Chapter Two: Life
Jin's hands shook as he searched through his things. Numb to all but the incredible pain that was tearing through him, he located what he was after, a white kimono with a small blue obi. He had planned to give this to Shion after talking her into a practice sword-fighting match to test her skills....despite what she said, it looked like she had faithfully practiced her jujitsu after she had left him...the smoothness and ease of how she performed in their double-team attack testified to this...
Shion mentions your name in any context. I think that means she cares for you. That's what I think it means.
And then she suffixes it with: "my worthless brother", right?
Never again would he hear his little sister's voice, see the irritated look in her green eyes that made her look so cute that you just had to continue vexing her so the look would stay...
You got into the First R&D division of Vector?! It seems somebody seriously messed up the paperwork on that one...
Shut up, niisan! His fingers fisted into the kimono, holding it tightly. He'd been spared this when his parents had died, their bodies still on Miltia...he hadn't needed to make funeral arrangements, select the burial robes...but now it seemed Fate had decided to play a cruel trick, the duties he had been able to avoid with the deaths of his parents he now had to perform for his little sister. Bathe her fragile body and dress her in burial garments, offer prayers and incense for her soul...
Harsh sobbing sounds echoed throughout the room, and Jin realized they were coming from him.
----
chaos stared through the glass window to the form lying on the table, covered by a white sheet. Scans had indicated no trace of poison, nor signs of a struggle, no wounds or anything...Shion had just simply died. KOS-MOS and MOMO were currently sleeping; grief having sapped them of all energy, Jr. had been reviewing the security tapes non-stop in the hopes of finding their friend's killer with Ziggy's assistance, but nothing had come up. Allen had been so distraught that he had to be sedated, and Jin...
Jin, after his initial storm of grief, had spoken only to make one request...that his sister's body be given to him so that he could prepare it for burial. It had been immediately granted, and the elder Japanese man had left the room to start the funeral preparations. And so chaos found himself watching over Shion's body...as if to guard it from predators.
He would not dare. If he even approaches her soul I will... chaos stopped, surprised at the anger welling up in him. But...wasn't it right? To stand up for your friends and not have them be manipulated like puppets on a string? After all...it was what Wilhelm was infamous for, that and the other...thing. He fisted his hands.
He wouldn't! But... Known as the "cloaks" to Shion and the others, but as the "testaments" to him and Wilhelm, chaos knew exactly how those who were once ordinary men had gained such power...
Had Ziggy not killed himself, I would have already faced him in combat...if he had chosen that route. When Kevin hears of Shion's death, it will most likely drive him insane. Virgil will probably laugh with glee, as he held malice against her...Voyager...chaos bit his lip, his gentle eyes now cold. Out of all the Testaments, Voyager was the one he mistrusted the most. In fact, after hearing that Shion and Allen had run into him as they flew ES Dinah towards Old Miltia, chaos had to restrain the urge to jump out of his seat, rush over to Shion, and shake her for her recklessness...
chaos's mistrust of Voyager dated back to when Ziggy, then known as Jan Sauer, had been still alive and working with the Galaxy Federation Police 100 years ago. At that time, Ziggy and his team had been assigned to catch the serial killer Voyager. It turned out that Voyager was actually Erich Webber, one of the members of Ziggy's team. On the heels of that though, was the shocking discovery that Voyager had gained his power from U-DO! The entity had promised power if it was brought human souls, and Webber had taken it up on its offer...the last two victims were Ziggy's wife and adopted son.
And then he only made things worse for the poor man... chaos thought. Wilhelm had appeared to Jan, offering him two options. To join his wife and child in death in U-DO's grasp or to have eternal life and great power as a Testament. Ziggy chose neither, killing Voyager and then committing suicide. Wilhelm then appeared to Voyager and offered him the same deal, Voyager accepted. Through the use of Realians equipped with "Canaan", Wilhelm tirelessly searched for humans with "shining wills", a critical element needed for the Testaments. Shortly after this event chaos left, for reasons that he today still did not want to go into great detail. 98 years later, another Testament had been born...Kevin Winnicot, head of the KOS-MOS project. But the odd thing was...Kevin was the only Testament who had acquired his powers in life, not death, and his cloak color had changed from blue to red...Virgil was the blue-cloaked Testament, obtaining his powers after KOS-MOS had killed him...and chaos wouldn't put it past the Vector CEO to revive Shion simply to use her powers.
I won't let him do that to her!
But then you know what will happen if she stays dead...there will be no hope at all. A voice whispered to him. Her role has not been fulfilled, it is not her time to die yet...
----
Horror gripped Kevin.
"No..." He shook his head violently. "No!"
"I'm sorry." Wilhelm murmured. "I only just found out now...she died early this morning." The red-cloaked man shook again.
"No...no....no! She's...she's not dead...she's not!"
"She is."
"NO SHE'S NOT!" Kevin roared, lunging forward across the desk, gripping Wilhelm by the lapels. "Don't lie to me!" Electricity arced through his hands, and he fell back in pain as Voyager materialized out of the shadows.
"It's alright." Wilhelm said quickly. Leave him be, he grieves...he is not himself.
They are starting to prepare her body for the funeral. Dimitri is hidden on Second Miltia, he influenced the last U.R.T.V. to kill her. Wilhelm paused, pondering this. What he had in mind would be very tricky...
