Title: Through Those Eyes

Author: Kemiya

Warnings: Language

Author's Notes: I hope you guys like this one, I know it's been a while and I guess I have no excuse but I started playing the game again and I got to thinking about my fic. I really wanna keep at this at a regular pace.. I enjoy writing and creating this when I have something to write about and create. I guess some ppl are mad at me now, seeing as I only got one review last chapter, but I don't blame you guys. Thanks to my one reviewer though, you're kewl. Lol.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in the game, so do I always have to write this? Izumi is mine. Yay me..

Chapter 9: Two Sided Questions

The Sun had rose, and so had its people. The streets were crowded as the women rushed to the different stores and the children ran the streets, one chasing after another. Even the mansion seemed alive, with everyone busy moving about its halls and rooms.

Fayt and Cliff could be heard in the living room, exchanging words about the unknown event of the previous night. You would have had to look in on them to see that Maria was quietly listening to the news as she tried to comprehend what exactly had happened.

Just a little ways away you could hear laughter in the kitchen as Sophia conversed with Mirage and Adray, all sharing their lighthearted sides. The smells of sweet sausage and bacon drifted throughout the house as they sizzled on the gas-lit stove.

Nel had left earlier, saying that she had wanted to fetch one of her workers. She had been awaiting a report from the Queen, and felt that today was her day to receive it.

The only people, besides Nel, that weren't present were, of course, Albel and Izumi.

In Albel's room it was dark, as always. He never bothered to remove the cover over his window, but let in a faint, dim ray of light, so as to allow him to properly see the sword in his lap. Slowly he ran his sharpening stone over its edge; the grinding sound soothed him in a way no other could.

He muttered to himself as he worked, saying cruel, hateful things to help him stay sane. He didn't understand all of the events that were occurring over and over again, and he hated that. He hated not being able to tell the girl's origin. He hated feeling so defeated, even though in truth he really wasn't. He knew he wasn't, because Izumi was injured as well, and from what he saw in the previous event, he was now healed, and she was still in bandages.

But still… he kept thinking of her as one of the Executioners. He didn't know why, which pissed him off even more, but he did know one thing: no person had ever been strong enough to injure him by themselves, but the Executioners could. They were strong enough, people weren't.

This girl seemed pretty ordinary though, but she just left too much unexplained. Unexplained as in 'why is she performing spells like Symbology without words and at a fast speed?' Fayt had also said that people from the planet Earth weren't advanced enough to learn Symbology.

Albel had just learned the difference between Symbology and Runology himself. Runology required that its users engrave the Runological symbols into their flesh, and was silent when used. Albel had known there to be a possibility for Izumi to be using this, but no one had said anything about markings when they had changed her bloodied clothing. So Runology was out of the question.

Symbology only required that you understand the Symbolic balance and obeyed its laws. No symbols were needed, but you had to speak of the spell you wished to use, so as no secrets were kept in your performance.

Izumi fit neither of these categories.

But Albel couldn't tell anyone that. He couldn't even tell Fayt what had happened during the fight, let alone when she had healed him! He knew exactly what had happened that night; he barely ever slept.

Every once in a while there would be a jiggle of the door handle and a person pleading for him to open the door, and this would of course delay him from his musing. The grinding sound would stop and he'd look up at the door and yell for the annoying human to lay down in a hole and die, then smirk at how stupid he knew they must be feeling for trying to get him to come out.

He knew that all they wanted to do was poke and prod him to see if his skin was 'real' and ask him twenty questions about his last night's history. He hated people.

Down the hall the door handle jiggling was continued as Fayt, Cliff, and Maria persisted on getting in contact with Izumi. But no sign of response was either heard or seen.

From the inside of the room the girl was sitting quietly on the bed gazing out of the glass covered portal that showed the world outside the mansion walls. The townspeople looked like tiny, miniature figures as they roamed the roads, and she admired them. Everything about them she admired. The people here on this small backwater planet were peaceful. Different from Earth, these people knew very little of murder, suicide, rape, and the other felonies that were committed hourly on her home planet.

She felt safer here, whenever she wasn't being stalked or attacked…

She had been sitting against the headboard of the bed, knees to her chest. Actually, she had been sitting like this all night. From the moment she had returned from Albel's room, she hadn't moved from that spot. She had wanted to take some time to run a recap on everything that had happened here, and everything that had brought her here. All she received were flashes… little bits, here and there, but nothing solid enough to help her. People running, screaming, pushing, pain, tears, blood, death…

The door handle jiggling was now being pushed to the quiet knocks here and there. Izumi took no time to ignore them, and just continued staring out through the window. She was more than sure that they had found Albel and were wanting to ask more questions… she didn't feel up to it.

