Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread I own only my characters. Jack is from dmv128's series. This is like an alternate universe from that story.

Author's note: Bold letters are stressed. Italics are unconsciously stressed. (The character stresses them but doesn't know it.)

"Activate earpiece." Kagen says after he is away from the infirmary. He then hears Camina's voice saying, "I wish I knew what to get Kagen." Kagen blushes at that and notices that he has gone in a circle. He then hears Paiway say, "I'll see if I can find out." Kagen realizes that Paiway is about to come out the Infirmary door and quickly brings his face under control as Paiway runs right out the door and right into Kagen. Paiway quickly recovers and says,

"I'm running a poll of the ship's crew. What would you like for Christmas?" Kagen replies,

"Hmm, I've never really thought about it." Kagen thinks 'What do I want for Christmas?' then he says, "I don't know. Sorry Paiway, I'd tell you if I knew."

"How could you not know? Everyone knows what they want for Christmas!"

"Here are two facts about me: 1; I'm not everyone, and 2; I don't really put much value on possessions, so there is not anything I want."

Kagen then turns and walks towards his workshop. As soon as Kagen looses Paiway, Jack comes running around the corner. Jack, after he catches his breath, says,

"I need that gun. I want to make some adjustments to it."

"Fine, but no more guns out of my gun cabinet. Those are for show. I have more at my workshop. You can do your adjustments there. Come on."

Jack and Kagen walk down the hallway towards Kagen's workshop.

At Kagen's workshop

Jack is shocked at the amount of guns in Kagen's workshop. Kagen breaks him out of his state of shock by saying,

"Pick one. You can use that table. I'll be at the other one." Kagen goes to the other table and starts going through the drawers. He suddenly says, "Ow. What is that?" Kagen grabs the object and pulls it out of the drawer cutting himself deeper in the process. "I think I need to see Duero." Kagen says as he put the dagger down and quickly wraps his hand.

In the Infirmary

Duero asks, "How exactly did you get cut?"

"I was searching a desk from the colonization era. I stuck my hand in one of the drawers and found a dagger, the hard way."

"So you reached your hand in and cut your self on a dagger. That dagger should have had no edge to it at all considering no one sharpened it for a century. Are you sure it was a dagger? I couldn't have made a cut like this with a scalpel, much less a dagger. No don't answer that. Luckily Mejer's medical technology can heal this, but be more careful next time." Duero places Kagen's hand in the machine for about 20 min then pulls it out.

"There is still a scar." Kagen says as he looks at his hand. Duero says,

"What! That machine should've removed the scars too. This is very odd. Very odd indeed."

"Well thanks Doc." Kagen says as he leaves to get back to his workshop.

In the workshop

Kagen says, "Now I have to clean this up." As he says that the dagger glows and the blood flows to the hilt and makes a jade green pommel stone. Then some materials on the desk suddenly form themselves around the blade and with a flash of green light a sheath appears on the dagger. Kagen pulls the dagger and sees that the blade is now made of green crystal that is more durable than steel. Kagen says,

"Now its true nature is known." Jack looks up from his work at that and asks,

"What are you talking about?" Jack walks over and pulls the dagger from its sheath. He then promptly says, "Ow! It bit me!" and drops it. The blade plunges straight down into his foot. "Ow, ow, ow! That really hurt!" Kagen finds a hover-cart, puts Jack on it, and programs it to go to the infirmary, and jumps on as it gains speed.

At the infirmary

Duero asks, "So you were holding it by the hilt and it cut you?" Jack says,

"Yeah, then I dropped it and it stuck straight into my foot."

Kagen just pulls it out of Jack's foot and starts cleaning it.

"And it hasn't cut you since the first time, right Kagen?"

Kagen then grabs the blade and starts to clean the hilt. Duero opens his mouth in shock as Kagen shows that his hand isn't cut at all. Duero asks,

"How did you do that?" Kagen says,

"When I got back to the workshop I saw the blood in the table and went to clean it up. To my surprise it flowed to the end of the hilt and formed this jade green pommel stone."

"There is just one more test." Duero turns and calls up Bart. "Hey, I need you in the infirmary." Bart gets up and walks out the door. A few minutes later Bart walks in the room and Kagen hands him the dagger hilt-first. Bart says,

"Thanks, but what is this for? Ow! What are you trying to do, kill me with a trick knife?"

Duero just says,

"Ok that settles it; the blade will cut everyone except Kagen."

