ATE: Sorry it took like two weeks for me to update this story. I've had a busy two weeks with my job at the movie theaters. I saw the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on the 14th and we didn't get out of the movie until 3:30 something the next day. But what made it worse was that I had to go to work from 11:30-9:30, so I ended up only having about 4 hours of sleep and waking up at 7:00. Not fun, trust me. I hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch so my stomach decided to protest against me for 11 hours straight (the longest I've worked a day at the job), feet being extremely sore for standing in the same place, and I felt like I was going to finally loose it until I finally got done that day. I swear I thought I could hear that heavenly chorus in the sky. But I don't think the readers want me to loose it and end up insane like Albedo (it certainly felt like I was about to). But enough of me ranting about last week. I believe you want to read, so enjoy chap 10.

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga or Xenogears. I only own my OC Ayame, while my friend (self-appointed editoress) own her OC Lilith.

Chapter 10

Some time after having watched Rush Hour 3 with Jr. I went to the bridge and saw that Jr. along with Shion, Allen, KOS-MOS, MOMO, and Ziggy were there.

"MOMO, how's the enemy fleet trace?" Hammer asked as he typed at his computer.

"They're headed for point E-52 at combat speed." MOMO answered from where she was sitting and typed on the computer as well.

"Damn, they've got some guts to be charging in there that fast." Tony stated.

"That just shows how desperate they are." Matthews said. "Course, at this rate, we're never gonna catch them."

"Captain, I must warn you." KOS-MOS said as she walked over to where the Captain sat.

"What is it? Make it quick." Matthews lowered his seat.

"If we continue to proceed along the present course, it is highly probable that the enemy will leave a force to intercept us. It is prudent to assume that this ship will eventually suffer an extensive and unacceptable level of damage."

"I'm afraid KOS-MOS is right." Shion said. "We're in trouble unless we find a route where the enemy can't detect us."

"Look, I get what you're saying, but how the hell are we supposed to do that?!" Matthews asked. "This isn't a highway, you know. It's not like we can just take a detour or somethin'!"

It was quiet as everything started thinking of what to do.

"Actually, there is a detour." MOMO stated.

"What?"

Everyone looked at MOMO.

"Really, MOMO?" Shion asked.

"I've detected a small-gap in the gravitational fields between the two black holes." MOMO explained as she typed rapidly on the control console that she was using. "If we fly through it, I think the chances of enemy detection would drop significantly."

There was another brief pause.

"…Hey, are you outta your mind?" Matthews asked.

"Right." Shion said. "Even if we made the slightest mistakes, we'd be caught by the gravitational field and dragged into the Abyss."

"I guess it's impossible…" MOMO looked disappointed.

"What? Impossible?" Tony exclaimed. "Hey, hey, who do you think you're talking to here? There's no way Tony 'Numero Uno's' gonna turn down a challenge like that!"

"There he goes again…" Hammer sighed. "Once that moron gets started, there's no stopping him."

"Daaaah! Whatever! Do whatcha want… But you'd better not even think about gettin' a scratch on my Elsa!" Matthews yelled.

"Don't worry! Leave it to me! MOMO, I'll be counting on you for a route!"

"Okay!"

Later the Elsa boosted off at warp speed for awhile until the ship came hear near the two black holes. Just looking at them I knew instantly that this was really dangerous.

"Whoa, radar and sonar are both dead! We're not getting any readings…" Hammer cried.

"It's almost like we'd be better off flying blindfolded." Tony stated.

"Tony, I've detected a massive distortion in the space ahead of the Elsa. A large mass is about to gate out." MOMO said.

"What? They're gating out here?"

I looked out the window, only to suddenly see something huge appear between the two black holes. To me, it's shape looked like a flower (for lack of better words), an evil looking flower. The sight of it caused all of us to gasped in fright. Just by looking at it I knew that it was an enemy.

"What the hell is that?" Matthews asked.

"Damn, where were they hiding that thing?" Jr. asked.

Suddenly a lot of ships appeared around the huge object that had first appeared awhile ago.

"It's moving into Elsa's flight path." MOMO said. "180 seconds to impact!"

"Tony, can we avoid it?" Matthews asked.

"Negative!" Tony answered. "It's taking up the entire gravity well. If we screw up, we'll get pulled into the black hole."

"Bastards!" Jr. growled as he slammed his fist on the railing, causing Hammer to jump, and for me to look at him with wide eyes. "They're not gonna let us through no matter what!"

