Shion entered her cabin feeling tired, perplexed and empty. Again, someone else had died beyond her control. First it was the accidental death of Virgil, and now Cherenkov. However, before the commander could ultimately disappear and fade non-existentially. Shion found herself at the Beach of Nothingness, and thus saw him standing before the ocean's shore.
But she couldn't say anything, since the words themselves would not come out.
In frustration her nails dug deep into the grains of sand, and dragged them across hoping to somehow release the tension she felt. But after a while Cherenkov spoke, once he noticed how guilty she felt. "There really is no need to feel liable, my conscious decisions alongside the laws of the universe- brought me here."
Shion's head lifted once she heard approaching footsteps, that crunched against the sand. Cherenkov sat beside her, with closed eyes he deeply reflected back upon what happened prior. "It's funny, you'd think that being so alone would be terrifying… but it's peaceful here, it's quiet."
"I don't hear the sounds of gunfire anymore, my mind it feels- clear."
With a nod Shion briefly turned towards him, with her hands wrapped around her legs before she looked towards the sky.
"You used to be a soldier during the Militan Conflict right, did you feel happiness, fear... or guilt for those who you couldn't save?"
The commander shook his head, unable to give a proper answer. "I don't know what I feel, to be completely honest."
"But I know that the ones that had fallen during the warfare, they'd come here."
"I feel like that this place is in-between the Upper domain, and the lower one."
"It makes sense. How can the dead merely rest, if there isn't a place to go to?"
"That's my answer, as to why I'm not afraid. Shion."
After Cherenkov spoke his last words everything started to disappear, the beach and the water faded into nothing- truly symbolizing it's name.
It was a void of which manifested itself as a beach, and it wasn't the final resting place akin to the likes of Heaven.
It was a purgatory that merely pretended to radiate a sense of serenity, and unbeknownst to the dead that walked there they were being judged "accordingly".
With a groan of discomfort Shion awoke once her bedroom illuminated itself in light, thanks to surprisingly chaos.
"You look a little pale there Shion, what's the matter?" The boy spoke, before he sat at the edge of her bed. The engineer moved a little to the side, enough so she'd be able to speak with him. Still, even though she knew that she could trust him she felt hesitant to open up. It was how she was, especially after her parents had died.
Teal eyes squint trying to get used of the brightness of the room, "I'm fine it's nothing I just- had a dream that's all. A white brow suddenly went up in concerned curiosity. "A dream, what sort of dream?" Shion reflected for a moment, remembering every word that Cherenkov said to her before it all faded.
In hesitance she spoke, emphasizing the name of who she dreamt of last. "I had a dream that I talked to... Cherenkov." With a shake of his head, Chaos turned towards her after he thought to himself. "There really isn't anything wrong with dreaming about the dead Shion, especially since his death happened only just a few days ago."
"Maybe, it's your minds way of grieving, of saying goodbye." It sure sounded crazy but it made sense, the more she thought about it. Shion had grieved for so many people, and for such a long time. It sounded right, that her mind would eventually try mend itself somehow on it's alone naturally.
After a sigh escaped her, Shion stood up and accepted his supposition.
Once the two had finished their discussion Shion headed off to find MOMO, to start off the tour around the Elsa's various floors.
When she arrived at the restaurant area of the cargo ship, she saw expected to find MOMO but instead found Jr. on his own.
Curious as to who he was Shion grabbed a bottle of water, and sat beside him once she had ordered her curry. "Have we met before?" For a moment Jr. looked at her, trying to remember if he'd spoken to her yet. With a shrug and a shake of his head, the U.R.T.V came to a conclusion. "Nuh-huh, but I have seen you before- a couple of times at least." With a hand out towards her, Jr. formed a handshake with Shion across the table. "The names Gaignun Kukai Jr., I was... meaning to kinda' talk to you actually." Shion disagreed, not taking offence to his introduction being tardy and procrastinated. "No, no it's fine, it can be hard being punctual."
"Especially since how big of an organisation the Foundation is, I can only imagine that you'd be flat out constantly with work." "W-wow, you sure know a lot about me even though this is our first meeting..." "I guess word about the Foundation has spread pretty quickly, after-all we are one of the top organisations right now."
"But in regards to engineering and all that, that would totally go to Vector." Shion's eyes widened, once she heard her workplace's name. "So, you know about us huh?" With a smile and a nod Jr. agreed, "Of course, Vector are well known around here for developing sophisticated weaponry." "I even use a few of their weapons now and then." "Ah, but the Volans series of pistols they're pretty popular." "Even the A.G.W.S parts shop has sold those out in less than a week!"
The U.R.T.V froze for a moment, upon realizing how much he bragged. "...The competition doesn't faze me at all, I prefer the community side of things." After Shion ate few more spoonfuls, she replied with an agreed smile. "Of course. I feel the same way too, I mean we've got to work together if we want to survive being out here after all." Jr. survived many scenarios once, and knew without a doubt what it was like to lose a loved one.
