Author's note/Disclaimer: If I owned Star Ocean 3 I wouldn't be writing fan fiction based on it. That being said this is all for fun NOT profit. The character Sophie Silverhawk is copyrighted to Photosoph. To somewhat quote her creator; "seventy x seven years bad luck to anyone who uses this character without permission." I am not Photosoph and therefor can't be held responsible for any ill fortune that befalls those that do.
StarOceanTill The End Of Time: Let Me Be With You
By Phoenix Hoshika
Chapter One
Somewhere in the vast kingdom of Greeton two humanoid women, Phoenix Firestar and Sophie Silverhawk, were methodically and seemingly hurriedly working on a rather complicated machine. Both women were sitting on the floor as they worked connecting the machine's wiring.
"Almost done." Phoenix said in a monotone voice that masked her excitement.
"Finished," Sophie exclaimed jumping to her feet.
"Finally." Phoenix said smiling to herself. Phoenix was a humanoid that looked and for the most part behaved like a human. With the exception of her pointed ears there were no other visible distinguishing features.
Sophie was a Featherfolk female with a very large wing span Even though Featherfolk generally had small frames that enabled them to fly short distances because of her large wings Sophie could fly farther and higher than many of her kinspeople.
"So which on of us is going to give it a test run," Phoenix asked.
"Um..." Sophie said not at all eager to be the first to test the invention.
"You chicken." Phoenix said as she paced the room with her arms folded.
"How about I turn it on and you can go in first?" Sophie suggested.
"I..." Phoenix started not wanting to admit her apprehension about the machine.
"Phoenix isn't as fearless as she claims to be." Sophie said with a small laugh.
"Pulling a map from a rather cluttered bookshelf Phoenix slammed it down on the desk startling her friend.
"What's gotten into her?" Sophie wondered.
"We go in together." Phoenix said her voice full of determination.
"That sounds fine, I guess." Sophie said as she came over to look at the map. "But where are we going to go?
The two women had spent almost every waking hour of the last several months working on a teleportation device, a task that would have taken them several years if not longer to complete if it wasn't for the fact that someone else had already done the bulk of the work. The two had come across the unfinished research in the kingdom's ancient history archives while looking for completely unrelated information. Forgetting their previous project the two women immediately started work on the teleportation machine.
"How about here?" Phoenix said pointing to a random spot on the map.
"What's over there?" Sophie asked curiously.
"I have no idea, plus it may be too long of a distance to teleport on our first run. We don't want to end up in the boonies since we just can't teleport back."
"We're close to Peterny. We should be able to make it back easy enough from there and it will give us some idea of the range on this thing."
"Good thinking." Phoenix said turning on the machine.
"You think the Inventor's Guild will give our teleporter a high rating?" Sophie asked as she plugged in the coordinates.
"Why even ask that? Of course they will." Phoenix confirmed. "I hope you aren't doubting our workmanship on this thing. It should be completely harmless."
"Maybe one of us should stay behind..." Sophie hesitated.
"Everything's set to go and I'm not going in alone. Let's go!" Phoenix said running up the stairs on the machine that lead to a circular, blue, glowing platform effortlessly dragging Sophie along. As soon as they reached the platform the two disappeared.
Moments later the two reappeared in mid air over the Bequerel Mountain Path. Phoenix fell to the surface right away, but Sophie having a thin frame and hollow bones did not fall as quickly and was able to gracefully glide down. Fortunately for Phoenix she had landed on top of someone, which broke her fall and consequently protecting her from injury. Unfortunately for the poor man she landed on his back would be sore for a few days to come.
"Are you okay?" Sophie said running over to Phoenix and helping her up completely ignoring the man laying face down on the ground who was moaning in pain.
"Yeah, just a little dizzy." Phoenix answered barely able to keep her balance.
"Good because I feel like I'm going to vomit." Sophie said grabbing her stomach.
"Albel!" A blue haired man yelled running toward them. "Who are you?" He demanded drawing the sword on his back.
"Wait it was an accident." Sophie shouted.
"An accident?" The blue haired man said keeping his guard up.
"Oh please! You're just making excuses because your ambush failed." Albel said already on his feet and ready to strike.
"It's the truth." Sophie said pleadingly.
"Where did you come from?" The blue haired swordsman demanded.
"We're from Greeton." Phoenix said. "Our transport dropped us in the wrong spot. Besides do we look like the type to lurk on road sides waiting to mug anyone that passes by?"
"That doesn't really explain how you two just appeared out of nowhere, but I believe you weren't trying to attack us." The blued haired man said putting his sword away. Reluctantly Albel did the same. "By the way my name is Fayt Leingod." He said extending his hand.
