Categories > Games > Xenosaga > Shadows on a Moonlit Star
Three Years Later
0 reviewsHistory has seemed to repeat itself and humanity is doomed to perish, yet again. Only she holds the key to save all of humanity. Jade Evelyn just watched her family die before her eyes and the crew...
0Unrated
Disclaimer: I own nothing. All Monolith property.
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Three Years Later
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Jade had been waiting for the rest of the crew members to wake up. Somehow, she'd managed to wake up before they even reached their destination, the Kukai Foundation. Junior was wanting to show her everything that they had there, so this time around, they were just relaxing. They'd been there for a couple of missions, but never to relax like they were going to do today. He'd also told her to bring her bathing suit. She told him sadly that she didn't have one, so he specifically asked Shion to go with her to buy one.
She sat inside the diner shuffling a deck of Tarot cards that her somewhere along the lines grandmother had, ignoring the nearby dancing droid as she did so. Carefully laying out three cards and trying to interpret their secret meanings. The sound of the door opening made her look up, loosing her trail of thought as she did so. MOMO had found her hiding spot.
'Good morning sweetie.' Jade said and she watched the small realian walk to the counter and ask for a glass of water. She'd started calling MOMO 'sweetie' once she'd gotten used to her and now, the two were somewhat inseparable from each other. MOMO had seemed fond of the cute nickname and found comfort in it on one good-gone-bad mission.
'Good morning. What are those?' the small girl asked waiting patiently for the water that she'd asked for.
'They are Tarot cards. Would you like a reading?' Jade replied, a smile curling up her lips. She looked at MOMO, who nodded, and sat down beside her.
'Is it hard?' she asked.
'Not really. The thing is that you've got to remember what the meanings are.' Jade explained shuffling the deck once more so that it would seem fair to MOMO. She didn't want to give her an inaccurate reading because she'd been playing with them. She laid out three cards, as she did for herself, and examined them.
'Here we have 'The High Priestess'. She is a manifestation of the unconscious and the effects of the mysteries in our everyday world. She means discovery what's hidden deep inside yourself. She's very similar to the Magician.' Jade explained. She shot a short glance to the small frame of MOMO. She seemed to be hanging on her every word.
'And here, we have 'Temperance'. It means that you desire something, hinting the red, with all the purity that you can muster up, hinting the white. Purity of heart and mind gives you a solid base to fall back on, but only through the desire for personal growth can you even develop.' she explained again. She pushed the two cards aside as she pulled the last card closer as if wanting to get something off of it that shouldn't belong.
''The Devil'.' Jade said lowly. She didn't fully understand this card, but by the image shown, it had to be something bad. She turned to the book in her lap and read carefully about it. 'People don't do bad things because the negative part of their own personality is expressing itself. If you deny this side of yourself is to give it power over you, and to give it free reign over your life will eventually destroy you. When you submit to your inner Devil, you simultaneously submit to every other force in the outside world that would do you harm...' she had to stop. This wasn't what she wanted MOMO to hear about herself. MOMO wasn't a bad person. She was kind, caring and loving. All those things just had to nullify the effects of the card. It had to.
'Is that all?' she heard MOMO ask with a hint of fear in her voice.
'Yeah. Just don't let it go to your head. I don't believe half this stuff anyway.' Jade lied. She felt horrible for lying to MOMO, but she couldn't tell her the truth about the card. She knew that the Devil didn't always mean bad things were to fall MOMO, but she couldn't help but to feel that.
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After Jade had eaten a small breakfast consisting of eggs and grits, she walked to the bridge. She was sure that someone besides MOMO would be awake by now. It had been nearly an hour after she'd spoken with MOMO and done her reading. As she was making her way there, the boys room door opened revealing a weary eyes chaos. He covered his mouth as he yawned one last time and smiled at Jade.
'Good morning.' he said rubbing sleep from his eyes.
'Morning to yourself. It looks like you didn't sleep well last night.' Jade replied while putting on an unwilling smile. The smile just came, she couldn't stop it.
'You're right. I barely slept. Junior's snoring was one thing that kept me up, but I also had a lot on my mind.' he explained yawning again.
'Care to talk about it?' she offered.
'Not really. No need in troubling you with something so small right?' he said with a warm smile. He nodded at her one last time before he walked the way that she'd just came from. She stood there wondering what he meant for a few more seconds before she walked into the bridge.
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Junior was sitting in the seat that Jade had always seen MOMO sitting in listening to her begging him to get out of her seat. She smiled at how cute they looked before she walked to the captain.
'We almost there?' she asked looking up at him. He lowered himself so that he could see her better.
'Yup. I'd give it another hour unless Tony can find some miracle about getting there faster.' he replied holding the bill of his hat downward. She sighed because she was looking forward to going swimming, not the ride to the Federation.
