More than Words Can Say

Chapter Three: Lullaby

Jr.'s head settled behind the palms of his hands as he nonchalantly reclined on Gaignun's leather chair, his feet propped up upon the marble desk that was neatly organized, which was typical of the dark-haired man's orderliness. "So you don't mind if I go with MOMO to Second Miltia, do you?"

Gaignun's deep emerald eyes appeared to be laughing at Jr. good- heartedly. "So that is why you are going, isn't it. Another opportunity to court the girl you are fond of, but haven't got the courage to ask her out officially on a date."

"Hey, I'm sorry if I'm not such a mastermind on women like YOU are," Jr. snapped in retaliation. "You just like picking fun at me and her, don't you? I swear it's like a freakin' sport for Mary, Shelley, and you."

Gaignun looked up from the document that he was reading. "All in good fun, Jr., I assure you. No need to get a temper."

Jr. jolted up from the comfortable chair. "How many times do I have to tell you? Stop treating me like I'm a kid!" He would have denied Gaignun's implications that he had feelings for the 'daughter' of the deceased Joachim Mizrahi, but after all that has happened Jr. knew that it was not worth trying to obscure his emotions. Both Gaignun and he knew that he cares deeply about MOMO. But both U.R.T.Vs were also aware of the fact that Jr. had too much pride to ever admit openly that he had affections for her, even if the latter would not confess his own stubbornness.

Jr. approached Gaignun so closely that his sapphire eyes mirrored Gaignun's green ones. "Just because you actually LOOK your age doesn't give you the authority to act like you're my parent or something!"

Gaignun's level-headedness did not falter under his friend's sharp tongue. "That's not what the official documents state."

"Who gives a damn what those stupid papers state!" Jr. rolled up the sleeve of his white, blue-trimmed shirt to reveal his hand in which the bright red digits '666' were inscribed upon his palm. "You see this wise guy? This means that I came three numbers before you did, making ME the older one!"
Gaignun only chuckled. "Say what you want, but as far as anyone else knows your name is Gaignun, Jr., technically making you my son."

"That's not even my real name!" A mischievous grin appeared on Jr.'s lips. "And 'Gaignun' isn't yours, NIGREDO."

The younger U.R.T.V. shot a threatening look to Jr. "I do not like that name..."

Jr. faked a sympathetic look of pity, while at the same time slowly backing away from Gaignun, knowing that he was walking on thin ice. "Oh, I'm sorry Nigredo, is it the way I said it? Hey, Nigredo, you don't mind if I called you Nigredo, do ya?"

Gaignun was able to withstand a few more minutes of Jr.'s ridicule until he pounced on him. He trapped his head in a headlock with his strong arms, disabling Jr. from escaping. The redhead tried to pry off his attacker's arms with no success, and he cursed the scrawny preteen body he was forced to live in.

"Damn you, Gaignun!" Jr. was able to shout. "You're just lucky that I'm like this, otherwise I'd kick your sorry ass-OWWWWW!"

"Sorry, I can't HEAR you Rubedo," Gaignun laughed outloud as Jr. continued to struggle from his hold. "Speak a little louder when you're talking to an adult!"

"You stupid jerk! YOU'RE SO DEAD AFTER THIS!"

* * * *

"Are you sure, Ziggy?" MOMO repeated again, holding a gray feather duster in her right hand and a bucket that contained a bottle of scented cleaning fluid and a large worn rag in the other. She slipped on a white apron, with a light green floral pattern stitched onto the white background, over her midnight blue close-fitting sailor dress. She tied an also green bandana around her hair, covering the ruby red hair clips that she wore to keep the two sections of her hair on both sides of her head up in slight pigtails and that matched the bright jewel brooch that was tied around the cloth of her neck of her outfit.

The cyborg nodded with certainty. "Yes. It is best that I stay behind. I must contact the Subcommittee and give them my report. I have not been able to detail them on our situation since we landed in Second Miltia."

MOMO looked into the cyborg's solemn eyes. They were pieces of cold blue ice, stern yet, miraculously, with a sense of hidden compassion in them. She always looked up to Ziggy in a way that was more than just a bodyguard: he was second father to her. He was not merely an outdated collection of scrap metal with barely any traces of his humanity left. If anything, Ziggy WAS a human. And if anyone tried to convince MOMO otherwise, she would not believe them.

"You should go and enjoy yourself." Ziggy concluded. MOMO was a bit disappointed that he would not accompany her, but she understood that Ziggy had his responsibilities as all adults did to uphold.

"Okay. But where will you recharge if we're taking the Elsa with us?"

Ziggy smiled, a trait that was not shared commonly amongst his kind. "Do not concern yourself. The Durandal has many places where I am able to do so."

