So... Yay, I'm writing again! It's my first fic in a long time so reviews of any kind would be greatly appreciated. This story was inspired from 80+ hours of playing Xenosaga II, and having Shion and chaos cast Dual Spell Ray in their swimsuits over and over again. It takes place during their trip in the Ormus Stronghold. Also it's spoiler free, but I do make a lot of references to the first game.
Disclaimer: I don't own Xenosaga I, II, or the anime. As a matter of fact I own very little but that's a completely different story.
Now revised and cleaned up for your reading pleasure.
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Borne up on Angel Wings
Chapter One
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"Shion, look out!"
Two seconds. Two seconds were all the time the young brunette had to react to the swirling fireball hurtling towards her face, about to singe off her eyebrows...and most of her upper body. Since she used up one second breathing and the other squinting from the light created from the speeding inferno, Shion seriously began to worry that this was the end, and the loud, panicky voice that was screaming inside her head wasn't helping her reflexes. Had KOS-MOS not shoved Shion away from the fireball in the nanosecond she had remaining, her skin would be very, very tan right now.
As she hit the ground and tumbled twenty feet away from where she had been standing (with less grace then she would have preferred, but, considering the circumstances, she decided it would be best not to complain now) she wondered how the current turn of events could have possibly gone this bad.
If only Tony hadn't piloted the Elsa through the two black holes. If only he had picked a different route, then she could have spared her face almost being barbequed. But, alas, he didn't, and the Ormus Stronghold gated out right in front of the Elsa, blocking its course. Not convenient, especially when the ship's Logical Drive suffered a direct hit and crashed onto the enemy base. Naturally, the only way out was to blow the whole thing up. So after roughly two hours of sharing the E.S. Asher with Jr., who seemed to be more excited about blowing up robots than setting off the self-destruct sequence, Shion finally found the universal little red button that would blast the stronghold out of existence. It was bad enough she was given only a half hour to get out (considering it took her and the group two hours to get to the base's core), but when the time elapsed, nothing happened. The self-destruct mechanism malfunctioned, and instead of destroying the stronghold as was intended, it merely tore the base in two, trashed the E.S.'s, and split up the group. Jr., MOMO, Ziggy, and Jin managed to scramble back on to the Elsa, but Shion, KOS-MOS, and chaos found themselves on the opposite side of the stronghold, now separated from their only means of escape.
To add insult to injury, a large amount of Gnosis were gating out of hyperspace and attacking the distraught trio. KOS-MOS hypothesized that the shockwave caused by the strongholds's semi-destruction caused a disturbance which propagated through the black holes and was now attracting the Gnosis. Which was why Shion was currently engaged in battle with a large, dragon-like monster that spewed fireballs.
"Are you ok?" chaos asked as he helped Shion to her feet.
"I've been better..." She mumbled under her breath.
"Shion, my sensors indicate that this Gnosis has a weakness to beam-type attacks" explained KOS-MOS, "the power from an enhanced Spell Ray from your M.W.S. should exterminate it."
The Gnosis lunged towards the android. KOS-MOS stopped it in its tracks with a blast from her R-Cannon and then unleashed a volley of bullets from her machine-gun appendage.
"I'll hold him off while the two of you charge you're your dual tech. If you attack simultaneously you will kill the Gnosis." KOS-MOS screamed over the sound of her gun.
Shion nodded. She was a little nervous because she and chaos had never done a double tech attack before. Oh well, there was always a first time, and it would have to be perfect, since they didn't exactly have much time to practice.
"Ok, here I go." She closed her eyes and muttered incantations under her breath. A neon blue eye formed in front of her and targeted the Gnosis. As she lifted her weapon, she realized her arm was shaking. She tried to steady her aim but to no avail; if her shaking continued her aim would be seriously impaired. She couldn't afford to miss.
In her frustration she forgot that it was a double attack, and was a bit startled when she felt chaos approach her from behind. He placed his left arm on top of her own, steadying the weapon, and wrapped his other one around her waist.
"Don't worry," chaos whispered, "I've got you."
For some reason that Shion didn't bother analyzing, a hot shade of crimson streaked across her cheeks. She aimed her weapon and prepared to squeeze the trigger. chaos's hold had calmed her down significantly, but she couldn't figure out why her heart was racing. It wasn't because she was scared.
"DUAL SPELL RAY!"
The blast knocked Shion clear off her feet and into chaos's arms. Once she could refocus her vision she saw the beam from their attack rip a hole through the Gnosis's torso.
"A direct hit. The enemy has been exterminated. Activating auto-safety mode." KOS-MOS said mechanically as she stored her gun.
Shion released a breath she didn't even know she had been holding and let her head rest against chaos's chest.
"I'm not getting out of bed tomorrow." She sighed. She tilted her head up and found a pair of smiling green eyes staring at her.
"Nice shot." He told her, with the same calm, soothing voice he seemed to use for any occasion.
She blushed shamelessly. Her face was so hot she thought someone could cook an egg on her forehead. He was still holding her. She found herself staring at his face, his green eyes, his snowy hair...
"Thanks" She blurted after what seemed like forever. Now there's a nominee for most awkward moment of the year. A little voice inside her head was yelling 'stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, get a hold of yourself Shion! You're turning to putty!' Her heart was beating so hard she felt it would burst from her rib cage at any given moment.