He knew well of what happened to the Woglinde, and a few of the Vector staff workers too.
Some failed to reach the escape pods in time, whilst others were brutally murdered by the Gnosis.
Just by the nick of time the android appeared, if it wasn't for her sudden awakening- Shion would've easily died.
Shion swore that she could feel her body crystallise into sodium chloride, once the "Golem" lifted her up.
But undeniably what she did see was a young girl that stood beside her, that showed no expression whatsoever.
But she didn't tell anyone of her discovery during the incident, as they would've merely dismissed it as her imagination.
Meanwhile on the Elsa's bridge Matthews finished his ninth bottle of his favourite beer, the "Matthews Special".
It was made by ADONIS a robot specialised in bartendering, from it's looks and even deep into it's programming ADONIS was truly built to perfectly represent the job as well.
Slacking off as per usual was Hammer, with his head against the Elsa's navigation keys.
The ships helmsman Tony personally didn't care, Matthews was drunk so he couldn't give out orders and well the latter… was asleep on the job.
If only the captain was fully aware, he'd be pissed off beyond belief.
Luckily once Matthews started to become sober, his sight changed to see the bridge's partition doors open.
On the other side was chaos, who walked forward with his arms casually against his head.
With his bright smile and keenly-focused eyes, chaos prepared himself for his duties. "What shall I do today, does the catapult need to be checked again, Matthews?"
Once his boozer hat was removed, the captain shook his head at the boy's assumption. "Nah nothing like that, we need the exact coordinates for Second Militia- you know the place Shion that mentioned earlier?"
"Of course." chaos spoke with confidence whilst he typed, in a matter of seconds multiple shots of the said planet were shown in great detail.
Once chaos zoomed past the other crafts and ships, the said planet was shown rather beautifully.
From what the many shots had shown, Second Militia was the biggest city to date at the time.
Not before long it's capital was shown the screen as well, Mitrei.
It didn't matter how the planet was viewed albeit from land or from outer-space, it's beauty unmatched.
It sounded rather humorous when chaos thought to himself, how can anything planetary hold a characteristic such as beauty?
Before he could question it further their screen flashed a transmission request, that originated from coincidentally- Second Militia.
Just as chaos' finger went forward to accept the transmission, Shion and crew arrived just in time.
His finger pushed down to reveal Helmer, alongside Gaignun on the second visualised screen.
The representative cleared his throat with closed eyes, however once he gathered his thoughts Jr. noticed that he seemed rather apprehensive.
"I'm afraid that I don't bring good news, but before I begin."
"I do apologise to for troubling you all with such a grave status report."
For a moment Helmer turned away, almost hesitation to continue talking. "But I knew that someday, something would undoubtedly happen."
With a hand on his waist Jr. stepped forward, utterly confused as to why a problem would even arise. Not before long the Durandal fought back against a few of U-TIC's battleships. "That's weird, I thought we had no signs of the enemy anywhere…" Within a seconds, an awful "realisation" suddenly hit him. "Damn' it, don't tell me Petita is gettin' rusty..!"
Once Gaignun heard his brother speak he merely shook his head, knowing well what the "actual" cause was. "Not quite, it wasn't the Durandal's fault."
"A few moments ago one of our realians were able to discover a small U-TIC base, nearby Second Militia itself."'
Impressed by the realian's display of perceptiveness, Jr. folded his arms over with a nod. "Damn' and here I thought we stopped those bastards, at least enough to slow em' down."
Shion's eyes looked up towards the two transmissions with a nod, however she was also worried at the fact that there was no telling if sub-weaponry was stored inside. It was known that U-TIC were relentless, whenever it came to retaliation.
"If we don't destroy the base, then they'll be able to predict our every move, right?" With folded arms Gaignun agreed ."Correct, but I'd advise to depart shortly once everything is in order."
Once the group nodded the two transmissions switched off to leave Matthews, wondering how to even reach the station itself.
However before he could the likes of Hammer or chaos, the screen zoomed in and showed a docking station nearby the station.
It's location was perfect, due to being located to the station's side entrance instead of it's main one.
With less detection meant that the group could easily bypass the many soldiers along the way, but even then they still didn't fully know what resided inside.
Unable to use their A.G.W.S's craft combat was completely unusable, even the likes of KOS-MOS or Ziggy would struggle fighting against a foe much larger than them.
Shion nodded with confirmation once the captain had turned around, and within seconds Tony recklessly flew the Elsa forward.
Rapid lazer fire had started to spread forward almost hitting the luxury cruiser's side, with a few swift dodges the Elsa counter back with gatling fire.
Tony of course flew recklessly enough for the ship to turn slightly to the left, causing the standing crew to lurch.
