Disclaimer: Let's see … Game case, game manual … PS2 … Nope, no Xenosaga rights. Damn…
Author's Notes:
Rawr! I'm tired … I finished that last chappie at 11 PM … Not really late, but I had to get up at 7 AM the next morning. T.T Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr …
That chapter seemed long in Microsoft Word, but it was about the same length as the first two chapters. Hmm … No worries! I'll have long chappies; in fact, this may be a long one … or a sickeningly short one. Tell ya what. If it is sickeningly short, I'll post chapter 5 on the same day this chappie is put out. Deal? DEAL! Deal.
Anyway, this chappie could be my best yet. It has some Shion/Allen fluff and a few dramatic/epic moments … mostly epic, though … and it involves chaos and that girl imprisoned by U-TIC … hee hee hee! I can't say anymore, but there's your appetizer!
Music Pieces:
Chapter 4: Mystery Screams -- "Last End" – Koji Kondo – The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Xenosaga: Nexus Ties
Chapter 4: Mystery Screams
The Woglinde, Analysis and Scientific Labs, Vector Industries
"Who is…?"
Shion stared blankly at the scene before her. The little girl continued to stare emotionlessly into her eyes as if waiting for something miraculous to occur. Time seemed still around them until a loud shout broke the trance.
"Chief!" Allen's voice came from beside her. Shion turned in time to see his body halfway through a virtual vortex, his hand reaching towards her. Without a second thought, he grasped her upper arm and pulled her through the vortex, the simulated world left behind.
There was a moment of blackness before she came to consciousness, the buzz and beeps of the Vector computers tickling her eardrums. She opened her eyes as the V.R.S visor rose over her head back to its convenient spot upon the V.R.S machine itself. Blinking a few times to focus her vision as much as she was able, the first thing she caught sight of was Allen's distressed and relived face.
"Chief … Are you alright?" he practically whispered as Shion rose out of the seat of the V.R.S. He slowly dragged his feet towards her, awaiting an answer.
"Yes, I'm fine." she replied. "Did I push my luck a little too far this time?" She blushed, knowing she had a bad habit of pressing her luck more than frequently.
Allen sighed with relief as he sunk to his knees.
"Allen?" she addressed worriedly. There was a short pause between them. Even their coworkers remained silent and merely observed the obvious love that Allen had for Shion.
"You can't … keep doing this, Chief. I thought I was going to have a heart attack." he sighed. Shion leaned down with a faint smile. When Allen's gaze returned upwards, his eyes met directly with a sight of feminine cleavage before him. Blushing wildly, he quickly adverted his gaze and his green eyes stared into her teal ones.
"I'm sorry, Allen. I won't press my luck next time." she promised as she held out her hand, offering to help him get to his feet. Reluctantly, the brief glance of her cleavage painfully imprinted in his pupils, he grasped her hand and was pulled to his feet.
"Well, I think that's enough for today everybody. We'll start again tomorrow, early mind you." her glowing smile lit up the room as she headed for the large double door leading to one of the many hallways of the Woglinde.
"See you all tomorrow!" she called.
"Bye!" everyone replied with a sweet voice, save Allen. The dumbstruck fool simply stood, his face still beet red.
"We saw that, Allen." a blonde haired woman teased. "You like her, don't you?" she winked.
"W-Wha…?" Allen began.
"We saw that glance, you perv." the black haired man grinned with a wag of a finger.
"Naughty, naughty!" a brunet lady giggled.
"Alright, that's enough!" Allen defended, his face futilely trying to become even redder. "It was an accident!"
"An accident, eh? That was some accident!" the blonde piped up. "If you like her so much you should talk to her!" Allen's memory did a quick retake. Oh, he forgot! He was going to talk to the Chief after the trip to the Encephalon!
"Oh, no! I forgot I was going to talk to her!" he exclaimed as his hands gripped his head in distress. Bolting for the door to the hallway, he bid a quick farewell.
"Sorry, guys! See you tomorrow!" he shouted as his form disappeared hurriedly down the hall. When the doors hissed closed, the Vector crew all smirked and grinned at one another.
"You think he'll score a date with her?" the brunet's alto voice asked no one in particular.
Both the dark haired man and the blonde shook their heads.
"Nah, he'll probably chicken out at the last second." the man replied, rolling his eyes.
