The Genesis Experiment

by VanG Ziggy ZA

Two months after Xenosaga episode 1, a new enemy arises, creating a brand new threat to the Federation. To make matters worse, certain individuals from the numerous heros' pasts have begun resurfacing. Psuedosequal to my other fic, Long Ago.

5. Part Five

THE GENESIS EXPERIMENT

Part Five of a Five part series

By

Vanguard Ziggy

Author's notes: Sound the fanfare! This is it! The granddaddy of them all! The whole series comes to an end, in this climatic fifth and final part. Mary and Shelley's history, another confrontation with a certain lunatic (won't say who, J!), and just what the hell the Genesis Project really is! Enjoy! I want to apologize for the confusion, as the correct title of the whole series is indeed the Genesis Experiment, why mid way I changed the title, I don't know. Sorry again. Still, please enjoy.

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It took them thirty minutes to fight their way out of Momo's detainment room and up the twenty other levels to the surface of the planet. Mary wasn't much of a fighter without her A.G.W.S.; still her high kicks could do a lot of damage to those who weren't wearing any armor. That meant half the complex was dropped by her like a bad habit.

By the time they got to the surface, flares, and the sounds of gun fire could be heard all over the place. There were at least fifty different buildings surrounding the one they had just left. Each one was dark green and tinged with gray on the sides. The sky was dark, with soft pink clouds floating in the horizon.

"What is going on?" Shelley asked. She turned around, her violet hair waving in the burning air as flames danced by the three women. Knowing no one would answer her question; she grabbed her sister and Momo by the arms and tugged them into a dark corner where they could observe the battle taking place.

A squad of armed men rushed passed them. They wore purple outfits, and had a strange symbol on their left sleeves. Their faces were covered with silver helmets that covered their heads with black shields, and face plates with air holes in them. Others wore gas masks, and others still walked around in their A.G.W.S.

"It can't be the Gnosis, they're advancing too much for that," Mary said. "You would think that they'd want to hold their ground against the Gnosis."

"It's Jr.," Momo said, excitement building in her voice. To prove her point, she directed their attention to just outside the compound. There was Buster Joe, A cowboy hat wearing, dark shade using, gun totting summon partner of the young U.R.T.V. He sounded like a silly cartoon dog, and looked a little goofy, but all the same, his attacks were astonishing.

A blast of his guns sent a dozen guards flying backwards, their bodies broken and lifeless. Just as quickly as he appeared, Buster Joe disappeared, jumping back into the air, and the dimensional world were he had come from. Momo had wanted to ask Jr. if the summon was a spirit, but never really got the chance yet.

The girls quickly rushed forward, hailing Jr.'s party as it fought its way forward. The two groups combined, and finished fighting the remaining ground forces of their enemy. By now it wasn't too hard to figure out that it was the New Enlightenment that they were fighting. What their ultimate goal was, there was no telling, but they really seemed to want Mary and Shelley back.

After the fighting on the surface had ended, Jr. turned to look at Momo, and tilted backwards as she collapsed into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, because it was the only thing he could think of to do, and held her for a couple of minutes as she wept.

"I knew you'd come for us," she said with a sigh, gently pulling away from him. He smiled at her embarrassedly and swirled on his heels.

"I knew you would be able to take care of yourself," he said sheepishly. He looked to his feet and sighed.

"That's it?" Mary roared, waving her arms into the air. "She gives you a hug, and that's all you can say to her Little Master?" The twenty year old blonde woman frowned and stomped her feet. "I can't believe it."

"That's enough," Shion snapped "Look, we have to get out of here now, even if Mary, Shelley, and Momo are with us, we're still no match for an entire army."

Pyreges shook his head. For a long time, ever since they left for Bohemia XI, he had a strange feeling that his answers would be found here. "He's here," he said blandly. "I have to face him."

"You have to face who?" Shion turned to look at the cyborg and frowned.

"I don't remember his name," he said, lowering his eyes. For a split second, he turned his attention to Mary and Shelley and smiled sadly. "But he is the final chapter in my story."

Both girls gasped and shook their heads back and forth. Mary was at the point of tears, as she had just realized that the old cyborg had been standing there the whole time. "Percy, no you can't leave us again," she wailed.

"Let's try and find a ship and get out of here, like Shion said," Shelley tried pleading. "You don't have to stay behind."

Pyreges sad smile grew wider and he sighed. "I wish that were true girls, but this old relic has to face the final page of this long saga of his." He put his hands on their shoulders and felt tears run down his cheeks for the first time in millennia. "You've both been so good to me, even when you shouldn't. I brought you so much harm and heart ache. He kissed each one on their cheek and then hurried off. Before he disappeared he turned and smiled. "Po keetli, pocewot kyrcm."

Mary rushed after him, but was stopped by her sister. Shelley had a face full of tears as she looked in the direction of her old protector. "He has a job to do," she said with a short gasp. "We have to let him go." She looked down at the ground and sighed. "And we have to get back to the others. Now!" A second later she was running full speed away from the compound.

"Shelley, wait, what's going on?" Shion yelled at her.

"Shion, my thermal sensors picked up a small device on Pyreges. I believe he plans to blow up the station with it." KOS-MOS said.

"No, there's a power shaft running down the middle of the fifth level of the main building, about ten stories below our feet," Mary said, thinking. Her eyes grew wide, and she began rushing toward her old friend again. "Oh, shit, we can't let him do it!"

"Do what?" Shion snapped.

"The shaft goes all the way down to the center of Bohemia XI," Mary stopped to explain. If he activates it, and throws it down there it could destroy more than the station with it."

"He'd blow up Bohemia XI," Jr. said thoughtfully. "Mary, I know how you feel, but we can't stop him now, we don't have enough force to go into the station itself and help him."

"But he's all alone," Mary snapped. "He can't do this, even if he was strong enough to fight to the fifth level, he'd kill himself. We can't let him do that."

"Enough wasting time," Allan wailed. "We've got to get to the ship."

KOS-MOS raised her head and frowned. "We have greater problems," she said quickly. "A large fleet has just appeared over this world and bears the markings of those buildings over there." She pointed a finger and aimed it at a large red mark over the New Enlightenment building. "What's more, these were the same ships that were blockading Ungoliant, and were taking part in the battle against the Federation ships."

"The U.TIC organization?" Shion put a hand to her chin and began to pace back and forth.

"Who cares, we have to get off this planet," Allan cried.

"Perhaps you did not understand what I just said," KOS-MOS snapped, unusually harsh for her. "We can not leave the surface of the planet. This new armada has stopped any and all ships from coming or going, plus, the Elsa has also been caught. All radio contact has been broken off from the surface."

"You know for a fact that they've been caught?" Shion said bluntly

"Logic would indicate it, yes," KOS-MOS shot back.

Shion batted her head back and forth. "Life can not be completely explained by numbers, KOS-MOS, how many times do I have to tell you that?"

By this time, Shelley had returned and sighed. "We're all alone, then." KOS-MOS turned and nodded to her.

"Well if we're going to stay here, then we might as well go and try to help Pyreges," Mary snarled.

"We shouldn't be getting in the man's way, Mary," Shelley snapped back.

"He's the closest thing you or I have to a father, other than Uncle Helmer," Mary roared, stopping her foot. "Honestly how can you be so damn cold blooded?"

While the two sisters continued to bicker, Momo turned her attention to Jr. and frowned. "Why were you fighting with that cyborg, anyway, Jr.? Wasn't he the one who attacked us on Ungoliant?"

The young U.R.T.V. nodded his head and sighed. "Things seemed to have changed, though. I guess he really wasn't such a bad guy after all." He turned to walk away, and opted for sitting on a stump. Momo carefully approached him and sat next to him, placing her hand over his.

"You seem quite sad," she said softly.

"I, was kind of," he looked at her and swallowed hard. He shook his head and leapt to his feet. "It's nothing. At any rate, I think Mary is right, if we're going to have to stay here, its best if we're underground, especially if the armada upstairs decides to beat Pyreges to the punch and start bombing the crap out of the place."

He walked up to the group and announced his plans. As usually Mary was quiet enthralled with his decision. As usually Allan continued to wail. The rest seemed to mull what he had said and then finally reach an agreement.

"If we're going to die, I'd rather us die fighting an enemy who's weakness we have, rather than one we don't."

"We wouldn't stand much of a chance against that armada anyway," chaos said. "It might be prudent to go to the fifth level and try to dissuade Pyreges not to blow up the planet.

"Then it's settled," Shion said.

"Not completely," another voice hissed. The group turned and glared at a partially decomposed young girl, her eyes staring dead center at Momo. She smiled, flashing bloody, broken and chipped, fangs. "I still have issues with her," she said with a raspy voice.

"Violcia?" Momo said her skin paling to a thick, pasty Elmer's glue color. "But that's," she blinked and shook her head.

"Your friends can go down to that stink hole and die, if they want, but you and Rubedo have to stay here. We haven't finished our little discussion have we?" She turned to Jr. and licked her lips. "And once we're finished here, he and I have a little date planned."

"I don't know who you are, but you can go to Hell," he snapped, stepping in between the two young girls."

Violcia cooed and smiled, "Sounds like fun, but let's wait to discuss where we go for the date after my sister is dead, shall we?"

The group turned to Momo, and frowned in unison. "Sister?" Mary asked.

"Long story," Momo said.

"And about to end," Violcia snarled. "If all you fools want to stay and die, then by all means do, but if you want to help the other cyborg, get going." She limped on her single remaining leg and motioned to the door to the bunker. How she managed to stand, let alone, move none of them, but Momo could figure out. The will of might was responsible.

"Mary, you Shion, KOS-MOS, Shelley, and Allan, go after Pyreges," chaos said. The young, white haired male took his place between Jr. and Momo. "I'll stay and fight."

"One at a time dear, her first." With a single thought, Jr. and chaos were blasted next to a nearby tree.

