Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time Fan Fiction ❯ Yaoi Ocean 3 ❯ Chapter Seventeen: Green Mile ( Chapter 17 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Chapter Seventeen

Green Mile

The dry heat in Mosel seemed worse than before somehow. Of course, this was all in their minds, but it still felt unbearable.

“I prefer Airyglyph,” Fayt muttered. “I can always make myself warmer.” He glanced at the sun. “But what can you do about this heat?”

To make matters worse, they were attacked by a monster before they even got to the dangerous part. All the running around from the battle just made things worse. Sophia wasn't taking it well. She looked so hot and tired already. Nel tugged at her scarf, sweat beading on her forehead. Maria swiped her brow, considering taking off her gloves. Cliff wanted some sun screen. Adray was wishing he had a shirt to shield his skin from sunburn. Albel looked like he was dying. Mirage was likely the best fitted for it—wearing shorts and with her hair tied back and such. Even still, she looked pretty miserable too. Fayt knew he was miserable. He glanced at the others. Yep, miserable.

They marched onwards. It didn't take long before Sophia had a heatstroke. She stumbled and fell to the ground. Fayt leaped to her side automatically. He opened his water bottle and splashed some water on her face, holding it to her lips. She drank greedily and opened her eyes. “It's so hot…”

“C'mon, Sophia. You can make it.” He helped her to her feet and after a bit, she was more steady. Fayt walked beside her in case she fell again.

Albel was definitely not holding up well. He was used to bitter cold, and had little experience with sweating from heat outside of sex or exercise. It was sort of ironic, because in the dead of a Glyphian winter, as a child, hadn't he longed for this kind of warmth? Ha! The irony didn't help though; it was unbearable. He'd rather roll around naked in the snow. He was hydrated from the cloak Fayt had found on his first trip here, but it did nothing for the sweltering heat.

About halfway through the desert, Albel fainted. He hit the sand and rolled, completely unconscious. His body, so used to cold weather, simply had no tolerance for the heat of a desert. His armor certainly didn't help the matter.

“Albel!” Fayt cried, abandoning his post at Sophia's side to run to his unconscious lover. Cliff hesitated, then rushed over to him too. His body just moved automatically, even though he knew he shouldn't go to him. He touched Albel's forehead, remembering the last time he had fainted. Definitely over-heated. His arm brushed Albel's armor. It was burning. He could fry an egg on it.

“It's his armor,” he said. “The heat from it probably made him faint.”

Fayt dribbled some water on Albel's face, hoping to revive him. His eyes snapped open, then he looked at Cliff, noticing he was in his arms again. “Why do I keep waking up in your arms after I faint?” he muttered darkly.

Cliff laughed good-naturedly. “Why do you keep fainting?”

“It's hot,” he pointed out. “I'm… not used to this.” His eyes fluttered again as his body threatened to fall into unconsciousness. Fayt splashed more cool water on his face. It was reviving, but could only do so much.

“Let's get your armor off you. You'll feel better,” Fayt pointed out. “The metal is heating up and that's probably what made you faint.”

Albel hesitated and sat up. He climbed out of the special sanctity of Cliff's arms. He hesitated again and started yanking off his armor, which went directly into the mysterious item menu. He pulled up the glove self-consciously. Sophia, ever a typical girl, quickly noticed that his gloves were mismatched, as one covered his fingers and the other was fingerless. She didn't comment, however, and only noted this.

“I feel naked,” Albel complained.

Cliff almost commented, then restrained himself. They weren't alone, after all.

“But I'll bet your arm isn't burning anymore,” Fayt said.

“I couldn't feel it anyway,” he muttered darkly.

“Oh, because of the glove?”

“No.”

Fayt looked puzzled. Cliff leaned down toward his ear and explained it to spare Albel the trouble. “You remember his arm is burned? Probably shot all the nerves in it so he can't feel anything with that arm,” he whispered. And a good thing—or he would have been in terrible pain from the heated-up armor.

“Oh.” Fayt suddenly felt embarrassed for asking. “Sophia!” Fayt called, an idea springing to mind. “How about you keep casting `Deep Freeze' to cool us off.”

“But won't that hurt everyone?” she wondered, confused at this idea.

Cliff glanced at the burdening sun. “No. It'll probably just feel good at this point. It's `Inferno' that would be the end of all of us.”