"Shion." KOS-MOS said, startling her, "My motion sensors indicate that this stronghold is steadily moving towards the black hole. We have approximately 20 minutes before the gravitational field becomes too strong to overcome."
chaos gently allowed Shion's feet to touch the ground and she took an awkward sidestep away from him, trying in vain to adjust her composure.
"What are we going to do?" She asked, addressing KOS-MOS.
"If the conditions persist, this room will collapse in two minutes. I'm detecting the E.S. Asher five floors above us. It appears to be operational."
"So if we can get to the E.S. on time before the stronghold gets sucked into the black hole, we'll be able to make it back to the Elsa!"
"Affirmative."
Shion bolted towards the room's sliding door, but stopped halfway there and spun around.
"Wait a minute KOS-MOS, the E.S. Asher can only hold two people..." She let her last two words fade to a whisper.
"Correct. You and chaos cannot survive in outer space, I think it is obvious who will board the E.S."
"But how will you get out of here?" Shion asked with genuine concern in her voice. Every time the group was in a dire situation KOS-MOS always did something heroic and selfless but also incredibly dangerous. Shion didn't remember programming her that way.
"Do not worry about me. I've located the Elsa's signal a few meters outside this wall; it seems the Logical Drive is working again. Once the two of you leave this room I will destroy it's airlock by blasting a hole in the wall. If I launch myself into space, the momentum I gain from the escaping oxygen will be enough for me to reach the Elsa."
"That sounds very risky..."
"I apologize I cannot escort you to the E.S. Asher, but out of all possible scenarios, this one has the highest probability of success. There is a 98.6 percent chance that I will make it to the Elsa after destroying this wall and jumping through space."
"Just like old times." Shion whispered. She remembered the first time KOS-MOS had tried a similar stunt on Proto Merkhaba. She had almost lost KOS-MOS.
"I won't be there to catch you though, KOS-MOS," Shion muttered. Tears were welling up in her eyes, but she quickly blinked them away. "You'd better be careful!" She almost screamed.
"Affirmative." Shion could have sworn she saw KOS-MOS smiling.
The android turned her attention to chaos, "My duty is to protect Vector employees in general and Shion in particular. Under the current situation I regret I won't be able to do so if we are to make it out of here alive. Therefore I intrust Shion's protection to you, chaos. This arrangement will have the highest degree of efficacy."
"Don't worry." chaos smiled, "but if you don't make it to the Elsa all of our efforts will have been in vain. Be careful."
KOS-MOS nodded. Shion was about to say something but the ground shook violently underneath her. A pillar came crashing down from the nearest wall and crumbled to pieces a few yards from her feet.
"You two better leave immediately. Approximately thirty seconds until the room collapses." KOS-MOS warned.
They didn't need to be told twice. Shion and chaos hauled butt out of there as steel beams began to fall from the ceiling.
"Charging." KOS-MOS's gun materialized as she prepared to vaporize the enormous reenforced wall in front of her, "R-Cannon!"
A white-hot projectile shot out of KOS-MOS's gun and collided with the stronghold's wall. A large, red circle appeared on the wall where the blast hit it, which smoldered and finally melted away, leaving a gaping hole open to deep space. The Elsa was in plain sight.
KOS-MOS bolted for the hole and jumped through it. She hurdled across space and landed with a thud on the Elsa's roof, right above the cockpit. As she fastened herself to the Elsa to avoid floating away in anti-gravity, she was able to pick up Captain Mathews hoarse, angry voice over the Elsa's radio waves.
"What the hell was that! I just had this God-damn ship remodeled too. I'm telling you if the Elsa got hit by a meteor our debt is gonna– HOLY CRAP IT'S KOS-MOS! Hammer you idiot don't just sit there! Open the freaking hatch!..."
—
"Did you hear that?" Shion asked between breaths. She and chaos were running down a dark hallway looking for a staircase (in the aftermath of an almost successful self-destruct sequence, using an elevator would be suicidal) when they heard a dull rumble. She glanced back briefly to see the wall behind her slightly implode.
"Yeah, that was KOS-MOS. She must have broken the airlock." chaos replied as he squinted in the darkness, searching for some sort of map. Why did all the bad guy hideouts have horrible architectural layouts and confusing, labyrinthine hallways?
"Do you think she'll be alright?"
"She'll be fine." He responded absentmindedly, more concerned about the shadow he thought he saw out of the corner of his eye.
"I mean, what if she misses the Elsa? Tony will see her right? I mean..." She wrung her hands nervously. The short trip she had planned for Old Miltia had taken a steady turn from bad to terrible, and the string of events that kept going wrong caused her to worry more about the safety of her friends than usual. chaos sensed her shakiness and decided to calm her, lest her constant worrying prevent them from executing a plan that had "a 98.6 percent chance of success."
"Shion," he said as he turned around and placed his hands on her shoulders, "KOS-MOS is going to be fine–look at me Shion–she'll be fine. I know you want to help her, but if we don't get out of here, we won't be able to help anybody. She entrusted your safety to me, and I really don't want to break that trust." He smiled, noticing a light blush on her face. "Come on. Let's blow this joint. This black and red decor is really starting to get to me. Who built this floating cow-pie anyway?"
