Chris: Well, this is my first Tales of Phantasia fic. I'm playing the GBA version, so I'm using the GBA names. Cress is Cless, etc. I'm keeping Klarth because while Claus isn't that bad, it still bothers me. A lot. So I will call Claus, Klarth.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Phantasia. Namco does.

All Alone

Arche stared dismally into the fire, a sad smile on her face. Everyone else was sleeping, which wasn't surprising since it was already late in the evening. She sighed, a small tear trickling down her face. It wasn't fair. Even though she was with her friends, she felt as if she were traveling by herself. It wasn't that they didn't like her or that they didn't include her in their break activities, it was just that she was…different, somehow. She didn't understand her feelings but she knew they were weighing her down.

"Arche? What are you doing, still up?" Cress, the unofficial leader of their group, looked up from his blanket.

"Nothing." Arche smiled cheerfully, closing her eyes so he wouldn't be able to see the sorrow in them. "Go back to sleep. I'm just keeping watch."

"Don't worry about anything, Arche. We'll be fine." Cress muttered before falling asleep.

Arche continued to smile, although inside, her heart was aching. Cress…She had fallen in love with him the moment she had seen him. Even when she was possessed by the ghost of her friend Rhea, she felt the memorable twinges of love. But Cress would never notice her. After all, he had Mint to worry about. Arche grimaced slightly and sank to the ground. Everyone was concerned about Mint, not about her.

---

Their quest continued and now they would have to travel to Ymir, the village of the elves. However, there were a couple of conditions that they had to follow. One was that they had to be as respectful as possible towards the elves. After all, humans hadn't entered the elfin lands for centuries. The second condition hurt the most, though. Arche wasn't allowed to come because she was of mixed blood. While the unity of a human and an elf wasn't considered taboo in the world, their offspring was. Openly prohibited from entering the elves homeland and secretly scorned in all human kingdoms, the half-elf was an outcast race.

'…Why did I have to be born a half-elf?' Arche thought to herself as the group walked towards the Altavista Inn. Even though they weren't saying anything, she knew what they were thinking. They were wondering what was the best way to tell her that she couldn't come.

Once inside, Cress faced her, shamefaced and not meeting her eyes. "I'm sorry, Arche, but you'll have to stay behind."

"Oh, that's okay!" Arche replied joyfully, although inside she was squirming with anger. It wasn't fair at all that she should be banned just because she was a half-elf. After all, the rest of her companions were just humans. "Just don't take too long, okay?"

"Okay, we'll be back soon." Cress nodded before motioning to the other two. Mint favored her with a sympathetic glance while Klarth patted her on the shoulder in passing. Arche watched them leave, resisting the urge to scream. She plopped down on one of the beds, her face turned up towards the ceiling.

"Damn…I hate feeling helpless." Arche whispered to herself. She smiled as an idea came to her and she quickly prepared for her journey. They wouldn't have to know that they were being followed. After all, Cress and the others had their own things to worry about. Arche was certain that they wouldn't notice her at all.

She pulled out a long, white cloak and draped it around her body. She pulled the hood over her long, pink hair and looked at herself in the mirror. With the cloak on, she looked just like any other traveler. Grabbing her broom, she rushed after her friends. 'West of Altavista. I might not be allowed inside, but I won't be left behind.'

---

Arche watched from behind one of the trees, staring suspiciously at the elves that interrogated her friends. She floated low to the water on her broom, trying to listen in to the conversation. However, even her elf-like ears were unable to pick up any sounds of conversation and she was left in the dark. 'There they go…Off on an adventure without me. I wish…I wish I could go with them.'

She wiped a tear out of her eye. 'I wonder if they'll understand how I feel. Cress…He's so kind and he's been through a lot, yet it only makes him stronger. He doesn't look half-bad either. But he's too involved with his mission. It wouldn't be right for me to interrupt him.'

Forgetting her location, she drifted closer towards the village, aching to take at least one step in her mother's homeland. Before she could, however, she was knocked off her broom. Gasping, she tumbled to the floor, the hood falling from her head and revealing her slightly pointed ears.

"A half-elf! What are you doing here?" One of the sentries pointed a spear at her. She was certain that the guard had no inhibitions about killing a young girl. She rose to her knees, half-heartedly raising her hands.

"Take this girl to Brambert." The second guard motioned towards the village. "He'll exact her punishment for trespassing." He turned to looked at Arche with a small smirk on his face. "Any half-elf within elfin borders will immediately be put to death."

