ATE: Wow! Would you look at this! I just add the next chap the day after I posted the previous one! I know this chap is shorter than the last one, but I'm on a roll again! I wanna thank Alex Yamato, TalesOfLegendia Fan, Blaid, and The Duelist of Dawn for their reviews on the previous chap. Also, I recommend checking out Alex Yamato's story (which is a cross-over of Gundam and Xenosaga) called 'Mobile Suit Gundam Xenosaga Season 1'. It's a really good story which I would recommend any fan of Xenosaga or Gundam read. Enjoy chap 9.

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga. I only own my OC Ayame, while my friend owns her OC Lilith.

Chapter 9

(Jr.'s POV)

We were all outside the Durandal in our E.S.s as we flew towards Gedalya Space and the Floating Landmass that still had the hypersphere around it. There were Gnosis around the area and we started attacking them. The Reuben sliced and destroyed one of the Gnosis while a second one was thrown into the hypersphere, while I was firing the Asher's machine gun.

"The differential boundary strength of the surface is 910e." chaos stated.

"Damn, you kidding? Touch that and say good-bye, huh?" I said.

Suddenly I spotted another Gnosis appearing in the area.

"Gnosis?" Shion exclaimed. "Why are they here?"

The Reuben sliced one of the other Gnosis.

"Shion, there's no time." Jin said. "Head straight for the coordinates!"

"I got it! Are you ready, KOS-MOS?"

KOS-MOS was standing outside on the Dinah as she activated the Tertiary Weapons System.

"Initialization complete. Safety released." The android said.

I watched as the Dinah flew closer to the hypersphere in order to get in range.

"We're in range. Do it anytime, KOS-MOS!"

"Acknowledged."

KOS-MOS fired the Tertiary Weapon System's bright blue lasers, destroying the Gnosis in the way as it continued to travel towards the hypersphere. My eyes widened when I saw that the hypersphere absorbed the lasers!

"What the hell? What's going on?" I asked, completely shocked at what happened.

"Oh no! Even KOS-MOS can't disturb it!" MOMO said.

"Chief, maybe this is beyond us!" Allen said.

"Just believe in KOS-MOS!" Shion said. "It's all right. I know that she'll be able to do it!"

"Setting weapon deployment to maximum output!" KOS-MOS suddenly said.

"Wait! So that wasn't the system's full power?" I thought.

Suddenly, the Tertiary Weapon System unleashed glowing blue mechanical wings that reminded me of Ayame's wings when she was in Angel Mode, but the ones KOS-MOS had where straight and jagged, while Ayame's were slightly curved and had a softness to how they were form. The system fired its lasers at the hypersphere again and this time it broke through, creating a hole for us to get through!

"All right!" Shion yelled.

"Oh yeah! We're going in!" I yelled excitedly.

All five of us flew into the hypersphere and I took a quick glance behind us in time to see the hypersphere closing behind us.

"Ayame was right!" I suddenly realized, remembering what she told me. "The vision she had came true!"

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Back on the Bridge of the Durandal Mary and Shelley watched as the five E.S.s made their way through the hypersphere.

"E.S. craft have penetrated the hypersphere! The surface fissure has closed." One of the 100-Series Realians said.

"Gnosis swarm in the surrounding space has disappeared!" A second one said.

"All E.S. craft lost from radar. All communications are cut off." A third one said as well.

Mary smiled as she held her hands over her heart.

"All right! They've made it through!" The blonde woman said excitedly.

"It's too early to celebrate." Shelley told her sister. "The Gnosis probably vanished in order to pursue them. The real challenge starts now."

"I'm sure they'll manage." Mary looked back at the hypersphere. "We just have to believe in them."

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Inside the cavern with a stone cross Roth Mantel stood in front of the casket, staring down at it's smooth stone surface as the Blue Testament appeared behind him. He could hear his footsteps as he approached him.

"You sure are infatuated with her." The Blue Testament said. "Is it regret from the time when you still wore a mantle of flesh? Or is it because of ambition you still hold?"

"…" Roth didn't respond.

"Heh, heh, heh, so, now you're going to use the daughter in place of the imperfect mother? The Maiden who invites the spreading Gnosis. You're one Heartless bastard. And it's not like you don't know what this is going to cause."

"It is necessary for the new world." Roth said, looking at the Blue Testament. "Is your cloak just a decoration?"

"Hmph, I don't like the idea of that thing as the womb, but whatever. I'll give you a hand. We just need to destroy KOS-MOS, right?"

"It is beyond your power. The only one who can destroy KOS-MOS is T-elos."

"Oh, really? So I guess my job is to attend to the princess's little whims." There was a brief pause as the blue cloaked man glanced at the stone casket. "Works for me. I'll lead the entourage."

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(Jr.'s POV)

We were all inside the inner part of the hypersphere and I couldn't help but marvel at the sight of the Floating Landmass.

"What does the scan of the interior show?" Ziggy asked.

"Temperature: 18 degrees Celsius. Pressure: 0.94. Wind speed at landing point is 20 m/s. Atmosphere is 77% nitrogen, 20% oxygen with traces of argon and carbon dioxide." MOMO explained. "The air is breathable."

"What's the Elsa's position? Can we get in touch with the crew?" I asked.

"There's a response on the underside of the object." chaos said.

"I'm opening the channel." MOMO declared.

A communication monitor suddenly appeared in front of me and I could see Tony and Hammer inside the Bridge of the Elsa.

"Woohoo! We're saved! We're gonna get out of here!" They both exclaimed excitedly.

"Little Master! Thank God you're here!" Hammer said.

"Out of the way!" Matthews shouted at Tony and Hammer as his communication monitor appeared behind theirs. "Can't believe you're getting' all excited just because they showed up."

