Disclaimer: I don't own Star Ocean. Foo.

A/N: Thank you, my two readers! Or any other reader who doesn't review (Which you should)! I am glad I have people enjoying this story. It makes me glad to write it. Currently my school is being evil and I can't update as much as I'd like. So sorry if there is a 2 week gap in my chapters. Oh, and sorry for not making any author's notes in my last chapters. I thought it would ruin the flow of the story. I guess I'm ruining it now. Sorry. Well, hope you enjoy the next installment! Oh yeah, I also didn't put titles on the last ones. I'm going to start now. Sorry for the awkwardness.

The music goes on…

Nel swiftly walked passed the corner, avoiding many of the bewildered servants of the court and runologists that happened to pass her by. She did not have time for this. She was walking as fast as she could, yet she still did not get to her destination as fast as she would like.

In her agile pace she stumbled over a crack, loosing her balance. She gasped, expecting a face plant to the pale cold floor. She knew she shouldn't have walked that quickly.

But to her surprise, she was caught by firm female arms. She noticed it was one the runologists passing by by the markings on her legs and the clothing she wore.

She raised her head to find herself staring up to the sharp cold eyes and dirty blonde hair of her subordinate, Tynave.

A smile appeared on the young woman's face as she helped Nel up to her feet. Nel had the look of embarrassment on her face, but wiped it off as quickly as it had come. Tynave just kept on smiling kindly.

"Sorry."

"It's no problem Lady Nel."

Nel shifted to her right foot then to her left uncomfortably as she crossed her arms and looked at Tynave impatient. Tynave just looked on and then looked attentive suddenly.

"Oh, Lady Nel, I have a question."

There was a slight pause.

"Go on."

"Where were you going in such a rush? It seems you're impatient to get somewhere. You don't need to answer, I just had to ask."

"Well, I was just going to ask the queen about some important matters."

"Or to get away from Clair?"

"Why would I want to do that?" asked Nel almost immediately, shocked.

Tynave gave Nel a calm look, saluted her, and started to walk towards another destination.

Nel was surprised at the assumption Tynave made. She didn't expect that. Clair was her best friend, why would she want to leave her to cry alone? Nel brushed her red hair behind her ear and stared forward with her emerald eyes. She sighed.

"Why would I want to do that?"


Fayt was looking out of the window of the space ship that the Rossetti Troupe owned.

He was glad that they had gotten a ride to Elicoor II from Souffle. If they hadn't, they would have let Nel down. Not just Nel, no, the whole group of people in Aquaria who knew Adray; Clair, Tynave, Farleen, the Queen, Roger, hell even Albel.

Fayt stared into the dark abyss that was twinkling with light; quote "the star ocean". He had always found it fascinating, those little lights, that if you get too close, they'd turn into something bigger than himself times one-thousand and more. The sparkling spots on the blackboard might have worlds with people entirely different from him, and there were thousands of little stars…

"Hey Fayt! What are you doing? Join us in a game of cards!" exclaimed Sophia, snapping Fayt back into the real world. Well, their real world.

"Sorry! I was… Daydreaming."

"You shouldn't daydream that much! It's unhealthy!" pouted Sophia, her hair falling over her shoulder and in front of her face as she bent her head down. She really did worry about Fayt. He really did day dream a lot.

"Yeah, we don't want you loosing yourself in your head! You loose yourself here enough as it is!" proclaimed Cliff, moving the cards around his hands, eager for the next move.

"Fayt! Don't you like us?" asked Souffle, small tears forming in her eyes. Sophia cringed. This is the side of Peppita….

"N-no! Of course I like you!" Fayt uttered. He didn't want to make their host uncomfortable, especially if that host was Souffle.

Sophia crossed her arms sulking. She really didn't want to see Peppita as a rival…

"Sophia, Cliff, pay attention," announced Mirage, fingering her cards. She really wanted the game to finish and to get her money. Seeing she had already won the game….

"Hah! Look at this!" glowered Cliff, tossing his cards down. They held three kings and two aces; a full house. Cliff looked confident in his hand, although the smirk that Mirage was giving him wasn't motivating.

