Author's Note: Some two years after I first published this story, it is now complete and I will be posting a new chapter every two weeks until it is complete. There are a total of five chapters, plus a short little epilogue.

As you read this story, please recall it was started well before the release of Episode II, and as such, refers only to the events and character designs as seen in Episode I.

Chapter Two
Blindsided

The Federation was lost without its precious UMN. All across known space, starships were suddenly thrown out of hyperspace, all communication lines were down, and the military's chain of command was rendered useless. Independent organizations, such as the Kukai Foundation and the UTIC Organization, found themselves similarly affected, unable to communicate beyond their base of operations, and wondering just what they should do about it. Even the powerful Albedo suddenly found himself stranded in the middle of nowhere, a hopeless distance away from where he was and where he was heading.

Total anarchy threatened to overwhelm the all of known space, all because of one man's burning hatred for Shion Uzuki.

---------------------------------

Gerad unleashed two more bolts of deadly blue-white energy from his fingertips. KOS-MOS blasted one out of the air, then quickly dodge-rolled to the right to avoid the second. As the blast left a small crater where she had been standing a moment ago, KOS-MOS rolled to her knees, and returned fire.

The immediate area around Gerad seemed to ripple for a split second as he crouched slightly, then he jumped an impossible high distance into the air. KOS-MOS's attack struck where he had been standing a moment later.

KOS-MOS quickly holstered her blasters, and brought up her auxiliary weapons menu, even as she followed Gerad's impossible trip through the sky.

"Shion, please exit the EVS now,' she instructed as the FRSHOT rail cannon appeared in her hands. "I will cover your escape." Shion, still dazed from the recent explosions, was slow to rise to her feet.

Gerad suddenly dived out of the sky, weaving out of the way off all the white-hot rails KOS-MOS fired at him, to land just beside the EVS exit portal.

"Leaving so soon?" Gerad asked with a rather upsetting smile on his face. "Why don't you stay awhile? I insist." With that, he gave the portal a slight tap with his finger.

Shion watched with a odd mixture of horror and fascination as a dark gray color spread across the normal red and blue EVS exit point. Barely ten seconds after he had touched it, the whole thing turned solid gray, and stopped spinning. Gerad removed his finger from the portal, and it fell to the ground and shattered like glass.

Shion flinched as the only way out broke into a million pieces. She looked up at Gerad, who still had the same sick, self-satisfied smile on his face.

"The Jolly Roger," she said. It wasn't a question.

"The EVS is just another application on the UMN," Gerad explained smugly. He crossed his arms over his chest. "Just another aspect of it I can now control."

KOS-MOS was listening to what was said, but her attention was on her rail cannon, which was currently recharging and still pointing dead at Gerad's chest. When the charge indicator changed from zero to one, she fired.

The blast was unleashed, moving nearly as fast as light. KOS-MOS was already considering it a 'kill.'

Faster than thought, Gerad simply wasn't there anymore, and the blast sailed off harmlessly into the distance.

Not that KOS-MOS noticed. As soon as the bolt of energy left the barrel on her weapon, Gerad was already beside her. While she was considering Gerad a kill, he had snatched the weapon out of her hands. When her attack had reached were he was standing a moment before, he had the cannon in both hands, and was pulling back like a bat. By the time she realized he was no longer there, he swung the cannon forward, striking her in the chest.

"KOS-MOS!" Shion screamed as the android went flying through the air, striking the tree they had been sitting under before. Her body broke through the trunk and continued several more feet before finally falling to the ground. Shion dove to the side to avoid the falling tree, stumbled, recovered, and began to run towards where KOS-MOS had landed.

There was a sudden rush of air as Gerad suddenly blurred in front of her. Faster than thought, his hand shot out and grabbed Shion's right wrist with a vice like grip. "I go out of my way just so we can have some quality time together, and the first thing you do is run after that over-rated toy solider," He began to squeeze her wrist, making her cry out in pain. "You wound me, Shion."

Shion struggled with all her might, but Dalton held her fast. He began to laugh at her pitiful attempt to free herself, and squeezed her wrist harder.

"Let me go!" Shion yelled. She tried to slap the wrist of her free hand against her leg, trying to strike the activation stud of the M.W.S, before she remembered she had left it in her cabin on the Elsa, right next to her A.G.W.S. capsule. So instead, she balled her left hand into a fist, and swung.

Surprisingly, her blow connected with Gerad's nose. Gerad suddenly released her right wrist, and staggered backwards a few steps, covering his nose with both hands. His eyes were wide as saucers and he was (mercifully) silent for a while. He seemed more surprised than hurt.

