More than Words Can Say
by Cherry Whisper
Chapter One: Dreams
Darkness. Shadows engulfed the room, but the chamber was dimly lit by the eerie glow of the small candles. The smell of blood and decay hung in the cold air and flooded her senses like an overwhelming wave crashing upon the shore. In her horror, she saw them, one by one, strewn stiffly upon the hard, polished floor. Their humanlike arms and legs were distorted and twisted in grotesque ways that she did not think were possible, the long silver tendrils of their hair were tangled about their beautiful, yet emotionless, faces. Their eyes, their vacant yellow eyes, were open. They were staring; at what she was too frightened to know. Her small knees buckled at the sight of the corpses of her sisters as they lied in dark puddles of their blood. Her stomach was in multiple knots and she held her mouth with one of her little hands to suppress her urge to vomit. In her mind she wished to scream, but she was too terrified by the scene before her.
And then she saw HIM. He held the limp form of one of her sisters in his arms as he sat in his large chair. Those same barren eyes stared in her direction from her tanned face as he looked at her with violet eyes of his own, eyes that had some sort of insanity to them, but also a depth of hidden complexity. He rose from his seat and dropped the body onto the floor in the same way a child discards an unwanted toy out of boredom, while all at the same time he wore that sadistic smile on his pale face and watched her with his scrutinizing eyes. He stepped casually over her dead sisters and approached her as she helplessly remained petrified, as if she too were frozen and still like the lifeless bodies of her departed siblings.
MOMO woke with a start. She sat up from her soft mattress, and in doing so she had thrown the blankets off of her body. She brought her knees close to her chest and wrapped her dainty arms around them tightly. Tears streamed down her eyes and her breath came in choked sobs. Suddenly realizing that she was in her room on board the Durandal, she looked over to the bed beside her to find a sleeping Shion. Not wanting to awaken the copper-haired young woman, MOMO made her best attempts to silence her crying. Her large, golden eyes then directed themselves to the large windowpane to her other side. Small points of light resonated together against the black abyss known as outer space. They shone at her like so many gems of blue and white while their light pulsed softly and harmonically like the precise hands of a clock.
"They're so beautiful." MOMO whispered to herself. She swung her slim legs onto the side of her bed and hopped quietly onto the red carpet beneath her. She drew nearer to the windowpane and pressed her hands upon it, the cold glass slowly absorbing the heat from her body. Her forehead supported itself against the window, the stars almost beckoning her as a flame does to an oblivious moth.
"You're all the only ones that don't sleep at night. That must mean.you see a lot, right? You know more than any human or Realian ever could." She thoughtfully said outloud, still entranced by the celestial entities. "You watch over so many things while you hang there in the sky."
Her hands left the icy surface of the window and clasped together as if she was in prayer. Her head bent down low, the velvety strands of her pink hair tumbling over her shoulders. "Please.look over my sisters. Look over the people I care about. Make sure that.that HE never comes back to hurt the ones I love."
A warm tear splashed onto her hands as she stood still in the company of the stars, which in turn provided her with the comfort she had so desperately needed at that moment.
* * * *
Beep, beep, beep! Beep, beep, beep!
"My goodness, what IS that noise?" Shion, much to her displeasure, opened her eyes to discover a ringing electronic clock beckoning her from her sleep. She grunted as one of her hands slammed on the button of the contraption to cease its racket and the other fumbled upon the nightstand beside her bed for her glasses.
Shion sighed, her eyes still weary from slumber. Last night was one of the few that she was actually able to get a good sleep ever since she and her allies were fortunate enough to escape the events at Proto Merkabah. She was disappointed that she might not get another night such as the recent one, but she convinced herself that she had duties to attend to.
"I have to check on KOS-MOS and see if her repairs are going smoothly." Her sight was now correctly adjusted after putting her glasses on, and she was now heading toward her closet for her Vector uniform until she was shocked that the bed next to hers was empty.
"MOMO?! Where did she go?" Shion rushed to the unoccupied bed and looked under the now cold blankets. Her heart did not stop rattling in her chest until she went around the bed and discovered a sleeping MOMO upon the ground, her body huddled against the windowpane.
"What is she doing here?" Shion questioned. Although she lacked the physical strength of the android KOS-MOS or the cyborg Ziggurat 8, MOMO was light enough for Shion to place upon the mattress. She pulled the discarded blankets over the Realian girl and tucked her in as if she were a mother caring for an infant.
