A.N.- "Blah"- Normal speech
'Blah'- Thoughts
Blah>- Comm., radio ect

Star Ocean Till the end of time
Reunion

Chapter 8: Like old times
It was strange to believe but the seven of them had once again left their universe behind and entered another plane of existence, if they'd not done it before they would have thought they were on another planet.

"So here we are again." Cliff said as Nel appeared "Well come on, were not going to find Fayt by standing around here."

Stepping out of the terminal room the group once again found themselves in Gemity, the people walking around dressed up in period costumes so they'd blend in when they entered the 'Eternal Sphere' dressed as they where no one in the crowd would have looked at Nel and the others twice.

As back on Elicoor Fayt had left a trail of blood but now it getting was difficult to follow because

A) the blood was getting thin and B) the crowds where pretty thick and had walked through their feet now stained with his blood

"Over there." Mirage yelled and looking in the direction she was pointing they saw a person with blue hair mixed in with the sea of endless people.

Fayt made his way towards the station

"Sphere Company." He said before entering the transporter, when he reappeared he found himself in the now familiar halls of the Sphere company letting out a small sigh he began walking towards another transporter which would take him up to the next floor.

When he emerged he was greeted by a woman who was around the same age as him wearing a simple uniform a pair of glasses and had long pink hair which she had tied up in a bun

"Your late." She said to him

"Hello Linna. Here escort me!" he said in his now usual cold tone

"That look's painful." Linna said

"Yeah, guess it does." Fayt replied as he touched his face to find his eye had stopped bleeding

"You push yourself too hard," Linna said to him whilst he tried to ignore her "just because you can now heal faster doesn't mean you totally unkillable."

"I don't have a problem with death, he follows…" Fayt stopped in mid sentence and turned away from Linna

"What is it?" she asked not even trying to hide the concern in her voice

"Nothing," he replied "just my eye."

He then pushed it back into it socket again, which caused it to start bleeding again. Turning back to face the woman next to him Linna then leaned over and touched his face and gave him a small smile

"Lets go get you cleaned up." Fayt simply shrugged his shoulders and the two of them set off

"Oh you are aware that you where followed don't you?" Linna asked just before they reached the next transporter

"Eh, let security take care of it." Fayt said before the two of them entered the transporter.

Nel and the others entered the transporter station but they were too late, Fayt had already been transported someplace else, looking around they saw a guard standing just next to the transporter and Mirage approached him

"Excuse me sir," she said in a would be calm tone "one of our group has gotten lost, 21, blue hair, green eyes, kinda cute lookin. You haven't seen him have you?"

"As a matter of fact I did see someone almost fitting your description. He transported outta here a few minutes ago." The guard said "But to be honest I don't know what your definition of cute is, kid looked pretty beat up to me."

"Do you know where he went?" Cliff asked,

"I'm sorry but I'm not allowed to give you that information." The guard said

"Please sir," Peppita said putting on the cute little girl act big puppy eyes included "our friend is all lost, please we gotta find him." however the guy was not buying Peppita's cutesy act

"Like I said I'm not allowed to give you that…"

However he was unable to complete his sentence as Albel then grabbed him by the throat

"Where is he, where'd he go?" Albel snarled but the man in his clutches seemed to panicked to speak,

"Y'know It's been a while since I killed a guy on impulse but God help me I'll do it unless you tell me what I want to know."

"Sphere company." the guard said breathing heavily

Albel then head butted the man, which knocked him unconscious

"Let's go." Albel said and the group made their way towards the transporter.

In no time at all they found themselves in Sphere Company, suddenly an alarm went off and a number of heavily armed security men arrived

"HALT." One of the men shouted "MAKE ANY ATTEMPT TO MOVE AND WE'LL BE FORCED TO FIRE."

"Oh please." Cliff said in a cocky tone as he cracked his knuckles

"Get out of our way, fools." Albel snarled as he drew his sword "I'm givin all of ya ten second to get out of my way and crawl back into your maggot holes before I decorate this place your worthless bodies. Ten…"

"Your bluffing." The man that had yelled at them replied

"nine…"

"I can assure you he's not bluffing." Mirage said as she rubbed her fist in her other hand

"eight…seven…"

"Men, if they as much as raise an eyebrow kill them."

"six…five…"

"Listen, let's just calm down," Maria said as she shakily removed herself from Sophia's shoulder "there's no reason for us to fight. We're just…" before Maria could finish playing diplomat one of the armed men fired a large ball of crackling blue energy at her, the shot connected with her midsection and sent her falling to the floor, the others stared at the form of the blue haired woman lying on the floor as two more shots were fired which caused Sophia and Peppita to fall to the ground.

For a moment Albel, Mirage, Nel & Cliff were unable to move their eyes fixed on their fallen comrades,

Cliff let out a cry before charging at the group of soldiers who opened fire. Being Klausian Cliff was a more resilient to most forms of particle weapons not immune to them (despite what he'd told a certain cerulean haired boy on Vangauard IV) however if took seven or eight shots to bring both him and Mirage down leaving Nel and Albel to fight alone but Albel hadn't recovered from his battle with Fayt and Nel couldn't hold off so many opponents by herself and the two of them were quickly overwhelmed.

