Down in the lower floor of the Elsa, way after the others had left to sleep, Shion still sits at a consol looking over the data on Kos-mos' new body. The outer framework for her new limbs was all but done, and they had even gotten started on what wiring and such they could make without the proper electrical supplies.
The soft light of the screen lights up Shion's face and reflects slightly off her glasses, numbers, codes, and percentages flash by as she scrolls through a list of information.
As the symbols continue to flash by they began to mean less and less to her. Her eyes blink more often and reopen slower and slower, and Shion does her best to focus on the strings of information, but fatigue begins to overtake her.
Shion doesn't even notice that she has closed her eyes, as she'd already begun to daydream. She dreams back to a time very long ago, she's playing outside with her mother, back before she fell into a coma Shion and her mom loved to go to the park by their house. She would take the opportunity to show Shion all the beautiful flowers and plants that grew there.
"Shion, my dear," she says soft and sweetly, "do you see these flowers here?"
"Yeah, they're so pretty! And they're all so many different colors too!"
Aoi laughs softly at her daughter's enthusiasm, "yes they are pretty aren't they? These flowers are actually really important, you know."
"They are?"
"Yew, they sure are! It's like just now when you pointed out how pretty these flowers are, flowers are so beautiful and they make people happy when they see them." Aoi's voice, while quiet, is full of enthusiasm. She was very passionate about botany and she loved sharing her passion with her family, her and Jin even had a lovely garden they took care of together before he left to join the military.
Shion loved visiting the park with her mother, but after a while it became harder and harder for Aoi to be able to go outside with Shion. Her fainting spells became more frequent, she was constantly tired, her mind would wander constantly, and then one day she simply didn't wake up.
Shion felt tears prick at her eyes as she remembers that day, her mother had been napping when Shion snuck in to ask her mom if she'd like to go to the park. But Aoi didn't answer, she didn't move, she didn't do anything, she simply laid there. Shion didn't know what to do, she panicked yelling and begging her mother to get up.
Mom...
It was so sad and scary to see her mother like that, and even worse when Shion knew she was gone for good. And she remembered distinctly how scared she had been when Kevin had revealed to her that she had the same ailment as her mother. That one day she would simply go into comatose until she eventually died...
Her life had been hard and relentless, yes, but she still hadn't wanted it to end yet. She didn't want to go yet...
I can't go yet...
I have to wake up.
I have to wake up.
I have to-
Shion awakes with a jolt, her vision was a bit blurred due to the tears in her eyes, but she can tell she's still in the lab on the Elsa right where she had fallen asleep. The monitor in front of her now displays a long string of 'j's from where her arm had been resting on the keyboard.
With a just few sniffles Shion wipes her eyes and deletes the string of letters from Kos-mos' coding.
I should probably go back to my room and sleep...
Slowly she gets up from her chair, but rather than walking to the door she wanders over to Kos-mos' dimly lit pod.
I just want to see her once more before I go.
The pod is already open from when they were working on repairs earlier so Shion can just walk right up to it. Kos-mos was still in a pretty sad state, but it was nice to see the progress that was being made on her repairs. With any luck she would be up and functioning again once they got to Lost Jerusalem.
Shion smiles at her, gently moving a few strands of blue hair out of her face. "Goodnight Kos-mos, we'll see each other again real soon."
"And I'm sure she'll be happy about that."
Shion whips around to where the voice came from, it had caught her off guard partially because she didn't expect anyone else to be down her, but also partially because of the fact that it sounded distinctly like someone she knew. "C- Chaos!?"
Sure enough Chaos was standing right there, the dim light reflected off him in an eerie and unnatural sort of way. But otherwise he looked just the same as always, with his usual outfit on and a big smile on his face.
"It's good to see you Shion, how have you been doing these past few months?"
She couldn't believe her eyes, they had left Chaos back on Michtam and now he was just suddenly here. And after magically appearing in front of her after, supposedly, dying and being gone for months he's just... Making small talk... "Chaos, how are- How did- Where have- How are you here right now?"
