by Moonstone 04
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Author's Notes: Episode 2 has finally arrived! This fic contains XS2 spoilers as well as yaoi content, with Tony/chaos as the main focus. You've been warned.
This fic is a sequel to "From the Abyss." It picks up the morning after Tony's big flashback, which was what the last fic was. It's also the morning after the dive into MOMO's encephalon, when all hell broke loose.
This is the R-rated edition of this fic. The original, NC-17 version of this fic is only being posted at Xenoyaoi at yahoogroups.
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Chapter 1 - Karma and Coincidence
It had to be karma. That was the only explanation for why he was leaning over the bathroom sink, staring at the drain so he wouldn't see how red and puffy his eyes were. It was embarassing. He didn't cry like some chick. He was a grown man, he was stronger than that. But there he was, no doubt under the curse of every port girl he had ever had a one-night stand with. His grandmother had once told him that what you gave always came back to you, and he was beginning to believe it.
Turning the faucet back on, Tony stuck his head under it, letting the water stream down his blond hair. Had to get clean, he could still smell him on himself. He couldn't let himself dwell on it. He needed to erase chaos from his mind and move on, as surely as chaos was moving on.
There was something important chaos was here to do, Tony had known that for a long time. Something far more important than watching over some little freighter. He had known he would have to let go someday, and that day was drawing near, he could feel it. It was sooner than he had hoped, but those were the breaks.
More than ever, he needed to pull himself together. chaos had been a wreck last night. The attempt to retrieve the Y-data from MOMO had gone very badly, due to a virus implanted by Albedo. There had been an emergency encephalon dive into her subconscious to repair the damage, and chaos had gone with them. They had managed to save MOMO, but Albedo had taken the Y-Data.
The constant fighting was beginning to take a toll on chaos. The angelic boy appeared tireless, but Tony knew he was growing emotionally weary of it. He could see it in his eyes.
Pulling himself up, and pulling himself together, Tony turned off the faucet. At least he had been able to give chaos some form of comfort. He stepped into the shower and turned on the spray. He sighed as the spray stung at his skin, reminding him of the sensation of chaos...
He was almost done showering when Matthews bellowed through the Comm. Sounded really worked up about something, but Tony took his time getting out. After getting out of the bathroom and getting dressed, he picked up a long silver chain from his bedside. Sliding the cold metal through his fingers, the dogtags at the end caught between his fingers. Both had chaos' name etched into them. A recent gift from chaos that Tony was now never without. Slipping the long chain over his head, he finally headed for the bridge.
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"Tony, what the hell took you?"
"I was in the shower, Captain, I got here as fast as I could." Tony explained calmly, tucking his hands into his pockets as he walked onto the bridge.
"Don't give me excuses." Captain Matthews grouched. "We've got big problems."
"That's putting it lightly." Jr said grimly.
Tony turned to look at Jr, who was standing in the middle of the bridge. That's when he noticed two unfamiliar men with him. Like most of the people the Elsa ran into lately, they had a strange look about them.
One was wearing a black dragon-print kimono and sandals, which you certainly didn't see everyday. Not to mention the sword at his waist... What was up with that? His long black hair was tied back into a ponytail, leaving some of it hanging down to frame his face. His face had a serious appearance, but something about the eyes was constantly dancing. His good looking features made him seem a bit younger than he actually was. There was a sense of serenity about him.
The other one was constantly fidgeting and looking about impatiently. He appeared to be a realian, probably a combat model of some sort from the military jumpsuit he was wearing. His reddish hair was more unruly than any other realian Tony had seen. It nearly covered the cold golden eyes that looked back at the pilot. He had the appearance of being in his late teens, but you could never tell with realians.
Jr explained that Albedo had used the Y-data extracted from MOMO to open the gate to Old Miltia. Uh oh, Tony could already see where this was going. Whenever there was some kind of crazy, dangerous mission that no one else in their right mind would do, the Kukais always came to the Elsa. It wasn't like they could refuse, not with the huge debt the Captain owed them.
"It's of utmost importance that we get to the Zohar first. I don't know how much time we have, so we have to move as quickly as possible. I'm counting on you guys getting the Elsa back in shipshape within the next week." said Jr.
