Fullmetal Alchemist: Testament of the Brothers of Sin Chapter 25: Locked In a Hollow Shell of Cold Darknes, a fullmetal alchemist fanfic

CHAPTER 24:

LOCKED IN A HOLLOW SHELL OF COLD DARKNESS

Tokiko leaned against the wall of Underground Searchlight to the right of the sitting Al, himself behind and beside stacks of Doctor Alexandria's open and shut books, as comfortably as she could position herself. She was keeping all of her sentiments as tightly, and distantly, locked inside a heart she'd smelted and folded upon itself until it had become harder than every black kakugane, regular kakugane, and diamond she was at least reasonably sure she knew the approximate location of combined.

However, even spending the past approximate day and a half seeing Al's surprisingly genuine exuberance and eager wonder as he pored through Alexandria's, and Victoria's, research notes hadn't improved her spirits enough for her to feel any less inclined to march right back to Alchemist Army headquarters, look up the nearest current mission in need of reinforcements that was hunting for one, or more, Homunculi somewhere on this Earth, request to be deployed to back it up, and then eviscerate every single internal organ of that Homunculus, or those Homunculi, in the most excruciatingly agonizing ways she could think of.

She'd promised she'd stay at Kazuki's side, and protect him, as one soul, body, and mind, no matter what happened.

And she hadn't even been able to keep that oath for a half hour.

But, Tokiko knew there was but one way the Alchemist Army would pardon her fast enough to deploy her on any missions that quickly, particularly if it was outside Japan, and then only if the mission was low risk enough for her to have a valid chance of not becoming a liability in her current condition.

There was a Homunculus within close reach, just on the other side of the open hatch to their right.

But Tokiko didn't need Alexandria's research; what had happened to Ouka, and Victoria's involvement in it, and Al's improved mood, to know what the most likely result would be if she attempted to take her hate and anger out on Victoria they way she had on Shusui and Ouka, and avenge what had happened to Kazuki, and what likely still was, by torturing Victoria to death through literally tearing her to pieces from the inside out.

Assuming she could even defeat Al's shield, and the Underground Searchlight, even though the latter had no offensive capabilities, in her current condition.

Far more so if the Rurio Head, and all of Alexandria's firsthand experience with witnessing Alchemist Warrior combat, was added into the mix.

However, if, or, almost undeniably likely, when, Victoria proved the truism an animal couldn't change its stripes, as it was incredibly challenging for Tokiko to believe wouldn't, sooner, or later, happen, what should Tokiko target first when Victoria turned on Al?

The Underground Searchlight would be the easiest to dismantle, but as long as the Rurio Head remained intac–

"You need to hear about this one!" Al cried in eagerly excited and unrestrained euphoria, looking up from the book open in his lap and jolting Tokiko out of her attempt to formulate an effective battle strategy for Victoria's probable impending betrayal.

Though, at the look of effervescent glee in Al's eyes, and on his visage, Tokiko found that, even with how horrifically she'd discovered that she'd broken her promise to Kazuki, and that she'd abandoned him, she actually didn't even need to hold back the hate, fury, anguish, and despair.

The kind of eager joyous wonder on Al's face was all too rare.

Far more so, because Kazuki's had been naïve, while Al was still able to hold on to his unmitigated awe at the wonders of life, and reality, with utter and entire awareness of just what horrors were intrinsic in it.

Just being near it caused all the pain to feel so much lighter.

"According to the research Doctor Alexandria has compiled from physicists all over this side of the Gate, there are subatomic particles known as quarks within protons, electrons, and neutrons that exist in three hypothetical colors! It looks like two of them may be blue, and green, and they're associated with protons, and neutrons, and emit positive charges; while the ones associated with electrons that are associated with electricity, and thus the information and souls within the Truth, could be red!"

Even with how eager Al sounded to tell her about this, being reminded Kazuki's salvation hinged upon Al's research caused the lightness inside her to fall away, and Tokiko suppressed the urge to wince.

"Yet when these particles are bound together to create neutrons, and other subatomic particles, they do so by the means of gluons! Gluons change the colors of the quarks by alternating themselves amongst the quarks, and the energy they provide this side of the Gate, and almost certainly mine, is known as the fundamental strong nuclear force, so gluons must be the conductors of Equivalent Exchange!"