Shion was equally surprised. After watching him get the drop on KOS-MOS, she never expected to actually hit him. She got over it quickly though, turned and ran to where KOS-MOS was still laying unmoving on the ground.

"You know, Shion," Gerad began as he suddenly appeared before her again, "you're just full of surprises. That little punch should have been impossible."

"Gerad, get out of my way!" Shion demanded. She tried to side step around him.

"Are you still stuck on that damn weapon?" Gerad fumed. Once again he suddenly 'blinked' directly in Shion's way. "I would think that the little matter of my trying to kill you would be you're top priority."

"Nothing is more important to me than KOS-MOS!" Shion shot back at him. She was growing more and more frustrated and worried. Why hadn't KOS-MOS gotten up yet? How badly was she damaged?

Gerad smiled wickedly. "Is that so? Maybe I should get rid of it instead. Like you denied me the Jolly Roger, I'll deny you you're precious KOS-MOS."

"You stay away from her!" Shion warned. Or I'll --" Before she could finish, her world was suddenly filled with stars and pain as Gerad backhanded her. The force of the blow knocked her glasses off, spun her around, and sent her tumbling to the ground.

Gerad's voice seemed very far away. "You know, Uzuki, you're supposed to be so bright, yet you don't quite grasp who has all the power here." Shion looked up, tried to find him, but in darkness of the artificial twilight, combined with being denied her glasses, all she could make out was a vaguely human shaped blur. That would have to be good enough. She closed her eyes for a moments concentration, and felt her ether power surge around and inside her.

"Reveal thy ancient power to me!" Shion called out.

"What the hell are you talking --" Gerad began, then suddenly stopped as he noticed that the area around him had grown even darker. Almost as though he were standing in something's shadow. He looked up --

-- and saw the cold, focused, mechanical eyes of the Erde Kaiser.

"Well, this is unexpected," Gerad admitted.

The awesome blade of the ancient mechanized champion of justice was swiftly brought down.

Damage index at 85. Auto repair not sufficient. Seek immediate maintenance. Recommend stasis until repairs are made.

Override. Initiate immediate re-start.

Warning: there is 85.5421 chance further combat operations will result in permanent system shut down.

Override. Initiate immediate re-start. NOW.

KOS-MOS opened her eyes just in time to watch the invincible robot launch its attack on Dalton. She stood, stumbled briefly, then quickly scanned for Shion while running a diagnostic to see which of her auxiliary weapons were still online.

X-Buster -- Offline. Self-Repair ET: one hour.
R-Cannon, Blade, Hammer: Offline. Self-Repair ET: Not viable. Seek repairs.
R-Drill -- Online.
F-Scythe -- Online.
FrShot -- Destroyed.
Shion located.

The space around Gerad rippled again just before the blade reached him. He held his forearm up in a defensive posture that looked simply absurd given the size of the sword bearing down on him. A deafening crack rang out through the field as his arm and Erde Kaiser's blade connected. Shion couldn't see exactly what was going on, but knew enough from the sound to know that something wasn't right.

KOS-MOS knew what she was seeing was impossible, but put it aside as she ran as fast as she was able toward Shion. There before her, Erde Kaiser and Gerad were locked in a stalemate. As impossible as it sounded, Gerad had not only succeed in blocking the blow, but was now in the process on pushing the sword back. The battle android took this in stride, and already formed an attack plan to take advantage of the situation so that she might get Shion away from him.

"Charging," she said simply as she ran. Her arm began to glow, but not yet change as her charging process had been slowed due to her high damage index. Just as Gerad was finally successful in throwing side the Erde Kaiser's sword (looking rather pleased with himself as he did so), KOS-MOS arrived, and attacked.

"R-Drill!" she yelled, and thrust the spinning weapon into Gerad's midsection. There was only a moment of resistance, then Gerad's eyes widened in horror as the drill tore through his body to emerge on the other side.

KOS-MOS withdrew the drill, reformed her hand, and drew both of her blasters in a move too fast to follow. Gerad stumbled backwards, mouth opened in a soundless scream, his hands dumbly reaching for his chest.

"KOS-MOS!" Shion called with simultaneous relief and concern. "What's happening?"

"Shion, please remain where you are," KOS-MOS instructed. "I will eliminate the threat now." She raised both her blasters, targeted several points on what remained of Gerad's body, and opened fire.

For the next half minute, for a few feet around KOS-MOS and Gerad, night was as bright as day. Finally, their charges expended, both blasters responded with only a muted click. KOS-MOS smoothly holstered them, and scanned for Gerad's body. Finding only some vaguely human-shaped remains before her, she turned to aid Shion.