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Once they arrived, Junior waited in anticipation for the others to change into their swimsuits. He had claimed that he'd changed into his earlier, but you never really know with his childlike self. Once they had all changed, he led them quickly through the towns and made it to the artificial beach. There were people already there, doing whatever it was that pleased them. Jade cracked a joke about getting an artificial tan, which she highly doubted was possible since the rest of the beach was fake.
Once they were finally set up (no thanks to Junior for helping) Jade watched as the others shed their clothes to reveal colorful swimsuits. When someone asked her why she hadn't taken anything off, she replied with a low tone saying that she was self-conscious about her body. Shion approached her looking calm and talked her into taking off her blue top. Jade told her that she wasn't loosing her shorts until later.
Jade looked around, eyeing the people that she knew from her home town, happy that some of them had escaped. Then she found chaos. White hair, blowing gently in the false breeze that was blowing and his tan figure, slightly wet from swimming. He turned to her, which made her look down blushing, and walked up to her.
'You okay? You haven't swam yet.' she heard him ask in a calm voice.
'I'm fine. I'll go when I'm ready.' she replied. He reclined in the chair beside her, putting his hands behind his head and relaxing.
'I thought you were looking forward to this.' he said closing his eyes and letting the shade from the umbrella take him. She looked at him once more before fixing her top, for it was starting to rise in the back. She unbuttoned her shorts, followed by unzipping them and finally shedding them completely.
'I'll only get in the water if you come with me.' she said playfully. He opened his eyes to look at her with a warm smile. He was happy that she was willing to go into the water, finally.
'Okay. But it's not my fault if you get dunked.' he said with a smile on his face and pointing to Junior, who was dunking an unsuspected MOMO under the water. She watched as the young realian broke the surface of the water just to try her hardest to dunk him back.
'Shall we go help her?' Jade asked with her voice full of false revenge. chaos eyed her and smiled. He offered her his hand again and she took his, grasping it tightly as if she was to let go, he would go away forever.
Feeling the sand between her toes made her want to get into the water even more. The sand was quiet warm, but she imagined that the water would be cooler on her feet since they seemed to be burning. Once they reached the edge of the water, they slowed down.
'We have to somehow get behind him.' Jade stated.
'I can handle that. Want me to distract him for you?' a female voice spoke. Jade turned her head to see Shion grinning brazenly as well. Jade chuckled lightly and nodded. They watched as she advanced on Junior, their plan working like it had already been done. After a couple more seconds, she squeezed chaos' hand. It was strange to her that he squeezed back, but she didn't say anything. They ran into the waves that were licking their toes and made their way to Junior.
'You get one side and I get the other. If he turns one direction, the person on the other side can get him.' Jade whispered once they were close to him.
'Junior, I thought you were going to tell me more about that gun that you found.' MOMO said, distracting him more. Jade guessed that she'd figured out their plan.
'Oh yeah. I left it on the Elsa. I didn't want to freak out the people here. I'll show it to you once we get back.' Jade heard him reply. He turned to talk to Shion again, who was pretending to be interested in the gun as well.
When they were behind him, Jade said; 'Bye Junior.' with a smile on her face and quickly placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed him downward before he had the chance to say anything. What she didn't see coming was small hands taking hold of her ankles and being drug under herself. Under water, Jade managed to kick Junior away and break the surface. She moved her hair out her face and laughed. A real laugh. A kind laugh. Something she hadn't done right since three years ago.
She stayed in the water a little longer. Playing water polo was fun, but it got old after a while. Soon afterwards, Shion and MOMO left the water to rest for a while and it was just chaos, Junior and Jade. It reminded her of the times that she would go to the beach with her family. Her, her brother and her father would be just about the only ones in the water at the end of the day while her mother would be on the beach tanning or finding some other excuse not to join them in the crashing waves.
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Before she was ready to leave however, Captain Matthews managed to pull them all away from the beach. Apparently, they had a delivery to make. This made Jade think back to the ancient tapes that she'd found of a show called /Futurama/. The professor was always calling Lela, Fry and Bender from their fun to make deliveries to distant planets, and it always seemed to her that Fry was always getting into trouble and Lela was having to rescue him. She chuckled at the thought.
What would this mission hold for her? She didn't want to think that what she'd read from the cards earlier that day would start to play an effect. Since they had some time for a cessation, she went to her room and did a small reading on herself.
----------
She focused on what she wanted to know about herself as she shuffled the thick deck of tarot cards. She remembered that she told MOMO that she didn't believe in this sort of thing, but what if she got something bad? She pushed those kinds of thoughts aside and she pulled at the top card and opened her eyes to look at it. The Moon was what she was seeing. She remembered the meaning as if it were laid right out in front of her. No matter your place in society or evolution, you are still able to be deceived. Nothing would be as it seemed. The moon shines the same light down onto everyone, though what you may see when that light reaches your eyes depends on who you are, not what you see. She knew to be careful and she tended to be that way. She didn't want herself getting hurt, or anyone else for that matter.