"Nope. He has the worst pick up lines." The blonde shook her head, eyes closed and her palms face up in defeat. Well, it was true anyway…
The crew laughed amongst themselves, remembering the good times they had watching Allen flirt with the Chief … and failing miserably…
The woman awoke to the sounds of loud and lengthy footsteps and the hissing and screeching of a mechanical device. Her eyes slowly opened, rejecting their sleep. She blinked and turned her head to face the cell bars. They had risen to let five of the seven guards in. Slowly they inched closer to her, their electrified and sharpened weapons at the ready and specialized U-TIC handcuffs at hand.
Then, a very important fact hit her. The bars were opened, the soldiers divided … She could escape! Yes, escape was at hand. Swiftly without so much as a spare twitch or sound, she literally leapt from her seat on the bench against the wall and began to sprint as fast as she could out of her cell.
"Hey!" one of the guards called after her. She was nearly out of the depths of her cell … Never again would she fall into the hands of U-TIC…
A sharp pain flowed throughout her body, sparks of electricity flew about her, choking it … granting it pain and despair. The despair that her escape attempt had failed … Once the pain had ceased, she found she could barely move. She lied helplessly amongst the cold metal floor as she felt the dreaded shackles clamp around her wrists and ankles.
The woman cried out in frustration and in anger. Tears stung her eyes, tears that shadowed her failure to escape the torture U-TIC had put her through. Her attempt at struggle was silenced at the mere sound of hand against hand … the sound of applause. Unable to move, she fought to see her audience. All she could make out were the familiar polished black shoes…
"Bravo! Bravo!" that sickening voice laughed. A guard clamped a fist around a bundle of her hair at the root, raising her head and earning a grunt of pain. The man who had hunted her … the man who put her in that cell … the man behind it all stood before her, a wide grin of pleasure and satisfaction spread across his oval face.
"In fact, I give you three times the bravo for that maneuver." he continued, his voice amused yet cold. "I myself could never predict that you could jump to high or far! I commend you for your efforts!"
"Release me!" the woman demanded angrily.
"Release you? Oh, no I don't think we'll do that until your reconfiguration has been completed." the man sighed. The woman's eyes flared with such a flame that it could have caused the ship's metal to melt and to be set ablaze if it were real.
"Reconfiguration?" her whispered voice came. But, that meant…
"Take her to the experimental development room." the man barked. "We have work to do on our precious little girl, here." The woman was pulled to her feet, her nearly limp body held by the guards. She glared at the man and tried to pull away when he cupped his callused hand under her chin as a sensual gesture. Gritting her teeth, she decided to attempt to snap at him. Swiftly, she opened and closed her mouth at an attempt of biting his hand. When he managed to dodge that, she spit in his face in disgust. In response, the man flung his hand to her face, the back of his hand striking her cheek with a sharp sting.
"That should be a lesson to you." he growled as the woman kept her head low. "You will receive even more of a lesson in the lab." The woman clenched her eyes tight, fighting back the tears of loathing and rage … and helplessness.
She didn't even twitch as she was dragged through the halls of the hellish void. Slowly she began to give up hope and accept her fate and a thing used for torture pleasure for U-TIC. How could U-TIC put her through something like this? Why would they?
A rank smell found its way to her nostrils as they entered a dark and cold room. Lifting her head she caught glimpses of tanks full of greenish liquid and blue and red cords flowing to … Was that a human body!
Her sense of survival revived, she tried to at least wiggle her limbs, but to no avail. Again her eyes met with countless tanks of living —or dead— things tortured inside those tanks. Some of the things she had seen bore the question whether it was human or not. She began to squeal and shriek with fright as she was dragged around the tanks. What was this place? What damned and twisted soul would do this?
"Let me go!" she screamed, half in fright and half in anger. "Damn you all to hell! Let me go!" The five guards tied her to a vertical, cross-shaped surface with chains and a few of those blue and red cords. The cords were slightly damp, making her wonder if they had once been used inside one of those tanks…
The man strolled to her front, a sick smile plastered on his face. He again cupped his hand under her chin in the same manner as the guards jogged to a holographic computer and began to boot up a program.
"I never intended to do this to you. Not so soon." he said with mockery and something like regret. "But I must … For you see … You destroyed my class B A.W.G.S unit and nearly killed all of my elite troops … and you betrayed me, your master."
Her master? But she was human, how could this man possibly be her master as if she were some machine?
