We apologize that this chapter took a little longer to get up, but hope that you enjoy it anyway. Hope everyone is still enjoying the 'fic, and stick around for the lemonade-induced craze that the next chapter will certainly involve.
--Ally and Eliza.
Clouds floated slowly across the sky and a certain blue-haired android drifted among them. The peaceful sounds of artifical birds could be heard as they chirped a morning tune, but it was soon interrupted by a certain, insane laugh. The laugh was coming from a person standing besides a rock that was adorned by a small tree.
Albedo giggled and when he regained his composure, he said, "Now Jr., you wait here. Your 'father' has a marvelous surprise for you! Indeed...." Albedo ended it with another giggle.
Jr.'s face lit up at the mention of a surprise. He joyously jumped up with excitement and grinned at Albedo.
"Oooh! A surprise? What is it?" Jr. half-demanded.
Albedo smirked. "If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?"
Jr. pouted, but since he was a quick thinker, he came up with an idea. "If you tell me, I can always act surprised," he said. "stupid."
Albedo laughed, continued to laugh, then took a breath, and said, "How clever. You are such a monster… Both you and I."
"Come on 'Uncle' Albedo," Jr. stated while shooting him a confused glance, "Just tell me, dammit!"
"No, no," Albedo said while shaking his head, "This is only for you and your "father". You know, a son-father relationship... thing."
Albedo paused before turning around and said, "Well, I'll go get him."
Jr. shrugged, but started after Albedo, "I'll go with you!"
Albedo whipped around and proceeded to rip off his arm while doing so. It broke off with a loud snap.
"NO!" Albedo shouted, and then started waving his arm around in the air, "No, no, just stay on this rock. You wouldn't want to get into another mess like the one with the Song of Nephilim... Now would you, eh?"
A frown crossed over Jr.'s face as he said, "You know about that?"
Albedo gave an exasperated sigh, "Jr., everyone knows about that!"
"... Really?" Jr. squeaked out. "Shit." He grumbled afterwards. Jr. wondered if his reputation would be ruined.
"Good thing "daddy" was there to save you. Heheheheh." Albedo giggled out. He then leaned in towards Jr.'s face, "Oh, and just between you and me, you might want to work on that wimpy shot of yours."
Albedo kissed the top of Jr.'s head before roughingly shoving him away. He turned around and began to walk away.
Jr., wiping the top of his head off, called out annoyed, "Hey, Albedo will I like the surprise?"
"It's to die for, Rubedo." Albedo whispered out.
Close by, a few Kirschwassers were prancing about—Three that seemed quite amused with themselves. Or at least one of them was.
"I... I have to move now!" Whined #1.
Ed turned around and giggled, "Ehehehehehe." She nodded and continued to giggle.
"Please be quiet. We have to wait for Master Albedo." Said #2, who had an anxious expression on her face.
"If everything goes right, Master will look at us and love us!" #1 squealed.
Ed smiled and said, "OooH! Hehehehe."
#2 frowned, "Knock it off."
But Ed continued to laugh much to #2's dismay. #2 glared at her sister, and as the patience slowly ran out of her, she tackled Ed to the ground. #1 hopped around the two - trying to get their attention.
#1 threw a nearby rock at the two, and said in a hushed voice, "Stop this at once. We wouldn't want the Gnosis to notice us, now would we?"
The other two sisters looked a little disappointed, but got back up. All three of the little Kirschwassers were tired of waiting.
After having a glass of lemonade, #1 jumped up and pointed towards a white-haired head that rolled in. One Gnosis was quick to notice the human shape, and quickly pounced on the object. It smashed to bloody bits. A headless body stepped out slightly from the shadows, and a new head regenerated. Albedo waved his detached arm at the three Kirschwassers.
The three Kirschwassers smiled evilly. "It is time."
Jr., meanwhile, was miraculously being a good boy, and seated on the rock where Albedo had told him to stay. He was still stewing over one of his 'uncle's' previous comments, though.
"Wimpy shot," Jr. muttered. "Hah."
Out of the corner of his eye, Jr. noticed an environmental bug floating by aimlessly. Quietly, Jr. drew one of his guns and fired it in the bug's direction. He missed by about a foot, and the bug did not react.
