"Babylon of the Sky"

Chapter 1

Notes/Disclaimers: Of course, these characters and anything thereof are copyright of Squaresoft and any other respective companies. I am not using them for profit or for any other sort of margin-I'm just a pathetic fan with a wont to ramble off on paper when I'm better off doing something else, so please don't try to get money from me or anything.

ALSO: This story has some religious content/controversy; if you're sensitive to such stuff, this is NOT for you!! Heck, why are you even interested in Xenogears?! Also, all my biblical quotes and references are from the "New International Version" and the "King James Version" of the Bible, so please don't e-mail me about "misquotes". ^^*

ALSO: In the Japanese version, Jugend was termed "Eugent." As such, that romanticization has been used instead of the translation taken for the English version. Although the story explains why, if you must know why I used "Eugent" right now, look up "Eugenics" in the dictionary.. (Thanks go to Queen Vera for pointing that out the "Eugent" thing though!! ::hugs::) ^_^

"A sword, a sword, sharpened and polished--sharpened for the slaughter, polished to flash like lightning." ~ Ezekiel 21:9-10

A single line formed, leading toward a black hole of empty Darkness, the line mindless and obedient.

A single black shape leads it.

A single green tree guards it.

A single silver sword executes it.

I only watch.

****

"Mellow, like the stars, gleaming
Here I see your eyes in the sun
The stars shine and flare, my life has begun..."

I frowned, glancing up at the aspiring poet polluting the air with his terrible verses. Of course, Jessiah has just on this side of tipsy, and was having trouble maintaining his balance as he stood upon a chair, spewing bad poetry. Tonight was the night before another mission as the Elements, and we were celebrating, per the custom. Or so Jessiah says...

"And the astral heavens call, like a dove cooing
The moon, the citadel above the sky
Is nothing like the beautiful glare of the sun in your eyes."

Sighing, I buried my face in my hands as Jessiah laughed rauciously, nearly tumbling off his chair as he bent down and slapped me on the back.

"Well, kid, whaddya think? Did I woo ya..?" He grinned, light blue eyes glazed with the beginning effects of alcohol.

A cold laugh replied as Ramsus lifted his glass in the detached amusement I have begun to associate with him. "I don't think that could even woo a tight old bag desperate for any sort of attention."

Sigurd smiled slightly, as much as his stoic persona would allow. "Be nice, Kahr," he murmured, sipping at a glass of iced tea.

"Well, he asked for an honest opinion, so I don't see anything wrong with my words, especially since they're true."

I lifted my head, smiling weakly, the world spinning momentarily due to the liquor in my blood stream. "I agree. Jessiah, perhaps you should borrow a book of verses from Kahr and recite them to your girl instead."

Jessiah glanced at Ramsus, one bushy brow raising in question. "From him? Mr. Insensitive?"

Kahr cleared his throat, coolly embarrassed. "They are purely for research purposes."

Sigurd leaned in to whisper to me, jeweled eyes twinkling: "For a certain doe-eyed citizen I know he's had his eye on."

I snickered, nearly falling over, my head abuzz. "Sigurd!"

He smiled faintly, warmly in reply, pushing silver-white hair from his handsome features.

---flashing falling through the Darkness---

I blinked, putting a hand to my head. Poppycock, I really did drink too much.

---another flash a rebounding echo hollow---

"Hyu? Something wrong?" Sigurd's hand on my shoulder suddenly seemed so very far away.

---a scream a prayer a wish---

The world was distant, far away. Was I the one holding the hilt? Was I was the one being killed? Was it another?

---the Darkness bruising fading into crimson slickly wet---

A slap. Hard. So hard I fell out of my chair, my spectacles skittering across the floor of Ramsus's room.

I blinked back tears of pain as reality surged around me.

Another slap.

"WAKEY WAKEY HYUGA! OR I'LL DROP A BIG WET KISS ON YA!"

Nothing like the loud voice of Jessiah Blanche to bring you back to your faculties. Or his threats.

I sat up quickly. "No, no, quite alright, I am awake..." I rubbed my head, not entirely sure if that was true. What had happened? Visions of swords and death were not exactly characteristic of my thoughts. I normally left that up to Ramsus.