She needs sleep, Shion thought to herself. She went to the closet as originally planned, obtained her uniform, and entered the elaborate bathroom to get prepared for the day, leaving MOMO to sleep.
* * * *
Jr. poked his uneaten scrambled eggs and sausage with his fork, resting his cheek upon one of his hands. He stared at his breakfast only, and did not look up at anything else with interest. Gaignun Kukai eyed his long-time friend quizzically as he sipped his coffee. Mary and Shelley Godwin also observed their Little Master with curiosity.
"You haven't eaten one thing, Little Master," the younger Godwin stated in between gulps of her orange juice, her blond curls swinging against the sides of her smooth face. "Is the food that bad?"
"No, it's not." Jr. answered in monotone, his silver fork still jabbing at the untouched eggs.
"Eggs are an excellent source of protein," the purple-haired, elder sister said in her usual intellectual tone. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, Little Master. It provides you with sufficient energy to get you through your morning activities. It would be unwise to skip it like you have done in the past several days." Shelley then began to neatly eat her toast with ladylike nibbles.
"Yeah.what she said.and look at you, Little Master! You ain't nothing but skin and bones!" Mary concluded after a bite of her bacon. "And did no one have the right mind to tell you that you shouldn't play with your food?"
"Will you guys get off my back?!" Jr. exclaimed, shoving a bite of his eggs into his mouth and forcing himself to swallow. "There, I'm eating! Happy now?"
The sisters were quiet as an uncomfortable silence hung in the air, with the exceptions of the tinkering of forks and plates and the munches of food. Gaignun's calm green eyes focused on the seemingly twelve-year-old redhead as Jr. took a bite of his sausage.
"Shelley and Mary are right, you know. You have not been eating much for several weeks."
Jr. heard Gaignun's composed voice sounding in the recesses of his mind. "Leave me alone, Gaignun." He retorted telepathically back to the president of the Kukai Foundation.
"Jr., there has been something troubling you. I know."
"Stop talking to me like I'm a kid!" Jr. snapped back agitatedly while drinking the contents of his mug full of unsweetened coffee. Before Gaignun could say anything else, the starving crew of the Elsa barged in.
"Man, that bacon sure smells good!" Hammer spoke hungrily after seating himself and began stuffing his face full of toast and fried bacon.
Tony obviously agreed, for he was taking ravenous bites of eggs and slurps of coffee. Captain Matthews joined his crew and was enjoying his breakfast as well.
"Morning, boss." He greeted Gaignun, who had just finished his meal.
"You seem in a good mood, Matthews." He politely replied.
"You're damn right about that!" Matthews enthusiastically confirmed, and he presented three slips of paper from his pants pocket. "I finally managed to get my hands on these babies!"
"They look like tickets," Mary answered.
"That's 'cause they are! These little beauties are going to take me to the Seraphim Sisters concert next Friday!"
"Why did you buy an excess amount of tickets?" Shelley questioned.
"Oh, these.well, they're for Tony and Hammer."
Instantly, Hammer nearly choked on a piece of bacon lodged in his throat. Tony's fork clattered onto his plate because it had slipped from his fingers.
"YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!" Hammer objected in fear and rage. "No way, Captain, THAT'S where I draw the line!!!"
"Just listen to yourself," Matthews tried to calm his navigator. "You make it sound like you're gonna get eaten by a bunch of Gnosis or something."
"I rather be torn apart by a whole horde of Gnosis then go to some stupid concert, surrounded by millions and millions of screaming lunatic girls!"
"Girls?!" The dread on Tony's handsome face was gone upon hearing that females would be present at the event. "You mean like the cute kind?"
"Who cares who's gonna be there?!" Matthews passionately declared. "All that matters is that the Seraphim Sisters will be there on the stage, their heavenly voices singing over the microphone and repeating over and over again in my eager ears like they've done in my dreams!" Tears of happiness were almost streaming down the Captain's aged eyes. "Oh, what I wouldn't give to be singing on stage with them!"
The pathetic display of bliss on Matthews' and Tony's faces and the helpless one on Hammer's was so hilarious that Gaignun, Shelley, and Mary had to hold back the desire to laugh uncontrollably. But Jr. was not affected. He did not even chuckle or made a smart comment that was so characteristic of his carefree nature like he usually did. He only stared at his plate, mounds of egg still there on the white surface.