She would have laughed, but she was too busy staring into his eyes. They had this pacifying effect on her that made all her extraneous thoughts fly out the window when she looked into them. It felt as if she were swimming in a beautiful emerald pool. Yes, she and chaos were relaxing in a luxurious pool with flower petals in the air and singing birds...
"Wha?" She snapped out of her reverie, mentally kicking herself for having romantic thoughts in an enemy stronghold that was about to be pulverized by the force of a black hole.
"Yeah, Ormus is probably outsourcing their architects, you know how the economy is," she chuckled nervously, hoping he hadn't noticed her drooling at him three seconds ago, "let's get out of here."
She was about to walk quickly ahead of him to avoid eye contact, but she spotted something to her right.
"chaos, does that doorway lead to a staircase?" She pointed towards a sliding door with the word "STAIRS" glowing in neon above it.
"Uh, yeah guess so." Why didn't he see that before? "We should hurry then."
"Right. Uh, chaos?"
"Hm?"
"You're still holding my shoulders."
"Oh."
He removed his hands, grinning sheepishly, and the two darted for the door marked "STAIRS," ignoring the unenjoyable sounds of metal crunching behind them.
—
"You moron! Activate the airlock before you open the hatch! You wanna be sucked out of this ship at a hundred miles per hour!" Captain Mathews was screaming in his usual 'if you don't obey me I'm gonna kick your ass all the way to the Kukai Foundation' manner, while a disgruntled Hammer fumbled with the controls of the Elsa's cargo hatch.
"This is a roof cargo hatch," Hammer tried to explain calmly, "It's meant for accepting crates of supplies which are lowered through it by a crane, not for rescuing female androids that fly through space."
"Do you think I don't know what that hatch is for? I installed the God-damned hatch! I'm asking you to activate the airlock so you don't get sucked out of the ship, even though I'd like to throw you out myself."
"This hatch DOESN'T HAVE AN AIRLOCK! That's why there's a flashing light here that says 'don't open while spacecraft is in outer space.' We usually receive supplies on planets. Where there is air, and therefore no need for an airlock–"
"Don't annoy me with your stupid details! Just open the hatch!"
"I'm trying to, Captain." He sneered the last word, "but it's difficult because the hatch is usually opened from the outside. I have to insert a password and then override the code that prevents me from opening a hatch in deep space. Maybe if we got KOS-MOS to open the hatch herself–"
The Captain shoved Hammer away from the controls, "I asked you not to bother me with your stupid techno-crap. Here, see this lever, all you gotta do is pull it, like this." He yanked the lever and the hatch above them slid open, and out went hundreds of cubic meters of oxygen.
"Whaaaaaaa!" The Captain yelled, gripping his hat which about to fly off his skull and out into space, "close the hatch! Close the–" He was cut off as KOS-MOS came tumbling down. She fell onto Mathews, who fell onto Hammer, who fell off the ladder they had been standing on and all three spiraled down from the roof of the ship and crashed at the base of the ladder. The hatch closed quietly shortly afterwards.
"Oww...I can't feel my foot." Groaned Hammer.
"That's not the only thing you won't be feeling when I'm done with you." Mathews's face was almost purple with anger...and bruises.
"Greetings," KOS-MOS declared, almost comically, as if falling through a cargo hatch was a normal occurrence on the Elsa, "it was kind of you to open the hatch for me, but I very well could have opened it from the outside myself. You needn't have bothered."
Hammer scampered out of the way of the Captain's boot, which was about to connect with his face.
"Uh, yeah, you're welcome." He blurted, "where are Shion and chaos?"
"They are currently escaping the Ormus Stronghold by way of the E.S. Asher. I strongly suggest you steer the Elsa as close as possible to the stronghold's eastern wing, as that is the spot they are most likely to emerge from."
"Good idea," muttered the Captain. A faulty airlock, an incompetent navigator, the Elsa was turning more and more into a circus every day that went by.
"You know, I could repair the hatch if you allowed me to–" Hammer began.
"Get to the bridge!" Mathews roared. Hammer took off down the hall and didn't once look back.
—
"God these are a lot of stairs," Shion gasped. She hadn't realized how big the stronghold was. When you were used to zipping around enormous skyscrapers in elevators, five floors seemed like a lot on foot. Especially since she and chaos had been running up the stairs for five minutes and they had barely made it to the third floor.
"Yeah, I'll never take an elevator for granted again."
Shion was about to respond, but something fell from the ceiling causing her to unleash a scream that would have shattered glass. It was a Gnosis, a golem to be precise. The same type of Gnosis that had almost snapped her body like a twig when she was on the Woglinde. Needless to say, she didn't have very fond memories of this monster.
The golem raised it's massive arm and prepared to smack Shion with a skull-crushing blow, but her reflexes were still functioning...for the moment.
"Gravity Well!" She shouted and leaped up into an orb of electrical energy before charging the gnosis in a full frontal attack. The golem reeled but swiped at her like a fly and sent her hurtling down the stairs. It growled and barreled after her, its arms flailing. However, before the golem reached its target chaos jumped in front of it, blocking its path.
