Yes, another update within a month of the previous one! Woo-hoo! Now it's only neglect and not gross neglect! What suddenly compelled me to work on XSIV? It's kinda sad but I just finished Crisis Core: -Final Fantasy VII- and Cloud Strife said "Good night." to the dying main character, Zack Fair, and I started getting sad again thinking back to the ending of XSIII and how KOS-MOS' final line was "Good night." XD Granted, it lacked the in-game significance that Xenosaga did because of all the meaning behind "Good morning" all through out the series, but for a die-hard XS fan like me it was really sad nonetheless….

A Xenosaga character will be introduced this chapter, so for those of you that want less OCs can rejoice. I'll give you a clue on who it is: think of evil laughing. Who comes to mind?

Also, I have some unpleasant news. I don't want to offend anybody here in the Xenosaga community, because whenever I get anonymous reviews here they're always kind. However, now that I've set foot in a large community I've been getting really offensive flames, though they've all been anonymous. So, I'm editing the story I have posted there but I do plan on continuing it. However, in the end, I still plan to disable the anonymous reviews. I'm sorry to my anonymous reviews here but I do sincerely hope you'll continue reading. J

Xenosaga IV

Chapter 14

Pray

We landed without much trouble. The ship was small enough to land on the metal platform around the cannon mounted into the ground. It had stopped firing a while ago by the look of it. Fortunately, there weren't any U-TIC soldiers.

"Where is KOS-MOS in the base?" Rukiro asked, sliding the front hatch on the right side open and hopping out.

"She's getting close to Arku's office, toward the center of the base." I replied, watching her movements with my connection gear in my left hand as I opened my door.

"There is no way you're coming." Rukiro said decidedly. "You could barely walk before, fifteen minutes of rest isn't going to change anything."

"It was more like twenty." I contradicted, "I also need to know what her secondary mission is. I didn't assign it so it must have something to do with Wilhelm."

Rukiro looked at me doubtfully saying, "Wilhelm was on the battleship. He couldn't have gotten back to Earth fast enough."

"This isn't a normal human we're dealing with." I said softly. "I have records reflecting inhuman abilities from him. In fact, there's something in KOS-MOS' database regarding Wilhelm and Yeshua having a conversation in space."

"Space? You mean outside a ship?" He asked, completely unprepared for my comment.

I nodded saying, "Yeah."

"We don't know what he is." Rukiro argued quietly, "At least with KOS-MOS and Yeshua we had some understanding of what they were. And…" He paused, glancing and the others before adding quietly, "I have a really bad feeling about entering that base."

"Why?" I asked stubbornly, immediately losing faith in any sensible counterargument he could come up with.

"I don't really know, but-"

"Then we're going." I said, cutting him off abruptly.

He scowled and crossed his arms saying, "Fine. Do you need me to carry you or not?"

I hadn't expected him to give in and found myself blushing slightly, glad it was dark enough for him not to see. "Sure."

We weren't walking down the dirt road for long before reaching the edges of clearing of the launching bay. The dirt along the road had been hard packed, as though large vehicles had traveled down it before. The road itself had been very wide, too.

The clearing around the massive paved ground was formidable in size. It took a few minutes to cross the length of it before reaching the building. Other than the slight embarrassment of the situation, I was fairly glad Rukiro had been carrying me; else running would have been distinctly draining.

The highly awkward bridal-style carrying had been abandoned, to my relief. It didn't bother me when it was KOS-MOS holding me like a rag doll but it uncomfortable with Rukiro. I had my arms around his neck and his hands under my knees.

"What the hell…?" He muttered under his breath, stopping suddenly upon reaching the door. I looked up, blinking in confusion at the red web-like substance covering the door.

"Ewww." Sayuri said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

I stared at it a moment, distracted by the faint purple glow coming from below the dark red weave. It seemed to be layers of thick webs piled atop each other many times over. To add to the sinister appearance, it was pulsing slightly, as thought it were alive.

It's almost like they're veins…they're not quite the color of blood, but its close.

"What is it?" Kain asked, voicing the dreaded question.

"We'll find another entrance." I suggested in a commanding tone, ducking having to try giving an answer. "There's a manual escape exit near here. It's behind the one garden over to the left."

"I don't remember any emergency exits there." Kain said bluntly.

I rolled my eyes saying, "Do you want to get in or just sit out here for the next hour?"

He furrowed his brows asking, "What do you plan on doing for an hour? I want out of here in fifteen minutes!"

I pointed to the path that lead to the exit not far down the wall from the main one, the strange pulsing substance almost completely absent on the door. It was around the corners but hadn't covered the doorknob.

Sayuri squinted at it asking, "A door knob? I thought this place was supposed to have the top of technology."

"It's a manual exit, and it's a handle." I sighed as Nanami pushed it open.

If the halls of the Ormus building hadn't been bad before, they were a hundred times worse now. To add from the massacre of Ormus employees and attacking forces, but the crimson growth was spreading. There were patches of floor covered with the thick web-like substance. In some places, it was beginning to absorb the limps of the corpses.