"Good morning everyone," Shion chirped as she entered Gaignun's private dining room. She took a seat next across a depressed Hammer and beside an ecstatic Matthews. "Um.what's going on?"
"Yeah, fill me in," a masculine voice broke into the conversation. Allen had arrived after Shion, and was let down upon seeing that the seat next to his beloved Chief was already occupied by an unusually overjoyed Captain Matthews.
"Oh," Mary stared, her face red from restraining her laughter, "Captain Matthews here was just lucky enough to get tickets to see those singers that he's always yapping about."
"They're called the Seraphim Sisters!" Matthews corrected her. "Man, they have such a beautiful name that whenever I say it it's like calling out to those two angels."
Shion giggled, "That's such good news, Captain! You've been wanting to see that concert for some time now.hey, where's chaos?"
Hammer, being the only one able to speak since Matthews was too jubilant to do so and Tony was daydreaming about how many phone numbers he can get next Friday night, replied, "We're not sure where he is. He wasn't in his room when I went in to wake him up. I guess he's wandering around the ship somewhere."
"That's strange," Shion said while drinking her juice, enjoying the citrus flavor of the oranges, "I hope that he's O.K."
Allen looked around the table from his seat, and also noticed that the silver-haired young man was not the only one absent from breakfast. "Hey Chief, wasn't MOMO with you?"
Jr.'s head shot up in interest after Allen had spoken that name. Gaignun took note of it as being the only time during breakfast that the U.R.T.V. was actually paying attention.
"I let her sleep in a little. She needs the rest."
"What happened to her?" Jr. questioned, trying to hide his concern.
"Nothing happened," Shion assured him. "It's just that this morning, I found her asleep near the window in our room. I think she was up for a while until she was able to rest."
Jr.'s head bent low after hearing what Shion had told him. Gaignun watched him with worry, and suddenly the black-haired businessman thought of a solution.
"Even Realians must have nutrition to carry out daily routines just as humans do. If MOMO does not wake up soon, I fear that there won't be any food left for her."
Jr.'s bright azure eyes directed themselves towards Gaignun, and he noticed that there was a small smile on his thin lips.
"Why don't you bring breakfast down to her?"
Jr. grinned at the suggestion Gaignun had just channeled mentally to him. He left his seat and went over to MOMO's empty chair. He saw a silver tray on which a large pitcher of orange juice was settled upon, and took it, placing the beverage on the tablecloth. He carefully put a plate of scrambled eggs, browned toast, and warm sausage onto the tray along with a tall cool glass of orange juice. He then carefully made his way to the door as he carried the tray of food with him.
"Where are you going, Little Master?" Mary asked. Jr. looked back at her and the entire party, their inquisitive faces all staring at him.
"I'm just gonna bring MOMO something to eat." He simply answered, and left the room. Only Gaignun and the Godwin sisters knew why the young Rubedo had a sudden change of moods.
* * * *
MOMO whimpered upon seeing the corpse before her. The same long silver hair was tangled about the motionless form of the Kirschwasser, but did not conceal those haunting eyes that seemed to scream at her with an inexplicable hatred. Even if she was dead, her sister's eyes told her of the life of denial, agony, and wretchedness that she was forced to undergo. MOMO fell onto her knees next to the Kirschwasser, and her trembling hand swept away the loose strands of hair from her face.
"It was all your fault." MOMO nearly screamed upon hearing the voice. It was that of her sister's, although the corpse's silvery-blue lips never moved. "Daddy loved you most. He never looked at us the same way he looked at you."
All of a sudden, more corpses of the Kirschwassers came into MOMO's view one by one. They all possessed the same wide, barren eyes of suffering, the same gray hair, the same blank voices that did not conceal their emotions of abhorrence and resentment.
"We did not exist to him."
"You were all he cared about."
"You are the cause of our pain."
"You were the one who should have been killed."
".taste our sorrow."
".all your fault.die."
MOMO was too petrified to even cry. The Kirschwassers surrounded her, their opened eyes shot daggers at her from their rigid corpses. The scent of their blood permeated the air as they continued to threaten and torture her, their detached voices dripping poison.
"Yes, that's right!" A chilling voice boasted behind her, the same voice that has been lingering in her thoughts since HE had kidnapped her. MOMO's head turned slowly, and her entire body began to shake violently upon seeing her tormentor.
His milky-white hair was complemented by his maddening, violet eyes. His masculine figure towered over her as he let out another maniacal laugh that sent shivers down her spine.