"The enemy has been exterminated," KOS-MOS informed her creator as she knelt by her side to help her up. She looked up to see the Erde Kaiser was still present. "You may dismiss the robot now."

Shion leaned heavily on KOS-MOS as she stood. "You mean it's not gone yet? It usually vanishes as soon as the job is done. KOS-MOS, can you help me find my glasses?"

"Affirmative," she replied, and began scanning the local area.

Overseeing their efforts, the Erde Kaiser stood tall, as if waiting.

---------------------------

In his tiny shack that barely kept out the frigid cold on the moon of Vladek, Gerad Dalton pulled the Jolly Roger Interface Connector (which basically resembled a football helmet with lens over the eyes) off of his head. His face was still screwed up in the same shocked expression that KOS-MOS had seen when she shoved the R Drill through the chest of his avatar. Unlike most people, who physically entered the EVS, for the purpose of testing the Jolly Roger program, Gerad had created a projection of himself before he stepped in on Uzuki's cozy little date. Now he thanked his lucky stars he had done so. That could have just as easily been him on the wrong side of the android's over-blown dentist's drill.

"Damn," he breathed, still in shock of what could have just happened. He had overestimated the power The Jolly Rodger could give him, and underestimated the strength of Shion's pet project, if not the woman herself. Just where did that giant robot come from? And more importantly, how could he make it go the hell away?

When you got right down to it, Shion had outsmarted him.

Again.

"Damn her," he whispered. The louder, he repeated, "Damn her!" he pounded his fists on the terminal with all his might, forgetting for the moment how sensitive the apparatus was. "DAMN HER!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. Wasn't it enough that with the Jolly Roger he had complete control of the UMN, and thusly, the EVS? Wasn't it enough that he could rewrite the programming governing the EVS as he saw fit with little more than a thought? Wasn't it enough that as long as Shion and her wind-up toy were trapped in the EVS, he was basically a GOD compared to them? Of course not! Even with all that on his side, she still beat him!

"Well, I'll show her!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, as his hands flew over the terminals that's comprise the Jolly Roger. "Lets see you deal with this, Uzuki!"

---------------------------------

With delicate precision, KOS-MOS placed Shion's glasses back on her face. The young inventor blinked twice, then her eyes finally began to focus on those of KOS-MOS.

"In addition to your corrective lenses," KOS-MOS informed her, "I have also located you Connection Gear."

"Good work, KOS-MOS," Shion said thankfully, taking the handheld computer from her. "Let's see if I can find some answers here." She activated the computer, the holographic screen and keyboard coming to life in a flash. Good, she thought. It doesn't seem to be damaged. She accessed the program template for the EVS environment they were currently in. After a few moment of review, everything appeared to be in order. She keyed in the required command to re-create the exit portal.

No sooner had she done that than the holographic screen suddenly increased to twice its normal size almost instantly. The data for her program vanished and was replaced by the grinning skull and cross bones of the Jolly Roger.

"Nuh-uh-uh!" The skull mocked her in Gerad's voice. "You didn't say the secret word!"

After watching KOS-MOS blow him away, hearing his voice was the last thing she expected. Shion gave a little yelp of surprise, and suddenly KOS-MOS was at her side, ready for another attack. Seeing no immediate danger, the android turned to her creator, her face as unreadable as ever. "Is there something wrong with your computer, Shion?"

"You're kidding right?" the skull went on. "You would think a battle android would be more observant. Maybe I damaged her ocular sensors with that little love tap. Wouldn't that be divine?"

KOS-MOS leveled her red eyes at the screen. "My vision is functioning perfectly--" she began to explain, but Shion had regained her composure and found her voice again.

"KOS-MOS we don't have time to argue with Dalton's little Easter Egg," she cleared the image and returned the screen to its normal size with a few key strokes. "It seems his Jolly Roger is still functioning even though he's dead. We have to figure out how to get back to reality and alert Vector and the Federation as soon as possible."

With that, she again accessed the program template for the EVS. "According to this," she thought out loud, "There have been no changes to the program. But when I try to re-create he exit…"

"Shion," KOS-MOS interrupted.

"Just a moment, KOS-MOS," Shion replied, eyes still glued to the screen. "Okay, so if I can't re-create the exit and the template says I can, then the code itself must have been tampered with…"

"Shion," KOS-MOS interrupted again. "There appears to be something wrong with--"

"One more moment, I think I have this figured out…" Shion accessed the code for the program, and lines upon lines of data filled her screen. "If Gerad was re-writing the code, then all I have to do its look for a sudden spike of data… in the program history … like this one right here!" Before her eyes lines upon lines of code was being overwritten and re-created at a speed she wouldn't have thought possible. She glanced up at the time index…but wait that couldn't be right. According to it, this latest re-write was happening right now!