Oh no...

It was that dream again.

But perhaps vision was a better term?

Either way, it was disturbing to know it had returned. I had not experienced it since... since... then...

+++First semester at Eugent, Year of Silk

Loud. Noisy. Indistinct conversation filtering through the dorm hallways.

My new home. (Joy.)

Eugent, military academy of Solaris. (Eugenics: {yoo*jen*icks} n. the study of improving the human species by improvement of inherited qualities.)

Already I regarded it with a dichtomy of sentiment: disdain and reverence.

Glancing at the broad back of the my sponsor, I tried to ignore the various stares I'm sure our entourage ignited. After all, it only consisted of the prime student of Eugent, a 2nd class citizen, and a taciturn land-dweller.

Jessiah stopped before an unmarked door, flashing a cocky grin over his shoulder.

"Well boys, here it is!" He laughed over the din of incessant talking.

I winced. The prime student of Eugent was also one of the most vocal.

My pale-haired roommate-to-be simply nodded, holding out a bronzed hand for the keycard to our new quarters.

Jessiah whapped the land-dweller (What was his name again?) on the back with enough gusto to send the Lamb staggering forward.

"Atta boy, Sigurd!" (Yes, Sigurd, that is his name.) Another raucious laugh, soliciting another wince from me. "You're gonna do great, kid." Jessiah gave him the keycard.

Sigurd offered our patron a stiff smile and swiped the plastic through the lock. The metal door hissed open, reminding me of another door that had opened five years ago after I had been "conditioned."

Damned journal. It informed me of all the lies Solaris was built upon. I longed to return to the ignorance the norm of the populace enjoyed.

("Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways." So the proverb stated. Pure and absolute rubbish.)

"Hey, Hyu! You goin' or what?"

Jessiah was waving a hand in front of my face as Sigurd waited in the doorway, obviously for me to enter.

I smiled reflexively. "Please forgive me, sir."

"Heh... you can drop that 'sir' bullshit, Hyu." He grinned, a wide slash on that sharp-boned square that served as his face. "You ain't my servant anymore, remember that."

"Of course, Jessiah."

Then his watch beeped in a most insistent manner. Grimancing, Jessiah glanced at his watch, azure eyes losing their playful luster. "Aw, damn. Ol' Ash is a-hollerin' again."

"Well, if that is indeed so, then you must hurry to attend to him." I smiled in farewell, quickly grabbing my duffel and joining Sigurd in the doorway. "I will see you again."

Sigurd simply nodded his farewell, disappearing into the room. (Eyes deep as the sea, hard like ice, that one.)

Jessiah's mouth twisted as he turned to me and saluted. "Good luck, Hyu. Don't shame us both."

"I understand, Jessiah."

I watched him as he was swallowed by the crowd of students, trying to quell the butterflies that suddenly erupted in my stomach.

Turning, I entered the first day of my new life. Never thought I would become a military man.

The door hissed shut behind me as I stepped fully into the room. Sparse surroundings they were, yet they were definitely a luxury compared to the housing of the 3rd class. Two beds, on opposite ends of the room, some dressers, cabinets, and desks, a bathroom, four metal walls, and a door. Definitely a step way up from the 3rd class hives.

Sigurd had already claimed the left bed, dutifully unpacking his possessions and methodically setting them into the closest dresser.

I had only known Sigurd for the week he had spent under Jessiah's vacation home under which I was employed. I knew absolutely nothing about him and I am sure I could count the number of verbal exchanges we have shared on my fingers.

(His eyes radiate disgust toward me although his words reveal nothing.)

But we are roommates now. At least he was not fond of talk like our advocate.

I put my duffel on the rightmost bed, sighing. Three years of training. Then I would enter the service if I passed the Test. Funny how I was going to become an officer to the very country that enslaved me.

No, I was still a slave. "A man with freedom can be just as much a slave as one without," I muttered in ill-humor, unzipping my duffel.

"What was that?" replied my comrade, looking at me with a dangerous curiousity.

I flushed, surprised that Sigurd had expressed an interest in my thoughts. But I cared not to inform him of the blasphemous deliberations I perpetually entertained.

(Trust is death, that is what you learn when living as a slave.)