Now the lightness was back, so much Tokiko almost forgot she was standing.

Tokiko kept all of the geysers of hope seeking to rise inside her from rushing even a little, though.

"Does this mean you've learned something from the alchemic knowledge on your side of the Gate about how to transmute a white kakugane without another black one?" she queried.

"I'd like to believe I have, but there are other theories, and hypotheses, that talk about six kinds of quarks total, so the only part of even the physicism facets I'm sure of is the gluon concept, and I don't even know if that's been recognized as a theory, or hypothesis, or its been proven sufficiently by now, and disproven counterevidence enough, it's currently recognized as a physicism law.

"I need to keep reading."

Tokiko refused to acknowledge how her insides were warping.

She pushed everything searingshrieking within her that she had no time to spare, even for this, down, and held it under the same firm foundation as everything else.

Bravo had betrayed them both, but the lesson he'd forced her to relearn about how a world existed outside of Kazuki, and his dreams, itched a lot more than it usually did when she thought about her scar, now that she'd healed it so much.

But she hadn't been able to do the most infinitesimal thing for Kazuki.

And she was no longer an Alchemist Warrior.

Did her baptism in blood mean anything, even at all, now?

Would indulging Al's unblemished and eagerly euphoric inquisitiveness enable her to do anything for him, at all?

Or should she just let Victoria, and Alexandria, take care of him?

At least until Victoria's inevitable betraya–

Tokiko pushed those thoughts away firmly, sealing them behind even more impervious walls.

"What other things have you learned from alchemy and physicism on this side of the Gate you're the most interested in?" Tokiko questioned.

She didn't need to compel any genuine interest, not just for Kazuki's sake, into her voice.

"Too many to number," Al spoke back, his voice, relatively, more subdued now, but the eager elation no less verdant even with how contained it was.

"But one of my favorites, at least currently, is the hypersphere.

"The theory, or perhaps hypothesis – and I'm clinging to the hope I find out it's a theory, and not a hypothesis, at least by physicists on this side of the Gate – of the hypersphere, among other things, posits that your universe, on this side of the Gate, and thus, presumably, Brother's, actually have the precise density and gravity to have curved into a sphere of mammoth magnitudes, one comprised of more than three dimensions."

"If this theory is true, because the sphere should have a uniform curved geometry in more than three dimensions, we could see the opposite side of the universe from Earth if light didn't need to travel so many billions light years, by the time it reached us, that side of the universe would be even farther away. However, if we could see the edges of the universe relative to where Earth drifts in it, because the universe is curved in a hypersphere, it would appear to be spread around us, and curved like the Earths are, and not a precipice.

"Doctor Alexandria has thus hypothesized that what modern physics on Earth now calls a hypersphere is the true form of what alchemists on this side of the Gate, and, thus, likely, ours, called the celestial spheres. It's been proven by alchemists on my side of the Gate, and physicists on yours, that our two planets aren't at the center of our two cosmoses, but she believes alchemists may have been able to discern this hyperspherical arrangement of the universe by understanding something she calls cosmic background radiation, which can tell scientists of all disciplines how the universe was arranged shortly after the Big Bang.

"This theory is one of my favorites because Doctor Alexandria has posited transmutation circles can be constructed out of hyperspheres.

"Not the universe, itself, of course."

Tokiko was surprised she actually felt like wincing at the disappointment on Al's expression.

"Doctor Alexandria speculates that even this is possible, partially because the universe is around twelve billion years old, so no given location within it can see past that margin of light years, since even more distant light can't have reached us yet. So she's even gone so far as to speculate observable universe segments can be constructed into points of a cosmic hypersphere transmutation circle.

"I wish I could add to this theory.

"I've seen transmutation circles that are arranged on the floor, and ceiling, so I'd like to believe both of our universes are a relative top, and relative bottom, of a titanic universal transmutation circle with observable universes relative to the perspectives of the people who see them as the points; perhaps for transmuting something related to the Gate, since the truths it contains are supplied to it from the truths that differ from person to person.