"Heaven's Wrath." He whispered calmly, and sent shockwaves of silver energy rocketing towards the Gnosis; its body jerked with convulsions and dissolved into nothingness upon contact with his attack.
"You alright?" He asked as he gently helped Shion to her feet.
"I think I broke a nail." She mumbled. Why did the enemies always attack her first?
chaos chuckled a bit.
"What's so funny?" She scowled, carefully biting off her cracked pinky nail.
"Remember when we dove into KOS-MOS' mainframe using the Encephalon?" He asked.
"Yeah," she replied, "I remember trudging through disgusting sewers and fighting a horrible monster in a church who wouldn't die unless Jr. or I killed it."
"No, I mean the part when we walked through your memories of Old Miltia fighting Gnosis and chasing bunnies."
"Yeah, what about?"
"Nothing, I just thought this is kind of similar. Just the two of us running around. I had fun for a while in the Encephalon–well, not so much the battling because it was mostly you getting clobbered and me healing you–"
"Hey!"
"–but I thought you were really brave in there. You faced your fears unflinchingly and didn't shrink away from the Gnosis. I gained great respect for you. I didn't think you were such a good fighter, or that you could pilot an A.G.W.S better than most of the Federation soldiers I've seen. And you were so modest too, always saying 'take it easy, I'm not cut out for this line of work,' while in reality you were wasting the Gnosis better than the rest of us. I was quite proud of you."
A small grin spread across her face. "Thanks." She gushed, reveling in his complement. Why was it that he remembered the "fun" times of their escapade in the Encephalon while all she remembered was wading through crap? But he had told her he was proud of her! Why did that make her so giddy?
'Perish the thought,' she told herself mentally as she caught herself gazing at his behind, 'you're not a lovesick teenager, and you're too old to be prancing around with...'
And that's when the floor ripped apart beneath her feet. There was no previous indication that something like that was going to happen. The ground simply split open, and Shion fell through the crack.
She screamed louder than she thought it proper for a lady, but didn't really care, and she continued screaming until she felt a strong hand wrap around her wrist. It was quite comical really, and she would have laughed had the situation not involved a near-death experience. The staircase had been torn apart, and she was dangling in between what used to be a flight of stairs between the second floor and third floor. She didn't think stairs were supposed to rip open like that.
"Hold on," chaos grunted, "I'll pull you up." And he managed to haul her slender frame up onto his side of the stairs.
"Whew," she groaned and quickly darted away from the hole in the floor. "Fireballs to the head, angry Gnosis, gaping holes; today is just not my day."
"We must be getting closer to the black hole. The gravitational pull is tearing the stronghold apart. See." chaos pointed towards the steel beams above them that moaned with effort, as if some unknown giant were trying to peal them off the ceiling. One of the beams snapped and fell through the hole in the stairs.
"chaos," Shion moaned with disbelief in her voice, "Why is the ceiling falling?"
He didn't have time to respond because an unknown force rocked the stronghold and knocked both friends off their feet. Another beam fell from the ceiling and scratched the wall of the staircase in a shower of sparks, leaving a deep gash in its trail.
Shion and chaos bolted up the stairs and didn't stop running until they reached the platform of the third floor. The situation was already grim, but Shion thought somewhat unrealistically that if they kept running they could reach the fifth floor before the stronghold completely collapsed. Her hopes were dashed when what used to be a column that supported the fourth floor tumbled down in front of them and blocked the path that led upstairs.
"Damn it, there's no way through!" She yelled in frustration. Then she had to cover her ears because the sound of screeching metal and splintering beams proved too painful. A cold, paralyzing fear gripped Shion's heart, and all the blood drained from her face. This was it. No way out. The ceiling was going to crumble and crush her like a bug. She was going to die. She hadn't even told chaos she thought he had a cute butt.
"chaos!" She cried and grabbed his arm. "We're not going to make it! That stupid Gnosis, our battle with it stalled us! If I had just...if I had just." Tears began flowing freely down her face. She didn't even scream when the main support column toppled over and plummeted towards them like a gigantic flyswatter.
"Get down!" chaos dove on top of her, shielding her body with his own. Her head hit the ground hard, and in her daze she thought she could see wings. Beautiful angelic wings erupting from chaos's back, protecting her from the falling debris.
So this is how it ended. An angel would come to take her to paradise...hopefully. The splintering metal, the angel feathers, and the deafening sound of steel ripping apart all danced around in Shion's mind during her last moments like some sort of distorted musical. She gazed up through chaos's wings and looked at the gray sky...or was it a ceiling? No matter, because whatever it was it was falling now, crushing her world. Everything went black.
—
So many stars. It was truly unbelievable; the universe is beautiful. Words can't describe... She was floating. How wonderful! Floating effortlessly in an ocean of stars. Was this heaven? Had she crossed over? If so then where was everyone? Her heart raced. Maybe she would finally see mom and dad now, and Kevin! Wait a minute, why was her heart racing? Did you still have a heart after you died?
"Shion." She heard a voice and spun around. Well, more like wiggled actually, it was hard to make a one hundred and eighty degree turn in space.