"Getting to places I need to be is just something I'm really good at. Don't you remember what I said, about everyone having something they excel at above everything else?" Chaos has a sad smile on his face as he speaks to her, "but I suppose... That was a long time ago now..."
Shion doesn't say anything, she just stands there staring at her friend completely baffled. With all the thoughts and emotions that swirl around her head she simply ends up too confused to do much. "Chaos... I have so many questions... But I, uh... It's good to see you again too. It's been so long..."
"I'm so glad to see you again too, but unfortunately I don't have too much time to talk. I just needed to tell you something important about our homeworld before you land there. You see while Nephilim and I were able to tame many of the gnosis, many of those wills still remain and now wander around Lost Jerusalem where we've managed to contain them." Chaos shakes his head lightly, "it certainly will be difficult to get around with them wandering about, I wish we could have done more."
"Wait... Does that mean that... We've found it?"
"Yes, in fact you should be receiving word about it right abooooout-"
As if Chaos had planned the entire thing the intercom suddenly switches on, and Hammer's voice can be heard through it. "Crrrzchh, attention passengers, this is your captain speaking. I hope you're all cozy this fine evening, if you look to your right you'll see- OUCH!"
A more distant and quiet voice of Matthews cuts Hammer off. "Ya moron, just get hurry up and get on with it. Stop wasting everyone's time trying to sound like some old timey pilot or whatever!"
"Ugh, alright jeez. We've just arrived at a new planet, we're gonna go in for a closer look and maybe even find a place to land. Come up to the helm of the ship if you want to take a look."
The intercom switches off with a 'click' and Chaos finishes his sentence, "-now."
"We've finally- After all this time we've finally found it!" Shion can't help but get excited at this news, things were finally starting to look up for them. "Chaos, this is great-" Shion only took her eyes off Chaos for a second, but when she turns back he isn't there anymore. "Chaos? Where did you go?" She couldn't believe he'd just leave again like that, and so soon after he got back...
"Don't worry Shion," Chaos' voice echoes from all around her, "I'll see you again soon. Look for me once you land on Lost Jerusalem."
"Right, I'll see you soon Chaos." Chaos' words put Shion at ease, and now she can focus on the situation at hand. She gives Kos-mos one last look before deciding to make her way to the helm of the ship.
Tony, Hammer, and the captain barely pay Shion any notice when she steps into the room. The lights had been dimmed slightly, Tony is sipping on an energy drink as he half heartedly navigates the ship into position to land on the planet, Hammer appears to have pre-recorded tv show playing on a large holographic monitor in front of him, and captain Matthews is half paying attention to whatever Hammer is watching but also half falling asleep.
Shion knew the others couldn't have known that they had just found Lost Jerusalem, but she at least expected them to be just a bit more lively than this. She doesn't want to make too big of a fuss, however, so she just makes her way over to the copilot's seat and attempts to make conversation with the others.
"So, I'm guessing it was a long day for you guys too." Hammer and Matthews both groan, confirming her statement.
"Yeah, because this moron-" Matthews gestures towards Tony, "-suggested that we stay up ALL NIGHT just so we could reach this one planet."
"Hey, you said yourself it wouldn't make sense to just wait out here in space when a planet was so close by." Tony retorts back as he gestured back at Matthews, nearly knocking his drink off the table in the process. "Besides it was you guys that suggested we stay the night there so we don't waste our oxygen reserves."
"Yeah but at least I know when to call it quits, we've been up for hours now and at this point I would've rather just stayed back where we found our little android girl."
"He does have a point ya know," Hammer says through a yawn. Tony doesn't even bother responding to them anymore and the two of them just go back to watching their show.
"So have you been up this entire time too?" Tony turns back to talk with Shion some more rather than arguing with his crew mates.
