FicWad

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except for the girl that you meet.
Dedicated to: David. For always being there. I love you.

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Jade ran and ran until her lungs felt like they were going to burst inside her. She didn't know if the Gnosis that was chasing her was still after her, but she was too afraid to look back to check. Her mothers necklace was hitting her bust and chin as she ran, but she didn't care.

Mommy, I'm sorry I couldn't save you she thought as rounded a corner into a dead end. She prayed for now she could see the foul beast catching up to her. She knew that it would only be a few more minutes before she was one of them.

As if God has heard her prayer personally, she saw a flash of white, making the beast look toward it. Everything blurring as she watched what was happening. Flashes of light, a dim roar, more lights and then, silence. She feared that the beating of her heart would attract more Gnosis, but she tried her best to silence the sound thumping in her chest. The figure in white slowly walked up to her quietly.

'Take my hand. I can take you somewhere safe.' a voice rang out. Somehow, it was calming and soothing. She felt possessed as she took his hand lightly and felt herself be half dragged, half led to a large ship.

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Light green and silver were the colors of the ship. Jade tried her best to remember what the color codes were, but nothing came to mind as she followed the mysterious young man inside. Everything seemed to blur as she looked. Everything was so different from what it looked like outside. Dark, damp and the smell of death welcomed anyone who was brave enough to walk outside and face those demons. Inside the ship however, it was calm, dry and better yet, warm. Things welcomed her as she looked at them. A couple of droids that seemed to dance where they stood watching her while continuing their never-ending dance.

The young man stopped suddenly. She ran into him because she was too busy looking at her new, unfamiliar surroundings.

'I'm sorry...' Jade said lowly, refusing to make eye contact.

'I'm just going to go inform that captain that you are here.' the man said. He looked at her confused look. 'He didn't know that you would be joining us. Don't worry, Captain Matthews may be a boozer, but he's kind at heart. He will not try to pry into you like some people may do.' he answered her look. She nodded, still looking at the floor and refusing to make eye contact with him. She finally watched him as he walked into the bridge (she knew this because she could see a person sitting in front of a monitor and a large pilot seat even more clearer than the monitor).

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Jade suddenly was overcome with a mixture of grief and weariness. She did her best to stop the tears from flowing, and she thought that she did a pretty good job at it. If someone asked, she could just say that she scratched her eye wrong. She sighed as she waited for the man to return. The sound of the bridge doors opening made her jump up quickly like she was guilty of doing something wrong. Three people, including the man that had saved her entered the passage and started walking toward her.

Fighting off her fear to start running as fast as she could, she waited for them to approach her closer. The tall, older looking man with a hat that said Warning, I am a boozer made her chuckle in spite of herself. He must have been the captain. The person with the large glasses that told her that he must've been a nerdy type of guy must have been the one in front of the monitor that she'd seen. As for the last one, blond hair and a stern looking face must have been the pilot.

'The others are away at the moment, but I'm sure that they will be pleased to meet you as much as these three are. This is our lovely Captain Matthews,' the man said waving his hand ever so gracefully toward the man with the hat. So she was right. 'and this is Hammer. He's the one that sits in front of the monitor all day and tells us coordinates of where we need to be.' he explained now moving his hand again to the man with big glasses. 'This is Tony. He's out pilot. If there's anywhere you want to go, no matter how far away it may be, he can get you there in no time. He claims that he's one of the best pilots there is." the young man said finally lowering his hand and smiling at her. She watched him as he placed right hand on his chest and cleared his throat. 'My name is chaos. May we have your name?' she heard him ask.

Jade finally looked up into his eyes. Aquamarine, calming, warming and most of all, welcoming. 'J-Jade Evelyn.' she replied, her voice shaking.

'No need to be shy around here. I'm sure one of the girls will show you how we run the show here when they get back.' the booming voice of Captain Matthews said. She looked up at the four people standing in front of her. They all seemed so calm, even though this man, chaos, had brought a stranger on their ship.

'It's nice to meet you Jade. I can see why your parents named you that. Your eyes are the exact color or jade. They're beautiful.' the man with large glasses, Hammer, said.

'How about you and I-' the pilot started only to be cut off by the captain punching him in the arm.

'Knock it off Tony. Can't you see she's still nervous?'

'I know. That's why I want to offer her some hospitality.' Tony said rubbing his arm where it had come in contact with the captains fist.

'I don't think she needs that kind of hospitality Tony. You need to get your priorities straight before you start asking people...'

Jade refused to listen to anymore of their bickering. She was tired and hungry. She just wanted to sleep.

'Umm, do you have somewhere that I can lie down? I don't feel so well.' she asked holding her head in her hand. chaos looked at her worriedly.

