Note: I had to modify some of the facts in the game, so please don't mind any obvious content mistakes. Anyways, I'm always thankful to those who reviewed and hope that more will do so as well. Thanks!

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean

Chapter 4: Familiar Faces

Fayt, Cliff and Nel, along with a badly wounded Tynave and Farleen, were nearing the border town of Arias, which was in bad shape from having been invaded several times in the war. Fayt and the others had came here earlier, but when Nel found out that Tynave and Farleen were being held captive in the Kirlsa Training Facility under the Black Brigade's control, she had gone off to rescue them. The next day, Fayt and Cliff hurried to follow her when Clair, Nel's close friend, informed them about what Nel was up to. After meeting up with each other, they had fought there way through hordes of soldiers, and finally defeated the second-in-command of the Black Brigade, Shelby. Before they left, they had encountered the leader of the Brigade, Albel Nox, known as Albel the Wicked. Fortunately, he considered beating them now would simply be picking on the weak (Fayt and his companions were exhausted from all the fighting), and let them go generously. Nel reckons that they were very lucky for that, while Cliff was swearing that he will beat the living daylight out of him the next time they met. Once in Arias, Clair hurried the two injured agents to medical care. With that out of the way, the three decided to continue their journey towards Aquios, capital city of Aquaria.

This took them to the trading city of Peterny, where Fayt had met a young, frail girl named Ameena, who had a striking resemblance to Sophia. She made a living selling flowers she picked from the fields with the help of her neighbor. Her entire family had perished in the war, which increased Fayt's hatred towards those who would harm others to gain what they wanted. Just as they were about to leave, Ameena's neighbor came hurrying to them, asking them to help Ameena, who had collapsed in the Duggus Forest to the west of the town. Deciding to help, Fayt and the others took a detour to the said forest in an attempt to find her.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'This place hasn't changed much...' Shuyin thought grimly, 'except perhaps the lack of corpses...'.

He walked through the forest casually, observing his surroundings as he went. After leaving the scorching desert, he had reached the city of Surferio. Not wanting to draw attention, he slipped through the town quietly under the cover of night, and continued on towards where, if his memory served, Arias was located. He had taken a detour to the Duggus Forest along the way when he saw a screaming middle-aged woman run out of it towards a town nearby, wondering what had caused her to act like so.

'The air... there's something strange about it...' he mused. 'Well... at least the scent of blood isn't as strong as last time...'

As he was deep in thought, the ground shook slightly and caused him to look back. Some of the monsters living in the forest had rolled huge boulders down from a cliff above the area he was in. Shuyin merely sighed as he sliced one in half with his lance, then outstretched one hand as he muttered "Lunar Sphere". Small silvery balls of light blasted from his hands towards the beasts, sending them crashing against boulders and trees. They whimpered and retreated to their lairs, but Shuyin knew that they would be back, unable to resist playing dangerous pranks on others who wandered into this place. Acting as though nothing surprising hap happened, he continued on his way. It had been a long while now since he entered this forest, and so far he hadn't found any significant cause to that woman's panicking. If it weren't for the strange presence he felt in here, he would've thought that she had fallen victim to one of the pranks of these creatures. No, that couldn't have been it, he reminded himself as he kept trudging through. More than once he would encounter a tree blocking the way, but he knew that these were actually monsters disguised as trees, and wasted no time chopping up, burning, or sending them flying out of the way.

Eventually he encountered an area covered by fog, which was odd since he couldn't remember such a thing happening before. He then heard some people shouting somewhere. His eyes, through extensive training, were able to penetrate the fog a bit, and he began to run towards the noise, knocking out some fiends that he met along the way. Once at the source of the noise, he saw thfour people battling some large monster that was dripping mud all over. In fact, it seemed to be made of mud. 'How unusual,' he thought 'the only time I've seen something like this was in that cave... And this one's different too.' Putting these thoughts aside, he raised his hands once again, preparing to aid the three figures.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cliff growled in frustration as he leapt out of reach of the muddy hands of the monster. Although he was delivering some hard punches and kicks, he wasn't even sure if that blasted thing felt any of it. It seemed to be nothing but a mass of mud, which was flailing its "arms" trying to crush him and his buddies. Nel was busy casting runological spells on the mud beast, while Fayt was focusing power into his sword so that it was emitting a blue aura as he slashed.

"Dammit! Just what is thing made out of!" Cliff shouted

"Do you HAVE to ask!" Fayt shouted back as he sent a shock of electricity towards their foe.

