Stone Angel

By Kaltmr

Disclaimer: This story is inspired off a book i read, called Turn to Stone. but just so you know, i don't own Turn to Stone, or Xenosaga for that matter...

Shion finally finished her work on Kos-Mos. She looked up at the only other person in the room, chaos. It had been a while since she was alone with him, and she wanted to take this opportunity to tell him her true feelings for him... the feelings she's kept within her for so long. Her feelings of love for him...

"chaos...?"

Her timing was poor though, as chaos had just stood up from his station. He moved his wrist, and it was hardening up. It was getting hard to move. 'Damn it.' he thought to himself. 'Not again...'

He turned to Shion and gave her his ever-loving smile, "I'll be taking a break. Is that ok with you?"

She looked slightly shocked, slightly worried at that sentence, but she smiled and nodded. 'I wonder if he'll ask me to join him... no, he wouldn't do that...' Shion thought to herself.

chaos moved towards the exit, but his legs suddenly wouldn't move. "Damn..." he muttered under his breath, but a little too loud. He glanced at Shion, who looked back at him.

'Is... something wrong with chaos?' she wondered to herself, "Are you ok chaos?"

He grunted, and tried to move again, but there was no response. "It's... nothing. My joints just aren't... responding well. I guess I could have used some more rest after lift off." But then the unexpected happened... chaos' legs turned the color of rock..

Shion gasped, "What's wrong chaos?" she slowly put out her hand towards his leg, as if she was afraid it would bite her. She then rubbed it slightly, and pulled back instantly. "Your legs! They're... stone!"

"So it's been decided huh?" chaos sighed and stopped trying to move. "I guess my time has been coming up."

"What? What are you talking about?" Shion looked worried, and prepared to cast an ether spell on it.

"Don't waste your ether Shion... you can't do anything about it." he mumbled, in a less that lively tone. "Nothing can stop this... not once it's started."

"What are you talking about? There has to be something you can do about it! Wait here, I'll go get help from the others!"

chaos grabbed her arm, stopping her from leaving the room. "They can't help me. There is no one... who can help me. This disease... is one of a kind."

"Disease? What are you talking about?"

"My race... has the special ability to turn into stone, at will. It stops Gnosis from noticing us, and we can use it as a way to watch over humans. But over using it... causes this. We turn into stone... permanently." his legs suddenly straightened out, and his wings emerged. chaos smiled at Shion's surprised expression. "We are usually frozen with our wings out. It's given our race the name, Stone Angels.

"Stone... Angels...?" this brought out a memory from Shion's childhood...

—

Thunder crashed, and lightening filled the sky. The rain was relentless, as a young Shion ran down the streets of her new home at Second Miltia. Dead bodies littered the sidewalks, and Gnosis roamed the alleys. She had just moved there after Old Miltia disappeared, and it was already being attacked by Gnosis. Shion ran past the church, into the back alley, but she came to a dead end. Turning around, she gasped. A Gnosis had followed her, and now she was trapped. The lightening formed a shadow of an angel, the angel on top of the church. It didn't stop anything, however, as the Gnosis brought up it's arm to strike down Shion.

A large aura struck the Gnosis before it could follow through with it's attack. Shion looked up, and saw the angel, as still as it had been when she entered the alley, with it's wings out and it's arms towards the heaven. It did something statues don't do though, it looked down at the Gnosis. Shedding it's rock-like skin, it flew down, pelting the Gnosis with aura attacks. The angel kept it's attack up until the Gnosis was destroyed.

Shion just stood there, staring at the angel which had just saved her life. The angel smiled, and ruffled her hair. "Don't worry... your safe now." the angel then flew up, and disappeared into the clouds.

"Thank you!" she yelled into the clouds, finally obtaining control of her body.

---

Suddenly brought out of her reverie, she muttered to chaos, "That was you... wasn't it? You saved my life all those years ago... didn't you?"

chaos flinched at Shion's comment. He then grinned, replying, "So you still remember that? I would have thought that you forgotten..." chaos suddenly grunted, the stone now reaching his head. He didn't have much time left until he was pure stone.

"No!" Shion cried out, "Don't leave! Stay with me! I want you to be my stone angel... forever!" she fell to the floor, tears flowing down her cheeks.

"I knew... that when I first saw you... that night..." chaos' voice was cracking, his mouth almost covered in stone. "That you were someone special... you have no idea how surprised I was when I saw you again on the Elsa. I would've liked... to become you stone angel... but it appears... my time... is... up..." and with those last words, chaos fully became stone.

"NOOOOOOO! chaos!" when the others finally entered the room, all that was there was a sobbing Shion, and a statue... of an angel.

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so what do ya think? my 1st one shot, review eh?