Disclaimer: I do not own Xenosaga so don't sue me.
Chapter 4: Skools Out
Shion ran away from the room as quickly as she could, so that the creatures could not follow her, and she wouldn't run the risk of going through that again. Something about being filled with such rage scared her more than anything possibly could have. She saw Nephilim run into a set of double doors labeled '2nd grayd' and she quickly followed. Through one hallway into a set of double doors to find the gnome getting attacked by Card guards. Though she was fending them off fairly well for one of her small size Shion felt the need to help and threw her knife in the direction of the second one, just as Nephilim finished off the first. "Your fortunate I passed by." She said with a light chuckle.
Nephilim crossed her arms looking rather angered by this "Meaning what?" She asked looking rather childish "I was just about to say you were lucky to have found me!" She said raising up a small flask for Shion to see "Look! I found the last ingredient, Sugared spice drops!" Shion frowned in distaste once again noting that she did not care much for sweets, those were the sort of things that children enjoyed and much to Shion's dislike, she was no longer a small child. She crossed her arms as she watched the small gnome place it on the table with the Mushrooms and looked about in disintrest. "Whenever we meet up I seem to find a bit more trouble, seen any Jumbo grow about?" She asked looking around the room for the flask the liquid was usually contained in.
Nephilim nodded to this "There's a bit in the flask in the sideboard. See we're set!" She proclaimed looking rather pleased with herself "Just bring me some poppy blooms and we'll mix up the potion." Shion nodded and left the room rather quickly. She would be thankful when she was once again united with the Rabbit instead of wandering around this absolutely terrible 'skool' searching for the way to find him.
She turned the corner walking through the door to the right of the hallway only to find that it lead to the same place as the left door in this hallway, this place was a set of double doors, this time labeled '3rd Grayd' instead and she ran through to find herself in the schools Garden. There in the dead center were a whole box of Poppy blooms, however they were mere buds. But that of course was what the Jumbo grow for which she used on one of the buds and watched as it grew into a flower. A flower that looked much like a Lollipop on a giant stick. It was pink with white around it and she picked it up and left the room once again rather quickly. She was far to eager to leave this place to linger anywhere.
She re-entered the room where Nephilim was waiting, the gnome was sitting at a table looking rather bored but ran foreward as the brown haired woman entered the room. Taking the flower from her hands she looked at the machine on the table where the various ingredients lay and quickly began mixing them together in the machine. "This condenser can mix the potion," She stated with a frown "But it doesn't look like it's good for much else." She said as Shion watched the potion drip into a small flask. In a mere matter of minutes to potion was Done and Nephilim handed the flask to the girl. But along with this she placed a small Star. "Now, time to leave." She said softly to Shion "But not as you came, Go by way of the observatory." She said softly as she folded Shions hands around the small Star "This Star is for your Stellar effort..." She smiled broadly "May open some doors for you." She said softly before vanishing before Shions eyes.
Shion nodded as the Gnome vanished from her sight. Remembering seeing a door marked Observatory in the Library she ran back into the main hallway of the building rather quickly. Up the stairs and through the door, up a few floors on the moving staircase, and quickly found herself at the door which stood out from all the rest. It was a big set of Red double doors, a Star shape in place of a keyhole and the word "Observatory" written in large ornate letters above it. "Probably the only thing they've spelled right in this awful place." Shion said to herself as she placed the Star Nephilim had given her in the place that would serve as the keyhole. Inside was an elevator which Shion stepped on and soon it started to take her up at a steady pace.
When she reached the top and opened the doors to look around the observatory she frowned. The place was rather ill kept, there was very little to the room except for a few bookshelves A large globe in the center of the room, and one Lone, rather large, telescope sitting in the middle of the room, just above the Globe, was a large telescope. She walked up the steps to look at the Telescope, looking into it to find that when she did the Globe opened up. This revealed an area surrounding a small door, much like the one the Rabbit had entered. She quickly Drank the potion, and jumped into the door.
She looked around her with great fascination to find that she was in what had probably once been quite a lovely little forest. Surrounding her were tall blades of grass and Mushrooms. In front of her was a tall set of cliffs, a lovely waterfall going down these cliffs, and running towards a small opening at the bottoms of the cliffs face was the skinny young man with dark hair and white rabbit ears. She ran to follow after him, but something pushed, what was probably no more than a mere pebble had she been her actual size in front of the opening by throwing it down the cliffs face. She growled clinching her fists. More of the Queens minions she assumed...trying to bar her path...but this time she would not allow anyone to stand her way. For should they, she would make sure that they would die horribly...