"Oh, never mind"

"Less talking and more fighting would actually help here, you two, I think we just need to hit it a little more." Nel called out.

"But we can't keep this up for much longer, we're tired out from all the fighting it took us to GET here" Cliff complained

"Hey you moron! Didn't you hear what the lady said? More fighting less talking ya big buffoon!" a small humanoid with a tail screamed at Cliff.

"Who you calling a buffoon Roger!" Cliff snapped back.

"ENOUGH you idiots! Just focus on the fight!" Fayt and Nel both shrieked at the two.

Suddenly Fayt felt a strange chill in the area. The others noticed it too. The next thing they knew, the ground around the monster seemed to become frosty, until it was covered in thick ice. The Mudman howled as it tried to break the ice apart. Then something silvery and round collided with its middle and it broke free of the ice from the force of the impact. The four stared, completely confused as to what just happened, then realized they had a clean shot at the annoying fiend as it was struggling to recover from the blast. Cliff focused his strength and released a sphere of energy, Fayt and Nel both sent electric bolts out, while Roger jumped up and slammed down on their foe. Hardened from the ice, the Mudman's "body" cracked and shattered here and there, and finally it dissolved into nothing more than a pile of normal mud. As soon as it was gone, the fog began to lift. The four fighters slumped down and let out a sigh of relief.

"Whew, that was close..." Cliff panted.

"Ha! Only a real man could've stood up to something like that, take that Lucien!" Roger mumbled feebly.

"Come on guys, we have to find Ameena and get going." Fayt said, getting to his feet.

As the four turned to leave the clearing they were in, they spotted another person by the entrance.

"Huh? Who are you?" Roger asked.

"...A passerby." he replied.

"Oh, are you the one who responsible for what happened to that thing?" Nel questioned. The stranger didn'r reply.

"Hey, thanks a bunch man. Those attacks were pretty neat." Cliff said.

"Wait a minute..." Fayt squinted at the stranger as the fog lessened. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

The man glanced at him, then said in a mildly surprised tone, "Didn't expect to see you again."

"Hey! It IS you! Wow, what are the odds?" Fayt exclaimed.

"Yo, Fayt, a friend of yours?" Cliff inqured.

"Yeah, he helped me out back in the Hyda IV attack, his name is Shuyin." Fayt answered.

At this Cliff froze.

"Wait, what you say his name was?"

"Huh? Shuyin, why?" Fayt asked, puzzled at Cliff's reaction.

Cliff started towards the stranger.

"Shuyin? That really you?"

Now the man was really surprised, "Cliff? What are you doing here?"

"Whoa! It REALLY is you! Haha! Haven't seen you for.. 7 years is it? How you been?" Cliff sounded overjoyed.

"Shuyin...?" Everone turned, apparently Cliff and Fayt weren't the only ones who rscognized the name. "Would you happen to be... Shuyin the Black Lance?"

At this Shuyin stiffened, "...How do you know that name?"

"You really are him then?"

"Yo Nel, what are you talking about" Cliff asked.

"We can discuss that later..." Shuyin cut in firmly.

The others noticed the tension and dropped the discussion. After all, there was something else left. Fayt remembered about Ameena and his group, along with a grim-faced Shuyin. They eventually found her lying in the middle of a flower field, unconcious. Fayt noticed Shuyin gave a slight start when he saw her. Once Cliff had carried her in his arms, Roger, who had been accompanying them because of the help he received in a "Real Man Contest", bade them farewell and left for his hometown of Surferio. The rest returned to Peterny and Nel immediately got a doctor, one of her subordinates, to look after her. Ameena soon regained conciousness.

"Ameena, are you okay?" Fayt asked

"Fayt, what happened?"

Fayt quickly recounted the prior events.

"Oh, I'm sorry for causing you trouble..." Ameena said in a shamed tone.

"No, don't be, just focus on getting better, okay?" Fayt replied warmly.

"Okay..." She answered quietly.

"Now you have make sure you take this medicine everyday and rest." Fayt said as he gave her a medicine bottle.

"Oh, but..."

"Don't worry, consider it a payment for the Maiden of Irisa" He said pointing to the charm in his chest pocket, the one that Ameena had given him when they first met earlier.

"But that was a gift! I can;t-" but Fayt stopped her and told her not to worry again. Cliff came in later and told him it was time to leave. Fayt nodded and said goodbye to Ameena.

As he rejoined the group outside, Ameena noticed through her window a tall figure with long red hair wearing a blue cape. He seemed oddly familiar. Then she suddenly got up on her bed and murmured "Shu?". But as she tried to get a better look, the four walked away.