"How did you survive?" Momo demanded. She narrowed her eyes and took a step forward.

"Like you I'm tougher than I look," her sister hissed. "And we aren't finished." She looked at the others and with a single nod and thought, sent them flying into the entrance of the New Enlightenment building. "Let them stop dooms day if they think they can. Nor dread nor hope attend a dying animal; a man awaits his end dreading and hoping all." She smiled, her fangs glowing in the light of the planet. A cool breeze crossed her cheeks and her eye seemed to glow with delight.

"Then let's finish this," Momo snarled back. She turned to her friends, and freed them from her sister's grasp. "But this time, let's just see how strong you really are. This time you face three opponents." She dropped her staff, and picked up a crossbow that lay near a fallen New Enlightenment soldier. "And I think I'd much rather try a new weapon, just for fun."

Jr. and chaos frowned as they walked toward her and shrugged, Jr. take an aggressive stanch, while chaos took a defensive one.

Violcia smirked and sighed. "Fine, then if you are ready, let's finish this."

Ziggy found Jin sitting in a very ancient part of the Durandal. At least it looked ancient to the cyborg's eyes. Large bamboo walls with bright brown floors surrounded the man as he sat, legs cross, eyes closed in meditation.

"I don't want to interrupt anything," he said quietly.

"I know about my sister," Jin replied, his lips turning into a thin smile as he continued to meditate. Flames from a dozen candles flickered all around him, and the scent of incense filled the room from the ceiling to the floor.

"You heard over the intercom?" Ziggy asked, frowning. He took a step forward, walking as soft as a mouse before he remembered that the whole ancient Japanese room was part of a hologram.

"No, I just know my sister," Jin said, his eyes opening. With a flick of a button the room reverted back to its cold steel blue color, save for the dozen candles and incense he had placed around his temporary apartment. Books of every size and weight were scattered around the corners, and near his bed, like monuments to ages past. Ever since he had stepped foot on the Durandal, Jin had a hard time keeping Jr. out of his room. The young U.R.T.V.'s love of musty old books matched his own.

"I see," the cyborg said. "I suppose the bonds between siblings would run very deep."

"I wouldn't really know much about that," Jin sighed, standing up. He looked at the cyborg and smiled. "Don't get me wrong, I do love my sister very much, but our 'bond' is stronger when we are apart." He looked to his feet and frowned. "I'm not very good at being a brother, especially when I had to be a parent at the same time."

"I heard something about your parents from Shion once, but she didn't talk too much about it. All I know is that it had something to do with the start of the Militian Conflict."

"About as much as you'd get out of her," Jin said with a chuckle, as he walked over to a cup of tea brewing. He poured himself a cup and offered one to Ziggy, who politely declined.

"When I agreed to be part of this mission, part of me wanted to admit myself into a clinic. For a long time I've been trying to avoid keeping into very close contact with my sister. I wasn't there for her when she needed me the most, I. . .," his voice trailed off and he looked at his feet. "Well let's just say that we don't always see eye to eye." He sighed for a moment. "I was afraid I'd push her away if I tried getting to close to her, for some reason I thought I needed to still protect her, like she was still a kid, but then our grandfather was always youthful and full of energy, I guess she took after him."

Ziggy smiled and thought back to his own grandmother, whose help had come at the most important times of his life. Then his mind raced back to a falling little boy screaming for his father, and he blocked out the memories the best he could. "I understand what you are saying," he said in a hushed voice.

"Somehow that doesn't really surprise me," Jin said as he finished his tea. He looked down at his cup and placed it on the table. "Of course, I seem to have taken after grandfather too. His wife always called him a slacker, worthless, and good for nothing, because of his lackadaisical attitude." He chuckled and leaned against his chair. "Shion does the same thing with me. I don't know what she'll say when she finds out I decided to quiet my job as a doctor."

The cyborg looked up and frowned. "You were a doctor?"

"For about a half a year, I was, yes. But with technology the way it is, the medical companies and nanotechnology becoming so advanced, the real job of a doctor was simply talking to his patients, most of whom were very elderly. The real job of being a doctor was trying to heal the mentally ill, and there were very few of those in our old town."

"Yes, I suppose with the Federation's 'compassionate' resources a doctor's job really doesn't have the strength in it that it might have had a hundred years ago." He crossed his arms and thought back.

"Try at least two in a half hundred years ago," Jin said, with a sigh. "So I retired and thought there would be more profit, in selling old books." He chuckled and looked up at the cyborg. "Besides, what better way to heal a wounded spirit than with a good story?"

"The most ancient of remedies," Ziggy said with a smile. He looked at Jin as he raised his eyebrows and the cyborg's smile grew wider. "When I was human a hundred years ago, one of my interests before entering into my field of work, was reading hundreds of old science fiction books. I used to imagine myself as a captain of a huge space freighter that left the first worlds of humanity to explore unknown worlds."

"When this is over, I might consider loaning you my copy of Asimov's Foundation Trilogy," Jin said with a laugh.

"You might," Ziggy said with the first playful glint he held in his eyes for the first time in decades, "if I hadn't read it when I was twelve." Jin jerked forward as he felt his mouth drop. "My grandmother had a way of collecting books herself," Ziggy said with a smile. "She also knew how to translate ancient scrolls into our modern language. I read all of Isaac Asimov's works in their ancient language, as well as our modern."

They continued talking for hours, neither seeming to care what time it was. There really wasn't something he could but a finger on, but Ziggy could swear that Jin was a direct descendant of Greg Anderson, his very best friend from his pre cyborg days. He couldn't, but help liking Jin.

Before either man could say another word, the intercom broke their silence and Gaignun's voice echoed into the room. "Ziggurat 8, Jin Uzaki if neither of you busy, please report to the bridge as soon as possible, we have some interesting information that's just come in to us, from some old friends. This is all."

"One thing working for the government, you don't get much rest for long," Jin said with a sigh. He'd learned that as a soldier fourteen years ago, during the beginning of the Militian Conflict.

"Same thing with business and both the civil service and the military I guess," Ziggy said with a shrug. The two of them turned and walked out of Jin's apartment."

In a very dark room, watching as the final developments began to finally unfold sat an elderly man, his face folding with thought. It was a chapel, and one the old man used as his main office and ceremonial chamber. A few clicks of footsteps echoed off the walls, and he turned to look at one of his nuns approach.

"Your holiness; I have a report from Interrogation Bureau Head Margulis about the situation occurring near Second Militia."

"Mother Eriko, I have no interest in Second Militia right now. Are you aware of our defeat at the hands of the Federation at Ungoliant?"

"Your Holiness?" Mother Eriko had been a staunch supporter of the pope, even though theirs was not the real Neo Roma Church. There had been a split between their church and Neo Roma five hundred years ago. Since then there had been two men who took the name pope, the head of the Western favoring Neo Roma, and the head of the religious faction of the U.TIC Organization, who favored a more Eastern Shinto based theology. Many people in both organizations had hoped to extinguish both institutions, but the men who had ruled both had been powerful and their followers unfaltering and many. U.TIC's followers were much more fanatical in their devotion than the western church.

"Why did we lose, with such overwhelming forces, and the element of surprise?" Before she could answer he rose to his feet and frowned, his ancient scowl making him look more like a stone statue than those that lined the room. "We lost because we trusted in very common people, with too common of an idea. We should be much higher than that. What's more we've lost our sight. Why did I order the capture and destruction of that abomination two years ago, Vector's KOS-MOS?"

"Because KOS-MOS was a weapon based on the flesh made of metal," Mother Eriko snapped more in tune with doctrine than with her emotions.

"No, because that 'thing' was being hailed as the hope of mankind against the Gnosis, rather than ask the gods for their help, that is why. The people have turned from religion to guns and machinery; even our own temples have done this."

"But, your Holiness, you gave the permission to do so," she said, frowning. The chapel seemed to grow warmer and the nun seemed to very uncomfortable. The walls were dark gray with moss covering them giving them a Second Dark Ages look to it. Their voices bounced off the walls, like her footsteps had, and seemed at once to be jubilant and despairing as they returned to her ears. There were tapestries, which the pope occasionally hung on the walls, during celebrations and feast days for the martyrs. Greens and oranges, and sometimes bright blues filled the chapel on those days, but during the normal days of the Temple Year, the colors if any were gray, white, or black. In the grandest of days there was always all colors of reds. In the far back where he normally was, there was a golden chair where he sat.

However; right now during his peek hours of reflection and studying the latest reports coming into his room, the chapel looked like a medieval torture chamber.

"That's very true Mother Eriko, but only after giving in to constant whining on the part of our science department." He turned to her and gave her a quick smile. "Even I am human, and can listen to only so much political lobbying." He chuckled and sat back down. "I hear my western counter-part Pius XVII has that problem as well."

"But now, the thing that bothers me the most is that I allowed both the Genesis Experiment and now the Genesis Project to go on into full speed ahead, I ask you were those wise decisions?"

No one but Pope Juro XXIII plus his inner circle and those funding them knew what they were. Anyone who tried to dab to much into that subject, who had no business in it, didn't stay in the public or even private eye for much longer than a few hours.

"Let me make this easy for you to understand, without you fearing for your life," the pope said, cutting her off before she said anything she shouldn't. "Do you know what U-DO is?"

The nun's eyes widened and she broke into a deep sweat. Only the normal off the street civilian did not know what that was, or it was if one had a flare for the dramatic. "Your Holiness, what are you saying?"

"Project Genesis was created to appease most of the gods, by trying to recreate a 'controllable' U-DO. But science has no interest in the gods, and as such their little experiment has just disappeared off the screen, where it should be. I fear either it had a motive of its own, or the science which created it has intended to betray us, thinking it smarter to conjure up the devil and expect him to behave." He shook his head. "Either way, there had got to be something done about it. I want Margulis to send his forces into the last gate jump area in these coordinates and find the Project." He handed an electronic notepad to the started nun and turned to restart his meditations.