A crazed smile spread across his pale face. "They are all right, my adorable little peach. It was all YOUR fault! Yours entirely! YOU only bring grief to the people around you, you are the reason of everyone's strife!"
MOMO covered her ears, trying desperately to prevent herself from believing the man's terrible words. "No, that's not true! I didn't mean to hurt anyone."
"It does not matter." His voice heightened to a shrieking laugh. "Don't you see after all this time? You are only a danger, a predicament, AN ABONIMATION. You were born from a war in which countless people lost their lives."
"S-stop it.please just stop it."
"You were created from the hands of a murderer. You are only a mere little doll assembled by a madman!"
"Daddy.daddy wasn't a madman!"
"You have no soul, you have no heart! You are only a mimicry of humanity, the embodiment of the dreams of your delusional inventor. You will only lead the ones you love to misery!"
"Leave me alone!"
"THEY WILL SUFFER BECAUSE OF YOU!"
MOMO cast her eyes down from her accuser, only to find that the Kirschwasser was no longer before her. In her place, was the unmoving body of a crimson-haired boy. His limbs were spread out like those of a broken marionette's, and his cerulean eyes were wide open, staring expressionlessly into MOMO's horrified face. She panicked, and cradled his cold body in her arms, supporting the back of his head.
"Jr.please, wake up." She pleaded, gripping his hand with her clammy one.
"Look at your hands, ma peche. See his death upon them."
She did not know why she listened to him, but she apparently did. She allowed Jr.'s head to rest upon her lap while she raised her hands. Dripping from her palms and fingers was blood, as red as his fiery hair. It ran from her hands and onto Jr.'s pallid face in the form of tiny spheres.
"I did this to him.I killed him."
A deafening laughter pounded in her ears while her tears rolled down her cheeks and fell onto Jr.'s face, intermixing with the drops of blood from her hands.
A blood-curling scream pierced the quietness of the hallway outside of MOMO's room.
Special note: Sorry to break the mood, but this is my first Xenosaga fic. I hope if anyone read this, that you enjoyed it. Feel free to send me your comments here: cherry_whisper01@yahoo.com. Tell me what you think. Thanks! (
by Cherry Whisper
Chapter One: Dreams
Darkness. Shadows engulfed the room, but the chamber was dimly lit by the eerie glow of the small candles. The smell of blood and decay hung in the cold air and flooded her senses like an overwhelming wave crashing upon the shore. In her horror, she saw them, one by one, strewn stiffly upon the hard, polished floor. Their humanlike arms and legs were distorted and twisted in grotesque ways that she did not think were possible, the long silver tendrils of their hair were tangled about their beautiful, yet emotionless, faces. Their eyes, their vacant yellow eyes, were open. They were staring; at what she was too frightened to know. Her small knees buckled at the sight of the corpses of her sisters as they lied in dark puddles of their blood. Her stomach was in multiple knots and she held her mouth with one of her little hands to suppress her urge to vomit. In her mind she wished to scream, but she was too terrified by the scene before her.
And then she saw HIM. He held the limp form of one of her sisters in his arms as he sat in his large chair. Those same barren eyes stared in her direction from her tanned face as he looked at her with violet eyes of his own, eyes that had some sort of insanity to them, but also a depth of hidden complexity. He rose from his seat and dropped the body onto the floor in the same way a child discards an unwanted toy out of boredom, while all at the same time he wore that sadistic smile on his pale face and watched her with his scrutinizing eyes. He stepped casually over her dead sisters and approached her as she helplessly remained petrified, as if she too were frozen and still like the lifeless bodies of her departed siblings.
MOMO woke with a start. She sat up from her soft mattress, and in doing so she had thrown the blankets off of her body. She brought her knees close to her chest and wrapped her dainty arms around them tightly. Tears streamed down her eyes and her breath came in choked sobs. Suddenly realizing that she was in her room on board the Durandal, she looked over to the bed beside her to find a sleeping Shion. Not wanting to awaken the copper-haired young woman, MOMO made her best attempts to silence her crying. Her large, golden eyes then directed themselves to the large windowpane to her other side. Small points of light resonated together against the black abyss known as outer space. They shone at her like so many gems of blue and white while their light pulsed softly and harmonically like the precise hands of a clock.
