Author's note: Hey there! Late update, I know. Further on in the journey of Claude and the gang. This chapter focuses mainly on Celine, for all you Celine fans. There are a couple of other characters in there, but I'll explain at the end. Enjoy.

Chapter 6

Re-awakening

Celine sighed and brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them, resting her head on her knees.

"It's only a matter of time before a monster finds me and…well. I shall not think about it too much. It was what I chose to do and what I needed to do. They will be fine. Besides, I would only get in their way, not having any more magic left in me. They're better off without me. I wonder how Claude and everyone else are doing? I hope nothing comes this way; otherwise I won't be able to defend these two. They so wanted to be together. They're better off alive than I, as I have no one particularly special to me," Celine thought to herself. She started to fall asleep. Some time passed.

"Hey now, what do we have here? Looks like we have a purdy lady in here. She's pretty enough to steal," a male voice said. Celine instantly woke up and looked up to find Aniki kneeling down in front of her, staring at her and holding her chin. She whacked him and he fell backwards into Ryo and Juro. He got up and straightened up.

"Awwww, is that any way to treat a guy?" Aniki asked.

"What are you three doing here?" Celine asked, getting up.

"Hehehe, we came to see you! We followed you discreetly. But we got caught up somewhere else, so that's why we're late. Sorry bout that," Aniki said. Celine looked weary at him. He looked at the other two and nodded. They went back the way they came in and Celine was left with just the redhead. Celine suddenly blanched and fell to the floor. But not before Aniki could catch her. He kept hold of her.

"Wow, you have been through a lot. These jerks that difficult?" Aniki asked.

"Go away. Why do you guys always come and make everything worse? Of course they're bad," Celine replied. Aniki stared at her in surprise.

"Difficult? To you? How? You pack one hell of a buzz," he said. Celine glared at him.

"Let go of me and get away from me," Celine said.

"No way. I've been waiting for this since before we left Expel," Aniki said.

"What are you-," Celine started, before Aniki lent down and captured her mouth. She got angry and pushed him off of her. She stood up and raised her staff.

"THUNDER BOLT!" Celine shouting, hoping she still had a trickle of magic left in her. Aniki cowered and wrapped his arms around his head, until he realised nothing was happening.

"Dammit! Why now?" Celine said, as she started crying, hiding her real reason for being angry and upset.

Aniki walked to her and knelt down, grabbing hold of her shoulders.

"Hey, it's ok. You can shock me when you get your magic back. So don't cry," he said, trying to comfort his favourite attacker. Celine wailed.

"My magic is gone! I used it to help my friends get further. I won't be casting any more spells," Celine cried. Aniki rubbed her back.

"I know, love. I was just trying to cheer you up. Buut, I know how to help you," he said. Celine looked up at him and saw that he was being sincere. Celine lowered her head.

"But, I've done nothing but use it on you. Why-?" Celine asked, before Aniki kissed her again.

"Just shut up and kiss me. You know you wanna," he said in between kissing. Celine went with it and felt like some strange force was flowing through her body. A glow could be seen around them and it was shining brighter and brighter. Aniki, once he felt he was drained enough, slowly stopped the kiss and stared sleepy eyed at Celine.

Celine felt weird. Like something inside her was on fire. It felt good.

"Ahhh, can you zap me now? I feel like I'm gonna fall asleep," Aniki said, falling back onto the floor. Celine realised what had happened and stared at him in alarm.

"Wait a minute, how did you-?" Celine started.

"Uhn? Oh. I stopped at a large Heraldic library, can you believe? And I found a book: Heraldy for beginners. It even said non-magic people could learn. But I wasn't able to learn any…but I was told by this clever guy, that I could do something else. So I did a load of ceremonies and enchantments, and became a medium for magic. So now, if others need magic, I can transmit them some of the magic I have and I can regenerate at a faster rate than you proper wizards. Of course, I used that excuse to kiss you. Zap me if you like. I was being naughty," Aniki explained, laughing a little.

Celine's eyes were filled with tears and she flung her arms around him. He was surprised, but held onto her. Tears fell freely down her face and she cried into his shoulder.

"Thank you so much. I will never forget this," Celine said. "Now I can go help the others." Aniki laughed and told her that it was the least he could do to make it up to them and to be of any use. He got up eventually and poked Opera and Ernest. They soon awoke and got up, looking very surprised to see the thief.

"Hey there guys!" Aniki said. Celine explained what had happened and they nodded. They proceeded to go help the others.

Author's note: Aniki is the thief in the anime, who is constantly turning up and getting zapped/burned by Celine. The Team Rocket of Star Ocean, if you like. He is apparently called Jinn in the English dub, but obviously, I have only seen the Japanese one AND Aniki is his real name. Juro and Ryo are the two friends of his. I made those names up because there was no indication to them having a name in the anime. And going by 'Aniki's friends' all the time would have been tedious. So there you go. I made up the weird ritual Aniki goes through, just so that he can help Celine and all. Fun, huh?