Kagen nods, sheaths the dagger, and hooks the sheath to his belt on his right side. Kagen then says,

"Ok now that we know that I need to get back to work."

Kagen then leaves with Jack trailing behind him. Jack finally speaks up and asks,

"You have used that weapon before haven't you?" Kagen sighs and says,

"Yes, I have. I'll tell you about it later. You get back to work on your present."

"Who said I was working on the actual present? This is a prototype. I don't want to give Barnette an untested, undeveloped weapon. She would kill me."

Kagen laughs and grabs some spare materials, some electrical circuits, and his knife. And gets to work as Jack continues with his project.

An hour passes

Both Kagen and Jack say, "I'm finished." They both turn to each other startled that they both said the same thing. Kagen recovers and asks,

"You want to go test them?" Jack says,

"Sure, let's go." They walk to the target arena and Kagen sets the targets up.

Kagen says, "You start. I still have to synchronize the two frequencies."

Kagen pulls the knife and dagger out. The dagger glows green as Kagen hit the knife against it. Like a tuning fork the knife then synchronizes with the dagger.

Kagen says, "I only have to do that once. Let's try them out." Kagen sheaths the dagger and slices one of the 5 inch steel plates clean in half with his knife.

"Your turn Jack."

Jack fires one shot and it goes through the1st plate and about 4/5 of the way through the 2nd plate.

"That wasn't even an armor piercing round. Your turn."

Kagen says, "What about this?" Kagen pulls his dagger as well as his knife and thinks 'Alakor.' The knife glows and the dagger ignites into a sword about 3 ½ feet long. He attacks his remaining targets and slices them into about 50 cubes each.

Jack says, "Cool, but watch this." He flips a switch and the gun changes to a laser rifle. He fires and blasts through 5 ½ plates.

Kagen asks, "Was that only ½ power!"

"Hell no! Barnette doesn't have any business even getting near that much power. That was full power. It also has this." He flips another switch and fires a grenade in between the last of his targets, takes cover, and hits a button on his rifle. The grenade explodes and destroys the last of the targets. Jack coughs and says, "Oh no! I didn't tell Kagen to take cover!" Jack stands up and gasps in awe when he sees Kagen standing there unharmed with shreds of metal lying in lots of little pieces around him. "How?" Kagen relaxes and sheaths his weapons as they return to their previous state. Kagen sarcastically says, "I'm alright in case you want to know." Jack snaps out of his shock and says, "I am really sorry Kagen. I'll be more careful next time. You look tired. Here let me get a hover-cart so you can get some rest." Jack comes back with a hover-cart and pushes Kagen to the workshop on it. Kagen immediately walks to the workshop's bed and falls straight to sleep. Jack thinks for a minute then gets back to work. Kagen wakes up about 2 hours later and finds Jack gone and a note attached to an enhanced pistol and holster. The note says, "Thanks Kagen. I finished my Christmas present. Keep the pistol. Call it my apology for all the trouble I caused you. PS. I had to take a few extra parts as well."

Kagen smiles and says, "Good old Jack. May he never change for the worst." Kagen then says, "I still need to find out what Meia and Mina want for Christmas. It is only a week away." He activates his earpiece and says, "Locate Meia." Seconds later he hears Meia says, "I don't like him!" Then Paiway says, "All he wants is to know what you want for Christmas." Meia asks, "Are you sure that is all he wants?" Paiway says, "Yes I'm sure. He talks about you in his sleep sometimes." Meia is silent while she thinks about it. She then says, "I just don't know what I want anymore." Kagen turns off the feed and says, "Well if she doesn't know then I will just have to think of something. Now to check on Mina. Locate Mina." Seconds later Camina says, "Jack, I need to know what Kagen wants for Christmas." Jack thinks about it and says, "Well, I might tell you if you tell me what you want for Christmas." Kagen says, "Good old Jack. Wait, what do I want for Christmas? I honestly don't know." Camina says, "I want Kagen to…. to come to my room on Christmas Eve. Now what does he want?" Jack says, "I honestly don't know." Then his door shuts and Camina walks away furious that she had just been played. Kagen turns off the ear piece and takes it out of his ear and puts it in the desk drawer. Kagen then says, "Ok so Mina wants me to come to her room on Christmas Eve. I can do that. Hmm. What to do for Meia's present? Hmm. She wears no jewelry… except that face ornament! Ok, I'll need some materials and a picture of it. Then comes the hard part, examining it." He does a remote scan on the ornament using the surveillance cameras and does a search through the full database (old and new) and finds something interesting. "Hmm. This is interesting. That ornament might just be an interface device for a dread. I'll have to do a through examination of it to be sure. There were plans to make a bracelet as well. I can do that. I'll make the design match."

