ATE: [Comes out with a Hylian shield held in front of her, peeks over the top before bringing her head up] Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I know I've taken so long in updating this story, but good news is that I finally finished this chap. As I was typing this up I noticed that I had the most trouble writing fight scenes so that's probably what took me so long. Now I'm just happy to get this chap done and posted for you guys to read. I'd like to thank Alex Yamato, The Duelist of Dawn, minaseiko1, ., xXRubedo666Xx, Xenosaga-Fangirl,
Goofy Goober Rock, Light Wings, and Marco Polo for their reviews. According to Marco Polo, Lilith's a badass and Ayame isn't one of those annoying Mary Sues. At least I know I'm doing something right. Alright, so now you can go read!
Link: [Clears throat and stares at ATE before holding his hand out]
ATE: ...You want your shield back, right?
Link: [Nods head]
ATE [Sighs and hands Hylian shield back to Link] Fine, you can have it back.
Link: [Walks away]
Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga or anything related or any references in this chap. I don't own a Hylian shield, Link, or anything from the Legend of Zelda franchise. I only own my OC Ayame while my friend owns her OC Lilith.
Chapter 10
I couldn't help but marvel at the sight on the cave we were in. It was so big and the only source of light came from the hole in the ceiling.
"Whoa! Where are we?" Jr. asked.
"It looks like a cave." MOMO replied. "A very wide one."
As I continued looking around with my eyes I noticed something on the cave's wall that looked like a tablet. Jr. must've noticed it as well because of what he said next.
"Hum? Is that Hebrew? No, maybe it's ancient Aramaic?" He said. "'Behold the great…' Aah! I don't know. I can't read it."
"'And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.'"
My eyes widened when I recognized what MOMO read.
"That was…Matthew 28:2..." I said quietly.
"Wow! You can read it?" Jr. asked, surprised.
"No, I recognize it." MOMO answered. "They're exactly the same words that I've seen before. It was recorded and stored in Daddy's Y-Data."
"Mizrahi's?"
Suddenly I saw a laser firing in our direction.
"Look out!" Shion yelled.
I quickly maneuvered the Elias in order to dodge the attack. That was a close call!
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" An unknown E.S. came out from the other opening in the gave with the Blue Testament standing on top of it. "Don't you know it's rude to come into someone's home uninvited!"
"Testament?" Jr. exclaimed.
"You! You were in the Song of Nephilim." Shion stated.
"Oh, so you remember me?" The Blue Testament said, sounding slightly delighted by what Shion said. Well, isn't that nice. I find that rather interesting." I noticed that he placed his hand on his mask, as if he was about to take it off. "You see, I remember you, too. I remember that you let me die!"
The Blue Testament took off his mask, revealing his face that I noticed had blonde hair and what looked like a huge scar on the right side of his face, or was it scarred skin tissue? I heard Shion gasp up seeing his face.
"But, Lieutenant Virgil! How?"
"Now don't get all sentimental on me. It's not like I've been hiding out here in this dump all this time just so the two of us can talk about old memories." The Blue Testament, or Virgil as I had learned, spread his arms out. "Hardly! No, I've got business to attend to with your craft!"
The E.S. he stood on started to transform into its robotic weaponry form and fired a laser cannon at us, only for our E.S.s to evade the attack.
"Wait, Lieutenant! You're right! It's true th-that…that was—"
"Like I've told you before, all your self-righteous crap makes me sick!"
"Jr.! Look at the letters on the wall!" MOMO cried.
It was then that I noticed that the tablet and the letters on it started to glow before the other E.S.s started to do the same. Why were the other E.S.s glowing and not the Elias?
"Damn! It's already started." Virgil said.
"Wait! What's going on?" Jr. asked.
Virgil laughed. "You were riding them without even knowing about that? Oh, whoops. And you're still 'compelled' to ride them now, huh?" He laughed again. "Now that really is funny!"
"What are you talking about?" Shion asked.
Suddenly the E.S.s stopped glowing.
