volieredeatori | .hack//Reparation, chapter 7 (Reply)

.hack//Reparation
Chapter 7 - The Epitaph is Told

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"Enoki. Have you ever heard the saying, 'The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go awry'?" Haseo paced restlessly; his eyes flicked back and forth from the blonde Adept Rogue to the purple-haired AIDA that stood nearby and watched them blankly. "Sure, I get it, there's good AIDA and bad AIDA. But what's to stop the former from turning into the latter, and who says we'd have any warning? The fact remains, no matter how docile she's been, we can't trust her, and we sure as hell can't include her in Nibelung's Fall." He snorted, ran a hand through his hair. "I'm telling you, you can't fight AIDA with AIDA. It just doesn't work that way."

"And I'm telling you she'll be an invaluable help," Enoki countered patiently, arms crossed as he watched Haseo pace. "Perhaps it's true that she can't fight against her own kind, but who's to say she can't help in other ways? As much as I dislike saying it, you are being very closed-minded about all of this, Haseo." He reached up, brushing his hair from his eyes and leaning heavily back against the pillar he stood by, turning his gaze to Mia. "You also seem to be forgetting that Mia is the best hope we have to find Corbenik again right now. Don't you remember how the use of Avatars strengthens AIDA? Since Mia can move through the system at will, she could very easily find Corbenik if he's reawakened even the least little bit."

He continued to watch Mia, who seemed very interested in a patch of dust on a halfway-crumbled wall, and sighed. "Haseo...you can't honestly believe she'd turn against us, can you? You said it yourself, when we found her - she wanted us to save her. She's like a child; she wouldn't dare turn against those who saved her life." Finally, he turned his gaze from the AIDA, meeting the unreadable crimson eyes that now looked at him as if trying to stare him down. "And frankly, this has gone on long enough. I will prove to you that Mia is an asset, not a threat. Meet me at Δ Decadent Past's Empire - we'll form a party there and you'll get your proof." Without giving Haseo a chance to say a word, he straightened up off the pillar, beckoning Mia along, and walked away, the two of them soon vanishing out of sight through the twisting labyrinth that made up the majority of Schrei der Seele.

~*~

The mission was simple, nothing in particular about it standing out. There wasn't even any sign of AIDA in this area, just the regular creatures that Haseo, Enoki, Endrance (who had insisted on coming along) and Mia - who had revealed herself as a Tribal Grappler wielding the Feline Soul - could easily destroy and send back to the data from whence they came; like this, they progressed in silence, except for the occasional noise when blade or fist made contact with an enemy, and it wasn't long before they had gathered all of the symbol fragments in the thunder-filled area and successfully opened the door to the Beast Temple. There, Enoki paused, looking back to Haseo with eyes that the light had paled to the color of the cloudy sky and putting a hand on his hip, planting the butt of Dark Toge firmly on the ground beside him. "Haseo," he said evenly, feeling a twinge of satisfaction that the other rogue couldn't meet his eyes. "Are you satisfied now? She had plenty of chances to turn against us or abandon us, and she hasn't done so. Instead, she's protecting us - hardly the behavior of something to distrust, don't you think?"

"Oh, shut up." Haseo, looking rather sour, ran a hand through his rain-soaked hair and ducked into the shelter of the temple door's overhang, followed a moment later by Enoki, Endrance and Mia, who now seemed very interested in inspecting the droplets of rainwater that fell from the end of her tail. They just stood there for a moment, none of them quite wanting to drip all over the inside of the temple but not thinking to cast a spell to dry off; it occurred to Enoki first, and he waved a hand to encompass the general area around them and murmured something quietly, a wash of startlingly warm air sweeping across them and leaving them only mildly damp. "Let's go inside," he said quietly, and turned, stepping into the temple with the other three in tow.

They had only gotten a few steps down the entryway, however, when the door suddenly rattled shut behind them with a loud, sonorous bang.

