summonershion3: yeah, this one's working out nicely. glad you like Big Al, i wanted him to be... well, a likable character. lol.

Youko-Kuronue: lol, thaaaaaaaanks!

chaosxShion: hehe, thanks. see above note towards summonershion3 about Big Al. lol.

Disclaimer: I don't own Xenosaga.

Chapter Six:

Saviors

Shion awoke, finding herself in an unfamiliar place. She looked around, and finally saw something she recognized, chaos. "chaos..." she shook him. "chaos... wake up!"

"Five more minutes..." chaos moaned dreamily.

"chaos!" Shion yelled in his ear.

He jumped up. "Yes, what is it! Shion! You're awake! Thank goodness you're ok..."

She smiled, glad for his concern. "Where are we?"

"Well, we're..." chaos started to explain, but was interrupted by the sound of a loud bell ringing. Al suddenly ran up the stairs, carrying two guns. "Oh, this is Al. Big Al. He's the one who-"

"There's no time for that!" he noticed Shion. "Oh, it's good to see that the lady's awake." he gave a quick smile. "But we've got to get going!"

"But Big Al, what's that bell?"

"That bell is for warning the town when something bad is happening! I don't know what's going on exactly, but it can't be good!" he tossed chaos one of the guns and looked over at Shion again. "The way I see it, a lady shouldn't have to hold a gun..." Al ran down the stairs, without another word.

Shion looked worried. "What do you think's happening?"

They waited for a moment, listening for any clues. Gunshots could be heard in the distance along with people screaming. "You don't think..." chaos muttered.

"The Gnosis!" Shion gasped. "We have to help them!"

chaos tossed the gun away and they both ran outside.

—

The two found Big Al in the middle of town, supplying men with guns. A dead Gnosis was among them.

"Hey!" Al waved as they ran over towards him. "chaos, where's the gun I gave you?"

"Oh, I... must've forgotten it back at your place." he grinned.

Al sighed, but continued arming folks. "It's ok. I guess I shouldn't be asking you to fight anyways, considering you're my guests."

"Guests?" a tall, muscular man came up to grab two guns. "Who are these people Big Al?"

"Oh these?" he laughed nervously. "These are... uh... these... are..."

"We're friends of Al." Shion answered for him.

The man stared at both of them. "I haven't seen them around town before..."

"It's ok! They're nice people, really!"

Screams interrupted their conversation. "Well, they better not get in the way!" the man grunted, before walking away.

Al breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks. That's Joe, the bartender. He's really strict with people, even more so with people he doesn't know too well. Better watch out around him. Help yourself to weapons, if you want to fight." he pointed at the box and ran off.

"What should we do?" chaos asked. "I could..."

"No." Shion whispered. "We can't reveal to them that we're... not from around here. Only if absolutely... needed... will we fight."

They both ran around the corner, and found themselves in a battlefield. There were only a few Gnosis, but they were gigantic! With their ancient technology, the townspeople were doing their best to fight back. After what seemed like hours of shooting, the last of the Gnosis were dead.

"Hey you two! You alright?" Al pushed through the crowd of people to get to them. He has a gash on his shoulder, but it wasn't bleeding bad.

"Al, you're hurt!" Shion instinctively began preparing to cast an Ether spell, but chaos shook his head.

"Oh this?" he laughed. "This is nothing! You should see the wounds we get when we go out hunting! These... these things are no match for us!"

Right as he said that, another large Gnosis came from out of nowhere, and roared at the crowd. This one looked different though... this one looked... transparent.

"Why don't you just high tail it out of here? Huh? Go back to where you came from!" Joe yelled out, walking in front of it.

"No! Get away!" Shion yelled out. "You can't hurt it!"

"Hurt it? I'm not planning on hurting it... I'm planning on killing it!" he raised his two guns up to level and began unloading all of his shots onto it. They weren't hitting it though... the shots were going right through it. Suddenly, the shots stopped. He was out of ammo.

His face turned from pure confidence to undiluted fear. The Gnosis raised it's arm to strike. Right before it hit, however, chaos pushed Joe out of the way. "Get off of me you!"

The Gnosis turned to chaos. "Stay back!" he yelled, shooting an aura. Thought the aura didn't damage it, it got it's attention. The crowd gasped. People began screaming. More Gnosis appeared, and they were all transparent.

"What... what the hell are you?" Joe stepped back, pointing at chaos.

"Look, I don't want to hurt you! Just stay back!" chaos said, shooting aura at whatever Gnosis there were.

"You!" Joe ran to Big Al and held him by his shirt collar. "Who are these people?"

"I... I don't know. I swear, I didn't know!" he said, quickly.

Suddenly, there was a bright light in the distance. It engulfed the entire town. "What...?" Shion examined the Gnosis, who were turning solid. "The... Hilbert Effect?"

Joe dropped Al and fell to the ground. "What is this magic? They're trying to kill us all, aren't they? I'm going to get you for this Al!"

"Stop your arguing!" Shion yelled out, grabbing the gun that Al was holding. She shot the neared Gnosis in the head, which luckily enough, killed it. "In case you haven't noticed, you can shoot them now! So fire!" she tossed the gun back at Joe, who grunted, and went off shooting.

When most of the Gnosis were gone, Shion noticed something. A Gnosis was running towards her. She could hear gunshots around the corner. Was it running from something? She shot it down quickly, when Jr. came running around the corner. "Darn it! Stupid Gnosis... made me run all this way... for nothing..."

"Jr.!" Shion exclaimed. "Why are you here?"

"Oh, Shion!" he took out his comm unit.

"Who's this now?" Joe stared at Jr. "Another one of your friends?"

"Hey guys, I found Shion!" he looked around, and saw chaos in the crowd. Unfortunately enough for him, everyone else was staring at him. "Uh... chaos is here too... but I don't think you should come over here. The natives don't look... too friendly."

"Jr..." Shion asked, after he put away his comm unit. "Is Kos-Mos here? Was that the Hilbert Effect earlier?"

"Yeah. She said something about 'a large Gnosis threat'-" he put on a boring face and imitated her monotone. "- and activated the effect on her own." he shrugged.

"So you were responsible for that light! You saved us!" Al cried out, looking happy as ever. "We must celebrate!"

"Oh yeah?" Joe said angrily. "I say we don't! What if they turn on us? Then what?" many people yelled out their agreements, but others sided with Al.

Jr. walked up to Joe, spinning his gun on his finger. "You wanna stop me?" he smirked, as he raised an eyebrow.

Joe looked around, and saw that nobody was backing him up. "Hmph." he grunted. "Do what you want." he walked away.

"Great! Come, come! I'll show you to my place!" he motioned at Jr. to follow.

"Uh... thanks, but I think I'll head back to the others. I just want to give something to Shion."

"Hmm? For me?"

Jr. pulled her aside. "Here. Take this." he handed her his comm unit. "I think you should leave soon. Like tonight soon. Just because that one guy likes you doesn't mean everyone does. If they riot again you, things could get ugly. Oh, and here." he gave her a package with the Vector insignia on it. "Miyuki sent it to us when she heard you went missing. Thought you'd need another one."

Even without looking, she knew what it was. "Great, thanks."

"So? Tonight?" he asked again.

Shion sighed, but agreed. "Ok, tonight. I'll contact you when we're out of town."

---

A/N: well, well, ain't that lucky. kos-mos happened to be close enough to hilbert effect all the gnosis. yay! well, this story is basically done... sadly. epilogue is up next. oh well. review plz!