Is it my imagination, or has the Xenosaga section on ff gotten extremely slow? My fic only got bumped down two places since the last time I updated. Sheesh…
As a special note, many people have been asking in reviews "When are chaos and Canaan goona have their first kiss?" Yes yes, I know there has been a lack of ardent smooching in this, but just to set the record strait: They will not have their first "real" kiss until the LAST chapter. LAST. I hope you'll forgive me, but this is the way it was worked out in my head. But I promise, when I DO write it, I'll make it the most romantic, lovey-dovey, tongue-tastic, PG-13 yaoi kiss I can possibly muster. So, be patient. Good things come to those who wait.
To my lovely reviewers…
Yami-chan: Such enthusiasm! Glad you liked the NI.
Aeris117: It's cool you're not so much into yaoi. I'm impressed you gave my story a shot anyway.
xchaosx: Ahh yes…I plan to drastically go into the Wilhlem thing in the remaining chapters. I'm sooo happy you like my fic!
Xeora: I have updated!
Angstling: Rita was a witch. You do have to feel sorry for Canaan, eh?
Yeshua: Sorry I haven't gotten a chance to look at your fic yet! It sounds totally cool though.
Aubuyn: Wilhelm equals bad news. He is NOT a good guy in my book.
kikyogirl900: Plan? What plan? I don't think Canaan has a plan to get KOS-MOS back, ehehe… I'll be sad when this ends too…
KOS-MOS rox: I have updated! Yayness!
YuhiruK.A.A.K.J.: Canaan is fairly insane, ne? Hehe. The "Stolen Kisses" title sounds utterly spiffy, I like that one the best. See above comment on the kissing situation.
Wow. TEN! YAY!
I drummed my fingers impatiently on the night stand, half expecting my call, for the third time, to be ignored. This was getting ridiculous. What could he possible be doing up there?
The rhythmic hum buzzed in my ear, and finally, I heard a beep from the other line.
"Yeah?" asked a gruff voice.
"Captain Matthews? It's Canaan."
"Oh…hey, what do you need? Wait wait, before you answer, can you tell me if you've seen that engineer of mine wandering around? He's nearly two hours late! I think he would have bothered to-"
"Umm...actually that's what I'm calling you about. I'm afraid chaos won't be coming into work anytime soon, if at all today."
"What? Why the hell not!"
"He's sick."
"Sick? Bah! chaos never gets sick! Why one time my entire crew was in bed ridden for three weeks with the nastiest space virus you ever did see, and he didn't even get a fever! He ran the ship the whole time by himself, why I bet that-"
"Captain, trust me, he's sick."
"With what?"
"I'm not sure. He didn't sleep well last night and he hasn't woken up yet today."
"And you would know this because...?"
"Well I am sharing a room with him..."
"Fine, fine, fine. But chaos sleeps all the time, that doesn't mean he's sick. Wake 'em up and put him on the phone, I'll..."
"Oh...and, um, he's running a pretty high temperature. Trust me, he doesn't look well at all."
I had hoped my tale about the sleeping trouble would be enough to convince the Captain without resorting to lying. Because, in fact, chaos didn't sleep well last night; he woke up at least a dozen times very disoriented and upset and I had to patiently calm him back to sleep. Close to morning he finally fell in to a deep slumber and hadn't stirred since. When I was convinced he wouldn't wake up for a good long while, I regretfully extracted myself from his side and decided to call him in sick.
"A fever eh? Well..."
His temperature was actually only a little above average. But what the Captain didn't know wouldn't hurt him.
"Fine. He doesn't hafta come in. But tell him this doesn't count as paid vacation, and I expect him to work twice as hard tomorrow!"
"Right. Thank you Captain."
The phone clicked off.
I sighed and rubbed my temple slowly. I had a nasty headache to boot from combined worry and lack of sleep. I reached over and felt chaos' forehead and was relieved to find my white lie hadn't come true yet.
I felt him rustle slightly.
"Mmm?" he murmured.
I quickly snatched away my hand. "I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" I asked.
"Mmm mm…" he said, still half asleep.
He picked himself up into a sitting position and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
"What time is it?" He asked between mid yawn.
"Ahhh...about ten o'clock."
"Ten? Okay..."
He paused.