Shion fell backwards but luckily in the nick of time Jr. grabbed her hand, thus he pulled her upward once the ship resumed normal flight.
Once the Elsa stopped the crew walked to the ship's entrance, once it's doors had opened they were met with the base's entrance.
Blowing the base's main circuit of course wasn't going to be an easy task, from every room and every corner were reinforcements.
It was strange, since they were so sure that the side entrance would've been the best way to enter inside.
There was truly no way would they be able easily walk by, without any guns being pointed towards their heads.
Confidently, Jr. spoke with his firearms to his sides. "Let's blow this place up then get the hell outta' here!" The others nodded before their pace changed into a run, one by one a few doors rapidly opened before a large room was revealed before them.
With Jr.'s back against the wall he peeped back to see a few soldiers, aimed with machine guns.
MOMO's chest sunk deep once she heard one of them speak, the terror that she conveyed was apparent enough to make a few of her allies' head's turn.
"Can't believe we let that damn' realian go, then one of our comrades gets killed in front of us!"
His associate went aback in utter confusion. "Wait, killed... who killed them?"
The taller solider shrugged before he reloaded his firearm. "Dunno but when I arrived I only saw some pretty serious stab wounds to the chest and arms."
With gritted teeth of annoyance Jr. shook his head, aware that it wasn't just U-TIC along them inside. "So, someone else is inside this place, huh?"
"I can't even think who it would even be, since U-TIC wouldn't just recruit anyone..." "I... I think it's best that we split up." Shion's eyes suddenly widened, "Split up? isn't that a bit dangerous?" The U.R.T.V shook his head, before he reloaded some ether into his guns. "I won't go far I'm just surveying the area for anything else further ahead, and besides Ziggy needs to protect MOMO, doesn't he?"
He shook his head once more, before taking a wider look around the area.
"We'll have the upper-hand that way."
Sneakily Jr. side-stepped with his back against the walls, constantly keeping his eyes ahead to not get detected.
With MOMO's hands against her chest, she hoped that he'd return unharmed.
It only took a matter seconds until Jr. could no longer be seen, once Jr. reached the other side the partition doors slid open... enough to attract a couple of guards.
"That red boy, you saw him right?"
"Yeah of course I did, isn't he the one that we were warned about- the one who's also wanting that girl?"
The two guards left their posts and ran towards Jr.'s direction, with pointed guns they opened fire from a distance attempting to slow the U.R.T.V down.
Jr. heavily panted whilst he ran immediately his heart beated in immense adrenaline, he turned his head back to see the approaching guns alongside the lightning quick gun-fire.
The first couple of shots missed completely buying the U.R.T.V enough time to draw out his own firearms, with a double tap Jr. countered back with a cocky smile.
"Heh, this is gonna be fun, come on I can take you two on!"
Rapidly he opened fire with various types of advanced gun-play, from double taps to simple rapid fire the guards were slowed down.
However before Jr. could reached the door unharmed one of the guards shot a bullet so fast it was unavoidable, loudly Jr. called out with clenched teeth.
His small frame fell forward before it slid across the floor, briefly once he looked back the doors locked themselves.
"You've gotta' be kidding me, now I'm stuck here..!?"
Before he could consider a plan to find a way out of the storage room, the U.R.T.V heard approaching footsteps from behind himself.
Once the others were spotted Ziggy pulled back his fist, enough to generate fiery punch.
Before the soldiers could even get the chance to pull out their firearms, the cyborg round-house kicked before he unleashed a hard blow towards their faces.
In an instant the two were knocked out cold, once he turned around he saw MOMO deal the final blow with her rod.
A ether star was smashed into a few mechanical crabs, and with a spinning blow a floral blade was released.
The Floral Tempest cut through a great number of guards, enough to even worry the realian herself.
MOMO didn't like to fight nor was she skilled at doing it either, she greatly preferred to heal her allies instead.
Being on the side-lines also ensured her safety, she was weaker compared to the others there was only so much that she could endue before she would tire out.
When the area was deemed relatively safe, Shion threaded her fingers through her brown hair wondering why Jr. was taking so long to come back.
"He said that we was only looking through the area then he'd be coming back.. what's going on?"
Ziggy stepped forward once he flicked his wrist a couple of times. "Perhaps, he was caught on the way there?"
"In that case- we'll need to head down." Before the two could take a few steps, chaos shook his head. "Jr. wouldn't lie to us, I'm sure he's fine."
"Maybe, we should give him some more time?"
Meanwhile in one of the storage rooms Jr. scowled once the shadow loomed to appear much clearer than before, enough to show that there was a great height difference in comparison to his much shorter stature.
However before Jr.'s eyes could squint to see clearer, the shadow abruptly disappeared from his sight altogether.
He felt no reassurance whatsoever only trepidation, only a strange sense of familiarity.
