Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the game of Xenosaga, that is own by Namco and Monolith (pardon the spelling) Xenogears is owned by Square-Enix and I ave no intention of using this story in any way to earn money or take credit for it's creation. My only intent is to use these characters to make a wonderfull story.
Chapter 7: The Durandal and a much needed chance to rest
It had been awhile since Ziggy had had the need to chew Daemar out for pulling idiotic or stupid stunts. Certainly he was a cyborg that tried to deny his human side and all that it entailed, including his emotions. But that didn't stop him from making use of a colorful vocabulary that his drill instructor back on Earth would be envious to have and more than a little scared to use. In short, when the elevator stopped on the Durandal's bridge Daemar stood as far from Ziggy and Kos-Mos as he could manage. Which meant he stood in the far corner like a shunned puppy with his eyes downcast and his hands folded in front of him. It wasn't Ziggy's chewing out that made him this way, he'd endured worse but it certainly did help. It wasn't mostly Kos-Mos that made him cautious, every time she looked his way since they returned to the Elsa made him jump if he noticed, and if he didn't then he'd jump higher once he did. His mind was racing to try and grasp what he'd just seen, he knew as well as the others that Kos-Mos was a battle android, a machine made to combat the Gnosis. And she did it well, but seeing just how destructive she could be had shaken him quite a bit, but at the same time a part of him was utterly fascinated by her. He felt affection for someone who's power far outstripped his own, part of him wanted to run and stay as far away as he could and the other wanted to stay by her as long as possible.
He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn't notice when Shion had introduced him, Ziggy and MOMO to Jr. In fact it was MOMO who caught his attention by kneeling down to look up into his eyes and waving. "Daemar, are you ok?" "Huh? What?" He said dumbly and focused his eyes while looking up. Everyone was staring at him, the Elsa crew, Shion and her party, Ziggy, MOMO, Jr. and most of the bridge crew who could spare a moment for this strange young man. Understandably, Daemar's face turned red under the scrutiny as he answered. "Oh, uh….yeah…I'm good. Thanks…." That got a few raised eyebrows but everyone stopped looking at him, almost everyone.
"So, you're the one with the P.C.S. am I right?" Jr. asked as he strode up to him and frowned slightly. "Yes….I am…." Daemar said a little warily, why was this kid staring at him like that? Jr. broke out into a grin and extended his hand. "Pleasure to meet ya! I'm Jr. and I gotta say, what you did on the Elsa was the craziest thing I've seen in a long time!" Daemar's face fell a bit as he shook Jr.s hand and muttered. "Oh no….not you too….." And was surprised by the next reply. "And the coolest! I don't think I've ever seen anyone gutsy enough to shoot at ship sized Gnosis with only a handgun!" If Jr.s grin were any larger his head would split in two, Daemar's face was a mask of confusion as he looked up at Mary and Shelley who looked at Jr. with a mixture of fondness and exasperation.
In return Mary laughed. "Sorry, Little Master here likes to watch a lot of those old action flicks, the really cheesy John Woo films too." Jr. spun on his heel and spoke up quickly. "John Woo isn't cheesy!" Then blinked and looked back at the taller man with a grin, Daemar had said the exact same thing at the exact same moment. This caused everyone to stare at him again, but this time he glared back. "Hey, it may be cheesy by today's standards but you forget, I grew up on those so called "cheesy action flicks" so there. And some of the movies today aren't up to snuff if you ask me. "Me, Lucy and the asteroid" ? What the heck kinda movie is that?" He finished by crossing his arms and looking away, glaring at nothing in particular. This brought a small smile to Ziggy's lips, a rare thing that he only seemed to show when his younger partner suffered from stubborn spells as he was now or "foot in mouth" disease. "Bah…." He said quietly. "I'm going to do…..something….call me if you need me." And without another word he stepped onto the elevator and descended to the dock floor muttering to himself. "And I suppose next they'll tell me that the Soul Caliber series sucked? Bah….bah I say!"
The guards on duty as well as the few workers waiting for the train watched him warily as he muttered to himself and paced near the bolted down seats. It was already common knowledge that the Elsa had come from the inside of a giant Gnosis and that Daemar was among the passengers. They seemed worried that his prolonged exposure to the Gnosis might be effecting his mental balance, and if so they wanted to be as far away from him as possible if he snapped. Even muttering to himself he could pick up on the mood and it only made his mood worse, by the time he arrived at the Residential section he'd stopped talking but marched down the center of the corridors with a look on his face that plainly said. "Either get the hell out of my way or I'll walk through you." In fact it wasn't until the next day when Ziggy called him up to the Isolation Area that his bad mood disappeared.