"Wait, ten? Ten? Oh-I was supposed to be on the bridge two hours ago! The Captain's going to ki-"
"Whoa whoa relax. I already called you in sick."
"What?"
"Well...you had a pretty stressful day yesterday...and you didn't exactly get a good night's rest so..."
"But I don't feel sick!"
"The Captain was completely okay with it to," I added quickly, "He just said...ah, it didn't count as paid vacation and you'd better work twice as hard tomorrow."
He flopped back down, annoyance clearly written on his face.
"Great...so what am I suppose to do all day?"
"That's the best part; you can do anything you want."
"What I "want" is to go to work."
I put on my best serious face and said in a stern voice, "No working, I forbid it. That includes fixing anything, computing anything, or even thinking deep thoughts. You are on a strict diet of rest and relaxation, capiche?"
My teasing did get a little smile out of him. "Yes sir," he said with a mock-solute.
I got up and headed for the door.
"Don't worry," I assured him, "Everything will turn out okay."
His brows knitted. "Hey hey hey, where are you going?"
"Me? I've got work to do. See ya later."
The doors swished behind me, muffling any irritated sounds of protest that might have resonated from within.
Finding some dirt before heading off on my gallant rescue on the quadrant's most well-know businessman who owned practically every single artificial life ever made…would be almost too easy.
So I thought.
Two hours and thirty minutes of research later and I had only a handful of blurbs and vague, obscure facts about that cursed Wilhelm. The news archives on the U.M.N. had completely useless information, if any at all, and only a select few "free lance" sites had anything that was even worth looking at. Even then, I couldn't tell if the "facts" were reality or myth. Some of the more creative things I found were that Wilhelm was actually a space alien seeing how fast he could take over the human race by creating enormous mechanical armies. Another said he was a being from another dimension who was over a million years old. Others said he had a powerful connection to an otherworldly plane. But none of that trash could possible be true, right?
As I see it, the guy is either totally clean or extremely secretive. Or maybe he's so secretive it only looks like he's clean. But then if he had a bunch of stuff he wanted to keep secret, couldn't you assume that he wasn't totally good?
Argh.
I was getting nowhere fast, and I had this nagging feeling I was extremely short on time. This whole mess was incredibly frustrating.
I might have to go visit him empty handed after all.
The doors to the main U.M.N. room opened and then closed behind me.
"Who's there?" I called.
A figure stumbled in and rubbed his eyes roughly.
"Allen? That you?" I asked bewildered, "You look terrible, what happened?"
He grunted and raised his head. Deep circles were under his eyes and his hair was matted against his forehead. There was a coffee stain on his Vector uniform.
"I…haven't slept…in over thirty hours…"
"Thirty?"
"Trying to get a hold of Wilhlem and talk to him personally…trying to get Shion to stop working and talk to me…"
"Is it that bad?"
"You have no idea…Shion's been working non stop forever, and she ignores me when I try to talk to her. It's like I'm another blip on her radar again. I've been doing my best to help, but I don't know where to begin! She's just so upset, and nobody really seems to be able to cheer her up. They just don't understand the difficulty she's going through…"
I felt a twang of annoyance. "You know, Shion's not the only one who's sad about this whole thing…"
He snorted. "Believe me, Canaan, I don't think anyone deserves to be as "sad" as she is."
"But…" I began.
"What?"
"…never mind." I didn't want to start an argument. He looked like he had been through enough trouble already. "I hope you get this worked out soon. See you later Allen."
"Later…"
He sat on a stool and covered his face with his hands. He didn't look up again.
Later I found out that Helmer had contacted us with new orders for the Omega System. We needed to be there in two days. Gaignnun himself even asked him to extend the time so we could try to clear up our mess with Vector, but the orders were final. Our vacation was officially over.
We had a fierce debate if we had enough time to rendezvous with the Dammerung and see if we could get a meeting with Wilhelm personally, but no, it would be cutting it far too close. The Dammerung was currently heading in the exact opposite direction of the Omega System, and would take more than a day to get there and even longer to come back.
We were going to depart in less than an hour, without KOS-MOS.
Shion, surprisingly, took this turn of events quite well. The fire of motivation was lit when she realized the faster we destroyed Proto Omega the faster we could bring KOS-MOS home.
chaos…didn't say much while this was going on. He quietly listened in the back corner without making a sound.