"But, even with everything Brother and I, and the rest of us, have seen, and learned about, even I can tell that this one is so out there it can't be anything more than hypothetical."

Tokiko wasn't even sure she could believe that much, after learning Kazuki was intended to mass produce complete Philosopher's Stones.

"Additionally, if someone really could establish a transmutation circle around the Gate, it might require more than two hyperspheres relatively above, and relatively below, it."

Now the wonder returned to Al's face, and eyes, and this time it was accompanied by a large amount of intimidation.

"If hypersphere theory is correct, our two universes themselves are nothing more than ordinary coordinate points, that expanded from Big Bangs erupting at similar ordinary coordinate points, within a dimension known as imaginary time where alchemy, and physicism, is measured by units known as imaginary numbers."

Tokiko felt her mouth open slightly.

But she didn't even feel her guard come up in reflex for her to be ready for combat, as it did whenever she was even the slightest amount intimidated.

"If you want to know what the organic being in the flask is, you're asking the wrong alchemist."

"We will not let your Stone reach that point.

"That's my own promise, and until I can ensure that I can keep it, and you're fully human once more, I'll be right here at your side to remind you what it truly means for someone else's soul, mind, and body to be one with yours.

"And if you even start to think about giving up, and dying at your own hands, or Bravo's or another Alchemist Warrior's, that's not going to change that, and I'll die along with you."

"That promise works both ways."

Was this because of what she'd done to Kazuki, and her broken promise?

Or everything she'd been through, and seen, that she could, and couldn't, remember?

Or had she always been like this, even before the Homunculus attack on her Elementary School?

So what if their universe was just an unremarkable set of coordinates within imaginary time?

Those coordinates were just the starting points for walking into a fissured and chapped parched desiccated desolate wasteland.

Maybe the reason she'd been the sole survivor, and she'd even suppressed most of her memory of the attack while Ouka and Shusui had retained theirs of seeing their foster mother's corpse decay and almost starving to death, was because she'd been the greatest coward in the school, and she'd fled all her fellow students and teachers, and even her parents, to hide in the locker while everyone else around her was shredded to strips and eaten, or died from excruciating torture as they were eaten slowly until they passed out from the pain.

The Alchemist Army she'd believed in was as drenched in blood as the Homunculi.

How could she truly believe herself to be the sole exception?

Kazuki was, but that was because he hadn't been trained for it.

Then Tokiko's eyes became slightly wide.

She didn't feel intimidated, but the corners of her lips were now curling up in a genuine, lightly weighted smile, at the wonder and awe on Al's face, and what he'd just said.

If Kazuki couldn't smile like that any longer, because of what she'd done to him around two months ago, and how she'd now broken her promise and abandoned him–

Tokiko pushed it away, and to her further shock, it took a little less effort to do so this time, and to lock these feelings to her side.

"In imaginary time, universal hyperspheres could even be the points of one multiple universe circle within imaginary time."

Tokiko registered she hadn't just not missed a single word Al was speaking as he was continuing, she hadn't even missed a single inflection.

"There's no way a universe itself could be turned into a transmutation circle, or the point of one.

"But I agree with Doctor Alexandria's hypotheses that transmutation circles, of much smaller scale, can be established within imaginary time itself, and they can utilize imaginary numbers in their formulae.

"Look at the Buso Renkins, and kakugane.

"It's possible at least a good part of the reason kakugane, and Buso Renkin, are so different from common matter, and they alter in accordance with the state of the mind, is because of the human willingness to perceive not just mathematical reality, but unproven potentialities."

"If you want to know what the organic being in the flask is, you're asking the wrong alchemist."

"Kazuki didn't enlist.

"Nor was he trained for this.

"I dragged him into this world of death and battle when he was just an ordinary young man."

"Once more, if you mean what you just asked, this is among one of the very last questions that you want me to ask.

"As horrific as your and Kazuki's incomplete Stones, and the Homunculi are, and as much harm as they've done people throughout the world, they're mildly unpleasant daydreams compared to what alchemists will encounter if they learn how to unlock the forbidden power of the real Philosopher's Stone.

