Title: Through Those Eyes

Author: Kemiya

Warnings: Language, Violence,

Author's Notes: Wow, I got some pretty kewl reviews that time! Thanks guys! And I can't believe I'm starting on this next chapter so soon… I guess these pills really are getting to me, neh? Well, onto the story! (((Reviews and Flames Accepted)))

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean, or any of these main characters, except, that is, Izumi and her pet: Story Plot. Unless you wanna pay for the pet food, back away… they're not for sale. Sorry.

Chapter 7: Love Your Enemies

"Fayt! Please, come quick, Fayt!"

Fayt buried himself deeper within his blankets as the high-pitched squeals slowly woke him from his dream space. Trying his hardest to dismiss the desperate pleas for something simple like 'Sophia found a dead bug', or, 'Sophia couldn't find her hairbrush', Fayt focused only on his warm and fuzzy blankets.

"Fayt!"

He heard it again, this time in his doorway, this time much more desperate.

"What do you want, Sophia," he said through ruffled pillows.

"Mirage and I, we went for a walk and- and-" her voice was strangled through her tears, "Albel's hurt!"

Fayt was up and out of those warm and fuzzy blankets before she had even finished.

"Hey, Cliff, we gotta go! Albel was attacked!"

Cliff, who had been busily musing in front of the mirror, now looked up at the doorway, mouth open, hair-gel on the floor. "Wha? How in the hell could Albel be down?" And he was gone, following the blue haired boy and brunette girl through the door and out into the now crowded streets.

"Oh come on, you make it sound as though Albel were invincible," Fayt huffed as he chased after Sophia.

"Well, I mean you've seen the guy, Fayt. You know more than I how big and bad he thinks he is," Cliff said, keeping Fayt's pace.

"Everybody has their limits, Cliff, even Albel. He might have had a problem with his gauntlet or something. You just never know. And besides, Albel is not at all as bad as you might think, people just judge him too quickly."

"Yeah, well I still think he has a bit too much pride for that blade he carries." They had just turned a corner, and could see Mirage in the distance. She was leaning over a figure on the ground. Sophia had just reached her. "What I'm trying to say is, he probably isn't that bad off. He more than likely just tried to fight off a high number of Executioners, and got his butt kicked. And damn-it, he's gonna be a pain for the next week…" his voice trailed off as they reached the others.

Both boys were shocked to see Albel's body, bloody and bruised, stretched out in the cold hard dirt road. "Holy shit…" Cliff breathed.

"Fayt, we have to get him back to Woltar's house," Sophia pleaded, tugging on Fayt's arm. There was a faint line of black running down her cheek, the eyeliner mixed in with a salty tear.

"Sophia is right, Fayt," Mirage turned from Albel to the other boy, a stern look in her eyes. "I don't have my medical bag with me at the moment, I left it back at the mansion. Also if we leave him here in this environment, he is more than likely to gain an infection with these open wounds."

Mirage had torn off some bits of her blouse to wrap Albel's wounds as best as she could, but her attempts had quickly proved otherwise useless as the strips were soon soaked in the steadily flowing blood.

"Me and Cliff can help to carry him back, if it will help any," Fayt said, glancing at a reluctant Cliff.

"That's what I like to hear," she replied, rising from the body and wiping her blood covered hands on her clothes.

From her perch, way up high on a large rock, Izumi breathed in the cool ocean, the salty gusts of wind mixing with silky lavender hair. She was afraid of returning to the mansion, and utterly terrified of facing the others.

She knew where she had hit Albel, she knew that with his strong spirit he would live… as long as someone found him in time before he bled to death. Her own wound was taking up a lot of blood as well, resulting to her feeling a bit wary and nauseated.

Rising from her spot on the stone, she made her way down to the rocky shore of the sea, moving very slowly and clumsily. Wading out knee-high into the cool water, Izumi washed the blood from her arms and hands. She winced as the salty water washed over the gash in her side, sending long stinging shocks through her body.