"Just call me Phoenix." She said taking his hand and shaking it. "My friend here is Sophie."
"Sophie Silverhawk." Sophie said stepping forward.
"Nice to meet you." He said giving her a slight bow.
Albel stood a small distance away with his arms folded grumbling.
"Why are you guys so on edge anyway?" Phoenix asked a little suspicious of the two men.
"Only people looking for trouble come this way." Albel said.
"Figures we'd run into a couple of thugs." Phoenix said giving the ground a good kick.
"Us thugs?" Fayt uttered not knowing what else to say at the moment.
"We are not thugs!" Albel said defensively then laughed. "Who would have guessed it would start raining fools."
"Hey! You two are the ones who pulled swords on us, ya jerk, and what was that 'only people looking for trouble come here' line about? Sounds like thug talk to me." Phoenix shot back.
"What an irritating little wench! I ought to cut you where you stand." Albel said unsheathing his sword.
"You wanna piece of me? Then bring it!" Phoenix said pulling out her own sword.
"I don't have time to play with you, now get out of the way." Albel said his eyes fixed on whatever was behind Phoenix.
Feeling hot breath on her neck Phoenix turned to come face to face with a dragon. "I guess this was the trouble he was talking about." Phoenix thought then sighed. "No one was talking to you, be gone! Fireball!" Phoenix shouted and a ball of molten fire suddenly appeared between her and the dragon striking it then knocking it into the sky clear out of sight.
"Hmph." Albel grunted sheathing his oversized katana.
"I was mistaken. Sorry, I called you a couple of thugs." Phoenix said sincerely.
"I guess I can forgive your foolishness this time." Albel said with a slight smile.
"Hey, where are Fayt and Sophie?" Phoenix said looking around.
"Up here!" Sophie said as she lowered Fayt to the ground. "Man, he's heavy." Sophie thought rubbing her sore arms.
"You worms, running from a dragon." Albel said obvious displeased with Fayt for showing a lack of courage.
"It wasn't my idea." Fayt said looking at Sophie.
"Excuse me for trying to save your life." Sophie huffed. "Ungrateful little..." Sophie continued muttering to herself inaudibly.
"But really do we have to fight every single dragon that comes," Fayt asked putting his right hand on his hip.
"Are you saying I should have run?" Albel asked a violent flicker in his eye.
"I'm saying you probably would have if you weren't arguing with that woman."
"Hey! I have a name." Phoenix said not liking Fayt's tone of voice as he talked about her or being referred to as 'that woman'.
"Uh-oh..." Sophie quietly said as her survey of the skies took an unexpected turn.
When another argument started to break out she took to the air again just above them to wait for them to cool off, that's when she caught sight of what looked like a black cloud moving quickly across the sky. It didn't take long for her to realize the mass she saw was no cloud but a swarm of air dragons. "We've gotta fly!" Sophie said swooping down and grabbing up Fayt once again.
"Hey!" Fayt protested.
"There's a huge swarm of dragons coming this way." Sophie informed. "Would you like me to leave here so you can fight them all?" She asked her initially reluctant companion.
"Are you kidding? Let's get out of here!" Fayt said and they flew off.
"YOU WORMS!!!" What about us?" Albel screamed.
"Heh, I may not have wings but I can fly pretty fast." Phoenix said lifting off the ground. "Move it or lose it pudding boy," Phoenix said as she caught hold of Albel from behind and took to the sky.
"Do you mock me wench?" Albel snarled.
"I think I have some unnecessary luggage I need to drop." Phoenix said loosening her grip on him.
"You wouldn't." Albel said looking down at the ground with wide eyes."
"I'll let you off the hook this time." Phoenix said with a laugh. Unless he did something insane Phoenix had no intention of dropping Albel no matter how many names he called her, that is at least not from not such a high a distance. It didn't take long at all for Phoenix to catch up with Sophie who seemed to be having complications.
"You aren't going to drop me are you?" Fayt asked nervously.
"I'm trying not to." Sophie said straining.
"In any case, thanks for saving me." Fayt said as they unsteadily sailed the sky.
"You aren't out of danger yet. I still have to land without dropping you."
"I'm glad you aren't the one carrying me." Albel said confident Phoenix would not drop him- so long as he didn't insult her any more.
"Isn't that Kirlsa down there?" Fayt said looking down. "We should warn them about the dragons."
"That old coot more than likely has already assembled his men and probably even sent word to Airyglyph, but I guess I could make sure things are secure." Albel said more concerned about his hometown than he cared to show.