"Dammit," Jr. muttered, and tried again. He came closer, but still missed by about six inches. The little nanomachine still did not react. Jr. fired once more, and this time hit the bug dead on! It exploded into a million little nano-pieces, which fell, quivering to the canyon floor. Jr.'s lucky shot echoed eerily against the rock walls.
And then, after a moment, Jr. noticed that the pieces that had fallen were still quivering, though they had already hit the ground. That was odd, there shouldn't have been any movement from them. Was it because there was a breeze blowing at them?
Jr. knelt down to investigate, and then quickly learned that the ground was shaking.
"What?" he muttered. "What the hell is this?"
A slight fear began to prickle away at the back of his neck. Slowly, Jr. turned around to face the mouth of the canyon. The ground was shaking more now, and he feared the worst.
And the worst was what he saw.
"Aaah!" Jr. screamed as the herd of Gnosis descended far too quickly into the canyon, towards him. He fired a shot in their direction, but as they hadn't been pulled into his dimension with the Hilbert effect, it was no use. Jr. yelled again, and turned and ran.
Elsewhere on the plains, Gaignun and Nephilim were out making the morning's rounds. A curious look flashed in Nephilim's eyes, and she turned towards the canyon, where she could see dust flying up in the distance.
"Look, Master Gaignun," she said. "The Gnosis are on the move…"
Gaignun narrowed his eyes. "That's odd," he said.
Suddenly, a breathless Albedo ran up to the two of them. His left arm had been removed, and was currently being held by the right.
"Oh, Gaignun," Albedo panted, "it's terrible. There's a stampede, in the canyon!" he waved his severed arm wildly in the direction of the gorge. "Jr.'s down there!"
Gaignun felt his heart skip a beat, and gasped. "Jr.!?"
Jr. kept on running and running; he ran as though his life depended on it—which it did—but still the Gnosis kept coming and he was certain he couldn't outrun them forever. He looked ahead of him, and saw a dead tree. There was no time to think; he jumped forward, grabbed a branch, and swung up onto it, only hanging on halfway. He felt one of the non-corporeal Gnosis pass through his hanging trenchcoat, and shivered—what an odd sensation.
Nephilim suddenly appeared, clinging to the tree trunk next to him like a koala.
Jr. looked over at her, panicking. "Neph," he cried. "Help me!"
"Your 'father' is on his way!" Nephilim promised. "Hold on, Little Master!" And she vanished into her own dimension.
"Hurry!" Jr. begged, losing his grip momentarily from the tree. He struggled in desperation to hold on.
Albedo and Gaignun were standing on some of the higher ledges in the canyon, looking around desperately for Jr. "Rubedo!" Gaignun called. "Where are you? Rubedo!!" There was no answer.
Suddenly, Nephilim materialized next to them.
"Master Gaignun," she said, "he's there! There, on that tree!"
Gaignun searched wildly with his eyes, until he spotted Jr.'s unmistakable mop of ruby-red hair. "Hold on, Jr.!" he called. "I'm coming!"
Down at the bottom, a particularly violent Gnosis punched the trunk of Jr.'s tree. It swayed madly, and Jr. nearly fell. He screamed in terror.
Gaignun knew he couldn't wait any longer. He jumped into the gorge, and, using his mad leet pimpin' skillz, managed to dodge the Gnosis and make his way nearer to his 'son.'
Back up on the ledge, Nephilim was wrought with panic. "Oh, Albedo, this is terrible!" she babbled. "What are we going to do? Oh, I know—Realians! I'll go find the anti-Gnosis Realians, and--"
Albedo backhanded her into the cliff wall with his severed hand. Nephilim's eyes blanked, and then she phased away. Snickering, Albedo tossed his limb into the stampede and a new one grew on his arm in its place. "Come, KOS-MOS," he said.
"I am happy to be of service," KOS-MOS said, stepping out from behind a rock.
Gaignun, meanwhile, was nearing Jr.'s tree. A Gnosis stopped and swiped at him; the blow would have taken his head clean off had Gaignun not ducked. The Gnosis, instead, rammed its fist-like appendage into the tree. Jr. screamed horribly and went flying.
Thinking quickly, Gaignun leaped up into the air and caught the back collar of Jr.'s jacket delicately in his teeth. He sidestepped three basilisks, and managed to set Jr. down on a ledge.