"It's quite simple! That is the kind of place this is, to those Vessels of Anima that you're using."
"To the Vessels of Anima?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Jr. asked.
"Come on. You're not very bright are you? Why don't you just try using your heads a little for once?" His voice rose at the last word he said.
It was then that we all engaged in a fight with Virgil's E.S. (which I learned was called the Naphtali). The Asher and Dinah attacked Naphtali up close while Zebulun attacked with lasers. Lilith used the Elias' vulcan cannon and fired at our enemy. When Naphtali recovered Virgil started laughing.
"Hah hah hah, I love it. I can clearly feel your hatred." He said.
Naphtali awakened its Anima and I watched as a huge Buster Launcher appeared in the E.S.'s hand. My eyes widened when it aimed at Zebulun before an orange beam shot out of it.
"MOMO!" I cried out.
"I'm retreating." The pink-haired realian said.
I heard Lilith growl.
"That's it! He's goin' down!" Lilith yelled. "Ayame, hurry up and change into Angel Mode!"
"As much as I want to I can't."
"What? Why not?"
"You know how exhausted I get after using it. And I have this feeling that I'll need it for later."
"Fine!" She sighed. "That just means we'll have to do this the old fashion way: earning victory by beating him to a bloody pulp!"
I made the Elias fly over to Naphtali and Lilith took care of the rest by attacking. But the E.S. was only blocking my partner's attacks.
"This is boring. Let's be a little more passionate!" The Blue Testament actually sounded bored!
"I'll show you passionate!" Lilith yelled. "Yah!"
Lilith used the Elias' beam sword to slash at the E.S. I made sure to dodge Naphtali's attacks as best as I could.
"Locked on."
Suddenly I spotted Dinah flying up to Naphtali and attacked it.
"No mercy!"
Asher attacked.
"Attacking!"
Reuben attacked and I realized what was happening!
"An ambush!" I thought.
"Heh, you think you've won? You're attacks have no effects on me!" There was a flash of light and Virgil reappeared on top of Naphtali as it faded, his hands on his hips. "Heh! Well this is interesting. I guess there's just too many of you."
"Lieutenant, you died. You're supposed to be dead." Shion said. "So how—"
"How did I get here? Is that your question? Am I alive or am I dead?" Virgil guessed. "It doesn't really matter. That isn't even important. Then again, it's not something that I would expect you to be able to understand."
"Oh, please. Enough babbling nonsense, partner."
Suddenly light flashed and a white E.S. appeared out of nowhere. That was when I saw the White Testament with his arms crossed over his chest. What was he doing here?
"What's this? Is the new kid coming to crash the party?" The Blue Testament asked.
"The time has come! Or, what? Were you planning on staying here forever?"
My eyes widened and I gasped when I heard the voice of the White Testament!
"Th-that voice!" Jr. exclaimed. "A-Albedo?"
"It can't be! He's dead!" I thought, feeling shock and dread at this new revelation. How was he even alive?
The Blue Testament teleported to the white E.S and stood next to his white counterpart.
"Hey, wait a minute! Albedo! It's you isn't it? Did you forget about me?"
Nothing was said. Instead the white E.S. lifted an arm as its hand started glowing and the Vessel of Anima was pulled out of Naphtali.
"Vessel of Anima! Why? You mean you pilot E.S.s as well?" Shion asked.
The Vessel of Anima disappeared and suddenly Naphtali broke down, crumbling to the ground in a heap after going limp before the white E.S. started flying away.
"No, wait Albedo!" Jr. tried to go after the white E.S. but the other E.S.s started glowing again as the letters on the tablets did the same. "What? What the hell? Damn! The E.S. isn't responding!"
"Neither is mine." Ziggy said. "The energy gain is dropping. It's going to shut down!"
"Output still dropping!" MOMO stated. "It's no good. Unable to sustain current levels!"
"Ha, ha, ha! That's what I tried to tell you!" The Blue Testament's voice echoed throughout the room. "Like I said before, that's the kind of place this is. Oh well. Good luck figuring it out!"