"What is he to do when he finds it, your Holiness?"

"What else, what he's best at. He's to exterminate it."

Momo stared at her sister, and fired the crossbow, sliding another arrow in place as soon as she had fired the first one. Jr. pulled out a number of his coins and fired his bullets into them, watching as they ricocheted into the coins and straight at their target. Neither the arrow nor the bullets hit her sister.

"This is pointless," Violcia snarled. With a wave of her wand, she sent the ground shaking and leapt into the sky. "Face my eternal torment," she hissed. Spears of light green light poured from the cracks in the ground and straight into the sky, right before plunging down at the helpless victims. As she landed she saw that the one called chaos had used his own skills to heal his friend's wounds, an ability she aimed to have.

Violcia motioned with her hands, almost making them look like crashing waves, and a silver sphere surrounded the three friends. "Let's see you heal this." The insane Realian tossed a speed stim pack up into the air and felt the molecules around her increased in speed. With an evil glint in her eyes, she pulled off not one, but three more of her light acid missile attacks, each time striking just enough to bring them to her knees, but not enough to kill them. Just as she suspected, chaos began his skills to heal their party, but Momo stopped him.

"You actually wish to die?" Violcia giggled.

"I told you, you reek of Albedo," Momo snapped. She folded her hands and quietly said the following words, "Mystic powers, grant me a miracle." The three were circled by white light, and grass grew up around their feet. Somewhere in the distance, Violcia could hear the sickening sounds of birds singing. But when the spell was over, the three of them were bent over even more than before.

"I don't understand," she said with a chuckle. "I would think you would be at least strong enough to pull of one healing tactic before you died. Don't have enough Ether left?"

"Wait for it," Momo said with a smile of her own. Pulling back the string to the crossbow, she said another silent prayer and fired. As it did, she motioned for Jr. and chaos both to fire, Jr. with his bullets, chaos with an icy blast of wind. The arrow, bullets and icy spears all struck the invisible shield which Violcia had placed before them; to steal the health she had hoped would gain from chaos' healing powers. Instead of being healed however, she found that the power of the shield bended to the wills of the trajectories, and added to their strength. It shattered into thousands of razor sharp talons that struck Violcia's already injured body at speeds never before imagined. There was nothing she could do, but gasp, and feel her life force fly from her body like a soul being carried away by the dark angel into the underworld.

"You don't know strength enhancing ether skills," Violcia whispered, as blood drenched her clothes and hair. She tried to heal herself, but to her dismay found that she had used the last of her ether power in her last attack.

"I'm stronger than I look," Momo said in a low whisper as she stared down at her sister. "There is a lot you don't know about me." She leaned down next to her and began to ask the mystic powers for a miracle once again.

"You fool, what are you doing?" Violcia hissed as a cool breeze covered her body. "You went through all of that just to heal me? Do you wish to fight again?" Jr. began to step forward to stop Momo, but chaos through out his arm and blocked his path and shook his head.

Momo ignored her sister's curses and continued to pour more healing ether into her body. Finally as she neared the end of her ether power, she stood up and looked at the still broken body of Violcia. "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do."

"Who the hell asked you to?" her sister spat back. "Just leave me alone, you witch." She spat at Momo's face and turned away. The young red headed Realian and her two friends turned and began to walk toward the entrance, to try and find their friends.

Violcia felt the darkness take her, and still she could not understand how it had happened. She had learned so many skills under Albedo, how could she have lost? Could it be that her father's spirit had somehow protected his precious Momo from death? She weakly clenched her teeth and spat up at heaven. "Why daddy? Why?" Violcia made a fist and shook it into toward the sky, the even weaker, she opened it up, as if pleading for her father to come and take her home. Her plea went unanswered as her arm dropped to the ground, and she closed her eye for the last time.

Before he entered into the door chaos turned and shook his head one last time. "Poor soul may you find peace in death that alluded you in life."

It did not take them long to find the others. The inside of this building was no where near identical to the one that the three women had left in their escape. It was closer to a maze, with walls and corridors that twisted so fast and hard that a 500 mph roller coaster would have been a relief. There were no colors, not much air, and not that much hospitality either.

As they walked through halls they could hear the sounds of rushing footsteps that seemed to come from every direction. The group was prepared to confront the enemies at any time, but to their surprise, whenever they got to a small group of them, they were either splattered across the walls, or if they were lucky simply broken and slumped into tiny little corners that were darker than horror movies.

"Someone beat us to them," Allen said.

"You think?" Jr. snapped, slapping the man in the backside of the head. "Pyreges must have come this way."

"This isn't his style," Mary growled, glaring at Jr. "He wouldn't do something like this."

"Mary, we really haven't seen him in a long time," Shelley said with a hushed voice. "We don't know what he's capable of now. We didn't even know what he was capable of when we knew him when you and I were little."

"Shelley," Mary gasped, her eyes growing wide with shock. "How could you say such a thing about him? He took care of us, rescued us, and was the only father we knew for as long as either of us could remember."

"And don't forget he was the one who took us from our real father, and allowed them to experiment on us." Shelley looked at her younger sister and sighed. "He said he had lost some bits of memory, and went looking for them. Who knows how he intends to get it back?"

Mary stomped her foot and narrowed her eyes. "I can't believe you, how could you be so cold?"

"Mary I'm only being realistic," Shelley said with a sigh. "There are many things we don't know about him, I don't think he's a bad man, but he is a desperate man." She looked to her feet and groaned. "And desperate men will do desperate things to get what they want."

KOS-MOS shook her head. "This is taking too long. We must be on our way. My sensors are picking up the base center at three quarters under our feet." She stood back and a gatling gun appeared out of no where in her grasp. The cyborg pulled the trigger, blasting the floor until it was a smoldering hole. She didn't have to wait for the others to ask what she was doing. The battle android leapt to the second level and began firing again, and then again as she kept free falling. KOS-MOS kept firing until she was at last in the very center of the command room.

The guards in the room swirled to face her, and aimed their weapons. That is, they meant to, and would have, had swarms of bullets flew through their body in a hail of metal and bone and blood. Smoking steam and torn flesh filled the room, computer frames scattered and glass flew ever where, slashing through the android, like hungry little bull beetles on Taris thinking they have their prey in their sights. Had KOS-MOS been human, she would not have survived.

A few seconds later, she could hear Shion screech her name. She looked up and blinked, at the angry face of the woman who had helped create her, who was both mother and sister to her, or at least that was how Shion felt. The group rappelled downward, sliding down on thin wires that they had found on the first level.

"What is wrong with you?" Shion roared, jamming a finger into the android's chest. "How could you do something so stupid?"

"Chief?" Allen said, gently tugging on her sleeve. "Shouldn't you let up a little? I mean, she did get us where we wanted to be, and. . .," he never got any more than that out of his mouth. A simple glare from Shion was all that it took.

The group ignored the three of them and quickly scanned any computer than wasn't destroyed by the guards' or KOS-MOS' bullets. A few of them were found working; the tiniest of a handful were monitor's to watch over the many cameras set over to watch the base.

"This place was definitely run by the New Enlightenment." chaos said looking at a screen. "I see something here called the Genesis Project," he frowned as he read. "Something called the Genesis Experiment too. It seems that they experimented with out of work U.R.T.V.'s combining their D.N.A. with fallen Gnosis, like what we saw with Canon." He narrowed his eyes and kept reading until he saw what the Project side of the whole situation was about. "Um, maybe the rest of you should come see this for yourself."

Momo eyes were focused on two screens, one that had showed her old prison room, and the other right outside the main base, at her sister's crumpled body. Shelley and Mary were focused on a screen that showed Pyreges in the middle of a bridge, flashing colors surrounding him. On the other side of the bridge, they could see a middle aged man, who seemed to be both angry and yet amused at the cyborg's unexpected appearance.

"Guys," chaos roared. The group broke themselves away from their own screens and walked toward what he had been reading. It took a few minutes, perhaps ten before they completely understood it all.

"My god in heaven," Jr. managed to squeak from his mouth.

"We have to warn the Federation, some how," Shion said looking around the cylinder like room for a working communicator.

"That fleet over this planet, that must be Canon's fleet," chaos said, his golden tan skin becoming as pale as his snow white hair. "They plan on firing the Genesis Project on this planet!"

The bridge was narrow, thinner than a type rope, almost. It fact it really wasn't that much of a bridge, it was used by the New Enlightenment's Robotic Corp to travel to the center of the planet and dump their waste. It could be enlarged, and when a person wanted to do so, could be used for human travel, to take them to the escape pods in case of emergency escape.

With no guards left, Violcia gone, and Albedo refusing aid, the President of the New Enlightenment knew he had nothing left to lose but his life, and he wasn't ready to give that up yet just yet. He had just activated the bridge when Pyreges stepped out of the shadows on the other side.

"Mr. Westbrook," he said with a razor thin grin. "This is unexpected to be sure."

"I'm here for my payment," hissed an artic voice. The cyborg dropped his fake mini grenade into the flames and smiled. He had truly hoped that if KOS-MOS had sensed it, that would give, at least Shelley – the reasonable one – all the reason to pull her sister away off of the planet, to safety.

Lucias Craid smiled and shrugged, the flashing lights blinking on and off in his eyes, giving him as massive headache. His hair was as black as night, and his eyes were just as dark. "Well, I'm sorry to inform you that without the approval of the foundation members on the board, I can't grant you payment for your services. You do have our undying gratitude though."

Lucias was a short man, barely five feet tall. Everyone looked down on him as far back as he could remember. Up until he was thirty there wasn't much he could do about it, until a war had broken out, and Mr. Craid was enlisted by the military for his scientific inventions. The war was very brief, but in the four months of conflict, Lucias as made enough money to perchance this planet, as well as numerous others. If fact, he had enough money that he could practically buy the entire Federation Senate if he choose to.

