Chapter 21

All together now

"Ariette! What's happened to you?" Claude shouted. Luther laughed.

"This is what happens to those who lose purpose. You remember how she was experimented on? Well, a special gene was implanted. Just like Fayt, Sophia and Maria. Only, her one is special. Depending on how she is handled, she could either turn out good or bad. You see, she has what is called a Violence gene, the gene able to evoke either Heaven or Hell," Luther explained. Claude's face was drained of colour and he stared at the form of his sister. She had spawned blood red wings and her eyes were all red. She wore a white dress and she was hunched over a little.

"Oh no…" Claude whispered. Indaelcio laughed.

"Oh yes! Her feeling secluded from her own twin and the loss of her time zone and mother…and finally, what drove her over the edge? The death of one Albel Nox. The only person who would really understand her and the person who brought herself and her friends back into the world of the living died for her. What else could she hold onto? She finally snapped," Indaelcio said. Claude looked both angry and upset at the same time. Fayt glared at the red headed man, thinking about his best friend.

"Wait, what do you mean when you say Albel brought these guys back?" Cliff asked. Luther laughed.

"Isn't it obvious? Albel was unconsciously communicating with her the whole time he was back in space with you guys, he led you to the planet and went into a coma, where he drew in power to awaken Claude and his friends," Luther laughed. The rest laughed along with him and this made Claude angrier. He demanded that Ariette be brought back to normal, but Indaelcio laughed it off, saying that it was too late and that she was gone. Claude bowed his head for a moment, as tears flooded his face and he looked up and, with a look of pure rage, he tried to run for Indaelcio. But a barrier blocked him. Indaelcio smiled.

"Well, I think it is high time we get this started. Ariette if you please," Indaelcio said. There was no movement for a minute and Claude and his friends stood seething at the news. Claude ushered Rena to the back, where Cliff and Dias nodded and stood guard over the fragile girl. Ariette's wings flapped open and she raised her pale face. Black lines could be seen coming down from her bright red eyes. She got ready to battle and brought out her chakrams. She ran towards Claude.

"AIR SLASH!" She shouted, as her wind filled chakrams went spiralling towards Claude. He dodged out of the way and swore.

"What are we going to do? I don't want to attack my own sister," Claude said. Ariette homed in on him again and he blocked her attack.

"We have no choice…she is too far gone. Not even that ancient rune could save her now. You would be doing her a favour by stopping her…I'm sorry," Maria said. Celine and Leon nodded in agreement with the ancient rune. Claude bowed his head and more tears fell. Sophia walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder. Ashton and Mirage stopped Ariette's attack while Claude was having a moment. Sophia pulled him into a hug and rubbed his back.

"It's hard, as she is family. But you have to do this, not only for the sake of the universe, but for her as well. You see her eyes? They're weeping. She's in pain right now. We'll all stand behind you and we'll fight this thing together. You just need to be strong. For Rena and for your child. Think about what Ariette would have wanted," Sophia said. She stepped back and stared at him, as he hunched his shoulders and wiped his wrist over his eyes.

"She…she would want me to-to…" Claude nodded. "She would want what's best for the universe." Sophia nodded sadly and he took up a forlorn stance. Ariette came plummeting for him again and he dodged.

"MIRROR SLICE!" Claude shouted. His fast attack was evaded, as Ariette blocked with her chakrams, making his sword stand in one of the holes. She flew backwards and hovered in the air.

"TRUE MIRROR SLICE!" She screamed. She flew towards Claude and disappeared. The next second she was next to him, stabbing at him. A mirror image of herself was also attacking him. He found it difficult to dodge the two Ariettes and Ashton came in and got the attention of the mirror image, who started attacking Ashton instead. Both Ariettes flew backwards and merged back into the original Ariette.

"Ariette, show them that special move," Indaelcio said. Ariette nodded and Claude and everyone put their guard up, ready.

"FIREBIRD FURY!" She sang. Her chakrams flared up in flames and flames enveloped her body in the shape of a Phoenix. She started flying towards Claude, who put his arms around his head. Something put him in shadow and the person threw their hands out. Ariette stopped mid attack, still flaming.

"Albel!" Fayt shouted. Albel looked weak and he was bleeding from the mouth and various other places. He breathed heavily.

"Stop…this fighting! He's…*cough cough* your brother!…It's those maggots…behind you…who…need killing," Albel wheezed. He fell down a little, holding onto his once forgotten sword for support. He breathed some more and fell to the floor. Ariette looked at him and floated towards him. The flames died and she stared gloomily down at him. Her wings disappeared in an array of red feathers and she fell to the floor on top of the motionless Albel. Claude ran towards her, but a blinding white light stopped him and when it subsided, he saw them both gone. He looked around and saw them behind Rena. Rena tried to heal them, but Dias stopped her.

"Don't strain your child," he said. She nodded glumly.

"Ha ha ha, I see that man does not know the meaning of death. How noble. Well, then, shall we cut to the chase?" Luther asked. Indaelcio nodded. Maria loaded her gun and stepped forward, only to be grabbed from behind and into the shadows.