A bit hesitantly, Sophia tried it. Everyone eyed the ice the way a hungry man eyes a roast duck. Albel was the first one to cast all dignity aside and jump on the ice. It was amazingly reviving, and the air around it must have been 20 degrees (on the Fahrenheit scale anyway) cooler. Fayt followed him headlong. Sophia was the next one and then everyone else ran into the ice. It didn't last long, and Sophia cast it again immediately and in this fashion, they slowly made it through the desert without melting, in a metaphoric sense as people usually don't melt.

When they arrived at the Ruins, everyone was grateful to be out of the sun. They allowed for a few minutes to relax and recover from the journey, then they headed farther in. They found the room they needed in a sealed area that they used the Ring of Disintegration to get to. Down the stairs, they found an area with an altar.

“Is this the gate?” Fayt wondered, looking around. But it must be. It certainly looked like it at any rate, and the general conclusion was to give it a try. After Sophia placed the Orb on the altar and used her power on it, a part of the wall slid away to reveal a large screen behind it.

The group felt a little apprehensive. Somewhere beyond that gate, was Luther. The end was nigh, and the tension ran thick and heavy in the air. Fayt touched Cliff's arm, like he had before so many times when he needed reassurance. Cliff looked at him, his face softening a little.

They gathered their courage and walked through the gate. Blair appeared on the scene. She informed them of the long journey they would have through Firewall, and that she would accompany them.

Maria and Nel glanced at each other. They let the rest of the party pass them. “We need to act quickly. We may not have too much more time,” Maria whispered.

Nel nodded. “We need to give Cliff a push. It's Mirage that's holding him back, right?”

Maria nodded. “He… has a `thing' for Mirage.” This is evident in the hot spring incident earlier in the day.

Nel considered this. “Right.” She thought seriously about this problem. “What if Mirage talked to him?”

The Earthling girl pondered this idea. It could work, but it all hinged on Mirage's feelings about Cliff being with Fayt and Albel. “I'll talk to her,” she decided.

Maria strode up to Mirage, not daring to waste any time. “Can I talk to you?” she asked her quietly.

“Yes, certainly,” Mirage answered. They slowed so they could walk a fair distance behind everyone else. “What's on your mind, Maria?”

Maria took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You know that Fayt and Albel are together.”

“Yes. What of it?”

“What do you think about it?” she asked.

Mirage considered. “I don't care.” She shrugged. “If they're happy, then I see no reason to care.”

Maria looked up at Mirage seriously. “What if they both wanted Cliff too?”

Mirage started to laugh, because she thought that Maria was joking or asking this hypothetically, but then she saw the serious expression on her face. Mirage frowned and thought about it for a moment or two. She looked back at Maria. “Cliff and I are close, but it's never been quite like that. I'm attached to him… I suppose. But I don't think we'll ever really be `together.' I'd be happy to see him find someone else. I don't care if it's a man or woman, so long as he's happy.”

This brought other questions to Maria's mind. She debated on asking about them later, then decided against it. “Were you together before?” she asked off-handedly.

Mirage chuckled. “Sort of. Things just didn't work out, y'know?” But then she looked at Maria again. “No, I suppose you don't know.”

Maria smiled. “I'm only 16. I have the rest of my life to find out.”

“That's right. Was that all?”

The Earthling shook her head. “Cliff, Albel, and Fayt, at one point, were actually all together… like Albel and Fayt are now.”
Mirage frowned, but said nothing for now.

“Something happened between them,” Maria continued. She gauged Mirage's reactions. Still nothing, just silent pondering. “And now they're apart. Fayt and Albel are trying to be with Cliff again, but we're pretty sure that he's stuck on you.”

Mirage quickly saw where this was going. “You want me to talk to him?”

Maria looked anxious. “Could you?”

She made a face. “So you can be fangirl-ish about it?”

The leader of Quark scowled. “No. I'd like to see Cliff happy too, and I think he was with Fayt and Albel.”

Mirage considered. “I'll think about it.”

They caught back up to the others.

Firewall was a horrible, confusing, brain-splitting maze. There were parts of the maze that they had to traverse individually because of the narrow passage and the things rolling around on the maze that sent them back to the beginning of the area, staying in touch with their communicators. The ones who didn't have them were paired with someone who did. Fayt and Albel ran across together and acted as scouts, then Sophia and Nel, and the last group of two was Maria and Adray. Mirage and Cliff were the last two, by design. Blair could just as easily program herself to walk through air, so this was not an issue for her.

