Xenogears: New Gospel

Chapter VI, Section 7


"Fei... Fei, what’s going on?" Elly asked quietly, shaking the martial artists shoulders. "What’s wrong Fei?"

Elly... please, let me handle this. Zen said quietly, moving to kneel beside her. Shortly after 'Lord Dark' had appeared, Fei had collapsed on the floor of the Zeboim transit system's entrance corridor. Elly ran her hand through his hair, her mind racing. What had happened to him? Was this some sort of weapon those Hellion's possessed?

Zen placed both of his hands on Fei's forehead, closing his eyes. Everyone watched both of them as Zen simply knelt there, beams of sweat forming on his forehead. Finally, he collapsed backwards, falling against the wall of the corridor.

There... I managed to help him overcome the shock of the flashback. He should be coming around soon. Zen finally said, panting heavily. Even his mental voice, usually crisp and understandable, was slurred and tired, as if he had just run ten miles without a rest.

"Flashback? What type of flashback could do this to him?" Garr asked quietly as Emeralda and Elly knelt by Fei, searching his face for any type of life. "I've heard of psychic and ether attacks doing this sort of thing, but not a memory..."

Zen glanced at Elly, and shook his head. This type of thing is outside of your experience, Garr. In fact, it may be out of all of our experiences. However, the story is not mine to tell... if Fei is ready to tell you, he will reveal what has happened.

Garr nodded deference, but the regret on his face was poorly hidden. Zen smiled at that... this man's inquisitive nature compelled him to seek out 'answers' and 'the truth'. How much like Krelian, once upon a time...

"Fei's Kim is coming around." Emeralda said from across the hallway, as Fei's eyes clicked open. For a moment, they were... empty. Bottomless pools of brown, that seemed to fall into nothingness...

Until Fei blinked, and they returned to normal.

"Elly?" he asked quietly, raising one of his hands towards her. Elly gasped his hand between both of hers, and smiled.

"You gave us a bit of a fright." she said, holding his hand to her cheek. "Please don't do that to me again..."

"I try to avoid it." Fei replied, a grin crossing his face. "Zen... is that what I think it was?"

Zen nodded from across the hallway. Fei swore quietly, and tried to rise to at least a sitting position. Emeralda barely caught him before he fell backwards again. "Kim should lie back and rest." she said quietly, letting Fei rest his head in her lap before she let him speak again.

Zen walked over from the far side of the hallways, Garr a half step behind him. Kneeling down next to Fei, he placed his hand over both of Elly's, and nodded. Fei gave a tremendous sigh, and closed his eyes. "Damn... I thought so."

"Fei, what is going on?" Elly asked quietly.

Before Emeralda could catch him, Fei sat up, leaning over his knees to support himself. He closed his eyes to fight off the bout of dizziness and nausea that gripped him, and wondered why this had to happen NOW...

"I can't explain right now, Elly. I'm sorry." Fei said, an apologetic look in his eyes. "Maybe later... but not now."

For a moment Elly looked as if she were ready to protest, demand to know what was hurting him like this. But it passed, and she nodded. She trusted him... he would tell her in good time.

But it hurt, knowing that something could make him suffer like this and she didn't even know what it was.

Elly turned to Emeralda and Garr, standing as she did so. "Well, lets see if we can get this transit system online again..."

...

Emeralda stared out of the window, watching as the lights of the long forgotten tunnel whipped past her. At the speed they were traveling, they seemed to be a continuous stream of pulses, an unbroken stream of light that rushed past her.

For a moment, she just let herself relax, her body going slack against Crescens foot as she simply let the lights pass. For a moment... she was at a point of complete calm. Fei had called it his Wal, the perfect center of his being, when he had tried to explain the feeling to Emeralda before he had left. She enjoyed being here, simply letting the world come to her, and enjoying the simple beauty it offered to her.

But her thoughts seemed to be dragged back to the battle with 'Nataku' time and again. She watched her mental impression of the battle, the cut and thrust of combat, his words of respect, and his farewell. The exaggerated bow, the slight shift of his shoulders as he laughed... it was almost human, in a way. But from what Garr had told them, the Hellions were monsters from another galaxy, that had no resemblance to humans.