After she had washed off the majority of blood from her skin, Izumi turned to the shoreline once again, stumbling up the rocky 'beach'.

She avoided the large brick fortress that was stationed not too far from the gate leading back into the town where she had entered from. She knew, from not but an hour ago, that this was Albel's turf. As she shook the water from her skin, she recalled on the previous event.

She had just entered through the open gate, and was gazing into the crystal waters, too deep in thought to notice the two soldiers that had stopped on their patrolling to stare.

"What be your name, and what business do you have with Lord Albel's army," one of the two men had asked gruffly, snapping her out of her thoughts.

She looked over to the two men, tormented yet again by the name of the man who had attacked her. It was at that exact time that her body had decided to give in on her, and the two men, caught in her gaze, began to disappear.

Slowly at first, clouding over with a thin black film, which steadily increased, until, finally, when the man repeated the question, she was completely unaware of what they were saying. Her body met the ground, hard, but she didn't notice, she was out cold.

At least, that's what it looked like from the outside, but on the inside, she was in Hell. Held in place, she could feel herself being pushed rapidly down a dark never-ending tunnel, over large hills, as well as under. Lights flashed around her as she silently pleaded for the terror to end, wandering how in the hell she had gotten here.

But the ride increased, faster and faster, until she thought she would die. And then it stopped. A sudden and quick halt brought her back to her place on the ground.

At first, fighting for her eyesight to return, she was completely unsure of her surroundings, and what had happened. As her vision cleared, she slowly regained her memory and tried to stand upright, only to fail and fall back into the hard earth. It took her about another ten minutes to regain all of her senses and get to a safe spot on a ledge. The two men that had been there were gone, and never did come back. But that was all for the better to Izumi.

Shaking the past out of her head, Izumi, still wet, headed for the gate again. That was the first faint she had had in over seventeen years. But now was not the time to think about that, now was the time to get back, before it happened again.

Padding slowly up the pathway to the mansion, clothes soaked in water and blood, body beaten and torn, and head throbbing, Izumi pushed open the huge oak double doors with what little strength she managed to hold in her.

Wanting absolutely no attention from the others, she had meant to slowly slip upstairs to her room and rest, but found it rather difficult when the first thing she saw was the faces of Fayt, Mirage, Cliff, and Maria.

"What in the blazes happened to you," was the first thing she heard, coming from Cliff.

"Please don't tell me this involved the incident with Albel," was the second, this time from Mirage, who was over with her medical bag in an instant.

Well, at least now she knew that he was alive. Great…

Izumi didn't bother to reply, she didn't have to, because right about then her body gave way again, and she saw Hell, again.

She awoke in her bed, light dimmed, blankets tossed over her snuggly, ice-pack on her forehead. When her vision had cleared, she could make out the shape of a person, sitting at the foot of the bed, watching her.

"You're awake." It was Fayt. "How are you feeling? You fainted, back in the other room. Mirage took care of your wounds and bandaged them up." Sure enough, Izumi could feel the tight wraps, snug around her waist. She was wearing new clothing, too. This kind clean, and warm.

Fayt started again, speaking in a slow, soft tone, "Did those wounds have any involvement with Albel?" She faintly nodded, looking away from him and staring at the wall. "Oh, I see. We found him earlier, he was laying in the street. He's hurt real bad, but he's going to be ok. Mirage says he's not gonna be able to fight anymore though, because his arm was completely wrecked. It looks a bit like it was burned, along with his side, and he was muttering something about Symbology in his sleep."

Fayt seemed like he was having a hard time getting to the point. "Izumi." She reluctantly looked at the boy, afraid of his next words. "Izumi, was that you? Did you perform Symbology on Albel?"Izumi couldn't take the guilt, it was building up too high, and she couldn't block it much longer. "I mean, I understand your reasons, and I'm sure it was simply self-defense. I saw that you didn't have your sword with you. But… how did you learn Symbology?