'Follow me and I'll show you to the women's room.' chaos said kindly. He offered her his hand and she took it gingerly and followed. At least they weren't running anymore.

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Shion Uzuki and MOMO quickly pressed the button to open the hangar door, ran inside and closed it again quickly. While still catching their breath, they looked at each other, thankful of each others company. They'd gone outside into that 'war zone' to look for any survivors. Sadly, they found none.

'Maybe if we looked longer, we may have found someone. I picked up some weak life signs back there.' MOMO said.

'I know MOMO. But it was better if we ran. Your Hilbert Effect isn't as strong as KOS-MOS's and I didn't want to lose my life and I didn't want you to lose yours in the process of trying to save someone that may have died anyway.' Shion explained sighing loudly finally getting her breath back.

MOMO went to say something, but she knew that Shion was right. What was the point in saving someone if they were just going to die anyway? She took one last glance at Shion and started walking back to the bridge. Shion watched as the other female walked away. She desperately hoped that she wasn't mad at her.

'Junior, where are you? You always seem to make her feel better.' she said lowly, falling to the floor and hitting her head lightly on the door behind her. She got up slowly and made her way to the bridge herself. She needed to know if the others were okay.

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'Having problems with the door?' the youthful looking realian named Canaan asked the cyborg.

'The button isn't working. Count of Junior to give us something defective.' the cyborg, Ziggy, replied showing no emotion what so ever. Canaan took the device from Ziggy's hands and threw it on the ground.

'Forget the button. Don't you know that I can unlock doors?' he asked putting a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Ziggy stayed quiet, but let Canaan do his work. He knew that they both didn't want to be caught by any of the Gnosis that were roaming around freely. The small beeping let both of them know that Canaan had managed to open the door and they both piled inside just in time. Ziggy left Canaan to do what ever it was that he did when he wasn't with the crew to inform Matthews that a couple of Gnosis had managed to find his ship.

He walked into the bridge to see that Jin and Junior had also returned. The only person that was missing was Shion.

'Captain, Gnosis have discovered the ship.' he said calmly. He shot a glance over to Junior who had a sly grin planted on his face. 'And you gave us a defective device.'

'At least you got back here safely old man.' Junior said nonchalantly while turning to leave. He hadn't been having a good day and he really didn't mean to take it out of anyone. He just grabbed the wrong device and handed it to Ziggy without thinking about it. While he was out with Jin, then he started to think about it and it was then that he realized that he'd made a mistake. But Ziggy and Canaan got back safely and that was all that mattered.

'You had it better than myself. He wouldn't stop talking about guns the whole time. It was hard enough to try and find survivors, but it was really hard when you had a small twerp talking about guns the whole time. I'm sure that he frightened most of the survivors away before we could try to help them.' Jin said taking a small sip of tea from the coffee mug that he had in his hands. Afterwards, he sighed overdramatically and asked if anyone had seen Shion. Although he knew that she was supposed to come back to the bridge when her and MOMO returned, no one hadn't seen her since they left. Tony and the captain assumed that she'd went into the females room and took a shower, while Hammer said that she had gotten take captive by Gnosis. Jin knew better than to believe that load of mumbo-jumbo.

chaos returned soon after Junior had left, his hair soaking wet. He always felt better with just about everything after he had a shower. Sighing from relief that he felt, he threw the towel that he had behind his head and leaned against the wall.

'You were the only one to save anyone chaos.' Captain Matthews informed him.

'Oh really? I was sure that Junior and Jin would bring someone back. You know that effect that Junior has with people.' chaos said calmly.

'Not when he's talking about guns the whole time.' Jin said taking another sip of his tea. 'Who did you save?' he then asked,

'A girl named Jade. She looks about my age, but she acts a bit childish. It could've just been that she was afraid. She did have a Gnosis following her after all.' chaos explained. Captain Matthews thought back to the girl that he'd met only half an hour before. She couldn't have looked no older than eighteen, so chaos was right.

'Where is she now?' Jin asked, snapping the captain out of his thoughts.

'She said that she wasn't feel well, so I showed her to her room.' chaos replied closing his eyes as if to meditate on something.

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Jade laid thinking about the family that she'd left behind. She watched her mother and father be killed by those... things and then her brother ran, just to befall their same fate.

Murdock, I'm sorry that I didn't come back for you... she thought as she buried her head in her hands. Murdock had been a childhood friend of hers since grade school. They were planning on entering the Vector community once they graduated from college, but now that plan went out the window.

She quietly laid down, trying to make herself as small as possible, while thinking about her family and friends. All the people that she wouldn't be seeing again. All the things she could've done to try and help them, but she didn't. Instead, she cowered in fear and ran away like a baby. Everything she wanted to have, everything she needed... was gone...