The stench of death and decay hung heavily in the air. It was accompanied by a strange static, putting Rukiro on the others on edge. I felt strangely drawn to it, the familiarity haunting. Something began to lick at the edges of my consciousness like a flame threatening to engulf a piece of paper. It held the same aura as the threatening force that had overwhelmed me in one of the visions I'd had in the U-TIC battleship.

I winced, recognizing a male mechanic that had assisted with reconstructing KOS-MOS' limbs. The red substance had completely engulfed his right arm and covered half his face. I wouldn't have taken the time to realize the wound he'd died of wasn't like the others if I hadn't recognized him.

"Hey…" I trailed off, pointing at him, "look at that."

"Ugh." Kain said, grimacing. "What's so special about him?"

"He was stabbed." I replied, "It's too large to have been a sword…and it doesn't look like he died very long ago."

"Are you going to ask me to investigate?" Kain asked grimly.

"Now that you've volunteered, go check it out."

Kain walked over begrudgingly and reached down, checking if there was still a pulse. "Whoa!" he exclaimed suddenly, "The body is still warm."

"You mean that crap engulfed him that quick?" Sayuri asked, sounding disgusted.

"He definitely wasn't killed in the original invasion, then…" I muttered. "We should hurry to the center of the base. KOS-MOS is heading there now."

"You don't want to do anything about this?" Kain asked, rising to his feet and point at the body.

"No, we don't have time."

We had to take a few stair cases, but since the main office was on the ground floor it was mainly hurrying down halls. The carnage around the entrance wasn't consistent. In some places there wouldn't be any noticeable damage to the facility and in other it would look like a battlefield. As we got closer to my father's office I started noticing a chance in uniforms. In place of the normal Ormus Security, fallen members of my father's personal division of body guards were getting more common.

I started feeling nervous after spotting twenty of their bodies. I hadn't seen more than five of his special guards at once, and even when I did they all looked similar. I wasn't sure exactly how many he had, but the amount of dead ones was haunting. A few of them had severed limps, the missing part usually lying on the floor a few feet away. Like the mechanic from the KOS-MOS Project, none of them could have been dead for very long.

"Put me down." I requested as we reached the darkened hall that would lead to my father's office. We entered though the door that served as the leftmost exit, meaning the entrance to his lobby would be in the center of the wall around the corner.

Rukiro obliged hesitantly, looking down the hall either ways. There weren't any windows in this area of the building and the walls had additional explosion proofing. My father had gotten since taking charge of Ormus.

It was also cold in the dark hall, an issue that was voiced by Sayuri. "It's freakin' freezing! Are we underground? Is this some sort of bomb shelter? Are we safe here?"

I rolled my eyes saying, "Have you listening to anything that's been said the last few hours? We have to return to the Dammerung after this. It's the opposite of safe here!"

We walked the rest of the way, Rukiro and me slightly ahead of the others. "Can you get in with only a password and no power?"

"There's a fifth backup generator that gives power to the computer with access to Ormus' main database within my father's office….the primary one was destroyed, the secondary dismantled, and the third depleted but the forth should still be intact."

"And if it isn't?"

"Think a wire can pry a door open?"

Rukiro smirked slightly as we turned the corner. I hurried to the computer terminal beside the door, relived to see there was a faint green light coming from the screen to illuminate the hall. I wasn't going to bother with my security card and reached for my connection gear, but stopped short.

It's…all ready been unlocked?

"What's wrong?" Rukiro asked, noticing my hesitation as the others caught up.

"It's all ready open. KOS-MOS must have done it."

"We didn't miss her, did we?" Nanami asked, sounding more annoyed than a little disappointed.

"We'll see." I said, stepping close to the door. The doors slip open and the traces of a conversation reached my ears. The door leading to my father's office was closed, though the lobby wasn't in bad condition.

At first the area had gone unscathed. But when I saw his receptionist collapsed over the desk and blood dripping from her hair to the floor, the hope was dashed. I tried to remember the last time I was within the office, usually too preoccupied with the dread of dealing with my father to notice anything intricate about the setup.I instantly regretted that when I saw there was no place to swap a keycard or connect a connect gear near the door.

"Dammit." I muttered. "The receptionist has a button to open the door."

I walked over to the corpse and looked around the desk. She had a connection gear in the hand that wasn't dangling off the desk. The desk was set up in the corner of the room with a semispherical design. Her chair was between the wall and the desk. Strangely, her grip on the connection gear looked solid. Even if I wasn't suffering from a concussion I wouldn't have liked the idea of prying it from her fingers.

I looked knelt down and looked under the desk, trying to recall where she'd reached when opening the door. Surely enough, there was a panel of buttons. The conversation transpiring from the other room was slight louder from where I knelt, but was still understandable. It only created a distraction as I squinted to read the commands above the buttons, carved into the metal plate. I pressed the one inscribed with the word open, and sure enough, the door sprung open.

My head was still half under the desk when the splitting crack of a gunshot filled the room. Time didn't move for an agonizingly long eternity. It was impossible to hear a bullet cutting through the air, but the voices stopped immediately. The sound from whatever was occurring on the outside of the base was completed muted, making the gunshot even more definitive.