Mirage glanced at Cliff. Now was as good a time as any. And she did want to see him happy. If she was standing between him and something he wanted, even if she didn't mean to, she wanted to amend that. “Cliff,” she said.

“Yeah?” he asked, watching Maria round a corner, following the path the others had taken.

Mirage wondered if she should ease in to the matter or just spit it out. It was easier to just to say it. Besides, Cliff would get suspicious if she beat around the bush; he knew her too well. “If I'm ever between you and something you want, don't let me stand in your way,” she said. She smiled at the stunned look on his face. “It's okay to be with them. I'll always be your friend, Cliff, and I'd never think differently about you.” She glanced ahead. “It's time to get going.”

Cliff stared at her, too shocked for words. He shook his head and followed her. So. His one problem with the whole setup, vanished, in so many words. Had Maria put Mirage up to this? Because it couldn't have been anyone else. But ultimately it had been Mirage who had said it. Mirage wouldn't say something like that just because Maria asked her to. It might convince her to say it aloud, but she wasn't the type to say something just to satisfy another. No, Mirage really felt that way.

He felt like a great burden had been lifted from his shoulders. There were no more problems with their relationship. Everyone was perfectly accepting. Why had he ever thought they wouldn't be?

When the Klausians rejoined the rest of the group of assorted Earthlings and Elicoorians, they started off again. Cliff pulled Fayt back and tapped Albel on the shoulder. He looked down at the two and said, quietly, “You're right; I'm sorry I took so long.”

Albel grinned. Fayt smiled. “Then we're together again?” the Earthling asked.

“Yeah.”

Fayt threw his arms around Cliff. Cliff lifted him off of his feet and kissed him, then set him back down. Fayt stepped away, a relieved and satisfied look in his eyes. “Now we need to think about what we'll do after we beat Luther.”

“All in good time,” Cliff assured him. “Let's get goin'.” They caught up to the others. Nel and Maria looked immensely pleased, but they would be; a lot of it had been their handiwork. Fayt made a mental note to do something to thank them later.

After the boss fight at the end of the maze, everyone was tired and hungry. Blair seemed discouraged.

“Hold on a moment,” she said. Her image flickered briefly. “How's that?”

Blair had apparently done something to slightly alter them and now everyone was energized as if they had been just slept for eight hours, and just as full as if they had just had breakfast. While this was convenient, it was slightly discouraging, all things considered. It was like reminding them that they were nothing but programs to begin with. Blair wasn't trying to do such a thing, but that's what it did.

This feeling was cut off from the core of their thoughts and suppressed in an unhealthy manner as they trudged through the next area. Just as they entered, though, Blair yelped in surprise and disappeared. Sophia happened to turn in time to see it. Sophia called attention to the matter and they debated on what to do. Considering that it wasn't the real Blair and only a projection, they decided that it couldn't be too life-threatening to her, so they continued on.

After a bit of running around, they came across a sort of “Pseudo Blair” and had to fight her. “Not much use in a fight” indeed; she was a difficult battle, and Sophia had to cast Fairy's Light twice at the end so that everyone was healthy again. The imitation died laughing, literally. Apparently, “Blair” had done something to the teleporter device and they couldn't use it, so they continued on past it.

They wandered around a bit looking for another way to continue, but instead came across Blair—what they hoped was the real Blair anyway—floating in some kind of containment field with three coloured crystals around her.

Apparently, this was the real Blair, but she was trapped inside. They discussed what to do briefly. Blair seemed to think the crystals were involved somehow, so perhaps they needed to find similar crystals. Maria tried shooting one of the crystals around Blair, but nothing happened. Cliff tapped one—or attempted it anyway. His finger slipped right over it. Well, trying to break these crystals was useless. There were a couple different ways to go from here.

“Should we split up?” Nel wondered. “We'll cover more ground that way.”

They split in to groups, and each group went down a different way. There was one group of two, and that was Sophia and Adray, who went back the way they had come, looking for a crystal. The second group was Maria, Mirage, and Nel. By elimination, the third group shouldn't be too difficult to figure out without needing to point it out.

