They were running. Everyone, from Alan to Ziggy, was running. But they weren't running away. They were running to… Running to her. She thought the weapon, KOS-MOS, had died while shielding their ship from the entry into the planet's atmosphere. To be honest, everyone else probably had. She'd come here, to this bay just to see the woman on the monitor from moments before.
The way she'd screamed when she thought the android was going to be left behind on the Proto Merkabah. Begging for Matthews to wait so that the woman with the azul hair could board. She couldn't push it out of her mind. The images, the sick fantasies of KOS-MOS being crushed by the scrap as the mass of metal fell apart. They all flooded back along with the relief that she was safe.
Shion still couldn't move. She didn't want to turn around and be disappointed, to learn that her… her creation wasn't really there. To learn that she actually had been destroyed by the intense heat of the entry.
The voices of her friends, the sound of happiness couldn't be a lie. Could it?
Her world spun as she finally looked where everyone else had. And she was there. Those red eyes, the blue hair… Her headband was gone, but it didn't matter because she was safe. She was safe!
"Mission complete, Shion," she said. It was simple enough a phrase. But for Shion, those words carried so much more. It meant that she was real. She was there. Shion could reach out and touch her.
Adjusting her glasses to hide the tears beginning to well in her eyes, Shion smiled. She smiled because KOS-MOS really was alive. Not active, but alive.
"…welcome back."
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A/N: Just a little ficlet I ripped from the game. I always loved this scene.