All four of the E.S.s shut down and became non-functional while the Elias was still functioning like normal. Why wasn't the Elias effected? I noticed Shion climbing out of Dinah and I took that as queue to shut down the Elias and climbed out with Lilith as the others did the same. We all met up on top of a platform and used our connection gears (except for me since I didn't have one) to dismiss our E.S.s before facing the big entrance behind us.
"Dammit, we'll have to walk the rest of the way." Jr. said.
"What did Lieutenant Virgil mean by 'that's what kind of place this is'?" Shion asked.
"I expect the answer to that question lies ahead." Jin answered.
We all started walking towards the entrance when Jr. stopped.
"Wait a minute. Why didn't the Elias shut down?" The red-haired boy asked.
"You remember the Nutty Professor and his Erde Kaiser, right?" Lilith asked.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"It just so happens that the Elias is using the same power generator that Erde Kaiser uses. After all, he was the one that created it."
"Whoa!" I exclaimed, causing Lilith and Jr. to look at me. "Convenience in the form of a giant robot…!"
"Okay, Ayame. Let's go before you start day dreaming."
Lilith started dragging me as we followed the others into what appear to be ancient ruins when we were inside. It was so strange walking through those ruins since the place seemed familiar to me. Was I having some sort of déjà vu? So strange… I noticed light up ahead as we climbed a set of stairs and Shion and Jr. were the first to go out. When I came out I was surprised to find that we were in what appeared to be a graveyard with some vegetation with some fog settling in the area.
"Where are we? Did we come out on the surface?" Jr. asked. Everyone else came out. "Man, how the hell can something like this be floating out in space?"
"Huh!" Shion gasped. "This…is…"
"What's up, Shion?"
I watched as Shion walked further into the graveyard. I followed after her a bit but stayed a distanced away. This place looked familiar…
"I've seen this place before. It's the place in my dream."
Dream! Now I know why this place seemed familiar! I had seen it in a dream I had a year ago after having woken up from the capsule I had been in.
"Nephilim?" I looked at Shion to see her staring off in a direction but I wasn't sure what she was looking at. Then suddenly she was holding her head. "Oh, my head—"
"Shion?" chaos asked as he started approaching the dark-haired woman. "Are you all right? What's wrong?"
"I'm fine. It's nothing."
We started moving on, following Shion in the direction I remembered her staring into. We encountered a huge gravestone that the older woman destroy, revealing a set of stairs leading deeper down into…wherever it led to. Upon reaching the bottom my eyes widened when I realized that this was the cave in my vision. The same one where…
"Oh no…" I thought.
Not only was it the cave from my vision but it was also the same one from KOS-MOS's subconscious domain when we did an Encephalon Dive in order to the Kukai Foundation's name. And there were what looked to be twelve destroyed floor coffins.
"This is an impressive sight." Jin said.
"It looks like a tomb. Are those coffins?" Jr. asked. Jin followed the red-haired boy as he went over to check on one of the coffins. "It's empty. Did some grave robbers get to it or something?"
"I doubt there would be grave robbers in a place like this, but that is strange."
"Jr.! Look!" MOMO cried out.
"What it is, MOMO?"
Jr. and Jin came over to the floor coffin MOMO was standing next to.
"This coffin has the name 'Asher' on it."
"Huh?" Jr. ran over to another floor coffin in order to examine it. "This one says 'Dinah'? You've got to be kidding me. They're all E.S. names."
"Coincidence?" I asked.
"Meh! This thing reeks of anything but 'coincidence.'" Lilith stated. "Something about this is suspicious, and I don't mean the good kind."
(Third POV)
Shion approached the stone cross with a stone coffin sitting in front of it as KOS-MOS followed her.
"This is the place from KOS-MOS's subconscious domain." Shion thought. "But why is it here?"
Shion and KOS-MOS came closer to the cross before the former turned to face the latter.
