(This story takes place a while after the events of the first game, and contains some spoilers. It is recommended you complete the game before reading this fanfic.)

About 1/4 of the remaining population of the planet has been saved through a combination of Taura's nanomachines (a.k.a. nanites, as I will call them from here on) and the data in Emeralda. Civilization is on the rise; Rico is Kaiser of Kislev, and a new power source for gears has been created.. (By the way, yes, I did name one of Fei and Elly's sons "Seifer", and yes, I have been playing FF8)

"Dad." Seifer said as he walked into the room. Fei only glanced up a second to see who it was, then turned back to his work.

"Dad." A long pause. Seifer sighed.

"Father, about Emeralda." Fei looked up.

"Yes yes, sorry." Seifer tilted his head and stared at him.

"Emeralda?..." Fei said, ignoring Seifer's gesture of annoyance.

"Taura says she's breaking down. I won't confuse you with the technical details," Seifer said, then smiled as Fei tried to hide how mad he got whenever Seifer did that. They both knew Seifer, having become Taura's student, knew more about nanotechnology than Fei ever could, and the fact seemed to bother him. "But in layman's terms, the nanites used to create her were not as perfect as they may seem - originally we thought they were self-replicating but they actually can't even repair themselves."

"Please, Seifer." Fei surrendered, and Seifer almost laughed.

"Emeralda is going to die. She's just too old." Fei started to say something, but stopped and stared and Seifer for a few minutes searchingly.

"...Does...Emeralda know this?"

"Yes. She's not handling it well."

"...And what...what do you all expect me to do about it?!" Seifer was abashed, as much out of his response as his sudden outburst.

"Y-"

"And you! How...could..." He hesitated, his eyes watering. After a second, Fei stood up and began walking to the door.

"Father, Emeralda may not be human, but she is still your daughter." Seifer said. Fei only stood in the doorway for a few seconds, then left. Seifer sat down and began to think. Soon, there was a sound off in the corner. He looked. Margie, his sister that had been named after the Great Mother of Nisan, had moved from her hiding place and was sneaking to the door, completely unaware that Seifer had seen her. She was known among his siblings as the spy, the rat, the living camera - born almost to small to believe and with a photographic memory, it was only through a small nano-colony that she was still alive, if you could call her condition alive, Seifer thought. She was a true wild animal, to fast to catch and completely incapable of speech. Her birth was devastating to Elly, who had only had a few minutes to hold her before Taura had had to take her away. She was lost soon after, and although the nanites gave her a perfect memory, she seemed happy enough to eat the food they left out for her and watch them whenever possible, recording their every action. Someday, Seifer thought, I'd like to see what she's got in there.

"Emeralda?" Taura whispered. Emeralda slowly opened her eyes and stared at him.

"How are you doing?" She looked down. Taura followed her gaze and too noticed how fast the nanites were 'dying' off. He glanced back up at her, and could tell, as much as was possible for a machine like her, she was crying.

"Emeralda, the research is..." She covered his mouth. Talking, he knew, wasted precious nanites, and apparently she did not want to hear him either. Taura nodded and left.

Outside, he had barely gotten two feet when he heard an unmistakable voice.

"You again? You still haven't answered my question."

Taura," The figure said, "Although you have no right to speak to me like that, I did answer your question. I'm quite interested in what's been happening down here since I left."

"Krelian, I think you're lying. Especially after what Shevat said..." Taura smiled inwardly at his gamble. As soon as he heard Shevat, Krelian had tightened up.

"And...what is this that Shevat said?"

"May I first ask why you want to know?" Taura said. Krelian grimaced.

"Taura...bye." And he was gone. Taura waited a few seconds more before he shook his head and got back to work.

Billy followed the others into the Nisan meeting room. Inside, Margie, Bart and some of the Nasemin trainees were already waiting.

"Where's Citan?" Margie said. Billy quickly answered her.

"He's talking to Fei. Anyone know what's been up with him lately?" They all shook their heads. Billy frowned.