I froze, my first thought being that I wasn't in the line of fire. My second? Rukiro was. I heard a thud and a feminine shriek. I squeezed my eyes shut; wondering if there was going to be more gunfire. There wasn't, though in any real combat situations I wouldn't have moved too quickly, and ducked out from under the desk.

A wave of relief washed over me the moment I saw Rukiro standing and uninjured. It was replaced by a pang of regret when I saw who had been shot. Sayuri was sprawled out on the floor, gasping for breath as Nanami fell to her knees beside her. I felt a shiver run up my spine as her previously calm expression changed to one of terror.

Nanami was calling her name as Sayuri began to cough, her body trembling. I didn't see where she was shot but by Kain and Rukiro's grim expressions I wasn't hopeful. I got to my feet slowly, guilt settling over me as she gagged on her own blood. I walked over, stopping just before the entrance to my father's office, in case there was anymore gunfire.

Nanami lifted Sayuri into a sitting position, as her coughing subsided, the blood she'd coughed up staining her teeth and chin. Her eyes were unfocused though Nanami's were petrified. My gaze drifted downward to see where she'd been hit. The blood that stained her shirt and Nanami's skirt came from a bullet hardly inches away from her heart. I looked away uneasily, knowing there was no helping her.

"Sayuri!" She repeated her voice cracking. "Don't close your eyes! W-we can get help!"

Sayuri seemed to know it was futile. "But everyone here is dead…" Her voice was small and nearly unintelligible. "Do you think…we were supposed to die at the school, too?"

Nanami's hands trembled and tears overflowed from her eyes and she struggled for words before saying, "We not supposed to die!"

"But Nanami…if the soldier hadn't…"

"Stop it! We're not going to die!"

"You're not…" With that said, Sayuri burst into another spasm of coughing. Blood smattered down her shirt and across her limp legs. She looked up into the office, most likely staring into the eyes of her killer. Sayuri looked up shortly thereafter, her eyes widening.

Her killer… I thought inwardly, a sick settling in the pit of my stomach. I looked into the office, unsure what I should hope to see. I assumed what I thought to be the worst; KOS-MOS must have thought it was U-TIC soldier that was there and shot without looking. She wouldn't have recognized Sayuri's biological composition to know better. Sadly, it turned out to be worse than I dreaded.

I stepped back in horror, feeling my fist clench on impulse. The only person bearing a weapon in the room stood behind the desk. His expression was tense but the pistol didn't quiver in his grip even after he realized it wasn't the enemy he'd shot. His lips tightened to form a straight line as he lowered the weapon, very little remorse reflected in his eyes.

"Well…" A mocking masculine voice drawled from the other side of the room, "That wasn't very interesting."

"How…could you?" I asked hollowly, stepping forward to stand in the doorway. KOS-MOS looked down and away as my father's gaze met mine. Rain was beating down on the glass wall behind him and his desk, the red glow of the horizon giving the room a lurid atmosphere.

He set the gun down on the desk, though he still gripped it tightly enough for his knuckles to look white. "It was a mistake." He said flatly.

I felt anger surge up as I demanded, more than half yelling, "Why wouldn't you look before you shot? If KOS-MOS was here why wouldn't you think we wouldn't be far behind?"

I wanted to do something drastic but felt helpless. Even if the situation was different and it wasn't my father of all people who was responsible, I wasn't in any physical condition for it. I heard Rukiro come to stand beside me, his hand gently closing around mine. His eyes met mine briefly though the message was clear; he didn't want me getting worked up again and passing out, either.

"What if it had been me you thoughtlessly shot?" I snapped, reluctant to let the topic go. "Where would that leave you?"

"What matters is that it wasn't." His voice was quiet and he never looked up.

"Well, I can just tell by the greeting this is a cozy little reunion…" The sardonic voice from before cut in, stepping forward from where he'd been dwelling in the corner of the room. I looked up; expecting to recognize the person as an Ormus employee but his face was hidden by a white mask. I let my gaze drop from the peculiar mask and down to his attire. It was all white and just as unusual with intricate details. The strangest part was probably the cape. The last time I'd seen a cape was probably in one of the superhero cartoons I watched as a child.

"You look a lot like her…Miss Uzuki." He said dryly, turning to face me. "You've chosen to carry the burden of Shion's legacy, but do you really know what you're getting into?"

He took a step forward but KOS-MOS snapped into action and stood in front of us, diving Rukiro and me from the intruder. "Go back to Wilhelm." KOS-MOS said firmly, her pistol pointed at the intruder.

He chuckled and his voice lightened as he said, "I have not come to fight you over the protection of the Maiden's grandchild. I would like to inform her companion though he is not worthy of blessing, Wilhelm wants to know if he has it. I do not expect you to comply, so kindly take this as a warning; you are not our only target…Eleutherios."

The scornful way he said her configuration's name made me scowl, but KOS-MOS held her hand out in front of us, barring any motion. Before I could have reacted the cloaked man was gone. He disappeared into a flash of red light and left us standing silently in the office. Though the words couldn't draw blood and the gunshot brought fatality, the sound of the ominous threat haunted me more.