"KOS-MOS, do you know this location?"
"No." The android answered. "My memory contains no data regarding our current location."
"Yeah, you've never been here since you were developed." Shion glanced at the stone cross in thought. "What does this all mean?"
(Ayame's POV)
Once we had checked everything out we were preparing to leave when lasers were suddenly fired at us but thanks to KOS-MOS blocking the attack with her barrier none of us were harmed. I opened my eyes and lifted my head up, only to have them widen when I saw T-elos standing up from her crouched position and I noticed that she had her special vision wear active.
"T-elos!" Shion exclaimed. "Why is she here?"
"I'm here for the Thirteenth Key." The white-haired KOS-MOS look-alike said. "The time of awakening has arrived." The vision wear she had was deactivated to reveal her blue eyes, a startling contrast to KOS-MOS's red eyes.
"Wait a minute. What is she?" Ziggy asked.
"She's KOS-MOS." MOMO stated.
"No… The vision… This is just like my vision…" I thought.
"So that's the T-Weapon?" Jr. asked. "Someone has a twisted sense of humor, making her look exactly like KOS-MOS."
"This presence…" chaos said quietly. "But wait, she can't be!"
"A simple doll that doesn't even understand its reason for existence." T-elos extended her left arm as she activated her power. "To ensure that I continue to exist as myself… KOS-MOS… I'm going to destroy you."
We had no choice but to fight T-elos. Jin, Ziggy, Shion, Lilith, and chaos attacked the android up close while MOMO, KOS-MOS, Jr., and myself attacked from a distance. So far we were having difficulty.
"There's no need to rush. I'll dispose of each of you in turn." T-elos said.
That didn't sound good. And the fact that she was presenting a challenge for us wasn't good either. KOS-MOS shot at her with her gatling gun but T-elos deflected every bullet.
"KOS-MOS, surrender and become part of me!"
T-elos activated Overtaker and I knew we were in for some bad news. Really really bad news. She managed to knock KOS-MOS to the ground and was about to stab her.
"This is where you die!"
"Not if you die first!" Lilith yelled.
Lilith charged at T-elos with her daggers ready to strike, but then at the last second the android whipped her head in the direction of the female U.R.T.V. and quickly brought a gun out.
"Don't interfere!"
With that T-elos shot at Lilith, but despite having barely blocked the attack the bullet grazed her arm.
"Lilith!" I cried out.
I transformed into Angel Mode and changed the Shiruba into swords before flying at T-elos. Even though I was attacking her she kept blocking all of them with ease and I hardly dealt any damaged. Suddenly I was caught off guard when she slammed me into the ground and pressing her booted foot painfully down on my abdomen. I was shocked when I reverted back to normal but it was short-lived when T-elos pressed down harder, causing me to whimper quietly in pain.
"Pathetic." She aimed her gun at my heart and I felt dread fill me as I knew what was going to come next. "Die!"
In that moment a bullet hit T-elos but at the same time her gun went off as well. I cried out in pain as the bullet penetrated my flesh and embedded itself in my upper left arm instead of in my chest. The pain! It hurt so much! It was a pain that felt more hotter than a burning fire! I couldn't think of anything but the intense pain I felt that I wasn't aware of what was happening. I wasn't aware of the weight on my chest being lifted, or something carrying me away.
"…me. Ayame. Can you hear me?"
I tried to block the pain as best as I could in order to focus on the voice talking to me. I managed to crack my eyes open and was surprised at who I saw.
"chaos…?" I asked, my voice having a hint of the pain I felt in it.
"Don't worry. I'm going to help you. I just need you to focus on staying awake while I try to get the bullet out."
"No… Don't… The others need you're help…"
"You need my help more than the others at the moment. They should be able to handle things long enough." With a surprisingly light touch he gently started wiping the blood off the gunshot wound on my left arm so he could see the hole better before taking out a pocket knife. "How scared were you about being so close to getting killed?"
I was confused at first about why chaos was asking me a question but then I realized he was trying to distract me from the pain and help me to stay awake.