But the more money he got, the more of a threat he became to certain individuals who – during the war – had hovered over him like a pack of jackals. Rambunctious politicians and generals who drooled over the latest prospect of the newest and deadliest weapon crafted from this mad maestro of mayhem and scientific power. Lucias knew that no matter how they treated him like a man, they would do nothing but bury him like an insect to be used as a tiny pet and thrown away or squashed So Lucias took his money with him, and buried himself.

The final jest on the parts of his so called friends, he took most of the blueprints of his best inventions with him into the grave. When he thought the time was right, he reappeared on the scene, and helped organize the New Enlightenment. That was fifteen years ago. Under the pretense of a pharmaceutical company he created a new empire. There were times he kind of felt bad about what he had done to the dozens, if not thousands of victims. Of course the more his company grew, the less he felt these pangs of guilt.

"You would screw the committee, ten times to next Sunday, if the thought hit you the right way," the cyborg snapped. "It doesn't matter to them anyway; you were the one who killed them."

Pyreges thought back to the last ten minutes, as he left the girls and entered the complex. With rage building, he made quick work of the security guards that dared try to stop him. But when he got to the main room where the committee members sat, the walls seemed to open up, and hundreds of guns focused right onto his chest. The elderly members began to sweat at first, and then seemed to relax as he stood still. None of them thought twice about him attacking them, especially since he was only there for Lucias Craid. It wouldn't have mattered about one day or the other.

Just as the guns aimed at Pyreges, just as they turned on his chest, and their engines started to whirl with deadly vengeance, their cylinders growing white hot with fire, something very bizarre happened. The weapons swung with supernatural speed, and began blasting the committee members where they sat. Dark red blood and torn, burnt flesh splattered everywhere. They didn't even have a chance to react. Most of them died, still wearing their smug grins that they had shot at the cyborg. The gray lights flashed through the room and the guns turned on themselves. Pyreges leapt fifteen feet out of the room, and crashed into the other side of the hall as the room exploded.

"Why did you do it? Or do I really need to ask?" he snarled through clenched teeth.

Lucias smirked and cocked his head to one side. "If you have to ask, don't you think you already know?"

"You don't have my memories, do you?"

"Very good, you must have been a detective when you were a human," the business man said with a chuckle. "In fact, we never even took them. We never even erased them. That part of your mind was just put in your mind by our scientists." He chuckled as he stared at the confused look crossing the cyborg's face.

Lucias walked up to Pyreges and narrowed his eyes. "You never existed, my friend."

He chuckled again and took a step back, "Oh, Pyreges 4 did exist at one point and time, and he did work for us, bringing us Mary and Shelley to us. But you are not him. He died when he betrayed us years ago to the Kukai Foundation."

Pyreges, or at least the cyborg that thought he was Pyreges, just stared at the man. "That's, that's not possible. I remember my life, everything, my childhood, the war, becoming a cyborg." With each word the cyborg's tone had grown lower and lower, until it was barely audible.

Lucias seemed to look like he was savoring the moment, as if he had been expecting it for some time. In reality he had. It was as if all of this, every bit of this incident from the last three months had been orchestrated by Lucias not as a military exhibition, or even an attempt to recapture his prized experiments Mary and Shelley Godwin. It was to bring this exact second into play.

"Artificially implanted into your brain, using his old memories," the shorter man said. His smiled grew wider. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun. "But time is running short, as much as I really wanted this moment to go one, both the Federation and the U.TIC Organization have grown wise to my schemes, as has my other creation." He chuckled and shook his head. "I guess you could call me Dr. Frankenstein, couldn't you? Both the monster and the villagers are storming my castle, demanding explanations beyond their limited understanding."

He looked at the cyborg and nodded. "This must end now, I am afraid." He raised his hand and pointed it at the copy, and pulled the trigger. He watched the copy jolt backward, against the wall, and then felt a heavy object pierce through his back, and through his chest.

The tiny man frowned and turned toward the source of the pain, and saw the mechanical arm of the cargo Mecha thrust through his body. Behind that he could see two young women stare at him with horror, disgust, and not much more. "Hello girls," he said, very weakly. The Mecha pushed him forward, and released its grip, tossing him into the boiling lava below. Somehow, this futuristic Frankenstein seemed to know that this was exactly how his end would come.

Mary ran passed the thinning bridge and leaned down next to her old mentor, the one person who she was positive she knew, who only now knew that everything that both she and he held dear was a lie.

"Percy?" she asked, softly, tenderly.

The copy looked up at her and smiled faintly. "You shouldn't have come, especially not for some carbon copy like me."

"I don't believe a word he said," the blonde woman snapped indignantly.

The copy chuckled and shook his head. "I do, I've been questioning my existence for a long while now, ever since I, or rather he, left you girls behind all those years ago. I was just too plain stubborn to accept it. I guess that means he would have been too."

White hot tears ran down Mary's cheeks. They'd been running ever since Pyreges had left them outside the center, and only grew stronger after she had seen him on the screen. After reading what the Genesis Project really was, she dragged her sister down here, to try and help him. They'd been too late.

"Percy," she said. Her skin was turning pale, and she looked like she might faint right next to him.

Oil and blood ran out of his wound, and as he looked at the gapping hole, he had a very strong inkling that this must have been how the original Pyreges 4 must have met his end. He swallowed and looked up at the girls. "There isn't much time, my little angels," he said, his voice fading.

"Oh, no, no, Percy!" Her tears ran down even faster as she looked at him. Mary could feel her lips quiver and she closed her eyes. Somewhere deep inside of her, she could feel herself begin to hyperventilate.

Gently, sweetly, he soothed her, and motioned her older sister toward them. As Shelley bent down on the other side of the cyborg copy, he smiled and sighed. "The one thing, I know, that I have just remembered, is the deep longing for this. The real Pyreges desperately wanted one last chance to say good bye to you. My feelings, his, were strong enough to escape death long enough to fill my mind. Feelings that were never meant to be injected into this old shell." Painfully he groaned and tried to pull himself up. The girls helped him and he looked into each of their eyes.

"Up above, in the planet's surface, I had fooled myself, tried to fool him into thinking that it was a decent good bye." He coughed, blood spilling from his lips. "You have to get off the planet. The Genesis Experiment, the damn Genesis Project,"

"We know what they are," Mary said quickly.

"Then you have to get off the planet," he wheezed.

"Ned jydheadiea," Shelley said. Mary looked at her, shocked. The copy of Pyreges 4 smiled.

"My time is gone, God was kind to allow me one more chance to say goodbye, but now here it is." He chuckled, finally accepting that he was both clone and original. "I've lived a good life, even if it wasn't all in this body. You girls are the best things that have happened to me, and have made me very proud, but now it is time for you to let go of the past. You must live, so that my pride will live. You angels have to live, if you want me to live," he pointed to their chests, "in here."

Pyreges felt the shadows rush toward him, and he fought them off. His life wasn't like that. He wouldn't allow darkness and nothingness to take him. Just as fast as the coolness surrounded him, a warm glow began to fill his body, and he looked upwards, staring into the eyes and faces of two young women who were the closest things he had to daughters. At that moment he could hear the strings of harps, and his nickname for the girls seemed a verified reality. Pyreges 4, died, and when he did, Percy Horsham Westbrook's soul raced toward Heaven.

After they were sure he was dead, the girls folded his hands over his chest, and after one last stroke of his chest by Mary, they stood up and rushed back toward their friends.

Canon rose from his chair and smirked. Many of his subordinates had complained that many deaths could be verified on the planet's surface. What was more, the ship around the area, deemed the Elsa, had caught sight of them on the monitors, and were trying to block their ship from any attack.

But the former U.R.T.V. knew better than his younger officers, his younger selves. He revealed in this knowledge knowing that it meant that he was indeed the original Canon. Despite the lack of life upon the planet, it was only a lack of human life. There was still a rich smorgasbord of life, from plant to animal upon Bohemia XI. And there was a fleet of U.TIC ships heading their way as well, ships that would not know what they were walking right into.

Canon walked back to his chair, and tapped a few buttons. "How much longer?"

"About five more minutes sir," came the response by his mirror image.

"That ship that landed on the planet, if it's crew survived, and return to the Elsa, how long would they have before the attack?"

"A few seconds at best, unless they leave right now. They could have a minute or two, sir."

"And the U.TIC fleet when will it arrive?"

"Around seconds before we fire, sir," the subordinate confirmed.

Canon nodded and chuckled. Good, they would gate out a second too late to avoid the deadly attack coming, and the Elsa's crew would not have the time to reactivate their shields after letting their friends back on board.

He sat back into his seat and tapped another few buttons and wires released from his chair, plugging into his skin. All around him his crew did the same, and he knew that each crew members on the other ships were doing just the same thing. It was finally time, it was time to unleash the Genesis Project. The ships, the crew, along with Canon would become a new U-DO, one that would absorb life, blot it out, and then if it desired, recreate it in whatever image it chose. However, there would be no such compassion. There would be no recreation, only devastation. Human's had released the devil, played with the devil, and "put" him back into his "cage", unknowing that they had no way of relocking the cage.

Bohemia XI would only be the first, of many worlds to fall. The Federation, U.TIC, the Kukai Foundation, all of life would learn that there was no hope from this new threat that they had created. The "Devil" would bite the hand that summoned him.

Canon narrowed his eyes, and blackness clawed through them. "Begin the last diagnostic tests, and then begin the assault," he ordered his voice ripe with icy venom.

Two ships left the planet, soaring right past the armada, which, for some reason, let them pass. However, one the female occupants in the first, longer ship, could help but shake the feeling of fear as she stared out at the ships.

"It's beginning," Shion said in a low whisper.

"Great, we go through all of that, just to let a new U-DO vaporize us," Allen whined.

