Say My Name

Written by vox shade

v/s: eh, no warnings really. But thanks for the uber reviews XD the best part after posting a chappie is getting them!

Disclaimer: Star Ocean 3 belongs to Tri-Ace/Ubisoft/Square-Enix.

Chapter Eight

"Albel, you're in love with a drag queen?" Nel gasped out. Albel whirled around, eyes wide and flashing.

"You speak one word of this to anyone, wench, and I will kill you."

Nel blinked and the strange second-long daydream vanished from her mind. She was back in reality, where women were really men and dated other men like Albel Nox. The daydream didn't seem any better at the moment. I think I'd like to go home now.

"Albel? Lady Nel? I-" Sienna Skye's words were cut off with a clean sweep of Albel's sword as it sliced through several more ropes of Nel's clever trap, reducing it to shreds of tough string. S/he winced and scrambled up from the floor to stand, tugging on her/his hem with trembling fingers. Her/his eyes widened in the dim light as the situation dawned.

Albel didn't say a word as he raised the tip of his sword to point at Sienna's throat. "You will give me an explanation which will make sense to my ears, Skye. Now."

Sienna raised his/her hands meekly with a slight smile. "Uh, can we go somewhere else to talk? I don't want to wake his Majesty up."

"No. You can start talking."

Nel voiced up her opinion since her shock. "Really, Nox. Sienna has a point. Let's take uh, him, to our room and we can solve things from there. Obviously he's only being used by the conspiracy group."

Sienna shot Nel a surprised look. "How'd you know?"

"It's obvious. You can't kill Albel, one of the king's trusted men, let alone kill the king himself." Nel passed by Sienna and Albel towards the door, leading the way with a flame floating in her palm. She sternly reigned in her questions and confusion to be answered later. Right now came the priority of keeping this incident in as low a profile as possible. If word ever got out that a relation of the Black Brigade's Captain tried to assassinate the king, trust in the castle would lower and suspicion would be thick. There was no sense in lowering the morale of the people and casting doubt where it didn't need to be cast.

The trip back to their shared rooms was quiet and thankfully uneventful. Whenever Nel had peered back she would see a doubtful look cast over Sienna's face. But then, weren't all three of them in doubt at the moment? Like, if Albel was really gay?

Albel shut the door with a sound thud and Nel walked over to the fireplace, placed some logs in from the side of the hearth, and lit it with the flame in her palm. Albel sheathed his sword and stood in front of the door, leaning against it with his arms crossed and face expressionless. Nel chose the bed which was close to the window, hands close to her dagger hilts. Sienna stationed herself on the chair by the desk.

Albel glared from under his blonde tips. "Start."

Sienna took a deep breath. "It was all Woltar's idea."

Whatever it was Nel had expected, it wasn't this. "What?"

Sienna turned his clear blue eyes to her seriously. "I'm sure you know him, Lady Nel. Woltar had discovered this conspiracy group a little while ago, and it was he who alerted the king of the group and the dangers. But since they were so rich and politically powerful, we could not confront them in court with such little evidence – they are very efficient. So before Albel was assigned to the mission, I was the person they chose for undercover work. Since I was already dressing like a woman for two years, they knew little to no people out of the castle knew who I really was, so they thought that I was the one who was most likely compatible with the plan."

"All this because Woltar asked you?" Albel snorted.

Sienna leveled a glare at him. "It was for my uncle, Albel. I couldn't refuse him."

"And the king doesn't know anything of this?" Nel asked in surprise. "I would have thought that someone would have told him everything there was to know about this mission and the background information."

"Well, you see," Sienna played with the end of his ponytail. "The news would have alarmed the king, and he would have more than likely told me to stop with the undercover mission."

"Why? Aren't you Woltar's soldier or agent?"

"I'm one of the king's distant nephews."

"Oh. Waitaminute, what?"

It seemed as though she'd been getting floored a lot lately. She should stop it before it became a habit.

Sienna smiled at Nel. "It's not widely publicized. If it were known that I was a relative to the king, and a potential heir, my life would be risked wouldn't it? So Albel suggested that I become a girl and go under the name of 'Sienna Skye' to reduce the number of threats to my life."

"So what's your real name?"

"Kaize Skye."

Nel thought about the new facts and linked them together in her mind. It made sense. Woltar must have sent Kaize (pronounced kai-zeh) in order to help Albel out but kept it a secret from the king because Kaize protested it since he knew the king would force him to give it up. "But then how did you become so close to each other?"

