Star Ocean (All Series) Fan Fiction ❯ Far From a Fairytale ❯ Pieces of Broken Ember ( Chapter 12 )

Chapter Eleven: Pieces of Broken Ember

 

A/N: Hello there everyone! It's been so long since I last updated, but I've just been so busy with starting work, replaying Kingdom Hearts II, and multiple other little things. Anyway, I hope that you find this chapter to be okay, and I just want to give out the standard thanks to all of my reviewers, now, onto the story. : )

 

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Two flashes of white-blond hair flashed through the doorway of Albel and Sophia's bedroom. The person to whom the said head of hair belonged to was none other than Peppita. Her hair was done up in two tight pigtails. At first she flung herself into the room, yet, she noticed how they were both still asleep, thus, she ended up tip-toeing into the bedroom. The younger girl leaned her bright face closely to the two but kept her distance so that they were not awoken by her close proximity.

 

She gasped at the sight of them both asleep. Albel's good hand was tangled with Sophia's and their hair mingled together, long strands of dark and light. Her eyes never forgot the scene as Albel, with his handicapped arm, wrapped the said arm around Sophia's waist and pulled her closer nor did she let her memory slip up on the fact that Sophia cuddled deeper into his clad chest. The child's eyes sparkled and a gigantic smile lit up her entire face.

 

Peppita was unable to help the reaction-it was just too cute!

 

Along with the reaction came a conclusion as well:

 

She didn't want to go home.

 

After all, at home she only had the troupe. While she loved them dearly…they could never be what she wanted. They could never be like the family she had in this era. Here she had one person who worried about her and another who protected her. She was so lonely back home. She wanted to stay here, in this place, where (or was it when?) she was able to just have a family…

 

The sunlight poured into the room and highlighted both faces-one male and one female-yet, they were both so peaceful, more so than any other time Peppita could recall. Thus, she quietly called out their names and shook them only so, for, she wanted them to wake up; nevertheless, she didn't want to shatter the peace that lay over both their faces. And it was because of that reason that Sophia awoke with still glazed over eyes. Not quite sure of where, when, who, or what-just that she was now awake. Yet, that soon changed.

 

Her large orbs brightened with consciousness and her body flung forward. “Peppita…! Wait, Peppita, what are you doing up? More importantly, what time is it!” Her arms were untangled from Albel's by this point and her hair sat messily upon the top of her head. Sophia was so disoriented and surprised that she ended up on the floor with a rather large gasp.

 

By that moment and time Albel was awake and Peppita torn her childish eyes away from Sophia to chance a look at him. And when their eyes met, Peppita came to the resolution that, while his silted orbs were still the color of red, they no longer reminded her of blood.

 

Thus, they had both caught Sophia's rather…less than elegant …display. Peppita let out a burst of laughter while Albel let out a chuckle. “Don't worry about getting Peppita off to school or you going to work. Today, we have to start thinking about getting home instead.”

 

Both females (one from the hard floor and the other from the comfy bed) caught Albel's eyes. “What are you talking about, Albel? We are home.” Yet, Albel was able to easily tell (with one swift look) that Sophia didn't even believe what she said, but he could also feel the want for it to be true as well.

 

“I agree with Sophia, Albel, I like it so much better here…I don't want to go `home'.” Peppita's usually cherry voice was, instead, rather dark and upset. Though there was no hint of surprise in it about Albel's ability to speak, after all, Peppita had suspected his was able to comprehend the words around him for a while now. “Why can't we just stay here?”

 

Peppita kept her light green orbs on Albel's figure. Documented how he reacted to Sophia's words and to her own. And then, she noted that Albel wasn't guarded anymore. She couldn't help but wonder just what had happened last night. Nevertheless, the muse had no point to the spoken conversation at hand.

 

“Why don't the two of you want to go back? Don't you want to go home?” His voice held only the slightest sense of confusion and his contradictive hair shadowed his windows to the soul like shades.

 

Two shades of green, one so pale it almost seemed colorless and the other so dark the depths were unable to be plotted, met. The same thought in their heads, “What's waiting for you at home? What do you have there that you need it so desperately?

 

Sophia got up from the floor, dusted off her pajama top, and then let her body fall onto the unmade bed. “What do you have back on Elicoor II that you don't have here?” Her voice was extremely soft. It seemed almost non-existent. Albel sat upon the bed, his back to her, and thus, she placed her back against his. She didn't want to see his face; she wanted to believe she would be able to hear his truthful answer. She wanted to hear that voice that had been absent from her life for two whole weeks; wanted to understand that the icy tone of it may have disappeared. After all, when she looked at Albel, she knew it was him, but since he started to speak the native language, it just didn't sound like Albel anymore.