"We could try to attack them," came Jr.'s voice, from the other ship. He and chaos, had opted to ride with Mary, Shelley, and Momo, in one of the New Enlightenment's escape vessels. "At the very least, it could delay the attack."

"The probability that we would succeed is ten million, nine hundred thousand, seven hundred ninety two, to one," KOS-MOS said in her dead pane tone.

"Ah, GOD, we're going to DIE," Allen cried into his hands.

"If I had a Federation nickel forever time I heard him say that, I would be as rich as Jr.," chaos said with a playful chuckle, hoping to ease the tension.

"I'm sorry Jr., but we don't even know which ship Canon's even on." Shion said. Before them, the Elsa grew larger.

Jr. began stroking his chin as if looking for facial hair, and closed his eyes. "There might be a way, if we can access the E.V.P. systems on the Elsa and contact the Durandal."

"What good would that do?" Momo asked, putting a hand on Jr.'s shoulder.

"Gaignun," Shelley said for her young master. "If Gaignun could link up with Gresiedo, I mean, Canon, he might be able to locate him, and we could launch an attack on that particular ship."

"Mr. Gaignun can link up with other U.R.T.V.s?" This was the first Shion had heard of it.

"It's his "gift"," came Jr.'s response. He frowned and stroked his chin some more. "I could attempt to link with him out here, but there is a chance that Gresiedo could pick it up and then that gets rid of our plan."

"Little Master, we've been hearing everything you've been saying," Captain Matthews said, on a secure line. The interruption of the newcomer's voice made all of them jump. "Sorry for the scare," he said, a little more reserved. "We decided if to try and pick up any type of communication ever since the enemy ships arrived. When we saw two ships headed toward us from the planet, we decided to try and listen to see if we could hear what you were saying on this station."

"We've already sent word to Mr. Gaignun about your plan, Little Master," Tony said, with a little bit of smug in his tone. "Hammer and I sent it in an ancient frequency to the Durandal."

"They just picked up the request," said a very excited Hammer. Too excited, the Genesis Fleet could have heard him. There was a thud on the other line, and they could hear Hammer grunt in pain.

"You moron," Captain Matthew's roared, "announce it to the whole universe why don't you?"

"Captain, that will be enough of that," Jr. snapped. "We're boarding now. We'll meet you on the bridge, and we can go from there."

"Rubedo, I'm not sure I can do it," Gaignun said, as he sat in his command seat. The Durandal sped at light speed through the warp gate, as it approached the Bohemian Sector. He sighed and sat back into his chair.

"Why the hell not?" the red headed U.R.T.V. snarled. "We both know that you have the ability! How many times have you used it on me?"

Gaignun smirked and leaned forward. "That's different, and you know it." There was something in his tone that said that the conversation was over. It was the kind of ice that a father would use against his son, to warn him not to continue into the folly of excessive debate.

"Oh is it really? And how so, may I ask?" Jr.'s tone held a youthful defiance with it, like a child stressing for his independence from his parent, or at least equality. With Jr., it was the latter, as they both served in the Militian Conflict years ago, with Jr. being the superior officer of their unit. Hell, I'm at least a year in a half older than you.

Gaignun seemed to read his counterpart's mind and groaned as he slumped back into his chair once again. "Jr., I tried once, when we first encountered him on Amadore. But when I tried, all I got was static; it was like his voice was smashed into a thousand pieces and all assaulting my mind at once. I, I. . .," Gaignun wilted and his skin grew white. "I just wasn't strong enough to find him."

Gaignun was the epiphany of perfection, successful, graceful, and charming. His short, jet black hair and bright blue eyes were images of aristocratic power and business like youth. His dark blue suit, and light sea green tie only firmed the grip on this image. Many people, who read the archives, millennia old paper books published by DC comics, compared him to a Bruce Wayne.

But to see him like this, was only too often nowadays for Jr. In public they were father and adopted son, but in private, they were old war buddies, and the best of friends. The shorter U.R.T.V. sighed and looked at him with a matched pity. Still, he forced himself to snap out of it. Time was short, and if any of them, let alone the universe had a chance to survive, they had to have Gaignun find Canon, Gresiedo, before he could fire his weapon.

"Negredo," Jr. snapped, using Gaignun's U.R.T.V. name, "I'm betting you weren't this close to him when you tried. You've got to give it another shot, and keep trying till you find him. Or we're all dead." Jr. leaned so close to the monitor that he could see his breathe fog it up, "Do you understand the situation now?"

Gaignun pulled himself back into his seat and stared into his counterpart's eyes. Sweat rolled down his face and chin, but he nodded. "You're right; of course, I suppose it would be bad for business if we were all killed."

Jr. smiled and nodded. "Besides, Mary and Shelley would kill you, if you let them get killed."

Gaignun chuckled and smoothed out his clothes. "All right, Jr. You've made you're point. I'm ordering a small squadron of Foundation and Federation ships to make the leap into your sector now. You can begin your assault anytime you want." He flipped a button on the monitor and then turned to Jin and Ziggy, who were standing right behind him.

"I'm assuming that you intend to send us there with the squadrons?" The cyborg asked, crossing his arms.

"Good guess," Gaignun said with a raised eyebrow.

"I understand why you want to send the smaller ships first," Jin said as he looked at the massive screens assessing the situation. The Genesis Fleet was preparing to fire in a few minutes, perhaps less then two. "But what damage could we do against a new U-DO?"

"Gresiedo isn't going to have a chance to fully activate the weapon," Gaignun said quickly. A new screen popped up, detailing minor enhancements to the attack ships. "Spies firmly in place inside U.TIC told us what the Project was just last week. With these small boxes placed on our ships, we can somewhat limit the damage that the weapon will do, but only for the first couple of minutes. Hopefully that will give me enough time to locate Gresiedo, so that you and Jr. can launch a successful attack on the main battleship, where he's located."

"Take out the brain and the monster dies," Ziggy said thoughtfully.

"Well then, you better get cracking," Jin said, turning his back as he walked off the bridge. "I'd hate to see what that weapon can do at full force."

Ziggy grimaced at the thought, and turned with a nod, to follow the other man off the bridge. When they were gone, a military Realian turned and frowned at his commander.

"Sir, if we knew what the weapon could do a week ago, why have we waited in attacking Canon's fleet until now?"

"You mean, why not have used it during the battle at Ungoliant?" Gaignun said, more of a statement than a question. As soon as the Realian nodded, Gaignun simply blinked. "We couldn't get close enough to his ships to do any damage, and besides, these boxes could only be used against the weapon itself." He leaned up, and closed his eyes.

"Now if you will excuse me," he said. Blackness filled his mind, and then the universe seemed to fill out before him. He could see thousands, millions of people through their thoughts. And just as before, hundreds of thousands of golden beams each with Canon's voice. Gaignun grimaced at the pain, but pushed it aside. Not this time, kid. Slowly, one by one he began pushing false lights out of the way.

On board a massive U.TIC warship, Margulis, commander of the church's Inquisition forces looked at the zooming orange lines of hyperspace. He was a man in his early forties, with slicked back lavender hair, a very thin face, and a large scar stretching from his forehead, to the bottom of his left cheek. He stood with arms folded behind him, and he clenched his fingers in light purple gloves.

Margulis was a man of determination, and used to getting both what he and his church wanted. He thought nothing of sacrificing billions in the name of his religion, in order to further the goals of the pope and his church, although more and more recently he had started to gain a strong distaste for his elderly pontiff, who he considered paranoid.

Behind him was his attendant, a lovely young woman in her mid thirties, Pellegri. She wore a skin tight black suit, and had an orange tan skin, white beach blonde white hair. She looked like a string bean, but her athletic abilities were never in question. She was, perhaps the most dangerous person on board the bridge, save except for Margulis himself.

One of the staff on the bridge edged towards them and cleared his throat. "Sir, we're approaching the Bohemian sector now," he said sheepishly.

"Do you think that I'm not aware of that?" Margulis said, raising an eyebrow. He didn't even turn around to look at the lackey. Somehow the room had gotten colder.

"Um, yes sir, but do you think that it's wise for us to attack Canon while he has the ability to unleash such a weapon sir?"

"You are questioning the will of the church, lieutenant?" Once again Margulis raised his eyebrow, but this time he turned to look at the man. He glared down at him for a moment, and watched the other man's knees collapse from behind him.

"No, no sir," the lieutenant stammered. He turned and returned to his station.

Pellegri shivered as she watched the scene, but kept her mouth closed. She could still remember watching the U.TIC's military experiments on the populace of a certain planet. They had destroyed the world, killed thousands of millions of people and feed their world to the Gnosis. She had reservations about it, but a threat from Margulis closed her mouth tight. You didn't cross the chief Inquisitor and live long.

"I said, did you hear me?" Margulis snapped, staring at her.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice soft, and very strong at the same time.

"When the battleships launch, I want him in the front lines," he said, his voice dripping in icy venom.

Pellegri sighed and nodded. "You're the boss."

"Sir," one of the "clones" said, turning to Canon. "All preparations are ready, and reports are reading that the ship that was hiding has now turned and is approaching us. It almost looks like they're planning on attacking."

Canon chuckled and sat back as pure energy floated around him. "Let them try. In fact, begin the weapons system," he eyes grew white with power. "Target Bohemia XI first I want them to see what fate is in store for them."

Their reaction time was sluggish, for some reason, but they nodded and punched in the commands to the other ships. One of them turned to Canon and frowned, shaking his head.

"If we only use the system to attack the planet alone, we'd have to wait another two minutes to power up to attack again. We'd be vulnerable to an attack, and there is the matter of the U.TIC ships that are going to gate out in less than thirty seconds."

"Then after we fire the weapon, launch the automatic drones," Canon snapped, pounding a fist into his chair. "A few other ships are not going to do us much damage if they don't know which one we're on."

"They could get lucky, sir."

