I believe that chaos, Kevin, and yes, even "red cloak" are all one and the same.  Even if they aren't necessarily a single entity.  For an example of a character being two places at once, think Cait Sith from Final Fantasy VII.  For a more appropriate example, think Fei/Id/Coward/Lacan/etc from Xenogears.   The Xenoverse tends to deal with characters with multiple lives and identities.  Such as Lacan, who was another part of a past life of Fei being the same as Fei's father Khan , as well as Wiseman.  Miang was several people, including Fei's mother and eventually Elly.  In one lifetime alone, Fei had over three seperate identities, not including Grahf/Lacan.  In the past, he was also Abel, Kim, and of course, Lacan.  With many Xenogears themes recurring in Xenosaga, it shouldn't be surprising to find multiple personas hiding around.  Though it's likely they may have drastically different appearances this time around to make it less obvious since the storyline is being told in a more linear fashion.  

A lot of the "evidence" for this theory is subtle, since there's very little information we're given in episode 1.   The how and why is impossible to know at this point.  There's  several possibilities within the theory concerning how chaos and Kevin may be split.  First the "evidence."

The first "evidence" comes from the scene on the Woglinde when Shion dreams of the graveyard, right before KOS-MOS is awakened.  In the dream, she's at the graveyard where Kevin was buried, and she sees Nephilim there.  Then she hears footsteps, and she turns around to see the silhouette of chaos approaching.  Then the scene cuts away to show Nephilim standing beside her bed.  Meanwhile, KOS-MOS activates seemingly on her own.  However, the only way to activate KOS-MOS is by entering a code that only Shion knows into a control she keeps in her room.  We are told this repeatedly.   We only see Nephilim in Shion's room, but she only looks out the window, while the control is on the other side of Shion's room that we do not see.  If Nephilim can appear from Shion's dream inside the room why not chaos, who was also in the dream?  He does have a reputation for appearing and disappearing in places through some strange power.  If chaos is Kevin, he knows everything about KOS-MOS, including the code to activate her.  If he somehow knew the gnosis fleet was coming to attack the Woglinde, perhaps he was told by Nephilim, he may have come to activate KOS-MOS so she could protect Shion.  In short, I think what we're seeing in Shion's dream is chaos coming to activate KOS-MOS, perhaps aided with Nephilim's power.

Some think Cherenkov activated her with the control he used to activate the Archetype KOS-MOS, but flashbacks show that he dropped it.  Also, he's panicked during the Woglinde invasion, and later seems shocked to see KOS-MOS operational.  Another theory is that the gnosis presence activated her, but that doesn't seem likely, since everyone seems to be in disbelief that she could just start up on her own.   It's stated repeatedly that KOS-MOS could only be activated with the code, in Shion's room.  The "maybe it's the gnosis?" seems to have been settled on by the characters simply because they could find no other explanation.

Second "evidence."  chaos' nighttime visit to KOS-MOS.  When chaos goes to visit KOS-MOS while she's sleeping, he says "so we finally meet."  If he's Kevin, this would make sense, as he was killed by the Archetype KOS-MOS.  He also asks "where's the real you?"  It's hard to say exactly what he means by this, but as Kevin, he would be more aware than anyone if there was something more to KOS-MOS.  And according to the game's database, while Kevin designed the hardware for the Archetype, the current KOS-MOS' hardware was designed by Shion and Vector's second division, which would explain why he would be looking over any possible differences in her layout.  

Vector of Gamefaqs pointed out that that the last thing chaos tells KOS-MOS before leaving is "goodnight."  Which parallels the conversation in Shion's flashback where she tells Kevin that he should tell KOS-MOS "good morning" when she wakes up.  It would make sense that if Kevin while alive would have told KOS-MOS "good morning", then after his death, he might say "goodnight" instead.  I really liked this one, since it's another example of the dualities surrounding Kevin.

Third "evidence."  Well, I don't know if this counts as evidence, but when Shion is broken up over Cherenkov's death, it's chaos who goes to comfort her.  Of course, chaos is just a real sensitive nice guy, but the "truth isn't always a pleasant thing to know" line may be slightly telling.

Fourth "evidence."  The beach scene.  Allen's swimsuit may not scare Shion, but the thunder and lightning sure do.  Shion is traumatized by thunder and lightning because there was a big storm on the day Kevin died.  Oddly enough, at the end of this scene the screen pans across from Shion huddled up, to chaos, then finishes with a close-up of his reaction.  Why?  Why would his reaction to her pain concerning her boyfriend's death be significant?  Hmmm...  