"I can see it in your eyes. You still believe you're human." the man began quietly with a smooth voice. "I can tell you the truth now … That are not human. You are a machine. And as such you are to listen to your master's orders. Me."
"No! That's impossible! I'm human and I always have been! I have memories from my childhood! My mother, my father—" she blurted, nearly shouting.
"Silence!" the man barked and her quivering lips were silenced. The man waved his hand and the guards began the program. There were hissing and screeching sounds around her, making her eyes widen a she realized what reconfigured meant … The man pressed his lips to her ear.
"You have been a naughty little girl … NINA." he whispered. He withdrew his hand from her and backed away from her to join the guards at the console. "Now." he ordered quietly.
It all happened so quickly. The first thing she felt was the stabbing of thousands of needles into her, then an electric shock … and soon she felt as though a razor had begun to strip off her flesh, peeling the life from her. The loudest, most painful, helpless, and hope taken scream escaped her lips. A scream that the man swore could be heard for hundreds of light-years.
The Elsa, Cabin 1
An image … a woman screaming … the most unbearable pain … then … blackness.
The boy awoke screaming, screaming as if he were the woman in his dream. No, nightmare. His body had jolted upright, his breathing harsh and rapid and his brow doused in sweat. Something somewhere was terribly wrong…
He raised a hand to his face, covering his eyes and allowing his mind to repeat the image of that suffering woman. That desperate scream filled his mind and ears once more as the image of the woman came clearly to him. She had long creamy hair, fair skin, and a dark red and crimson top that was tight around her skin. It almost seemed to be a uniform, but what company wears crimson uniforms?
When no ideas came to him, he sighed. Was that really happening to someone? Was someone really enduring so much pain? So much pain could surely kill!
"Was it … real?" he asked aloud in his soft tenor voice. He took a deep breath to calm himself, reassuring his wild mind that it was merely a dream, nothing more.
It was then he began to wonder how long he had slept. rethinking, he decided he didn't want to know. He didn't want to face his comrades aboard the Elsa in his shaky condition. Would it be wise to sleep it off? Or would he see that woman again?
Lying back on his pillow, he stared the bottom of the bunk above him, beginning to daydream and let his mind work off the image. It wasn't long before he found himself in the world of dreams again, sleep consuming him.
The man stared the woman he called NINA, his eyes watchful and guilty. Behind him three of the five guards were completing the shut down of the machine they had used to "reconfigure" her. Now she was out cold, either dead or half dead. If she was dead, then he had just destroyed all of the hard work his men had put into this experiment.
"What should we do with her, sir?" one of the two guards at the woman's side asked.
"Does she live?" the man replied with a question. One of the guards the console gave the response.
"Only barely, sir. She is half dead, there's a chance she will make it still, but it's still in question."
The man thought for a moment before deciding on an action that could contribute to their experiment, and avoid NINA taking up further space in the containment centers.
"Jettison her." he ordered.
"Sir?" two of the guards questioned.
"Jettison her in a cargo coffin, but supply it with enough oxygen to last for 36 hours." he clarified. The guards immediately began to unwrap the chains and cords around her. Falling limp into their arms, they carried her, her feet dragging, out of the room and down the hall to the cargo bay. There were three spare coffins should any "accidents" happen aboard the ship.
Choosing one, the guards opened it and placed the woman inside, crossing her arms as if she were dead. They closed the casket, yet they were still able to view her body though a window that had been built into the lid.
"Oxygen on for 36 hours, casket locked and ready for launch." a guard reported as he pressed the many buttons on one side of the lid. The light that had once been red was now green, signifying the casket was ready for the jettison.
With effort carrying the heavy deathbed, they placed it on a large elevator and ran for the control room. Two of the guards activated the elevator after first sealing off the room. The elevator traveled down a few feet before the hatch opened, the casket released into the depths of space. Quickly, the elevator rose and the hatch hissed closed, the air filling with oxygen once more.
Bleh … Still a long chapter! I posted this one a day early just because I couldn't wait! I thought this was a good chapter; it's more of my style of writing. So … the woman's name is NINA … I think about half of you saw that coming, I guess. Anyway, the next chapter will be sacred! You'll find out why … And the Shion / Allen fluff really wasn't fluff, was it? It was more comedy … Anyway, the next chappie will have fluff in it. I can guarantee that!
I bet you all liked the early release of this chapter … hee hee…
Reviews are appreciated!
The Next Chapter Will Be Published Tomorrow (June 20, 2006)