"What in the--?!" Haseo, the first to react, whipped out his bladeguns and whirled; behind him, Enoki quickly raised his scythe to a defensive position and moved instinctively in front of Mia, who stood huddled next to Endrance with gauntleted hands held close to her face in fear. Disbelief was on their faces as they eyed the door, never able to remember anything quite like this happening before, but the sudden crushing silence stretched on and nothing happened, finally leading Haseo to lower his weapons though his arms shook slightly. "Well, we're not getting out of here this way," he said disgustedly, and kicked at the door, eliciting only a muted sort of thump as the toe of his boot made contact with the thick stone. "Today's just getting worse and worse, isn't it?"

"Haseo, don't be so pessimistic. Finding the way out could be as simple as retrieving the treasure." But Enoki kept Dark Toge at the ready as he ventured farther into the temple, worried despite himself - something wasn't right here, he could feel it, but he couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was. "Stay close," he warned after a moment, pausing in midstep and glancing around, wondering if the air had really rippled around him for a split second or if it was just his imagination. "If there is something dangerous in here, we stand a better chance of escaping if we all stay together. But, I think we'll be all right if we just get the treasure and leave--" He had come within range of the chest before the grim visage of Folset now, and hesitated, taking a deep breath before lashing out with one booted foot, connecting solidly with the time-aged wood.

The chest sprang open, and as one, they leapt back, only to cautiously approach again when nothing happened; Endrance in particular seemed extremely puzzled by this, extending Princess Blade cautiously to prod at the seemingly-empty chest. "There's...nothing?" he said in a voice barely above a whisper, his tone almost reverent in the face of the beast that loomed over them, daring to take a few steps closer. "But if there's nothing here, then that means we..."

Enoki interrupted then; his voice sounded strained. "I would recommend not turning around."

Of course, they turned, and found themselves confronted with a string of dancing black dots, shrill laughter suddenly echoing in the timeless air of the temple.

Haseo swore, taking a step back on instinct. "AIDA...dammit, it just figures we'd run into something like this," he spat in disgust, throwing an arm out to hold both Enoki and Endrance back as they started towards the AIDA. "No way! I'm pissed off enough as it is about getting soaked and stuck in here, there is no way you two get to have all the fun killing it! Just get back and let me take care of this one if you don't want to get caught in the crossfire!" He didn't look back, just closed his eyes and concentrated on the hot pulse deep within him, only dimly hearing the others backing off as though the sounds were a long distance away. Yes...come on. Come on, I'm right here! he thought viciously, and the pulse grew, throbbed more strongly and swelled within him to explode outwards in a burst of light - he shuddered, threw his head back and screamed, almost an animalistic howl, as Skeith's hands caught him up and drew him into the thick, heady embrace of power.

He had just drawn back his scythe to swing at the AIDA when avatar space seemed to splinter around him, and his limbs froze in place, stubbornly refusing to move - something was building, he realized dimly; twisting and throbbing and filling him with a startling pain the likes of which he'd never felt before. For a moment, he rather irrationally thought he was screaming again from the force of it, but the threads of awareness that worked their way back into his consciousness brought with them a realization that the scream ringing in his ears was very shrill, very terrified, and coming from somewhere behind him rather than from his own mouth; hissing and gritting his teeth, he fought the pain, struggling against the invisible force that held him in place and reeling when it did let him go, sending him spinning helplessly about until he could get himself under control enough to face the sound, to see exactly who was screaming and why.

It came to him in stages. First there was shock, then disbelief, then a sharp, boiling anger as realization set in; he was facing the one Avatar he hadn't seen since before the defeat of Cubia, and one look was enough for him to realize this was no random encounter. Someone had summoned Corbenik here, and the guilty party could only be...

A cry of rage escaped him, and he let loose the strike that had been meant for the AIDA, only realizing there was someone else in the way when it was far too late to pull back.