"Well, we haven't the time to deal with that, so I'll just get to business." He paused and looked up at them. They only waited, watching him.

"Okay, then, first off, the rebuilding of Shevat is proceeding very well, again the Queen has asked me to tell you all thanks and stuff again, I won't bore you with the whole message. Also involving Shevat is the strange signals they have been receiving - though I will discuss that later.

"The Terrananny research is proceeding well; in probably a year or two, we will be able to terraform the Aveh desert. Also about nanites is the...Emeralda matter, though I'm sure everyone knows about that." They nodded.

"Good. Well then, about the Shevat signals, they says their radio frequency's have been jammed with incomprehensible messages. They don't know where they're from; however, we have reason to believe they may be coming from the object that recently landed in the former location of Deus." He paused. "..And I was hoping the trainees could take care of it." Billy looked at Seifer, who was resting comfortably. Seifer opened his eyes.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, whatever, we'll go." Seifer and a few others were trainees in a secret organization formed after the death of Deus; known only as "Nasemin" it was made to prevent anything like the late Solaris from again becoming reality and attempting to stop any wars before they begin. Seifer stood, and motioned to the other trainees that were there.

"Let's go." He said.

"Hey hey, I didn't mean right now." Billy said. Seifer only stared at him.

"Well I did." He said.

"Fine then, however there is something else I need to tell you - Fei said he's officially 'given up'; Xenogears is yours." Seifer's eyes narrowed.

"My Echiste is fine, thank you."

"No, Seifer, Xenogears is yours now. The Echiste is going to Jamethon."

"Bu-" Siefer began, but Billy only shook his head.

"No, Seifer, you are still a trainee, you have no say in the matter." Seifer grimaced and made a choking hand motion, then left.

"Seifer!" Novinha ran up and embraced him. Seifer did the same, and the two of them stood in each others arms for a few minutes before Seifer spoke up.

"Novy," He whispered, "Aren't you supposed to be at Kislev?"

"Yes, Seify."

"Then what are you doing here? You know how mad Rico gets when you do this. And when Rico's mad, stuff brakes."

Seifer felt her body rack with laughter. "Seify, he'd be mad anyway with how the Grandfather Project is doing. I thought to take the chance visit you."

"That's all well and good," Seifer answered, moving away from her, "But I've got to go investigate the Merkava crash site, and the orders were for us Nasemin trainees only. No mutant scum." She laughed again.

"Oh come on. I'm only 1/4...whatever that is you call us, and I need to practice for the battling competition." Seifer gawked exaggeratedly at her.

"You're going to fight?"

"Yeah. What's....you mean...."

"I am the champ's son, after all." He said. Novinha frowned.

"What, now I have to kill my boyfriend?"

"Oh-"

"Hey people! I thought we were going somewhere?" Seifer waved off the speaker. "Oh shut up." He yelled back, then, after a quick glance at Novinha, he began walking out of the city. After a few seconds he turned around and saw Novinha watching him.

"Coming?" He said to her. She smiled, and began running toward them.

"You say it's unpowered?"

"Yes, sir, the Modifier is..gone." Alexander Henoz walked to the window and looked out at the former Deus.

"I know this is where we made it the first time; is it possible we could make another one without the factories?"

"No, sir, but that is not the primary reason I came here." Henoz turned to the messenger.

"Yes?"

"Sir, soon after we retrieved Deus, they sent something back." Henoz stood there, staring at him.

"Then....."

"Yes, sir, they will not enjoy the fact there is a colony we have not told them about." Henoz sat down and closed his eyes.

"It's been...it's been a long time. They should be able to fend them off. And anyway," He opened his yes and motioned to Deus, "Whoever can do that can surely destroy a simple probe."

"Sir, it was not a probe."

"What?!"

"They knew about Deus. It was a warship." There was a long pause. "And sir, they would not even-"

"Yes yes, I understand that. So what do you recommend?"

"I believe we, too, should send a simple scout to warn them of the threat."

