Xenosaga : Destiny of The Force

Part One : Re-Ignition

Story:
A Star Wars/Xenosaga crossover. AU of Xenosaga. A Jedi Knight happened to be a member of Vector Industries on board Woglinde when all hell broke loose. Little did he know that the following events will set him up in a battle with his age-old enemy.

Disclaimer:
I don't own Star Wars nor Xenosaga but I do own the characters Alexander Darkblaze, Daron Sol/Darth Exodus and E1-D1.

Chapter 1: Deathly Escape

The door slid open and Alexander entered to see his colleagues were busy preparing what was necessary for the test. Chief Engineer for the KOS-MOS project, Shion Uzuki looked up at him.

"That was quick, Alex."

Alexander stammered for reply. "I took...a shortcut. Sort of."

Shion smiled at him. "Doubtful reply as always."

"Alex! Quick and set up the second phase of the Encephalon environment!" Allen Ridgely, Shion's assistant hollered before Alexander could reply to his superior's comment.

"Yeah. Sure thing, Allen. We'll talk later, Chief."

Shion nodded and he went to his seat and initiated the second stage of the Encephalon level. Within minutes, he completed the task.

"Initializing...Done. Everything is set here, Chief."

Alexander then proceeded activating backup system just in case something go wrong. Shion sat in the diving seat with a visor covered her eyes. "Commencing startup experiment. Open up an Interconnection."

"Roger." Allen replied. "Opening interconnection. Connecting to dummy protocol."

(Hope everything will be okay. But knowing Shion's recklessness, I don't think that will happen.)

"A-LINE protocol zone secured."

"Opening cage partition. 60 seconds to release. Beginning countdown. 57, 56, 55, 54, 53, 52, 51…"

"All monitors clear. …3, 2, 1. Partition open. Proceeding with KOS-MOS body formation."

"Body formation complete. Commencing Penfield mapping."

"Proceeding with Encephalon construction."

"Mapping percentage at 76, 77, 78…"

"Encephalon construction complete."

Alexander hovered his right hand above the shut down button just to be safe.

"Chief, there's noise appearing in the temporal lobe." Allen informed.

"What's the problem?" Shion asked.

"It's on the left side of the temporal lobe. I'm showing slight stimulation of the synapses in section 818. It's within permissible bounds, though. Do you want to abort?"

Shion shook. "No. Let's keep going. Just stick to the menu. I'll try for a direct approach. Back me up."

Allen nodded. "Roger. Launching NATARAJA connection system."

Password accepted. Commencing NATARAJA boot up sequence.

The dive initiated without any problem. Alexander silently sighed. Like all previous dives, there were no glitch. But one slight mistake and the diver, in this case, Shion could be stranded in the system or worse, dead. After some time, Shion said to Allen. "Allen, there seems to be a problem with the visual field connection."

"Hmm… Ah…I see a small break in the MT field, route K12. It looks like…the bi-directional link in the V4 field is lagged, too. Hold on a minute… I'll fix it now. There. How is now, Chief?"

"Okay, looks good. Let's keep going."

"Proceeding with KOS-MOS host separation."

For a few minutes, Shion was having a routine conversation with KOS-MOS. And as usual, the android replied the questions in a predictable manner. Despite having the emotion module installed, it doesn't seem to work. Alexander himself had tried to sort out the problem but to no avail. Perhaps Shion's predecessor knew about it. But he was long gone. Alexander and Shion were the only survivors from two years ago when original archetype went berserk and killed everyone in the area. The Jedi barely survived with the aid of the Force and Shion was the only witness to his lightsaber skills in taking out a few U-TIC soldiers. He only revealed the true nature of the 'flashlights' but not his origins and his ability in the Force. And he doubt that Shion was Force sensitive enough to detect it.

Alexander shook his head when Shion said something that was hardly surprising.

"Allen, let's skip all level 300 processes, and start from 400."

Needless to say, Allen protested. "What? Chief, you're supposed to follow the program!"

And as usual, Shion played it down. "Oh, don't worry about it. I'll be fine. If I get in any trouble, I'll get myself out."

"But, Chief, remember what happened last time? If we waited another ten more seconds to intervene, we wouldn't have been able to get you back at all!"

"Hush now, Allen. You should know that everyday is wild around here. Let the Chief have her fun, eh?" Alexander said, trying to assure him.

Allen glanced at him, then glared daggers at the rest. He sighed. "I want frequent status reports from all of you. If anything happens, I'm going to shut it down from here!"

"Sir yes sir!" Alexander sarcastically said.