~*~

The Avatars, and the avatar space along with them, had long since faded, leaving nothing but musty temple air and old, timeworn pillars behind and surrounding the party in a tense silence that none of them wanted to break - it shattered like a dropped glass, however, when Enoki suddenly moved, gripping Haseo by the front of his shirt and slamming him back against one of the pillars with indescribable rage burning in his storm-colored eyes. "Why?" was all he could say at first, sounding both thoroughly incredulous and angered beyond belief, his voice trembling almost too much to be understood. "Why, Haseo?! After everything we've learned - how could you do such a thing?! You know better than anyone else what would have happened if you'd lost control! If Endrance hadn't taken that hit, you would have lost control!" His voice cracked, pitched high with fury now, and he broke off to regain a bit more control of his own, giving Haseo a harsh shake before letting go of him and stepping back. "You could not have gotten any more idiotically lucky than you did. Just a little more, and you would have turned the person you care most about into a Lost One!"

Haseo kept his eyes turned down, still and silent under the crushing truth of Enoki's words. It had shocked him just enough to see Endrance suddenly in the path of his strike that he'd tried his hardest to pull back, but he'd been unsuccessful in aborting the attack, only managing to slow the momentum enough that it had fallen just short of a fatal hit - and he'd been able to do nothing but watch with frightened eyes as Endrance had collapsed, his face pained, yet tranquil as he fell slowly backwards to land in an unmoving sprawl. He'd barely noticed, then, when Corbenik's hold broke and the rogue Avatar faded away, Skeith banished back to the depths of the game data along with him and leaving them all back in the temple as avatar space simply split apart around them; all he'd been able to do was stare, tears in his eyes, as he realized what he'd almost done.

It reminded him, suddenly, of Pi and Tarvos.

Once more, it had been AIDA's fault. He, Pi and Kuhn had been on a routine cleanup mission under Yata's orders, but deep inside the area they'd been ordered to investigate, they had encountered something they'd never expected - a new AIDA (later branded a "Jade-type"), by far the most aggressive yet, and before any of them could even react to its presence, it had lunged for the nearest PC - who happened to be Pi - and sunk its tendrils deeply in. Thrown into agony by the infection, Pi had instinctively summoned, and it had been up to Haseo, as the strongest Epitaph User, to clear her data; something, however, had gone terribly wrong, and in pulling the AIDA from her with Skeith's Data Drain, he had somehow pulled Tarvos free of her PC as well and thrown the terrified Avatar deep into the Sea of Data. From there, they had been unable to find Tarvos again, until suddenly...

"But I wonder," Enoki suddenly interrupted Haseo's thoughts, knelt next to Endrance (who lay now with his head cradled in the panicked Mia's lap, her trembling hands stroking at his hair and face) and trying to heal the injuries as best as he could. "Why would AIDA, peaceful or not, be able to use an Avatar? Corbenik's appearance here was no coincidence - I think that Mia's fear enabled her to summon instinctively - but it doesn't explain how she obtained Corbenik in the first place, or why she's able to summon him at all." He sighed when it became clear his spells would have no more effect on Endrance, and stood reluctantly, turning his eyes back to Haseo with a much calmer gaze than before. "Somehow, she's managed to surpass what she was meant to be, and in doing so has obtained a greater power. In that way, she and I are alike..." He trailed off, very slowly.

"Tarvos found you," Haseo said quietly, seeming afraid to raise his voice any higher, "and Corbenik found her. Two normal PCs, suddenly forced into a much larger role than they could have imagined. That's what you mean, isn't it?"

Enoki only nodded, remembering now the day that everything had changed. He'd been exploring the Lost Grounds, Hulle Granz Cathedral in particular, and there, some irresistible force had simply pulled him through the data and past the game's parameters into the blank space he knew now as the Sea of Data. It had been dark, he remembered, and he had been frightened, but then a light had suddenly approached and engulfed him and he'd blacked out for a moment, waking up back inside the cathedral with no memory of what had happened and only a vague feeling something wasn't quite right about his PC - he hadn't been able to confirm it, however, until he had been contacted by Yata and the long process of waking his newfound power had begun.