But why did all of her senses and instincts tell her otherwise?

...

Perhaps it was simply the amount of time he had been away, but it seemed that all of Nisan glowed with an aura of light, evidence that even through the worst of times, life and joy could not be so casually snuffed out. This city was perhaps the reason why he had left in the first place... to give all of them a chance to LIVE, without some new force hunting them and taking their lives, one by one...

Fei shook his head, wondering at the feeling of dread that had come over him the last few days of their journey. The passage along the Zeboim transit system had been quick, taking them almost all the way to Kislev in less than a day. The remainder of the trip had been the long, overland hike to Nisan, through country that had only been moderately tamed by the Etones. There were still the occasional Wel that wandered through this area, and a Seraph could make its way here if it had the mind to. But bad luck couldn't hold forever, and they had make excellent time to Nisan, encountering no other souls during their passage. The weather had agreed with them, and now they stood overlooking the largest city in the world has dusk fell around them.

"Its beautiful... there are many more people here than when I left." Fei observed quietly, standing next to Elly on a small rise. They still had a couple miles of countryside to cross, but Elly had decided that they needed to rest and prepare themselves for the arrival.

"Of course... and all of them will want to see you when word of your return reaches the city." Elly replied, a twinkle in her eye. "If nothing else, your 'mysterious disappearance' has heightened your reputation as a man on mystery and influence. Some of the rumors I've heard about you..." she giggled slightly.

"Not all of them are good, Kim." Emeralda replied, shaking her head. "There were many people who were upset by the fact that their greatest champion had vanished, and some of the ones running around at first were... rather nasty."

Elly shot her a dark look, a bit of a guilty feeling washing over her. She had been the cause of some of those rumors, as the tale of her romance with Fei had spread quickly after the final battle with Deus. Shitan and Billy had started some rumors of their own, more positive ones, after they had seen the effects of the initial rumors had on Elly. The idea that Fei would simply abandon her had been too much to bear, but his abrupt departure had done nothing to disprove such an idea...

Except now she knew the reason, Elly thought with a smile. Fei had been trying to protect everyone from the enemy, and it had hurt him to leave her has much has it had hurt her to see him leave. And now he was back...

That was what mattered. He was back, and that he would never leave again.

Fei rubbed the back of his head, laughing nervously. "I'm afraid that the reality will never be able to compare to the legend, I'm afraid..."

"Not when the reality is greater than the legend, no." Emeralda replied, smiling slightly. Elly nodded slightly to her daughter, and slipped her hand into Fei's.

Just a little longer... she wanted to enjoy this calm a little longer. To not be the Great Lady of Nisan. To simply be Elly.

Because the calm was always greatest before the true storm began.

...

The cheer was deafening.

Garr tried to sink deeper into the seat of the car, wondering what exactly he had done to end up like this. He had been separated from his crew, nearly killed by Hellions, and was now being treated as a hero along with the rest of the group that had returned.

Fei and Elly were, of course, riding in the front car of the procession, and the most deafening cheers were being raised by their passage. For the most part they were not doing anything other than waving, and the crowd was going nuts... utterly, completely nuts. Her had heard of fairy tale romances before, but this was going a bit too far...

Garr squashed down the voice that suggested that what he felt was envy for Fei.

But more surprising were the cheers that he, Zen, and Emeralda were receiving. When Garr had managed to poke his hand up out of the car for a quick wave, the crowd had let out a cheer in his honor... he had to wonder what some of the stories that were circulating around the city were about the journey Elly had started off on. On second though, perhaps he didn't want to know.

Emeralda was a genuine hero from whatever war had passed before the 'Einhander' had arrived. The most that Garr had ever heard about the whole event were bits of information about a country named Solaris, where Elly had been born, and an evil group called the Ministry. Apparently the small group of heroes key to winning the war were called the Godslayers, with Fei and Elly being the most prominent of that group. Strange that they were called that, but perhaps this 'Ministry' thought of themselves as gods, and the name was simply a tribute to the victors of the conflict.

That didn't quite fit, but without any more information, Garr couldn't draw a more detailed conclusion... perhaps the Captain had discovered something of value during his departure. Or one of the other surviving crew members...