"How would we get it pass the blockade?"

"Sir, which one of us was the commander at Djinni?" Henoz smiled in spite of himself. "Yeah, okay, you're right." He stood, saluted, and headed for the HQ.

"Nothing." Maria said. Seifer saw the Seibzehn come out of the cave.

"Where this UCO we s'pposed ta find, eh man?" Andrew said.

"Jamethon. I would like to know the fucking location of this fucking fucker ob-fucking-ject we're fucking looking for." Seifer laughed.

"Who was that fucking laughing at-"

"Shut up, Michael." Seifer heard his sister say.

"WHAT DI" Michael's gear Viator turned to Lori.

"People people!! We haven't checked the whole area. Calm down." Jamethon said. Although he hated the fact Jamethon got his gears, Seifer couldn't help but admire him. He was the only person on the planet who could keep Lori and Michael from coming to blows.

"Come on." Jamethon said. The Echiste began walking to east. Everyone followed.

"Seify." Seifer heard Novinha's voice over the private connection.

"Yeah?"

"Ever wonder what it must have been like?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, for our parents and them, the Destroyers of God, the saviors of mankind, etc. etc." She said. Seifer hesitated.

"No..not really.."

"Oh..okay..anyway." She cut off the connection, leaving Seifer to wonder what the whole thing was about.

"Eh guys, ofer here, I think e found it." Andrew said. Seifer shook his head. I hate it when he does that voice, he thought. He turned the Xenogears to Andrew.

"Holy shit." He heard Micheal say.

"E can say that again." Off in the distance, they saw a large ship slowly but steadily approaching the ground.

"Guys, are you getting this?" Seifer heard Jamethon say. "It's a message from Nisan." Seifer activated the link to their HQ.

"All active Nasemin members. Please report to the Deus crater - Shevat has been shot down. All transmissions from the area have stopped; however, we know the attack must have come from there."

"What is-"

"Quiet!" He heard Jamethon yell.

"Nasemin trainees - please state situation. Have you come into contact with the attacker? Over." Seifer heard Jamethon answer quickly.

"That is negative, command; however, we can see it from here. Over."

"Wait where you are, then, and proceed to investigate when the Nasemin members have arrived. This will be your final exam - do not fail us. Over and out."

"Hell yeah!" Michael yelled. His Prometheus began running toward the ship.

"Prometheus, we're supposed to wait for the Nasemin..." There was a long pause. "...Not that I heard that, or anything." The Echiste began to follow him.

Seifer jumped to the ground and ran to the others. Jamethon looked to each of them, then noticed Novinha.

"What are you doing here?" He said.

"I came with Seifer." She answered, and Jamethon looked at Seifer. "Is there a problem with that?" Jamethon looked at her again, then turned to the ship. After a few minutes, a silvery, string-like creature walked out. It stopped a few feet in front of them, and waited. The silence lasted a while before Andrew finally spoke.

"...So, Jam, now what?" He said, and the creature turned to him. "Wha huh?" Andrew said as the creature headed towards him.

"Careful And-" Jamethon began. As he spoke, the creature began heading toward Andrew; its stride and limbs growing longer until is practically flew at him. Jamethon looked to Andrew to see a horrified look on his face as the creature's limbs punctured his skin and flowed into his body. The others stared as Andrew's body was ripped apart before them. Only a look of begging death interrupted Jamethon form his trance and pushed him to taking out the Godson he had taken from his father, and he fired at the dying Andrew, hoping to end his misery.

Just as the shot was fired, the creature moved a wall-like section blocking its trajectory. The bullet continued on, but evaporated with each passing millisecond until only a small speck hit the lifeless chest of Andrew's body. Jamethon however, realizing he was too late, only quickly turned back to the ship. More of the creatures were approaching, already stretching out. He did not need to order a retreat.