"I, myself, learned the basics to it on Hyda, another planet far from Earth, but how did you learn it? You've only been here for a few days, and they don't have Symbology on Earth, it's way too advanced. And it takes a long time to learn. I had to learn the spells themselves here on Elicoor, while I had the time, and it took a long while, at that. But… you?"His voice trailed off a bit as he ran out of breath. This was very unexpected to him.

Seeing that the girl was not going to respond, let alone even look at him, he gave up on his efforts. "Well, you get some rest, Mirage will be in soon to change your bandages." And he left.

That night, as everyone had gone into resting, and darkness filled the over-sized house, Izumi rose, slipping from the bed and out the door quietly. She walked steadily through the hallways, her time of sleeping having gave her back a lot of energy, until she found the right door, gripping the knob slightly. The feeling of slight fear now filled her once again.

Fighting the urge to run, she pushed open the door quietly, stepping inside and closing it shut once more. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, she looked over to the ruffled bed, where its occupant lay.

Izumi couldn't see Albel's face, but she knew by the slow and steady breathing, along with the rise and fall of the covers strewn around and on him, that he was sleeping soundly. Swallowing down the lump that had gotten caught in her throat, she padded her way silently to the bedside, peering down at the sleeping man.

His blankets were down a bit, exposing the wraps around his left arm and side. Izumi sighed inwardly, the guilt rising once again. She quickly gathered her thoughts once more, deciding to get what she wanted to do done with, and get out of there quick.

Placing one hand on the other and putting both hands just above Albel's damaged arm, she closed her eyes tightly, focusing all of her energy on her desired spell. Slowly, she felt her hands warm, then the warmth turn into heat, as the spell grew.

Her head throbbed now, and she felt as her energy left her through her palms, sinking into Albel, surrounding his wounds. As the spell ended, she relaxed, grabbing onto the headboard of the bed to keep from falling over from her zapped strength.

She looked back at the sleeping man, his wounds now vanished from his body, as if he had never been hurt in the first place. Nodding her head, satisfied, she turned to leave. But, just as she gained her footage, she felt herself almost fall again, as a strong hand gripped her wrist tightly. Gaining her footing, yet again, she quickly turned to see what had caused the fall, only to feel her blood run cold as she stared into blood-red eyes.

"Who the hell are you," was Albel's first remark. "You're no person, you're not even normal. That wasn't Symbology, that was something else." He still had her wrist locked in his hand. Izumi couldn't breathe.

"You didn't even call out the spell name- what the hell did you do to me?" His anger was rising rapidly, she had to get out of there. "And then, after you throw lightning at me, you try to heal me? Do you want to die?" He was sounding hysterical now, is voice growing louder and louder.

Izumi pulled away, jerking free of his grip and turning quickly for the door. She forgot that she had to take it slow, due to her recent spell, and tripped over herself. Falling to the floor, she could feel herself beginning to panic as the man continued to mock her, laughing at her as she attempted to flee.

Scrambling back up, she all but threw herself at the door, swinging it open quickly and slamming it shut as soon as she was safe on the other side. Scampering down the hall back to her own room, she locked herself inside, petrified for the rest of the night.

To be continued…

Ha ha! I win! I am so tired! It's 2:12 A.M. and I'm out! Ow! My back! Well, I hope you liked this chapter, it was actually pretty fun to write, and fast too. No, Izumi is NOT a chicken, but Albel got scary. And about the fainting thing… see, the other day I was at the doctor's, and I hadn't eaten all day, and they wanted to take my blood, so I kinda sorta fainted while they were taking the needle out of me… oops. Well, it was weird, 'cause that hasn't happened since I was 4, and I wanted to put that in here, 'cause I can still remember what I saw while I was out. And I wanted to write it out, and I think it came out nicely. So, thank you sooo much to those few people who reviewed for my last chapter, you helped me a lot, and that's mainly why this chapter is being posted sooo early. you inspired me! lol, so, please inspire me some more, and review with flames or flowers. Thx, love ya all…. Byeness!