Shion nods, "I ended up dozing off for a little bit, but otherwise I've been up all night. We already finished the framework for Kos-mos' new limbs, but I wanted to stay up a bit longer than the others so I could start working on programming a new weapons system for her."
"You guys work pretty fast, huh."
"Well that's what happens when you have four brilliant robotics scientists on your ship."
Hammer lets out a light chuckle, "I'm not sure 'brilliant' is the first word I'd use to describe Allen."
"Hey be nice," Shion cuts in over Hammer and Tony's laughter, "Allen may be a bit of a complainer, but he's still really smart. After all you didn't get put in vector's 1st R&D division for nothing." She shakes her head disapprovingly at her two friends that are still chuckling.
"Well we're going to break the atmosphere now so it might get a little bit bumpy."
Shion nods and pushes her seat a bit closer to the console so she doesn't fall over. With most new ships things like turbulence had ceased to be a problem, but some of the smaller ones still ended up getting it when entering planet's atmospheres.
"So..." Hammer turns down the volume of his show a bit so they can converse easily, "what are everyone's bets on this actually being lost jerusalem?"
Shion smiles at Hammer's question, "oh I don't need to bet, because I KNOW that this is lost jerusalem."
"Oh really? What makes you say that? Did your gut tell you a prophecy like the little master?"
"Pffhahaha, no of course not, don't be silly. I was downstairs working on Kos-mos when I was told by an astral projection of Chaos that- okay now that I'm saying this out loud it sounds even more ridiculous." Shion continuously blushes more and more as she tries to recap what happened without sounding like her sleep deprivation had made her loopy. Failing miserably every single time.
"So... Let me get this straight," Hammer cuts into Shion's rambles, "you've been working on Kos-mos for about, what? 13 hours now? And all of the sudden chaos' ghost shows up and tells you that this is lost jerusalem?"
"I believe her."
"Okay well it looks like Tony's been up a little too long as well."
"Hey you can doubt me all you want, but let's be honest weirder things have happened."
"Thanks Tony," Shion sighs, glad someone actually believes her. "It sounds crazy I know, but I really believe this is the place."
Shion grips the console for a moment as the elsa hits some turbulence on it's last descent into the atmosphere. After a few moments of seeing nothing but clouds the planet's actual terrain comes into view. It's difficult to make out any specifics from how high up they are, but Shion imagines that the the tropical looking forest next to the beach they're making their way towards would be as pretty as she hoped.
The sights as they made their descent certainly were beautiful, but Shion couldn't help but notice that there was something a bit odd about this planet. It was unsettlingly empty, as if it was completely void of life. Even though they hadn't found almost any large civilizations during their search, most of the planets they landed the elsa on at least had some animals. This planet, however, had no sign of any birds traveling the skies and even as the elsa slowed to land in a small empty field in the forest there wasn't a single animal scurrying away into hiding.
The landing went as smoothly as it possibly could have but still Shion shifts uncomfortably in her seat, "hey um... Am I the only one that has a bit of a bad feeling about this?"
"What? Weren't you excited to be here just 2 minutes ago?" Hammer looks toward Shion puzzled, "I swear you're all over the place sometimes you know that." Hammer continues rambling about everyone changing their mind constantly, or being tired, or some other shit no one else cared about.
"So, Shion, what's the reason you're feeling so uneasy?" Tony's hesitant to turn off the elsa yet, "was it something Chaos said?"
"He did mention that there were some leftover gnosis trapped here," she had gotten up to stand next to Tony all while watching closely out the front window, "but I don't imagine there'd be too much..."
"Well in any case," Matthews slowly lowers his seat so he can get down, "we should probably be careful. Hey Tony since it was YOUR idea to stay up so late maybe you should be the one to watch the shi-"
Matthews is cut off by the distant howl of a beast, presumably a gnosis, and soon afterwards the foliage around them starts to shake.
Hammer leans toward Tony as he begins to panic, "hey y-you know what maybe I was overreacting about that whole 'changing your minds too often' thing. I-in fact I think I'd like to join in on that, what do you say we forget about 'saving air' and save our whole skins by leaving?"