 

With this answer to her question…Sophia wanted to hear Albel again.

 

That dry ice tone that was so hard one could touch was mixed in with the answer she received. She heard what she needed to hear, “What don't you have here-that you have at home? Don't you miss that blue haired maggot, Fayt?”

 

Their backs were turned, neither could see the expression of the other, yet, Peppita could. Saw the hidden pain on Albel's face when Sophia made no immediate response and she saw the easily readable shocked expression on the older females face. A kind of shock that said she had locked the thought of Fayt far away in her mind. Despite all of this Sophia finally spoke in return. Her answer was what neither one expected from her. “Everyone told me that Fayt was so worried about me in the beginning of that epic journey of ours. That when I was missing, he could only think of me and where I was, that he could only worry for my safety…So, how come….” Her voice began to break and her words started to sound choked. Thus, when she paused she quickly moved her back away from Albel's, only to turn around and hug him from behind. Her arms clung to his clad backside, which soon became his front (for Albel had turned around at the sense of her touch); arms now firmly wrapped around her. Her next words were buried, for she said them into his chest, “H-How c-could I, n-n-no, why-why would I w-want to-to go b-b-back there; to a p-place where no c-c-cares?”

 

By then, Albel could feel her cold tears, felt as they soaked through his shirt. As they wrote out an unspoken and captured torment that Sophia had kept to herself for so long. Each salty droplet of water dissolved into his flesh, became apart of his blood, and circulated through his heart. The future, their home, only brought her pain, just like it did for him. So, did that mean that it only brought Peppita pain? If that was the case, then…

 

“I don't want to go back either.” Sophia hadn't moved at the statement from Peppita, but her cries had calmed down, which showed that she would listen to what the girl had to say; and Peppita could feel Albel's eyes on her, thus, she knew she had his attention as well.

 

She took a deep breath and then started her tale, “I can barely remember my mother, her face is so blurred, and I can't even say what she looked like. Don't remember the color of her eyes or whether her hair was curly or straight. I just remember the words that she spoke of-of my father. My father who had to leave us in order to protect us and the whole galaxy; he was, after all, a commodore. But, soon after, my mother became ill and she sent me to my uncle, my father was always in constant danger and so busy…she couldn't leave me with him…no matter how much she may have wanted to.”

 

Peppita took a small breath; her eyes were trained on the blankets and sheets that littered the bed. Unable to give or receive eye contact; almost like she didn't want Sophia and Albel to know that she hurt too, that they all weren't very different at all. It was like Peppita didn't want them to know that she was guarded too…that she hid away her true emotions too. Nevertheless, she continued:

 

“It was fun to be apart of the troupe, at first, but then, I longed for a true family. I wanted a mother and a father, not a bunch of brothers and sisters and friends. Yet, I stayed true and happy because I longed, also, for the attention. I love the troupe, I know that, but my resolve to have an actual family has only grown since last year…when I met my birth father.”

 

The emotion known as shock made the room grow ever the more silent. Neither adult had thought that Peppita had ever met her father, both had just presumed him to be dead, and that the tale her mother had told had just been a fabrication. “Are you sure that it was your father, Peppita?” Sophia leaned forward slightly, for, through the tale both Albel and Sophia had positioned themselves against the headboard, they sat right next to each other (hands intertwined without a pure thought process), and Peppita sat cross legged in front of them.

 

“I'm positive that it was my father. His skin was the same tone as mine and he had my matching earring on. One of the few things that I can remember my mother telling me about my father was that he was a brave commodore for the Federation and that he had given me an earring, before he left, to match his own. So, that way, he would never forget me and I wouldn't forget the thought of him out there somewhere…also, they served the purpose of us recognizing each other one day, if we were to ever meet that is.”

 

Sophia looked numb, as if she was unable to comprehend what Peppita spoke of, meanwhile, Albel just sat there and tried to keep his face guarded-he failed. The emotion he displayed was that of deep thought. “Your father, he was that man wasn't he, the one that ended up getting himself killed…protecting that space ship and us; the one who brought us to Styx.”

 

The blonde haired girl nodded her head to show the truth in his statement. “My father was Commodore Wittcomb. We knew who we were the moment we both saw each other, but neither one of us wanted to say anything. We didn't dare.”

 

It was with that spoken string of words that caused Sophia to spring tears in her eyes and leap forward as her arms wrapped themselves around the tiny teenager. “Oh, why didn't you want to say anything to each other? I'm sure both of you longed to speak to one another one day, so, why didn't you when you had the chance?”