"The complete Philosopher's Stone is the distillation of death and torment and despair and a nightmare in its most brutal and ruthless and unforgiving and remorseless epitome."

"We will not let your Stone reach that point.

"And if you even start to think about giving up, and dying at your own hands, or Bravo's or another Alchemist Warrior's, that's not going to change that, and I'll die along with you."

"That promise works both ways."

"Has Kazuki been given a death mark?"

"I'm very sorry, but after what Sakimori told us about him, Victor, Chouno, Shamballa, and the imperfect and complete Stones, we felt that we didn't have any other options."

"However, Kazuki is the key to what Viator is trying to do.

"If the neutron particles of Kazuki's Stone are fully transmuted into an imperfect Stone created by nothing but neutrons, it will be able to set off another involuntary transmutation that murders Victor or transmutes his own soul into an indistinct part of his own Stone, and that coagulates the other two opposed kakuganes together into a single composite imperfect Stone.

"But, whether it's because the three Stones weren't originally full atoms, or for one or more other reasons that I'm currently ignorant of, this Stone won't challenge the Law of Equivalent Exchange by breaking it.

"As these subatomic particle Stones already do, it will push the envelope of the Law of Equivalent Exchange by transmuting all substances it comes into contact with into a form that it can better associate with in the same ways that other matter does.

"If this imperfect Stone can be transmuted into a true Philosopher's Stone, Viator will have a refined form of a genuine Philosopher's Stone that can create a virtually limitless supply of real Philosopher's Stones from one large population center after another with transmutations that take a matter of seconds; merely by taking the genuine Stone to that population center and transmuting with it, without him needing to set up a transmutation circle to transmute the real Stone, or to first gather the ingredients for it over a short or long amount of time."

"It's because I know what I world of warmth and kindness is like that I know how horrific it is to not be able to live in one or to have never known one, and why I'm so determined to pull people out of a frozen chasm or keep them from falling into it."

"We will not let your Stone reach that point.

"And if you even start to think about giving up, and dying at your own hands, or Bravo's or another Alchemist Warrior's, that's not going to change that, and I'll die along with you."

"That promise works both ways."

"It's because I know what a world of warmth and kindness is like that I know how horrific it is to not be able to live in one or to have never known one, and why I'm so determined to pull people out of a frozen chasm or keep them from falling into it."

"Kazuki didn't enlist.

"Nor was he trained for this.

"I dragged him into this world of death and battle when he was just an ordinary young man."

"If you want to know what the organic being in the flask is, you're asking the wrong alchemist."

For the second time, she'd just stood there, in the cold darkness with the light of the stars fornever unendingly frozen far distant off remotely icy unreachable across an abyss of pitch onyx black, and let it happen.

"If humans can harness imaginary numbers, perhaps this is also the reason for why a human soul is the most reliable component for a true Philosopher's Stone, so this comparison is evidence kakugane phase transitions involve imaginary numbers."

Was the effervescent vitality and energetic verdure of Al's voice coming from outside the sealed wall, or inside of it?

"We will not let your Stone reach that point.

"And if you even start to think about giving up, and dying at your own hands, or Bravo's or another Alchemist Warrior's, that's not going to change that, and I'll die along with you."

"That promise works both ways."

"Kazuki didn't enlist.

"Nor was he trained for this.

"I dragged him into this world of death and battle when he was just an ordinary young man."

"If you want to know what the organic being in the flask is, you're asking the wrong alchemist."

No.

She was the organic being inside the locked locker, and she'd left everyone else outside.

Al, and Ed, had been correct from the beginning.

She was the one who had closed her eyes, and turned away from the reality outside of herself, and her dreams.

"The souls of less intelligent animals, and other living beings, can't understand potentialities; they're not smart enough, so they can't perceive the formulae for imaginary numbers in their minds, and this may be why the souls can supply so much energy. In practice, the human soul can't do this. But, hypothetically, imaginary numbers can even fit into hypothetical alchemic formulae that, for example, even harness something these books tell me is the superforce from the beginning of the universe, for energy."

"We will not let your Stone reach that point.