"They're so beautiful." MOMO whispered to herself. She swung her slim legs onto the side of her bed and hopped quietly onto the red carpet beneath her. She drew nearer to the windowpane and pressed her hands upon it, the cold glass slowly absorbing the heat from her body. Her forehead supported itself against the window, the stars almost beckoning her as a flame does to an oblivious moth.
"You're all the only ones that don't sleep at night. That must mean.you see a lot, right? You know more than any human or Realian ever could." She thoughtfully said outloud, still entranced by the celestial entities. "You watch over so many things while you hang there in the sky."
Her hands left the icy surface of the window and clasped together as if she was in prayer. Her head bent down low, the velvety strands of her pink hair tumbling over her shoulders. "Please.look over my sisters. Look over the people I care about. Make sure that.that HE never comes back to hurt the ones I love."
A warm tear splashed onto her hands as she stood still in the company of the stars, which in turn provided her with the comfort she had so desperately needed at that moment.
* * * *
Beep, beep, beep! Beep, beep, beep!
"My goodness, what IS that noise?" Shion, much to her displeasure, opened her eyes to discover a ringing electronic clock beckoning her from her sleep. She grunted as one of her hands slammed on the button of the contraption to cease its racket and the other fumbled upon the nightstand beside her bed for her glasses.
Shion sighed, her eyes still weary from slumber. Last night was one of the few that she was actually able to get a good sleep ever since she and her allies were fortunate enough to escape the events at Proto Merkabah. She was disappointed that she might not get another night such as the recent one, but she convinced herself that she had duties to attend to.
"I have to check on KOS-MOS and see if her repairs are going smoothly." Her sight was now correctly adjusted after putting her glasses on, and she was now heading toward her closet for her Vector uniform until she was shocked that the bed next to hers was empty.
"MOMO?! Where did she go?" Shion rushed to the unoccupied bed and looked under the now cold blankets. Her heart did not stop rattling in her chest until she went around the bed and discovered a sleeping MOMO upon the ground, her body huddled against the windowpane.
"What is she doing here?" Shion questioned. Although she lacked the physical strength of the android KOS-MOS or the cyborg Ziggurat 8, MOMO was light enough for Shion to place upon the mattress. She pulled the discarded blankets over the Realian girl and tucked her in as if she were a mother caring for an infant.
She needs sleep, Shion thought to herself. She went to the closet as originally planned, obtained her uniform, and entered the elaborate bathroom to get prepared for the day, leaving MOMO to sleep.
* * * *
Jr. poked his uneaten scrambled eggs and sausage with his fork, resting his cheek upon one of his hands. He stared at his breakfast only, and did not look up at anything else with interest. Gaignun Kukai eyed his long-time friend quizzically as he sipped his coffee. Mary and Shelley Godwin also observed their Little Master with curiosity.
"You haven't eaten one thing, Little Master," the younger Godwin stated in between gulps of her orange juice, her blond curls swinging against the sides of her smooth face. "Is the food that bad?"
"No, it's not." Jr. answered in monotone, his silver fork still jabbing at the untouched eggs.
"Eggs are an excellent source of protein," the purple-haired, elder sister said in her usual intellectual tone. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, Little Master. It provides you with sufficient energy to get you through your morning activities. It would be unwise to skip it like you have done in the past several days." Shelley then began to neatly eat her toast with ladylike nibbles.
"Yeah.what she said.and look at you, Little Master! You ain't nothing but skin and bones!" Mary concluded after a bite of her bacon. "And did no one have the right mind to tell you that you shouldn't play with your food?"
"Will you guys get off my back?!" Jr. exclaimed, shoving a bite of his eggs into his mouth and forcing himself to swallow. "There, I'm eating! Happy now?"
The sisters were quiet as an uncomfortable silence hung in the air, with the exceptions of the tinkering of forks and plates and the munches of food. Gaignun's calm green eyes focused on the seemingly twelve-year-old redhead as Jr. took a bite of his sausage.
"Shelley and Mary are right, you know. You have not been eating much for several weeks."
Jr. heard Gaignun's composed voice sounding in the recesses of his mind. "Leave me alone, Gaignun." He retorted telepathically back to the president of the Kukai Foundation.
"Jr., there has been something troubling you. I know."
"Stop talking to me like I'm a kid!" Jr. snapped back agitatedly while drinking the contents of his mug full of unsweetened coffee. Before Gaignun could say anything else, the starving crew of the Elsa barged in.