Tony slowly nods and reaches back for the controls but hesitates when something becomes visible from the foliage. A glowing pair of eyes, and the warped silhouette of a huge gnosis. Tony freezes in fear as the monster starts barreling towards them, without Kos-mos or Momo they had no way of fighting the gnosis.
While Hammer and Matthews yell for Tony to move Shion jumps over and grabs the controls that Tony barely has a hold on. Everyone in the elsa is flung forward as Shion yanks the controls accelerating the ship backwards away from the gnosis. The ship shakes violently as it crashes through trees, brush, and other foliage.
"YOU MORONS, THIS ISN'T HOW THIS SHIP IS MEANT TO BE FLOWN!" Matthews yells just loud enough to be heard over the smashing of trees and Hammer's screaming.
Finally Tony gets a hold of himself and grips the controls tightly, pulling them up and out of the trees and flipping the ship around to face the right direction.
"I-Is it still following us?" Hammer shakily pulls up the rear camera after Shion calls over to him, the display shows the gnosis that chased them earlier along with a few others that had joined in.
"Dammit, we need to go faster!" The gnosis only seem to get closer and closer even with Tony accelerating the ship to it's top speed, and it seems like all hope is lost.
But then something happens.
As the elsa begins to reach the end of the planet's atmosphere the gnosis on the display halt to a stop, almost as if they had hit some kind of force field. With them being out of danger Tony is able to slow the ship and put it in a steady orbit while the others silently sit there trying to catch their breath.
"Hey guys," Jr says as he groggily stumbles into the room, "I don't wanna tell you how to do your jobs, but can we maybe go one night where you don't wake me up like this?"
"So this is the place huh?" Jr looks out the side window at the planet below them. Shion had technically already told him they were at lost jerusalem the other night, but he was too tired to listen so they put all planning off until the morning.
"Yep, without a doubt." Shion sets down a tray of coffee cups at the table Jr and Allen are seated at, "unfortunately it doesn't look like we'll be able to actually get down there until we either fix Kos-mos, or go back and get Momo."
Allen nods and takes a coffee, "right, if there are gnosis down there we'll need someone who can use the hilbert effect to deal with them."
Jr sighs, "dammit, just when I was gonna get the chance to get off this ship for a while."
"Oh yeah that's right you were getting pretty bored weren't you Jr? Aw I'm sorry, but with any luck we'll have the materials to finish Kos-mos soon."
"Eh it's alright Shion, after all it's not your fault. You guys are working as fast as you can." Jr takes another sip of his drink (which was actually hot chocolate, not coffee) as Shion takes the opportunity to go off on the specifics of fixing Kos-mos, a conversation that Allen is quick to jump in on. It made sense, those two always were very enthusiastic about their work, but Jr couldn't help but find it incredibly boring.
After a while he'd finished off his drink, and with nothing else to do there and nothing to contribute to the conversation he quietly excuses himself.
He ends up simply wandering around the Elsa, that's all he seems to do recently, wander and wish there was more for him. Jr couldn't stand staying still too long, he never could, and recently that had only gotten worse as the things he once enjoyed he now began to find more and more mundane. Eventually he stops and sits down in his room next to a game system he once loved playing, I don't get it, he thinks, why do I feel this way?
He wraps his arms around himself and falls backwards on his bed, he can hear Albedo saying something to him but he doesn't paying attention.
I wish I knew why this is happening, I wish I could just go through my day without thinking about him...
Through his own emotions he can feel that Albedo beginning to panic, and his brother's distress definitely wasn't helping his own. Albedo continues to try and speak with Jr, but he just brushes it off as the same nonsense as usual.
He flips over and tries covering his ears with his pillow even though he knows it won't work, he still tries anyway, hoping it would help at least a bit. But there's no such luck, and Albedo's voice continues echoing through his head. The words made no sense anymore, he was doing his best to ignore him, doing his best to shut out whatever it was that he was saying.