Fayt, Albel, and Cliff came across one of the crystals indeed, but it was guarded by Chimera Hawks. The battle was more frustrating than really difficult though. Cliff contacted Mirage using his communicator.

“You find anything yet?” he asked.

“No. But we haven't reach the end yet,” she answered.

“Right. We'll be waiting.”

“Roger.”

Fayt decided to try Sophia. “Sophia, you find anything?”
“No. We're still looking.”

“Okay. Well, call if you have problems, all right? We'll be waiting with Blair.”

“Okay.”

Albel scowled. “Who said we'd be waiting with Blair?” he demanded.

Fayt blinked. “What?”

The Klausian smiled. “Seems like we've got some time. I doubt we have enough for sex, but let's do something.”

Fayt froze. He had missed Cliff. He certainly wanted some time with him. “But what exactly?”

Albel chuckled softly at Fayt's stubborn innocence. But he wouldn't like him as much if he wasn't so innocent. Things just wouldn't be as much fun that way, if, say, Fayt got as perverted as Cliff or Albel. Still, it would be nice if he could catch on from time to time.

“Just do what we do,” Cliff said seductively, leaning down toward Fayt.

Fayt pondered this momentarily, and then let his mind sink into the dark, murky depths of perversion. For Fayt, it was like attaching lead weights to a helium balloon, but he could still get “down” to their level if he tried hard enough. No sex… Then… He wrapped his arms around Cliff and kissed him, rolling his tongue over the other's lips, over his teeth. Tongues met, pushing against each other. He felt Albel nibble on the back of his neck, and his right hand slid down along his abdomen. Unzip, unbutton, and… He gasped in surprise when he felt the gloved hand encircle him. Cliff, continuing to lean over as he kissed Fayt, let his hands move over to Albel, encircling his waist, feeling his well-toned chest and stomach. Albel took his wrist gently in his gauntlet, guiding his hand toward his thighs, along the slit in his skirt. Cliff gripped the firm muscle appreciatively. He ran his fingertips up his thigh, momentarily surprised to find cloth there. Curiously, his hand followed the stretched fabric, finding that it was on a string on the side—no surprise there. He followed it to the back, then smiled against Fayt's mouth.

He turned his head, kissing Fayt's neck briefly. “Sorry, I have to see this.” He gently pushed Fayt aside. Fayt just immediately latched to Cliff again, kissing his neck, his arms, his chest as he tugged at his shirt. He wanted more of him, but knew he shouldn't, knew they shouldn't. They didn't have so much time as they would have wished. Albel smiled coyly at Cliff. Cliff shoved the skirt to the side, front and back. He gawked for several seconds, then looked Albel in the eyes. “I approve.”

“I can see that.”

Cliff laughed, and kissed him. Cliff lifted Albel by his waist, raising him up higher, like he had before. Because of a precise angling of Albel's legs, the skirt fell awkwardly to the side, completely exposing him in the front. With his teeth, Cliff gently pulled the purple thong down to his knees. He paused, then teased him with his tongue. He felt Albel's fingers curl into the back of his shirt. He gasped. Fayt was growing impatient. He unzipped and unbuttoned Cliff's pants. Cliff moaned at what Fayt was doing with his own mouth. He had to set Albel down, before he ended up dropping him. But Fayt was in the way…

Cliff ran his tongue along the length of him, then pulled Albel away. Carefully, he set him down beside him rather then in front of him. Albel looked at Fayt, then moved him over. He glanced at Cliff, then joined Fayt. Cliff's world suddenly plunged into a world of ecstasy. Fayt was skilled with his tongue and hands, and Albel could deep-throat, and both of them used their talents as best they could in conjunction with the other.

Albel decided that Fayt had been ignored long enough. With his right hand, he once again gripped Fayt and tried to keep a steady rhythm with his mouth and hand, lest he lose the ability to multi-task. Fayt reached toward Albel, toying with the head of the Elicoorian's lathered appendage.

Who climaxed first shouldn't be too difficult to guess; Cliff was getting the most attention. Albel didn't have to swallow so much as just let it run down his throat. He swallowed some of his spit, cleared his throat, and smiled up at Cliff. The blonde leaned down and kissed him, then turned and kissed Fayt. He shoved Albel and Fayt on to their backs, wormed one hand between each of their legs, and inside them, as they continued stroking each other.