"Oh, good that means we get to land." Sophie said relieved and descended right away.
"Going down." Phoenix said following. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" She thought as they landed just outside of town. From the sky they could see a couple of guards standing outside the town gates and didn't want to cause trouble by landing inside. Once on the ground they were immediately surround by at least two-dozen Storm Brigade soldiers.
"What the…" Fayt uttered in disbelief.
"Sir Albel?" One of the soldiers said lowering his weapon and pulling up the visor on his helm to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. "Stand down." The soldier ordered and the men moved aside.
Since the peace with the Sacred Kingdom of Aquaria had formed Woltar was not as busy as usual and was relaxing in his mansion when word about the swarm of dragons reached him. By the time Albel and Fayt returned he had already gathered the Storm Brigade and sent word to the capital about the dragons. It was strange indeed that the air dragons would suddenly take flight from their home in the Barr Mountains. While the event had peaked the seasoned soldier's curiosity his job was to protect the town of Kirlsa. The elite investigation squad composed of exclusively Dragon Brigade soldiers could do the detective work and after that was done he was sure the Black Brigade would be called in to 'take care' of any problems. On the other hand the dragons could have decided to wage war on Airyglyph, if that were true it would make for very sad times for years to come. Airyglyph's Dragon Brigade soldiers often traveled to the Barr Mountains to perform the highly dangerous deed of forming a pact with one of the air dragons through a ritual named the Ascension of Flame in which the soldier would have to defeat the dragon in a one on one battle. Victory meant forming a spiritual bond with the dragon and defeat meant being killed by it.
Unfortunately for a young Albel Nox his failure did not result in his own death but witnessing his father being burned alive in a matter of seconds. While his life was saved from his youthful folly his left arm was not, a constant reminder of that day and the sacrifice his father made to save him. Glou Nox was a former Captain of the Dragon Brigade and highly respected, he was also Count Woltar's closest friend. While the pain of his passing was close to him he did not overlook the opportunity to use the pain Albel felt from it to manipulate him, but because Woltar had a hand in raising him despite how rocky things seemed between them Albel respected and even envied the old warrior.
"Long time no see, boy." Woltar greeted as Albel entered his office.
"Just making sure you didn't foul up the town's defenses in your old age." Albel replied.
"I may be old but that has only made me wiser. You on the other hand seem to never learn. Is there a reason you're visiting with me and not assembling your own Brigades?"
"I don't need to be lectured on how to do my job from some tired old man." Albel snapped then left the room. "Why do I even bother with that old fart?"
Fayt, Sophie, and Phoenix were relaxing at the Iron Maiden, the town's inn. Phoenix was laying on her back in one of the lower bunks while Sophie was sitting with her legs folded one the highest one. Fayt had taken one of the lower bunks as well but was sitting on the floor since you could not sit up in the beds. Since Sophie was on the highest bunk there was just enough room for her to sit up.
"That looks uncomfortable." Sophie said looking down at her two companions.
"It is." Fayt responded. He sat with his eyes closed and his back leaning against the bed.
"Why don't you lay down?" Phoenix asked looking over at him.
"Because I don't want to bang my head when I wake up." Fayt answered.
"Then why don't you sleep up here?" Sophie inquired.
"I don't want to roll over and fall on the floor either." Fayt said opening his eyes for a moment.
"Well, I guess I will be seeing you kiddies later." Phoenix said as she crawled out of the bed.
"Where are you going," Fayt asked opening his eyes and sitting straight up.
"I can't sleep right now so I'm going to have a look around."
"Can I come? I can show you around since I've been here a few times." Fayt offered.
"Sure why not?" Phoenix said heading down the stairs.
"You guys aren't tired?" Sophie asked sleepily.
"Yeah, a little but I'm a bit restless." Fayt answered then he too left the room.
Once Fayt had gone it didn't take long for Sophie to fall soundly asleep, but that peaceful slumber was interrupted in a most unpleasant fashion. Sophie suddenly woke up to find four Storm Brigade soldiers staring at her.
"Please come with us." One of them said.
Sitting up Sophie swallowed. "What's going on," Sophie asked masking her nervousness.
"Count Woltar would like a word with you." The soldier informed. "Please come with us." He said once again and a slightly reluctant Sophie complied.
It wasn't much of a walk from the inn to Woltar's mansion and before long Sophie found herself sitting on a sofa being served tea and cookies.
"Count Woltar will see you now." A soldier informed Sophie once she had finished her tea.
"Okay." Sophie said handing the empty cup to the maid. Her legs felt like led. Why would the count of a foreign country want to see her?