"Nephilim!" She cried once she spotted a young girl with flowing blond hair, "Nephilim it's you!" Shion's mind reeled, and am image of Febronia and her sisters flashed before her eyes. "Oh Nephilim, I'm sorry. I tried to save your sisters, but the Elsa...we couldn't get through so we had to go in and blow it up, and then it didn't work and we all got separated, and then the fireball we had to stop it–chaos and I–and then KOS-MOS jumped through the hole and the stairs ripped open and...and..." She was blubbering now. The words raced from her mouth in a jumbled, incoherent heap. Tears racked her frame and she cried out in frustration. She had failed! Just like she always did. Her entire life had been one failure after another. She wasn't able to save her parents, or Kevin, or KOS-MOS, or chaos. And know Febronia. All of Shion's attempts had ended in vain, ended in death.
"Shion." Nephilim said again, her voice soft, and for the first time she was smiling, "Don't cry Shion. You always were so sweet."
Shion rubbed her tears. Tears? Dead people could cry?
"You didn't fail Shion, and you needn't worry. You did everything you could, and already you've accomplished a lot. Don't be afraid. The Aeons will protect you."
Shion sniffed, "What's an Aeon? And what do you mean protect me? Aren't I dead?" She wasn't fond of Nephilim's method of communicating. All those riddles and cryptic messages.
"Don't worry," the young girl repeated, "when the first Aeon awakes, the other will follow suit. You will be safe, and Lost Jerusalem will be freed. You have the power to command the Aeons, and they will protect you."
Ok, Shion had been through some trying moments in her life, but she was officially freaked out right now. What the heck was an Aeon? And Lost Jerusalem? Wasn't that the planet from which humanity originated? And she had the power to do what? Command the Aeons? She couldn't even command her underlings at Vector's First R & D Division to file out a report correctly. She tried to pry more information from Nephilim, but she found her lips were sealed.
"Shion." Nephilim whispered again, and she began floating off into the cosmos.
"Shion." She disappeared, and Shion felt herself falling. Hurtling through space at unknown speeds, while a mysterious voice called her name.
"Shion. Shion...SHION!"
—
Her eyes snapped open, and oxygen rushed through her nostrils as if she hadn't taken a breath in ages. She blinked once, twice, and saw chaos kneeling beside her.
"Am I dead?" Shion blurted, almost disappointed that she wasn't after all she'd been through.
"No," chaos shook his head and smiled. "You seem pretty alive to me."
She sat up and got to her feet with more ease than she had expected. It's as if she had never passed out–which was probably what had happened. Either that or Nephilim picked some pretty interesting moments to give Shion visions.
"What happened?" She looked around at the Ormus Stronghold. Or what was left of it. Broken shards of metal and crumbling columns lay all around her as if a bomb had gone off in the room's interior. The staircase was all but gone, as were the separate floors. She and chaos were standing at the bottom of a massive room (probably the hanger) with parts and scraps of the stronghold littering the cracked floor. chaos pointed up towards a rather big hole at the summit of the stronghold. It lead to deep space, and air was surely being sucked out by it.
"The gravitational pull from the black hole must have shaken the stronghold up, but the wasn't the reason all the floors above us crumbled. The beams split because they couldn't support the massive weight placed on them."
Shion's brow wrinkled, "what could have been so heavy that it caused reenforced steel beams to crack?"
He pointed behind her. She turned around and there, in a pile of rubble, lay the most beautiful thing Shion thought she had seen in a long time: the E.S. Asher. With the exception of a few scratches and dents, the E.S. had remained miraculously unharmed.
"Oh my God!" She squealed with delight and grabbed chaos's hands. "We're saved! We're saved! And here I was all worried that everything had gone wrong, and that I was a failure at life. But our luck finally held out! I knew things couldn't have gotten as bad as I thought they did!" She danced around with chaos laughing like a schoolgirl.
"And I was so worried!" She continued, "I mean, when the ceiling fell my life flashed before my eyes and it scared the hell out of me. There were so many things I still needed to do! I'll never take another day for granted again. I mean, I hadn't even told you I thought you had an adorable as–" She froze in shock as she realized what she was about to say.
He looked at her quizzically but with a wide smile nonetheless, "You thought I had an adorable what?"
Shion blinked, "We're saved! Oh my God!" And she continued dancing. Nice save, she thought to herself, very smooth.
The two would have continued bouncing around out of joy but the sound of snapping floorboards interrupted them. A Gnosis, (another golem, was that symbolic?) had spotted their happy-fest and was currently lumbering towards them. Lady Luck had been kind, but she wasn't about to deliver them single-handedly to safety. The monsters were popping up everywhere now.
Shion and chaos looked at each other. Not a word was spoken, but two nods were exchanged. They bolted for the E.S. faster than she had thought humanly possible. In the confusion of their hustle, Shion had scrambled into the pilot's seat while chaos manned the weapons.
"Or you going to be ok?" He inquired, remembering that she had always flown co-pilot with Jr. "There's still time for us to switch..." He alluded to the fact that maybe he was a better E.S. pilot than she was.
"You just hold on to your panties!" She yelled at the snowy haired boy sitting above her, making a subtle joke about his tight clothes, "I'm gonna floor this thing and God help any Gnosis that tries to stop me!"