"I do not believe in luck," Canon roared. He regained his senses and smiled. "Besides, it adds to the fun." He frowned and sighed as the clone continued to look at him. "If it makes you feel better, have all the ships launch all their auto drones. Have half of them stay around the battleships to guard them. They will most definitely never figure out which of the ships is ours." He narrowed his eyes and grinned wickedly. "Now, begin the attack, and launch the damn drones."

Shion watched from the bridge of the Elsa and gasped. The entire Genesis Fleet turned as one, and began glowing white blue with energy. Soon all of space was engulfed in the light, and then there was no trace of the ships at all. It was one large ball of fiery death. Not the kind that was fired from a ship, but one that was alive, a sentience of pure malevolence. The chief science officer of Vector Company's First Division grew deathly pale, and knew she was looking at what most of her elders had called U-DO.

Behind her she heard Jr. and chaos gasp in a unified terror. "Not again," Jr. said breathlessly.

"They can't fire, they wouldn't," chaos said, almost praying to numerous gods for help.

It wouldn't come. With a scream of thunder the ball became a spear and then launched itself at the planet. There was nothing any of them could do; the life spear hit dead on with Bohemia XI. There was the sound of a whine, and strains of life trying to hold itself together and then a flash of light. Bohemia XI began pulling outward, like a child pulling on a piece of putty, and then flung inward, exploding. And as pieces of the planet were flung into different sides of the galaxy, the light of the Genesis Fleet reached out and pulled them into the light. Just like that, the fourteen planet system had only thirteen Bohemia's.

When the light subsided, the Genesis Fleet was back in individual ship forms, and each one headed straight for the Elsa. The light was gone from around their ships, but that was bound to change. And even if it didn't, hundreds of auto drones screaming out of the docks from the battle cruisers were sure to make swift work of the Elsa.

"Guys," Jr. said calmly, "I think we're in trouble."

Just as storm clouds were at the height of their peek, there is supposed to be a burst of sunlight, or so the saying goes. And in fact, this situation was no different. Just as the auto drones had reached the Elsa, bursts of light appeared in different areas of the Bohemian Galaxy, and large holes pulled inward, as hundreds of ships, both Kukai Foundation, and Galactic Federation, on one side, and U.TIC ships on the other appeared.

At first, the auto drones seemed a little confused; their programs had told them to attack only the Elsa. Who were these new ships, why were they here? After the U.TIC and Allied ships pounded a few of them to dust, they knew what was going on. A dozen of the c shaped ships veered to attack the new comers, and were awarded for their diligence by being blown to atoms by the Elsa.

Dazed the auto drones tried to desperately to control the situation. They split up into dozens of units and began striking the new ships, along with the Elsa, blasting and scratching like hornets angry that their nest had been disturbed. Their efforts paid off, for a little bit. This new aggressive stratagey let them destroy a few of the new enemy ships, but in the end, it would prove vain.

Just as they had swarmed out of the Genesis Fleet's docks, so now were space ships, enemy auto drones, and A.G.W.S. swarming out of the U.TIC and Allied battle cruisers. The slaughter that was supposed to be happening was quickly becoming a stalemate.

That alone would not last. The Genesis drones had done what their masters had wanted. They had diverted enough time to allow the crew to power up the weapon. Once again, the fleet turned into a light blue energy ball, and launched it's "spear" into dozens of enemy ships, both big and large. Just like Bohemia XI, the ships and A.G.W.S. and enemy auto drones. Time and again, ship and battle suit imploded into the absorbing light. For every ship that the Genesis Fleet had lost in the beginning enemy blitzkrieg, the enemies had now lost fifty.

Canon leaned forward in his chair and watched the battle unfold. The enemy was stronger than he had originally thought they would be. He felt like pacing back and forth, but knew he dare not separate himself from the legion. "Commander!" he roared.

"Sir?" a copy turned and looked up at him.

"How many of our ships have been lost?"

"Sir, twenty of them sir, before we began firing the Genesis Weapon. We only have twenty remaining." The commander began rolling his thumbs and looked back up. "Sir, we have no remaining auto drones either. And for some reason, our weapon can not be used to full capacity. Should we retreat sir?"

Canon looked at his commander, and shot him square in the head. As the body of the dead copy dropped to his chair he looked at the remaining crew members and scowled. "Power the engines, complete energy into the weapons system. We are going to destroy the entire Bohemian Galaxy with one blast."

"Sir, most of our ships won't survive that kind of attack, and of those that did, it would still take five minutes to activate it," came the response of another officer.

"We will survive, lieutenant," Canon growled. "That should be good enough for you." He narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. "Or would you prefer I send you to join the good captain over there?"

The lieutenant's color faded and he shook his head. "No sir, yes sir, I'll instruct the fleet at once."

Canon leaned back into his chair and smirked. "And have them put up their shields. That should protect us from any more damage."

"Yes sir," came a unified chorus.

Gaignun continued to hold his head in his hands. He looked almost like he had a headache. Many of those thousands of lights had now vanished. Either because he pushed them away, or because they had simply vanished. He knew there was a battle going on, because he could feel the Durandal's hulls being hit again, and again.

"Randall, please do you're best to keep them off of us," he snapped at the science officer, who for the time being was also taking duties as the defense captain.

The short man turned to Gaignun and sneered, "Easy for you to say, those damned auto drones are gone, but the U.TIC forces are beginning to feel a little sure of them selves."

"Just keep them away the best you can," Gaignun said, calmly. If we don't find Gresiedo, I'm afraid of what might happen."

"You mean like that?" Randall Fairweather asked, pointed at the Genesis Fleet. The smaller group of ships seemed to start to huddle together and gather energy. But this time it was not blue white. It was of the harshest, deadliest shades of red any of them had ever seen before. "Shit."

Ziggy and Jin both saw the light too. After clearing the auto drones away from the Elsa, they had led their squadron to protect the ship in a shield maneuver. No enemy ship was going to get near it, but enemy fire would. And the color of the Genesis Fleet looked very much like Fire. The fires of Hell.

"Momo," Ziggy said, as he looked at the lights.

"Shion," Jin said.

Margulis had never seen Hell, even though he had heard about it from his training. At the very least he had never expected to see it. He liked to use fire element based attacks that he named after Hades, but he never thought for a moment that he'd be at the receiving end of the horror of the place. Yet there were the fires of damnation, stroking themselves against the ships of the Genesis Fleet. For the first time in his life, Margulis had a sense of dread, and he had to force himself to keep from collapsing.

"Sir," Pellegri said, as her eyes grew wide with horror.

"We've been given our mandates," he said, his voice still as strong as steel. "If we have to march through Hell, so our church will not have to, then so be it."

He looked at her and then at their ships, battling the allied forces outside, ignoring the threat of the flames. "And I do no know who gave the order to attack them, but they had better hope I never catch them. For the time being, the Genesis Fleet is the one and only enemy on this battle field. Order those ships to withdraw and begin the final assault on Gresiedo's fleet."

Pellegri swallowed hard and forced herself to blink. She wasn't as fanatical as Margulis, and indeed there were many more insanely loyal members that even Margulis, but Pellegri knew her duty. Only in her mind she changed his order just a little; if just to ease herself and redeem her humanity. If we have to march through Hell, so others would not have to, then so be it.

"Yes sir," she said with a quick salute.

There was a feeling in space, a darkness of pure energy and hate. Much like the energy of the Zohar, it drew the Gnosis from the deepest part of space. Unlike the energy from the Zohar, this was an energy that must not be possessed, but destroyed. The Gnosis were going to war, and if that meant having to be allies to the human competitors to defeat this force of malevolence than so be it.

The Gnosis, living weapons themselves, did not need fancy jump gates to go into hyperspace. The might of their will simply punched through holes in space, and the animal like battleships slipped gracefully through.

Gaignun sat in his chair, seat dropping from his forehead. There were only twenty lights remaining. The others he had successfully pushed away into the black deepness of his mind. He was close, and he knew it. The only questions left were, did Gresiedo know it, and how much longer did the attackers have before those flames would swallow them all?

Canon could feel the pressure of Gaignun's mind search. He'd been aware of it for some time now, but had so far successfully hidden his presence. Now, with so little copies to hide behind, it was only a matter of time before he would be discovered. Sweat fell from his forehead as he concentrated on keeping his foe at bay, and readying the final assault. The U.TIC, Federation, and Kukai Foundation kept hammering his fleet's shields, and if even more time elapsed, Canon knew that they'd break through before the Genesis Fleet could finish their preparations.

A dark part him suddenly realized that many of his crew, and perhaps many of the crew of the other ships weren't trying as hard as they could to initialize the final attack. They were extensions of him, but in a sense, individuals too. And their individual fear of death was slowing down progress.

"Concentrate," he screeched, his eyes growing twice the size they normally were. "Either we still here and die like cowards, or unleash the power that the gods have granted us. Now fucking concentrate!" Ever since this battle began, he could feel himself losing control. When the New Enlightenment and the U.TIC Organization had approached him two years ago with this plan, he had jumped at the chance, reveling in the fact that he would be able to throw away his emotions, and stay cool at all time. Like all U.R.T.V.s during the time when the Song of Seraphim had been activated during the Miltia Conflict, Canon was exposed to that madding tune, and lost control of his emotions. He wasn't as nearly as crazy as Albedo, but he was strong enough to fully survive the attack without being unscathed. He knew he had Jr. to thank for that. When the attack started, Jr. had used the combine powers of his unit to shield himself from the song. He'd killed dozens of his unit, driven mad Albedo and a few others, and caused Canon to lose control of his emotions.

Given command of the Genesis Fleet, he found that his mental powers had grown, and he could push the insomnia and paranoia to the furthest recesses of his mind. Fighting Rubedo and the others at Amadore had given him a sense of satisfaction, as he relied on that precious, cool, calculation. During the battle at Ungoliant, he drank up with joy the way his glorious fleet decimated the enemy, until he was ordered to fall back. If only that damn fool Trev 5000 hadn't ordered his retreat, this battle in the Bohemian Sector would not be taking place.

