Disclaimer: i don't own anything xenosaga. 'cept for the movie scene soundtrack. that's mine. cause i bought a copy! D
Chapter 4
Having a talk with Albedo
"Oooh... my head..." Gaignan awoke and found himself in the Elsa's med lab. "What happened?" he looked beside him and saw Shion in the other bed. There were holes in her clothing, and beneath the burnt cloth were band aids. A large bruise was developing on her left cheek. "My god... Shion, what happened?"
Waking up, Shion sat up and faced Gaignan. She looked slightly confused. "What? Don't you remember? You... you... attacked me..."
"What? I couldn't have... I wouldn't have..." suddenly the entire recollection of what happen in the Gnosis came back to him... including his attack of Shion, and Jr. "Oh no... I did attack you... Shion, you have to forgive me. That wasn't me that attacked you! I was..."
Shion smiled. "Yes... I could sense it. You had this look in your eyes... full of hate and anger. I knew it couldn't be you."
"So you're not... we're still...?"
"Yes." Shion hugged Gaignan. "You're forgiven... and we're still together." Breaking away suddenly she rubbed a burn on her side. "Just... try not to do that again sometime soon."
Gaignan grinned. "I'll try. How are the others?"
"As far as I know Jr. is ok... he just has a big headache. Ziggy's still healing though. That hit he took from the Gnosis was pretty bad. A little more to the right, and it would've hit his heart, instantly killing him. Momo's been worried sick. She hasn't left his side since."
"Ok. I think... I'm going down to the base floor for a while..." Gaignan headed for the door.
"Is something wrong?" Shion slowly followed.
"Please don't follow. Nothing's wrong... I just need some time to think about... what happened to me back there."
"Ok... well we're all having a meeting on the bridge soon. Don't be late."
"I won't." he said, leaving the room.
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The base floor of the Elsa was the calmest place, a great place to be if you wanted to be alone... as long as you didn't mind all the droids.
"I can't believe it..." Gaignan muttered to himself. "I actually went Red Dragon again... I thought that would never happen again..."
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Aboard his giant A.G.W.S., the Simeon, Albedo was bored. "What is there for a U.R.T.V. to do?" he asked out loud. "Maybe I should bug Nigrado... he probably doesn't have anything to do at that rotten Foundation of his." he laughed at a thought. "I should go attack the place! It's not like he couldn't rebuild it with all the spare money he's got lying around!" he began searching for his brother at the Foundation, but couldn't seem to find him. "What's this? He's not there? Where is he?" sending a mental search signal as far as he could, he finally found who he was looking for... but not where he expected him to be. "Nigrado! What are you doing on the Elsa?"
"What? Albedo? What do you want?"
"What's this?" Albedo chuckled "I sense fear... anger... hatred... and... power! Could it be... you've gone Red Dragon again? And I thought you had it "under control"?" he mocked smugly.
"What?" Gaignan was shocked that Albedo knew about Red Dragon. "How do you know about Red Dragon mode? The only U.R.T.V.'s that know about it are the ones who are capable of it! You're can't go Red Dragon... can you?"
Albedo laughed at his brother's nervousness. "No... I can't. Had I been connected with Rubedo longer, I probably would've developed the Red Dragon curse. Unfortunately for you, when we split, I got regeneration instead of the Red Dragon. So... what did you do that made you go Red Dragon? Someone close to you must've been in danger... was it Rubedo? Did that blasted brother of mine get attacked by a Gnosis?"
Gaignan laughed at the idea of Jr. getting sneaked up on by a Gnosis, with his keen senses and what not. "Sorry to disappoint you Albedo, but no, nothing happened to Rubedo."
"Then how did you go Red Dragon? Something must've happened... you can't just go Red Dragon on a whim. It doesn't just come."
"How would you know about how Red Dragon works?"
" My dear brother..." Albedo laughed, loving being in control of the situation."I know everything about Red Dragon. Do you remember the day you killed our bastard of a father, Yuriev?" Gaignan shuddered at that memory, not wanting to remember. "Well since everyone was hunting for you, security was low... so I took a couple files from the memory bank. Those files happened to be all about the Red Dragon curse."
Gaignan flinched. If he knew all about it, then he could easily manipulate a battle with him and turn him against his friends. "I... I don't believe you!"
"Believe what you want brother... but I will make you believe. There are a few U.R.T.V.'s who develop the Red Dragon curse, you and Rubedo being two of them. Now, being a Red Dragon is like being a schizophrenic. Something takes over you... and you can't really control it. The Red Dragon only takes over when something highly angers you, mainly when a loved one is in danger. During this Red Dragon mode, you totally lose control, it fights for you. You become extremely powerful, but it doesn't differentiate from friend and foe, it just attacks and attacks until there's nobody left to attack. Now.." he chuckled. "Do you believe now or must I go on?"
Gaignan gasped. "You really do know everything about the Red Dragon..."
"Would I lie to my own brother?" Albedo laughed "Now I've only read reports on this... and being the curious person I am, I'd like to see a Red Dragon in action... what say we have a little fight?"
"What? NO! We can't! We have enough problems as it is! Don't come here now, please!"
"Reduced to begging now are we Nigredo? HAHAHAHA! I think I'll drop by for a visit!" With his point made, Albedo cut the mental link and punched in the location of the Elsa. "Now this..." Albedo laughed "Is going to be fun!"
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Gaignan was breathing hard at what he just heard. Albedo was coming here. He knew everything he needed to know about the Red Dragon, if not everything about it! "This... is going to be a problem."
Matthews' voice blared over the intercom. "Everyone! Meeting on the bridge, get over here now!"\
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A/N: skool's starting up... i may not be updating as much as i'd like to. but stay with me! i'll update as much as possible... next chapter... Jin's outbust!