"Man, that bacon sure smells good!" Hammer spoke hungrily after seating himself and began stuffing his face full of toast and fried bacon.
Tony obviously agreed, for he was taking ravenous bites of eggs and slurps of coffee. Captain Matthews joined his crew and was enjoying his breakfast as well.
"Morning, boss." He greeted Gaignun, who had just finished his meal.
"You seem in a good mood, Matthews." He politely replied.
"You're damn right about that!" Matthews enthusiastically confirmed, and he presented three slips of paper from his pants pocket. "I finally managed to get my hands on these babies!"
"They look like tickets," Mary answered.
"That's 'cause they are! These little beauties are going to take me to the Seraphim Sisters concert next Friday!"
"Why did you buy an excess amount of tickets?" Shelley questioned.
"Oh, these.well, they're for Tony and Hammer."
Instantly, Hammer nearly choked on a piece of bacon lodged in his throat. Tony's fork clattered onto his plate because it had slipped from his fingers.
"YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!" Hammer objected in fear and rage. "No way, Captain, THAT'S where I draw the line!!!"
"Just listen to yourself," Matthews tried to calm his navigator. "You make it sound like you're gonna get eaten by a bunch of Gnosis or something."
"I rather be torn apart by a whole horde of Gnosis then go to some stupid concert, surrounded by millions and millions of screaming lunatic girls!"
"Girls?!" The dread on Tony's handsome face was gone upon hearing that females would be present at the event. "You mean like the cute kind?"
"Who cares who's gonna be there?!" Matthews passionately declared. "All that matters is that the Seraphim Sisters will be there on the stage, their heavenly voices singing over the microphone and repeating over and over again in my eager ears like they've done in my dreams!" Tears of happiness were almost streaming down the Captain's aged eyes. "Oh, what I wouldn't give to be singing on stage with them!"
The pathetic display of bliss on Matthews' and Tony's faces and the helpless one on Hammer's was so hilarious that Gaignun, Shelley, and Mary had to hold back the desire to laugh uncontrollably. But Jr. was not affected. He did not even chuckle or made a smart comment that was so characteristic of his carefree nature like he usually did. He only stared at his plate, mounds of egg still there on the white surface.
"Good morning everyone," Shion chirped as she entered Gaignun's private dining room. She took a seat next across a depressed Hammer and beside an ecstatic Matthews. "Um.what's going on?"
"Yeah, fill me in," a masculine voice broke into the conversation. Allen had arrived after Shion, and was let down upon seeing that the seat next to his beloved Chief was already occupied by an unusually overjoyed Captain Matthews.
"Oh," Mary stared, her face red from restraining her laughter, "Captain Matthews here was just lucky enough to get tickets to see those singers that he's always yapping about."
"They're called the Seraphim Sisters!" Matthews corrected her. "Man, they have such a beautiful name that whenever I say it it's like calling out to those two angels."
Shion giggled, "That's such good news, Captain! You've been wanting to see that concert for some time now.hey, where's chaos?"
Hammer, being the only one able to speak since Matthews was too jubilant to do so and Tony was daydreaming about how many phone numbers he can get next Friday night, replied, "We're not sure where he is. He wasn't in his room when I went in to wake him up. I guess he's wandering around the ship somewhere."
"That's strange," Shion said while drinking her juice, enjoying the citrus flavor of the oranges, "I hope that he's O.K."
Allen looked around the table from his seat, and also noticed that the silver-haired young man was not the only one absent from breakfast. "Hey Chief, wasn't MOMO with you?"
Jr.'s head shot up in interest after Allen had spoken that name. Gaignun took note of it as being the only time during breakfast that the U.R.T.V. was actually paying attention.
"I let her sleep in a little. She needs the rest."
"What happened to her?" Jr. questioned, trying to hide his concern.
"Nothing happened," Shion assured him. "It's just that this morning, I found her asleep near the window in our room. I think she was up for a while until she was able to rest."
Jr.'s head bent low after hearing what Shion had told him. Gaignun watched him with worry, and suddenly the black-haired businessman thought of a solution.
"Even Realians must have nutrition to carry out daily routines just as humans do. If MOMO does not wake up soon, I fear that there won't be any food left for her."
Jr.'s bright azure eyes directed themselves towards Gaignun, and he noticed that there was a small smile on his thin lips.
"Why don't you bring breakfast down to her?"