Quietly he stood at the back of the group as Jr. explained what the Zohar emulators were, but in all honesty they held little interest to him. Big gold plates…..whoop dee doo…. He thought to himself. However what lay beyond the sealed door perplexed him greatly, his sensors couldn't penetrate the doors or the walls around it. Whether it was interference from the Zohar emulators or a measure of security by the Durandal, he couldn't tell, but it made him that much more curious. "What's in the room across from here?" MOMO said, giving rise to Daemar's comment. "Yeah Jr., what's in there?" The small red headed boy stared at them seriously as he replied. "Nothing pleasant, I'll tell you that much." Shion quirked an eyebrow and planted a fist on her hip. "So you're not going to show us?" Jr. still looked serious as he answered and shook his head. "Trust me, it ain't something you'd want to see."
Well that just makes me even MORE curious….. Daemar thought with a frown as Shion continued to badger the kid until he finally opened the door and looked back at them. "Well… I guess if you want to see it that badly…" And proceeded inside. Yes! I am soooo buying you a drink Shion! Daemar thought victoriously as he followed the group in, but his smile faded to a look of shock and horror. "My god….."
"I warned you, you weren't gonna like it, didn't I?" The lack of smugness in Jr.s voice made Daemar look away from the sight held in the glass containers. Those people…..those people are….. "All of these specimens appear to be humans whose bodies turned into Gnosis." Kos-Mos said calmly as if she'd seen it a thousand times before. Well, it did make sense after all since Kos-Mos probably had all the data of every case in which a person partly transformed into a Gnosis hard wired into her memory core. Unlike Daemar who had only heard about it with Ziggy but dismissed them as nothing more than rumors, like the tabloids on Earth. Jr. continued to explain what had happened to these people, about the Gnosis and how they arrived in this world. Daemar paid it little mind since he already knew about the Gnosis being made of salt, but what disturbed him was when Jr. said that people who survived Gnosis encounters became Gnosis themselves. Could that happen to me? I mean…I did TOUCH the Gnosis when I fought them…..but….maybe it won't count. After all I am a cyborg….they didn't touch my flesh…but….still….. His worried musings were interrupted when Ziggy touched his shoulder.
"Hmm?" Daemar looked up and opened his mouth to speak but closed it a moment later when Ziggy shook his head and nodded toward the doors they had come through just as MOMO passed through them. Understanding dawned on his face, he nodded and silently, took his leave to keep watch on MOMO. Daemar knew that they were safe on the Durandal but Ziggy was never one to take chances if it could be avoided, they had both taken on the mission to protect MOMO, which meant at least one of them had to be with her. As he approached the train Daemar stopped and tapped the shoulder of a nearby worker. "Excuse me, did a young Realian with reddish pink hair and yellow eyes pass by?" The worker nodded and pointed at the train. "Yeah, she just came by and took a train, she looked kinda sad about something. Maybe she wanted to be alone?" "Yeah…maybe…. Thanks." Daemar said and stepped into the train.
Five minutes later he arrived at the park area and quickly confirmed that MOMO had passed through looking as though the weight of the world had been dumped onto her shoulders. A minute later he found her sitting on a bench by herself, one of her hands was open and the tiny environmental bugs lit on her hand looking for all the world like a lightning bug to him. Quietly he approached and listened to her softly spoken words. " What do you all think…? Joachim Mizrahi, the lunatic… Was daddy really like that? Since daddy built us, does that mean Realians are bad people, too?" His heart went out to the little Realian, for a moment he thought of the past before he became a cyborg. She's so much like my little sister…..always worrying about what she can't control… He fought the urge to hug her protectively and spoke up. "I don't think so…..I've met a lot of Realians and I haven't seen a single bad one yet, you included."
"Oh, Daemar!" MOMO jumped slightly and looked back at him for a moment then forward again with a small sigh. "You scared me….." He frowned. "I'm sorry…. I didn't mean to. But, it's true you know. Realians aren't bad people." He said gently as he approached the bench, his sensor went off, alerting him to the arrival of Shion and Kos-Mos. Without looking back he waved them over. "But what about the Miltian Conflict? Realians did bad things! They hurt people, killed them!" Daemar winced at the look on her face, it was filled with the kind of pain that didn't want to go away. "Well…." He started softly. "I wasn't really around for all that….I was in a 4,000 year old cold sleep pod at the time. I was on Militia true…but I wasn't really aware of it. In fact, my first real memories of this time frame started when I work up on the Dammurung four years later." His words did little to comfort her. "But…they said he was crazy! I… Daddy wasn't a lunatic. …I don't even know what I am…." She finished softly and looking about to burst into tears.
