Disclaimer: I don't own anything of importance related to Xenogears.

" " Speech
| | Computer vocalization
* * Action sounds or emphasis
-+- Perspective change


Xenodread
Prologue
By Raiu Kusanagi



...loss...

Elly is dead.

...anger...

They killed her.

...hatred...

Those bastards killed her.

...rage...

I'll destroy them. Nothing will stop me. Not even death itself.

"HHHHRRRRRAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!"

In the back of my mind, I was dimly aware of my companions' reactions to my scream. Shock and fear radiated off them in waves as I felt a rush of power flood my body, transforming it.

Memories flowed through my mind, revealing that which I've denied since my arrival in Lahan. I remembered my past. I knew who I am.

I am Id.

"Citan. Get everyone out of here. Do it now, or you all die."

I barely recognized the voice as my own, the anger and hatred in my soul warping it. Without waiting for a reaction from them, I began truly focusing my attention on the two monsters facing me. A smirk formed on my face as I recognized the "feel" of the aura surrounding the Executioner.

"You can take the mask off now, Miang. It may hide your face, but it doesn't hide your stench, you parasite."

She rewarded me with a slight gasp of surprise before her costume faded out of existence, revealing the indigo-haired parasite that allowed Elly to die. Before Ramsus or even Grahf could react, I'm in Miang's face, an insane grin crossing my own.

In less time than it took me to reach Miang, I was hovering twenty yards over the bridge, holding the bitch by her throat.

"You shouldn't have killed her, Miang," the words hissed from between clenched teeth.

Her impassive stare wavered for a split second before she answered.

"I was not... the one... that struck her down..."

From the sound of her voice, I was cutting off her air supply. Like I care.

"Doesn't matter. Ramsus is your puppet. You could have stopped him in less than a heartbeat." My smirk became a feral grin as a thought crossed my mind. "Give me one reason I should let you live after what you did to Elly."

"I can... restore her to life... Fei."

"How? By taking over her body like you did with my mother? Like you did with your current host? I'm not *that* stupid, bitch. And my *name* is *Id* now."

Pain flooded her face as my free hand punched through her solar plexus and gripped her spine. With one light muscle flex, I crippled her for life. No more walking for her.

"Tell me, Miang. How does it *feel* to be at the mercy of the monster you made? I find the irony of the situation amusing. The creator being killed by her own creation." My grin widened as shock slowly grew in her eyes. "That's right. I know exactly what you did to my mother."

As I pulled my fist from Miang's body, pain flared in my right thigh. I look down at it to see Kahr's sword protruding from my leg. I saw Ramsus staring up at me, still in the follow through of throwing his sword. He rose to his full height and glared up at me, his eyes promising death as he shouted an ultimatum.

"Release her or die, you monster!"

I couldn't help but laugh at Ramsus' idiocy. I remove the sword and tossed it away, leaving it to fall to the planet's surface so far below. Passing my hand over the wound, I was pleased to see it seal up almost instantly, my body suit following suit less than a second later. When I looked at Ramsus again, I noticed something that slipped my attention the first time I looked.

Grahf wasn't standing where he had been. In fact, he was nowhere to be seen.

Only one thought crossed my mind:

Oh shit.

He'd gone to get his Gear. I may be able to destroy Gears without my own, but Grahf's Gear was another matter entirely. It's power was nearly unimaginable. But then... so was my Gear's.

I activated the neural transmitter designed to transform and summon Weltall.

I let Miang slip from my grasp as I searched for Grahf or his Gear. If I could hold him off long enough for Weltall to get here, I should be able to match him easily.

As I searched, I felt a presence appear behind me. Turning around, I saw Grahf's Gear hovering before me.

"You've failed, Id. With the Antitype dead, you're of no use to me anymore."

Damn. Weltall won't be here for another five seconds.

5

Grahf lashed out with a right hook, one fast enough to have me flying at full speed away from it only to have it miss by mere inches. He followed up with a left hook. Again I dodged, but barely.

4

His Gear spun around, trying to catch me with a spinning backhand. I ducked the hand and get sent flying into a wall when the hand snaps back in the direction it had just come from, defying all the laws of inertia and momentum.

3

Pain flooded my body, slowing my reflexes enough so that I was barely able to catch the knee blade Grahf tries to skewer me with. Pushing with all my strength, plus some Chi enhancement, I managed to shove the blade off to one side, imbedding it in the wall beside me. Too close.

2

I leaped out of the wall in an attempt to get away from Grahf. I failed miserably. Grahf anticipated my move and slammed me into the bridge. I think I felt a couple of ribs crack from the impact alone.

1

Grahf punched me a couple more times, pushing me deeper into the metal walkway, before pulling his fist back and charging it with energy in a manner similar to my Raijin technique.

0

I smiled painfully as a red blur slams into Grahf's Gear. I concentrated for a moment and felt more power flow through my body, healing my wounds. I gazed at Weltall for a second, taking in the way the red armor reflected sunlight off a few of the more angular planes on it. Weltall turned to me and opened the cockpit just long enough for me to leap in.

The neural interface activated, giving me complete mental control of the weapons systems while my hands and feet operated the motive control system. I turned to Grahf and smirk silently as the Ether Amplifier began channeling my own power into Weltall, making it a frighteningly powerful war machine. I could almost picture Grahf snarling under that mask of his as his Gear flew at me, one arm pulled back to deliver a devastating blow.

The battle had begun in earnest.