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Three Years Later
----------
Jade had been waiting for the rest of the crew members to wake up. Somehow, she'd managed to wake up before they even reached their destination, the Kukai Foundation. Junior was wanting to show her everything that they had there, so this time around, they were just relaxing. They'd been there for a couple of missions, but never to relax like they were going to do today. He'd also told her to bring her bathing suit. She told him sadly that she didn't have one, so he specifically asked Shion to go with her to buy one.
She sat inside the diner shuffling a deck of Tarot cards that her somewhere along the lines grandmother had, ignoring the nearby dancing droid as she did so. Carefully laying out three cards and trying to interpret their secret meanings. The sound of the door opening made her look up, loosing her trail of thought as she did so. MOMO had found her hiding spot.
'Good morning sweetie.' Jade said and she watched the small realian walk to the counter and ask for a glass of water. She'd started calling MOMO 'sweetie' once she'd gotten used to her and now, the two were somewhat inseparable from each other. MOMO had seemed fond of the cute nickname and found comfort in it on one good-gone-bad mission.
'Good morning. What are those?' the small girl asked waiting patiently for the water that she'd asked for.
'They are Tarot cards. Would you like a reading?' Jade replied, a smile curling up her lips. She looked at MOMO, who nodded, and sat down beside her.
'Is it hard?' she asked.
'Not really. The thing is that you've got to remember what the meanings are.' Jade explained shuffling the deck once more so that it would seem fair to MOMO. She didn't want to give her an inaccurate reading because she'd been playing with them. She laid out three cards, as she did for herself, and examined them.
'Here we have 'The High Priestess'. She is a manifestation of the unconscious and the effects of the mysteries in our everyday world. She means discovery what's hidden deep inside yourself. She's very similar to the Magician.' Jade explained. She shot a short glance to the small frame of MOMO. She seemed to be hanging on her every word.
'And here, we have 'Temperance'. It means that you desire something, hinting the red, with all the purity that you can muster up, hinting the white. Purity of heart and mind gives you a solid base to fall back on, but only through the desire for personal growth can you even develop.' she explained again. She pushed the two cards aside as she pulled the last card closer as if wanting to get something off of it that shouldn't belong.
''The Devil'.' Jade said lowly. She didn't fully understand this card, but by the image shown, it had to be something bad. She turned to the book in her lap and read carefully about it. 'People don't do bad things because the negative part of their own personality is expressing itself. If you deny this side of yourself is to give it power over you, and to give it free reign over your life will eventually destroy you. When you submit to your inner Devil, you simultaneously submit to every other force in the outside world that would do you harm...' she had to stop. This wasn't what she wanted MOMO to hear about herself. MOMO wasn't a bad person. She was kind, caring and loving. All those things just had to nullify the effects of the card. It had to.
'Is that all?' she heard MOMO ask with a hint of fear in her voice.
'Yeah. Just don't let it go to your head. I don't believe half this stuff anyway.' Jade lied. She felt horrible for lying to MOMO, but she couldn't tell her the truth about the card. She knew that the Devil didn't always mean bad things were to fall MOMO, but she couldn't help but to feel that.
----------
After Jade had eaten a small breakfast consisting of eggs and grits, she walked to the bridge. She was sure that someone besides MOMO would be awake by now. It had been nearly an hour after she'd spoken with MOMO and done her reading. As she was making her way there, the boys room door opened revealing a weary eyes chaos. He covered his mouth as he yawned one last time and smiled at Jade.
'Good morning.' he said rubbing sleep from his eyes.
'Morning to yourself. It looks like you didn't sleep well last night.' Jade replied while putting on an unwilling smile. The smile just came, she couldn't stop it.
'You're right. I barely slept. Junior's snoring was one thing that kept me up, but I also had a lot on my mind.' he explained yawning again.
'Care to talk about it?' she offered.
'Not really. No need in troubling you with something so small right?' he said with a warm smile. He nodded at her one last time before he walked the way that she'd just came from. She stood there wondering what he meant for a few more seconds before she walked into the bridge.
----------
Junior was sitting in the seat that Jade had always seen MOMO sitting in listening to her begging him to get out of her seat. She smiled at how cute they looked before she walked to the captain.
'We almost there?' she asked looking up at him. He lowered himself so that he could see her better.
'Yup. I'd give it another hour unless Tony can find some miracle about getting there faster.' he replied holding the bill of his hat downward. She sighed because she was looking forward to going swimming, not the ride to the Federation.
----------
Once they arrived, Junior waited in anticipation for the others to change into their swimsuits. He had claimed that he'd changed into his earlier, but you never really know with his childlike self. Once they had all changed, he led them quickly through the towns and made it to the artificial beach. There were people already there, doing whatever it was that pleased them. Jade cracked a joke about getting an artificial tan, which she highly doubted was possible since the rest of the beach was fake.