Fifth "evidence."  The swingset scene in the Encephalon.  This is probably the most condemning "evidence" in my opinion.  Following a conversation with Nephilim where Shion has a flashback to Kevin's death, there's a brief scene between Nephilim and chaos alone.  Nephilim asks chaos if "this is what he really wants", while we see Shion and Allen heading off towards the theme park.  chaos seems to avoid the question, only saying that "Shion is vital" to KOS-MOS.  To which Nephilim replies, "and to you as well?"  chaos doesn't answer, but he seems to either nod his head slightly or simply bow it.  Nephilim disappears with the question "what will you do?" hanging in the air, and the entire mood is rather depressing.  If chaos is Kevin, who had feelings for Shion, you can see how he might have considered Shion vital to him.    Some possible reasons for chaos' depression is further discussed in...

The sixth "evidence."  Allen and chaos' talk in the park.   During the conversation, Allen notes that chaos listens to his problems so much when he doesn't even know him.  chaos smiles before he replies, and I'm wanting to call it a "knowing" smile, since if he is Kevin, then he would know Allen well from when they used to work together in Vector.   He appears to sympathize with Allen, which would be understandable if he felt himself in a similar situation.  As Kevin, he would understand Allen's plight, being in love with someone that seems to be out of reach for whatever reason.  In chaos' case, possibly being dead, a higher being, or what have you, and likely with some mysterious agenda that may greatly affect Shion's future, he may see no possibility for any kind of relationship with her.  The conflicting issues of his feelings and his mission may cause him a lot of emotional pain.  In the game manual, he's even described as melancholy.

It's also interesting that Allen reflects on visiting Kevin's grave with Shion during this talk.  

(On a mini side-note:  Watch chaos' reactions in Febronia's church during Shion's memory flashes.  I really like the detail of expression, especially considering he isn't the main focus of the scene.  At one point he moves forward as if to comfort her, but Allen gets there first, and he looks anxiously between the two.)

That's the "evidence" as far as major game events go.  But I'm not done yet!

Let's look at Kevin Winnicot.  The man is much more mysterious than he first appears.  According to the database, he was 26 when he died, which was two  years before the present.  Which would make him 28.  Which is also the estimated age of the missing assistant of the infamous Joachim Mizrahi.  Mizrahi's assistant was also believed to have slipped into the ranks of Vector.  Kevin fits the bill exactly to be the assistant.  However, the black and white photo of the boy assistant has very light hair, unlike Kevin's jet black hair.  (If you have to change the tint and squint at it funny to say it's blue, then it isn't blue.  =p  Ultimately, it doesn't really matter, but I'm calling it black, so nyah.)  In fact, the boy in the photo resembles none other than chaos!  So, Kevin fits the timeline, but the kid looks like chaos.  Strange, eh?  

Some have speculated that the assistant could be Wilhelm.  But during that time, Wilhelm was busy being CEO of Vector as well as Executive Committee Director of the Galaxy Federation.  It's doubtful that he was attending Bormeo University at the same time, all while being Mizrahi's underling.  Yeah yeah, and there's Allen, but he's too young.  Allen is currently 24 years old.  

Most likely Kevin was Mizrahi's assistant.  But why does he look like chaos in the photo?  It's possible "chaos" was closer to his original appearance as a boy, but dyed his hair a darker color after the Miltia business.  After all, as the assistant of the infamous Joachim Mizrahi, it would have been in his best interest to conceal his indentity.  And like many Bormeo University graduates, he would have entered into Vector.  However, he may not have been able to truly escape his past.

U-Tic was founded by Mizrahi, and they likely knew about Kevin.  Because of his past ties to U-Tic, he was probably cooperating with them for some time in secret, either willingly or under threat.  Maybe KOS-MOS was originally something dreamed up by Mizrahi and U-Tic, maybe something to do with T-Elos and the Omega mech seen in the Jin/Margulis trailer.  Whatever KOS-MOS' true purpose, I believe Kevin ultimately decided to betray U-Tic.  Maybe it was guilt, or maybe he didn't like certain changes within the organization.  It could even have been something to do with his feelings for Shion and her hinted connection with KOS-MOS.  For some reason, he was determined not to let U-Tic have KOS-MOS.

Kevin is the most likely to be the cloaked man who gave Cherenkov the Archetype KOS-MOS control.  The cloaked man's hair was partially showing, and it had the same color and look as Kevin's hair.  Also, in the Woglinde attack, we see that only the head ranking member of the KOS-MOS project, Shion, had an identical control, which is needed to activate KOS-MOS.  During that time, Kevin was the head of the project, and the only one who would have had a control like that.  This is also a good time to point out that Kevin doesn't seem to have been a normal human.  During this meeting, after Cherenkov expresses his surprise that the head of the project would be willing to hand over his creation, he looks down momentarily.  When he looks up again, the cloaked man has vanished, and the scene switches to an overhead shot.  Cherenkov is standing in a very wide open area, but there's no sign of the cloaked man anywhere.  There's no way he could have run off that quickly.  Like chaos, he seems to have the ability to disappear...  

