Flamed Fire 250: wow, lol, thanks! glad you like it!

IcEKoLd: yeah, i'm very specific about my battle scenes. that's gonna kill me later on though. argh. you'll understand when u read my a/n at the end.

Discalimer:I do not own Xenosaga.

Chapter Seven

Repairs

((chaos))

The pain was like nothing I had felt before, and it was an uneasy feeling that there actually was pain. Usually... things like this didn't hurt... heck, I've been hit by things worse than a few bullets. But for some reason... seeing Serenity give the order... and taking in those bullets... it felt like she was injecting her pain, her envy, her anguish, into me. And that alone... was enough to make the pain unbearable.

We got back to the Elsa relatively quickly, though we lost track of Allen. As we entered, we bumped into Jr.

"Hey Shion! I was about to go looking for you. You sure were taking your..." he glanced over at me. "chaos! What happened?"

I moaned, and gave a quiet reply. Shion answered for me. "Things... didn't exactly go as planned. Can we lift off now? I want to get as far away form that person as possible."

"Uh..." Jr. looked confused, but listened to her. "Whatever you say Shion."

"Oh, Jr.!" Shion added. "Before you give the order to leave, can you run back there and help out Allen? He's bringing back Kos-Mos. Tell him to start repairs on her. I'll be helping chaos."

He looked over at me with a raised eyebrow, and I glared back, not intending to explain anything for a while. He merely shrugged, and ran off to get Allen.

Shion helped me into the med room and I lied down. She grabbed some syringes, and began injecting some nano machines into the wounds.

I winced a little, and she grinned. "You've taken quite a few bullets to the body, and you're complaining about a few shots?" her face got more serious. "You know... you didn't have to do that for me..."

"What, and have bullets in you instead of me?" it was my turn to grin. "I may not look it, but I can take a lot of damage... plain old bullets are nothing. I don't think you can say the same about yourself, now can you?" I playfully punched myself, but inadvertently hit too hard.

She gave a small smile, but kept a sad look on her face. The ship slowly began to rumble. We were probably taking off already. She put down the syringe that she was holding, and looked away. "Why did you do it?" she whispered.

"Why? I... don't really know why. My body moved on its own. I guess you could say... I'm in love."

She instantly turned to face me. "chaos..."

"AHHHHH!" I screamed out, clutching my stomach. "It hurts!"

"chaos! What's wrong?"

I began tossing and turning in the bed. "The pain... it hurts!"

"chaos... chaos! No... you can't die..." a tear fell from her face and landed on my cheek. I looked at her, and she really was crying.

The door opened, and Momo ran in. "Jr. told me what happened, and I heard screaming! Is there something I can do to help?"

"Please... help him Momo..." Shion was still sobbing.

"Shion..." I whispered.

Momo ran over and began scanning me. The pain came back, and I had another fit. "These bullets! They're releasing... some kind of pain inducing poison into chaos' system."

Captain Matthews voice came onto the intercom. "We're back at the Kukai Foundation."

"Shion, can you help me bring him into the Kukai Foundation? I'm going to have to extract the poisoned blood." she grabbed my legs, and Shion lifted me under my arms. Tears were still slowly flowing down her cheek, wetting my face as they fell. "Ready?" she nodded, and we left the Elsa.

They rushed me through the crowded streets of the Kukai Foundation. Another burst of pain flowed through, while at the same time, the entire Foundation itself seemed to rumble. People began screaming, and Momo lost balance and fell over as Shion crawled over to check on me.

Gaignun's voice came over the intercom. "Everyone, please stay calm. Would all civilians please evacuate to the living quarters. Jr... can you get over here?" his voice sounded more serious than ever. "And if anyone else from the Elsa can hear this... would you come over as well? I could use all the... help I can get. Please try to head over to the Restricted Area."

"Restricted Area...? Isn't that where the Zohar is being held?" Shion looked worried.

"You should go check." Momo said, getting up and walking over to me. "It sounds important."

"But..." she glanced over towards me. "What about chaos?"

"I'll be fine..." I muttered, attempting to get up.

Momo ran to my side. "Can you walk?" I took a few wobbly steps, and nodded. Despite the difference in our stature, she stayed by my side and helped me to stand.

"Go on." I motioned at Shion. "I'm ok."

"Ok..." she stepped up to me and kissed me softly on the cheek before running off. "Bye." she whispered.

I stood there for a moment, watching her disappear into the crowd of people, with my hand to my cheek. Momo tugged at me arm, and I blushed. "Sorry. Let's keep moving."

((Shion Uzuki))

I ran towards the Restricted Area as fast as I could. Suddenly, something began beeping. I pulled out my comm unit. "Miyuki! Can't this wait? I'm kind of in the middle of something!"

"I'm sorry, but it's really important!"

I sighed, but continued to listen. "Ok, what is it?"

"Well, do you know where Serenity is?"

"Why would I?" there was a hint of bitterness in my voice. I mentally tried to retain my anger. "I don't rightly care about her at the moment."

"Her assistant called earlier, she hasn't checked in after your little fight. She thought maybe you'd know what happened to her. And also, all of T-Elos' specs are gone. They can't continue with mass-production without the specs."

"Good riddance." I finally reached the Restricted Area. "I have no idea where she is, and I could care less at the moment. I'll notify you if anything shows up though. I really have to go now." not listening to her argument, I hung up and walked in.

"Jr.! I heard Gaignun's message. What's wrong?"

"Oh, Shion! Is chaos ok?"

I smiled, for the first time in quite a while. "Yeah, he'll be fine. Momo's taking care of him."

"That's good to hear. You're too late... Albedo-"

"Got the Zohar." Gaignun interrupted. He motioned towards a alter, where the Zohar once rested.

"Yes, and what a great feeling this is brother!" I could hear Albedo laughing from the other side of the door.

"Then why don't we go after him?"

"He broke through the wall." Ziggy explained. "There's no air in that room."

"So let's go out in our E.S.'! We can take him out!" Jr. headed towards the E.S. hanger. Everyone else followed, so I went along, but stopped by the window before entering the hanger. I could see Albedo laughing hysterically. Then, the unexpected happened. The Zohar began glowing red.

---

A/N: gah, this is gonna be a long author's note. well, here goes. ewwwww. hope you liked this chapter, cause i sure didn't. it went by too fast, but there was nothing else i could stick it in. meh. oh well though. man though, it's getting hard to motivate myself to write. from here on out, it's just gonna be... battle after battle... after battle... until the end. hope you guys like action. lol. and if you don't, i'm sorry... try and hang in there until the end! then ending's sure to be good... i think. anyways, i'm thinking too far ahead. i hope the changing of POV didn't confuse you too much in theis chappie... cause i'm planning on doing that a lot next chapter. not just between shion and chaos, but it'll go to... other people too. it's needed for advancing the plot. so yep. look forward to that. next chapter, U-DO awakens! albedo get's a new power, and guess who comes back? evil laughter do please review, cause if nothing else, i can use those to force me to write. lol.