That did not completely diminish MOMO's anxiety, the kind that all children had when they were unsure of matters. "All right, but when I come back I'll check to make sure that nothing is wrong with you."

"That will be fine. Well, I must go before the Elsa takes off with me on it. Make sure that you do no converse with people you do not know, and do not go off by yourself. Understand?"

MOMO nodded and smiled at Ziggy's parental instructions. "Don't be worried, I won't do either."

The cyborg then left the small room then left the lounge area, the place that he had come to know as his own room. The mechanics in his legs sounded loudly as if he were stomping while he made his exit. MOMO was still able to hear them until he was so far away that all she heard were the electronic hums from the A.G.W.S. hangar next door.

"Well, better get to work." She declared and pulled long yellow rubber gloves on her hands that went to high they covered up to her elbows.

It was a long time ago since MOMO and Ziggy were rescued by the crew of the Elsa after they had barely escaped their pursuers from the asteroid Pleroma. MOMO had been grateful to Captain Matthews and the others afterwards, and she volunteered to help the maintenance robots with keep the ship clean and run small errands for the crew to thank them for allowing Ziggy and her to ride aboard their ship. It was not until later that Captain Matthews decided that it was time for MOMO to learn the satisfaction of a hard day's work. Therefore he arranged that in exchange for doing her chores, she was to get what humans called an 'allowance'. The Captain said that every child must learn the value of making their own gold, so every week Tony, Hammer, chaos, and Matthews himself would reward MOMO twenty gold each.

"I'll get started under Ziggy's maintenance chair." MOMO decided, and she kneeled under the seat, swiping away any dust with her feather duster. She hummed a song that Shion had taught her while helping her in the kitchen to make dinner. The twenty-two year old told her that her brother, Jin, had taught her the words and the tune when she was five. Even though it was a silly children's song, MOMO noticed that Shion sang it with such adoration, as if she were still a little girl on Miltia singing with her older brother. MOMO came to realize that humans cherished things that would seem trivial to a common Realian or cyborg, such as music or cooking. But whatever the case, simple things like that were what made humans come together and forget their troubles: they made them happy. MOMO thought whatever lifted one's spirits was precious, no matter how pointless it appeared to be.

MOMO was finished dusting underneath the chair after a few seconds. She scanned the area with her golden Realian eyes for any microscopic traces of dust. "Nope, all clean there!" She stood up from the floor and examined the rest of the lounge area. Her eyes settled upon a computer in the right corner of the room whose monitor was smudged greatly.

"A little antibacterial cleanser will solve that." MOMO decided and turned around to find that her bucket was completely gone, including the rag and the cleaning fluid.

"Huh? But it was right here?" She said a bit confounded. She looked around her to find her tools, and discovered that the bucket was placed beside the computer. She walked over it still questioning herself.

"I just did a scanning of the room. The bucket was right behind me after I dusted the chair..." Despite her slight confusion, MOMO proceeded to clean the computer monitor, still cheerfully humming. After she was satisfied with her job, she turned around once more and to her bewilderment, her feather duster had vanished.

"I put it right under the chair!" She exclaimed, searching the reclining chair for any sign of the feather duster. "My sensors would have indicated if someone was in this room or not..."

It was then that it happened. MOMO could not explain it, even with her full potential as the 100-Series Observational Realian prototype. It came from outside the B2 hallway, faintly, but for sure.

"Someone...is singing?" She felt her skin turn cold, little goosebumps forming on her fair skin. She moved towards the automated door and it opened promptly. MOMO stepped into the hallway, the padding of her high white boots against the cold floor echoing off the walls. "Hello?"

She did not know how to explain it, but her sensors were not picking up any life form within a hundred meters from her. However, she heard a barely audible voice. She could not tell if it was masculine or feminine, but it sounded as if its owner was a child merrily singing a strangely familiar lullaby...

"Wait, that was the same song I was just humming. It's the same one Shion taught me." Suddenly, MOMO detected a heat signal, and she identified it with that of an organism that was not too far away from her. She ran after it, past the complicated machinery of the B2 hallways, through the long path of automated doors. Her heart raced as her feet carried her at an unusually rapid pace as she drew near the voice, the words growing louder and louder until...

She had lost the signal. It had disappeared from her sensors. She stopped running, for she knew that it was useless. All at once while she was catching her breath, something caught her eye. MOMO dashed towards it and when she came upon it, she just stared at the object in wonder. It was her gray feather duster, immobile upon the ground. MOMO bent down to pick it up with her slightly shaking hands, taken aback by what had just occurred. "Is...someone playing a trick on me?"