The one time Cherenkov was alone in the same room with chaos, he didn't see him at all.  After Cherenkov entered, through the only door in the room, we see chaos standing on the other side of the door looking back.  Somehow, chaos disappeared and reappeared outside the room.  There's another example of this the first time he shows up in the game, on the Elsa bridge.  On one of her cameras, KOS-MOS repeatedly plays the scene of what seems to be chaos simply *appearing* in front of the bridge door.  Later she asks Shion to run a diagnostic on her because she thinks she's malfunctioning.  As a machine, she can't find a logical explanation as to why she's seeing what appears to be a normal boy popping out of thin air.  So she assumes she must be seeing things.

So even before he died, Kevin was not normal.  My theory on why he wasn't normal will be further explored in another section.

Kevin was clearly willing to risk a lot to keep KOS-MOS out of U-Tic hands if he arranged for her to go out of control when they activated her with the control he provided, which was most likely the case.  Kevin knew everything about KOS-MOS.  It's doubtful the incident was an accident.  It's hard to say whether or not he intended to die.  It could have just been an accidental death while trying to protect Shion, as we saw.  But it's also possible he intended to die, so U-Tic wouldn't be able to use him anymore. (And as chaos, he may still be carrying much guilt over all the people that died because he let Archetype KOS-MOS go on a rampage. Thus chaos' lines such as "I won't let anyone die!" and "I don't want meaningless bloodshed!")   Whatever he intended, dead or not, there's signs that he's still around in the living world.  Throughout the game, Wilhelm is seen talking to someone in a red cloak, who sounds just like Kevin.  We are told in the database that this is Wilhelm's advisor, and he always seems to know what's going on with KOS-MOS.  Kevin's connection with Wilhelm is, appropriately enough, as mysterious as chaos' connection with Wilhelm.  

If Kevin is also red cloak , then he would have something in common with blue cloak, aka Virgil, who was also very much deceased until late in the game.  It's interesting that Virgil was also killed by KOS-MOS, but that may only be coincidence.

So for starters, Kevin is probably both red cloak and chaos.  There are a few little clues hinting to his duality.  For instance, there's the inscription on his gravestone.  It suggests separation.  Here's the database entry:


grave
------
An image from Allen's recollection which he speaks of during a conversation at Durandal's observatory.

The vision is of Shion as she mourns at Kevin's grave two years ago.  The grave itself is located at the central cemetery inside the Dammerung.  The engraving on the headstone reads.

Kevin Winnicot
4739-4765
ecce universa terra coram te este recede a me obsecro

The latin text is a quote from the bible, they are Abram's words to Lot:

[is] not the whole land before thee?  separate thyself, I pray thee, from me:  if  [thou wilt take] the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if [thou depart] to the right hand, I will go to the left. (genesis 13:9)

The emblem of the Galaxy Federation also reflect these same words.


Another hint of Kevin's duality is found in what he has named KOS-MOS' operating system.  He has named it after a separate identity of Shiva.  Here's the database entry for that one:


NATARAJA
------
An avatar of Shiva, represented as a dancing figure with many arms.

It is of particular interest that this system is named after Shiva, who is also the god of creation and destruction.

The system itself was designed by Kevin.


Now, what is chaos?

According to Xenocard, chaos is not categorized as human, realian, mech, or gnosis.  He's a "bunnie."  The only other cards that are bunnie type are Bunnie, of course, and Testament, aka blue cloak, aka Virgil.  For the most part, this type just means they're unknown.  But I think there's some symbolism there.  Remember that Bunnie is a character with two faces.  Once again, there's a hint of duality, with chaos and one of the mysterious previously dead cloaked figures involved.  

(This is a silly thing to mention, but chaos also wears Bunnie swimtrunks. ^^; Look at them closely. The front looks like a Bunnie face with blue eyes, and the back looks like he has a white bunny tail... Again, I think his "Bunnie-ness" is symbolizing his duality... chaos has another face.)