It was unbelievably attractive, and Cliff thought he might get another erection from it. If that happened, they'd be here all day. Not a bad idea, but not a very punctual one either, and time is of the essence, after all.

Cliff saw Albel about to reach his limit. He leaned down, covering the head with his mouth. Occasionally, Fayt's fingers brushed his lips. Albel thrust into his mouth twice, and a few more times as he came. Cliff swallowed the bitter tasting stuff, making a face. Both of them turned their attention completely to Fayt. Albel, who apparently liked giving head, pulled Fayt in to his mouth with his teeth. Cliff observed that Albel's cute purple thong was still around his knees. He licked his lips, then glanced back at Fayt. He shoved another finger inside him, twisting his wrist.

Fayt gasped, panting. His back arched, and he wailed. It caught Albel a little by surprise. A dribble of white semen ran from his lips. Cliff leaned forward and licked it off of Albel's chin, not missing an opportunity to kiss him as well. He pulled his fingers out of Fayt and found some moist napkins in the “item menu” to clean his fingers off. Thirsty, they delved once more in to the item menu for a bottle of cider that they shared after adjusting their clothing.

Cliff leaned forward and whispered in Albel's ear, “We're doing a fetish sometime.”

Mirage called Cliff, demanding to know where the hell he was. Albel leaned forward toward the communicator. “We got distracted,” he said.

A pause at the other end, then a brief scuffle. Maria had apparently relieved Mirage of her communicator. “Give me details!” she insisted.

Cliff hung up. Fayt blushed. “Shall we go?” he asked shyly. Fayt led the way back to Blair.

Sophia waved to him, then giggled. “I thought you said you'd be waiting here?” she teased.

Fayt's face flushed as red as Albel's eyes. He hid behind Cliff. Maria and Nel looked anxiously at them, in an excited manner. “Fill us in on the details,” the Earthling said again.

Cliff scowled at her. “Mind your own business.”

Blair was released from confinement, and they spoke briefly, then moved back to the teleporter area. Blair fixed it and they continued on their long journey to the Owner.

The path was long, arduous, confusing, and involved a lot of twists, turns, puzzles, and backtracking. Fayt demanded pain medication for his headache after the third coloured crystal puzzle. Blair paused a moment, fixed some parameters, and his headache disappeared.

“Guess it was a good thing we got this ring,” Fayt commented to anyone who cared to listen, looking at the Ring of Disintegration. “We'd be stuck without it.”

“Seems like everything has worked out for us so far,” Sophia agreed hopefully.

Maria, ever suspicious of everything, was skeptical. “It seems convenient to me.”

Nothing more was said of the matter. Rather than stopping for meals, Blair just messed with their parameters any time someone got hungry or tired. In this manner, they eventually reached the last place. They looked at the large doors to the room ahead, feeling a deep sense of doom permeating the air.

They looked at each other—perhaps for the last time. They all thought about their lives, their hopes, their dreams, what they wanted. This was it. It all ends here—for better or worse. They would either save their galaxy, or everyone and everything would die. Not that they would notice, because they would be dead too.

Fayt touched Albel's arm for reassurance. Albel looked down at him and kissed his temple in warm reassurance. Fayt's fingers found Cliff's wrist. The blonde tousled Fayt's hair affectionately. Fayt smiled a little. Why even worry? Cliff always took care of him, and Albel did too.

Albel felt a little apprehensive actually. It wasn't a feeling he was used to, and he didn't like it at all. Usually, he was confident and self-assured. However… He felt the full weight of responsibility. If he should fall, it wasn't only his own problem; it was everyone else's problem too, and possibly their doom. But even still, they had come this far, and this “Luther” was only one man. Besides, he had Fayt and Cliff with him. He knew he could pull through.

Cliff's over-confidence was even dimmed. This guy was the head-honcho, the Creator of the Eternal Sphere, their world. It was a little intimidating to meet a guy like that, even on the best of terms. Now, they had to try to convince him to stop what he was doing. If they failed… No, of course they wouldn't fail. He couldn't fail. If he failed, then there would be no more of anything—and no more Fayt, or Albel. No, he couldn't—wouldn't—let that happen. Not after all this.

The others all had their own fears, and private thoughts, and things to live for, and reasons why they must persevere, and reasons why they would, and had to. Courage gathered, they made their way down the hall to the doors.

For some reason, it felt a lot like walking quietly down the Green Mile.