 

Silent tears easily slipped down Peppita's rosy cheeks. “You silly girl, Sophia,” here Peppita's voice took on its normal cheerful sound, only to be replaced by a more melancholy one, “if we had been under different circumstances I would've begun to talk to my father right away. But, we were in the middle of something even bigger than a war; we were fighting for our survival against our own creator. We both didn't want to get to know each other because, well, look what happened-he died. I think it was better that I didn't get to know him…it hurt less when I found out he was dead.”

 

Peppita then proceeded to bury her face into Sophia's chest, the comfort of a mother was found in this simple display, as Sophia held her close. The older of the two could not help but think:

 

It hurt more than you thought it did.

 

(-)-(-)

 

Wine stained eyes were unable to leave the sight before them. The salty flow of tears that mingled together and told of one single story-no one to go home to-Albel could only wonder if his tears (were he to ever shed any) would tell the same. He knew that the tale would be the same. His family was no longer on Elicoor II. Both his parents had died before he had even reached the age of eighteen-he had been alone for so long-but now he didn't have to be. Now he had the chance; the chance for a family.

 

Would he take the chance given to him…?

 

Yes.

 

Effortlessly Albel wrapped his arms around the two. His handicapped arm only gave off the slightest bit of pain; he could deal with it-for them. He knew that water would have moistened his eyes, if his body remembered how, but it no longer did. He just let the other two cry in his arms. He let them cry for themselves, cry for each other, and shed tears for him-one who no longer could-for his insides would forever be frozen to such extreme amounts of emotion. Finally, the water stopped its flow and the two were calm enough for him to tell them his sorrowful story. Not the story of his father, for they both knew that, but instead, the story of his mother. This one no one knew the truth of except for him, and now Peppita and Sophia would know too.

 

Thus, he began to speak; he bluntly headed into his story. There was no slow introduction he just started to tell his tale, “In the history of both Airyglyph and Aquaria there has always been small rifts in our companionship; small disputes and disagreements which, of course, led to the war that has only just recently ended a year ago. My parents were the first to be used as a way to try and unite the two kingdoms. Their marriage was pre-arranged since they came of age. My mother was part of the Crimson Blade, she was told to quit her job as a spy, but she never did. Even after I was born she continued to work loyally to Aquaria as my father did for Airyglyph. Others were unsure of where her loyalties laid…she was murdered by those Aquarian scum. Those worms who were unable to place trust in one of their own. For that, I can show them respect for their fighting and symbological skills, but I can never befriend nor accept them, not after what they did to my mother.”

 

His eyes were trained to the ceiling, both females had stopped their tears long before, and both had made their way out of his embrace. “What did your mother look like?” Sophia had a pretty good idea of the physical features of his mother, for she could recall that conversation she tried to have with him back on Earth, right before they left for the museum, but she wanted to make sure. She wanted to find out if he would willingly tell her now, instead of harsh hisses of, “shut up”.

 

Albel gulped, it had been far too long since he thought of his mother, and the image of her was almost too blurred to recall (just like Peppita with her mother). Yet, he could and did recall the features of his mother. “She had long blond hair. I remember how it fell in golden ringlets and her eyes-they always looked like they were weeping.” He said no more on the matter, he didn't mention the color of his mother's eyes, nor did he mention the fact that her touch had always been so warm and her comfort had always overwhelmed him.

 

A pale hand reached out and captured his; it was Sophia's. They glanced at one another for a brief moment and Sophia found the answer to the question. In some roundabout way Albel had given to her the color of his mother's eyes. They were red. Such an odd combination his mother must have been, long and blond hair (a sign of noble, proper, and pure) with red colored eyes (a color always associated with evil). Yet, as Sophia caught Albel's eyes she could only hear his words replay themselves in her head:

 

…and her eyes-they always looked like they were weeping…

 

Albel's eyes were still dry as could be, not a single droplet in sight, but never before had she seen such eyes that wept.

 

(-)-(-)

 

She had opened the files from twenty-first century Earth. For, Blair found it her duty to check up on Albel, Sophia, and Peppita almost daily now, the fact that they had not arrived home yet worried her. And, as she found out on that day, what she feared would happen-had. The files that had belonged to the three had only been temporary files, ones that could be moved once the activation key was found AKA the book Beauty and the Beast. But, now, the files had become permanent. So, if they didn't find the book soon…

 

They would never return home.

 

What Blair didn't know though was that was the answer all three wanted to hear.

 

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A/N: Another chapter done! I hope you all enjoyed it and please tell me what you think about it in a review. Also, any and all credits will be given in the last chapter, or more specifically, epilogue (Chapter Sixteen). And, I'm happy to say, that I have this story completely planned out. Hopefully my next update won't take as long. Please review and take care! Ja ne. : D

 

-LilyGinnyBlack-