Nel grudgingly opened her eyes, every part of her body was protesting and she felt like someone was pounding a very large rock against her head from the inside of her skull closing her eyes again for a few seconds before opening them again and stared at the pristine white ceiling with a single neon strip light attached to it then looking down she found herself lying on a metallic cot with a thinish mattress lain over the top which was rested against a wall of a small room which she estimated was 10ft by 12ft

'Is this death, because if it is I really disappointed.' She thought to herself totally unaware she was currently smiling at her own joke 'So if I'm not dead it means something far worse. I'm alive.'

Getting up off the cot she noticed three things

1) her daggers were gone

2) she felt kind of strange like something was missing but she shrugged that off as part of the effects of whatever she'd been shot with

3) she had a black and quite bulky contraption strapped to her wrist.

She noticed the door, which obviously wouldn't open on this side and she was pretty sure it would be a waste of time and effort to try to open it by force but she was pretty certain she could bring it down with an 'Earth Glaive' spell.

She got in to position preparing to gather her runeological power and unleash a powerful earth based spell but nothing happened, that was what was wrong, normally she could feel the runeological energy flowing through her but now she felt nothing. For the first in a very long time Nel felt defenceless, weak and helpless and she hated it.

For a long time Nel had built up an image of being a strong woman and though at time was seen as frigid and cold but as long as the job was done and she did her duty she couldn't give half a fuck what others thought of her, she collapsed back on the cot, leaned against the wall.

She didn't know how long she sat there and she might have nodded off at one point but eventually the door of the room opened and two heavily armed men

"Come with us," one of them pointing his weapon at her "the creator wants to have a few words with you and your little friends and don't try anything funny that thing on your writs will discharge several thousand volts of electricity through your body and it won't stop till it fries you from the inside out." Nel nodded and exited the room.

Outside she saw Sophia, Peppita who were wearing similar devises strapped to their wrists and Mirage and Cliff who were also bound by chains which emitted a soft green glow

"There were two more members of our group, where are they?" Cliff trying not to let his anger colour his voice and failing miserably

"They are receiving medical treatment but they will be joining you very soon." One of the armed men replied.

The group was led to a transporter, which brought them to a room with a large set of double doors

"Wait here." One of the guards said, he then opened one of the doors and walked inside.

The group stood there in silence then the transporter behind them blared into life and from it appeared Maria and Albel being flanked by two more armed guards, like her the others had been stripped of their weaponry Nel noticed two things first that the black trench coat Albel had adopted as part of his new look and which he wore with his right arm exposed to the air was also gone second his armguard had been confiscated leaving his bare arm exposed and she saw his right hand, which according to people back on Elicoor had been mangled by a dragon when he was 13 but now it was whole as if it had never happened. Albel caught her staring at his hand as he was rudely shoved next to her

"This was the first thing that happened when I joined Maria's organisation…"

"No talking." One of the guards cut him off and slammed the butt of his gun into Albels stomach, which caused him to crouch over gasping for air he then the guard emerged from the room

"Move."

The group was led into the room, inside was a large room walking across a suspended walkway looking through the grilled floor Nel saw what she assumed was almost a thousand people working away at their terminals, walking across the walkway they entered an office at the end.

It wasn't a large room maybe roughly the size of the cockpit of Cliff's ship and standing in front a desk was a welcoming sight to the party

"Blair." Sophia exclaimed

"I was wondering how long it would take you to get here," Blair said a small smile on her face she then looked at the guards "release them and leave us."

Nel and the others where sure the guards weren't too thrilled at having to let their prisoners go after going through the trouble of capturing them but did as they were told they unbound them once they were gone Blaire pressed a button on the desk

"Our guests have arrived sir I'll bring them up now." She then turned round and looked at her friends "If you'll follow me the head honcho is expecting us."

"What, I kinda expecting you'd be in charge of this place now." Cliff said as the group exited the room

"After Luther's death it was expected that I would take over the running of this place," Blaire said as they made their way to the transporter towards the transporter "But when I was offered it I turned it down so they gave it too this other guys instead and to be honest he's doing a better job of running this place then I could of. No I just in charge of the tech division making sure your world runs smoothly."

'According to her Luther is dead and someone else is in charge now.' Nel thought to herself she didn't like the situation but she had to agree that this new guy couldn't be any worse then Luther was. The rest of the trip was conducted in silence soon they were led to a very familiar room the room where Luther had been defeated two years ago standing there to greet them as a tall man, he was ruggedly handsome with forest green hair that fell past his shoulders and sea blue eyes and a fair amount of five o'clock stubble on his face

"Ah Blaire you have brought our guests." He said, "Now don't tell me lets see if I can pass my own pop quiz. The brunette is Sophia Esteed, the blue haired cutie is Maria Traydor, the tall blonde is Cliff Fitter, the blonde chick is Mirage Koas, the little kid is Peppita Rossetti, the red head is Nel Zelpher and the guy with the permanent scowl plastered to his face is Albel Nox right."

"Hey I am not a little kid." Peppita stated and she followed it up by walking up to the man and kicking him in the shin

"Ok I apologize." He said as he rubbed his leg. "Guess I should introduce myself, I am Tiberius I am (sigh) the new creator."

"You don't seem too thrilled by it." Cliff said

"Oh I'm grateful for the job I just hate the title." Tiberius replied.

A.N. I finally got chapter 8 up,this chapter was actually much longer and was over 4000 words long so I had to cut it in half. So what do you think send me your reviews because I'm a very insecure person who needs your comments so I can go on. Chapter 9 isabout half done and I'll post it as soon as I can, till then peace.