It didn't take long for the heart palpitations to start, once the dread had set itself in.
The immense feeling of premonition quickly entered his mind enough, for his past instincts to kick in.
The awful familiarity started to crawl across his skin enough for his spine to shiver, Jr. couldn't remember the last time that he felt afraid.
Weakly he stood up unaware that his leg was heavily bleeding, with a few pained groans Jr. walked forward however not before long he stumbled back onto the ground again.
It didn't help that his right leg was unusable but even worse his mind was irrational, too focused on trying to control his mind from the inundating fear.
To catch his breath Jr. pressed his hands firmly against the cold wall, attempting to control his heartbeat first.
Before he calm himself down, he felt a unsettling warmth go across his neck.
But in a matter of seconds Jr.'s small frame was slammed against the wall, upon his back making impact Jr. called out with a loud yell.
Jr. swore to god that he felt his spine almost break, and his leg dislocate even further.
Slowly and carefully his eyes opened to see Gaignun's shadow cast upon the wall, much to his surprise he sighed in relief.
The fear that came from the ambiguity slowly dissipated, enough for his body untense itself.
"I wasn't expecting you to be here, you should've told me that you felt a little irritated too."
"After-all, I barely get to repay the favour."
Before getting the chance to turn around the pair of hands went down Jr.'s hips, ultimately changing towards the redhead's chest.
Gaignun had touched around his chest before, but never like this. It was merely out of character.
His fingernails suddenly clawed deeply into his flesh, enough until Jr.'s face twisted into a winced expression.
With clenched teeth Jr. called out not in pleasure but in pain, he panted whilst he tried to push his body away from the wall- wanting it all to stop.
But "Gaignun" didn't stop normally if he went too far he would, he always would.
Before Jr. could call out his name he at least caught a quick glimpse of who was behind him, his heart almost stopped beating.
The end of his brother's nose traced up his back, and before getting close enough to his to face.
Finally he deeply "inhaled" the aggressive scent that Jr. always radiated. "Y-you... bastard..!"
Before Jr. could squirm away he called out upon feeling the same strength overpower him, enough to pin down onto the ground.
With squinted eyes the U.R.T.V saw his deranged twin instead, albeit a whole lot older aged around his mid-twenties.
Despite feeling immensely pissed off, Jr. couldn't keep his eyes away from his twin's ones.
They were exploitive, daring and contemptuous, no different to the same pair that he saw fourteen years ago.
"How delicious the rancour that we share, there is no one that can quite wage war as perfectly as you, Rubedo." God that whisper was enough to send a few shivers down his spine, especially once his saccharine smile spread.
Albedo loved the situation wholly just seeing his twin so afraid, so small. It was what he wanted for so long, to show that he wasn't that "weak and pathetic clingy boy" Jr. once knew fourteen years ago.
However once Albedo saw Jr. clench his teeth he only got worse, much worse. He got turned on by the amount of ferocity in his twin's eyes, especially once his hands had balled themselves into the tightest of fists.
At long last Jr. laid his eyes on him his abandoned brother, with a deep breath he spoke. "A-Albedo, what are you doing here... what do you want with me?"
Progressively his twin got uncomfortably close, enough for his face to be merely inches away. Such a question sounded so amusing, enough for him to darkly chuckle.
"Ever since then, I've only ever wanted you, Rubedo."
Hearing such a awful response had made his heart almost stop, especially once Albedo's wavelength started to resonate.
His voice turned into a whisper, and a amused one at that. "Ah, but do you still love me I wonder...?" For a moment he laughed enough to ring and violate inside Jr.'s eardrums, with his eyes also eager and daring. "Come on, if you love Nigredo so much surely you'd want to do the same to me?"
Jr. snarled pissed off beyond belief that he'd bring Gaignun of all people into this, "You bastard, why would I do anything for you!" With a sick smile, Albedo disagreed. "That my dearest is the best part, you'd do anything for me."
"You'd even do it for "her", wouldn't you?"
Without an answer, Jr. turned away with clenched teeth.
Trying to resist the urge, to strike Albedo across the face. "D-Damn' it!"
Raucous laughter suddenly echoed in his ears once again, albeit much harsher.
"How touching, you've developed a "attachment" towards a emotionless little doll!"
"But I can easily break her too. You know."
The usual threat of MOMO's safety, was always enough to entice some sort of violent reaction back.
But instead Jr. only stood in slience, when his eyes had re-opened themselves the red twin eventually sighed.
The anger that beated hard inside his chest, slowly started to die down like a burning flame extinguished by water.
Jr. knew well of what Albedo wanted, and there's no avoiding it either- the favour had to be owed.
"Make it quick, I don't want you laying a single damn' finger on her." Just hearing his consent, made Albedo's expression predatory and even more obsessive.
" You're far too kind my le plus cher, letting me have my way."