"Wait, wait," Matthews interrupted, "you can't be serious? You know how much damage the Elsa took out there, and we just barely got into port!"
"Sorry guys, we just haven't got a choice." Jr put his hands on his hips and turned towards the two strangers. "This is Jin Uzuki," he said, nodding towards the one in the kimono, "and this is Canaan." He nodded to the realian. "Helmer's sent them on a mission of their own in Old Miltia, so they'll be coming along for the ride."
Captain Matthews sighed, and straightened his hat importantly. "Well, if anyone can get you guys to Miltia and back in one piece, it's the Great Matthews. You can count on the Elsa, we'll be ready."
"Good to hear it." Jr smirked.
The Great Matthews indeed... Tony slouched a little. What did he do other than sit around in the Captain's chair barking orders? Who was it that flew the ship? Who was it who always managed to pilot the Elsa through danger time and time again with his mad skillz?
The Great Tony, that's who!
"What's the matter, you scared?"
Huh? Tony broke out of his thoughts when the realian spoke to him. That Canaan guy. He spoke in a cold monotone, but it still felt like a taunt to Tony. "Scared? Not a chance! I live for danger."
The realian tilted his head doubtfully. "Really. Because I'm more than capable of piloting the Elsa myself if you're not up to this mission."
That arrogant realian bastard! Who did he think he was? "Hey, no one pilots the Elsa but me! Wherever she goes, I go!" Tony literally put his foot down. "I don't care what fancy pants programming you've got, no one born yesterday can cut it when the going gets as rough as we've seen it!"
Canaan's eyes actually seemed to twitch a little, but nothing more. One of those unemotional types. His gaze flickered down to Tony's dogtags. He was opening his mouth to speak, when Jin put his hand on the realian's shoulder.
"I can assure you Canaan has suitable experience." Jin smiled, making his eyes dance even more. "But we won't get in your way, a ship is always best handled by its own crew." He released Canaan, but the realian was still staring hard at Tony. The blank expression was unnerving.
"Yeah, stuff it, Tony." Captain Matthews growled and shook his head. Hammer snickered, but that only earned him a swat in the back of the head with the Captain's hat. "That goes for you too!"
"Right." Jr looked around himself. "We've all got preparations to take care of. I'll be in touch." He looked a little preoccupied as he left the bridge, no doubt worried about MOMO. Tony knew the feeling...
"We'd better go see to certain arrangements as well." Jin said. "Nice meeting all of you, we'll also be in touch, very soon."
"This is madness." Matthews said after Jin and Canaan had left the bridge. "Opening up Miltia, are they insane?"
"Well, it is Albedo." Tony reminded him.
"I can't believe we're doing this." Hammer muttered. "What'd we ever do to end up in this mess? We're just a cargo freighter!"
"This is bound to get extremely messy, and I'm sure as hell not going in there without Elsa properly prepared this time." Matthews looked at Tony. "Where's chaos? I thought he was here."
"He left early this morning," Hammer piped up. "I saw him before he left, he was going to check on MOMO. Maybe he's still at the UMN center."
Tony nodded, so that's why chaos had been gone when he'd woken up. Then something else sparked in his memory. "Wait a minute, that guy's name was Uzuki? I wonder if he's related to Shion."
"Jin's her brother. It's in her personal data." Hammer grinned smugly.
A big brother who carried around a sword... Yikes. Tony filed that away as a major hazard to watch out for if he ever tried flirting with Shion again. "Man, it's a small world." Tony rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"I've had my fill of coincidences to last a lifetime. Let's just get down to business already." Matthews said gruffly. "Hammer, you're coming with me. We'll get back to assessing the Elsa's damage. We still haven't sorted out what the hell happened to the engine during descent." He pointed to Tony. "You go find chaos, and the two of you go hunt down as many droids as you can. And keep it cheap. We need as many hands as we can get to make this work faster, but I don't want to break us any more than necessary."
Tony wondered if it was even possible to be even further in debt than they were. And considering how bad the debt was, he wondered how in the world they were going to repair the Elsa on their credit. "Aye, Captain."