Kaize shrugged. "We used to go skirt shopping together."

This considerably lightened the tension in the room as Nel laughed herself to tears, Sienna joining in on the amusement as Albel fumed silently by the door. Nel gasped for breath as she straightened up again, wiping a tear from her eye. She decided to spare Albel any teasing since he looked so venomous at the moment as he glared at both of them. Perhaps Kaize isn't so bad. At least I know now that there isn't anything between them.

"So were you ever going to tell the king?" Nel asked when she finally had full control over her voice.

"Nah, we were gonna tell him later after this whole thing was over. I don't really want to tell him anyway, cuz he might just send me back to the country with my parents. As much as I love them, I like being in the royal city. It's more interesting. But now that you caught me, he might know earlier… unless you don't tell him?" Kaize asked hopefully.

Nel looked at Albel. "Well, you can count on me not to tell the king. It really isn't much of my business anyway."

"So why were you sneaking in here?" Albel interrupted.

Kaize frowned. "Well, since I was undercover, they made me a part of their group. As a minor. But they were pulling off the plan today to assassinate the king."

"And you were the only they sent?" Albel asked. Nel could hear the slight apprehension underlying his tone. She was beginning to feel it too, and she stood up abruptly.

Kaize stood up as well, eyes wide. "No. There should be three more!"

Albel cursed under his breath as he snapped the door open and flew into the hallway, Nel in hot pursuit. They dashed through the darkness, and reached the king's suite just as a man clad in black stepped out from the room Kaize had snuck into. He was down with a flash of Albel's Crimson Scourge. Both leapt over the body and into the stone chamber as two more men climbed in from the window, blades at the ready. "Bodyguards!" one of them shouted as an alarm.

Nel locked blades with one man, while Albel fought with the other. "So, just how much are you being paid to do this?" Nel said with a smile as she and the man glared at each other over the tops of the their daggers. He looked to be an Airyglyphian, in his thirties, tall, and with the advantage of weight on his side.

"Nothing you need to know, wench!" the man growled. Nel parried away from the extra pressure and lunged in again, dancing in and out of the swipes from his blades. Sure he was bigger, but she was faster. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

"Well, I'm just curious. I'm sure it's not enough in exchange for your life!" Nel said with a savage smile. She blocked a furious thrust and flipped back in the room and threw a bolt of lightning at the assailer. To his credit he managed to jump out of the way just in time. But in the instant that the lightning illuminated the room, she spotted a dark figure slipping over the window sill. The light vanished and Nel sought the figure in the darkness. A blow to her shoulder reminded her of her fight. Cursing herself for being distracted, she ignored the pain and dodged to the right just as a sword thrust to where her heart would have been if she'd stayed still. Twirling on her toes, she knew that her opponent was still recovering from his attack. Two flashes of steel, and the man was down.

Nel whirled around to see Albel finishing off the other man wielding an axe. Quickly she scanned the room just as she heard the door behind her open. With a shout for Albel, Nel followed in hot pursuit as the third infiltrator dashed into the corridor. She knew where he was going: the king's personal chambers.

She heard a shout behind her and spared a glance. Albel was keeping a good distance, maybe a meter or so behind. Yet she could vaguely see an outline of someone else behind him, following the two. She'd leave the mystery person to Albel, right now she had an idiot to catch.

A crash alerted her up ahead the dark hall of something falling in her path. Nel leapt smoothly over the shards of a vase and skidded around a corner, seeing her target ramming through the king's door in the torchlight. Not if I can help it. Nel gritted her teeth and picked up her speed, dashing through the door and catching up with the assailant in the middle of the room. She threw her smaller dagger and it hit home in the back of the man's right shoulder. He cried out, which alerted the king to waking up with a fight in his face in the dim light of his room (poor guy, I'd hate to be woken up like that).

Nel leapt forward and crushed her heel into the man's injured shoulder for a good moment before twisting the dagger's handle and jerking it out. The man twitched and stilled under her feet, and Nel stepped back with satisfaction. "Sorry to interrupt your sleep, sir," Nel said politely to the king. "But –"

Her words were cut short as

Albel lurched through the door with Kaize hanging off his shoulders.

The man who was supposed to have passed out jumped to his feet.

The king grabbed a random dragon bone off the floor and started swinging it around.

Okay, so he wasn't swinging it around. But although it was hitting the intruder, Nel had to do some fancy dodging to get out of the way as well.