Grahf and I traded blows that could sink islands faster than the human eye could follow. Even I had trouble keeping track of how quickly we struck at each other. When it became apparent that this was getting us nowhere, Grahf and I pulled back and begin exchanging salvo after salvo of energy blasts. He may have been able to fire his off quicker than I can, but his were far weaker and much less accurate than mine.

-+-

"Doc, what's going on?!" Bart shouted as he and the rest of Fei's allies huddled near the doors to escape most of the destruction caused by the two fighting Gears.

Unnoticed by the two combatants, but quite visible to the spectators, arcs of green electricity began forming around them and the surrounding area. Bart and Citan absently noted Ramsus dragging Miang's body away from the fight and the group.

"It appears - oh my... god." Citan gasped. "Those two are throwing reactive blasts around like there's no tomorrow!"

"Ya think?!" Bart snapped.

"What I meant was, the blasts are beginning to react with the energy field surrounding Solaris."

"That would classify as a bad thing, wouldn't it?" Rico deadpanned.

"Extremely!" Citan replied. "If they don't stop soon, they may just tear a hole in space-time. Should they do that, there's no telling what the effects could be! It could merely destroy both Gears and their pilots... *or*... it could tear apart the entire planet."

"How the hell could they do that?!"

"Reactive weapons are called that for a very good reason: they react negatively with reality itself. That's why you almost never see multiple reactive weapons being fired this closely to each other. If too much reactive energy builds up too quickly, it begins tearing apart reality."

In the back of the group, Emeralda's eyes gleamed as her fists clenched, her mouth tightening in determination. Without warning, she shot forward, pushing past Billy and Citan easily, and tossed Rico aside in an unexpected show of strength. She ran toward the fight faster than anyone can hope to catch her and leaped into the air in the direction of Id's Weltall.

-+-

I paused just as I was about to throw another energy blast at Grahf when the impact sensors detected something slam into Weltall's leg. Activating an external camera, I saw Emeralda climbing up my leg, her fingers leaving miniscule pockmarks where she pushed them into the armor to create handholds. Chuckling, I fired up Weltall's chain guns, pelting Grahf with enough ammo to give him pause long enough for Emeralda to reach the cockpit.

Taking a risk, I opened the hatch and waited for her to climb in before sealing it again.

"Welcome, Emeralda." I greeted her, firing off another salvo of chain gun fire while I prepared to unleash more energy blasts. "What are you doing here?"

"Emeralda doesn't want to lose Kim." The girl replied, sitting down in my lap, but managing to stay out of my way at the same time. "Citan say that if Kim doesn't stop, Kim may die. May destroy planet, too."

"I don't care. They killed Elly. I've got no reason to continue living. Once I take care of Grahf, I'll probably follow in his footsteps."

"Kim... doesn't care about... Emeralda?"

"No, Emeralda." I replied, dodging a volley of energy blasts from Grahf. "I do care. I should have been more specific. I plan to wipe Solaris off the face of the planet."

"Why?"

"Revenge."

Weltall shuddered as a volley of blasts hit it in the chest. Crap. The chain guns just got taken out. Thankfully, Grahf's blasts didn't penetrate deep enough to hit the ammo storage, they just slagged the mechanisms themselves.

"Why are you here anyway?" I asked as I tag Grahf's Gear in the stomach with an energy blast, tearing a chunk of metal away.

Grahf retaliated with a series of small lasers firing from the gems on his Gear's chest. He almost caught me by surprise there. Too bad the gems glowed for a second before firing. The lasers passed harmlessly by me.

Heh. Loser.

"Citan say that if you no stop fighting, very bad thing happen."

"Hmph. Yeah, sure. Like what?"

As if on cue, warning lights and alarms began flashing and blaring throughout the cockpit.

|WARNING: QUANTAM FLUX DETECTED. EVASIVE ACTION SUGGESTED. TIME UNTIL FLUX ERUPTION: TWO SECONDS.|

If it were possible, my face would have grown quite a bit paler just then. My eyes widened in shock as a hole in reality appears between Grahf and I.

"That."

I smiled weakly at Emeralda's statement and begin activating every countermeasure I could think of to escape the suction of the hole. On the other side of it, I could see Grahf trying to fly away from it.

Oh, no you don't, boss. If I die, so do you.

Activating the booster system, I urged Weltall forward, around the hole toward Grahf. I was barely able to reach him, but it's enough. Grabbing onto the wings of his Gear and pulling him toward me, I was able to lock my arms around Grahf as I'm pulled into the hole.

"Tough luck, Grahf." I commented over the radio. "Looks like you won't be getting away so easily, does it?"

If Grahf responded, I'll never know. Searing agony of a magnitude I'd never felt before flooded my mind. As I lost consciousness, I was barely aware of Emeralda screaming as well.

+ + + +
TBC...
+ + + +

Author's notes: If Fei/Id seems OOC, oh well. The game never really showed what Fei would be like if his main and Id personas were merged without Id and the Coward reconciling. Also, it never gave an idea of how learned Id was. I figure he had to be fairly knowledgeable; he did build his own Gear, after all. And a damn fine job of it, too. The red Weltall is easily the coolest Gear in the game - with the possible exception of Xenogears itself. As for the reactive weapon explanation, there wasn't one in the game, so I figured I'd make my own. Just the easiest way of taking Fei where I want him to go. C&C is welcome, but flames will be used to fuel Id's insanity. Then I'll sic 'im on the flamer.