She slammed the throttle hard and the huge mech rocketed into the air, heading for the hole at the very top of the stronghold. chaos pointed the E.S. Asher's cannon lazily toward the golem who had jumped up into the air with the intent of dragging them back down. The golem was a fair adversary on foot, but it didn't stand a chance against an E.S. He squeezed the trigger and fired a hot blue laser that completely vaporized the Gnosis.
"This is kinda fun." He chuckled to himself, but Shion overheard.
"You just wait." She grinned. The excitement of finding the E.S. had pumped her with enthusiasm, "as long as you don't barf on my head we'll be fine." She jerked the E.S. to the left to avoid a falling shard of metal.
The Ormus Stronghold was deteriorating from the inside now since all the support columns had been crushed by the falling floors. Steel beams, plastic tiles, and all the other components of the stronghold were raining down on them like confetti. Despite her lack of experience with an E.S., Shion did a wonderful job of maneuvering through the debris while maintaining her path towards the hole. However, a few rather big chunks of plastic did hit the E.S. head on.
"You're almost as good Tony." chaos remarked, with just a touch of sarcasm in his voice.
A hand flew up and smacked his knee.
"Hey!"
"You just worry about shooting the Gnosis." Shion quipped, but it was like telling a fish to swim. He had been effortlessly blasting monsters out of the sky since she had taken off.
"Look ahead, there it is!"
Shion squashed the accelerator beneath her foot and the E.S. zipped through the hole, just before, it seemed, the entire roof of the stronghold came crashing down on the unsuspecting Gnosis below.
"Woo-hoo!" Shion couldn't help cheering. "I can't believe we made it out of there! And look, I didn't even scratch the Asher."
"Well, not exactly." chaos muttered pulling up a plasma screen that displayed all of the E.S. Asher's stats, "We just spent half our fuel escaping from the stronghold–do you know how fast you were going?–and our shields are all but gone. We better find the Elsa quickly."
"Got it." She responded, and quickly took her eyes off the radar to stare at the space outside. Two ominous black holes were swirling menacingly, and the Ormus Stronghold was slowly moving towards one of them. The Elsa was nowhere to be seen.
"I'm really glad we got out of there." She muttered. She returned her gaze to the radar and spotted a green dot moving towards the E.S.
"chaos," she said, pointing at her control panel, "Is that the Elsa?"
He looked down at the blinking light, "No. I don't think so. The signal is foreign. It doesn't even look like a spacecraft."
"Well then what else could be floating around here in the middle of two black–" Her mouth froze as something rather large caught her attention outside the cockpit window. "Oh no," she muttered, "no, no, no, no. This can't be happening. This a nightmare. I died and went to hell."
chaos couldn't see what she saw because of his position in the E.S, but he could only guess it was another Gnosis. His hypothesis was verified once the object was in range of his sensors. He had seen it once before, only much larger. This specimen was roughly four times the size of the E.S. Asher. chaos frowned. Their luck really had been terrible lately. They were about to fight a really nasty Gnosis. Cathedral.
—
"Yes!" MOMO shouted. Her pink hair bobbed up and down as she jumped. The 100 Series Observational Realien was staring at one of the computers on the Elsa's bridge, and she had spotted the E.S. Asher's signal.
"I found them! They made it out of the Ormus Stronghold. But they're on the complete opposite side from us. I thought KOS-MOS said they would emerge from the eastern wing."
"Let me see." Jr. peered over her shoulder. "Whoa, they're really close to the black hole. What's the chance that they get sucked into it?"
KOS-MOS entered the bridge, "approximately 46 percent and rising. I suggest we pick them up right away. Their fuel isn't going to last them forever, and I've detected a large amount of Gnosis gating out between the black holes."
"I wish we could go get them," Tony muttered, "but the Logical Drive is severely damaged. If we fly too close to the black hole our engines won't be able to fly out of its gravitational field."
"What?" Jr. pounded MOMO's computer with his fist, almost breaking it. "So we're just supposed wait for them to get here with Gnosis flying around?"
"Basically." Hammer said dejected.
"Unacceptable." KOS-MOS muttered.
—
Cathedral really wasn't that tough an enemy, and could have been beaten easily...if the E.S. Asher were in perfect condition...and if they had been fighting on flat terrain...with a full fuel gage. However, in the E.S. Asher's current state, it didn't stand a chance. The angry Gnosis swatted at the mech like a fly, and in less than a minute it had sent the E.S. Asher spiraling back towards the stronghold. The damaged E.S. crashed into a spacecraft docking area. Thankfully the dock was oxygenated.
chaos opened his eyes. He looked at his controls. No activity at all, the E.S. was completely busted. There was no way it was going to leave the ground again. He quickly checked Shion for injuries.
"Or you ok?"
"Yeah." She muttered, but her voice was dripping with venom. She grabbed her M.W.S. and kicked open the cockpit door.
"Where are you going?" He asked, surprised by her sudden spunk.
"I have absolutely HAD IT!" She shouted, "and to think I was resting quietly on the Dammerung before all of this. Grrr!" She broke the safety lock on her weapon, "I don't care how big that thing is; it's GOING DOWN!"
"You're going to fight it on foot?" chaos asked, trying to mask the incredulity in his voice.
"Hell yes, and I'm going to clobber him so badly we're going to have to wipe him up with paper towels."