The sun was up high today. This was leaving questions running through Izumi's mind as well. Why hadn't they left the mansion yet? Who was Luther? When would she be able to go back home? Did she want to go back home?

Her attention was pulled to the door as four loud thuds were heard slamming into the wood. It was Albel and she was sure of it.

"Izumi, come out of there, now!" No, just Maria, demanding as ever. Izumi rolled her eyes a bit, but relieved for it to be Maria, and not the Wicked One.

She heard the faint voice of Fayt then, replying to Maria's demands, "maybe she's not in there?"

'Yea,' Izumi thought to herself, 'maybe she's not in here.' Out of the corner of her eye, though, she caught sight of something on the dresser beside her. She took a closer look, this time focusing her vision, and smiled a bit. She hadn't smiled since she had been on Earth, but something about those clean clothes made her feel a bit safer inside.

Turning to rise from the bed she was reminded why those clothes had to be cleaned, and sunk back down into the mattress in pain. Her bandages hadn't been changed once since the incident. She hadn't healed herself because of the simple matter that the spell used for Albel's sized wounds was much too powerful to reuse within a few days. That meant that she would have to wait to use the spell on herself, or just let the wounds heal on their own.

Griping her side she rose again, grabbing the first-aid box next to the pile of clothes on the dresser. She pulled out the bandages and walked back to the bed. She untied the cloth robe that had been used to shield her from the cold and laid it at the foot of the bed. Slowly, wincing and hissing, she unwrapped the blood dried bandage from her skin, throwing it to the floor.

A clean cut had been made by Albel's katana that morning, but you could never tell it without first cleaning the wound.

Izumi hated this part… she grabbed a small bottle of rubbing alcohol that had been stored away in the top drawer of the dresser and a clean rag along with it. Soaking the rag she hesitantly placed it to the wound and prepared for a painful bite. Fine for a moment, her body suddenly went stiff and rigged as she fought to keep from yelping. Her body was numb with pain as stinging shocks gathered at her side and ripped through her like electricity on water. Her fists were clenched and eyes slammed shut, but she never once uttered a sound.

Slowly the pain subsided and her muscles loosened, but she removed the rag only once the alcohol had numbed the wound completely. She wiped the remaining blood that had been left from the previous night and threw the rag to the floor in disgust. In her eyes, rubbing alcohol was worse than any blade.

Izumi wrapped the cut in new, clean bandages and proceeded in changing clothing. The same clothes she had been wearing when she first arrived, and the only clothes she would leave this planet in; she would be sure of that.

The sounds outside had ceased and she was more relaxed in what she was doing. Pulling on her final boot she looked around for her katana. She could remember that she had left it in the closet, and was happy to find it untouched on the top shelf. Clipping it to her side she checked each dresser drawer for anything useful.

Pulling out a small comb, she ran it through her hair gingerly, taking time to work out any small knots she found. She had left her bag back on the Diplo, so any of her needed accessories were obviously out of reach.

Gathering all of her courage she reached for the door…

"Look, Albel, if you don't tell me what happened, I'll-"

"You'll do what? Kill me? Tell the king that I'm keeping secrets and it's pissing you off?"

Albel had finally come out of his room and everyone had left Izumi's door to come swarm him. Maria now had him sitting at the table and was glaring at him directly in the eye. She had had enough of these guessing games, and if she couldn't get to Izumi then… well, Albel had to know a little more.

Everyone could see now that his wounds had dissipated, and his good arm was even better now. Cliff even tried to poke it a bit, but was only backhanded and left to scowl on the other side of the room. It was now Albel, Maria, Fayt, and Adray at the table, but Mirage and Sophia stood not too far away, staring widely as the conversation heated up.

"Why can't you tell us," pressed Maria rather loudly.

"Maybe because I don't remember," he snapped back.

"Is it that," Fayt was speaking now, "or is it really just that you don't want to remember?"

"You stay out of this, boy."

Just then Nel walked in the door, completely ignoring Albel's instant glares and motioned for Maria to follow her. Sighing in annoyance Maria rose, taking a quick look at Albel with dark eyes, before following the Aquarian woman out of the room.