"Command! Echiste reporting; contacts are hostile and very dangerous. Recommend immediate evac of area and razing of crater. Communication not possible; frankly people, we're in some deep shit. Over." Jamethon said, attempting unsuccessfully to stay calm. Just as they had reached their gears, the aliens reached them; Lori's Matriarch was virtually annihilated and she was forced to ride with Jamethon. Only Xenogears' firepower had saved them.

"Transmission received. Please repeat requests; complete destruction of crater area? Over."

Jamethon hit the side of the cockpit as hard as he could with his fist. What is with these people? "Command, seconds after we met them, they had killed Andrew and soon after totally annihilated Lori's gear. If you value your life, or that of anyone else on the surface of the planet, you will do whatever it takes to kill these things ASAP. Over." There was a few minutes pause that lasted years.

"Echiste, get out of the crater. We are preparing the terrabomb." the terrabomb was the most recent nanotech breakthrough; although 'good' terraforming was so far a ways off, it had been found that doing just the opposite - totally ruining a landscape with nanites - was a completely viable proposition. What everyone had always wondered was, if there was supposed to be complete world peace, what the use of such a weapon was...

"Hey, ya fucking Jamethon fucker, this may be a bad fucking time for fucking this, but didn't they fucking say something fucking crashed here? And I may be fucking mistaken - which I'm fucking not - but that fucking ship we fucking saw had not fucking crashed." Michael said. Nobody spoke.

"Do you fucking people not fucking understand me? I-"

"Yes, Michael, we heard you...but I believe I speak for everyone when I say, what the fuck are we supposed to do about it?" The others, including Michael, Seifer thought, laughed.

"People, if command found something that apparently doesn't exist, but were totally oblivious to the humongous ship we just met, what makes us think at terrabomb alone will eliminate the threat?" Michael said calmly. There was another long pause. Finally, Seifer heard Jamethon speaking to command.

"You can...launch the terrabomb now." He said, then waited a few seconds. "And uh...when it's finished, we'll be needing to go back. We have, uh, unfinished business. Over."

Seifer watched with the others, awed. Calling it a 'bomb' was something of a misnomer, he realized, for when the Yggdrasil flew over, rather than one large bomb it dropped hordes of bug-like dots that resembled the mental image Seifer had thought of when he was told about the destruction of the seals that bonded man, and the chaos that followed afterwards. The nanites, he knew, would now proceed to disassemble each atom of the land below them, hopefully destroying the hostile ship while doing so. He also knew it would take a while and that there was not much to be seen, so he looked around for Novinha. When he saw her, staring off at the nanites, he could not help but be aroused at her shapely form. Waiting for nothing in particular, Seifer stood there, watching her contentedly.

"You found nothing?" Bart said, and Jamethon nodded.

"We told you; whatever it was that made you think there was a crashed ship was a trick." Bart frowned and looked confused.

"And what about the alien ship?" Billy said. Jamethon looked to Seifer.

"Well," Seifer said, "The nanites do not completely destroy their target; they will only literally rip it to pieces. However, there was no sign a ship had been destroyed there. It almost seems as if..it just disappeared when the bomb was launched."

"You mean you believe they escaped." Citan said quickly. Seifer looked at him.

"Yes." Seifer said. Citan, and almost everyone else, leaned back in their seats. Michael, who the whole time had been looking from each current speaker to the other wide-eyed like a wild animal, became pensive.

"How could they have left so fast?" Margie said.

"We're dealing with alien technology. You mustn't make any assumptions as to what they are capable of." Citan said.

"We're getting off the subject here." Bart said. "Jamethon, it's not possible that there was no other ship or whatever; you see, whatever it was that shot Shevat did not come from the direction of the ship you found. The blast was practically from across the entire crater."

"Well, if the ship can go fast enough to get out of the terrabombed area, perhaps it's fast enough to have gone from the site of the shot to where we found it." Maria said. Finally then, Michael spoke.

"Must it be the same ship? Personally, I find it much more plausible that whatever it is we're fighting here has the technology to make a ship invisible than be capable of FTL travel." Many of them looked at him strangely.