Why should I listen, and why should I care? After everything you did to me, TO MY FRIENDS, how could I trust you again? I can't just... I can't just forget what happened...
Jr raises his hands to his eyes, he doesn't even notice that Albedo has stopped talking. It barely matters anymore, he had stopped thinking about his twin all together.
"Ah, I see now," Albedo's voice finally echoes in his head again. Jr tries his best to drown him out, he was probably trying to read Jr's emotions again, which unfortunately was a lot easier to do when Jr's distressed. "You're thinking about him again, aren't you Rubedo? About Nigredo?"
"N- No, it's not even that. I just..." Jr sniffles and shudders, now diverting his attention from Albedo to focus on not crying. He hated crying, though an outsider wouldn't see much wrong with a little 12 year old crying Jr felt like he was too old to cry. Gaignun had always told him that was silly and that he could let his emotions show as much as he needed, his brother always did his best to make him feel comfortable.
But Gaignun wasn't here right now, he was alone with Albedo, and he wasn't sure how he felt about the idea of crying in front of him or his friends on the Elsa.
"Hey Rubedo, come on now, what are you doing? What reason do you have to sit here and mope?" Jr doesn't respond, still focusing on holding back his tears."You don't want those sisters to come back and see you a mess now do you?"
"M- Mary an- and Shelley still probably w- won't be back for a while." He has to speak through a few strained sniffles and hiccups.
"Oh really now? Because while you were busy having a fit, I could swear I heard that captain say that they're within range and about to board this ship."
"What!? R- Really?" Jr quickly jumps up at that, "w- why didn't you say so, we gotta go see them!" Well that sure worked, Jr's suddenly full of spirit again as he wipes up his tears.
"Well, crisis averted for now I suppose. Let's not take another trip down to pity town anytime soon okay Rubedo." Albedo's words along with one of his infamous laughs echo through Jr's head as he cheerily sprints out of his room and down to the cargo bay.
"Oh, but just one more thing Rubedo."
"Make your little reunion quick, once it's done I have a message you need to pass along to that Vector girl."
Just as the announcement said as soon as Shion walks into the cargo bay she sees that Mary and Shelley are back, the small cargo ship they'd traveled on is filled to the brim with boxes of supplies. As she gets closer Shion also sees that Jr is already there as well, and is chatting away with his friends.
She smiles at the scene and swiftly makes her way over to her friends, Mary looks up and waves to her once she noticed her. "Hey there Shion, how have you been lately?" She pats Jr on the back, nearly knocking him off the the box he's sitting on, "little master here was just telling us all about what we missed while we were gone"
Jr pulls himself together after nearly falling, "yeah you two sure missed a lot, huh. It must've been pretty boring in that tiny cargo ship by yourselves."
"Oh you don't even know the half of it little master, I was worried my legs were gonna fall asleep an' never wake back up."
Shion frowns at Mary's words, "well I certainly hope you have the supplies we need to fix kos-mos then... I'd hate to have to send you two out again so soon after you got back."
"It's funny that you mention that," Shelley places her hand on Shion's shoulder, as slowly and gently as ever, "you're little friend made sure that we got plenty of supplies back to you. Honestly I'd be surprised if we didn't have whatever it is you need." Shion blinks in surprise, my friend? which one could she be talking about? She can't help but wonder.
Mary ends up answering for her by bringing her a small messaging device from the ship, "she wanted me to give this to you as well, an' don't worry, I didn't peek." Shion gingerly takes the messaging device from her, looking down at it she doesn't even notice the others begin to show up and work on unpacking the crates and boxes from the small ship.
"Oh, okay thanks. I um, guess I'll go give this a watch." She quickly waves goodbye to her friends and wanders over to a move abandoned spot in the cargo bay. The video message takes a small moment to load before starting up, but when it does it's horribly off center and unfocused.
Oh come on, just work please...
