The Witness Alex Weitzman
Sonic90127@aol.com

Characters, events, etc. are based on Squaresoft's Xenogears. Sue me.

WARNING: The story following is based almost entirely on events of the second disk of the Playstation game Xenogears. Hence, it contains innumerable spoilers. It is suggested that the reader finish the game itself before reading. As it serves as a clarification of the second disk events, it is conceivable to read alongside playing the game, but that'd probably end up being severely awkward anyway.

Elhaym Van Houten, commonly known as Elly, furnished her battle rods as she warily looked about the two stretches of field to the left and right of her. The smaller figure beside her tugged the skirt on her Solarian uniform, jumping, and said without caution, "Look! Look! Elly! Elly! Is that the place?"

Elly looked straight now, at the metal door in the side of the ground-embedded facility. She nodded. "Yes, Emeralda, that is the Mass-driver." She kneeled down to Emeralda's height and said, "Now, are you ready for this? There could be a lot of defenses inside and this time you're not in Crescens. You might want to stay close to me."

Emeralda protested, "I don't need my gear! I'll do THIS to anybody who tries to stop me!" She shot out her hand, in the form of a blade, over at a rock very close to Elly's shoulder. Elly paused in silent shock as it split in two. She had only seen Emeralda fight in her gear. This ability was something new to her, but she resolved to ask Citan about the nanomachine girl's powers later.

They began a quick sprint over to the entrance in view, able to avoid any interference. Elly opened a panel to try and rewire the door so that she could feed it some power and open it. But when she opened it, the buttons were alight. She exclaimed, "It's still working! That may mean we won't run into too many problems." Emeralda jumped up and pressed the button before Elly could, opening the door. As Emeralda rushed in, Elly said in mock annoyance, "Hey, you little sea urchin!"

As they continued on, they encountered no security measures on the part of the base, but they did have to climb over some debris. After clearing one specific hunk of fallen metal, the two young women saw a missile graveyard, a place where rockets and the such were stored but would never be released. Elly muttered, "What form of people were these to feel it necessary to create so many-"

She cut herself off, then turned to the equally transfixed Emeralda and asked, "Do you remember anything of the people in general from the time of your 'birth'?" Emeralda shook her head. "Kim didn't let me out yet. All I know is Kim. Just Kim." Elly got sick of that name a while ago. "You mean Fei?" Emeralda nodded. "Yes, Fei's Kim." Elly didn't bother to pursue as she got her answer.

Finally making it to the release cannon, Elly searched the room with her eyes and frowned. "Citan's not here yet, and it still may not be safe here," she mumbled. Then, she was tapped on the shoulder. Elly, startled, turned quickly towards Citan, standing behind her.

He smiled. "Don't worry, Elly. I'm still on your side." He walked up the controls. "Now, what say we do the people of this planet a big favor?"

As the orb accelerated up and through the atmosphere, Elly smiled. She truly was a hero. And they just saved everybody from the horrible fate of ignorance and fear. It was a feeling of true bliss. Elly knew that it was the best feeling she ever had. Then, she took it back. She knew it could get better: her feelings can only improve while she's with Fei. She said to her two companions, "Let's go to Shevat and help Fei protect the peace signing."

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Turn of the key.

Whirring of the motor.

And Jimmy Harper was off, groceries in the gentle tow of the back of his boat. Checking his navigation charts, he veered slightly left, which unfortunately added the glare of the sunset to his eyes. He traveled for about 15 minutes at top speed until he could see the island in the distance, with the house on the shore. Landing at the dock, Jimmy unloaded the supplies and walked into the house. He set things down and began to put them into the refrigerator, muttering, "3 weeks....on my own..."

Upon his finish, he cooked himself a subpar dinner and went to bed unsatisfied from the stomach up.

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In the morning, Jimmy got up insanely drowsy. Glancing at the clock, he noticed he slept for ten hours.

I just can't get up today, he thought.

He managed to lift himself up despite his blurry morning vision and made his wobbly way towards the kitchen. Swinging the fridge door open, he grabbed the milk and chugged it from the carton, knowing it to be his pick-me-up. As he put the carton back, he blinked several times and regained vision. And that's when he saw it. His hands. About four of his ten fingers were bent backwards and sideways in unimaginable ways.

Gasping out loud, he rushed to the bathroom to splash his face, hoping what he had seen was just a blurred daybreak delusion. But when he got there, he realized what else was wrong with his body. In the mirror, he saw that his ears were stretched to being five inches long each; his hair was gone except for a couple of small strands that stuck up like needles; his eyebrows had grown to almost completely protrude over his eyes; his nose was raised to the up-right and had been pushed in so the nostril openings were parallel to the face; and his entire head was bluish.

Looking over the rest of himself, he found that, strangely, his blue head and normal-colored bent fingers were the only problems. However, the sight still made him panic. Putting on his pants from last night and a new shirt, he grabbed the keys and leaped into the motorboat. He pushed it to the max and made it to shore in ten minutes. Running, almost stumbling over himself, he advanced to the supermarket he had gotten his eats from before he left. But the couple of people outside screamed and dismayed almost more than Jimmy initially did. Quickly coming to conclusion of his situation, he did the only thing that came to him, which was to run more. Salivating heavily, he ran straight into a forest.

He ran for so long, his feet kept going even when he felt dead tired. Finally, after twenty hours, in the midst of the woods, he came upon a small house with smoke coming from the chimney. He knocked on the door and passed out.

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The next time Jimmy saw light, he was lying, naked, on a cot. Trying to move, but being unsuccessful at it, he opened his eyes so he could at least see what was going on. He saw loads on books shelved on a stone wall. The light in the room was coming from a lamp in front of him and some odd green glow coming from the side. But the big surprise was when he looked lower and saw his hands. The fingers were completely back to normal.

Jimmy gasped and tried to move his arm so he could feel his head. He wanted to know if hair was up there again. But he couldn't. He felt no restraints; his body just wouldn't move anything from the neck down. Jimmy muttered something about legs and then he realized that he COULD talk. Taking in a deep breath, he yelled,