"Extremely terrified…" I answered. "I don't think Albedo could've been able to scare me that much…" I bit my lip in order to stop myself from screaming in pain while chaos tried to dig into my arm to get the bullet out.
"It's okay. Good news is that the bullet isn't in as deep as I thought it was. So you know about the verse on the stone tablet?" It was more of a statement than a question.
"Verse?"
"The one that you stated was Matthew 28:2. Do you remember what happened before that led up to that conclusion?"
"I think so..."
"Can you tell me?"
I tried to remember what happened before the verse, getting an mental image of a bearded man bleeding as he hung on a wooden cross with the nails in his hands and feet being the only thing keeping him in place. There was a crowd of people and guards as they watched the man slowly die before their eyes and I imagine a few people weeping at the sight, especially an older woman.
"There was a man…a teacher with twelve disciples. He was…Jesus Christ. One of the twelve…Judas betrayed him for money and he was put on trial. He was tried…beaten…whipped…and then he had to carry a wooden cross through the streets as people sneered at him. He was nailed to the same cross he carried along with two other criminals… One of them was saved because he believed in Jesus but the other was condemned. He died and was buried in a tomb cut out of solid rock which had never been used." It was strange how I was able to remember all of this and my pauses were when I was trying to remember what happened.
"Do you remember who Jesus Christ was?"
"He was the Son of God…the Messiah… He died on the cross as a sacrifice…as the ultimate payment for the sins those born and yet to be born… The lamb of God…who takes away…the sins of the world."
"That's right. That's who he was." I felt more pain as chaos started pushing the bullet out with the pocket knife. "The bullet's almost out, Ayame. You're doing a good job."
"Thanks. You kind of remind me of Jesus-"
That was when chaos managed to get the bullet out and I felt pain erupt from the wound. He then placed a hand over the hole before using a healing Ether on it and I felt the pain reduce to a dull ache.
"I remind you of Jesus?" He asked.
"Yeah. I don't know why, but you just do." I told him.
chaos and I rejoined the others battle and I was relieved when I saw that Lilith was okay. After awhile T-elos was knocked to the ground which led to KOS-MOS activating her chain gun and firing at the white-haired android's, causing the area where her body was lying to be covered in flames.
"Is it over?" Shion asked.
"Hah! Some top-secret weapon that thing was." Jr. said as he twirled one of his handguns
"Shion." KOS-MOS said. "The enemy unit's output is 4.75 times higher than mine. Therefore we are at a clear disadvantage."
"What? Wait, what do you mean?"
"I am going to delay the enemy unit." KOS-MOS came over to Shion, raising her left arm in front of the woman. "Please retreat immediately."
That was when I saw T-elos standing among the flame and appeared to be unharmed from our attacks earlier.
"What the! Even after all those attacks, she's still completely unharmed?" Shion looked somewhat terrified.
KOS-MOS rushed at T-elos and the two androids engaged in single hand-to-hand combat, but most the blue-haired android's attacks were ineffective against her. T-elos kicked KOS-MOS and she landed on the floor. As she was making her next move, the white-haired android tried to break off KOS-MOS's right arm but the latter managed to free herself. The fight continued and T-elos knocked KOS-MOS down badly to the floor.
"It's useless." Suddenly a man wearing a blue uniform, blonde hair and glasses appeared. "We've already completely analyzed her combat patterns."
"Why are you here? What do you mean, analyzed? Do you mean…that task?" Shion asked.
"It's probably against both of you wills, but it's KOS-MOS's fate to be destroyed by T-elos in this place." He said while approaching, stopping to stand next to T-elos.
"How can you even say that to me? Why are you and T-elos even here to begin with?"
"The answer is simple." Suddenly the man changed, revealing himself to be the Red Testament. "My job is to observe you."
T-elos jumped, preparing to make her next move.
"T-Testament!"
KOS-MOS jumped up and was also prepared to make her next move.