The view shakes a bit as the person recording it tries desperately to get the camera to focus, their voice is just above a whisper but it's enough for Shion to recognize it.
"Oh, that's..."
Finally after fidgeting with it long enough the image on the screen is clear and (mostly) centered, and the person on the screen is now recognizable as Miyuki Itsumi. She backs up from the camera with a satisfied smile on her face, she's sitting on her bed wearing a very large t-shirt and some very soft looking pants.
Hi Shion it's nice to see you again! Oh- Wait... I'm actually technically NOT seeing you at all...
Shion tries very hard not laugh at her friend as she trips over her words. The key word here being TRIES.
Erm... It's nice to see me? No I can't decide that for you... Uh, nevermind, I'm getting sidetracked.
She reaches up to itch her face and shifts a bit on her bed before continuing. It's odd really, while Miyuki sometimes had difficulty staying calm or professional during important business calls she almost never had this much difficulty just messaging Shion.
I uh, just wanted to send you this video to let you know how much I've... You know, missed you. I don't think I've ever had to go so long without talking to you before. And um, not to sound weird or anything, but I did kinda stay up all night the other day thinking about you...
She quickly reaches over and grabs an energy drink from off screen and gestured to it.
I'm already on my fifth one of these because of that, hehe, that probably wasn't a good idea huh?
There's a long pause as she leans over to put the drink back down.
Umm, I had a lot of stuff to say thought out before I turned on the camera. I swear I did... I just can't... Remember... OH! Mary and Shelley just got here, and obviously I'm having them bring this back to you, but also I send them with some extra stuff for you. Because, even though you said you didn't need anymore, I just felt like you might need some more robotics supplies. Well that an I needed an excuse to send you the new expansion I made for the Miyuki Special.
Miyuki's demeanor does a complete 180 back to her usual peppy self while talking. She bounces and sways from side to side on her spot on the bed as she speaks.
Anyway that was pretty much all I had to say, I think. Oh, and if you ever get the chance- I mean I know you're busy doing important work and all- but if you want, maybe you could come back and visit me again sometime.
I guess I'll see you later then, bye Shion!
The video ends right as Miyuki leans forward to turn off the camera, the space once inhabited by the holographic screen is now occupied only by the empty air. Sometime while watching the video Shion had reached her hand up and rested it on her face above her now smiling mouth, a few tears of happiness pricked at the corners of her eyes.
She then wipes the few tears out of her eyes and puts messaging device away in her pocket. Thank you Miyuki, I'll be sure to repay you for this the next time we see each other, she thinks. Shion gets up and starts walking back towards where the others were to help them unpack, but before she even gets halfway there she notices something. Jr must have left Mary and Shelley because he was standing nearby and motioning Shion over.
She jogs over to see what he wants, and can't help but notice he's got a very grim look on his face. "Jr, what is it? Is something wrong?"
Jr sighs and runs a his hand through his hair before speaking, "uh, well it's not necessarily that something's WRONG, it's just... There's something that Albedo said that I have to tell you."
Shion's frowns and eggs Jr on, "well then, don't just leave me here in the dark. What was it that he said?"
"He... He mentioned something about Kos-mos," Jr hesitates when he sees the worried look on Shion's face. She does her best to assure him it's okay before he goes on. "So what he said was, 'while she certainly changed within this lifetime, there's still a good chance that it was Mary Magdalene's soul that was making her who she was. And now with the resurrection done and Mary's soul gone, there's a chance Kos-mos may not be the same when she wakes up...' I'm uh, not sure if he's right or not, but he wanted me to tell you that."
A chill shoots up Shion's spine as she listens to Jr, and she unintentionally begins to panic. She tries to assure herself that it will be alright, that Albedo was just saying shit to freak her out. But deep down she knew he wasn't, and the idea that he might be right...
