A.N. "Blah"- Normal speech
'Blah'- Thoughts
Blah>- Radio, Comm system, ect
"Blah"- Speech in flashback

Star Ocean Till the end of time
Reunion
Proof read by Tristain Amaryllis

Chapter 3: Subzero.

The sun rose over the frozen wasteland of the planet Yukon, a planet where one would imagine nothing could survive and where no sane person would go to or even want to set foot on - and yet here he was, along with his two companions, trekking across the frozen ground in search of their quarry.

'I hate this place.'

Even dressed in thick arctic gear he could still feel the cold chilling him to the bone, and the survival pack strapped to his back was uncomfortable, and made him sink into the snow. Which made walking even more difficult?

…Albel… Albel can you hear me…> The sound of their Leader's voice sounded in his ear. …I repeat Albel…can you hear me…?>

"Yes Maria, I can hear you." He replied.

…Statue report…>

"We've managed to find two of the specimens, and we're closing in on the third."

…Right, report in when you find it, Maria out…>

"Alright." he said, as the comm. line went dead.

"Was that who I think it was?" Even under the thick hood and dark glasses, the Elicoorian swordsman recognized the female Klausian, his crew mate and fellow member of Quark, Mirage Koas, with the other Klausian, Cliff Fitter bringing up the rear.

"Yeah, she's being a mother hen." Albel told her.

"Checking up on us, huh? How like her." Mirage said with a slight giggle. "Anyway, are we close to our target?"

"Hold on a second." Albel said as he tapped the frame of his glasses, causing his line of sight to change into heat sensitive mode. The landscape around him became immediately coloured in blues and soft greens, and after a moment he noticed a slight orange patch under the snow about three feet away from him. He removed the survival pack from his back and set it on the ground.

"Get the cage ready." He said in a slight whisper, then began to make his way forward. Slowly, he edged closer to his quarry, until he was all but on top of it. He looked back at Mirage and Cliff, who were slowly making their way towards him. After a few moments' pause, he drove his hand in to the snow and pulled out the small creature that had been hiding there. It was called a Sni, and though reptilian in appearance was covered in white fur.

"Got you." He growled as he made his way back to his companions, carefully keeping the thrashing creature at arm's length. He rammed it into the cage that Mirage held in her hand, and as soon as the door was closed, she pressed a button on top which made the bars begin to glow. Pressing another button, it disappeared in a flash light.

"And that makes three." Mirage said. "Now, if I remember our bet correctly, Cliff, you owe me one beer, and you owe Albel two." Cliff regarded her for a moment.

"Alright, alright I can accept defeat gracefully." He said with his usual good humour as he tossed Albel's survival pack back to him.

"The fool owes me more then two." Albel said as he strapped the pack on to his back. The words had been quiet, but Cliff apparently heard them all the same.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what it means, maggot."

"Come on, boys," Mirage said, stepping between the two, as if she expected them to suddenly start fighting. "Let's get off this ice cube. I want to thaw my limbs in a nice hot bath."

"Yeah, yeah." Cliff said, and pressed a button on his gauntlet. "Cliff to Pegasus, three to transport"

In a flash of light, the three of them disappeared, then reappeared a few seconds later in the transporter room of Cliff's new ship, the Pegasus. After dumping their packs, the three of them made their way to the bridge.

"Okay, Mirage, you can tell Maria that we got what we came for." Cliff told his right hand lady as he sat down in the co-pilot's chair. Shortly, he continued. "Then set a course for Medset #7 so we can get paid."

"Roger." She said as she sat down next to him in the pilot's chair. Albel took his place in the chair behind her. Two minutes later, the craft broke from the planet's orbit, and headed out for deep space.

"Course set, Cliff." Mirage told him.

"Alright, once we're past the second moon, engage Gravitic Warp and put this bird on auto pilot for awhile."

"Roger." She said again.

It took them ten minutes to clear of both Yukon's moons, but once they were clear, Mirage engaged the warp drive, which would allow them to cross the great distance from Yukon to Medset #7 in a mere five hours.