"FTL?" Billy said slowly.

"Faster-than-light." Michael responded. Again, another pause.

"Michael, where..where did you learn that?" Citan said. Michael looked at him, smiling. He said nothing.

"Hey! I may be mistaken, but aren't we here to figure out what to do next?" Jamethon said. Citan, after a few seconds, turned away from Michael.

"What can we do?" Bart said. Everyone seemed to think the question was rhetoric, Seifer thought, but he could tell Bart really did want an answer. However, Seifer was more interested in Michael - his entire life, Seifer had always thought Michael as an idiot with a very, very bad attitude. But as of late he was showing signs to the contrary. Coming to think of it, though, Seifer realized he had been seeing Michael at Taura's house periodically...

"Michael," Billy said, "You say you believe the other ship was invisible?"

"Yes. 'Tis the only was we could have checked everywhere - like we did - and found nothing. Of course, that's supposed it not only crashed but was damaged enough that it was unable to lift off again. Nonetheless, we are still with the problem as to why our 'phantom' crashed." Michael said.

"What about why it shot Shevat?" Maria said. Before Michael could say anything, Citan answered her quickly. "The best guess we have now is that they saw it as a threat, it being the only space-faring object we have."

"But wait," Billy said thoughtfully, "If the..phantom ship was the one that immediately shot Shevat, and the one the Nasemin found first seemed to attempt to initiate contact, is it possible they were not...on the same side?" Michael looked at him, and his smile turned to a grin.

"I always have wondered why Deus was created," Michael said, "But now I must make my leave." He stood and left, leaving the others to gape.

"What?" Jamethon said after a few seconds. Seifer let own a slight chuckle. Citan got out of his signature thinking posture he had been in almost the whole meeting, and looked around.

"Well, my wife is waiting for me; perhaps we can continue this discussion some other time." He too then left. The others followed.

"Welcome back. Were you listening?" Michael said. He had just finished talking to Taura when his teacher appeared. Taura turned to watch them for a few minutes.

"Ah, no. Existence is an awfully slow leaner; and after that...experiment with human reproduction, it's taken days at a time to get him - it - out of the mood for doing that again. What happened at the meeting?" Krelian said.

"They think there's two ships of different allegiances." Michael said. Krelian nodded slowly, the face he had chosen suddenly turning to one of pure thoughtfulness.

"And do you, too, believe this?" Krelian said. Michael looked up at him with one eye wide. "That's what I was hoping you could answer." Michael said. Krelian sighed.

"Michael, you know very well we Wavers can't-"

"No, Krelian, as a matter of fact I don't. If you're from a higher dimension, why are your powers here reduced?" Michael said. Krelian sighed again.

"I can't answer your question as I have never been able to answer it. Human minds cannot comprehend the explanation no matter how much I simplify it. Either way, I can't tell you whether or not it's true. All I can say is that there are no humans on either ship, if there really are two." Krelian said.

"How-" Michael said.

"Michael." Krelian said.

"Yeah, okay okay, fine, whatever." He said. Then Krelian disappeared.

As soon as he walked in, Seifer saw Michael, sitting a chair facing the wall with his eyebrows furrowed. He quickly shot a look toward the door and at Seifer, then tilted his head to the side and got up. Taura, meanwhile, was just as surprised, and also looked at Seifer.

"Well, I'll be going." Michael said. He nodded slightly at Seifer as he passed by.

"Hmm...Seifer, what brings you here?" Taura said. Seifer hesitated, then shook his head. None of my business.

"Oh yes, I was hoping to check up on Emeralda..." Seifer said. Taura nodded.

"My apologies but she's not in any condition to do much of anything now. I'm restructuring as fast as possible, but in the long run it won't work..." He paused. "...I've been curious; why hasn't Fei come by?" Taura said, and Seifer seemed to sadden.

"I don't know what's up with him, but the other thing I came here for was to see if you knew where he was at. I haven't seen him for a while." Seifer said. Taura just looked at him, then shook his head. Seifer sighed and left.