"Hmph…Just show people your ugly face and you won't have to worry about trespassers anymore." Arche muttered, unable to resist shooting off a parting remark.

"Why you-!" The guard raised his spear, but his partner restrained him.

"Brambert will deal with the girl. Hold your temper."

"Grr…" He spat into Arche's face. "Enjoy your remaining moments, half-elf."

She was tied up with rope and carried through the streets of Ymir, where the villagers booed and hissed at her. One of them threw a rotten tomato at her head and by some unspoken signal, all sorts of projectiles flew through the air. Rocks cut through her skin and soon she was bleeding from numerous small wounds. Garbage so old that she wouldn't even let her enemies eat splattered onto her clothes. By the time she reached the honored execution spot, Arche was only half-conscious, almost passing out from the smell and the pain.

Even through the haze of the blood that covered her eyes, she saw the executioner stepping closer towards her. Her lips curled into a sarcastic smile. "Perhaps I might be allowed to take a shower before being killed?"

"Shut up!" A spear thwacked her on the back of her head and she fell face-down into the dirt.

Arche struggled back to her knees. Now that her death was imminent, nothing would stop her from voicing her opinions about elves. "You bastards! Is this how you treat your own blood? I am part-elf! Yet you treat me no better than the scum you see at the bottom of a pond! Is this how the high and mighty elves act? Mistrusting of all in the world, even though you share it with them!"

She was hit over the head again by the spear pole and she almost blacked out from the pain. She remained lying on the ground, too weak to even get back on her knees. Tears sprang unbidden from her eyes and Arche let them come, too tired to try masking her emotions. "You're all bastards…"

"Wait, Brambert! She's our friend!"

"Cress…?" Arche whispered thickly, spitting out a glob of blood from her mouth. "Is that…you?"

"What are you doing?" The blond swordsman pushed through the crowd of elves. "Arche!"

"Hey Cress…" Arche grinned through swollen lips. "Couldn't resist joining the fun."

"Brambert, what's going on here?" Cress turned towards a blue-gray haired elf. The elf gave a small sigh and shrugged helplessly.

"It's been our custom for many years. Any half-elf caught within our borders is immediately put to death." Brambert said, looking distastefully at the fallen half-elf. "I have no power to stop this."

"Arche, you idiot!" Klarth kneeled by her, grimacing. "What the hell are you doing here? We warned you!"

"I was lonely." Arche said cheekily, her eyes twinkling merrily. "Glad to see you could join me." She coughed and spat out another bubble of blood.

"Mint!" Klarth looked over his shoulder at the blond healer. "See what you can do for the fool. I can't believe you did that, Arche."

"Heh." Arche closed her eyes and sighed. "I'm so tired…of staying behind."

"Give me a break, Brambert! She's one of our friends. She helped us out a lot! And now you're saying she has to be killed because she wanted to be with us?" Cress shouted in disbelief, pointing at Arche.

The magician smiled faintly. 'Cress…Same old Cress. Protecting a half-elf.'

"Please don't kill her! Kill me instead!" An unknown woman's voice filtered through her thoughts. Arche looked up but her vision was blurred. All she could see was an elfin woman with bright-pink hair. Her thoughts were too scattered to bring any order to the scene and she just stared, unable to comprehend much.

"You make a convincing argument, Cress. Very well. We will make this one exception. However, she needs to leave right now." Brambert said, pointing outside of the village.

'Thank you, Cress.' Arche thought distantly. She looked back at the elfin woman that offered to exchange the punishment.

"I'm so sorry…Please forgive me."

'Huh?' Some of her thoughts focused and she realized that the woman had the same color hair as her. Arche barely noticed as the two guards hauled her up and started dragging her away. "Mother…Is that you?"

"Forgive me. I'm sorry…"

"Mother!" Arche screamed, struggling against the guards' grip. "Mother! Let me talk to her! Let me talk to my mother! Let me go!"

---

A couple of events later, they were headed towards the mansion of a sculptor named Arsia. Apparently, Cress had this bow that he desperately wanted fixed and Arsia was the only one with enough skill to mend it. Arche didn't know much of what was going on and felt kind of clueless as Cress, Klarth, and Mint talked between themselves. Inside, she also felt slight twinges of jealousy. After all, why should they know something that she didn't know?

"Arche…Sorry for what happened at the elfin village." Cress said, breaking Arche out of her reverie.