He repressed the urge to call her crazy, "Um...do you think that's wise, Shion?"
"Look," she wheeled around to face him, "I can either stay here and wait for it to come and eat me or whatever it plans to do with us, or I can get out and kick its butt. It seems like ever since I got up this morning something's been conspiring to kill me, and I've had enough of it. I'm going to blast this Gnosis out of existence and then we're going to figure out a way to get to the Elsa and then I'll...I'll smack someone!" She growled and jumped out of the E.S.
chaos was taken aback by her sudden enthusiasm. He didn't bother stopping her; he was actually attracted to her sudden zeal to come out victorious. Not to mention her rage. Funny, she was very happy a few moments ago. The circumstances had brought about major mood swings. But who knows, maybe it was that time of month. He jumped out after her, focusing his Ether energy.
Cardinal swooped into the docking zone and landed with a crash by the E.S. Asher. It seemed enormous on foot.
"Get back!" Shion screamed and released a volley of electrical charges from her weapon. Cardinal sizzled and sparked as the electricity surged through its body. The Gnosis seemed surprised by her boldness, but it continued its pursuit.
Shion ran around to Cathedral's left and hit it with a cherry bomb. It staggered a bit and fell. The rumble its heavy body caused almost knocked her off her feet.
"It must be tired after its battle with the E.S." chaos shouted, "maybe its too exhausted to continue fighting."
Not quite. The massive Gnosis kicked itself off the ground and hovered above them. Shion was about to let loose a spell ray, but her weapon needed time to charge and Cathedral was too fast. It fired an inky black energy beam that tore a path in the ground as it swept towards Shion.
"Ah!" She covered her face with her hands, expecting to be incinerated (so much for her previous enthusiasm), but felt two strong arms wrap around her waist, and the stinging beam never hit her. She removed he hands to see four angelic wings forming a shield around her and chaos. Somehow they had deflected the energy beam. Astonishment swept her face. Had those wings protected her from the falling ceiling in the stronghold? She had thought she'd imagined them but...
"chaos." She murmured, not sure what to make of his newly grown feathery appendages. Was he some kind of angel?
"Don't worry." He smiled. Her heart fluttered. "This guy's been getting on my nerves too." He released her from his grip and shot up into the air, heading straight for Cathedral, letting loose a flurry of white energy bolts from his hands.
It was amazing. Shion had never seen anyone fight like that before. He spun and dipped through the air like a falcon, pummeling Cathedral while the massive Gnosis didn't even have time to aim an attack. chaos shot around Cathedral faster than a lighting bolt and landed three quick blows on the Gnosis's body (Shion thought she had seen the attack before, Lunar Seal, a golden beam of light, but chaos was moving so fast that she couldn't really tell), and evaded any pitiful attempts Cathedral made of injuring him. He sliced through the air and jabbed at the Gnosis with an uppercut while unleashing a gigantic ball of ice: Arctic Blast. The sphere shattered and crushed the Gnosis in an explosion of diamond dust. But not before Cathedral could fire one last energy blast that melted the floor, and, in accordance with Shion's current line of luck, the ground cracked beneath her and she fell for the second time in ten minutes.
chaos dove for Vector's First Division Chief Engineer, caught her in midair, and carried her gently to safety on a protruding steel plank. She gazed up in awe at the boy who had just saved her life (how many times today?) by singlehandedly wasting a Gnosis that usually gives Federation military spacecrafts problems.
"Who are you?" She asked in amazement as feathers danced around their bodies.
chaos smiled warmly and whispered in her ear, "I'm your Savior."
Before she could question him again, a dull explosion rocked the stronghold. The northern wall of the docking area buckled and imploded, as if some giant had crumpled the steel like paper.
"Hold on!" chaos cried above the scream of the air escaping into deep space, "and take a really deep breath."
Shion didn't bother asking why, since she was more preoccupied with the present condition of the Ormus Stronghold: slowly crumbling and speeding towards a black hole that would tear apart all of their molecules faster than the speed of light. She wrapped her arms around chaos's neck and he alighted off the ground, embracing her to make sure the howling wind wouldn't separate them. He threw one last glance behind his shoulder to make sure Cathedral had indeed evaporated into nothingness. Finally, without hesitating, he beat his wings once and whizzed towards the open wall as Shion's hair flapped wildly in the wind, tickling his face.
Once her feet left the floor Shion didn't open her eyes until the howling wind stopped blowing in her face. She clung to chaos's shirt with white knuckles, fearing she would fall, but her fears were unfounded as she realized they were zooming through deep space. There was nowhere to fall to. She also realized the wind stopped blowing because there was no air. chaos was flying through space. How was that possible! It was already mind-boggling that he had wings, but how could anything travel through a vacuum without some sort of propulsion? How could they be moving with no air underneath his wings?
She would have loved to continue asking herself questions, but the lack of air was starting to get to her. She needed to breathe (and didn't he as well?) Even if she did lose the will to hold her breath; her diaphragm would quiver helplessly in the vacuum of space.