Suddenly, more Gnosis were after him, and before he could climb to his 'son's' side, he was forced to run further and further. Gaignun spotted Albedo up a rocky incline, and jumped up onto a ledge, desperately trying to escape. Most of the Gnosis ran by, however, one decided not to ignore him. As Gaignun barely clung to the ledge, the Gnosis jumped up onto it, standing behind him.
Albedo gazed into Gaignun's eyes for a long time.
"Albedo," Gaignun begged, slipping. "'Brother…' Help me!"
Albedo's face slowly spread into a horrible and sinister grin.
"Long live the director," He proclaimed, and then nodded to the android who pulled out her special anti-Gnosis rail guns.
Gaignun stared in horror as KOS-MOS proceeded to shoot the hell out of the Gnosis behind him--as well as him, since he was in the way. Gaignun gave one last pained gasp before falling down into the gorge, a bloody mess.
"Noooo!!" Jr. screamed, from his vantage point. He could see the dying Gnosis, and KOS-MOS, and Gaignun falling, and it all seemed too horrible to imagine. It had to be a nightmare, some terrible dream!
As the last of the Gnosis ran through the canyon, Jr. jumped down off his precipice and ran to his 'father's' side.
"Gaignun?" Jr. called out, fearing the worst. He heard a sound and his heart rose for just a second, but it was only a straggling Fairy, and it flew by without noticing him.
As the dust cleared, Jr. saw what was clearly Gaignun in his black suit, lying on the floor of the gorge. For an instant, he dared to hope. "Gaignun?" he called. "Gaignun, come on, get up!"
Jr. inched closer, and through the clearing dust, he saw that Gaignun's body was riddled with bullet wounds. Jr. thought his heart was going to explode. He took one step back, too afraid to comprehend fully what he was seeing. "Help!" he cried. His voice echoed pathetically against the unyielding rock walls. "Somebody!" Still no one came, and Jr. dropped to his knees next to Gaignun's unmoving body. "Anybody," he whispered. "Help…" Jr. buried his face in his hands and began to cry.
Jr. didn't notice the ominous shadow approaching him; it was that of Albedo.
"Jr… Rubedo…" Albedo said, in shock. "What have you done?"
Jr. sobbed. "There were Gnosis! He was saving me, but KOS-MOS' programming, to kill them no matter what, and--I didn't mean for it to happen! It was all an accident!"
Albedo giggled. "Of course not, Rubedo. No one ever…means… for these things to happen… except perhaps KOS-MOS…" He stopped, and took a breath. "However, the director is dead… and if it weren't for you, he would still be alive."
Jr.'s breath caught in his throat as he realized the full extent of his guilt, and he looked up. Tears streamed down his cheeks.
"Oh, what will the hos think?" Albedo wondered, and Jr. wailed.
"Albedo, what am I going to do?" he asked.
Albedo almost seemed he was smiling, but Jr. thought he must be imagining it--after all, Gaignun was his 'brother.'
"Run away, Jr.," Albedo told him, in no more than a whisper. "Run away… and never return."
Broken, Jr. picked himself up and began to run through the gorge, as fast as his tired legs would take him.
The dust was still settling, and Albedo knew that the Kirschwassers had approached him.
"Kill him," Albedo snickered.
The three Kirschwassers ran after Jr., quickly catching up to his unsteady pace. He glanced behind him to see Ed grinning idiotically, while the other two were catching up. Jr. tried running faster, but it didn't seem to be working. When the four had run the length of the gorge, they came to a dead end: a cliff side. Jr. stopped, but then jumped off, without another moment of hesitation. It wasn't a terribly high cliff edge, and it was slanted just enough to slide down, but below it was a whole horde of thorny plants. Jr. managed to stop himself on a precipice, and climb down carefully, where he made his way methodically through the prickly barrier.
The Kirschwassers, however, were not paying attention, and couldn't stop fast enough to save them all from falling.
#01, the fastest of them all, halted a few feet away from the edge, while #02 slammed into her back, and Ed slammed into #02, knocking #01 off. #01 let out a loud screech, as she flew into the plants. Once she hit the first cactus, #01 jumped up in the air, screaming at the other two in pain.
Ed found this very amusing and burst into fits of laughter.
#01 crawled up the cliff, and glared at her sisters. #02 then looked past #01 and upon doing so, saw Jr. run away in the distance.
"Rubedo got away!" She pointed out.