"Shion, calm down, it'll be okay." Jr reaches up and puts his hand on her shoulder, something he had to stand on his tippy toes to do. "Listen, Albedo himself said he wasn't positive on this, I'm sure Kos-mos will be fine." He keeps his voice as soft and calming as he can while speaking, but even as Shion begins to calm down Albedo's words still hang around in the back of her mind.
After their previous interaction T-elos and Kos-mos had gone back to sitting around and ignoring each other. T-elos especially was uncomfortable with what had happened after they hugged, Kos-mos imagined that she had seen something T-elos really didn't want her to see.
The whole situation was so perplexing to her, she had rather quickly assumed that their embrace caused them to see into each other's memories, but she couldn't figure out WHY. They had physical contact before then and didn't share memories like that, so it was odd to her that time it was different. She glares at a spot of grass dotted with flowers as she tries to decipher what could have caused that to happen.
"Don't hurt yourself over there sherlock." Kos-mos pricks up at the sound of T-elos' voice, it takes her by surprise considering T-elos hasn't said a thing for the past few hours. Or perhaps even longer, Kos-mos was admittedly losing track of time within this place. "Haven't you ever heard that saying that if you keep a look on your face too long it'll freeze that way? I mean it's not true, but..."
This is odd, Kos-mos thinks to herself, I wouldn't have taken T-elos as someone who would go out of her way to start a conversation.
In a sense though, she actually really appreciates it, after all there wasn't much she could talk about to start the conversation herself. Of course, now she has to actually hold up the conversation...
"What do you suppose it was that caused that to happen then, T-elos?"
T-elos looks off to the side as she ponders Kos-mos' question, "I'm not sure actually, I was given knowledge of all the spiritual powers of the testaments and Mary Magdalene, but I doubt Kevin or anyone else could've anticipated me ending up in a situation like this..."
"I certainly could not have, I was not even aware that your consciousness was still intact after we merged together at first." Kos-mos would never admit it, but it was nice to be talking to someone again, the silence had begun to get suffocating. "I was surprised that mine and Mary's souls had even become separate."
"It sure wasn't what was supposed to happen, or at least not what we had planned on happening... You certainly are something else."
Well now that is quite the compliment coming from someone like T-elos, Kos-mos simply stares at T-elos as she thinks about what she said. A blush creeps it's way onto the other girl's face, Kos-mos tilts her head in confusion at this. Why is she blushing now? I wouldn't think right now would be the time for that sort of reaction.
Kos-mos decides to get up and go over to T-elos to try and figure out what's wrong. "T-elos is something the ma-" She's unable to finish because as she's talking the dream-like dimension that they're in begins to shift and suddenly a large hole opens up beneath Kos-mos' feet.
T-elos rushes towards the hole and just barely catches her by the hand. Kos-mos holds onto T-elos tightly as well, not wanting to fall.
"Oh shit... Okay... Just- Just hold on, okay, I'm going to pull you back up." T-elos starts to get up slowly, using her knees and free hand to push herself off the ground.
Kos-mos looks up at her through the hole, she feels as though she should be scared, but she's not. T-elos appears to still be talking to her, but her voice begins to fade. Kos-mos suddenly starts hearing a different voice coming from the hole below her, it's very soft at first but then it begins to pick up on volume.
"Ko...p...e...I...wa...up..."
Kos-mos turns to face downward towards the voice, the pit is too deep to see the bottom and there appears to be no sign of the source of the voice. The disembodied voice only continues to get louder, until the words it says are finally coherent.
"Kos-mos... Please, Answer m..."
Kos-mos feels a strange string of emotions and her grip on T-elos' hand starts to loosen. There was no logical evidence to prove it, especially without her actual robotic body, but that voice... Sounded exactly like Shion's.
T-elos suddenly notices Kos-mos begin to slip, she stops trying to get up and tightens her grip on Kos-mos' hand as much as she can. She's holding on so tightly she's almost worried she'll shatter Kos-mos' wrist. Despite her efforts, however, Kos-mos still continues to slip and T-elos becomes more aware of her weight and the strain it's causing on her arm.
