Hello! I recently started playing through Xenosaga again for the 3848573848th time and decided to get some ideas out!
This story will go back and forth between several POVs:
•The gang on Earth
•The gang on the Dämmerung
•The gang on the Elsa
This initial chapter is just introductory, short and sweet to set the stage. The next will be much longer (I promise, because what I've written already is way longer than this lol) and so will the following chapters. I'm not sure if I will make it a theme of the Earth chapters just being short updates, we'll see.
*And for anyone waiting, I haven't abandoned my other projects! I'm just stressed and in a slump and trying something new to get the creative juices flowing!
Thank you for viewing and I hope you have a good day, enjoy!! :3
"Mary."
Her attention twitched at her name, but her eyes remained closed. She was overwhelmed, in such a beautiful yet serene way. She wanted to cry; all of her senses were exploding with nostalgia, the memories swallowing her whole. Even without the use of her sight, she knew where she was. She knew when she was. The sounds, the smells; it was home.
The world around her chirped and swayed, peacefully, uncluttered with mechanical noise in every direction. She inhaled deeply, tasting the sweet, pure air—no longer clouded by the smell of metals and machines. Floral scents filled her lungs, like a heavy perfume, almost intoxicating in its pureness. Untouched nature, as it was meant to be. The ground beneath her was dirt; healthy, timeless dirt, which blossomed life. And inside her, deep in her chest, there was no whirling of motherboards, no databases trickling with feedback. At last, there was no humming, neither internally nor externally. Her hand flew to her chest, which usually only gave the faintest of rumbles of parts working together to find a deep, wet beating. Her heart.
"Mary." The voice came again, this time with slightly more force behind it, but never tipping over the edge of its usual stoic tone. It was warm and familiar to her and only added to the swirls of emotions consuming her.
It pried her attention away from herself, and slowly, her eyes finally peeled open. The sunlight, so close and so absolute, burned her pupils harshly, as they could only retract and adjust with the slow reactionary speed of humans. She wasn't used to this. How long had it been since she had human eyes? Although it hurt at first, she missed this sensation as well. To pair with it, the felt warmth spreading beneath her skin from the sun's beams. Several moments passed before the impossible light became bearable to blink through, and she allowed herself those last few moments of soaking up these sensations.
In front of her was chaos, who's lips finally spread into a familiar grin as her sight focused on him. Behind him was lush greenery, absolutely teeming with life; real life, not artificial or the work of nano-machines. There was nothing artificial about either of them anymore. They had completed their mission and returned everything to the origin point.
Earth. The motherland of the human race. They arrived at a point in time far enough back to give their friends enough time to find them and arrive. The planet was still in its prime, the beauty of it not yet overshadowed by the hands of men as they grew industrially.
"Yeshua," she said, full of emotion, her voice finally her own. For the first time in millennia, she felt the result of those emotions as tears welled up on her water line, obstructing her magnificent view. Mary's eyelids felt a prickly burn from the force of the years; as if they'd been saved up for thousands of years. Her chest wanted to heave, she wanted to scream, suddenly so much welled up inside her, she felt close to bursting. They broke free and streamed down her warm cheek one after another. The sensation was so new to her again, she ignored them as they continued to fall, trying to level her voice. "We did it."
His pale head gave a slight nod as he lifted his olive hand to brush away her tears. The fabric he bunched up at the end of his hand to catch them was coarse and heavy; the familiar feeling of hand spun wool, slightly scratchy but comforting to her skin. My god, how I missed this.
"Do you—?" she tried, sniffling slightly to compose herself for her question. Asking it alone would cause her emotions to attempt to overwhelm her again. "Do you think they...?"
"Yes," he said with stern certainty, offering her a kind smile once he saw the weight his confirmation had on her. "I know they did. I left a single column for them before the shift completed, and I know they were able to find it. I felt a pulse as they gated out, and after that..." Although he trailed off, his meaning was still understood. Everything was set for them and it was all in their hands now.
"Good." Even though she knew he could no longer tell where they ended up, or how far away they might be, his answer was enough. They were somewhere out there, amongst the stars, safe and together. That fact was enough for her at the moment. "That's wonderful."
Soft footsteps approached them; small against the ground, not creating enough force with their weight as they walked to trigger her hearing now until they drew close. Their pace was slow and calm, as if they were just taking a stroll and admiring the scenery. Over a small hill came Nephilim and Abel, joined hand in hand together. Her small body was no longer glowing and translucent—it was now as solid as the boy next to her. She had existed on Earth as well, right before it was abandoned by her father's mistake, and thus had been allowed her human form once again.
"Nephilim!" She greeted her eagerly, although a bit shocked to see her in her true form. She was still small, as if time had not passed at all since she was last human, but her features finally had definition to them. The irises of her eyes seemed almost purple still, her strawberry hair glistening in the sun. Her nose was short and curved upward, lips plump, like a living doll. "I'm glad you made it. But Abel..."
Nephilim's violet eyes landed on the boy next to her. "It was part of his wish. U-DO's dimension has remained untouched by the countless Recurrences completed by Wilhelm in the past. He has watched our same histories repeated countless times. Still, he has so much he does not understand about us, about this dimension. He is alone out there, where his true form exists, and the loneliness he feels…he wished not to go back to that. He asked me to bring this terminal, Abel, with us to Lost Jerusalem, as Wilhelm is no longer around to seal him away. He wants...to learn."
"To learn?" She looked between the girl and Abel's tiny bodies. It was odd to hear that this being of a higher dimension wanted to learn about the people who occupied this lower domain. Why were they so fascinating to him? Was it because of their differences, or simply because there was no one else like him that he knew of? If what she said was true, and he had seen our histories repeated many times before, what could be left to learn? Humans were creatures of habit, even if each time was different, ultimately humans behaved the same. They all lead to the same place.
Abel, nodded, finally finding his tongue enough to speak clearly. "The only way I could interact with you humans previously was when you tried to enter my dimension, which is not permissible, or by force, which causes extreme stress to the fragile mind you all possess. For this, and to complete his ambition, the one you call Wilhelm had contained me until he could find use for me."
"Using the Zohar," chaos confirmed beside Mary, having watched it all happen in his spectator state but being unable to do anything about Wilhelm actions. He did not agree with his methods, but he understood Wilhelm to an extent.
"Yes. Doing so prevented me from seeing so much. Your lives are so short, thousands of years were missed. And I was not able to learn much from the humans I did contact, as they were often confused and without answers. I want to know everything there is to know about this world you all loved so deeply enough to defy Wilhelm. And about the beings who fought against someone such as him. If Abel is here...perhaps I...could help, in some way. I do not know how, even still this terminal is severely limited in what I can do from my dimension. But..."
Mary knelt down, eye to eye with the terminal that was their "God." She took his free hand in hers, and spoke directly to him, as the entity instead of the child. "You have done your best to help us time and time again. We would be happy to have your assistance once again and aid you in your quest for knowledge."
Abel smiled and nodded, although the action seemed slightly out of place. "Happy. If you are happy I am here, am I happy in response? Is that what this feeling is?"
chaos put a hand on Abel's small shoulder. "You have much to learn," he replied lightly. Turning to Mary, he held out his other hand. "And we have much to do."