"Just babbling to myself, per usual. Please do not mind me!" I chirped, flashing a lopsided grin.

A silver brow raised, and he only answered, "Roll call in fifteen minutes." He knew what I had said.

I wondered what he thought. He was a land-dweller stolen from his home, but he did not carry the bearing of a former 3rd class Worker Bee. (We all have our dirty little secrets, ne?)

However, the hatred for Solarians was like a thick blanket around him.

I wondered what he thought.

I especially wondered about his intentions.

Since my own were questionable.

***

A single line formed, leading toward a black hole of empty Darkness, the line mindless and obedient.

A single black shape leads it.

A single green tree guards it.

A single silver sword executes it.

I only watch.

The Darkness then fades into scarlet, brilliantly reminscent of blood, and then I know that it is the blood of the line, its sharp stench burning my nostrils.

The black shape turns to me, a white smile on its features, holding out a clawed hand, beckoning.

I run away, hiding by the tree, looking up at it for an answer, asking it why it was letting this happen. It crackles under the fire of my questions, and I realize that the tree is only a farce, concealing the dark deeds of the black shape that guides the line into Darkness.

The sword falls. Whack, whack. And the line dies. I scream in horror and whirl around, only to discover...

I was holding the sword.

"Rikudeau. Get up, you're having a bad dream."

I sat up suddenly, gasping and eyes wide, nearly colliding heads with Sigurd.

He watched me with those jeweled eyes, concern nowhere present in those blue depths. "Finally."

Sweat trickled down my face like a thick river... a river of blood formed by the sword (in my own hand...)

"It was a dream," I whispered hoarsely, my voice still screaming in my soul.

"No kidding. Get a drink of water and go back to bed. It was a hard day today and I imagine it'll be a harder day tomorrow."

(A dream...)

I grabbed Sigurd's arm just as he turned away, staring up at his blurry, darkened face with something that felt like... (desperation...)

"It is a lie. You know that, do you not? This entire world and its many promises are all a facade for the darkness that created it!" I tightened my grip. "Right? Am I right!?"

His eyes flickered as he stared me down. And then only jerked his arm adruptly away in reply, again making leeway to his own bed. "Go to sleep, Rikudeau," came the soft whisper from the darkness. "Return to oblivion."

(Oblivion... to forget... )

I laid back down stiffly, staring up at the ceiling, hands at my sides, clenching the sheets. The elusive truth I had stumbled onto in my dream (or vision?) danced mockingly at the corner of my mind, laughing at my efforts to capture it. The entire world and its promises were lies... but... surely that could not be true? Was there really no happiness? No wondrous paradise, no solace? Was life living for naught?

Of course, this vision, no, dream, could have been nothing more than a nightmare from an overly-speculative young man. Jessiah always did say that I think too much. (Overactive imagination, fitting for some toddler with his toys, not that of a young man soon to reach his twenties...)

I yawned, relaxing as I convinced myself that the dream was nothing more than a passing nightmare caused by today's stress. Burrowing under the covers and closing my eyes, I drifted slowly into the soft vestiges of the void known as sleep.

("This world"...? ...no, it is this country, this *Solaris.*)

==E-31st mission @ Aquvy (198,543), 0500

"Aren't you done yet, Rikudeau?" Ramsus hissed, crawling up beside me on the small slope overlooking our target.

I smiled in good-humor, never looking up from the small laptop I was clacking away on. "We are on schedule, Kahr. No need to rush."

He shot a scowl at me, which, in itself, is nothing really new. He never liked me from the start, nor can I say that I was exactly friendly to him in the beginning. But ever since our little fight a year or two ago, he's been at least civil...

Lying down upon the loam, Ramsus parted the foliage concealing us from the view of the guards around the complex, pulling out a set of binoculars to glance at the complex below. "The others indicate they're in position yet?"

I paused in my typing, pushing my spectacles up my nose. "Really, Kahr, why so jittery? We have plenty of time--"

"T-minus 2 minutes, Rikudeau!" he snapped in a harsh whisper, cutting me off and affixing a glare on me so fierce that I am sure that the leaves around me crackled from its intensity. "Now get to work."