He could vividly recall, still, the moment that Tarvos had awakened within him, and the fear that had swamped him so sharply that he'd nearly lost control right then and there. The only thing that had stopped it, and calmed his panicking Avatar, was feeling a sudden touch on his face - Pi's touch, her hand on his cheek, soothing and gentle and slowly bringing his consciousness back from the brink of insanity. He hadn't known then why that had calmed him so quickly, but upon finding out that Tarvos had once been Pi's Avatar, it had all come clear; Tarvos had recognized her previous host, and that had been enough for her to regain control and prevent both herself and her new host from being lost completely. He supposed he owed his continued existence to Pi, thanks to that, but she wouldn't accept that, simply explaining it away as something she'd had to do and refusing to let him take the subject any farther.

But still, it had stayed with him. Something she'd had to do then...by that logic, then, he could think of keeping order amidst the other Epitaph Users as something he had to do now.

But before that...

"Haseo," he started, but got no farther than that before suddenly noticing the door had opened again, presumably when the AIDA and the avatar space had disappeared, and a familiar figure (clutching an umbrella - he would have laughed at the absurdity of such a thing if the situation hadn't been so serious) was standing there, normally cheerful face transformed to deadly seriousness. Leaving his previous sentence abandoned there, drifting off on the soft, rainy breeze that trailed its way through the temple, he instead turned to face the figure, speaking softly.

"You're just in time. There's nothing more I can do from here, Zelkova," he murmured, and stepped aside to let Zelkova revive Endrance.

~*~

"Everyone...welcome to Net Slum."

Four curious pairs of eyes followed Zelkova, watched him as he paced forward a few steps and held out his arms, as if to encompass the entirety of the area. "In the past, this place has been used for many things - even now, it finds its uses. It houses the Serpent of Lore, Canard's @HOME, and the wandering AIs with no other place to go...and now, it has become the place you have been looking for. This is the place where she can stay." He turned to face the others, flicked his gaze across each of theirs in turn - Enoki, Haseo, Endrance, and finally Mia, who hovered with her hands clasped close to her chest and a look of wide-eyed, childlike wonder on her face. It made him smile; he'd seen so many similar expressions before, so full of delight and hope, but it never ceased to amaze him.

"The only thing I ask," he went on, addressing her now, "is for you not to leave this place until your power is needed. It's too dangerous for you to just wander around The World now, especially now that AIDA all across the system knows you've somehow become an Epitaph User. Your own brethren are hunting you actively now, but this is the one place they cannot go." He watched her, his expression softly saddened now as her ears flattened down and her eyes turned away from him. "Please don't worry. You'll be safe here, and the others can still come and see you. Will you accept it, just for now - until we can figure out how to make The World itself accept you again?"

Mia hesitated, didn't look at him; her ears quivered, and something fell down her cheek that might have been a tear, but finally, slowly, she nodded.

"Thank you." Zelkova smiled now, and extended his hand towards the party. "Follow me."

And so they followed, up a winding pathway that led to what could be considered the very summit of Net Slum Tartarga, shrouded in beams of amber sunlight and overlooking all that lay below them. There, Zelkova stood at the edge of a halfway-crumbled ledge and spread his arms wide again, a soft wind playing at his hair and clothes and brushing past him to tease at the others as if summoned; he closed his eyes to it for a moment, only opening them again when he heard the soft footsteps of the others gathering round, not even needing to turn to notice all their inquisitive eyes on him. "This place," he said softly, and tapped the stone beneath him gently with a foot, "is where you will arrive every time you return to Net Slum. It's my favorite place...because I can see everything." He laughed softly. "It makes me think of just how small and insignificant people feel when they're alone, whether in The World or in real life. But, when everyone's gathered together like this, we aren't small or insignificant at all. Places like this can make us feel like we belong. Like we've..."

But a voice interrupted him then; it was Mia's voice, soft and fragile, drifting on the breeze from where she had simply stepped over the edge of the precipice, hovering now over the expanse below with her hands held close to her chest again and tears running down her cheeks, tracing the edges of her face.

"...come home," she finished his sentence for him, and slowly smiled, spreading her own arms wide as if to embrace the whole of Net Slum.