"And if you even start to think about giving up, and dying at your own hands, or Bravo's or another Alchemist Warrior's, that's not going to change that, and I'll die along with you."

"That promise works both ways."

"Kazuki didn't enlist.

"Nor was he trained for this.

"I dragged him into this world of death and battle when he was just an ordinary young man."

"If you want to know what the organic being in the flask is, you're asking the wrong alchemist."

"This may be another reason the human soul is such a reliable ingredient for the Philosopher's Stone.

"According to Doctor Alexandria, it's believed as a law that, or hypothesized that, or theorized that, shortly after this superforce separated into forces as we know them, energy cooled into a particle and anti-particle named the X-boson, and anti-X-boson. And when these two particles decomposed to lower energy states, if they're real, the X-boson is supposed to have resulted in more particles than the anti-X-boson resulted in anti-particles."

Any warmth, and every vibrant energy, resided on the other side of the locked metal door of the locker, and she was everywhere severed sealed shut from all of it, for as far back as she could remember, and even before then, and she always would be.

"It's because you didn't assess the situation and think about your powerlessness. You jumped in the way without thinking."

"We will not let your Stone reach that point.

"And if you even start to think about giving up, and dying at your own hands, or Bravo's or another Alchemist Warrior's, that's not going to change that, and I'll die along with you."

"That promise works both ways."

"Kazuki didn't enlist.

"Nor was he trained for this.

"I dragged him into this world of death and battle when he was just an ordinary young man."

"If you want to know what the organic being in the flask is, you're asking the wrong alchemist."

And every time Tokiko attempted to prove any theory, or perform any experiment, all it resulted in was to drag everyone around her into the same nightmare until they cascaded powerlesslyhelplesslyhopelesslyruined to its ruinedbrokendesiccatedchapped foundations.

She was the one who didn't understand life, or real existence.

And she was no longer sure it was even the most far off ray of the faintest beam of light possible for her to do so.

She stood inside the locked door, but even that hadn't been enough to enable her to hear Shusui, and Ouka, screaming, and begging, for life, and freedom, as they dehydrated, and starved.

There were no varying potentialities each person believed in as a truth to promise himself, or herself, to.

Tokiko broke her promises to the people most starved and begging for kindness and life and the hearth of a home and a warm embrace as effortlessly, and as unhesitatingly, as though she were brushing the lightest feather off the back of a palm that should have been extended to offer someone support.

She pulled triggers with her fingers, and hands.

She didn't hold them up, or close, and protected.

And the sole truths she knew were the unrelenting black cold and white infernos of ally and enemy, kill or be killed.

The chain reaction transmutation of Chouno's Homunculus embryo hadn't run its course, but, even with how often she'd called them monsters, and the enemy, and for how long, she'd been the greatest parasite of all since long before she'd known what both of the memories of both of her minds, Homunculus and human, were.

Living Stones, and Homunculi, merely gorged themselves on sustenance, and power, from other living beings.

Tokiko glutted herself on every ray of warmth that they themselves took into the deepest clasps of their heartfelt grinning souls and vigorously laughing minds until they were starving of it for all spaces within imaginary time.

"At the least, even if kakugane, and Buso Renkin, don't involve imaginary numbers in their transmutation circles, the kakugane may have been able to contribute to the three incomplete Philosopher's Stones here because all kakuganes may be stepping stones towards constructing hyperspheres."

Al's face lost a small amount of its vitality.

How could she see it?

She'd locked the door, and locked out reality, and everyone else.

And she didn't open it unless she wanted to drag them into the inescapable night with her.

"If"

However, even though Al's expression had lost an amount of its vigor, just seeing it enabled Tokiko to tell where his voice was coming from.

Sick guilt and fury flooded up inside her.

How could she have let her guard down like that?

Victoria could attack Al at any ti–

"I don't want to commit murder. And I don't want you to either, Tokiko."

"The choice is yours, Tokiko. You can save her… or let her die."

That was correct.

Whether it was misplaced or not, Kazuki had believed in her.

She didn't understand why, nor was she capable of understanding others, and cooperating with them, or anything but dealing others, and drowning them in, death and adversity.

But Kazuki had fought for her, as much as for Shusui, and Ouka, then.