For a moment, the roar of the crowd reached a deafening crescendo, almost shaking the windows of the building lining the street as the procession rolled to a halt in front of the town hall of Nisan. Garr glanced around, looking for the captain or any one his crewmates in the crowd. Their absence worried him for a moment, until he remembered that they WERE still honored guests, and would be unlikely to be wandering around in such a mob.

Just as he was about to step from the car, a flicker of movement caught his eye... red. A swirl of red hair moving through the crowd in a long, flowing ponytail. It had almost looked like...

Garr rubbed his eyes. No, it was the strain of the journey getting to him... he was seeing things again.

...

It was like the parting of the Red Sea, as Zen would have said it. Fei smiled at that thought as the crowd flowed aside... it was through Zen that he had learned much of old Earth culture. So many things that they had lost, and so many things that they had gained over the last ten millennia. And the parallels... Doc was going to have a field day when he met Zen, and learned of all of the wonderful facts the young priest possessed.

He was over the door of the car in less than a second, landing lightly on the pavement. Fei took the moment to pose, listening as the crowd roared again. Hubris... his ego was getting far to large of late, if he was resorting to things like this.

Turning, he offered Elly a helping hand as she stepped down from the car. For her... everything. He would give everything for her, sacrifice everything to know that she was safe. He had moved heaven and earth, walked to the halls of hell and defeated Deus himself for her...

Elly gave him a gracious smile as she stepped down from the car, leaning against him and pressing a light kiss against his cheek, before taking his arm and walking towards the small stage that had been set up for the occasion. He had never been comfortable with crowds or formal occasions... in any lifetime. He certainly didn't have the knack for them that Elly did... her comforting presence, her inspiring voice, any of it. And quite frankly, he would have been scared stiff in her place.

Her voice washed across the crowd as they stood there, listening to the details of their adventure and his return from the Federation. Her account of the battle with the Hellions out in the wilderness was brief, concise... and almost completely unexaggerated. That would probably change as it circulated through the population, Fei thought with a wry grin. Stories had a tendency to do that.

Elly finished her speech, to the applause of the entire crowd. There was a slight commotion as the crowd parted for a moment, a large car passing through their ranks. There was a familiar sense about it... Fei shook his head, trying to get a glimpse of who was inside. He saw Shitan and Billy, with Ramses in tow, but he couldn't make out the other two occupants.

Shitan stepped out, hobbling on a cane as he did so. The sight of the proud doctor, his leg wrapped in a rather uncomfortable looking cast, made Fei's heart jump for a moment... Hellions. This was the type of damage that was almost their trademark. And Billy...

Everyone had changed over the past couple of years, for the better if Fei dared to venture an opinion. Shitan seemed to be... calmer, as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and the press of the responsibilities he gained when he assumed the office of Master of the Ethos were of no concern at all. After carrying the fate of the world around on his shoulders for over five years, it probably wasn't a concern to him.

Shitan moved aside as he continued his slow walk towards the stage, finally giving Fei a view of the other two occupants of the car.

His heart skipped a beat.

He recognize the first person to step out of the car, obviously uncomfortable with the presence of his 'companion'. If Fei had been in his position, he wouldn't have blamed Ramses... after all, his 'companion' had been his single obsession for most of his adult life.

The mass of red hair, only marginally restrained into a single long pony tail, stepped past the Solarian, a slight smirk of satisfaction on his pale face. Eyes the color of liquid amber turned towards Fei, and the bloodless lips tightened in a small smile.

Even across the fifty feet between them, across the dim of the crowd, Fei could hear the voice clearly, almost as if it were being whispered next to him.

"Hello Brother." Id said, his smile deepening. "Its been a while."

...

"Where Doc? Where the hell did he come from?" Fei ask, almost snapping at Shitan for the first time in his life.

"You COULD just ask me... it would be much easier than asking someone who doesn’t even know what’s going on." Id replied, sneering at Fei. At the moment he, Fei, Elly, Ramses, and Shitan were in one of the lounges in the Nisan Ethos headquarters, most of the occupants having cleared out when they had entered the room... perhaps sensing the volatile nature of the atmosphere.

