I stood between Shion and Jr., the door out of the Elsa still shut fast before us. Hammer was on the bridge, to my knowledge, setting up a secure airlock for us to walk through to the Song of Nephilim. My heart thundered away, not knowing what to expect once the door opened. What I would see... What I would hear... Who I would find. I inhaled deeply to calm myself. Jr. glanced up, and I met his gaze.
"When we find MOMO," I started slowly, "we should find what is drawing the Gnosis and destroy it." Jr. seemed to stare without blinking.
"I know what I need to do," Jr. breathed quietly, averting his eyes. As he did so, the light above the door changed to a soft green. Hammer's voice echoed over the PA system.
"All right, guys, the airlock is sealed. It should be safe to go through to the Song of Nephilim."
"There is only a 5.756 percent chance that there is a malfunction in the Elsa's airlock system," KOS-MOS droned robotically from behind me.
"We'll stay docked here 'till you're ready to leave," the Captain said in his throaty growl. "If it gets too rough in there, don't think you can't come back." Shion nodded solemnly.
"Thanks," she whispered, even though she knew Matthews couldn't hear her. The door slid open with the slightest grinding, revealing a metal catwalk extending toward the sheer vertical face of the Song of Nephilim. I didn't dare to look up or down, lest my resolve fail me. Jr. was the first to gather his strength and step onto the catwalk. On all sides, we were surrounded by what seemed to be a thin membranous sheet, but I knew was some sort of airlock technology that was beyond me. I just continued to walk, following Jr.'s cautious footsteps.
There was an opening, just as Hammer had mentioned, in the side of the face of the Song of Nephilim. The airlock had been attached just around it, the catwalk deployed by the Elsa barely reaching the distance across empty space. Jr. gingerly stepped the remaining foot or so that the metal platform failed to cover and stepped into the doorway. He was gone into darkness.
Being quite a bit taller than the boy, I took a step over the space and stood in the doorway. I held out my hand, which Shion took to help take the small leap without the chance of failure. She followed Jr. into the darkness. I offered my hand to chaos, and he politely refused, taking the gap on his own. KOS-MOS stared into the emptiness of my hand that was extended toward her.
"Ziggurat 8," she said in her low monotone, "why have you extended your right arm in my direction? I detect no threat in the immediate vicinity." I gave her a strange look.
"I'm offering to help you over the gap," I told her plainly. She stared at the gap for a long moment, then looked back up to me.
"I have calculated the width of the gap to be precisely 14 inches, 5 centimeters, 2.65 nanometers in length. I will not need assistance to cross the break, though I have found that my databanks tell me that, in order to interact with humans, therefore cyborgs, more properly, I am to respond to your offer by thanking you." She then took a long stride and took the space on her own. I followed the others silently, taking one look back to the Elsa.
As soon as the darkness enveloped me, the special enhancements that had been added to me in my 100 years of service kicked in. The darkness melted away as I blinked rapidly, accustomed to the change by now. I saw the heat of those around me, though KOS-MOS' body gave off none but the inner workings of her mechanical parts. Shion was feeling her way along the walls of the long corridor, and Jr. had both of his guns drawn. Strangely, neither chaos nor KOS-MOS seemed to have any trouble navigating the inky blackness of the innards of the Song of Nephilim.
Then a wave of cold air washed over me, and I visibly shook from the chill. Shion gave a quick gasp and wrapped her arms around herself. I could see that the corridor ended abruptly, and a gargantuan room opened up outside of it. And it was dimly lit, at that. My eyes began to adjust themselves again as the light grew ever so little. Shion noticed the change, as did Jr. We were closing in on the room that felt as vast as the open air.
We entered it as one, the corridor opening onto what seemed to be a bridge across a vast chasm. There was no telling what was above or below. Not even my enhanced eyesight could see that far. Not unless I decided to fling myself over the edge would I find what was below us as we crossed the bridge.
Little did I know how comforting that idea would seem only a few moments later.
Jr. was running. I didn't know what he was running to, all I knew that my heart had suddenly dropped into my stomach and my legs felt heavier than they really were.
It was just as if another bullet had rent a hole through me when I heard Jr. shout, anguished:
"MOMO!"
I could see her little boots sticking out, limply, pitifully, from behind a pile of stacked boxes. I stopped moving. I couldn't move. No matter how hard I tried, my body wouldn't respond. My mind was frozen, and my world fell into tiny pieces around me, like glass shattering to my feet. Nothing, no words, no breath, could pass the immovable lump caught in my throat as I saw Jr. cradling MOMO's limp body in his arms.
Again and again he called out her name, each time as ineffectual as the next. Shion covered her face with her hands and had turned away, chaos reassuring her with hands on her shoulders. No one could comfort me.
I couldn't lose her.
I just couldn't. . .
I had promised. . .
I promised to her that I would never let anything happen to make her lose that smile, lose that spark that shone from within her that made her who she was. I would never allow a repeat of that day.
Her eyes fluttered open slowly.
I breathed again.
Jr. looked equally as surprised, and he nearly dropped the limp girl with a gasp. I was finally able to move closer, however slowly.