Indaelcio and the others charged forward. The fighters went to meet them, while Leon and the Spell Casters stayed back to chant spells. Claude and Ashton went at Indaelcio, chopping and slicing and getting pushed backwards a lot. Precis threw a fuming Bobot at Jibril, who struggled to get the tiny robot off of himself. Roger and Peppita held hands and spun around with each other creating a whirlwind and flew towards Nicolus, who was bowled down to the floor. A tremor could be heard.

"Oh, it's hot! Burn baby burn!" Decus wailed, coming down on Dias and Mirage, who quickly moved out of the way and swooped in to attack Decus while he was recovering from his attack. Balls of energy could be seen hurling towards Berle, who used Meta-guard and was left unharmed. Fayt and Cliff were busy keeping Luther busy. Nel attacked Vesper and Ernest countered Ruprecht. Chisato evoked her martial arts against Marsillo and Bowman used his poisonous moves on Shigeo, who dodged and parried the attacks.

Maria made a stifled noise, as someone had their hand over her mouth and she could not move from the arm that was hooked around her waist. The person released her and she spun around to meet electric blue eyes.

"You!" Maria said angrily. He smiled.

"Yes, me. Enough talk. Here," Cyril said, as he raised his hand, which hand a sparkly ball of light dancing around on his palm. Maria backed up.

"Get away from me! You're one of them," she said. He smiled.

"Yes. However. Take this," Cyril said. She started to run, but he grabbed her wrist and turned her back towards him. He raised the sparkly ball of light again and it enveloped around her. She blinked and stared at her hands.

"What is this?" Maria asked.

"Power. Now you can use your boosting abilities affectively against these guys. Useful, no?" Cyril smiled. Maria looked at him with a strange look.

"Why are you doing this? Are you using me?" Maria asked. Cyril nodded.

"Correct. I can't rebel against them, otherwise I will be obliterated. But you, on the other hand, have unbelievable power. All of you do. So if I just helped you from the sidelines…then maybe…And I can't use my mind games against them…they will know," Cyril sighed. Maria still looked confused.

"But…why?" Maria asked. Cyril sighed.

"I never wanted to do what they do, I just tagged along. Plus, it allowed me to bring back the planets which were felled in their wake," Cyril explained. Maria nodded in acknowledgement and stood ready to battle.

"I will ask one more thing of you, and that is to fight me, lest they get suspicious that I am not trying to help them," Cyril said. Maria nodded and ran away from him. He sent balls of light at her, which she easily dodged. She saw everyone fighting their hardest and most of them having no luck at all.

"ANGEL FEATHER!" Maria shouted. A bright light erupted and an angel appeared, dropping feathers on all her comrades. Cyril came up behind her and she dodged, and they began to punch and block each other's attacks. Rena, Aniki, Juro and Ryo watched, as battles were going this way and that. Aniki, Juro and Ryo were staying on the sidelines and regenerating magic power for the Heraldy users. The battle was looking grim and at that moment a red blur flew through the middle of everyone.

"FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX!" Two voices shouted, as they saw the forms of Ariette and Albel linked arm in arm and spinning around in flames. The Ten Wise Men and Luther were stuck in their places, and everyone else moved out of the way. Maria managed to pull Cyril out of the way without anyone noticing. A flaming flare of reds, yellows and oranges flew in the middle and span this way and that, engulfing the bad guys in burning hot flames. The chakrams flew around, hitting them numerous times. They could see a katana coming out to lash out at them as well and it too was covered in flames. The flames eventually died down and the Phoenix blurred back to the back of the room, settling down to show Albel and Ariette unconscious again. Marsillo and Shigeo crumpled and fell to the floor in a burning heap, dead. Ruprecht, Jibril, Nicolus and Berle stood gasping, hardly holding onto anything.

Opera, Precis, Ernest, Peppita and Roger ran towards them in a heated rage and began to finish them off. Leon was deep in chant.

"GREMLIN LAIR!" Leon shouted. Gremlins ran towards the weak ones and scratched at them. Berle was the first to fall in a dead heap. Opera turned on Ruprecht and together with Ernest, they finished him off.

"FLYING TORPEDO!"

"FAERIE FRIEND!" Roger and Peppita shouted. The Faerie attacked Nicolus and Roger went head butting into him at the same time. This brought Nicolus down. Roger and Peppita hugged each other in celebration. Precis made Bobot grow and used his Super Beam to defeat Jibril. Indaelcio laughed.

"You may have defeated them…but don't get cocky. They were weak and foolish," he laughed, along with the others. Nel ran towards Vesper.

"ICE DAGGERS!" She shouted, sending daggers of ice towards Vesper, who dodged out of the way and swiftly teleported in front of her and kicked her out of the way.

"MIND BLAST!" He shouted. This weakened Nel and she covered her head as he went to swoop down and attack. Noel ran and pushed her out of the way, getting himself knocked flying by Vesper's attack. He got back up and braced himself, holding his hands up in a battle stance. Cliff ran and pulled him out of the way and Vesper hit the ground.

"Don't take stupid chances like that! You're a mage, not a fighter," Cliff said. Noel nodded, bowed and ran to the back. Nel was lying unconscious to the side. Cliff, Mirage and Dias ran towards Decus.