Sighing, I tapped the 'enter' button upon the keypad. "Mission accomplished, Kahr," I replied quietly. "Once Sigurd and Jessiah are in place, I will release the decoy."

His fierce glare never waivering, Ramsus turned back to his observations of the hidden Ethos fortress.

I really cannot discern why he dislikes me so much.

"Belteshazzar?" Sigurd's voice sighed into my ear over the headset I wore. "I'm in the terminal."

Hearing the soft baritone roll out from the headphones, Ramsus half turned, lowering his binoculars. "Finally," he hissed. "What about Jessiah?"

"Where's Shadrach?" I relayed over the microphone near my mouth, referring to our wayward elder by his codename.

"Meshach giving you problems, mmm, Hyu?" Sigurd sounded amused, if nothing else. "I'm not sure where Shadrach is... Did you check his frequency and try to contact him?"

"No because I do not wish to endanger him if he is in a compromisable area, but--"

"Quit chitchatting, sparrow, and deploy the bug." Jessiah rang loud over the receiver. He sounded was coolly professional, as he always was when working. The good-humored, boisterous man that was spewing horrendous poetry the night before was replaced by the apathetic head of the Solarian Army division.

But then, I think we all change when on a mission. Life and death, and all that pleasantry.

"Yes sir." I quickly entered the codes that would scramble the internal network of the fortress, thus allowing Sigurd and Jessiah free access to the mainframe, yet putting forth the illusion that the computer was not being hacked into. "It is yours. Have fun."

Keeping track of their progress on my laptop, I looked up at Ramsus, who was intently studying the compound below, his binoculars whirring as they zoomed in on whatever object had enraptured him. "Kahr, have you contacted the forces in Aveh about Kislev's current experiments with cloaking devices...?"

He motioned me to be quiet with one hand, never turning. "Rikudeau, take a look at this." He scooted aside, holding out the 'culars.

Sighing, I took them. "At what?" I inquired.

He pointed. "Seems the Ethos had a few pieces of equipment that we were totally unaware of. Look there, there!"

I looked through the lenses toward where he beckoned. "They seem to be... " I squinted, zooming in. "They look like generators---"

"No no no, you idiot! They're crude imitations of these atomic missiles that the Airforce scientists have been secretly working on." He snatched the binoculars from me.

I raised a brow. "The Intelligence Bureau is quite unaware of any such experiments involving atoms done by your department, Kahr."

Ramsus flushed angrily. "It's really none of the IB's concern. What's important is exactly how those rebels got ahold of top secret weaponry." He fixed me with another one of his famous piercing glares, azure eyes dangerous. "And you will *not* inform the IB heads of just what the Airforce has been doing behind their backs."

"I am an IB head," I replied mildly. I glanced back down at the compound. "Well, the obvious answer to your question, is quite simple. Someone in your department is working for the Ethos rebellion."

He scowled, following my gaze toward the seemingly innocent dark green boxes buried amist hay and branches. Then he set down the binoculars, slowing drawing his sword from the scabbard at his side. "Come on."

I blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

Another glare. I wondered if he practiced that look in the mirror, an image that nearly brought a smile to my lips.

"Kahr, this is not in our orders. Commander Ashenpaz will be furious if we have let known that Solaris is aware of the Ethos rebellion."

"Screw that bastard. What he doesn't know won't hurt him." He started down the back of the hill.

"Kahr, what about Jessiah and Sigurd? They will be finished soon..." I trailed off as Ramsus disappeared.

"Rikudeau, hurry up!" The voice floated up from below.

I checked the progress of Jessiah and Sigurd as they downloaded system files. Again, Ramsus called insistently, with the barest edge of threat. Sighing and wondering if perhaps this was a little more than foolish, I shut the laptop closed and buried it under a pile of leaves, while retaining my headset, and snatched my katana and scabbard from the ground.

Of course, the immediate importance of destroying these atomic weapons was apparent, but really, it could wait till another mission. Especially when we had two Elements deep within the compound itself, in a close situation at which they could be easily detected if not watched.

Most likely, Ramsus was privy to some information that we were not---especially if the Intelligence Bureau had no records or reports of experiments involving such devices.

And nothing interested me more than the play of politics.

I slid down the hill after him.