"You all right?" he asked tentatively. MOMO's glassy eyes stared up at the boy as if she were not seeing him. Her mouth, pale and emotionless, did not move in response.
"Don't tell me..." His voice was thin, dejected. "We're too late?" MOMO sat up on her own, staring curiously at all of us. Jr. shot up, his fists clenched. "Damn, that bastard! He's taken her consciousness!" He stared fervently at MOMO, then to the door opposite the one we had entered through. "I'm gonna make him pay for this! Hold on, MOMO! I'll make you whole again!"
"Jr.!" Shion's voice echoed in the cavernous ravine. Jr. stopped and turned. Shion was kneeling next to MOMO, feeling the girl's hands in her own. "What happened to MOMO?" The Realian staring blankly into Shion's green eyes. Jr. watched the pair intensely.
"That monster Albedo's gone and reversed the spiritual link," he said, quietly.
There was a deadly pause. I locked eyes with MOMO, at last. She stared into me, into my mind, my soul. My throat grew dry, my breath short. For the first time since I had met her, I wanted to break my eyes from her, to look anywhere but to those eyes. I rested my gaze on Jr. After only a few tries, I found enough breath to speak.
"Reversed the spiritual link?" I asked, once again out of the technological loop. Jr. looked over his shoulder at me, as if afraid to look at MOMO.
"It's the opposite of what Gaignun and I do when we communicate telepathically." He held a hand to his forehead as if to emphasize the point. "But by seizing someone's consciousness, you can delve inside the other person's mind and drag out whatever memories you feel like taking." He turned to face MOMO and Shion. I could hardly bear to see the girl, her likeness to a doll so much more pronounced. Shion looked horrified, her face the image how the emotions I was unable to express.
"You can't be serious!" Shion's voice trembled, looking deep into MOMO's glass eyes. "That means MOMO's mind is..." Shion trailed off, her sentence too painful to end. I was glad that she didn't.
"Yeah." Jr. looked at all of us for a long time, most of his gazes resting on MOMO. "It's best for you all to go back. I'll handle this on my own." He turned again, ready to leave us, just as we were.
I wasn't about to let him.
"Wait!" It was chaos. I stared at him in incredulity. He was usually the one who never said a word of protest. "It's too dangerous to go alone!" Jr. stared him down.
"Sorry," Jr. answered in a tough growl. "This is between me and him." He stared then at me, as if challenging me to stop him, as I had tried to on the Durandal. "All right?"
"But still," chaos pleaded.
Then MOMO stirred. Her first movement since she sat up in Jr.'s arms. I watched, pain in my heart with her every mechanical and plodding step, as she walked toward Jr. The red-head watched as well, his eyes growing sadder as she neared.
"MOMO," his voice faltered for an instant, and he paused to regain control. "You... wanna come with me?" Slowly, as if having to plot the movement out inch by inch, MOMO nodded, her eyes unblinking. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I turned my head to see Shion pulling herself off of the ground using my shoulder as a fulcrum. Impassioned, she stepped forward to Jr.
"I'm going, too," she announced.
"Shion," Jr. pleaded. But I already knew enough about the woman to know that when she cared about something there was nothing that could stop her, least of all the boy before her.
"Don't you remember what you told me?" she asked, staring at him. "This song... it's responsible for destroying Miltia and bringing the Gnosis into this world. If this has anything to do with that place that I know of, then," she paused, tears glistening in her eyes as she looked at MOMO, "this involves me as well."
Jr. looked to the ground, for a long while pondering the thought. Our breathing filled the empty void that surrounded us, the huge gorge below echoing our very thoughts in the silence. It was my turn to step forward, to say my piece. I looked down to Jr., his own face to the floor.
"Don't make the mistake of thinking that you're the only one here who cares about what happens to MOMO," I told him in a low voice. He glanced up, half-heartedly. "Either we all fight together, or we fall divided." He was silent, matching my cold stare with his own, blue meeting blue as our eyes locked as if in battle.
At last, Jr. gave a hollow laugh, and crossed his arms across his chest.
"Sure, why the hell not?" His voice was low, full of hidden emotion, a tactic I knew too well. "Let's make it one big party." The sarcasm was not lost, and it hung in the cold, stale air of the void. His sudden flare of anger melted away, and resolve stood in its place. He took out both of the guns he cherished from their holsters and cocked them respectively.
Jr. led the way, followed by Shion and KOS-MOS, standing close, chaos slightly behind. I took up the rear. MOMO, the sad, silent porcelain doll that she had transformed into, plodded without words beside me. We were swallowed by the darkness as we entered the doorway opposite the entrance.
Despite what Matthews had told us, we all knew that we would not turn back.
Not now.
AN: All right! Finally to the Song! Took me long enough >.>;; Anyway, there's a quite in italics up there, and I don't think anyone would remember, but it's from the first chapter. Look it up if you like, but it's not necessarry. But I'll tell you what IS neccessary... REVIEWS! o.o! Reviews are what help me get along, and if no one reviews, I don't hik anyone is reading. So, if you want more Promise, I'll need more reviews. You are all so awesome, I just love you all... Thanks so much for reading my story, even if you don't review. You're all good people!