Kagen opens a comm. to Gascoigne and says, "I need to ask you a favor."

"What kind of favor?"

"I need some materials and no one can know I have them except for you, BC, and the Captain, of course."

"What do you need them for?"

"To make some Christmas presents. I don't have any money and the materials are expensive. I hope that I can pay you back with about 2 weeks of full-time work after Christmas."

"Send me the list and I'll think about it."

Kagen quickly types in the list and sends it to Gascoigne. Her eyes widen as she calculates the costs.

"I envy the person that gets these gifts. Two weeks will… be plenty to pay this off. If you need anything additional just tell me."

"Thanks Gascoigne." Kagen cuts the link and leaves his workshop.

Kagen is walking for about 5 min until Paiway walks up and asks, "Who are you looking for?" Kagen knows the gig is up and says, "Meia. Do you know where she is?"

Paiway is stunned that she got her answer so quickly and answers, "She went to the gardens." Kagen then asks, "Who gave her that ornament she wears?" Paiway is stunned by the direct question and answers, "Her parents gave it to her sometime before they died." Kagen says, "Thanks Paiway. Oh and your surveillance cameras and microphones have been disabled. I suggest that you stay out of my business, or else I next time I might disable your whole spy network. You did a good job of hiding it though. Bye." With that Kagen runs off to the gardens leaving a bewildered Paiway to mull over his words.

In the garden

Kagen carefully sneaks up behind Meia and says, "Ms. Gisborn, I need a word with you."

Meia turns towards his voice but Kagen isn't there anymore. Kagen whispers in her ear then jumps out of sight as she turns back around. Meia says, "Quit it Kagen." Kagen silently drops down beside her and tickles her saying, "Ok, I stopped hiding." Meia is giggling and barely manages to say, "Stop it." Kagen immediately stops and says, "No, really I need to talk to you about something." Meia stops giggling, turns to face him, and with a halfway wavering voice asks, "And what do you want to talk to me about?"

Kagen says, "I'm intrigued by that thing on your face." Meia points to her ornament and asks, "This? What are you trying to say?" Kagen says, "Well I thought I'd ask you. Could I maybe examine it?" Meia says, "It will have to be somewhere private." Kagen says, "Where? I'll let you decide." Meia turns away to hide her blush and says, "How about my room?" Kagen says, "Ok, let's go." Meia stops blushing and asks, "Where is Paiway? She usually has popped up by now." Kagen says, "Don't worry about her. I gave her plenty to think about. Don't ask. Let's just go." Meia lifts an eyebrow but leaves it at that.

In Meia's room

Meia reaches up with a sigh and removes her ornament and hands it to Kagen.

Kagen then carefully turns it over and over looking at every inch of it until he finds what he is looking for.

"It is as I thought. This is no mere face ornament. This is a human-dread interface. Or at least part of a set. All it needs is a new power pack."

He puts it down on her night stand and takes a good look at her.

"Wow. You really are beautiful without that ornament."

Meia blushes and looks down in an attempt to hide it. Kagen then notices the hidden cam and mic.

"Now, Paiway you know that you shouldn't spy on Meia like this." He pulls the wires and returns to where he was sitting on the bed. Meia had looked up when he had gotten off the bed. She asks, "How did you know the cam was there?"

Kagen shrugs and says, "I just had a feeling, and I followed it. Well I don't want to impose on you so I guess I'll leave." Kagen gets up and walks to the door. Meia says, "Wait! I didn't tell you to leave yet." She gets up, closes the door and locks it. Kagen unworriedly asks, "What are you doing?" Meia walks up to him and says, "Well I have some feelings and I'm going to follow them." She then kisses him for about a minute, opens the door and pushes him out. As soon as she closed the door she heard a loud thump as Kagen falls flat on his back. Meia opens her door and sees Kagen passed out on his back with a nose bleed. Meia then drags him in and puts him on the bed and treats his nosebleed. Then she says, "Wait, where am I going to sleep?" She shrugs, gets in the other side of the bed, and turns out the light.

I know it is a cliff hanger but when I first wrote it I didn't pay attention to how long the 10th chapter would be so I split it into the 10th and the 11th Chapters. Please review. I hate ROMs. Any review is better than no review. I don't care what you write in it. Just review.