Fei didn't even bother looking at Id... he had not spoken more than ten words in a row to him since their arrival. The only time he had even interacted with him had been when Id had introduced himself to Elly, and Fei's rejoinder has sent him a step backwards with its ferocity.

"Fei, I'm not certain what is going on either... please, calm down for a moment." Shitan said quietly, putting his hand on Fei's arm. "Id DID save us from the Hellions when they attacked us a few days ago..."

"Probably because he has some plan in mind for all of us... using us as target practice perhaps?" Ramses snarled in rejoinder.

"Still upset over me taking you apart so many times Ramses?" Id replied, raising one of his eyebrows and smirking at the former Gebler commander. "Get over it... or I might have to give you another lesson in humility."

Ramsus clenched his fist and slowly closed his eyes and turned away, repeating something under his breath over and over again. Id smirked again, turning back towards the rest of the group. "As for where I came from... its a long story, and it really doesn’t apply right now. After all, if I hadn't been here, wouldn't the good doctor be a stain on the ground? And the rest of you along with him?"

Fei shook his head sharply, suspicion still etched over all of his features. "I still don't know how you got here 'brother'," he replied, a hint of sarcasm in his tone as he spoke. "And I really don't trust you. If you really are Id, you are a monster, a force of untold destruction. And if you are not, a possibility that I am strongly leaning towards, then you are dangerous none the less, and deluded at that."

"Why is it that you continue to doubt my existence, when I am standing right in front of you?" Id replied in a level voice, his expression still impassive. "Besides the fact that you claimed that you absorbed me... did you think that such a task would be so easily accomplished? Do not forget who my teacher was before you came into existence. And regardless of that... I am here, and I am on your side. And given the situation, I think you could use my help."

"He has a point Fei," Shitan said quietly. "We have no idea of the total capabilities of these 'Hellions', and Id has demonstrated that he has power that could be of use to us. Even if he does not have a Gear."

Fei shook his head, and leaned back down into his seat. "So... what has been happening since I left?" he asked quietly. "I'm afraid I've been somewhat out of the loop."

Shitan nodded, and began to recount the events of the last few months.

...

The cool evening breeze swept past the balcony outside of Elly's bedroom. She shook her head, trying to sort out the mental turmoil that the events of the last few days had caused her.

Fei was back... a prayer she had whispered for so long had finally come true, and the man she had loved for so long had returned to her. For the better part of two years she had held onto the hope that she would see him again...

Remus was one of the few people who had realized how close to the breaking point she had been these last few months. Not even Shitan had been quite aware of the consequences of her dreams, the longing she had felt in her soul at the very mention of his name.

And then there was the Einhander... Elly shook her head at the thought of all of the brave people who had ventured this far out into space only to die in the cold void at the hands of their enemy. Now it was only Captain Antonov, several of his aids, the two security guards Guido and Nuzio, and the science officer Garr. Only ten people left out of a ship of over five hundred...

The pointlessness of it tugged at her heart, a familiar bittersweet twinge that Sophia had also felt when she had been forced to confront the pointlessness of the war with Solaris. Wars being fought for honor, land, glory... maybe all humanity was doing was making war to keep in practice. It hardly seemed fair to the innocents who were caught up in its flames...

"Elly..." a familiar voice said behind her.

She didn't turn, but only smiled and stepped backwards a foot. His arms wrapped around her as she rested her head on his chest, looking out into the starry night sky. "Fei..." she said quietly. "Its been too long..."

"I know... I'm sorry for having left you for so long. Things just happen that we don't expect... the situation changes," he replied quietly as he also looked out at the sky. "I didn't want to leave..."

Elly gestured for him to be quiet, reaching up to run a hand over the side of his face. "I understand... don't worry about it. You're back, and that’s all that matters to me."

"Yes..." he breathed. They simply stood there for a moment longer, staring out at the stars before he said anything else. When he did, it made her straighten with an unexpected shock. "I should never have left... if I hadn't, you would have understood how I felt, and that coward wouldn't have been able to claim you for his own..."

Elly pulled herself free from his embrace, spinning around to look at him. In the faint light she hadn't noticed it at first... the pale skin, the cascade of red hair falling down his back, those molten amber eyes... "Id..." she said quietly, trying to conceal the fact that she was trembling slightly. "What... what are you doing here?"