His mind raced with options. He knew where Negredo was, he could order the fleet to attack the Durandal, and thus end the menace of being found out, but then he would have showed his hand anyway, and would have been uncovered. There was the option for retreat, but now that his "masters" knew of his treason, he would never be allowed to relax for more than a few days. He'd need at least two weeks to recover, and more than a year without the aide of scientists to replenish his stock of copies. Then of course there was the matter of creating more battle cruisers for the fleet. That would take even more time, and massive amounts of money.

The only thing he knew he could do was to see this to the end, to fire full force the weapon, take his licks, and disappear, as most villains in this government did, until he could find the right opportunity to strike. With Negredo gone, he wouldn't even have to worry about them trying to find him with a mind link.

Canon narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists. That settled it. It all rested on the final attack, then. "Lieutenant, how much longer do we have, before we can commence the attack?"

"One minute left sir, and counting," the copy replied. He saluted his commanding officer, his original and turned to his post. Pushing buttons he gave the order for the fleet to drop his shields, and begin the last preparations for the attack.

Canon sat in awe, and a cruel smile came over his face. He could still feel Negredo claw towards him, in fact, he could feel the other U-DO Retrovirus on his very ship, pushing back the fake thoughts of his crew. Canon sat back and laughed. Close, Negredo, but far too late.

The Genesis Fleet began dropping their shields in unison, and then changed from the lime green color they had been to a demonic red. A few seconds late they could no longer be seen, as they took the form of a large red spear. Everyone, from the U.TIC, to the allies, shuddered in horror. Machine guns from the A.G.W.S. fell silent, missiles and artillery fire from the close to one hundred ships stopped firing. Why bother? What could they do against something like this?

For the first time in a long time, Shion fell to her knees and began to pray, her lips trembling like a bowl of jello. Actually her whole body was shaking. As she looked around, she could see that everyone was shaking with horror on board the Elsa, with the exception of KOS-MOS. The battle android stared out into space and did not move. Shion once asked her if she could feel fear, or any other kind of emotion. The android had told her that certain emotions were programmed into her, so she might be somewhat of a relief to people who wanted to be around "normal" type of or similar type of emotions. Shion could not tell outwardly, but she sense inwardly that KOS-MOS, was feeling the same kind of emotion that everyone else was.

And as the light blue haired android dropped to her hands and knees, threads of hair flowing over her dark red optic sensors, Shion knew that she was right. KOS-MOS was feeling fear, and despair for not being able to do anything about this.

Momo was also on her knees, praying, with Jr. gently putting his hand on her left shoulder. She knew Ziggy was out there, in the battlefield. How she wanted him here, with her. She was happy that Jr. was here with her at the end, somehow a little giddy. But she had been calmed during the chase in hyperspace when the U.TIC automatic drones had nearly gunned Ziggy and her ship down. What was it, that comforted her so about Ziggy? Jr. made her pulse pound, her body temperature rise when he was near her, but not so Ziggy. Silently she said a pray for him, hoping that somehow he would survive the coming juggernaut, and would be able to put it behind him.

On board the Durandal Gaignun dropped to his knees, tears running down his cheeks. "No," he said weakly. "No, I had him, I nearly had him. It's not fair; I just needed another few minutes." He pounded his fist on the ground, and could feel the crew sound him to comfort him. Inside his mind, he could hear the taunting laughter of Gresiedo.

On board his flagship Margulis looked out, and for the first time felt his color drain. "It's over," he said in barely a whisper. He'd brought fear to so many people in his career. How ironic that someone would end it, filling him with fear. His eyes drifted across the battle field, and he spied a pilot in a Federation ship. He had dark black hair, and dark brown eyes, and seemed to praying some kind of ancient Shinto or Buddhist prayer. Margulis narrowed his eyes further and leaned into the window. He knew him somehow, but how?

Jin looked out and glared at the U.TIC commander, and frowned. It took him a little bit longer to make out Margulis' features; than the other man had to make out his, but there was no doubt in his mind as to who it was that was up there in that flagship. "I always thought we'd meet on a battlefield again," he said with a sorrowful chuckle, more so memories of his past than what was about to happen, "never thought we'd be fighting on the same side or dying on the same day though."

On board the Iron Fist, Canon smirked. The time was right for the attack. "Fire," he ordered, absolutely nothing his voice sounding human.

The Hell Spear lurched out into all realms of space and soar towards its targets. Thousands of voices cried out in alarm and some if the bigger ships tried to put up their shields. A good number of them vanished into the hateful light, but the attack did not have the kind of effect Canon had long hoped for.

Had it been completed successfully, there should have been nothing left out there. Not one ship should have been left floating in space. At least three dozen battle cruisers were gone, that was true, but the worst came scenario for them was simply a handful of massively damaged ships.

"What the hell?" he roared, tearing the wires connecting him to the collective from his skin. "Why are they still out there? WHY!"

"Sir," cried a horrified response from the lieutenant. "We've lost twelve of our ships."

"Of course we did, we knew the attack would destroy some of them," he screamed, grabbing the copy out of his chair.

"No, not from our attack sir, that only cost us two of our ships. What I mean is someone took out twelve MORE ships during our attack."

Color completely vanished from his skin as he vainly shook his head back and forth. "Who the hell could do that?" he screamed.

"Captain," Tony cried, jutting a finger out into space. "It's the Gnosis, hundreds of them sir." Out in space, they could see massive whale shaped Gnosis Cathedral ships, pouring out hundreds of insect like space fighters. Blue green lasers appeared around the whales' "gills" and shot, taking out three other Genesis ships. There were now only three ships, and all but one of them were putting up their shields, and trying to make an escape.

"What should we do, sir? About the Gnosis I mean?" Hammer fixed his glasses and looked intently on his captain.

"Well, they're not bothering us," he said, rubbing his chin. "Hell they aren't going after anyone but the Genesis Fleet; I guess that means that for now they're on our side." He smirked and pulled his cap over his eyes. "So let's make the best of it and go after those Genesis butchers, and end us a battle."

Jr. smiled as he took a step back from Momo. The collective prayers of normally vicious enemies had paid off. Fate had stepped in and sent a very strange gift, but a gift none the less. And the red headed U.R.T.V. wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Rubedo. It was Gaignun, a very loud and extremely excited Gaignun. The smaller man listened for a moment or two and felt his grin grow wider. Pointing to one of the fleeing ships, he stepped up to Captain Matthews. "That's our prey," he said. "That's Canon's flag ship, after him."

"But Little Master, are you sir, there's still that unshielded ship that's still fighting, and then," he looked and shook his head. U.TIC and Gnosis ships had taken out the other fleeing ship.

"The one continuing to fight is a decoy," said a voice from the communicator. It was Ziggy's voice. "It seems Canon's decided to have cold feet about this battle. All Galactic Federation ships and Kukai Foundation ships are ordered by the government and Gaignun to attack the last fleeing ship."

Captain Matthews smiled and nodded. "Well, don't have to tell us twice." He looked to Tony and pounded a fist. "You heard the man, Tony. Get that ship."

On board the Iron Fist, a very pissed Canon was at the controls of the ship. All around him were the dead bodies of cowardly copies. How had it gone so wrong? This was supposed to be a glorious day. Now, as he could hear the explosion of another ship, he knew his fleet was gone. The Iron Fist was all that remained of the Genesis Fleet. The project itself was dead, and hundreds of Kukai Foundation, U.TIC Organization, Galactic Federation, and even those damn Gnosis ships were bearing down on him.

After the Gnosis showed up, and his rage and frustration climaxed, it had allowed Gaignun the opportunity to find the real Gresiedo. Many of his crew panicked, and set into motion an escape. Canon knew there would be no use trying to fight, and had ordered one final ship to continue, hoping to fool some of the others while he fled to safety. He killed his crew then, and took over the ships controls completely.

Flying through asteroids and a few larger stars, he hoped to confuse and dismay the attackers, but it hadn't gotten the much smaller ships off his heels. He narrowed his eyes and pulled up, rolling the ship as he did. With the flick of a button he launched a couple more blasts, and sent asteroid pieces into the ships. With the sounds of explosions and animalistic wails, he knew he had scored numerous hits. He smirked and pulled the ship into a full u turn. He could still take out some of the more prominent members of this witch hunt.

The smaller ships were no match for the fire power of his larger Titan class vessel. He'd cut a path through them, and ram one of the larger ships, perhaps making enough of a hole in the dent of it, that he could pass through and make some hostages. Then he'd take that ship, and destroy Margulis' flag ship, before going after Gaignun's.

Unfortunately there were many more small ships than he had realized. Their weapons weren't that much of a threat, but he was running out of fuel. It was like flying through a storm of ships. He couldn't even see space.

His mind raced, the previous plan would not work. By the time he got to a large ship, their weapons would have been fixed on him, and he'd be blown up. There weren't many options left then. His eyes turned that way and this, as alarms began to blare. His shields were gone, and that meant that these "gnats" would be able to do some real damage now.

He was at the end of the race. All his grandiose plans were vanished in a puff of smoke. He closed his eyes and exhaled, before opening them again. He was not going to let them have the satisfaction of taking him alive, nor was he going to let them have the satisfaction of blowing him up. Canon punched a few more buttons at the drive console and sat back down in his captain's seat. Pressing the torn wires into his skin, he left the ship heavy its way toward the nearest jump gate that was unprotected.

It opened, and he began the activation of the weapon. It wouldn't be big enough to destroy a planet, or even a city, but when activate in the jump, it would cause all sorts of damage to the other gates. There would, at the very least be bedlam in his name. Just as the ship hobbled toward the very tip of the gate, a dozen blasts of energy hit the hole, slamming it shut.