"You son of a –"

"Uncle-"

Nel cut off both men as she grabbed Albel around the torso and threw him out the door. "There isn't enough room in here! Stay out there where you aren't in someone's way, Albel Nox!"

Nel turned back to the situation at hand and leapt in to deliver a blow to the yelling man's forearm. She danced back out of reach of his blade. She lunged for the same arm wielding his sword and even though it was dark , she located the tendon and jammed her thumb into it. With a scream of pain, the man's hand unclenched and the sword plunged down into the tip of his shoe just as the king rammed the done into the man's midriff.

And did I mention that Nel was shouting Albel's name the whole while?

Nel breathed heavily as she regarded her and the king's work, certain that this time the man wouldn't rise again. All that shouting and fighting had tired her, but she felt satisfied, the adrenaline still thrumming in her veins. But there was one thing –

The door bashed open and ricocheted off the wall as Albel stormed in, wiping his mouth and eyes glowing blood red, riveted on the exhilarated heroine.

"You suicidal fool –"

"Not here, Albel." King Arzei interrupted. His own eyes were fixed on the younger man behind Albel. "You can conference in your rooms. I wish to speak to my nephew."

Getting in Touch With the Other Side.

Ten am saw to that the sullen swordsman and the disgruntled Crimson Blade made their way to Arias. Nel had received a reply from Clair at dawn, the message clipped and straight to the point: come to Arias. Now. Before I burn down the ice cream factories.

..Well, maybe not the chocolate one, but the strawberry one definitely.

So thus, Nel had dragged Albel out of his room, unafraid even after their small argument last night.

Nel looked around the roads, nodding to those who waved to her. Arias didn't seem to have changed. It was a bit strange, because it felt as if she'd been gone a long time. A lot has happened, Nel reflected soberly. Especially the jealousy part. That still irritated her slightly. But then, since when did she have the right to demand knowledge from Albel the Wicked?

"Zelpher."

Nel looked at Albel, who was keeping stride with her. He still looked a bit angry from being forced to kiss the king's nephew, and for more than a minute as well nonstop. He'd kept complaining that she had nearly killed him with suffocation last night.

"What?"

"Next time you want me to leave a room, just ask and I might leave, alright fool?"

"So now you care about what I think, contrary to what you said earlier."

"Hmph. You did nearly suffocate me. A mediocre attempt at best, but the intent was there."

"Ha. Since when have you cared?"

"When did I say I haven't, fool?"

Nel eyed him strangely before entering the mansion, Albel behind her. A thump on the staircase introduced Clair as she smiled and greeted them.

"Welcome back Nel, Lord Albel. I trust you have finished your business up at the castle?"

Before Nel and Albel could even indicate anything, Clair grabbed their wrists and started dragging them upstairs. "Now, don't worry about your luggage or settling in, cuz you're going right back out there right after we clear something up. As it so happens, after we received your letter we got a message from a lord of Airyglyph, offering information of the group you two are pursuing." Clair kept talking as she dragged the two tired and stupefied travelers to the second floor and down the hall and into the farthest room on the right. "And he mentioned an interesting and not to mention the easiest way to get into personal contact with the group without them knowing. Of course I agreed to help with all of my ability. Which leads to this."

Clair had sat them both down in the middle of the clean room on two wooden chairs seeming to be there exactly for this moment. While Nel and Albel were both trying to digest what the grey haired woman had just said, said Clair rummaged in the closet and pulled out two identical black boxes. Both were big enough to require both hands and some effort to hold, and both had the same pink dripping heart insignia emblazoned onto the thin wood. Clair set both of them on the table in front of Albel and Nel and smiled.

"How –"

"Yes, you're wondering how you're going to be doing this, Lady Nel. Allow me to show you."

With that, Clair lifted the top off one of the boxes and held up the main content.

"Dear Apris no."

Clair was holding up none other than a lascivious French maid outfit. Complete with black gloves, ribbons, shoes. And holy – that skirt was short.

Albel snickered. "It suits you, Zelpher. I think it covers more than your sleepwear, at the least."

Clair lifted an eyebrow at the swordsman at the comment. "Oh, Nel isn't the only one wearing this. It turns out the Blood Bar that the group inhabits only hires certain people, Albel. They hire women."

It took a moment for it to click, but when it did it whammed into him like a lot of dragon dung. "NO!"

"I've already sent your resumes in."

v/s: good? Bad? Point anything out that needs fixing or anything please. That means reviews! (nudge nudge XD)