'Good riddance.' Albel thought to himself as the warp drive was engaged. 'If I never return to that ball of ice again, it will be too soon.' Then he got up from his seat and made his way to the door.

"Where you off to?" Cliff asked.

"I'm off to shower and change. I figure I should before Mirage has her bath, if I want to be able to do it today."

There were actually functioning showers in every room, but the accusation was still obvious. Albel looked over his shoulder with a slight smirk on his face.

"You know Mirage, if you want someone to scrub your back later, just give me a shout." He then exited the bridge with Cliff close behind

"What! Why you sonova…get back here!" If either of them had hung around, they might have noticed the blush that had appeared on the Mirage's face. Luckily, they didn't.

Later, Albel was in his quarters with music by Bach's Prelude 21 blaring out of his terminal. He was dressed in tight leather trousers and black boots, currently shirtless and revealing his well toned body to the rest of the room. A bandage decorated his chest, and his left shoulder where he'd been bitten by large creature from Yukon whilst search for Sni.

It had apparently been planning on having the Sni for lunch, and it had not taken well to Albel stealing it. Had it not been for the thick arctic gear, the wound have been a lot more serious, but fortunately, all it was now was a minor – albeit rather unattractive – flesh wound. Even with the injury though, Albel had still been able to dispatch it without any help from Mirage and Cliff. When the three of them returned to the Pegasus, Mirage had given him an injection before cleaning his wound and applying a dressing.

Albel's gaze went suddenly to the small table by his bed. On it was a picture frame. He couldn't help but smile (still sparing a quick look about to make sure that no one else saw, even though he was pointedly alone) as he picked it up it. Inside was a picture of himself, Fayt, Peppita, Nel and the other members of the gang. The picture had been taken after they'd defeated Luther, before they had gone their separate ways.

Albel was suddenly brought back to reality when he heard his door open, and saw a much more refreshed-looking Mirage entering his room.

"How's your shoulder?" She asked.

"Better." He replied, putting the picture back. "I had to remove the bandages when I got in the shower, but I managed to put some fresh ones on after I was dry again." There was a long silence between the two of them.

"Albel do you ever get lonely?" Mirage asked. "Because if you do we…"

"Don't." Albel interrupted her, he looked her directly in the eyes. Deep cerulean eyes, he noticed "You and me it wouldn't work, and we both know it."

"I suppose so." Mirage said in a slightly hurt voice. Albel felt a strong feeling of guilt well up inside but wasn't about to admit it, he put on a stern front and spoke in a sneering tone

"It there a reason why your here" the female Klausian looked at him looking like she was holding tears back

"Yeah" she cleared her throat. "We will be arriving at Medset #7 soon. I just thought you should know." Then she left his room and made her way to the bridge. Albel stared at the door long after Mirage left

'It wouldn't work because no matter how hard we'd try we would always long for someone else', and in a strange spate of self-consciousness grabbed his shirt off the bed and pulled it over his head.

From his closet he brought out his specially made arm guard which the weapons masters of Quark had made for him. It had a built-in force field projector, a special interface system which would allow him to hack into any computer network (assuming he could ever figure out how to work it), and the claws on the fingers, when energized, would allow him to cut through most known substance.

He slipped it onto his left arm, and then grabbed his trench coat off his chair, held up by a belt which his sword's sheath could be attached to. Albel exited his room and made his way to the bridge as an alarm sounded, informing the crew they'd be arriving at their destination soon.

"Hi there, Cliff Fittir." the blonde Klausian said as the three of them were greeted by the stations security team. "We're here to drop off the specimens your scientists need for their research."

"Follow us." One of the guards said gruffly. The guard led them to a screening room where they were screened for any bacteria and microbes, and then onto the labs. Inside, they were greeted by a man wearing a white lab coat and dark green slacks. He had brown eyes and his chocolate brown hair was beginning to grey. A younger woman with grey eyes and platinum hair stood next to him.

"Hello my name is Dr. Brizon." He said. "This is my colleague, Dr. Lyekka."

"Nice to meet you. Doctors, I'm Cliff Fitter, these are my crewmen, Mirage Koas and Albel Nox."