Canon turned, his jaw falling open to see who dared deny his recent and final scheme. The blue haired battle android from the Elsa stood on the top of the ship, a gapping hole in her chest. Canon had read about this certain attack the android, KOS-MOS, had that once she punched herself in the chest, she would unleash powerful energy rain over her targets. She called it the X-Buster.

Canon looked at the former jump gate, and the gasped, without the gate, he could not perform the destruction he desired. The attack was seconds from happening, and without the fleet, and his' copies' consciousness, it would do nothing more than create a very bright light, which would take out only one thing, Canon.

He was unable to speak, unable to feel. Light surrounded him, and he could feel his eyes begin to roll to the back of his head. The U.TIC Organization, and the Gnosis, both knowing their part in the battle was over, had started to evacuate. Canon reasoned Margulis would stay and watch, simply for self satisfaction. The Federation would stay, to restore order in this sector, which means that probably so would their ally the Kukai Foundation.

Some how, some way his enemies had managed to survive, to defeat the undefeatable. They had destroyed the new "U-D0." This meant that if fate was kind, and his "superiors" had their way in waking the old one up, there might be a chance that these heroes would stop that one too.

The ship crackled and wheezed as the light over took it, and Canon rolled his head backwards, a single question slipping through his lips before he was forever silenced. "Who are these people?"

Two weeks later Shion sat down in a cafe next to chaos and Jr. eating her sandwich very slowly. The last couple of months had been weird, and that was before the Genesis Project had threatened the universe.

The Federation quickly took charge and arrested a few surviving members of the New Enlightenment that had not been on Bohemia XI. There was talk of taking what animals that lived in circuses and zoos that were native to the planet and massively beginning to breed them in hopes of keeping their numbers up.

Of course the U.TIC Organization denied involvement in the setting up of the whole affair, and had vanished for a while. Still there were nasty talks and saber rattling about war breaking out between the Federation and the U.TIC Organization. A shiver ran down her spine, would men never learn their lessons?

Ziggy visited the council often now, but still was denied his requests to erase his memories until the information stored inside Momo was recovered. For some reason it seemed that it both upset him, and pleasantly for his friends, seemed to elate him as well. Shion knew that both the Genesis Experiment and the Genesis Project had deeply affected the cyborg, had forced him to look long into a past he had hoped was gone forever. All the time, Shion prayed for his mental state.

Then there was the situation surrounding Mary and Shelley. They had to look deep into their past because of this too. Mary still continued to joke around, and tried to be the life of the party. Her quest to become a top comedian in the Galactic Federation seemed to look like a shooting star, but deep down, Shion could feel a change about her. Her eyes sometimes looked distance, and did not have the same twinkle they once did. And Shelley was quieter than normal, save for some polite, public smiles and waves. The cyborg they had considered a father figure, dead, and not once but twice, the second time in their arms. Gaignun had tried to cheer the two of them up when he could in between meetings with Helmer and other Federation officials. But Shion doubted that occasional bad joke to Shelley or holding Mary down and tickle attacking her wouldn't be as effective as it would have been months ago.

Then there was Momo, who mourned her own sister. Violcia was a lunatic; there was no doubt about that. Shion doubted all Momo's love would have ever been enough to change the young Realian's heart about her hatred. Still, how sad it must have been to be the one to end a sibling's life?

Then there was Jin. After the incident, they continued to talk, but it had kind of reverted back to their old way, of keeping away from one another. It was good to fight by him, and work out some issues, but there was a sad kind of shield that both of them had put up to block away the other. Just three days ago he had left the capital city and returned to their parent's old home. Shion frowned, and bit down on her sandwich once again.

"So what are you going to do after lunch," chaos asked as he stood up.

"Well I think I'll have to finally give my final report to Vector about the last four or five months and send it to them," she said with a blush.

"You mean you never sent a report to Vector yet?" Jr. asked, as his jaw dropped.

"I started to, but then other things happened, and I forgot," she said quickly. Mentally she crossed herself that Allen wasn't here he would most definitely be on his feet to berate her about her carelessness.

"Well then, we'll see you later Shion," chaos said pleasantly, and the two young men waved to her as they walked out of the café after paying for their half of the lunch.

Shion sighed. No time like the present. Finishing her last bite of sandwich she picked up a small recorder and took a deep breath. "R & D Report. File number 026643. The Anti-Gnosis android KOS-MOS, while still in testing, self-activates during an attack. She is capable of operating independently, but her emotional programs are in need of work." She stopped and smiled, that was somewhat true, although the fear she saw right before the Genesis Fleet's final attack might change all that, "After escaping from the Woglinde. . .,"

Shion continued her giving her report, right up to the end of the Genesis Fleet situation, and then stood up and stretched. She thought about taking a nap, and then brushed it off. Miyuki had emailed her about something she wanted to show her and so feeling a little curious, a little adventurous, and perhaps a little cautious, Shion paid for her half of the meal and walked out of the café.

FIN

---

Author's notes: Whew! This bad boy of a series took me nearly two years to write. I'm kind of happy to finally finish it, as I kind of thought it would only take me four months total to write originally. I'm also sad to see it go, as it has been part of my life for so long a time. Kind of like letting an adult child move out, while still seeing them as a child. Sigh oh well.

I want to thank my family for their support in my God given writing talents, my teacher Donna Roazen from the Long Ridge Writer's Group, long distance learning school, for her insights that built up my work to be better than what it had been before this, to Namco for making such a great game (even though STILL do not own any of the characters except for: Liu Raystorm, his psycho daughter Elisabeth Raystorm/Zefonith III, Canon/Gresiedo , Greg Anderson, Randall Fairweather, Pyreges 4/ Percy Horsham Westbrook, Trev 5000, and a few numerous others in the large universe). I also want to thank another friend, whose name is Michele, who originally encourage my writing stories, of which the short non-fanfiction story, The Heritage of the Lord, is dedicated, my friend and fellow Xenosaga fan Joey, who has listened to me go on about my story and anything Xenosaga wise (among other things J) and most importantly, I would like to very much thank my literary guardian angel, Erin, without her kind words and encouragement this series would still be wallowing around chapter one today. Thank you SOOOO much Erin. This ENTIRE series is absolutely dedicated to you J!

Now, on to some pressing matters, this series was SUPPOSED to be a connected story that brought together Episodes I and II of the games series. Had I written it in the four months I wanted to, I think it would have done that in a since, but there are some inconstancies I want to clear up.

So is it the Genesis Experiment, or the Genesis Project? That's a very good question. To be honest, in the beginning it was completely the Experiment, but somehow along the way it changed to Project. Probably because I was going to originally call each chapter of the series after one of the first five books of the Old Testament, The Genesis Experiment, The Exodus Project, etc. Because it took my two years to write, I forgot which title was which. So I decided that the combining of the DNA between U.R.T.V. with Gnosis DNA, and making perfect "cloned" copies of Canon, who bares no relation to Canaan in the second game, the experiment, and the use of the living energy to warp reality would be deemed the Genesis Project. Sorry for any confusion.

In chapter 1, I had the time frame between the two games being a couple of months, when in fact, Episode II takes place just minutes after the first game ends. Then I had the heroes landing on Fifth Jerusalem, when in fact, they landed on Second Miltia.

I also had Jin joining the party almost right away, when he does not join until much later in Episode II.

One final inconstancy, which I currently know of, may not even be an inconstancy. When, during the battle of Ungoliant, I had the Realians going nuts and crazy and blowing up their ships, I had planned to tie this into the beginning of Episode II, where the Realians are rioting. I've later come to believe that when the Realians riot, it is not in current time, but showing us how the Miltian Conflict started. I only have a small script of the second episode, and do not own the game myself, so I did not know.

Finally, some little bits of information about my story itself. I've long promised you how to read or at the very least translate the Ungoliant language. So, here are the rules:

When making sentences in their Language you start by putting the first two words together, the third word is singular, then the next two words of the sentence are put together as one again. The only time you do not do this, is when you are speaking in respect to a person, his or her name is always singular, as is their title. Days of the weeks, months of the year, and names of religions are also singular. Greetings are also singular.

Once this is accomplished, you are going to translate it into the Al Bhed language (from Final Fantasy X, X-2) three times. Here is an example of what I mean.

English: Hello howare you today, David? Youare looking verywell.

First Translation: Rammu rufyna oui dutyo, David? Ouiyna muugehk janofamm.

Then act like this first translation is in English and once again translate into Al Bhed.

Second Translation: Nyssi nivohy uie tidou, David? Uieohy siikarg zyhuvyss.

One last time assume that this translation is English, and translate it into Al Bhed.

Final Translation: Hocce hejuro iea detui, David? Ieauro ceegynk worijocc.

This final translation is the Ungoliant Language. To translate in reverse, just assume the first translation is Al Bhed, and translate three times into English.

There is a web page called Al Bhed Translation with Phonics on the web somewhere, this should help with the language. Unfortunately I do not exactly remember the web address. I am very sorry for this.

One last bit of trivia. The candy stripper in chapter two was going to stay alive in the original script of my story, so she could identify Canon to Gaignun when Mary was kidnapped. Unfortunately she forced my hand being TOO curious. Canon could not let someone so curious live, as it might have ruined his plans. Thus he killed her.

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this series; I am not going to write any more mini series for a while, though I do plan on getting back to it eventually. I have dozens more Xenosaga stories, and a small series detailing the early days of the Galactic Federation, but I don't plan on writing them until late 2005, early 2006. Until then I hope you enjoy the other Xenosaga stories, and other stories I have up my sleeves to tell you. Good bye for now, and thanks for sticking with me and reading my story, Vanguard Ziggy.

Editor's Note: Hi there! It's The Shoeless One! Just popping in to give mad props to my buddy Vangaurd Ziggy. He's one of the best writers I know, and I know a lot. He was kind enough to let me edit his story, for he is new to FF.N. Give him a round of applause! Still love your fics, never give up writing!
-All the love from TheShoelessOne