It was quiet as we didn't know what to do. I continued to stare at Jr. and I couldn't seem to get the image of him slamming his fist on the railing out of my mind for some reason. I know I had seen him angry before when we were helping the Elsa fight the Gnosis after I had woke up, but this time was different. We were in a different ship in a totally different situation and place, and the slightest mistake would cost us our lives. If I thought of it that way, it would only make sense that Jr. would react that way.

"The only thing left for us to do is to make them move." Matthews turned to Jr. as the redhead turned to the Captain. "Little Master, can we take them out from the inside?"

Jr. stared at Matthews before he pulled out one of his guns from the holster around his waist and twirled it around two times before holding it properly. "Yeah…yeah, if we can get inside, that is." He said rebelliously.

Matthews sighed and turned to Tony. "Tony, maintain present course and increase to maximum speed." He addressed Hammer. "Hammer, disengage all weapon safety locks. Don't worry about aiming. Just let loose with everything we've got! We're gonna dive smack dab into that thing's belly. It's time you guys showed me what you're made of."

"You got it!" Hammer said.

"Aye aye, sir!" Tony exclaimed.

The Elsa activated the full boosts and blasted off towards the huge object. We managed to evade the enemies and fired some lasers at them when we could. Tony was able to get us through the enemies as we destroyed some of the ships in the process.

As the Elsa was flying towards the huge object, something hit the ship and caused the Elsa to tilted forward. As this happened I managed to grab hold of the metal base of Captain Matthews chair and held on for dear life. I rapidly glanced around the room and saw that Jr. was holding on to what was the railing near Hammer that he had slammed his fist onto, while KOS-MOS was holding Shion's hand as she dangled helplessly, looking at the android in fear.

We were somehow able to get the Elsa upright only for the ship to have a very bumpy landing on top of the huge surface. But I didn't have to think to know that we were able to get past square one. I was able to stand on the floor along with everyone else. Not long afterward Jin, Canaan, and chaos joined us on the bridge.

"Okay, then! That was a little rough, but we made it." Jr. said. "There's no time to waste! Let's hurry up, get inside there, and take it out! That's a pretty big fortress, so we'll take the E.S.s!"

"E.S.s?" I asked. I couldn't help but think of the E.S. back on Second Miltia when he mentioned them.

"Yeah. We have three of them and two people are able to pilot it at a time."

I suddenly realized that I wouldn't be able to go with them.

"I can't go?" I asked, my face falling in disappointment.

Jr. was about to open his mouth to say something, only to close it when he realized what I meant and I saw a disappointed expression come on his face as well before he turned around so that he back faced me. He seemed to mutter something that sounded close to "damn it."

"Maybe she can stay here with me and Lilith…?" Allen stated unsure.

It was then that Jr. suddenly whipped around to face Allen, glaring ferociously. This caused Allen to laugh nervously before looking away.

I heard the door open and saw Lilith walk in, but no one seeming to notice her presence except me. She walked behind Jr., who didn't notice her until she placed her hand on his shoulder, which caused him to jump. He looked in the direction of the Lilith and seemed to give her a blank expression.

"Speak of the devil." I heard him mutter.

I watched as Lilith's grip on Jr.'s shoulder tighten and gave him a malicious grin.

"Did you say something, runt?" She asked.

Jr.'s face seemed to pale. I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen, so I decided to do something before the situation got worse.

"Hey, Lilith!" I said as I walked over to where Jr. and Lilith were.

It seemed to work since Lilith took her hand off of Jr.'s shoulder and turned to look at me with her deep green eyes.

"Yo!" Was all she said. Lilith turned to look at Jr. with a stern look. "So I heard you're going to go into the Ormus Stronghold in E.S.s."

"How do you know?" Jr. asked, giving Lilith a suspicious look.

"It's called ears, 'Jr.' I understand you have them, but don't use them very often." Jr.'s face seemed to turn red in anger as Lilith smirked. "But we have a bargain to make, you and I."

"What would that be?" Jr. narrowed his eyes.

"How about she comes with me, I keep her safe, and you stop worrying while keeping your mouth shut?"

Jr. sighed begrudgingly.

"In what, exactly?"

"You'll see. Now how about we all go to the hanger and see my 'surprise?' It would seem that shorty over there is suspicious of what I have to show you and my intentions."

"I can't believe I'm stuck with this condescending…"

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

"That's what I thought."

