced around his room, the two dragon eggs they had obtained resting on his bed. "Not like the Hunting Blades even know that the eggs exist. And you really can't break them, right?"

"You're way too laid back." Flynn shot back, casting a worried glance at the eggs. "The Hunting Blades attacked Pallestralle. If there's really so little love among the guilds, who's to say they have any regard for the Empire? There's an information dealing guild, you know. No one knows how they do it, but I don't doubt that something like this is on its jolly way to Dahngrest right now."

"Well." Yuri said, stretching his arms. He approached the bed, reaching for his lavender colored egg. "If you're quite settled in, I'll mosey on down to the lower quarter--" he stopped when a metal clad hand grabbed his wrist in a painfully tight grip. Grey granite eyes locked with deep blue sapphire.

"No. You will not go anywhere near the lower quarter with that egg. The castle is undoubtedly the safest place there could be anywhere on Terca Lumereis."

"What about Myorzo? That has got to be the safest place; it's floating in the air, Flynn."

The blond knight shook his head, no. "Certainly we'd be out of the reach of the Hunting Blades. But I'm sure you're well aware that I can't perform as Commandant if I'm floating around in Myorzo. You don't want to be cooped up there, either, I can tell."

"Doesn't mean I wanna be cooped up here in the castle, either. Estelle had the right idea, wanting to get outta this place."

"Yuri. This is not about we want anymore. We have two dragon Entelexeia to look after. This is about our responsibilities."

"I'm pretty sure the Entelexeia can take care of themselves. The most we'll do is probably name them and be their friends."

"In a perfect world, yes. But it is not a perfect world. And it's not just the Hunting Blades. Only the Kritya can appreciate the difference between a monster and an Entelexeia. We have a duty to protect them to the best of our abilities until they truly can look after themselves. We owe it to the Entelexeia we killed, Yuri."

Yuri sighed, his arm falling to his side. Slowly, Flynn released his grip once he was sure his friend would not try to make off with the dragon egg again.

"Y'know, if it weren't for Judy insisting we take care of the eggs, I'd be glad to hand them over to Duke. He sure was buddy-buddy with the Entelexeia. I'll bet he knows more about them even than Judy does."

"As nice as that sounds, we can't."

"I know, Flynn, it's just a thought, jeez."

Because Flynn could be such a stick in the mud, Yuri kept his other reservations to himself. He was to room with Flynn (unless he could somehow get a room of his own, probably in that nice cozy dungeon) and raise two dragons. Of course Ioder would listen to Flynn, but it took a hearty dose of convincing before the council was willing to warm up to the idea of raising dragons in Zaphias castle. And then, would it be good for their health, growing up inside a castle instead of out in the wilderness like their ancestors? Even though Ba'ul was young for an Entelexeia, Yuri was more comfortable letting him take care of the eggs rather than himself and Flynn.

Figuring he might as well make himself at home, he sat on the edge of the bed, by the eggs.

"So when d'you think they're gonna hatch?"

"Judith said that once they're taken from the aer krene, it wouldn't take long. I'd guess they'll hatch on the next full moon."

"Oh goody. That's what, a week from now?"

"But it's certainly auspicious. The Child of the Full Moon gave us these eggs."

"What are you going to name your dragon?"

"Hmm ... it'll depend on what the gender is. Not that ... we can tell which is which."

"We'll have to ask Judy about that later."

"Crazy world ... a pair of humans fathering Entelexeia."

"Heh, more like mothering in your case."

"Hey."