Disclaimer: I don't own Xenosaga.

Chapter Three:

Illness

chaos awoke very late. Though there was no sunlight through the stormy clouds, he could tell he had slept for a long time. Shion was where he last saw her, on the other side of a now dead fire. Amazingly enough, she was still sleeping. Looking through the small pile of leftover food he had gathered yesterday, chaos cracked open a coconut and began drinking. Shion stirred, and woke up.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I wake you?"

"No, it's ok..." she yawned. "I'm still a bit tired, but I'm ok."

"How long did you stay up?" he pointed to where the firewood was. "All the wood is gone, and you slept even longer than I did."

"Oh, I was up almost all night... I kept the fire going, to keep you warm." she grabbed some berries and popped them into her mouth. "I hope you don't mind... but..." she blushed. "I also cleaned you up a little bit."

"Huh?" he looked down at himself. "My wounds... are gone."

"Yeah... I used a med kit on you."

"Shion..." he scooted over next to her. "Thank you. I know I was a bit blunt towards you yesterday... and I'm sorry."

"It's ok." she smiled. "As long as you're ok..." He smiled back, and held back a cough. "Are you... sick?"

He shook his head, but he coughed again, as if to make it obvious that he was lying. "Well... maybe. It's probably just all this rain...giving me a cold or something. Anyways, since we're out of wood... I'll head out again..." he stood up.

"No, chaos!" Shion grabbed his arm. "Let me do it, please."

"I'm ok, I promise. Besides, I've got to repay you somehow for everything you did last night." he walked out of the cave, not allowing himself to be stopped.

"But..." she whispered to herself. "I was doing all that to pay you back..."

—

It was late into the night when chaos returned. He was shivering a lot, and didn't have too much wood, despite his lengthy time away.

"chaos? Are you ok? You don't look so good... and you're all scratched up again!"

"I'm... ok." dropping the wood by the fire, he grabbed his shorts. "Just... let me change, and then you can look at me."

She smiled as she turned around. "Well... at least you're not refusing help this time." she waited for a couple minutes, the silence only being broken by chaos' coughs. Suddenly, she heard something thump. She instantly turned around. chaos was on the ground. He had gotten his dry shorts on, but that was all he did. "chaos! What happened?"

He tried to respond, but ended up having a coughing fit. "Don't try and talk." Shion grabbed one of the coconut halves from outside the cave and handed it to him. "Here, drink. It should help."

He drank the liquid quickly, and gave a breath of relief. "I'm... sorry..." he muttered.

"Don't apologize. Just stay still." she took off his soaking shirt and started the fire. "What's wrong with you chaos? You're burning up!"

"Am... I?" he was shivering uncontrollably. "But I feel... so cold..."

"chaos..." Shion said, as tears began streaming from her eyes. "You can't leave me... don't leave me here all alone!" she buried her face into his chest, sobbing.

chaos hugged her tightly. "I won't leave you Shion... I'll stay here... if nothing else, to protect you."

—

Jr. paced back and forth on the Elsa bridge. "What's happened to those two? They've been gone for days, and they haven't contacted us!"

"I do hope Sister is ok..." Jin whispered to himself.

"She'll be fine." Ziggy reassured him. "chaos is there with her."

"Do you think something happened to them though?" Jr. asked everyone.

"The probability of them being ambushed by Gnosis using the route they chose was 84.35. It is possible that they were forced to land somewhere." Kos-Mos said, in her monotone.

"You'd think they'd at least send us a transmission or something... it's not like they could've landed somewhere without people..." Hammer thought aloud.

"It is possible. There are still a lot of uncharted planets in the star cluster." Momo pointed out.

"Then it's decided. We have to go look for them! Do you know how to find those uncharted planets Momo?"

"I'm sure my scanners could pick up signs of life as we flew through their route."

"Great! Matthews!" he called out to the Elsa's captain.

"As you wish Little Master. Let's go Tony!"

"All right, we're off!"