That said, things went on smoothly for a few until KOS-MOS took out the first target. "KOS-MOS has reached the target." a colleague said. "Entering Phase 2."

"That's my cue." Alexander informed and keyed in the commands. He then replaced the targets with much more powerful ones. As predicted, KOS-MOS didn't have any difficulty in dispatching them. She had reached the final target and things started to go awry. Warning messages spread throughout the display.

"What's going on?" Allen shouted.

"A new network is being formed within KOS-MOS' mainframe." another engineered replied. "This is incredible! I've never seen a network grow so fast!"

Alexander suddenly felt a faint of Force energy. He was sure that didn't come from any of his friends within the room. (If not from them, maybe...from the Encephalon itself? But that can't be...)

But that was just the beginning. Shion said something that was even more shocking.

"Allen, I'm going to engage the target. Make sure you capture all the data."

"What? Chief, you cannot engage right now! You're tapped into KOS-MOS' perception! It's too dangerous!" the poor assistant said.

"I'll be fine." she stated.

Alexander grinned. Compared to his early Jedi training days, this was fun, despite the dangers. In some way. Allen was more or less like a Jedi Master giving an advice to his young apprentice except that he didn't give any. He whined.

Despite the protest, Shion went with it anyway and KOS-MOS destroyed the target easily. And this caused her to do an even more radical stunt.

"Allen, switch target to real mode. We'll test the Hilbert effect."

"Wha-? Chief-"

"KOS-MOS, activate Hilbert Effect."

"Roger." The android replied. "Activating Hilbert Effect."

With that, warning messages came out at an outrageous rate and the Encephalon started to collapse. "Chief, you've got to get out of there now!" Allen yelled throughout the chaos.

"Just a little longer..." Shion calmly replied despite the situation.

"That's enough!" Allen shouted. He turned to Alexander. "Alex! Backup everything!" he then turned to another engineer. "You! Shut it down now!"

"Right on...I can't! She's overriding it!"

Alexander did the necessary task and the Force energy he sensed grew even more stronger.

(Is there a Force sensitive within the system? How can that be?)

"Ten seconds to Encephalon collapse!" one called Togashi exclaimed.

"That's it. I'm going in." Allen put on the Dive unit visor. Alexander continued to monitor the Force energy he sensed and put the data he obtained for personal usage.

(Sorry Shion. I must know what did you saw in there.)

Allen managed to pull out Shion right before the Encephalon collapsed. He then came over to her Dive Unit to check up on her. "Chief?"

Shion pulled herself up. "I guess maybe I pushed my luck a little to far this time, huh?" she said, heaving a sigh.

Allen dropped to his knees in exhaustion. "You've gotta...quit doing this, Chief. I thought I was going to have a heart attack."

Shion smiled at him. "Sorry about that. But I bet the data is really good."

Alexander stood up and handed her the disc containing the backup data. "You ought to stop doing that to us, Chief. What will we ever do without you?"

Shion looked up and smiled. "Don't worry, Alex. I'll be more careful next time."

He raised his eyebrows. "Really? I doubt that."

With that, the whole team laughed. Shion stood up, managed to suppress her laughter. "Thanks for the healthy dose of humor, Alex."

"No problem, Chief. You just look like you need it. Anyway, I'll be heading back to my room. Got a few things to do. Ring me if you need anything."

"Sure thing. See you later. And thanks for the backup data."

Alexander checked his lighsabers after exiting. Glad that his weapons were there, he followed the path, managing a few glances from the female crew along the way. He simply smiled and nodded at them.

(Over a hundred years, and things are still the same. Humans, that is.)

He started to recall his days as an apprentice to the female Jedi Master Erina Karas. Despite her amazing ability in the Force, many didn't approve of her allowing emotional attachments. He recalled one of her words of wisdom;

'There is nothing wrong in expressing your own emotion, Alex. It is just the matter of how you control it.'

(Now Master, can I, a Jedi fell in love?)

He finally reached his room and started his own computer. From there, he started the Encephalon and slipped in the disc containing the data he obtained earlier. He then put on the Simple Dive visor and he entered the location where he sensed the Force energy. He slowly walked towards the section of the wall where the aura emnated. Suddenly, flash of white brilliance washed over him. When he finally opened his eyes, he saw a girl in white dress. She was standing in front of him, staring.

"You are...from another world..."

Alexander sensed a strong Force aura from her yet nothing dark about it. He decided to talk to her.

"Yes I am..."

"You are...Alexander Darkblaze...a guardian of peace and justice...a Jedi Knight..."