"So?" #01 asked. She then continued, "You go after him."
Ed laughed at the idea, while #02 said, "I'm supposed to go in there? And come out looking like you, I suppose, Cactus Butt?"
#01 jumped on Ed and #02, preparing to rip off their arms.
After a bit of wrestling, #02 regained control, and said, "We must finish the job for Master Albedo."
#01 shook her head, while peering down into the cactus pit.
"Rubedo is as good as dead out there. And if he comes back, we'll kill him."
Ed nodded, while #02 shouted towards Jr.'s direction, "You hear that? If you ever come back, we will kill you!"
The three then proceed to burst into insane giggles.
The night fell on Kukai rock slowly, as if it was deliberately drawing out the pain that all its residents were feeling. Albedo was standing underneath it, on a pile of stones, addressing the somber populace. He was trying desperately to keep a straight face, but luckily, those gathered were too upset to notice.
Mary and Shelley clung to each other's hands, not sure what to do in this situation, and MOMO was being embraced by Ziggy, sobbing into his arms.
"Gaignun's death, of course, is a terrible loss," Albedo said, "but to lose Jr.—who had barely begun to pimp—"
Albedo finished with a phrase about how delightful it was, but no one heard, as MOMO chose that instant to let out a particularly anguished sob.
"Ziggy…" she whispered.
Ziggy held his charge tightly. Jr. was careless, but Ziggy had never thought him the type to go and get himself killed. Why, if it were a few millennia earlier, and were Jr. still alive, Ziggy might have to go after him with a shotgun for breaking MOMO's heart.
"…for me, it is a deep personal loss," Albedo said. "The best kind," he added with a giggle. He sobered up to announce, "It is with a heavy heart that I assume the role as director of the Kukai Foundation. Yet, out of the ashes of this delicious tragedy, perhaps we have learned one thing—that more anti-Gnosis measures are needed. And thus, I shall begin a new era, in which all U.R.T.V.s, humans, and Realians—" The citizens of Kukai rock looked about nervously, as the creepy, blank-faced Kirschwassers began to appear from behind various stone outcroppings. "—whether they be the 100-Series that daddy loved—"
MOMO sobbed again.
"—Or the ever-neglected 97-Series Kirschwassers, shall come together into a great and glorious future, in which we shall one day all merge with U-DO!"
The Kirschwassers cheered, easily drowning out the fearful gasps of the people of the rock.
chaos looked on, quietly, from his vigil window in the sacred Elsawood tree.
Though he knew the sight of the Kirschwassers crawling over the rock should have sent chills down his spine, he could not feel fear—the grief was still too fresh in his heart. He had his marker and sketchpad, but he didn't feel inspired.
"Hey…chaos…" chaos looked up. Hammer and Tony had come in, probably to try to lift his spirits again.
"Do you want some lemonade?" Hammer asked, extending a glass. "Don't worry, neither of us made it-it was mixed from the powder by the bartender robot."
"It'll cheer you right up," Tony said. "Trust me." He wiped a trace of powder from underneath his nose.
chaos attempted to force a weak smile, and failed miserably. "Thanks, but no thanks," he said, quietly. "I just want to be alone for awhile." As Hammer and Tony turned and left, chaos hastily brushed a tear out of his eye.
He looked up at his wall, at the drawing of Jr. he'd done awhile back. The very sight of it made him feel like an AGWS unit had just stomped on his heart. Angrily, he brushed his gloved fingers across the picture; his fingertips glowed slightly as he did and removed some of the marker from the wall. chaos sat there for awhile afterwards, refusing to look at what he'd just done to his nice picture.
By and by, Captain Matthews walked in with a bucket of suds and a scruffy sponge. "Hey… chaos," he said, quietly. "You could always take the whole picture off of the walls…"
chaos shot his captain the dirtiest look he could muster. His turquoise eyes seemed to be on fire, and his cheeks were wet with tears. His left hand was still glowing, as well.
"Okay, well, if you don't want to, that's fine," Matthews said, backing out of the room. He turned around, and gulped-that had been a close one.
chaos, disgusted with everything going on around him, decided to punch the wall. A small burn mark appeared, and a flurry of feathers fell down to the ground. chaos swept them away, impatiently, then leaned back against the wall, falling into a black, dreamless sleep, devoid of all hope.