Chapter Eleven: Lost in Cathedral Ship

It happened again...

Everything went dark...did I do this...?

No...it's something else...something far worse.

Shane opened her eyes and woke up to similar surroundings she was in before. ''Oh, snap.'' She stood up, holding her head. ''I'm in a Cathedral Ship gnosis. Again,'' she said to herself. This must be Ariadne, or was...damnit, Cherenkov--wait! She bit her bottom lip and looked around. She heard the nearby noises of smaller gnosis who were waiting for their next meal.

Mmph, better get going...I got a date with that crazy bastard.

Shane walked down different paths, running away from any gnosis who saw her. ''UWAHHH!!!'' She slid down a slippery slope and landed face first into the ground. ''..Ow...someone save me.'' She closed her eyes to see images of her family eating breakfast. A gruff man with black hair that was greying sat at the head of the table along with Shane, a little girl with black pigtails, and a woman with shoulder-length black hair.

''Hey, you little creep! Give it back!''

''No, it's mine, Shane!''

''Knock it off, Shane! Don't argue with your sister!'' The woman said.

Shane folded her arms, leaning back in her chair. ''...Kiara started it.''

''I don't want to hear it anymore. Now finish eating your breakfast,'' her mother told her.

The images ended when Shane looked up from the ground and stood up. ''Those images...am I feeling guilty?'' She placed a hand against her chest. She remembered the explosion and the light but after that...Shane glanced up as she gritted her teeth.

''Damnit! This is no time for regret! I gotta get the hell outta here!''

''So this is a Cathedral Ship… It does feel like we're inside a ship, but it certainly doesn't look like anything that belongs to the Federation…'' Ziggy said outloud. Shion's group were in another area of the large gnosis, looking for the Elsa and for her. Possibly. ''Could it be an alien ship?''

''I wonder…'' Shion looked over to a nearby figure and pointed at it. ''Look…over there.''

''What is it? A sign or something?'' chaos looked at the figure, straining his eyes. ''Hey, it's written in English,'' MOMO pointed out. It was the billboard with a fish on the front. ''But this is odd… It doesn't look like it's stuck on the wall… Doesn't it look more like a part of the wall itself?''

''Are you saying this sign is part of the Gnosis? How could that be…''

''Take a look around… That's not the only one. There's a lot a other stuff here, too,'' the white haired boy said. ''Are we really inside a Gnosis…?''

Shion closed her eyes and saw an image of the girl in black and white.

''Hurry! He'll be gone soon!''

The Vector employee shook her head then clapped her hands in her face, pulling herself together. ''What, did you find something?'' Shion looked up at the blonde cyborg. ''Huh…Uh, no, no, it's…it's nothing…'' She looked down at the ground. That girl again…? What does she have to do with this place? Also...what happened to Shane?

Shane had found an area where the buildings were still intact but windows were broken and walkways were broken or were about to break under the weight. She took off her boots and rubbed her feet gently. ''Geez...I don't see how Shion walks in her boots.'' She laid back against the steel floor, looking up at the ceiling. She closed her eyes again as the images came flooding back.

Shane walked through the woods with two dogs following beside her. She was bare-foot, carrying her black tennis shoes in her hand. She was humming the first opening theme to Blood as she stopped, looking up at the sky to see a plane passing overhead.

''Another plane...of existance...''

She opened her eyes again to reveal that they were of the red-violet hue Shion saw before. ''...Where I belong...?''

''It looks like…we've arrived at the center…''

Shion's group came to a large area that was shaped weirdly. They walked to the center, looking up at a gigantic thing that resembled the Zohar. ''What is that?'' Shion asked aloud. ''A building? Or maybe some sort of device…''

''What do you mean?''

chaos shook his head slowly. ''I don't know, it's just…''

''Yes…?'' She looked at him.

''Well, if this is really the center, it's possible that it may be of some importance to the Gnosis… But this, of course, is from our frame of reference, so we could be completely mistaken.''