They stopped at the top of the stairs, Nel wanted to be sure that she was out of earshot before she carried out her conversation.

"Yes, Nel, what is the problem?"

"I received a message from one of my workers while I was out earlier. She told me that she had heard from Arias that the Queen is requesting an audience with our group and the King of Airyglyph. The King is said to be on his way now to Aquios, so we don't have much time before everyone becomes impatient."

Maria rolled her eyes in her mind. She was getting tired of all the stress. "So what is it that you think she wants to say?"

" Probably, it's about Izumi-"

"But she already knows about her," Maria interrupted, "is this about her strength? How would the Queen know about that so soon? She's only been here for a few days, are your 'spies' everywhere?"

Nel was getting aggravated with the girl now. "They're not spies, Maria, they're reporters, they let me know what my orders are when I'm not in Aquios. My thoughts are that Woltar has been spreading the word, that old man is as cunning as Albel is strong."

"Well if we had known about this at an earlier time, we would have headed out before sunrise, but with the way Albel's wounds were, we thought it best to stay and let him rest. We don't even know the condition of Izumi, at this point, no one can get her to open the door. We would never make it to Peterny before dark if we were to leave today. We might even have to stop along the way. It's almost noon now."

"If we have to stop, then we will. If Izumi doesn't come down by the time we let everyone know, then I will personally remove the door myself. We can avoid any fights with the Executioners if we must, but we have to move as quickly as possible."

"But what if Izumi is too injured to be running about," Maria questioned. She wasn't in much of the mood to leave out just yet. "I know Albel is ok, but what if Izumi wasn't the one who healed him, and she's still in bed bleeding?"

"Well, if that's the truth, then who locked her door when it was unlocked before everyone went to bed last night," Nel asked, looking at the other woman as if she were stupid.

There was a moment of silence from the blue-haired woman and she turned for the stairway again. Just before she descended, Maria stopped and looked back at Nel, who hadn't moved from her position. "Go get your supplies together, I'll go tell the others."

Nel nodded and headed back for her room.

"Now wait a minute, you're kidding us, right?" Cliff had the look of shock written across his face.

"Is there a problem, Cliff," Maria looked at him with daring eyes, just asking him to complain. Cliff was taking that offer.

"Yea, I have a bit of a problem with that, it's almost midday, Izumi hasn't come out of her room yet, and we'll never make it to Peterny before nightfall."

"Izumi will be leaving her room shortly, I have sincere thoughts about that, and as for not making it in time, we will have to probably camp out between Arias and Peterny. The Executioners won't come near if we keep a fire lit, so there should be nothing to worry about."

Cliff had nothing more to say about that.

"So what are we supposed to do about the supplies that we haven't collected yet," Albel continued the argument.

"News flash, Albel," Mirage broke in rather smartly, "while you were running around and getting yourself all beat up, Sophia and I were picking up all of our necessities."

"She's not lying," Sophia piped in, sending her high-pitched voice down everyone's nerves.

Albel slouched down even further into his chair and scowled, feeling just as defeated as Cliff felt.

"Alright guys, you heard it then, there's no reason why you can't go up to your rooms and get prepared. I want you all back in the sitting room in ten minutes." The group was shuffling out of the room now, some headed upstairs, while others cleaning up the clutter made from the breakfast meal. Maria turned and shouted after Adray, Cliff, Albel, and Mirage heading up the stairway, "and don't forget to tidy up your rooms before coming back down."

"Dammit, woman, would you shut up already," Albel barked as he stopped his progress up the stairs to lean over the rail and glare at her.

"Fine," she replied with a low, harsh tone, "do it, then."

Fayt and Sophia had stopped their cleaning to watch the woman as she clenched her firsts in aggravation, and were now exchanging muffled laughs and looks. They two found it amusing how Albel and Maria were always at each others' throats; of course, they only thought this because Maria would never go out of her line to strike a group member because it would be going against her place, and Albel followed the simple rule of: never hit a girl first.

To Be Continued…

Ok, so that was pretty long, for me anyways. I already have an idea for the next chapter, so I hope to get that done soon. I'm starting to think I should have finished this story before I started posting it, but oh well, I think I would have too much writer's block that way! that's a bad sickness! Lol. So yea, here you go hoped you liked it, and if you did I would like to know. I know it's a bit slow, but it'll get a little better in the next chapter I promise. Byeness for now then!