"You guys sound like you're doing just fine." I stated, somewhat surprised.

"Of course. You can't run a salvage business if you let every little setback get you down."

"Well, that explains a lot…" I thought.

"Looks like there's a couple of exceptions to that rule." I smirked.

"Hey! Stop goofin' around and get to your posts!"

Tony and Hammer's communication monitor disappeared, leaving only Captain Matthews up. I laughed.

"We're on our way now. Get the hangar ready for us."

"Roger. We'll be waiting to welcome you."

With that the communication monitor disappeared and we started making our way towards the Elsa.

(Ayame's POV)

After making our way to the Bridge on the Elsa the crew explained to us what happened, leaving us confused by what they said.

"You can't escape?" Jr. exclaimed. "Why?"

"We haven't got a clue." Matthews answered. "Hey, Hammer!"

"The logical drive isn't responding at all. There should be nothing wrong with it since it's fully repaired and functioning normally." Hammer explained. "Anyway, I haven't got a clue."

"If the logical drive isn't working, there's nothing we can do." Jr. concluded.

"Yes, as things are now, the environment bugs will run out of resources first, and then we'll eventually run out of water and oxygen." The Professor said.

"That doesn't sound good." I said quietly.

"Professor…" Jr. said.

"Something in this strange land must be affecting it. We'll have to go out and have a look." The old man suggested.

"You're certain that something in this land is causing it?" Ziggy asked.

"It's impossible to be sure. But I think it's worth investigating."

"Gotcha." Jr. turned to Matthews. "Captain, get things ready so you can launch at any time. Don't worry, we'll have you outta here in no time."

We all started making our way back to the Hanger so we could board our E.S.s. As I followed the others I felt someone gentle grab my upper arm before pulling me to the side. I looked to see who did it and was surprised to find that it was Jr.

"Ayame, I need to talk to you." He told me.

"What is it?" I asked, a little confused.

"Are you sure you'll be okay coming with us?" I could see concern in his blue eyes as he asked me this. "With these visions you've been having lately, I'm kinda worried something might happen while we're out there."

"I'll be fine, Jr. You don't have to worry about me."

"But what if something happens to you and you end up getting hurt?" Fear started to mix in with the concern in his eyes. "What if you collapse like you did back in the Park Area of the Durandal?"

"Jr., Jr.…" I whispered gently, taking his hands in mine as I tried to reassure him. "I know you're worried about me getting hurt, and I'm truly gratefully for the fact that you care about me, but I'll be okay. Nothing bad will happen to me, I promise."

"You…" He lowered his gaze. "You can't guarantee something like that!"

"I just did, Jr. True I might get hurt, but what I'm promising you is that I won't get anything serious like a broken arm or a bleeding injury." I smiled. "Besides, I have both you and Lilith there to help me, so everything will be fine."

Jr. looked back up at me and gave me a small smile.

"You really shouldn't spend so much time with Lilith, you know?" He joked, causing me to giggle.

"I don't exactly have a choice in the matter. She is my bodyguard, after all." I let go of one of his hands, leaving me to hold his other one. "Come on. The others are probably wondering where we are."

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I sat at the navigational controls of the Elias as I made the E.S. follow the Dinah, Asher, Zebulun, and Reuben to the next area of the Floating Landmass, occasionally fighting Gnosis on the way. Some time later we spotted what looked like a translucent crystal with what appeared to be a purple glow coming from inside its center.

"What's that?" Shion asked.

"This is a Geocrystal." KOS-MOS answered.

"It's pretty…" I said.

"Meh! What's so great about it? It's just a rock!" Lilith stated.

"It seems we can't destroy it even with the power of the E.S.s." Ziggy said.

With that we continued moving on. We soon found another Geocrystal and the Dinah struck it, making it to fall onto the one we encountered earlier and shattering it to pieces.

"Hmm. So, if we hit the crystal with another, we can destroy it." Shion said.

We moved into the next area where we found another Geocrystal.

"There's a Geocrystal over there, too." MOMO exclaimed.

"It looks difficult to knock this ore down." chaos noted.

"Yeah. And if we did, it'd block our path." Jr. said.

"We'll have to hit with the other ore and destroy it." Jin said.

We continued going further through the mountains where we soon found a Geocrystal on the highest part of the ledge. We pushed it off and watched as it crashed into the Geocrystal that had been blocking our path earlier.

"Target successfully destroyed. We can now proceed." KOS-MOS said.

"Good job, KOS-MOS! Let's go back down." Shion said. We all returned to the previous floor where the Geocrystal used to be and the path was cleared. "Okay, here we go!"

I started following the other E.S.s up the path, but I spotted something on the ground and picked it up. It looked to be a part of the Geocrystal we destroyed, but its form was rough and I knew that it couldn't be used in its current form if the crystal itself was usable. I quickly put it away before following everyone into a cave.

ATE: Well, that's chap 9 for you. Hopefully everyone is looking forward to chap 10 (that'll have two certain people in it that we all know about will be in it). I know in this chap that I've kinda mentioned what Ayame's wings look like when she's in Angel Mode, but I have a video to show you all what they look like (since I've said what they've looked like in the second story), but if you don't really know what they look like, here's the video you can check out (without the spaces):

http : / www . youtube . com / watch ? V = l Bpb LA O4 _ JM

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed this chap. Please Remember to Review! :)

UPDATE: I've added a link to a video I made on youtube that has me showing drawings of Ayame/Andrea and Lilith. Check it out if you wanna see what they look like. Here's the link (take the spaces out):

http : / www . youtube . com / watch ?v = 52 CSh 5 yrp 1M