Even though he's not categorized as such, I think chaos has a close relation with the gnosis.  The gnosis are hinted to be some kind of spirits, as we see the remains of Ariadne have become a giant gnosis Cathedral Ship, and humans touched by gnosis start changing into one for some reason.  (chaos even calls gnosis "lost souls" in battle.)  When we first meet chaos, we see that he has a mysterious power over the gnosis.  (Though he seems to hold back quite a bit during in-game battles. =p )   Like the gnosis, he seems to have the ability to appear and disappear at will, and maybe even walk through walls.  He's a very spiritual character in general, using chi power, and with all the angel symbolism.  The manual describes him as someone who "hails from a higher plane of existence."

I do not think chaos is literally an angel.  Not an archangel, seraphim, throne, or what have you.  He is not a harp carrying, halo wearing type of biblical angel.  This is the Xenoverse, and it just doesn't work that way.  There's symbolism up the wazoo, but that's all it is.  If chaos is an angel, then Jr may as well be the beast of Revelation.   (Although there is a significance to the number on Jr's hand.   The number 666 represents man trying to be god.  The URTVs were created with what could be considered god-like powers, for the purpose of fighting a god-like being...)  And when you get down to it, MOMO and Jr both have angel attacks, as did Bart from Xenogears, but they aren't angels either.   Remember that in Xenogears, angels were just bio-mech terminal interface weapons of an interplanetary superweapon with a vastly overblown ego.  And god was just a wave-being from another dimension.  A lot of the universal structure of Xenogears still seems to be intact in Xenosaga, especially with the major presence of the Zohar, so I doubt there would be that big of a departure as far as that is concerned.  The big differences seem to be in the story unfolding within that universe.

Having died and come back, chaos certainly could be described as someone who has come from a higher plane of existence.  Virgil, who was once an ordinary man, also died and came back as something otherworldly.  If he could, it wouldn't be beyond possibility for Kevin/chaos to do so.  But it may be that chaos is of an even higher power than Virgil, which could explain why he calls chaos "boss."  Especially if Kevin wasn't normal to begin with.

Another "possible" clue to chaos' origins lie in the Kukai Foundation.  If you have chaos on-screen when you first go visit the Professor, you get an interesting little comment.  On entering the lab, chaos says that the environment feels very familiar to him.  If he was Mizrahi's assistant, and/or Kevin, this would be understandable.

Okay, so how did Kevin get this way?

There's many possibilities.  chaos may have split from Kevin at the time of his death, or from a much earlier time.  It may have something to do with Mizrahi's experiments.  It may be the doing of Wilhelm or Nephilim.  Maybe all of the above have some hand in it.  Whatever the cause, I believe Shion and/or KOS-MOS to be a strong factor in his resurrection and division.  Perhaps the strongest possibility behind Kevin's split may lie in the game's title.

Der Wille zur Macht = The Will to Power.

In the trailer featuring the Jin vs Margulis swordfight, there's also a very interesting scene between Jin and chaos.  (I believe you can find the trailer here, not where I got mine, so I'm not sure if it's the same one, but that's what I hear.  http://mediaviewer.ign.com/ignMediaPage.jsp?channel_id=70&object_id=16268&adtag=network=ign )  Jin and chaos are sitting by themselves in the dark, and Jin is talking.  While he talks, chaos seems emotional about something.  The scene ends with shadow-concealed Wilhelm finishing what Jin was saying.  The best translation of this scene that I've seen so far is as follows.


Jin Uzuki:  "The outcome of the future changes alongside with time.  When the Sacred Light is seen, people lose their original existence.  This is..."

Wilhelm:  "The will to power."


What is the Sacred Light?  Well, this is just a guess, but I think it has something to do with the light people are supposed to see when they die.  And Jin mentions losing original existence, which would certainly describe what has happened to chaos.  

As red cloak,  Kevin has become Wilhelm's lackey, serving whatever plot the Vector CEO is hatching.  Wilhelm most likely had a hand in his ressurrection, and now has him under his complete control.  But Kevin's will to protect Shion and KOS-MOS may have been so strong, that it resulted  in his soul splitting in two.  The part under Wilhelm's control, and the part of him too strong willed and chaotic for Wilhelm to control...  We already have hints that Kevin wasn't a normal human to begin with, and likely powerful.  It could be that Kevin was related to Wilhelm, or a similar being.  So when Wilhelm tried to take control of his soul, he could only take part of it.

Therefore, Kevin and chaos may be a single being that's in two places at once, or a being that has become two separate identities.  Red cloak may possess Kevin's mind, but not his essense, which may have become chaos.  This could be one of the reasons for chaos' memory loss which is suggested in his manual profile.  However, I think most of this memory loss concerns his distant past, so he probably does remember being Kevin.  What he most likely doesn't remember is who and what he was before Kevin.

This is about to get even weirder.  To be continued in Contact and Anti-type Connections. ^_^