----
"Damnit!" Jr. cursed, slamming both fists into the console. Tears burned behind his eyelids, threatening to spill out and over. "There's nothing! Normal people just don't up and die, something killed her, I just know it!"
"Jr." The red-head whirled on Ziggy.
"You don't even care, do you?! That's right, all you care about is yourself! You don't care about anybody else, not even MOMO!" The tears were flowing freely now, and his fists pounded against Ziggy's metal frame. "You don't care...you don't care!" Suddenly a pair of strong arms wrapped around him, stifling movement, but Jr. still continued to struggle.
"You...you don't care..." Wordless, Ziggy held the sobbing U.R.T.V. He closed his eyes, memories assaulting him.
You're wrong Jr... His eyes opened, narrowing to hold back moisture that had suddenly developed. I...
He backed up, suddenly feeling the wall behind him.
"Come on Ziggy, you knew this was going to happen."
"MOMO, this is not funny." The 100-Series Realian sighed, blinking her golden eyes.
"Shion, he's not cooperating..." She whined. Shion looked up from the maintenance chair, an unholy gleam in her eyes.
"Then we just go to plan B." She answered. "Grab him."
"Huh? Aaahh!" Ziggy suddenly found himself kissing carpet, small fingers pulling at his clothing. "MOMO, no!"
"Take it off!"
"No! Leave my clothes alone!" He rolled over, however a squirming bundle of arms, legs, fingers, and giggles followed. "Get off of me!" A pair of brown flats moved into eye-viewing range.
"You do know you sound like a dirty old man, right?"
"Dirty old man!" MOMO screeched gleefully. "Ziggy's a..."
"ALRIGHT!" The cyborg bellowed. "I'LL LET SHION CHECK ME OVER! HAPPY?!" He looked up to see Shion smile.
"Was that so hard?" She asked.
"You will never know." Ziggy growled, getting up with MOMO underneath one of his arms, giggling wildly. The sound lightened his heart, though he would never admit it. The brunette hid a giggle behind a hand before gesturing towards the maintenance chair.
"Strip and sit please." She requested. Ziggy stopped cold.
"Say what?!"
Ziggy's arms tightened around Jr.
I...I do care...
----
She hovered before him, eyes downcast. He could feel that she wanted to believe him, to believe in what he said he could do, but he had been brutally honest, telling her the whole sordid tale concerning Mizarhi, U-TIC, the Original Zohar, the Y-Data...she had been silent, her thoughts digesting the information presented to her. It would not surprise him if she refused his proposal...
"It is your choice. If you so desire, I will let you continue into the other world..."
"No." The refusal took him aback, surprise showing on his face. "I do not wish to go." Her eyes rose to meet his own. "You need me to live, am I right?" Speechless, probably for the first time in his life, Wilhelm nodded. "What would happen to me if I..."
"You will be in service to me, but only for a time. Right now the situation requires that you should be dead, in order to lessen the danger to you." Reading her mind, he continued. "She will know that her mother is alive..." At this, her head jerked up sharply to meet his, tears in her eyes, and he saw her answer.
----
Kevin stood wordlessly, not paying any attention to what Wilhelm was saying. Memories of Shion danced through his mind, the pain so raw that he wanted to scream from the intensity of it, but only years of discipline and iron-clad control kept him in place.
"Kevin." Distracted from his thoughts, Kevin looked up to notice that he and Wilhelm were the only ones left in the Vector CEO's office.
"Master Wilhelm." He bowed stiffly. "I apologize for my behavior earlier."
"It's alright." Wilhelm answered. "I know of your feelings for her. Had I been in your position, I would have acted the same way. But..." He trailed off, rising from his chair. Kevin frowned.
"But what?"
"Remove your mask." The white-haired man ordered. Kevin blinked, taken aback.
"Sir?"
"Take it off." Puzzled, Kevin obeyed. A smile crossed Wilhelm's face, and he looked past Kevin to the shadows.
"You may come out now." A small figure clad in a forest-green cloak materialized from the darkness and walked silently towards Kevin. Stopping several feet away, it lifted its hands to the mask on its face and removed it...Kevin felt his heart stop, his mask slipping from his suddenly nerveless fingers...
"No..." Shion smiled at him, her green eyes vibrant and full of life.
"Kevin." The blue-haired man didn't reply, but found himself stepping forward, his arms wrapping around her slender form, feeling the warmth of her body...Realization sank in, and he gripped her tightly.
She's...she's alive! "Oh God..." His voice choked, as his hands moved under her hood to feel the silky locks of her brown hair, to frame the face that had never left his dreams...his heart... "How..."
"Me." Kevin turned to see Wilhelm fold his arms. "She will be with us until things are safe for her to return to her friends." Kevin didn't reply, but held Shion tighter, wordless for the joy that was washing through him.
"I..." Wilhelm shook his head.
"No thanks are necessary. I have a meeting now with some stockholders, so you two may feel free to spend some time alone together." Kevin nodded, pressing a kiss to Shion's forehead. Smiling, he watched Kevin disappear with the brunette, leaving him alone in the office.
And so things are in order once more... Of course, there was the question of what would happen once things were safe for Shion to return to her friends...but it really wasn't a question. After all, memory wipes were extremely useful...it had worked on Jan Sauer quite well, hadn't it?