''In other words, if that is a man-made object, it could be a ship or some other wreckage that was swallowed just as we were,'' Ziggy said as he looked up at the object. MOMO held her hands up to her face, trembling. ''What about us…? Are we gonna end up like that too?''

''We'll be sure to get out of here before that happens.'' Shion turned to look at KOS-MOS. ''KOS-MOS, what's the Elsa's current position?''

''Location unknown. I have lost its signal,'' she said.

''Lost…?''

KOS-MOS nodded some and continued her anaylsis. ''The Gnosis' magnetic and gravitational fields have become unstable near the center. The last known coordinates point to a location on the lower level, 300 meters below our present position.''

''That's pretty close? Shall we go?''

''Yes. Let's just hope the Elsa isn't in the same condition as the wreckage around here.''

The group moved onto the next area. They reached an office area and went down a large elevator to the bottom. There, the group unlocked a large door which said 'Locked' and went inside the next area. The group looked around the room then glanced up to see a large, golden pillar.

''Shion! Look at that…'' chaos said in awe. ''…The Zohar?''

''We must go.'' KOS-MOS stepped forward towards the Zohar. Shion followed after the android. ''Hey, KOS-MOS, wait! Don't you go off on your own…I don't recall programming her that way. But what's the Zohar doing here…?'' The red-eyed girl looked up at the pillar with calculating eyes.

''I have confirmed that this object can be identified with a 99.99998 probability, to be the Zohar Emulator that was stored onboard the Woglinde.''

''An emulator? Are you saying a real one exists somewhere else?'' The Vector employee asked.

''Affirmative.''

''Affirmative…? KOS-MOS, how do you know all of this? I never stored any type of information like that in your main databank…'' Shion looked at KOS-MOS with a confused look. ''You…you're the creator of that thing… And yet…you didn't even know about that…?'' Everyone looked over at Commander Cherenkov who had arrived, but his condition wasn't that good.

The Vector employee ran over to him. ''Commander Cherenkov! Are you all right?! Let's get out of…!'' She gasped as the commander suddenly turned partially invisible, reacting badly.

''Commander… Your body's…?!''

''Escape? What are you talking about? You think you'll survive…through something like this…?'' He moved past Shion and moved closer to the Zohar Emulator. ''That's right…I…I was the one behind the disappearance of the planet Ariadne…'' The commander confessed. ''All that mattered was the recovery of the Emulator. That was the reason behind the deployment of Vector and the military. They were really only pawns… But in spite of all that…'' He looked up at the Zohar Emulator then gasped in complete horror as he waved his arms in front of him. The group watched the commander who was horrified at an unknown entity.

''G-go away!! Don't come near me!'' Cherenkov said in a terrified voice. ''You were the ones who rejected me! So why are you bothering me now…?!'' He fell down onto the floor and screamed. ''Noooo!!'' The group watched in both shock and fear as an mysterious entity picked up the commander from the floor and into the air. The air around him was blurred and distorted. Ghost-like beings flew around the group as they flew into Cherenkov's body.

''W-What…is that…?''

''All photon, lepton, hadron, and graviton scans read negative.''

''Then what is it that we're seeing?!'' Shion said in a panicked voice. Everyone watched in horror as Cherenkov transformed into a beast-like gnosis.

''Oh, no!'' The doors hissed as they slid open. Ziggy and chaos turned around to see Shane who was breathing heavily from running. ''Damn...I'm too late!''

''I sense…?! It's a Gnosis!!'' Ziggy looked back at the gnosis then remembered his past and how the event was similar to what it is now. ''It's the same…just like that day…'' he said to himself.

Chapter Eleven: End. (Told ya it was going to get interesting. We took a look back on Shane's past before the events of the story. Who knows, maybe she isn't human? 0.o Please R & R. Maybe you'll get fan service in Chp. 12.)