Once they were finally set up (no thanks to Junior for helping) Jade watched as the others shed their clothes to reveal colorful swimsuits. When someone asked her why she hadn't taken anything off, she replied with a low tone saying that she was self-conscious about her body. Shion approached her looking calm and talked her into taking off her blue top. Jade told her that she wasn't loosing her shorts until later.
Jade looked around, eyeing the people that she knew from her home town, happy that some of them had escaped. Then she found chaos. White hair, blowing gently in the false breeze that was blowing and his tan figure, slightly wet from swimming. He turned to her, which made her look down blushing, and walked up to her.
'You okay? You haven't swam yet.' she heard him ask in a calm voice.
'I'm fine. I'll go when I'm ready.' she replied. He reclined in the chair beside her, putting his hands behind his head and relaxing.
'I thought you were looking forward to this.' he said closing his eyes and letting the shade from the umbrella take him. She looked at him once more before fixing her top, for it was starting to rise in the back. She unbuttoned her shorts, followed by unzipping them and finally shedding them completely.
'I'll only get in the water if you come with me.' she said playfully. He opened his eyes to look at her with a warm smile. He was happy that she was willing to go into the water, finally.
'Okay. But it's not my fault if you get dunked.' he said with a smile on his face and pointing to Junior, who was dunking an unsuspected MOMO under the water. She watched as the young realian broke the surface of the water just to try her hardest to dunk him back.
'Shall we go help her?' Jade asked with her voice full of false revenge. chaos eyed her and smiled. He offered her his hand again and she took his, grasping it tightly as if she was to let go, he would go away forever.
Feeling the sand between her toes made her want to get into the water even more. The sand was quiet warm, but she imagined that the water would be cooler on her feet since they seemed to be burning. Once they reached the edge of the water, they slowed down.
'We have to somehow get behind him.' Jade stated.
'I can handle that. Want me to distract him for you?' a female voice spoke. Jade turned her head to see Shion grinning brazenly as well. Jade chuckled lightly and nodded. They watched as she advanced on Junior, their plan working like it had already been done. After a couple more seconds, she squeezed chaos' hand. It was strange to her that he squeezed back, but she didn't say anything. They ran into the waves that were licking their toes and made their way to Junior.
'You get one side and I get the other. If he turns one direction, the person on the other side can get him.' Jade whispered once they were close to him.
'Junior, I thought you were going to tell me more about that gun that you found.' MOMO said, distracting him more. Jade guessed that she'd figured out their plan.
'Oh yeah. I left it on the Elsa. I didn't want to freak out the people here. I'll show it to you once we get back.' Jade heard him reply. He turned to talk to Shion again, who was pretending to be interested in the gun as well.
When they were behind him, Jade said; 'Bye Junior.' with a smile on her face and quickly placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed him downward before he had the chance to say anything. What she didn't see coming was small hands taking hold of her ankles and being drug under herself. Under water, Jade managed to kick Junior away and break the surface. She moved her hair out her face and laughed. A real laugh. A kind laugh. Something she hadn't done right since three years ago.
She stayed in the water a little longer. Playing water polo was fun, but it got old after a while. Soon afterwards, Shion and MOMO left the water to rest for a while and it was just chaos, Junior and Jade. It reminded her of the times that she would go to the beach with her family. Her, her brother and her father would be just about the only ones in the water at the end of the day while her mother would be on the beach tanning or finding some other excuse not to join them in the crashing waves.
----------
Before she was ready to leave however, Captain Matthews managed to pull them all away from the beach. Apparently, they had a delivery to make. This made Jade think back to the ancient tapes that she'd found of a show called /Futurama/. The professor was always calling Lela, Fry and Bender from their fun to make deliveries to distant planets, and it always seemed to her that Fry was always getting into trouble and Lela was having to rescue him. She chuckled at the thought.
What would this mission hold for her? She didn't want to think that what she'd read from the cards earlier that day would start to play an effect. Since they had some time for a cessation, she went to her room and did a small reading on herself.
----------
She focused on what she wanted to know about herself as she shuffled the thick deck of tarot cards. She remembered that she told MOMO that she didn't believe in this sort of thing, but what if she got something bad? She pushed those kinds of thoughts aside and she pulled at the top card and opened her eyes to look at it. The Moon was what she was seeing. She remembered the meaning as if it were laid right out in front of her. No matter your place in society or evolution, you are still able to be deceived. Nothing would be as it seemed. The moon shines the same light down onto everyone, though what you may see when that light reaches your eyes depends on who you are, not what you see. She knew to be careful and she tended to be that way. She didn't want herself getting hurt, or anyone else for that matter.
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