Chapter VII: A Sign

"The civilization seems so...primitive." William Gaines said. Henoz nodded.

"Yes, but surely you don't believe they haven't fought amongst each other since then." He said.

"Well yeah," Gaines responded, "But it almost looks as if the Mercs have done their thing." He hesitated. "Well, okay, I don't actually know what 'their thing' is, but with the level of nanotechnology they've available, I wouldn't deny it looks something like this." Henoz narrowed his eyes before speaking.

"Actually....I'd say this looks more like the terraforming Deus was programmed for..." Henoz said. Gaines looked at him.

"You're not saying they activated Deus, then killed it?"

"Not really. If the colony was started here, then I'm guessing Deus 'woke up' during the trip and tried to save himself." Henoz said.

"But if...he had been alive all that time, I see no way they could have survived. I mean, I we still don't know how they damaged him so bad in the first place." Gaines said. Henoz nodded.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to figure that out." He looked back to the main screen. The Merc dropship had absorbed the nanites dropped at them, and in a seemingly state of shock they activated their cloaking field. The ship was now just sitting there, and Henoz had decided it a good a time as any to attempt contact with the other humans. All they had to do was, with the destruction of the only flying object visible near the planet, figure out how to land without detection by the Mercs. He continued to stare, thinking for a few minutes.

"There's no way." Henoz said.

"Hmm?"

"No way to get past." Henoz said, turning around and pointing vaguely at the screen. "Our only hope is either to go for it, or wait until the people down there distract them enough." Gaines frowned and nodded.

"So, now, we just wait?" Gaines said, knowing fully Henoz would never dare 'go for it'. Henoz sighed.

"Only problem is there is a warship out there, and we can't stay hidden forever." Henoz said, partly to himself and not expecting an answer. Gaines gave none. Henoz sat there, staring off into space.

"Dammit, we can't just sit here. We've got to send something, anything. They need to at least know we're here." Henoz said. Gaines nodded.

"They'll detect anything we send..." Gaines said. Henoz frowned deeply.

"...However, they won't care if it's only a meteor..." Gaines finished. Henoz thought a moment before he caught on.

"Where shall it hit?" Henoz said. He brought up a map of the planet surface, complete with the locations of every detected settlement and alien ship.

"I'd say somewhere near here." Gaines said, pointing at Nisan. Henoz nodded. He activated the intercom and gave the orders. A few minutes later, a ship was launched.

Chapter VIII: Contact

"Still nothing. Are you sure about this?" Rico said. As soon as the pure metal structure had been found, nanites wrote a message to the discoverers. Now, they were looking for the ship that had apparently sent it.

"What do you mean?" Billy said. Michael answered him quickly.

"The aliens could have sent it to trick us, is what he was saying - however, the theory's stupid. They don't need to resort to trickery; they could probably kill us whenever they wanted." When he finished, Rico looked over at him angrily. The others tensed, but Michael only smiled mockingly. Rico almost attacked him when they found the frequency.

"Guys...we found 'em." Billy said somewhat quietly. The screen showed two men, one wearing glasses and looking at them thoughtfully, the other, wide eyed. Both wore full militaristic attire.

"Hello." Michael said. The man nodded.

"I am...Commander Alexander Henoz of the Freedom League, and this" He motioned to the man with the glasses behind him, "Is Jacob Gaines, Special Operatives Advisor of the Empire of Man." At the last statement, the other man smiled.

"I..we've no official designations; I am Billy Lee Black, this is Kaiser Rico Banderas, Michael Kismet," Billy pointed to each person as he said their name, and they nodded at the screen, "Cit...Citan Uzuki, and Seifer Wong." Billy smiled at Seifer's full name. He had never thought about it until now. Henoz nodded.

"Well, I believe we've no time for small talk; what I must know now is the status of the Merc ship."

"Merc?" Billy said. Henoz looked confused for a second.