We all started making our way to the hangar where there were three large E.S.s, one of them I recognized as the dark blue and black E.S.s that we had seen back on Second Miltia, while one of them was white with huge butterfly looking wings, and the other being the color pink. Once we were there, Lilith took out what looked like a small remote and pointed it to one of the vacant stands like the ones that the other three E.S.s were on and pressed the button. Upon doing so a large object the same size as the E.S.s started to materialize on the stand until it stood proudly on it.

It kind of looked like an ancient suit of armor with large metal extensions that looked like wings. It was navy blue and silver with gold writings on it, all in metallic colored paint. (AN: It looks like Weltall-Id from Xenogears, with the exception that instead of the red color it's navy blue, and the pale pink [I think] is replaced with silver, but the gold writing stays the same.) As I looked at it, I couldn't help but be amazed.

"You have an E.S.?" I blurted out excitedly.

Lilith stared at me completely dumbfounded.

"Your naivety knows no bounds." She said. "How do you think I got here?"

"You walked?"

She stared at me for awhile before laughing at me. Jr. looked at Lilith like she lost it.

"Aha!! Oh my god…! I've heard of people not understanding stuff because of amnesia, but, come on! Seriously?! WALKING across space?!"

I suddenly felt somewhat guilty about what I said and hung my head.

"I'm sorry…" I said.

"Ah, it's alright. Don't sweat it. You have amnesia and I understand that. I'm happy though, knowing that you take a joke better than Ms. Moody over here."

Jr. sighed heavily as he stared at Lilith.

"So, what's the name of your E.S.?" Jr. asked.

"If you must know, it's called the Elias."

"Alright, let's just get inside the E.S.s so we can get going."

(Jr.'s POV)

I watched as everyone made their way to their E.S.s, Shion and KOS-MOS going over to the white E.S. called Dinah, MOMO and Ziggy going into the pink one called Zebulun, chaos went to the Asher where I would join him, and Ayame going over to the Elias. Lilith started making her way over to the Elias, but I wasn't going to let her go that easily.

"Lilith."

I watched as the woman herself turned to looked at me with a stern look that did little to betray her true emotion. She came back over to where I was.

"What is it?" She asked.

"What are you up to, Lilith? Why did you appear all of a sudden?" I asked.

"Why do you ask?"

"Why are you nice to Ayame when you're mean to me?"

"That should be obvious."

"You're avoiding the question."

"How am I avoiding it? Maybe you're not listening properly." She crossed her arms

"Your answer could mean anything, you know."

"Yeah, I know."

"Then why aren't you answering it?"

"It's not like I'm hiding anything. I just like her, got it memorized, red?"

"'Red?' That's a new one."

"I best be going now. She's probably wondering how to get inside the Elias."

Lilith started to walk away from me and make her way towards the Elias, where she helped Ayame how to get inside the E.S.

"I have a feeling that there's more to your reason than you let on, Lilith." I thought. "You're hiding something and I will found out what it is eventually."

Despite her being my sister, I didn't trust her. I feel like she is indeed hiding something. No! I knew she was hiding something. And I had a feeling that it involved Ayame in some way. There couldn't be another reason why she would be nice to her and only her without a reason.

"I'm probably being paranoid about the whole idea that Ayame is with Lilith." I thought.

I made my way over to the Asher, where inside chaos was leaning in the upper seat where the pilot of the E.S. would be if there were two people inside. I leaned in the lower seat where the person would handle the fire arms of the E.S. and placed my hands on the controls in front of me. Personally, I liked taking care of the fire arms when I pilot an E.S. since it gave me a feeling of power that was at my disposal with only the single touch of a button.

(Ayame's POV)

I saw that everyone else was already in their E.S.s while I waited for Lilith, who at the moment was talking to Jr. about something. The reason why I was waiting for her was because I didn't know how to get inside and I didn't want to mess with anything until I knew what to do. Soon Lilith finished talking to Jr. and started making her way over to where I was waiting for her.

"So, what were you and Jr. talking about?" I asked curiously.

"He just told me to make sure nothing happened to you while we're inside the Elias, that's all. Said that if something were to happen to you he would personally see to it that I get shot."

I couldn't help but flinch. Yep, that sounded like Jr.

"I wonder why he would say that."

"Maybe it's because he cares about you."

"Huh? What was that?" I asked confused. I wasn't sure if I heard right or if I was imagining what she said.