"Huh? Oh, that's okay. It was my fault to begin with anyway." Arche grinned. "I'm just glad you got there in time to save me."

"What about me?" Klarth grumbled angrily.

"Oh, and you and Mint as well. I could never forget about you two." She winked. She looked forward and saw a giant mansion looming ahead of them. "I think we're here."

"All right! Let's go, Mint!" Cress shouted, dashing for the mansion and dragging the healer with him. Arche watched in envy, wishing it was her instead of Mint that Cress was dragging along. She trudged after them, kicking loose stones angrily and moping. She was tired of being second.

In terms of pure magic power, she was second to Klarth. In terms of fighting, she was second to Cress. In terms of relationships, Mint beat her to Cress. In terms of almost anything, she was second behind someone else.

Arche was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to see Klarth sneaking up behind her. Startling her, he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her a little.

"What are you doing?" Arche said shakily, stunned.

"You seemed to be in a daze. I just wanted to wake you up." Klarth said, walking ahead of the magician. Arche watched his back, grimacing. In everything, she was always behind someone else. It made her feel…separate, unimportant. Just as if she was a leaf blowing in the wind.

---

"Wow…This seems so lifelike." Arche gasped as she looked at the stone statues that were erected near the mansion. She reached a hand towards the statue, wondering how Arsia managed to make it seem like the statues were actually alive. "It's kind of creepy."

"Come on, Arche! Arsia is waiting for us!" Cress shouted.

"I'll be right there!" Arche touched the stone and immediately recoiled, for the stone was warm even though the clouds covered the sun. Suddenly, the calm-looking courtyard was ominous and scary. Arche immediately dashed towards the mansion and settled in one of the seats, ignoring the curious glances of her friends.

An hour later, everything had been settled. However, Arsia had one condition. They were to bring Brambert, lord of the elves, to the mansion. Cress readily agreed to the condition and they were all set to leave when the sculptor landed one last bombshell on them.

"One of you must stay with me…" Arsia whispered.

"What? Like a hostage?" Klarth asked.

"Yes. I must make sure that you follow through on your part of the deal." Arsia looked at the assembled adventurers. "If you can't decide who will stay, then I will choose."

The four of them exchanged uneasy glances. None of them wanted to stay with the woman, who seemed half-crazy. Arche was half-willing to stay, however, since she wouldn't even be allowed to enter the elfin village. However, before she could offer, Arsia turned to Mint and pointed at her.

"You. You will stay with me."

"NO!" Cress shouted, leaping from his seat.

Mint didn't answer, slowly walking towards Arsia. The sculptor motioned towards a glyph on the floor which glowed with a gray light.

"Stand right there."

"Don't do it, Mint!" Cress shouted. "Let me be the hostage instead!"

"No. She will be the hostage." Arsia shook her head.

Mint looked back at Cress and Arche felt a surge of anger and jealousy well up through her. Even though she had no hand in what had happened, Mint still seemed to be able to make it seem like it was a tragedy that she would have to leave. Mint was like those hapless damsels that always captured the hero's heart. There was no place for Arche and the mage was tired of being second.

"Why the hell do you care, bitch?" Arche shouted angrily, shoving Mint aside and taking her place on the symbol. She felt the magic flow through her and she knew that her legs had already turned into stone. She took a last glance at her comrades.

Mint looked shocked, Cress was stunned, and Klarth seemed angry for some reason. Arche smiled to herself. She knew her friends would come to rescue her. All the jealousy and anger faded from her body, leaving her slightly weak. She realized that she never be alone, as long as they were there. Even if she was stone, they would never forget her. Arche felt her arms turning to stone and a brief flicker of fear lanced through her body.

She pushed it away and smiled. There was just one last thing she wanted to do before turning completely into stone.

Cress watched in disbelief as Arche was fully turned into a statue, not unlike those statues that were placed outside. 'Arsia is crazy…What kind of magic does she wield?'

He shook his head and motioned to the others. "Come on, let's go. We have no time to lose."

He watched the others leave and was about to set out himself when he couldn't resist looking back at the statue. What he saw made a smile come to his face and fill his soul with hope. In her last moments, Arche had managed to wink and form a victory sign with her fingers, reminding him that even in the darkest of situations, there is almost the promise of triumph.

Chris: Well, I hoped you like it. It's my first Tales of Phantasia fic, so I hope everyone was in character and stuff. Review please!