I really am worried about him…
When the meeting was over we all shuffled out quietly, preparing for the departure. Everyone seemed exhausted and defeated, like we had already lost the impeding battle. Most returned to their rooms to get a couple winks of sleep before we had to leave.
Everyone, that is, except me. I was wide awake. Which was a new concept for me since sleeping was my new favorite pastime.
Anyway, this is how I see it:
If I'm not piloting Asher, to put it bluntly, I'm useless in battle. So I wouldn't exactly be missed if I sat this one out, right? The only thing I needed to get to the Dammerung was my E.S. Asher. This technically was mine by the way. Which I could use any time. I was only…lending it to Jr. and chaos. Besides, if I wasn't back in time they could all cram into someone else's. But I would be, back in time that is. I could make it to the Dammerung and back in less than two days, it would be a lot less hassle if I just had Asher and not a huge ship.
I was going to the Dammerung and retrieve KOS-MOS, alone.
Lucky me.
If I really was going to do something as brash as fly to the Dammerung in my E.S. Asher, by myself, without any help, little ammunition, and a serious grudge on the person I was rescuing, I needed to look official. I needed my flight suit.
I think that damnable thing is still buried somewhere in our closet. Guess I'll have to go dig it up…
The room was pitch black when I entered. I tiptoed quietly inside as I was sure chaos was fast asleep by now…
Wait…
chaos was asleep, but he was in the wrong bed…
I didn't notice it at first, but instead of sleeping in his normal "bare" bed, he was buried under all the blankets and pillows in mine. He looked so small and thin compared to the bulky mattress around him, all curled up and clinging to the blanket.
He must have gotten cold…that's all…nothing to be alarmed about…
I crept to the closet and, after some finding, found my flight suit wadded up in the back corner. I grumbled and did my best to shake out the major wrinkles before putting it on. And, as usual, not zipping it all the way up. Heaven forbid I had anything constraining my neck.
I gave one last longing glance at chaos before my departure.
I'm leaving to fight the good fight and I don't even get a kiss. Again. I guess I can wait a little longer…
I went out the door and didn't look back.
The hangar room was quiet. I could see my E.S. towering above me, waiting patiently for me to fly her again. I wasn't about to disappoint. It had been a while since I had flown Asher, hadn't it? I did miss flying…
I punched the startup button and heard Asher hum to life. Some minor fine-tuning and then I could be out of here. Now whe-
"HEEEELOOOOooooOOOO!"
"WHAT TH-"
I yelped and fell over, coming face to face with this short, balding man wearing spectacles starring at me from above.
He blinked. "Why are you on the ground? 'Tis a silly place to be."
"I fell over no thanks to YOU."
"Oh? I didn't push you though."
"But you startled me."
"So?"
"SO? Ahhh…whatever. You must be that wacky Professor guy that's living down here now. chaos told me all about you…"
"chaos? Ahh yes…the young man with the nice eyes…we like him, don't we Assistant Scott?"
"YES Professor!"
Another man, much younger, popped up from nowhere right behind me and yelled into my ear.
"GEEZ-"
"Assistant Scott, don't startle him. He might fall on the floor again."
"But I haven't gotten…oh never mind…"
I got to my feet and dusted myself off.
"What are you doing up this time of night?" asked the Professor.
"I need to use my E.S. to get to the Dammerung."
"Why?"
"It's none of your business."
"Is it to see the Albino?"
"The what?"
"The Albino."
"Albi…oh, do you mean Wilhlem? Well, yes actually…"
"Hmm…ASSISTANT SCOTT."
I jumped again. He shouted his command even though "Assistant Scott" was only two feet away.
"YES PROFESSOR."
I am going to go deaf if I don't get out of here soon.
"Prepare his E.S. for flight. PRONTO!"
"YES Professor!"
Assistant Scott bounded off to fix up my E.S. before I left. I decided not to argue, that would lead to even more delays and exacerbate that stupid ring in my ear.
The Professor starred at me.
"Would you like a cookie?" he asked.
I starred back at him blankly.
"They're goooood…"
"Fine."
If it'll get him to shut up…
He dug around in his pocket and held it out in his hand. It was the weirdest "cookie" I had ever seen. It was hard and dry and bent into a crescent moon shape.