"Identity diffusion…" Shion said suddenly, causing both Daemar and MOMO to look up. Daemar gratefully, MOMO a little confused. "The eternal dilemma." She continued as she reached out a hand for one of the firefly like nanomachines to land on. "Do you know about the environmental bugs onboard this ship? They're actually nanomachines, you know, used to keep enclosed spaces like this clean." She said in a matter of factly voice as a bug hovered over her hand before landing. "I'd say that…of all the things Professor Mizrahi – or anyone else – created, they rank up there pretty high. These bugs may be man-made, but they function as if they've existed all along. Almost as if they were meant to be…" Daemar nodded and spoke. "Yeah, I have nanos running through me too. I trust that technology implicitly, it's saved my life more times than I can remember. Now, honestly. Do I look like a man who would trust the technology of a crazy man? Of course not, so Joachim Mizrahi can't be crazy, right?" He finished with a grin that faltered under Shion's stare, which prompted him to mutter softly. "What? I was only tryin' to help…"
Shion looked back to MOMO and continued as if Daemar hadn't spoken. "I think Realians are the same. The only difference between us, is the length of our histories. But regardless of our origins, each one of us has an important role to fulfill in this world. Besides, I really doubt Dr. Mizrahi was a dangerous person like everyone makes him out to be. And it's not just because of the environmental bugs. The work he did on Realians was incredibly insightful." Daemar glared at her quietly and was tempted to stick his tongue out at her when Kos-Mos chimed in. "The fundamental Gnosis research Professor Mizrahi left behind played a critical role in the development of modern anti-Gnosis technology. "
True…without it, I wouldn't be using P.C.S. armor. Likely I'd have the same parts as Ziggy, nothing wrong with that but I rather like looking as human as possible instead of standing out with those piston legs… He thoughts as Shion spoke. "Thanks for the backup, KOS-MOS! I'm really glad to see you react like that. Empathizing with the feelings of others is a major factor in human relationships." His jaw dropped. She did NOT just say that…….Oh man…she must be a real riot at parties… He missed Kos-Mos' reply but caught MOMO's giggle and breathed a soft sigh of relief. Good….at least she's smiling again. Hmmm? Daemar glanced up as Allen came running up and quickly explained that the Durandal would take them to Second Militia after they docked with the Kukai Foundation. And also that the Durandal was better equipped for the trip than the Elsa and that their rooms had Jacuzzis AND minibars all in one breath.
"Well, at least someone's happy…." He said softly to himself and shook his head as Ziggy arrived and came over to Daemar. "Everything ok?" "Yeah, everything's fine Z. MOMO's happy, Allen's happy, EVERYONE'S happy." He sighed softly for a moment and rubbed his neck with one hand then looked up at Ziggy. "Hey, Z? I'm starting to feel tired all of a sudden, I guess fighting the Gnosis back there is finally starting to catch up to me." Not to mention that fact that my foul mood had me so wound up that I couldn't relax…. "I'm going to go catch some sleep, seems like we've got the chance to rest for awhile. You mind taking over?" He asked apologetically. Ziggy nodded, he understood that his partner was still relatively new to the cyborg world and still felt the urge to sleep like a normal human. "Of course, but don't sleep too long. I've no intention of trying to wake you up like the last time." Daemar stared at him flatly for a moment, remembering the incident, in which Ziggy had to splash him with hot water since cold had failed, before turning to walk away. "Yeah yeah, don't worry. I'll only sleep a few hours, it's all I need anyways."
The trip to the Residential Area took longer than he thought, or perhaps it was a measure of how tired he was. Exhaustion roared through him unchecked as his vision became blurry and his balance off, he held a hand out to the wall as he stumbled down the corridor. "What the hell? Why am I so tired all of a sudden….is my generator acting up?" It grew hard to remain focused until he finally came to a halt, still leaning against the wall. As he went, workers and residents watched him worriedly and asked him if he was all right and he'd replied that he just needed sleep. Finally a pair of workers held him up and helped him walk to his room while he murmured apologies for being a burden. The last thing he remembered was the workers depositing him on his bed carefully and only leaving the room after he promised to go for maintenance once he regained some of his strength. Once they were gone he fumbled for the control panel next to his bed and turned the lights off. He was asleep before his head started to fall to the pillow.
End of Chapter 7
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