Alexander was astonished. "How do you..."

"I have known you a long time ago. My name is Nephilim..."

"Nephilim..."

"Destiny awaits you, knight. But it will be frought with danger and temptation."

Before he could say anything, Nephilim faded with the parting words;

"A decision have to be made. What will you choose? Your own sake or her's?"

Alexander took off the visor after he left the Encephalon and wondered who is this her she had said.

In his civilian clothes, Alexander strolled about until he reached the hangar that housed a mysterious golden object. He instantly recognized it.

(Zohar. Or is it just one of its emulators? How in the Force this galaxy could conceived such mysterious and divine object is beyond me.)

He casually ignored it as it was impossible to get a closer look as Commander Vanderkam and his men were guarding with the superior officer barking orders and shouting insults to those poor men. He flashed a smile.

(I think I'd rather go back to my Jedi training days...)

He was passing by the elevator that lead to the bridge when Shion walked out from it. She was sporting such a furious face that it could destroy a star system. She was carrying a rather large package. From the looks of it, it was from Vector HQ.

"Grilled again, huh?" Alexander asked.

Shion smiled, weakly. "As always. How can we provide the actual field data when it still wasn't ready?"

"Yeah. Better safe than sorry. After all, we don't want THAT incident to happen again, right?"

Shion grew silent. Realizing his mistake, Alexander apologized. "Oh, forgive me, Shion. I shouldn't mentioned that..."

The Chief Enginner shook. "It's okay, Alex. You saved me, after all. With that 'flashlight' of yours." She continued, pointing to one of his lightsabers attached at his hip.

"Hey, hey. You should know that I just can't live without it."

Shion chuckled. "Hehehe. Sorry about that."

"So, what is that thing?"

"This? Do you remember that MWS I used in the dive? This is the working prototype version."

Alexander smiled wryly. "Uh-huh. I just hope it works this time. I'm sure don't want to be anywhere near it if something happens."

"That's pretty mean, you know. She sent you her regards, by the way."

Alexander shrugged. "Thanks a lot."

"She's quite fond of you, do you know that?"

He stepped back after remembering the only date he had with the 'crazy' inventor. After that, rumors about them being lovers spread throughout Dammerung. While Alexander couldn't deny that Miyuki was indeed cute, her rather 'direct approach' attitude can be a royal pain. In the butt. Literally.

"Now don't you start, Chief. We have absolutely nothing between us."

"I'm sure you are. Well, I'm feeling tired. I think I'm gonna take some sleep."

"Yeah. You do that, Chief. You look exhausted lately."

She nodded. "How about you?"

"I'll be heading back to the lab. Regular maintenance thing. Allen will have a fit at me if I'm late."

It was already late when Alexander entered the lab. Togashi looked up.

"Hey Alex. Doing some overtime?"

Alexander laughed. "Hah. Like Vector provided us the overtime allowance. But what happened today was pretty serious. I figured that I better look up a few things to rectify it."

"Same here."

The two began working at their respective places. Alexander tried to find a loophole within the Encephalon but it doesn't seem to exist. After a while, Allen walked in with a coffee mug in his hand. "Wha-? You all are still here?"

"Hey. How's it going? We're trying to figure out what went wrong with today's exercise. What about you?"

Allen sighed in frustration. "Commander Cherenkov gave me a piece of his mind earlier."

"Ouch." Togashi said, sarcastically. "Glad to see you survived."

"'You're just a bunch of college kids'" Allen managed to mimic Cherenkov's voice convincingly. "And, 'What, is Vector run by a Girl Scout?' He just went on and on..."

"Man, that's just not right."

"Tell me about it. It's really not fair for the Chief to take all the heat."

Alexander turned to Allen. "We all are taking the heat, Allen. But if worse comes to worst, we'll help the Chief out."

A relatively young man spoke up. "Well, we're just one phase away from fully operational. Maybe then the military will get off our backs. But I wish I knew why the Chief is so reluctant to activate KOS-MOS. I mean, isn't that the whole point of the project?"

Hearing this, Allen was reluctant to form a reply and Alexander decided to fill him in.

"You're just transferred here, right? Two years ago, the archetype of KOS-MOS was about to be activated and from there, things gone down the drain. We lost all of our members. Not to mention all the V.I.P.s who had attended. Me and the Chief were the only survivors of that massacre. The Chief was saved by Kevin Winnicot, the project leader back then. He...sacrificed himself to save her. While I was too stunned upon the scene and realized it was too late to save one of them..."