"Sorry Cliff, but I think you've just lost," smiled Mirage, tossing down her own cards. They held the Ace of spades, the King of spades, the Queen of spades, the Jack of spades and the ten of spades; Royal Flush.

"Augh!" roared Cliff, hitting his head on the table, causing their refreshments to bounce about a centimeter off of the surface of the table.

"Careful Cliff, you'll drop our drinks," Maria stated, lucky enough to have been drinking her refreshment before he had thrown his tantrum.

After a few seconds of staring, someone spoke up.

"Uh, Cliff? You okay?" asked Peppita, attempting to wake Cliff from his sleep (?).

"It's okay; you already lost before, right?" Fayt asked, attempting to soothe Cliff and failing badly.

"It's not that…. It's that…. I don't have any more money…"

"You're screwed then."

A few headlocks and kicking proceeded after this sentence was muttered.

"Well Cliff, you're in debt. I thought you hated to be in debt," asked Maria, drinking her lemonade gratefully, glad that it hadn't fallen onto her skirt, as it had with Sophia. The poor girl had to go change out of her stained pink skirt into a more presentable one.

"Yeah…. I do…. Is there anyway I can repay the debt NOW?" asked Cliff, drinking some water out of his water bottle.

"Hm…. Maybe we can turn this game into strip poker or something," suggested Souffle, the whole ship immediately, surprised at this statement, stopped what they were doing.

Mirage's mouth curved up a little.

"Yes, I do think that we can turn this into a game of that poker…"

"Mirage is scary when she gets like this…."

"Alright, off with a part of your clothes Cliff, and let's keep playing, imagine if you win…" Mirage said suggestively. She really just wanted to play a game of cards, but Cliff was having fantasies right now.

"Uh, Cliff?"


"Bah, worm," growled Albel, pants of breath leaving his chapped lips.

The decapitated Monstrous Beast before him, spilling blood everywhere, had proven to be a difficult opponent to the tired swordsman.

He had been walking non stop through the mountains without facing a soul, but when he stepped into the forest bordering the mountains, he had been raided by monster after monster.

First it was the easy porcupines that had found him in their territory, but then hornets and spiders started to attack. He defeated those easily, but the deeper he got into the forests, the more powerful the enemies got. He had just defeated a Killer Wasp, Killer Tarantula and Killer Moth, when the Monstrous Beast happened to stumble into Albel, smelling the blood from the defeated monsters he had slayed earlier.

Albel was, he didn't want to admit it, exhausted. He had been used to fighting in fight after fight without stopping, but he usually had someone healing him, not him going solo. He was used to Fayt or Nel coming in to heal him after every injury, even if he didn't need it, but that was a long time ago.

Albel mentally slapped himself and growled. He didn't want to think of the past. Not now, when he needed the past and it wasn't there. Something he had felt before…

Snarling, Albel used the crimson scourge as a support and helped himself to his feet. He couldn't stop moving, if he did something bigger and deadlier might find its way to the corpses.

Albel dragged the crimson scourge on the ground, crushing many branches and dead leaves below his metal boots, and the katana bouncing off of rocks, not giving a damn if anything found him, seeing he was making a lot of noise.

Bring it on, he was riled up now.


Roger had stopped to rest at a boulder in the forest. He took out his lunch, starving. He had traveled non-stop through the forest to make up for lost time, even though he didn't loose any time at all, ironically. He was looking up to taking a bite down onto his sandwich when he noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye. He stopped moving and looked around cautiously. His instinct and knowledge had told him to stay alert. You never know what will pop out of the bushes. It might be a pixie, it might be a hag.

Suddenly, a scaly head peeked itself out of the bush, smelling the food that Roger had been carrying around. Its yellow eye turned to face Roger. It seemed like it had been following Roger.

It looked like the Lizard Warrior had gotten itself lost in the forest and it was dying of hunger, seeing that he wasn't a very stealthy hunter, or had a sense of direction especially in that puzzle-like forest. It seemed to think that attacking the small warrior was an easy task, seeing that he was larger.

It jumped up onto the rock and twitched its head from side to side, as if to make sure both eyes had seen its target. It brought its scimitar up above its waist and was ready to charge, bringing its shield up protectively.

Roger jumped up to his feet. He was ready to fight, he was always ready!

Roger S. Huxley was not about to back down!