She looked up at chaos's face, which was lit only by starlight now. So the mysterious boy could fly through space. This was handy. If he had preformed a stunt like this a little sooner they could have saved themselves quite a bit of trouble. She made a note to ask him why he waited so long to turn into Superangel once they were safe. If they ever would be safe... Where was the Elsa? It was hard to judge their speed without any point of reference, but the Ormus Stronghold faded behind them very quickly, so chaos must have been going incredibly fast. They would have spotted the Elsa by now if it were close by.
Enough. No more time to think. Shion's lungs were screaming. She cast a desperate look at chaos, even in the dim light he could tell her face was steadily turning an eerie shade of blue. She couldn't even cry for help. The sound waves couldn't leave her vocal chords.
chaos held her head reassuringly and flew in a wide arc around the disappearing stronghold. He had to find the Elsa. There was simply no other option. If he didn't spot the space cruiser in the next ten seconds, well, that would just be unacceptable.
"Shion." In the midst of her agony Shion could still hear the crazy voices in her head. "Shion." Nope, she wasn't going insane. It was Nephilim.
"Shion, the Aeons are protecting you. Don't be afraid. All you have to do is ask for their help. Can't you tell they've been helping you up to this point? Have a little faith."
Again with the freaking Aeons! If only Nephilim would stop it with the cryptic messages! Shion couldn't take it anymore. She knew she'd pass out soon.
"KOS-MOS." She whispered against chaos's chest, "please help us."
—
"What! I lost it!" Jr. whacked his monitor again. MOMO had left her computer and taken her seat at another screen on the bridge. She was afraid Jr.'s fist would collide with her head next.
"I just had it!" He shouted again, "I just had the E.S. Asher's signal on our sensors, but then it spun around and went back into the stronghold. Why the hell would they go back? Did Shion drop her wallet! And now the signal is completely gone."
"The Ormus Stronghold is approaching the black hole at dangerous speeds," MOMO said worriedly, she pointed at the display on her screen, "at this rate it'll..."
"It'll be pulled into the hole's gravitational field in less then three minutes, at which point not even light will be able to escape." KOS-MOS completed MOMO's sentence. As she finished speaking, a peculiar look crossed the android's face. It looked as if she were confused, but she quickly blinked it away and walked towards the bridge's exit with fearful resolve.
"Hammer," she said, typing in a few coordinates on his navigational computer, "direct the Elsa to this spot. The black hole's gravitational field is weak there, and even the Elsa's damaged Logical Drive should be able to escape it."
"Why," Mathews began, annoyed that someone other than himself was giving Hammer orders, "should we follow those directions?"
"Shion and chaos have left the stronghold and are headed for those coordinates. If you'll please excuse me, I'll be on the Elsa's roof receiving them. You should head for that destination with all due speed."
"I'm on it!" Cried Tony.
"What!" The Captain yelled, jumping out of his elevated chair, "you're gonna leave the ship? Are you nuts! After all that work it took us to haul your metallic butt back in here?" He raced across the bridge and blocked her path.
"Captain," KOS-MOS said calmly, "I don't believe I have a choice in this matter. Shion will not survive in outer space for more than four minutes. Six at most. I suggest you move before I resort to forceful measures."
"Please do." Hammer muttered under his breath.
"Hey!" The Captain bellowed, "I heard that!" But as he was screaming at the Elsa's navigator, KOS-MOS shoved him aside and proceeded down the ship's cabin towards the emergency elevator that would take her to the roof.
"Wait," Mathews called after her, "At least activate the airlock!"
—
"Don't worry." chaos whispered into Shion's ear. She was too tired to wonder how she could possibly hear his voice. "Everything is going to be fine."
She shot him a look that said "how could you possibly say that when we're flying around airless space without any idea where the Elsa is and these god-damned black holes have sucked up all our chances of survival!" But chaos only smiled warmly and nodded ahead of him. Shion turned her head and gasped. Well, would have gasped if air could have rushed down her throat.
In the glare of its headlights, the Elsa was approaching. It was beautiful, Shion thought, and kind of romantic too. Here she was in the arms of an angel being carried through the dizzying immensity of starlit space towards a sleek and powerful space cruiser. Or, that's what she would have thought anyway if her lungs weren't about to explode. Shion squinted in the starlight and attempted to gasp again. KOS-MOS was standing on the roof of the bridge with her arms outstretched, as if she'd known they would have come this way all along. chaos sped toward her and both he and Shion reached out and grabbed KOS-MOS's hands. She pulled them to safety and started the elevator's descent to the wonderfully oxygenated interior of the Elsa.
Shion was too weak to stand, and her head collapsed on KOS-MOS's shoulder. She turned her head just enough so she could see chaos beaming down at her. His wings were disappearing in a flurry of feathers. For an instant the aura of sadness he usually carried about him was gone. She wanted to say thank you, but realized the faint wisps of air just beginning to blow around them wouldn't be enough to carry her voice to his ears. So in a burst of newly found strength, she grabbed his hand and held it close to her heart, locking their fingers together. She smiled weakly and the last thing she saw was chaos's face turning an interesting shade of scarlet before she passed out on KOS-MOS' shoulder.
Don't worry Shion. The Aeons will protect you.
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Whew, longer than I thought. Anyhow, I'm going on vacation next week, so I don't know how quickly I'll get the next chapter up, but I'll do my best.
Tell me what you think, R/R.