"ELECTRIC FISTS!" Cliff and Mirage shouted.

"CHAOS SWORD!" Dias shouted. Dias' attack knocked Decus off balance and Mirage and Cliff pounded him with a large array of electricity. He was sent backwards into a wall. Cliff ran towards Luther once more and he and Fayt engaged in battle once again.

"DIMENSION DOOR!" Fayt shouted, as he disappeared and reappeared behind Luther, attacking him from behind. Maria ran towards Decus and kicked him. She used a spell to weaken his attack and defence power. Sophia and Celine were chanting a spell.

"EXPLOSION!" They both shouted. An almighty explosion of flames and smoke burned the enemies. Decus and Vesper were left weak. Everyone but Claude, Ashton, Cliff and Fayt ran towards Decus and Vesper, effectively surrounding them and defeating them in numerous blows. Indaelcio and Luther were left standing. They laughed.

"Well, that just leaves three of us. Cyril, distract them for a small while," Indaelcio laughed. Cyril smiled and nodded. But no one charged at him, as he expected, as they went for Indaelcio and Luther. Cyril stopped them, sticking their feet to the floor.

"Come, Filia. It is time for you to help out," Indaelcio called out. A ghostly figure appeared above him and they fused together. Indaelcio chanted his ultimate move and a large wave of darkness, mixed with claws of red and blue came at Claude and the gang. It engulfed them and Indaelcio and Luther laughed. The darkness subsided and Claude and the gang were unharmed. This wiped the smirks off of Luther and Indaelcio's faces.

"What? That is impossible!" Indaelcio screamed. They went to launch themselves at Claude and the rest, but they were stuck in their tracks. Moments later, they were clutching their heads, screaming. Claude took it upon himself to attack. But a red blur flew right past him. Albel and Ariette were once again ready to attack and they had placed themselves in a half triangle.

"Claude! Complete the triangle," Ariette screamed. Claude nodded and did as he was asked. All three held their hands out in a V shape, making them look even more like a triangle. They started chanting. A circular rune appeared beneath their feet, around their triangle. Four smaller circles were spread along the edges, half inside and half outside the circle. Ancient writing was scrawled all around the edges of the circle and numerous symbols were inside the circle.

Wind spiralled around their ankles and the rune's lines were glowing blue. Their hair flew as if in a breeze and a purple glow was being emitted by them. In the meantime, Cliff and the others turned to look at the other enemy, who was deep in concentration. They went for the white clad man and he ducked. Indaelcio could move again and went for the white clad traitor. He sent a beam of light towards him and Cyril covered his head with his arms. Something blocked him from getting hit, as he saw Maria fall to the floor in a clump. He ran to her and picked her up. She coughed and smiled up to him. Fayt and Cliff gasped.

"Heh. Now we're even," Maria said.

"Maria! What did you do that for?" Cliff shouted, before turning to block the red head from attacking him.

"Cyril, you betrayed us! You were never on our side, were you?" Indaelcio spat, angrily. Cyril shook his head.

"I never liked what you guys were doing. So why should I kill innocent people?" Cyril asked. Fayt and Cliff proceeded to attack the enraged Indaelcio. Cyril looked down at Maria sadly.

"Why did you put your life in danger? I am of no importance, I have lived a woeful life, never endingly boring. You, on the other hand, have a whole life ahead of you," Cyril said. Maria laughed.

"Haha, I'm not going to die just by one hit. I shielded myself beforehand. I was just knocked off my feet," Maria said. Cyril nodded and pulled her up. They began to attack the two enraged villains until they heard a load shriek of the triangular attack being executed.

"CREST OF THE STAR OCEAN!" Claude, Ariette and Albel cried. Wind swirled around them and glittery stars flew all around. A long dragon of stars and flames captured the room and circled it. Blue lit up the room and the dragon flew for Indaelcio and Luther, capturing them in a shift of stardust and flames. They were engulfed in a bubble and were extinguished painfully from existence. The ancient rune slowly faded and Ariette and Albel fell to the floor. Ariette was half conscious and crawled over to Albel, checking his neck for a pulse. She sighed in relief as she found one. Claude ran over to her and embraced her.

"I thought I had lost you!" Claude moaned. She returned the embrace.

"I'm sorry. Everything had just built up. I think they were putting those thoughts in my head. I'm so sorry. I'm fine now, Claudio," Ariette said.

"Yes, you are!" Claude laughed and they laughed together. Claude helped her up and stood there looking at their allies. Claude frowned at Cyril and got his sword out.

Cyril raised his hands and Maria stood in front of him.

"He's on our side now," Maria said and she and Cyril explained everything, to which everyone understood and accepted.

Author's note: Yes, it may be silly that I've made Cyril into a good guy, but I wrote this years ago and for some reason decided to have a random turn of events. If I changed this, it would mean rewriting a lot of the chapter and I was kinda happy with what had happened.

Oh and if you didn't realise, the triangular attack, the Crest of the Star Ocean, was the big circular thing on the front of the Star Ocean: Second Story (PS1) case. If that explanation made sense. o.O

Hope you enjoyed it. More to come.