"You have no time to be surprised. Your princess is losing."
KOS-MOS and T-elos continued fighting. After a while T-elos activated the blade on her left arm and attempted to slash KOS-MOS, but the blade slashed KOS-MOS's right face. Then T-elos attempted to thrust her arm blade into KOS-MOS, but KOS-MOS managed to break out of it and kicked her far back to the wall.
"Shion, I will only last 140 seconds with my current capacity. Please hurry." KOS-MOS said.
"No way! I refuse to leave you behind, KOS-MOS!" Shion cried. The fight kept going. T-elos grabbed KOS-MOS's leg and swung her around before throwing her into a wall. She charged as us in an attempt to attack us but KOS-MOS appeared in time to hold her back. "KOS-MOS!"
As KOS-MOS continued to hold T-elos's fist, her left arm slowly broke down. But then she activated her chain gun and fired at T-elos, causing her to jump back in order to dodge the attack.
"Damn you!" Jr. growled, firing his guns at T-elos as well.
After KOS-MOS and Jr. fired their weapons a large amount of stones fell to the floor. When the dust cleared we saw T-elos standing on top of the pile of rock, still active but with only a cut on the left side of her cheek.
"KOS-MOS, what is the actual reason for your existence?" T-elos asked. "You are nothing more than an empty vessel. How pathetic. You'll never be able to accomplish anything. Return to dust, so that I may truly…awaken!"
T-elos activated her chest opened up before a red orb of energy started to form, getting bigger as it built up.
"What is that?" MOMO asked.
"A phase transfer cannon? She's going to fire it at this close range?" Shion cried. KOS-MOS started approaching T-elos as she prepared to fire the phase transfer cannon, tossing her chain gun to the side. "KOS-MOS!"
KOS-MOS slowly raised her right hand to activate a barrier before T-elos fired her phase transfer cannon, but the blue-haired android was engulfed in the sphere. The impact knocked us back and I landed on my left side, hurting my recently healed arm. I recovered in time to see KOS-MOS fall to the floor and break down while T-elos approached.
"KOS-MOS. But why? KOS-MOS! No! Please stop!"
T-elos stepped on KOS-MOS.
"I am order!" She said furiously. "Not you, KOS-MOS!"
T-elos fiercely stomped on KOS-MOS's body and completely destroyed her.
"Stop it!" Shion shouted.
Suddenly KOS-MOS's body started glowing brightly.
"KOS-MOS is—" MOMO started as Jr. held her protectively.
"Whoa! What the hell is that light?" Jr. asked.
"KOS-MOS, no!"
The entire area was engulfed in a bright light and I had to cover my eyes in order to block it out.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Back on the Durandal that was flying around the hypersphere Mary and Shelley watched as they noticed something glowing inside.
"What's that? What is going on?" Mary asked.
"Unable to determine." One of the 100-Series said. "The hypersphere had suddenly begun to contract."
The hypersphere shifted its form.
"The gravity variation is too great! We'll be pulled in." Shelley stated. "We have to leave this area immediately!"
The severe bright light from the hypersphere got in the way of their visual.
"Little Master, please respond!" Mary tried. "Little Master!"
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Inside the Rhine Maiden Wilhelm approached the Compass of Order and Chaos glowed brightly.
"It has begun." He said. "Once again, in the same place, it has begun."
ATE: I'm so glad to finally finish this chap. Originally the idea of chaos saving Ayame was never planned to happen, but when I saw the battle quotes for T-elos I immediately thought of Ayame getting shot and then chaos saving her came a few minutes afterwards. Now we have "convenience in the form of a giant robot". I actually made that part up on the spot when I was mentioning the Elias' power source. Also, yesterday I posted a video on youtube showing a slide show of the drawings of Ayame and Lilith (after figuring out how to use a scanner to get the pictures on my laptop) in better detail. Here's the link (without spaces):
: / www . youtube . com / watch ?v=Y _ 5Q dy 52 XoM
Thanks for reading and please remember to review! ;D