MOMO heard laughter break the hush of the hallways, coming from behind her. She whirled around only to find no one yet again. However, the laughter was still there: it was jovial and carefree laughter, but there was a hint of child-like spitefulness within it. It was as if whoever was laughing at her was amused at her fear.

MOMO felt her throat go dry. "H-hello? Anyone there?"

Just then, MOMO felt a hand settle firmly onto her shoulder. Instantly all her horror poured out of her in the form of a high-pitched scream. She spun around and tried to run away but she tripped in doing so. She fell upon the hard floor, her back colliding with the cold steel surface. She closed her eyes and covered her ears, her fingers clutching onto her feather duster.

"...MOMO? Are you all right?" A well-known voice inquired. She slowly opened her eyes and her shock gradually subsided when she saw the clear sea- green eyes of chaos.

"chaos!? How long were you here?"

"I just came down here. Didn't you hear the elevator doors opening? They're right down the hallway."

MOMO looked behind chaos' lean figure and noticed the elevator that had brought chaos to the lower levels of the ship. The bronze-skinned boy reached for her rubber-gloved hand and helped her onto her feet once more.

"I'm sorry that I scared you. I honestly didn't want to do that."

"No it wasn't you! chaos, someone was here just now!" MOMO's eyes nervously eyed the area, still full of anxiety of the mysterious voice she had just heard. "Their signal was unfamiliar to me when I sensed them, and I was chasing them. They were singing, chaos! When I lost the signal, I heard them laugh at me. Even if my sensors did not locate them, I HEARD them laugh..."

"MOMO, it's all right." chaos stated, the ends of his white-silvery bangs brushing over his brow. "No one is here, or else Tony or Hammer would have been able to pick them up on the Elsa's security detectors."

MOMO's grip relaxed around the feather duster as her large boots shuffled against the ground. She was like a frightened child who thought that there were monsters under their bed, and now was being told matter-of- factly that whatever they imagined was not real at all.

"But I'm not lying..." She said meekly, but she spoke the truth. That chilling laughter was not in her mind. She was a Realian: despite her naïve and innocent demeanor, her mind was as complex as any other of the 100- Series aboard the Durandal. Machines might dream, but their thoughts do not drift off into daydreams or delusions as those of many human beings.

chaos kneeled until he was at MOMO's height. He took both of her frail hands into his and looked at her with the kindness and experience of a parent. "I'm not saying that you were making it up. You've been cleaning this ship for a while, MOMO. Maybe you inhaled some of the dust and it caused a glitch in your sensors."

"Yes, that could be possible," MOMO responded.

"When Jr. arrives, we're taking off for Second Miltia."

MOMO's cherubic face lit up. "He managed to come?"

"Yes. He forwarded an e-mail to the Captain and we're expecting him in another ten minutes or so."

MOMO's worries washed away while chaos walked by her side back to the B2 lounge area. "Then I better get started cleaning the upper levels of the ship or I won't have the chance to see Second Miltia. Tony's room is always the messiest because he has tons of clothes thrown all over the place. And Hammer's isn't that easy to clean either on account of all the empty soda cans in his room."

chaos laughed lightly. "Those guys are always going to be slobs. They're always thankful that you're able to clean the ship, or else the Elsa would be flying heap of trash."

"Hey, chaos? Do you think Jr. can have ice cream with us?"

"Of course Jr. can. I've seen him scarf down so chocolate sundaes the last time that we were able to get some that there's no way he could just sit there watching us eat ice cream without being tortured."

MOMO's head tilted to the side, her light scarlet hair swaying against her rosy cheeks. "What's a sundae?"

* * * *

A dark, thin figure hid amongst the shadows as he watched the pink- haired Realian girl walk away. He had to smile at her youthful curiosity, admiring her blissful ignorance. He held out his hand to her as if to wrap his fingers around her and catch her attention, but she and the young man were gone from his sight due to the automatic doors that closed after them. He presented a dagger from his belt strap and waved it around his eyes, the silvery blade glinting from the darkness. He then ran the tip against the skin of his palm, feeling the slight pain that the kiss of the metal had presented him with. He watched as countless drops of blood seeped through the opening he had just made. It dripped from his hand, and he both hated and loved the sight of it.

"MOMO...I will make you see that people like you and me are different than the others. You too will feel pain and know that it is real, for we were never meant to be children forever."

SPECIAL NOTE: Okay, I'll admit it. For being a MOMO/Jr. fanfiction, this isn't very interesting. But it's called building a PLOT. If I am going to write a Xenosaga fic for people to take the time to read, then I'm going to put my heart into it. It'll be a great story, I promise you and you guys won't be kicking yourselves in the head for reading it. The next chapter won't be as creepy, I promise! Thanks again for your wonderful reviews. 'til next time!