Everyone went silent as Alexander remembered the massacre two years ago. Everyone was excited about it until the soldiers from U-TIC stormed the room and took over the place. The leader of the squad opened up KOS-MOS' pod and activated it. The android sat up and did some inhumane moves before attacking everyone in the room. She slaughtered each and every last of them and was about to go for Shion until Kevin stepped in the way, shielding his girlfriend and thus, sacrificing himself.

Alexander only came to his senses upon hearing Shion crying over Kevin. Instantly, he ignited both lightsabers and attacked KOS-MOS. She effortlessly dodged the attacks and delivered a roundhouse kick, sending him flying to the wall. She then left the room while Alexander desperately tried to stand up. Using the Force, he managed to mend a few broken ribs he suffered before slaying five U-TIC soldiers who were about to kill Shion. Upon seeing the stunned Shion, he instantly collapsed because of his wounds. It was from that event that he told her about the lightsabers but avoid about telling everything about himself. For he felt deep regret of not being able to use his abilities to save Kevin in time.

(The Jedi, the Force. Another world. Will she believe even if I tell her? Will she ever forgive me about what happened?)

Alexander managed to get a few hours sleep with his feet up at the table when the alarm rang. He opened his eyes and scrutinized the area.

"What's going on here?"

"KOS-MOS is booting up on her own!" Togashi reported. "The countdown has started as well!"

Alexander moaned. "Oh Force!" With that, he direct-connect to the computer in attempt to abort the launch. His efforts were all in vain as he came across data that he had never seen before. "Curses! I can't shut it down!"

"She's starting up in auto-mode!" Togashi shouted.

Allen turned to him. "What? That's impossible! We disabled that mode after the incident! Only the Chief's terminal can activate it!"

He paused. Then, his eyes widened. "Unless she's reacting to...Gnosis!"

Suddenly, the power was cut off and everything went dark except the light came from the computer displays..

"What's going on?" Allen demanded.

"I don't know, the power's just--"

Knowing there was no way to stop it, Alexander brought his hands close to his lightsabers. Just in case the anti-Gnosis android went amuk. "Everyone, brace yourselves!"

The module pod that kept KOS-MOS slowly opened. She slowly sat up. Everyone started to panic and cowered in fear. Alexander didn't flinch and was prepared. He pulled out his lightsabers. KOS-MOS then got out and surveyed the surroundings. Alexander switched the trigger and the lights of crimson red and silver white illuminated the room. He then went into his fighting stance, the two-bladed style of Jar'Kai.

The visor that covered her face rose, revealing a stunningly beautiful face of a teenage girl. Her red eyes turned to the Jedi. She then slowly approached him gracefully. Then, she stopped. Realizing that she didn't intent to initiate combat, Alexander switched off his weapons.

"Alexander Darkblaze?" her monotonic voice spoke.

"That's me alright."

"The ship is in danger. Please evacuate immediately."

Alexander had decided to help Togashi in evacuating the others while KOS-MOS and Allen will try to find Shion. Every crew of the Woglinde already evacuated by the time they reached the escaped pods.

"Come on, guys! Hurry! We don't have much time left!" he shouted.

Togashi was the last one to board the escape pod. "Hey Alex. You're not coming?" he asked.

"I'll come by later, my friend. I have some matters to attend."

"Alright. Just make sure you come back."

"I will."

After seeing off the pod, Alexander quickly made his way through the corridors towards his room.

Alexander finally reached his room after much difficulty. Without the Hilbert Effect to draw the Gnosis from their plane of existence, any attacks from his lightsabers were useless. This had forced him to search for a shortcut and utilizing his primary Force powers to get by them. He took off his shirt and took a thin-layered shirt and put it on before putting back his shirt. He then took out his old Jedi cloak and covered himself with it. The thin-layered shirt was one of the few products made by himself using an unknown substance before synthesized it with his knowledge in basic blacksmithing. The result was an armor that was light and sturdy at the same time. With it, it would take several beatings to pierce it. He also took the Simple Dive Unit, should the need arise.

(Alright. Now I better find those three.)

With that, he quickly left the room in search of Shion, KOS-MOS and Allen.

Along the way, Alexander met a few bunch of Gnosis and succeeded in taking some of them out since KOS-MOS had probably activated the Hilbert Effect and these mindless aliens had been physically drawn in, making them vulnerable to attacks. But even with this, he didn't have much time. He must find his friends and escape before the ship turned into a big pile of junk.