Jr. grinned at the suggestion Gaignun had just channeled mentally to him. He left his seat and went over to MOMO's empty chair. He saw a silver tray on which a large pitcher of orange juice was settled upon, and took it, placing the beverage on the tablecloth. He carefully put a plate of scrambled eggs, browned toast, and warm sausage onto the tray along with a tall cool glass of orange juice. He then carefully made his way to the door as he carried the tray of food with him.
"Where are you going, Little Master?" Mary asked. Jr. looked back at her and the entire party, their inquisitive faces all staring at him.
"I'm just gonna bring MOMO something to eat." He simply answered, and left the room. Only Gaignun and the Godwin sisters knew why the young Rubedo had a sudden change of moods.
* * * *
MOMO whimpered upon seeing the corpse before her. The same long silver hair was tangled about the motionless form of the Kirschwasser, but did not conceal those haunting eyes that seemed to scream at her with an inexplicable hatred. Even if she was dead, her sister's eyes told her of the life of denial, agony, and wretchedness that she was forced to undergo. MOMO fell onto her knees next to the Kirschwasser, and her trembling hand swept away the loose strands of hair from her face.
"It was all your fault." MOMO nearly screamed upon hearing the voice. It was that of her sister's, although the corpse's silvery-blue lips never moved. "Daddy loved you most. He never looked at us the same way he looked at you."
All of a sudden, more corpses of the Kirschwassers came into MOMO's view one by one. They all possessed the same wide, barren eyes of suffering, the same gray hair, the same blank voices that did not conceal their emotions of abhorrence and resentment.
"We did not exist to him."
"You were all he cared about."
"You are the cause of our pain."
"You were the one who should have been killed."
".taste our sorrow."
".all your fault.die."
MOMO was too petrified to even cry. The Kirschwassers surrounded her, their opened eyes shot daggers at her from their rigid corpses. The scent of their blood permeated the air as they continued to threaten and torture her, their detached voices dripping poison.
"Yes, that's right!" A chilling voice boasted behind her, the same voice that has been lingering in her thoughts since HE had kidnapped her. MOMO's head turned slowly, and her entire body began to shake violently upon seeing her tormentor.
His milky-white hair was complemented by his maddening, violet eyes. His masculine figure towered over her as he let out another maniacal laugh that sent shivers down her spine.
A crazed smile spread across his pale face. "They are all right, my adorable little peach. It was all YOUR fault! Yours entirely! YOU only bring grief to the people around you, you are the reason of everyone's strife!"
MOMO covered her ears, trying desperately to prevent herself from believing the man's terrible words. "No, that's not true! I didn't mean to hurt anyone."
"It does not matter." His voice heightened to a shrieking laugh. "Don't you see after all this time? You are only a danger, a predicament, AN ABONIMATION. You were born from a war in which countless people lost their lives."
"S-stop it.please just stop it."
"You were created from the hands of a murderer. You are only a mere little doll assembled by a madman!"
"Daddy.daddy wasn't a madman!"
"You have no soul, you have no heart! You are only a mimicry of humanity, the embodiment of the dreams of your delusional inventor. You will only lead the ones you love to misery!"
"Leave me alone!"
"THEY WILL SUFFER BECAUSE OF YOU!"
MOMO cast her eyes down from her accuser, only to find that the Kirschwasser was no longer before her. In her place, was the unmoving body of a crimson-haired boy. His limbs were spread out like those of a broken marionette's, and his cerulean eyes were wide open, staring expressionlessly into MOMO's horrified face. She panicked, and cradled his cold body in her arms, supporting the back of his head.
"Jr.please, wake up." She pleaded, gripping his hand with her clammy one.
"Look at your hands, ma peche. See his death upon them."
She did not know why she listened to him, but she apparently did. She allowed Jr.'s head to rest upon her lap while she raised her hands. Dripping from her palms and fingers was blood, as red as his fiery hair. It ran from her hands and onto Jr.'s pallid face in the form of tiny spheres.
"I did this to him.I killed him."
A deafening laughter pounded in her ears while her tears rolled down her cheeks and fell onto Jr.'s face, intermixing with the drops of blood from her hands.
A blood-curling scream pierced the quietness of the hallway outside of MOMO's room.
Special note: Sorry to break the mood, but this is my first Xenosaga fic. I hope if anyone read this, that you enjoyed it. Feel free to send me your comments here: cherry_whisper01@yahoo.com. Tell me what you think. Thanks! (