"Hello there young lady," Woltar greeted cheerily. "Not often we have visitors from Greeton.
"We weren't trying to trespass. With your permission we will be on our way home as soon as possible." Sophie said her voice shaking.
"Leave? I never said anything about you leaving and I hope no one has in any way implied you do so," Woltar said as he paced behind his desk. "Are you here alone?"
"No, sir," Sophie replied shaking her head.
"Oh? So how many of you have come?"
"Just me and my friend. We don't travel outside of Greeton much." Sophie said hoping to deflect further questioning.
"I see." Woltar said sounding a bit disappointed. "Well, I hope you enjoy your stay here."
"Thank you." Sophie said giving a quick bow before leaving.
Phoenix and Fayt were sitting quietly at a table in the pub. Fayt was contently sipping away at some kind of extravagant looking ice-cream drink while Phoenix sat with her head resting on her arms fuming. "How many more of those things is he going to drink? Just watching him is making me nauseous." Phoenix thought.
Although it would have taken at the most fifteen minutes to walk around the small mining town it took much longer since Fayt either stopped or was stopped to talk with nearly every single person in town from the very young down to the last soldier it seemed. They would have stopped to talk to Count Woltar if they weren't turned away at the door and informed he was in a meeting. Before they knew it night had fallen.
"Hey," Phoenix said lifting her head up. "I'm going back to the inn."
"Okay, see you in the morning." Fayt said not looking up once from his drink.
"This place sure does look creepy at night time." Phoenix thought as she walked along. Hearing fast paced footsteps on the ground Phoenix drew her sword but not fast enough to avoid a tackle that sent her flying into an alley. Performing a summersault to avoid landing her behind Phoenix came to her feet in a crouched position. "Damn! How could I let myself get caught off guard like that?" Phoenix groaned. It was too dark to see in the alley but she could hear the footsteps coming again. "Flame burst!" Phoenix said and a small pocket of fire shot out toward the sound. The attack struck her assailant who let out a scream.
"Not bad." Came a familiar voice.
"Stagnant flames." Phoenix said and two flames came to rest in the palms of her hands illuminating the alley. "Albel?" Phoenix exclaimed surprised. "I knew you were a jerk but why are you attacking me?
"Just testing." Albel smugly replied as he stood up. "I thought you'd be better than this being a member of the Greeton military.
"Do you really think someone like me would join an army?" Phoenix said flipping him off.
"Don't insult my intelligence, fool." Albel snapped.
Phoenix sighed. "Okay, so you fond me out. Why does it matter to you so much?"
"What is a member of the Greeton military doing here?" Albel demanded.
"Oh, please like we'd give a crap about this backwater side of the continent."
"You want to say that again?" Albel said holding up his sword.
"You caught me off guard last time don't count on that happening again." Phoenix said her expression turned grim. "What I don't get is how you found out."
"Sure my specialty may be death and destruction being the caption of the Black Brigade and all, but…"
"But what?" Phoenix asked after a long pause.
"Like I'm going to tell you." Albel said folding his arms. "Let's get back to business. You're under arrest."
"What? Did you here a thing I said? Besides that do you honestly think I'm just going to let you haul me away?"
"We already have your partner." Albel said feeling rather pleased with himself. Just so you know I usually find this kind of thing a hassle but it isn't everyday spies from Greeton drop in."
"Moron! She isn't even in the military, she's just a civilian."
"Oh? I guess that would explain all the blubbering when my men took her away and here I was thinking she was a useless wimp."
"Why you, I ought to…" Phoenix said not bothering to finish what she was going say as a small fireball appeared in each of her hands.
"Do it and rest assure that liability of yours will suffer all the more," Albel said confident Phoenix wouldn't dare hurt him. "Not that you'd be able to take me down that easily, but just so we're clear try anything and she'll be the one that pays for it."
"What have done to her?" Phoenix demanded more worried over the well being of her friend than she would allow herself to show.
"Nothing yet, but that all depends on how well you behave," Albel said as he roughly put Phoenix's hands in restraints.
"I have no choice but to come willingly why are you doing this?" Phoenix asked as he put restraints on her ankles.
"Simple, public humiliation," Albel smirked as he locked a heavy metal collar around her neck that had a fourteen foot chain attached to it. Restraints, a chain, and a heavy metal collar all of which he seemed have pulled out of nowhere.
"It's the middle of the night and this place is practically a ghost town now except for the pub." Phoenix said pointing out the obvious.
"It will be mid afternoon by the time we reach the capital. It would be nice to wait until daylight but I don't feel like babysitting any more than I have to, now move it," Albel said pushing Phoenix forward.
To be continued.