"Nothing. Now lets get inside." Lilith said.

We rode a lift up to the top so that we were where the head of the Elias was. Lilith got the head to open it up so that we could get inside, where there were two seats, and upper and lower one that looked identical with the same controls.

"This is what the inside of an E.S. looks like." Lilith explained. "The upper seat is for the navigator, or in this cause the pilot, sits while the lower seat is for the person that takes care of the fire arms and other weapons." She pointed to the seats. "There are some cases of only one person piloting an E.S. by themselves, and in instances like that they can handle both navigational and weapon controls while sitting in the upper seat, hence why the two seats have the same looking controls. Although it's a lot easier for two people to pilot one E.S., which is the case for us."

"Where will I be?" I asked.

"You'll be sitting in the upper seat taking care of the navigational controls, while I take care of the weapon controls. Since this is your first time piloting an E.S. I want you to take care of the navigational controls so that you can get the hang of it, since it'll be easier for you to take care of. You'll be taking care of those control until it feels like second nature to you before I can decide on if you'll be ready to share a part of the weapon controls with me."

"When will that be?"

"Not any time soon, that's for sure."

I got into the upper seat (but it didn't seem like a seat since you were more like leaning against the back surface than sitting in it) and I noticed that it was comfortable as well as it was cushioned as I laid my head against the headrest. I placed my hands on the controls that made my arms feel like they were on a nonexistent armrest of a chair and Lilith told me to press a button that was located behind my headrest.

I pressed it with my right hand and noticed the gray walls suddenly turned transparent to the point that one would think that the walls themselves were made out of nothing but crystal clear glass, and a metal cover moved from it's place to cover my legs and lower body as if it were a seat belt. Through the transparent walls I was able to see everything around me as if I wasn't in the E.S. and instead standing on the floor looking around the hanger through my own eyes.

"This is amazing!" I thought.

"Ayame. I'm going to teach you how to move the Elias, so listen carefully." Lilith said.

I prepared my ears to listen to my friend's words about how to maneuver the E.S.

"The controls in front of you are quite simple. You roll the black handle that your hands are gripping to move, rolling it forward causes the E.S. to move forwards while rolling it backwards causes it to go backwards as if in reverse. To move to the left you move your left hand control handle to the left as if you were holding your arms out to the left, while doing so with your right hand control handle does the same if you want to go right. E.S.s also have the ability of flight, you know. So in order to fly upwards you move both control handles upwards, while moving the control handles downwards causes you to fly down. You can still move forward, backwards, left, and right while flying, so remember what I said and you'll be fine."

"Okay. It seems pretty easy from what you explained to me."

"Good."

Suddenly a screen of Jr.'s face appeared in front of us and I couldn't help but jump at it's unsuspected appearance. I assumed that the screen itself was a communication screen like the one I've seen everyone use on the Durandal.

"Looks like you're acquainted with the E.S., Ayame." Jr. said, his image looking at me. "So Lilith's having you taking care of the navigational control. Did she tell you how to use them?"

"Yes." I answered as I nodded my head. "From what she explained to me about the controls, it seems like it'll be pretty easy."

"That's good to know." Jr.'s gaze turned to look down at Lilith. "You better keep her safe, you got that?"

"Yeah, yeah! I got it, Red. She'll be perfectly fine with me around." Lilith said casually.

"You better. Now we're ready to head out."

With that the communication screen disappeared and I saw the other E.S.s moving towards the hatch, which was now open.

"Okay, Ayame. I want you to follow the others through that hatch. Think you can do it?"

"Yes."

"Good. Then you know what to do."

I rolled both the handle grips forward so that I maneuvered the Elias off away from the stand. Once I did that, I moved the left control handle to the left so that the E.S. turned to face the hatch and moved forward until I was outside the Elsa.

"This is pretty easy." I thought.

"Congratulations, Ayame. You managed to successfully maneuver an E.S. on your first try. I must admit I'm impressed."

"Thank you, Lilith." I said.

I continued to follow the others through the Ormus Stronghold (which I knew from what Lilith had said.).

ATE: This took me awhile to type this up. It was interesting writing how to pilot the E.S. and the name Elias was an idea from my friend. When I was watching the cutscenes in Xenosaga involving the inside of the E.S.s I noticed that they weren't seats but you were more like leaning than sitting. And yes I used Weltall-Id from Xenogears and she agreed when I showed her the picture.

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