I'm posting a Star Ocean 3 fic! Who saw that coming, show of hands…?

Set during the time in which (*SPOILERS*) Airyglyph and Aquaria are signing the treaty. That was one of my favorite 'Disc One' moments.

It's also from Mirage's point of view, because I can understand how overlooked she is. I forgot about her half the time myself until she officially joined the party...

I own the plot idea, because I think Fayt, Cliff and Nel are the best first group of three you get in Star Ocean 3, and…that's…um, it. I don't own Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, but I will encourage you to think of the song 'Rust Color' while you read this. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to listen to more Star Ocean 3 instrumentals while you're walking around towns.

~Trifecta~

"I must get to Airyglyph as soon as possible. Don't detain me."

"I'm not, Nel. Even if this isn't some sort of trap planned by the king, you're still in danger; not all of the Glyphians are excited about this truce between Airyglyph and Aquaria. I am coming."

She sighed. "As if I could argue with you."

"--Hey, I'm coming too! No way are you two going anywhere without me tagging along!"

"We're already quite aware of your excellent liason skills with royalty, Cliff," Nel broke in, voice dripping sarcasm. Cliff looked offended.

Fayt laughed. "Everyone knows we only bring you along for your physical strength, Cliff."

The Klausian's blue eyes narrowed playfully. "Hey! I do occasionally have some pretty ingenious moments. Former leader of Quark, remember?"

Nel and Fayt rolled their equally green eyes in each other's direction; obviously they'd heard this story before.

"Let's just go, you two."

Moments later they were receding into the distance, following the trail through the streets of Aquios out into the Irisa Fields, through Peterny and Arias and countless other towns and places on the long winding road to The Royal City of Airyglyph--Nel in the lead, with Fayt walking calmly behind her and Cliff looking foolish close by while pretending to be an extra-special bodyguard of some sort.

Watching and following wordlessly (at first, anyway), Mirage Koas knew that despite the shared eye-rolling and sly smiles that Fayt and Nel gave each other, they were actually pretty amused by Cliff's antics--everyone was. Even she found time and places to laugh at him, back in the days when there was no Maria Traydor and Cliff had led Quark.

Back in those days... the times when there had just been herself and Cliff and Marietta. Just the three of them.

Mirage turned around and backtracked to Castle Aquaria.

Fayt, Cliff and Nel had traveled together for who knew how long after the former two had been captured by the Glyphian army; gone to who-knew-where to escape from Airyglyph's clutches and yet still beat back their war forces; done and gone through who-knew-what to become one of the toughest little trios she'd ever seen.

And it annoyed the silent hell out of her.

Now, Mirage was a very tough, driven, determined young woman, even for a Klausian--and her intelligence was nothing to sneer at, either. But she couldn't help but be the tiniest bit upset that her loyalty to one of her closest friends had somehow cost her her place at his side.

After all--she had followed Cliff's orders, hadn't she? She had, to the letter--she had stayed in the Eagle until nightfall, past nightfall, when the last of the curious spectators had gone on home to their warm fires and shivering family members. Then she had snuck out of the slumbering capital, having to incapacitate only two soldiers who had lingered by to guard a ship that didn't belong to them. Laying low was something that Mirage Koas was very good at. She had taught Cliff how to lay low.

Now Cliff was using her knowledge while off with their target and his new acquaintance.

"Welcome back, Lady Mirage."

The blonde Klausian gave the guards a gentle, wistful smile. The Aquarians' long-held respect for women of all positions, ages and looks meant that Mirage was called "Lady" nearly everywhere in the country that she'd gone--even when she insisted to those like these guards that she was no Lady at all--just traveling in the company of one.

Mirage bit her lip as she walked down the castle's long halls, going everywhere and nowhere as she thought.

A silent mantra fixed itself inside her head:

I am not jealous. I am not jealous.

She was not a petty woman, and never had been. And it wasn't as though she was romantically jealous; she had liked and trusted Nel Zelpher from the moment her blue eyes had met the younger woman's green ones, and so she should have had no problem with Fayt and Cliff rushing off with her on dangerous, Aquaria-related missons. But...

Ah, yes--the 'but', the 'however', the 'In this situation, though'...

Mirage did wish that she had been included. She had only been gone for a little while from Cliff and Fayt--why had she been so quickly replaced, or forgotten? Was three really the limit--and, if not, why was Maria seemingly accepted into the group by Nel and the others, but she ignored?

As if it matters, she told herself firmly, though she could not bring herself to smile or really shrug her forlorn, abandoned feelings off. Maria will convince Fayt and Cliff of our need to leave as soon as our resident threesome returns from Airyglyph. Soon we'll be back on the Diplo and I'll be piloting us into conventional space. Just me, Cliff, and Marietta--a trio of our own, with Maria and the others in tow.

--Now I'm just being selfish. I need to find Maria, now. She'll be my sanity and reason while Fayt, Cliff and Nel are gone--

Oh, dear. Now I have an exact order in which I say their names.

I know it only gets worse from here.

Mirage couldn't help but jump when someone knocked on the door--she hadn't even been in the castle, or in the guest room staring out the window, more specifically, for ten minutes. Had someone roused Maria from her studying in the Library of Runology and sent the girl Mirage's way?

She opened the door and found herself staring straight into a pair of green eyes: Nel was smiling at her, and had one hand on her hip in a manner too relaxed for we're-off-to-see-the-Glyphian-king travel. She had certainly gotten that from Cliff and Fayt.

Mirage hoped she wasn't spluttering. "I--wha--what are you doing, still here?"

There went that plan.

Fayt's head appeared over Nel's shoulder--he was grinning a young boy's grin, but he said nothing at all as a head of blond hair followed by an obviously-powerful body pushed them both out of the doorway. Mirage and Cliff were now face-to-face, one puzzled and the other puzzled, too, though in an expectant way.

"Cliff...?" Mirage queried curiously, wondering, with a tiny ounce of self-consciousness, just what was going on.

Blue eyes stared into blue. After a moment, Cliff shrugged and laughed.

"...Well, aren't you coming?"

Mirage wondered where the sudden end-to-end smile on her lips had come from.