That counted for something.

Right?

"All I can glean from the theories, or what have you, of hyperspheres, that may assist me in developing another white kakugane, is that proponents of the presence of hyperspheres believe that there's a mathematical discrepancy of twenty orders of magnitude between the smallest particles, and Planck length.

"And, although I haven't yet read up on the specifics of the connection, this universe began in the Planck Era. So, if kakugane are tied to hyperspheres, the math I need to know to design a circle for transmuting one may be connected to this discrepancy.

"I'm a lot more dubious I'll be able to find any of that math by researching the specifics of imaginary numbers themselves.

"This is due to something she calls vacuum decay, and I myself choose to call vacuum decomposition, that most likely reveals why there are two universes to begin with, and why my side of the Gate is more successful with alchemy than yours.

"Different vacuums can exist in different stages of energy, such as false vacuums nearly stable enough to be true vacuums, but that are actually on a second surface above it. Particles can hypothetically travel between different stages of vacuums by reaching enough velocities, so I take this to mean that our side of the Gate is a false vacuum in the high energy state, and yours is in a lower one, less above the true vacuum.

"If imaginary numbers are what give the human soul, and thus kakugane, and Philosopher's Stones, so much of their energy, we should have a lot more of them at our disposal, and research into the Philosopher's Stone should be one of the best developed fields of alchemy on our side of the Gate, not one of the least.

"There's also the issue that all of the alchemic processes of understanding, decomposition, and reconstruction alchemy applies on both sides of the Gate very likely integrate concepts similar to vacuum decomposition, yet transmutations rarely involve energy itself, and when they do, they stop before reducing energy itself to its lowest state.

"Yet I'm not aware of a single formula our alchemy utilizes that involves even one imaginary number."

Al's face then lost all of its vitality.

None of the fatigue that had been there until yesterday manifested on it, but for an unknown reason, Tokiko's stomach warped.

"What about you?" he asked.

"Do you know what happened with Ouka?"

Tokiko opened her mouth.

"You say that people need to believe in something to fight for to have a reason to carry on, so why won't you move forward from what happened to your family and friends and trust in something yourself?"

"There's something that Brother recently told me.

"Do you really want to believe that the world of kindness Kazuki and Brother and I have faith in is a lie, and live in an unyielding, hard world where there's nothing more to life than eking out what fleeting rest we can after striving through endless hardship?

"What does it matter if poses are childish? Would you rather be considered a child; or would you rather live in a world of cynicism, chaos, and apathy?

"Because the world isn't just flowers and rainbows, because the world is imperfect, that's the very reason that we're shown why we need to believe in comfort and welcome.

"Because no law; Equivalent Exchange or any other alchemic mandate; the military causes of fighting to protect others from violence with violence or anything else to battle for, governs all of existence.

"There's no such thing as an immutable law that shapes of all of reality.

"Everything that we believe in living for and that guides our lives, relentless and remorseless, or warm and kind, is a promise between the people who love us and care for us, and the people who we love and care for."

"I'm tired of being patronized by one person after another, so if you're trying to shelter me as she and Bravo and Ouka and Shusui and Gozen and even Chouno keep trying to do, just knock it off, please.

"Not even Tokiko understands, after all the time that I've known her and fought at her side.

"You're not doing me any favors by keeping me in the dark because you believe that will free me to just kick back and laugh with my friends and worry less. It just causes me to feel more helpless and powerless to enable other people to do that.

"Kazuki didn't enlist.

"Nor was he trained for this.

"I dragged him into this world of death and battle when he was just an ordinary young man."

"If you want to know what the organic being in the flask is, you're asking the wrong alchemist."

"We will not let your Stone reach that point.

"And if you even start to think about giving up, and dying at your own hands, or Bravo's or another Alchemist Warrior's, that's not going to change that, and I'll die along with you."

"That promise works both ways."

"It's because you didn't assess the situation and think about your powerlessness. You jumped in the way without thinking."

"I don't want to commit murder. And I don't want you to either, Tokiko."

"The choice is yours, Tokiko. You can save her… or let her die."

No.

Not this time.