"Kos-mos! What are you doing!? You have to hold on!"
Kos-mos can't even hear T-elos anymore, all she can hear is the voice calling out to her. It begs her to come toward it, it cries out for help as if it's in trouble, it takes up all her senses-
Suddenly the voice stops, Kos-mos is no longer entranced by it and she can hear T-elos yelling at her just as her grip on her slips away.
...
...
...
Loading...
System rebooting...
Electrical Distribution: Normal
OS, Logical Drive, and Artificial Emotions: Online
Double Shot Sensory System: Online
R Weapons System: Online
X Buster: Online
Phase Transfer Cannon: Online
Tertiary Weapons System: Offline
Error: Unable to connect with any UMN servers
New files have been added in a separate OS folder
3 new weapons systems have been downloaded
Internal clock has been updated
Time since last reboot: 9 months, 16 days, 13 hours, 5 minutes, 42 seconds
System starting...
Shion stands by Kos-mos' pod along with her friends, they're waiting for Kos-mos to start up once again. The past few days seemed to have just flown by for Shion, she was so focused on Kos-mos' repairs she had barely noticed anything else. Not that much else had happened, they had more or less just stayed in orbit of Lost Jerusalem, and besides sending word out to Juli and the others about it nothing else of interest had happened.
The pressure in the room while they all wait for the android to reboot is suffocating. Shion herself holds her breath waiting for her, but even everyone around Shion was beginning to be affected by the unease radiating from her.
A screen that displays the progress on Kos-mos' boot up sequence is counting down to when she can start up again, it's getting so very close to zero and yet it's still so far away. Shion feels like her heart has started beating in sync with the countdown, thumping every time the number goes down.
"Chief..." Allen notices how uneasy she has become and gently places his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine Allen." Shion puts forth her best effort to shake off the unease, however, no matter how better she feels those negative thoughts still linger just a bit. It's been this way ever since Jr told her what Albedo said about Kos-mos a few days back.
Shion is so busy worrying she almost doesn't even notice the activation timer reach zero, the pod hisses due to the change in air pressure as it begins to open. Shion already knew Kos-mos was in there, and had seen her many times while working on her repairs, but there was something so different about seeing her right now as the pod opens up fully.
There's a pause before Kos-mos slowly moves her right arm up to the side of her pod and pulls herself up. For some reason she hasn't looked up at anyone yet, her view seems to be glued to a spot on her lap.
"G- Good morning Kos-mos," Shion hadn't meant to stutter, but her voice had become too shaky not to.
Kos-mos finally looks up toward Shion, though she doesn't respond to her. She very slowly and almost sluggishly pulls herself all the way out of her pod, her face doesn't display much of any emotion as she looks around the room, but she almost seems kind of confused.
Shion's heart feels like it's begun beating 10 times faster as Kos-mos makes her way towards her, and the fact that Kos-mos still hasn't responded to her just worries her even more. She stares right into Kos-mos' crimson eyes and says nothing, waiting for the android girl to make the first move.
Within a moment Kos-mos blinks and her expression shifts to something slightly more warm, "good morning Shion, it seems I have been away for quite some time. I apologize, I hope you have been alright without me."
Shion smiles in relief, this was just the kind of response she'd come to expect from Kos-mos, and so that means... "It's alright Kos-mos, after all weren't you the one who said 'the time we'll spend apart will be an instant in the flow of universal time'?"
"I suppose did say that." There was a small smile of amusement on her face at their almost awkward conversation.
Shion can't help herself anymore, she swiftly moves forward and wraps her arms tightly around Kos-mos. The taller girl is more than eager to return the gesture.
Allen, Jr, Scott, and all the others give the two a moment to hug before moving in to welcome Kos-mos back. It's a bit crowded, but all in all the entire situation was so comfortable, familiar even. Shion closes her eyes and just listens to the voices of her friends, it truly felt like nothing had changed between them.
It was the most comforting experience Shion had since they left Michtam.