"Shion, move!" KOS-MOS called out suddenly, launching herself at Shion, at the same moment. The impact carried them both a few feet away before they tumbled top the ground unceremoniously. A moment later, the sword of the Erde Kaiser fell to the ground where the inventor had been standing a moment before.

Shion found herself on the ground with KOS-MOS's arms around her torso in a protective embrace that she didn't have time to allow herself to enjoy. She sat up, and looked at The Erde Kaiser.

Or rather what, was left of it.

The unstoppable robot that had taken so long to assemble, that had proven itself over and over again on her trip to Second Milta (various detours included), and had bested Albedo in an eye blink, was literally coming apart at the seams. Whole sections of its body was flaking off like dead skin, falling to the earth and then vanishings in dust so fine it was invisible a moment later. The decay was slow at first, then began to speed up as she watched, until it was gone altogether.

Before they could react to this latest development, KOS-MOS detected a change in the ambient light that the moon and the stars provided. She looked up at once, causing a very puzzled Shion to follow suit. The former took was they saw there in stride. The latter gasped. The stars of the simulated night were streaking across the sky, converging to one general area overhead. Spinning, dancing, pinpricks of lights all spiraling together and taking shape. A cosmic game of connect the dots played out in the sky as a new constellation was formed before their eyes. And when it was done complete, the face of Gerad Dalton was staring down at them.

"You know, you two look like ants from up here," was his offhand greeting, delivered in voice that shook the heaven and earth with its volume. Shion covered her ears with her hand reflexively, and KOS-MOS's eyes narrowed and her auditory sensors applied the needed flitters to compensate.

"This isn't possible," Shion insisted, but her voice sounded especially small after the thunderous greeting from Dalton.

"Sure, it is!" Dalton replied. "Oh, I'll admit it was tricky to banish the robot, but once I reworked the program to lock out ether abilities, it all sort of 'fell' into place."

"You should be dead!" Shion yelled in disbelief. The rumbling in the air and in the ground was starting to take a toll on her body, her head began to throb and she could feel the vibration in her bones. KOS-MOS turned to her, scanning her carefully, yet instantly. She then swept her creator off her feet and into her arms in a honeymooners carry. "Shion," she instructed, "please continue to shield you ears. Initiating inertial compensation now."

Shion once again found in herself in a position she had often pictured, but was unable to draw any joy from right now. The earth was still shaking from Dalton's last sentence, threatening to shake her bones into powder. The embrace of the battle android, (soft feeling skin none withstanding) didn't offer much relief -at first. A barley audible whine emanated from somewhere in her body, and the shaking stopped abruptly.

"Inertial compensation complete. Holding at 5.2645."

In the sky, Gerad rolled his eyes. "Gods, woman! Can't you do anything without that blasted machine backing you up?"

"I managed to sock you square in the face!" Shion reminded him defiantly.

"Right. About that. That shouldn't have happened. Very perplexing. But I'll overcome that little flaw in time. You might have noticed: I'm something of a survivor." the grinning star-Gerad gave the two women on the ground a wink at that. "But while I'm working on that, let me give you a little something for you to overcome. Just a little taste of home."

With that, Gerad allowed himself just a brief moment to engage in maniacal laughter. Sure it was trite and stereotypical, but it really seemed to fit the moment. And it was definitely worth it as the sound of his voice pounded past the hands over Shion's ears and into her skull, and the ground shook with the force of a small earthquake. KOS-MOS cranked up her inertial compensation to match. Ten percent. Fifteen. Twenty-five. The battle android set her jaw and narrowed her eyes. Thirty-five percent. Fifty. Overstressed components within her frame began to strain. She hadn't recovered from the attack before, and this was pushing her to her limits.

In her arms, Shion was perfectly protected for the seismic force, though not the thundering laughter in the air. She looked up in time to see the stars that made up Constellation Dalton suddenly flew apart, filling the sky with the splendor of a meteor shower in reverse. The added bonus of this little light show was the sudden cessation of Gerad's laughter, though Shion's ears were still ringing.