Id smiled, spreading his arms in front of him. "Elly... I came here to see you. I wanted to see you again, get a chance to speak with you privately. Its been so long."

Backing away, Elly didn't stop until she had backed into the railing at the edge of the balcony. "But... where is Fei?" she asked quietly, keeping her tone tightly under control.

"Who knows?" Id answered with a shrug. "He's probably still catching up and planning with Ramsus, Shitan and the others. But you had left early, and since it seems that I wasn't exactly welcome at the meeting..."

Shaking her head, Elly stepped away from the railing and took a hesitant step towards Id. "Please Id... I thought you were Fei. I'm sorry if we had some type of misunderstanding."

Id shook his head, a small smile on his face. "Elly... have you forgotten? I am Fei... and I am certainly much better than that little brother of mine. But... I can see that you are having a bit of trouble realizing the fact." Id smiled, turning around to move towards the door. "But I am much more patient than I once was... I can wait until you realize that fact, Elly. I've waited for five hundred years... and more..."

The door clicked shut behind him as he walked from the room. The moment she saw that he was really gone, Elly sank down to her knees, holding onto her shoulders as she shook almost uncontrollably. *Why...?* she asked quietly. *Fei... please come... quickly...*

...

The halls of the Cathedral were quiet... a think, blanketing silence that Emeralda so craved from time to time. Despite the fact that she was older than every other person in this country, at times she felt as if she knew nothing at all... and thus she came out here, into the heights of the Great Cathedral, to reflect under the night sky that was ever so slightly different than the one she had gazed out upon four thousand years ago...

Life had changed rapidly since she had been awakened by Elly and Kim, as they said that it might. Life was always changing, and she must learn to change along with it or she would be left behind. She'd already done that once... hadn't she? When she'd accelerated her growth in order to help Fei save Elly in the final battle against Deus, she had bypassed most of her childhood... but part of her programming given to her by Kim allowed her to deal with it.

What she truly wondered about was if she had a soul. She was a colony of nanomachines, designed by a brilliant scientist four millennia ago. She was as complex as any other human being... but did she truly have a soul? Could she 'love' and feel as other humans did? As Fei and Elly did?

A ripple of breeze brushed her cheek, making her giggle slightly. It was far to quiet tonight... almost as if the world were waiting for something to occur...

It loomed up out of the darkness in front of her, a sharp blow knocking her backwards against the wall of the cathedral. The breath was knocked of our her lungs in one tremendous burst as she hit, stars flashing in front of her eyes. A moment later a hand closed around her throat, tightening to the point where she had to alter the shape of her respiratory system in order to draw breath.

The figure holding her was dressed completely in black, with a pair of sharp spiked gauntlets and a swath of black cloth wrapping around his head, concealing everything except for his eyes. But it was those eyes... they were familiar, ones that she had seen only a few nights earlier. All around her, Emeralda could hear other black figured landing on the floor as they descended from the skylights in the cathedral... Hellions! part of her screamed.

But no sound came out of her throat as those eyes gazed at her. No sound except for one word. "Nataku..." she whispered, certain that she was going to die now. The Hellion had told her so the last time they had fought.

Nataku jerked as she spoke, his eyes widening slightly. With a quick motion, Emeralda reached up and seized hold of the Hellion's wrist, trying desperately to break the crushing hold. The moment her flesh came in contact with his, she felt another shock as part of her nanomachines in her hands began to infuse into him. Nataku loosened his hold almost instantly, shouting in pain as he rubbed at his wrists where she had touched him. With a quick glance at her, he turned and ran off into the darkness after the other figures who had slipped into the cathedral.

Emeralda slid down the wall until she was sitting on the ground, looking at the palms of her hands for a moment. Parts of them, the pads of her palms and fingertips, had turned to a dark gray in the brief moment of contact. They were returning to their old color now, but her structure was designed to react only to humans. What... was going on?

Shaking her head, Emeralda slowly staggered to her feet and broke into a run towards the security center of the cathedral. If there WERE Hellions in the cathedral, she had to sound the alarm as soon as possible...