"Oh, sorry, the aliens. We call them Mercs; derived from Mercury." Henoz said.

"...Uh, Mercury?" Billy said. Henoz and Gaines laughed.

"Guess you wouldn't know about that either...but anyway..." Henoz said.

"The aliens...perhaps the people that were there could better explain." Billy motioned to Seifer and Michael's general direction. Michael, grinning widely, made shook his head.

"We attempted contact, but they attacked us after a few seconds. One person died, and we lost a gear." Henoz frowned and nodded. Gaines tilted his head.

"Gear?" This time Seifer and the others laughed. "We've a lot to teach each other sometime." Henoz shrugged.

"You say they attacked you?" Henoz said. Seifer nodded.

"As I recall, the...Merc stood, watching us for a few seconds, then it attacked." Henoz turned to Gaines, and they talked a bit before he turned back.

"Sorry about your loss. Apparently they greatly dislike uncharted colonies. But again, we'll explain everything later; right now, should you be willing, we would like for you to distract them. The warship will find us soon, so we must get to the planet ASAP...uh, as soon as possible. We will not ask you to sacrifice anyone, so if there is no way, please say so. However, remember keep in mind the fate of your planet could rest on this decision." Henoz said. Immediately, Michael walked up to the screen.

"We will help you. You will know when it is safe, too, just keep an eye on the big crater." He said. Henoz seemed suspicious, but didn't have a chance to say anything.

"Michael! What are you doing?" Billy said. Michael grinned again.

"The enemies we are fighting have the most advanced nanotechnology ever witnessed. But what are nanites against ether power?" Michael said.

"But, the Existence was freed...how could..." Billy said. Michael only looked at him and said nothing. "Unless...it were to be trapped again...but it would never agree..." Again Billy stopped, and still Michael watched him, waiting.

"Krelian...might.." Billy said, and Michael nodded.

"Don't worry about him accepting; there are ways. And as for what he'll trap himself in," Michael shrugged. "I do believe I'm the only one who's done that before." There was a long pause while they let the information sink in. Seifer was the first to speak.

"...Michael, what do you mean you've done it before?" Michael, though still grinning, seemed to sadden a bit.

"Seifer, perhaps you should catch that sister of yours. Hook her up to a computer and watch the recorded memories; for Fei, at least, it will help. Just...forgive me. But I will too say that the Krelian had been teaching the Existence, and it hadn't the slightest idea how to handle a human body." Michael said.

Chapter IX: Rat

"Come on sis, I just wanta check something." Seifer said, grimacing. Margie had barely escaped his grasp, but had escaped nonetheless. At least he was cornering her.

"Look. sis, I gotta know what's up with out father and Michael." With a quick dive, he caught her. Luckily, he was wearing thick clothing, or the her bites would have probably hurt. He programmed the nanites, and poured the contents of the small container onto Margie's head. Immediately they put her to sleep, punctured her skull and created a linkup between the computer in her head. He looked to the screen.

It started at the beginning of her life, and Seifer realized he might be there for a while. However, it seemed certain parts were damaged; for they cut off. The recording he was looking for thus came much sooner. Seifer could not speak after a few seconds of watching, and he had to turn from the screen to throw up.

Michael had raped Elly.

There must be a rational explanation, Seifer thought. Think Seifer! Michael said something about...the Existence. Krelian...Krelian taught the Existence about human reproduction...Seifer's eyes widened as he thought. Michael allowed...Existence to use him..lost control...must be it...please...He shut off the computer, freed Margie and stumbled aimlessly away. Please, he thought. Please.

Chapter X: War

The second time, Michael thought, was a lot easier. At least, he knew what to expect; and because of that it was much easier. What wasn't easy, as last time, was immediately after the initial possession - when his soul - as he thought of it - was pushed aside, the agonizing loneliness was horrible. Each second of normal time seemed to take a year. But it was worth it.

"You act like there would be something to see." Krelian said. The other shrugged.

"I dunno. Just, something." Billy said. Krelian tilted Michael's head.