She wasn't going to just stand here and let it happen for a third time.

She was never going to let it happen once again.

Tokiko whipped her mouth shut so swiftly her teeth hurt when they impacted against each other.

Al started violently, and he gave her an irritated look, telling her he was entirely aware she knew what had happened to Ouka, yet she was intentionally keeping it from him.

Tokiko knew she couldn't outrun herself, but she turned and strode for the hatch leading into the laboratory of the Underground Searchlight as quickly as she could anyway without straining her still healing wounds too much, ignoring the pulsating aches they sent through her with each motion.

"Leave me alone."-Shion Uzuki

"Everyone's already transferred to the Durandal. You should hurry up and–"-Jin Uzuki

"I said leave me alone! It's just like it was fourteen years ago. It was exactly the same. Feb was… she was killed right in front of me. I was all alone. I couldn't do anything myself, so I just ran! And again… I still couldn't do anything…"-Shion Uzuki

"Shion…"-Jin Uzuki

"Why? Why did it have to be me? I never wanted to feel like that again…"-Shion Uzuki

"Shion… Did you not understand what Febronia wanted? I think there was another whom she loved just as much as her sisters."-Jin Uzuki

"Another? Who?"-Shion Uzuki

"Another sister bound by the chains of her past. I think she probably wanted to save that sister just as much as her real sisters."-Jin Uzuki

"Another… sister…"-Shion Uzuki

"Don't you see? That's why she chose you and gave you that painful role."-Jin Uzuki

"Feb wanted… for me…"-Shion Uzuki

"Shion… It's up to you, now, whether you choose to withdraw from this painful world or learn to accept it. But, I can say this much. No matter what you choose, you will not be alone. Or do you still not understand Febronia's feelings?"-Jin Uzuki

"Jin…"-Shion Uzuki

"Now, please go. Now's not the time to let everyone down."-Jin Uzuki

"Jin… I… …I'll go on ahead."-Shion Uzuki

"I… really am hopeless. Febronia, I am truly envious of you. You… were able to do for Shion what I, her own brother, should have done. Now the question is, what can I possibly do for Shion? Or… even still… what can I do about my own past?"-Jin Uzuki

"Little Master, a private transmission has arrived for you on a general channel."-Anonymous One Hundred-Series Realian

"What's up?"-Rubedo 'Gaignun Kukai, Junior' Yuriev

"It's compressed in an encoded format. Shall I open it?"-Anonymous One Hundred-Series Realian

"Yeah, put it on. You!"-Rubedo 'Gaignun Kukai, Junior' Yuriev

"It's been a long time, my dear son."-Doctor Dmitri Yuriev

"Junior's… father?"-MOMO Mizrahi

"Doctor Dmitri Yuriev?"-Shion Uzuki

"I heard about what happened fourteen years ago. Sounds like Albedo made contact with U-DO and managed to cause a space-time anomaly alteration. That is most regrettable."-Doctor Dmitri Yuriev

"B-stard! You knew if we confronted U-DO, it might've destroyed Miltia! How could you do that?!"-Rubedo 'Gaignun Kukai, Junior' Yuriev

"Oh, please. I don't recall raising you U.R.T.V.s to be idiots. If we could save the star cluster at the cost of a single planet, I'd say that's a small price to pay."-Doctor Dmitri Yuriev

"Acceptable losses… I hate that term."-Shion Uzuki

"Now that we are faced with U-DO's potential reawakening, we must eradicate any and all uncertainties. We've determined that there will be an attempt to re-contact U-DO. You must move immediately to eliminate the target, Rubedo."-Doctor Dmitri Yuriev

"Re-contact… You mean Albedo?"-Rubedo 'Gaignun Kukai, Junior' Yuriev

"Yes. He was infected, and he has fallen."-Doctor Dmitri Yuriev

"I'll atone for my past mistakes. But I will not do it by killing Albedo… Instead, I'll make him stop this insanity!"-Rubedo 'Gaignun Kukai, Junior' Yuriev

"As you wish. I look forward to your results, Rubedo."-Doctor Dmitri Yuriev

XENOSAGA: Episode 2:

JENSEITS VON GUT UND BÖSE