System Error

by Karen Hart

Disclaimer: No profit is made or intended from this story. Xenosaga and its related characters, settings and trademarks belong to Monolity Software, Inc. and Bandai Namco. I write these fanfictions for love of the game(s), nothing more.

Author's note: This story was illustrated by rdsullivan. If you wish to see said illustrations, refer to this: www dot xenolegacy dot com/forum/viewtopic dot php?t equals 823&start equals 555

So, he thought, the time has finally come. He knelt down and inserted the Key into Zarathustra, waited for the light and the dark and that strange fog that came of lives and history being washed not away, but back. It didn't. It didn't, and that worried him, though the look on his face never changed. He glanced up at the device, which had worked for countless cycles, and wondered.

He heard something then, where he had not expected speech, not when he'd plugged the boy into Joshua, in his own little sense-deprived world, unaware of the trick that Wilhelm was going to play on him. "Illegal Operation in program ZaraRestart.exe. Close?" He closed his eyes at that, and, with his back to everyone, scowled.

"Yes," he said, because there was no other choice.

"Illegal Operation in program ZaraRestart.exe. Close?"

"Yes," he said again, his voice firm.

"Illegal Operation in program ZaraRestart.exe. Close?"

"Yes." The barest hint of frustration managed to wrap itself around the word.

"Illegal Operation in pro—"

"This isn't good," he heard Yeshua understate, heard the rustle of cloth in the stillness and turned around. So his counterpart was going to take action? Yes, there he stood, hands held out in front of him. Light appeared at the palms, and grew and intensified until it consumed the—he settled on the term for the sake of convenience—youth's hands. No one else did anything, forced down to the floor as they were. Mary did nothing, knowing there was nothing left for her to do.

"If you do that, Yeshua, there will be no going back," he pointed out. Surely, even Yeshua saw that using his failsafe was not a viable answer, not when he had a way to—. Well, so apparently he didn't.

Yeshua looked him, just the slightest shift of his head, and said, "I know that. But Zarathustra is crashing. If I do nothing, as I have been doing, then this world will undergo a system error. There's no other choice. Mary," he addressed the android, though his eyes were still on Wilhelm. "Please, release my power of Anima."

Amazing how tense silence could be. Then: "The power cannot be displayed." It was also amazing that so simple a phrase could break through Yeshua's perpetual calm.

He flung a Refresh either at her. No avail. "The power cannot be displayed." It was ZaraRestart.exe all over again.

"Stupid UMN Explorer."

"I see," was all Wilhelm said to Yeshua's attempt to use his failsafe. So this is what failure feels like. I think I prefer denial. "So now all that is left is for the fall into…chaos."

"No." When did the youth's voice ever have that hard an edge? "Even without my power of Anima, I still may be able to do something." He held his hands out again. "Control…Alt…Delete." And something happened.

The world disappeared, and suddenly they were surrounded by blue, and, oddly, by words. "A fatal exception has occurred in process ciwl4e. Press any key to continue," Wilhelm read in steadily growing disbelief. Well, there was only one key he knew of. He reached down to where he remembered it being and pressed. The blue disappeared, and reappeared. "A fatal exception…" he read again.

"It seemed to do something, though. Controlaltdeletecontrolaltdelete!" Yeshua attempted the makeshift failsafe in rapid succession, and everything went black.

Words and numbers swept past them, gibberish and too fast. Finally it all stopped. "Unable to boot Universe. Start in Safe Mode?"

Wilhelm and Yeshua looked at each other and sighed the answer as one. "Yes."

And the two of them promptly disappeared.