"Well, Michael did this before, so I guess he knew how to handle it. But we've business." Krelian said. The others nodded. Taura walked over to them.

"Krelian you'll have to stay; can't risk you. Rather, the Nasemin people can take care of it in their gears. You may also find my disassembler devices useful still, but considering their level of technology it's possible they won't work. But we'll try 'em anyway.

The gears waited, their pilots nervously watching the Merc's inexorable march to their position. The aliens were spreading already. Suddenly, though, they became steadily smaller until there was nothing approaching them. The Nasemin waited in stunned silence.

They did not have to wait long. The Mercs came up from under them, swallowing some of the gears whole in a sleek silver shell. Within seconds though, parts of the shells seemed to fall of. Seifer heard Jamethon yell over the intercom.

"The disassemblers! They're working!" He said. Seifer smiled, then turned his gear away form the Merc at its feet and used one of his father's ether spells. He did not notice the Mercs were, in fact, destroying the disassemblers, along with the gears. Andvari seemed to sink, the gear being slowing eaten up. Bart barely jumped out in time. But it was too late nonetheless; he was ripped apart in the same manner as Andrew had been.

"Seifer!!" Seifer heard Novinha's voice. He turned to where her gear was supposed to be. It was covered in Merc. What was left of it, at least. Luckily, Xenogears had special lasers equipped and he was able to quickly snipe off the Mercs. Or at least, temporarily stop them. He turned away from her again. Training had served him well; if God had come down and talked to him he would have continued to fight. Nothing could interrupt him, nothing would.

Seifer saw strange colors streak across the sky, and it took a while for him to realize it was Krelian's message to the human ship that it was safe to come down. He turned back to the battle. It was not going well for the humans. For every Merc seemingly destroyed, two gears were ripped to pieces and used as material for the nanites. Finally, someone voiced the idea everyone had already been following. "Retreat!" They yelled. Seifer was about to do just that when a long Merc appendage broke open his cockpit.

Chapter XI: Emeralda

Seifer woke to the strangest feeling at the side of his head. He tried to open his eyes, but it didn't work; neither did his legs, arms, mouth, or anything else he thought to try and move. He fell asleep.

Days later, Seifer could hear, but that was it - so he listened. He could faintly make out the voice of Taura and someone discussing nanites, Emeralda, and Novinha. He tried to stay awake but only slept again.

Finally, he could see. Seifer opened his eyes to a mirror; it did not seem to have been purposely placed there, for Seifer did not like what he saw. Or rather, what he didn't see. The bottom part of his face just wasn't there, no skull, blood, nothing. His eyesight was too bad to see much more but the pathways of nanites as they restructured him. He had figured they must have given him a sleeping drug before he again slept.

Seifer was missing some skin, but he could move and make small sounds. When he did so he saw Elly walk over to him with tears in her eyes. She whispered to him that she had seen the recording, but Seifer fell asleep before his brain could register the information.

"Looking good." Michael said. Seifer tried out his arms - they seemed just as they should be, even if they had little bumps moving around under the skin. As much as he could, Seifer tried to smile.

"..Battlll...hww...wha....hppn..." Seifer said. Michael seemed to understand.

"The Yggdrasil flew over, and some large laser from the human ship came down, which got the Mercs to pause in surprise. We took the chance to escape. Apparently our friends up there destroyed their ship, but the ship one was damaged greatly when that invisible thing came out. I'll give you the details later." Seifer tried to nod.

"Nvvyy...hww...Nvvnnnaa." Seifer said. Michael frowned.

"Seifer, that's...that's a tough one. Um, to give the straight answer, Novinha's going to die unless Emeralda allows her nanites to be used to save her - as you'd know, Emeralda's got the most advanced nanotechnology we've available." Michael said quickly. Then he walked off, activated Seifer's sleep drug along the way. Seifer slept.

Finally, he was done. The modified body parts felt exactly the same, but Seifer couldn't help but

~To be continued~