He decided to use the Force to aid his search and sensed four presence. Shion, Allen and the dark aura of the Realian-hater Lieutenant Virgil. He was surprised to sense that the fourth one belonged to KOS-MOS.

(Now how could THAT be?)

Shion, KOS-MOS and Lieutenant Virgil were having a hard time in dealing with a rather large Gnosis. Even with the combined efforts, the defence of the Gnosis were beyond their imagination.

Shion, with her MWS charged up, attacked. "Take this! Lightning blast!"

A powerful lightning blast from close range hit the Gnosis but seemed to have little effect on it. Seeing this, KOS-MOS used her right arm to form a cannon.

"Charging. R-CANNON!"

The powerful blast again hit the entity but it only managed to pushed it a few steps back. Virgil took out a grenade, pulled the pin and threw it.

"You want some of this? You bastard!"

The explosion from the grenade didn't do a thing on it. The Gnosis roared but barely took a step when a red light was thrown, slicing off both its hands. It howled in pain and with a speed beyond normal human could muster, Alexander exploded into the scene and did a vertical cut in two with his silver lightsaber. The Gnosis was cut cleanly and finally defeated. He then switched off his blade and recalled the red saber towards his hand.

"Alex!" Shion shouted with relief.

"You don't think I would abandon my friends now, right?" he said, glancing at KOS-MOS curiously. The android stared at him without blinking.

"Is there anything wrong, Alex?" Shion asked.

Alexander shook his head. "No. Nothing at all. Let's get out. I know the way to the escape pods."

"Lead us on, smart-ass." Virgil interjected. Alexander glared at him and nodded.

"Just follow me and be careful."

The group were passing by the hangar that housed the Zohar emulator with Commander Cherenkov in a space suit standing nearby, giving orders to Vanderkam.

"Commander Cherenkov?" Shion called out his name.

The marine turned to her in surprise. "What...what are you people doing down here?" He then gazed at another direction. "Gnosis!"

Seeing this, Alexander ignited the lightsabers and engaged these alien lifeforms. Virgil did the same by firing with his machine gun while KOS-MOS studied Alexander for a few moments before engaging the Gnosis with rounds of her own Vulcan machine gun. Perhaps being caught in the heat of battle, Virgil strayed into the path of KOS-MOS' weapon and the bullets punctured through him and killed the Gnosis.

He muttered the last word; "Feb..." before he finally collapsed to the floor, dead. Alexander and Allen took their place beside Shion to cover her from another wave of Gnosis.

KOS-MOS walked towards them. "This ship is about to capsize. Please evacuate immediately."

Shion stopped her. "KOS-MOS, wait. Do... do you realize what you've just done? Why did you kill Lieutenant Virgil?"

"At that time, Lieutenant Virgil was in my line of fire." KOS-MOS replied calmly or rather, coldly. "I estimated a 30 percent reduction in my combat capabilities if I moved to a different location. With the lieutenant's death, there was only a .02 percent reduction in efficacy."

Her monotonic, expressionless voice somehow angered Shion. "You can't just go around killing people! Have you no conscience?"

"Shion, you forget that I am not human. I am merely a weapon. My orders are to protect the Vector staff members. Military personnel are not mentioned. Also, the escape pod has a maximum of two occupants. It should be obvious who receives priority."

KOS-MOS glanced at Alexander. Then, to Allen and back to him. At once, Alexander knew what's wrong and came up with a decision.

She continued after receiving no response from Shion. "What is your decision? If you wish to mourn the lieutenant's death, I suggest you board the escape pod, or else his death will be in vain."

More Gnosis appeared and Alexander switched off his weapons and handed them to Shion.

"Alex, what are you..."

"Take care of these for me. Allen, you and the Chief better get to the pod quickly. Me and KOS-MOS here will hold them off for you!"

"No, Alex! You can't be serious!" Shion cried. Seeing this, Alexander used the Force to touch a nerve on her and she fell asleep almost instantly. Allen managed to caught her before she fell to the floor. He looked up at him in astonishment to see the machine gun he was carrying was now in Alexander's hands.

"Just...who are you, Alex?"

"Too much to tell but no time to talk. Get out of here, Allen!"

Allen nodded and entered the pod. With that, he stood alongside KOS-MOS and fired defiantly at the approaching Gnosis. He glanced at her.

"KOS-MOS."

"Yes?" For the first time, her red eyes blinked.

"I need help from you."

Notes:
NukeDawg:
Thanx for the first comment. Couldn't be happy enough. Don't worry, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FUTURE will still go on. It's just that I need some time off now and again from that fic.