But this recent development wasn't for their benefit. Once the stars streaked back to their original positions, they vanished from sight, leaving behind tiny pinholes of light and a spreading network of spider web cracks. These cracks arched and criss-crossed randomly across the nights sky silently, impossibly extending from horizon to horizon until finally -

The night sky shattered and vanished into a azure blue one, with a faint white star shinning down on them from a position of high noon. The sudden change from night to day blinded Shion momentarily, and she squinted her eyes, and in doing so missed what came next. KOS-MOS, however, saw, and acted accordingly. The very ground they stood on was changing as well, the change rolling toward them like a wave from the horizon in every direction. On their side of the wave was the green, lush grass from Shion's picnic program, but on the other side -

The wave was upon them in moments, and while KOS-MOS was not certain that the change would harm them, she was not about to leave it to chance. Slightly tightening her protective grip on Shion, she shut down the inertial compensation and jumped as high as she could. She cleared the approaching wave, easily by the time gravity caught up with her. It converged on the spout where they had been standing a moment later, and KOS-MOS came down. The yelp of surprise died on Shion's lips at the sound the ground made when KOS-MOS landed. It was a wet, crunching sound as if she hand landed on -

"Snow?" Shion said aloud as she looked around with eyes that were still struggling to catch up.

"Affirmative," KOS-MOS said . She had sunk down to her knees in it upon her landing. True to the attention to detail that made the EVS so popular, it felt and looked exactly like the real thing (or so the battle android supposed, having never seen it for herself). As if on cue, the wind picked up at once: a cold, wintry, sustained gust that bled right through Shion's light summer dress. The inventor began shivering almost at once.

"Welcome to Vladek!" Gerad declared from behind them. Buried up to her knees in snow, KOS-MOS wasn't able to spin around as fast as she would have liked, but she did turned to face him as fast as possible. He was again dressed in his black and gray Vector uniform, his voice down to normal decibels. "My little hideaway from the not-quite-as-long-as they-think arm of Federation law. Please make yourselves at home. Forgive me for not tidying up, but you're simply not worth the effort."

"S-s-seems t-t-to me that y-y-you've p-p-put a lo-o-ot of e-e-effort into this already," Shion countered through chattering teeth, her breath visible in the air.

Gerad shrugged, looking perfectly comfortable in the freezing temperature. "Not really. You see, you never got the beauty of the Jolly Roger, Uzuki. You always thought that it was some silly hacker nonsense, something a twelve year old could come up with given a new connection gear and a lonely Friday night. It is so much more than that. The entire Unus Mundus Network functions at my whim. I can re-write any EVS program running with but a thought. So turning you're little date - "

"It w-w-wasn't a -- " Shion denied automatically. Suddenly the temperature dropped noticeably and another gust of freezing air slammed into the two women.

"Don't interrupt me again," Gerad cautioned as the wind died down. "Or you'll get more of the same. Do you have any idea how cold in can get on Vladek? Keep screwing with me and you'll find out."

Shivering violently in KOS-MOS's arms and already losing feeling in her hands and bare feet, Shion could only fume in silence. But her mind was a whirl. There had to be away out of this. There just had to.

"Your posturing serves no purpose." KOS-MOS spoke up. To someone who had braved the vacuum of space, the cold of this simulated world was negligible. "Remain silent, until you have something of substance to say."

Gerad froze where he stood, the wind dying down into nothing, a look of indignation crossing his face, until, oddly enough, it passed. "Well, said, android. Sounds like there's a bit of Kevin in you after all.

"But as I was saying, turning your little date into a blizzard was easy. What I can't figure out is how you managed to hit me, or how your wind-up girlfriend managed to destroy my avatar before."

Avatar? Shion echoed silently. So that's how he survived.

"While I'm working out this little bug, I can't have you trying to escape behind my back. I think trying to stay alive on this frozen rock should occupy your time quite nicely."

Gerad gave the two women a smile and a wink. "Now, I suggest you find shelter, and quickly. FYI: Vladek's day is only about six standard hours long. Three hours of day, three of night." He looked up in the sky. "I'd say its about half past midday now. Might want to get hiking." With that he spun on his heel, turned his back on the two women, took three steps and vanished. As soon as he was gone, the wind picked up again, brining with it powdery flakes of snow from the drifts all around them and blowing KOS-MOS's hair across her face. She was already scanning the area for as far as she could.

"K-K-KOS-MOS -- " Shion began

"Shion, I have located an area that could be used to shield you from the elements. Please endeavor to retain you grip on your connection gear, we will need it to find away out of this program."

In her arms, Shion nodded, though her limps were already beginning to feel like dead weight attached to her body, and feeling in the fingers wrapped around her connection gear was fast becoming a distant memory. Then KOS-MOS was in motion, trudging though the snow as fast as possible.