"It's nice to meet you." Dr. Lyekka said politely as she and Dr Brizon shook their hands. "I must say we are exigently grateful for your efforts."

"Ah it was nothing." Cliff said. "Y'know, Albel, while we're here maybe you should have that shoulder checked out."

"It's fine." the Elicoorian put in curtly.

"Shoulder?" The female doctor asked.

"Yeah, my crewmate here was bitten by a very large creature on Yukon when we were searching for your specimen three day's ago."

"Not a problem." Dr. Brizon said. "Dr Lyekka, would you please take Mr. Nox to an examination room?"

"Yes sir." She replied, then turned to Albel. "If you would please follow me Mr Nox." She led Albel out the door and along the corridor until they reached a room at the end of the hall.

They entered the room, and she motioned him to sit on the examining table.

"Now if you could remove your jacket and shirt, I'll take a look at your wounds." Albel was hesitant and uncomfortable, but after a few seconds did as he was told. Dr. Leykka then removed the bandages. "When were these applied?" She asked.

"Five hours ago."

"Well, theses wounds aren't too serious and are healing nicely, it should be healed completely by the end of the week." After applying a fresh set of bandages, she then removed her glasses and began rubbing her hands over Albel's chest. "You know, I'm officially off duty now." She said pointedly.

"Is that so" He said coldly, despising her. 'What is it with these people?' Lyekka brought her face closer to his, their lips only inches apart. Albel had a brief but appealing vision of grabbing the woman by the throat and pitching her across the room, but in the end, he tried to go the way of diplomacy.

"I should go. The boss wants us back at Eden as soon as the delivery was complete." Albel moved away from the female doctor, and as soon as he was out of the door leaned against the wall and pulled his shirt over his head. He had just pulled his jacket on and reattached his belt when something dropped out.

Stooping down to pick it up, he saw it was the Maiden of Irisa. As he picked it up, memories of how he'd come to own it flashed across his mind. Sophia and Peppita had just transported down to Moonbase, and it was Fayt's turn, but before getting on the transporter he reached into his pocket and dug out a small flower.

"Here, Albel. I want you to have this."

"A flower?" Scorn threatened to leak into his voice.

"Yeah, it was given to me by a girl called Ameena. It's meant to keep its owner safe on their journeys. It meant a lot to her, but I have no more use for it anymore, so I want you to have it."

In all honesty, Fayt had expected Albel to throw the flower away – Albel saw that in his eyes and seriously considered it– but instead the swordsman had pinned it to his tunic. Fayt smiled and then disappeared in a flash of light.

"You still have it. That really means a lot to me." Albel was suddenly brought back to reality by someone's voice. Looking up, he saw a person in a hooded robe at the end of the hallway.

No sooner had he spotted it that the figure suddenly rounded around a corner and disappeared. Albel gave chase after him. He didn't know why, but there was something familiar about the person (in actuality, he was fairly sure he did know why, but he wasn't about to admit that to himself). When he rounded the corner however, the stranger was nowhere to be seen.

'It's like he vanished into thin air, but that's impossible.' He thought. 'Well, unless they used a transporter, but those things made noise.' Shaking his head, Albel went to find Mirage and Cliff so they could return to the Pegasus.

At that moment, several thousand light years away was Quark's headquarters, the space station called Eden. Maria Traydor was staring out her office window as ships, both Quark and civilian, made their way to and from the station. Then a message came for her over the internal comm. System.

Ma'am,> it said, we're receiving a message, and the person is asking for you. Should I put it through?>

"That depends." She answered, "Any indication of where it's coming from?"

Yes Ma'am.> There was a pause, and then: It's from New Earth.>

Here it is my thrid chapter in this tale, it's taken a diffrent path then the last two but it should help the story move forward, please reviwe because I love getting feed back, once again big shout out to Tristain for his time and effort that went into this chapter. Star Ocean and all it's wonderful characters is owned by Square Enix, I on the other hand amjust a poor boy from a poor family and nobody loves me. I'll start chapter 4 as soon as I can. Peace.