"It called a "Fortune Cookie," said the Professor, "It's some ancient tradition from some long lost culture. An old lady was selling them on a street corner at the Foundation, good price. There's a little piece of paper inside that'll tell you your fortune. Just don't eat it!"
I snapped it in half and a small slip of paper fluttered into my hand.
"Read it!" he urged.
I squinted to read the small print. "Umm…it says, "Blue is your unlucky color. If you keep your head straight, everything will fall into place."
"Ohhh…mysterious…"
"What does it mean?"
"I have no idea. I just like the cookies."
"Okay…"
He tapped his foot on the ground as if contemplating something.
"HEY!" he shouted suddenly.
"For goodness…WHAT?"
"There's an upgrade I've invented that I've been DYING to test on a Realian. Can I try it on you? Pretty please?"
"I don't have time to be your guinea pig."
"It'll only take a second! Promise!"
"What is it exactly?"
"Ohh, it's a scanning upgrade. Very cool. Makes your eyes see things they normally couldn't."
"Don't you need to get into the main data frame for an upgrade that significant?"
He blinked.
"…oh. You're right, aren't you? I guess I won't be able to use it after all…"
He slumped sadly.
I know I'm going to regret this but…
I felt around my pocket. It was still there, amazing.
"Well, actually, I have the code right here, so…"
"You DO? Wonderful! ASSISTNAT SCOTT!"
"YES Professor?"
"Hook him up immediately! Oh boy, I finally get to test my upgrade! Happy happy…"
Assistant Scott practically shoved me into a chair and slapped a plug into my neck.
"…happy happy happy…"
The Professor and Assistant Scott began to madly punch buttons on the console, and all the while both were singing "Happy happy happy."
Enjoy the sights while you can Canaan. You may never be able to see again.
I heard a "click" sound in my head, and the typing stopped.
"All done! See, I told you it would be fast!"
"Feel any different?" asked Assistant Scott.
"Not really."
"Hmm…" said the Professor.
He whispered something into Assistant Scott's ear, who then bounded off toward Asher.
"Close your eyes!" said the Professor.
"Okay…they're closed."
"Initiate the upgrade," he sang.
My head hummed. I felt dizzy for a passing second, and then my eyes got a little fuzzy.
"Open!"
I blinked a few times. The light seemed a lot brighter now.
"Now," said the Professor, "Look at your E.S. Notice anything DIFFERENT? Hm?"
I looked it over carefully. I noticed a strange wispy vapor escaping from the left arm.
"The arm," I said, "There's a leak."
"Oh…I told Assistant Scott to turn on the nitrogen vent in the left system…and since nitrogen is colorless AND odorless, IT WAS SUCCESSFUL!"
"Yay!" said Assistant Scott.
Cool…this might actually come in handy later.
"I am BRILLIANT!"
"You are BRILLIANT!"
"I'll admit this is pretty neat."
"Of course it is! Now off you go now, shoo shoo!"
I shook my head and climbed up into the E.S. with those two still celebrating down below. With the launch sequence started, Asher came fully awake with a mechanical roar. Take off was smooth and the Professor and Assistant Scott were waving madly from below.
I sighed quietly as the Durandal slipped away from view.
No navigator for me this time…
It was going to be a long, lonely trip.
I've actually already started to write the next chapter, well at least parts of it, so all I need to do is add some filler and put it in the right order. YES! I've been looking forward to writing the next chapter for a veeery long time. I shall be know as my "WILHELM" chapter.
Random facts about Xenosaga names for those you care.
Canaan: in the Old Testament, designation of the land to the west of the Jordan River, later known as Palestine, and the name of the reputed ancestor of the Canaanites, the original inhabitants of that land. There's also a language they spoke with the same name. ….ATA IS A CANAANITE WHOOT.
Ziggy (more specifically his "Manufacture" name, Ziggurat): ancient Mesopotamian pyramid-shaped tower that was said to be stairways to the upper realms. Cool.
MOMO: Now, for those who have some knowledge of Japanese, MOMO means, of course, peach. Albedo is being literal when he calls her "Ma peche." However, a probably smaller known fact is that it also means "thigh." I kid you not.
Be awed by the knowledge of the mighty ATA.
Cheers!