.hack//Reparation, chapter 9

[merikuru]

.hack//Reparation
Chapter 9 - It Begins

******

He supposed he ought to have been used to it by now, but every time he went to a Lost Ground, he was surprised. Though he knew it was only outside of the game and resounding in his ears through the speakers of his M2D, the background music seemed to pulse through the body of his PC and not only through his hearing in this place, immersing him deeper and deeper into the game experience and sending shivers up and down his spine. It was disorienting, but he didn't have the time for that - and so he forced himself to shake off the disorientation and let himself fall fully into the world of his PC, moving to stand on the steps at the far end of the area and look out over the world below with Zelkova's golden eyes that saw so much.

He didn't have to like it, and he most certainly didn't, but Keyaki Kigashita had a very important meeting to attend at Inverted City Megin Fi.

"...You're late," he said when footsteps sounded behind him, not even turning, just gazing down at the vague blur that was the Battlefield of Coite-Bodher and moving quietly aside when the much taller PC ascended the steps beside him. "It's rare for you to contact me like this. The last time you did, it was to inform me you'd become a threat to The World and that you wanted me to keep an eye on Haseo - to help him become stronger so that he could finally defeat you. So you'll have to forgive me if I can't help but think you're only here with bad news." Now he looked up, met eyes that remained impassive behind round orange lenses. "But if that's not the case, please do feel free to correct me. I'm not really in the mood to wait for the other shoe to drop."

"Perhaps not bad news, but blunt honesty that you will dislike nonetheless." The correction was spoken quietly, but seemed somehow to carry more force than it normally might have, blue eyes turning away to stare at the cloud-marred sky over Megin Fi. "I trust your judgment, Zelkova, but this time, I think you've gone too far. You know better than anyone the danger of trying to mix this world with the real world - the risk you took in meeting with Enoki is unacceptable. He is irreplaceable as an Epitaph User, instrumental in the execution of Nibelung's Fall, and if something should happen..." The words trailed off and the raised head shook slowly, short ocean-blue hair ruffling in a breeze that washed listlessly past them and moaned a sighing complaint around the crumbled walls of the empty city. "Will you continue to risk Enoki's life, Zelkova? Will you be that irresponsible?"

Zelkova shifted his weight, smiled sardonically as he kept his sun-bright gaze fixed on the scenery so far beneath them. "Omniscience is a curse, but there are those who would see it as a blessing," he replied cryptically, clasping his hands behind his back and resting them against the folded scythe at his waist. "The Moon Circle. The Serpent of Lore. And others like them. Unwavering eyes, remembering all that they observe." He turned and paced slowly down the steps, the sense of vertigo he had felt while staring downward slowly fading away as he did so. "This game has a peculiar sort of autonomy, Ovan. But reality has honed autonomy to its finest form. If there was ever a time to take it for granted..."

"...that time would be now," Ovan finished for him, understanding now what Zelkova was trying to say and realizing he was right. In the game, too many eyes could be watching them at any time, and the actions that could be taken would do far more to destroy the progress that had been made up until now. As reckless as it had seemed at first, Zelkova's steps to meet with Enoki in the real world had been the safest way to communicate; he simply hadn't understood the reasons for himself until managing to puzzle out Zelkova's riddle. "I see. My apologies, then," he continued, turning about to descend the steps himself, his pace slow and measured as he walked past Zelkova but faltering when he realized the boy wasn't following, was simply standing there with his eyes suddenly dulled and his hands just noticeably trembling - a worried chill beginning to crawl up his spine, he opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it again when he realized he didn't know what to say.

"...Something...something is rising." Zelkova's voice was faint, now, no more 'there' than the sickly wind that still breathed its way around ruined walls and crumbling pillars. "I feel...a great power...a power that longs to consume, to devour...it rises, and all in its path becomes a sacrifice to a much greater will. Rising quickly...looking for anything to consume, anything to contribute to its cause." His hands, still trembling, came up to press to the sides of his head as if he had a headache as he stumbled slightly, but the suddenly-crazed look on his face quelled Ovan's initial instinct to reach out to him and replaced it with a jarring want to back quickly away. "Can't you feel it, Ovan? It's coming - it wants us, wants to devour us whole - to add us to its ever-growing will..."

The chill up Ovan's spine rapidly spread through his whole body as he realized that he could in fact feel it, and just as suddenly realized what it was. "Zelkova," he said urgently, almost snapping in his sudden swell of fear. "We need to leave this place, now. That power--"

But he got no farther before the ground shuddered and seemed to explode, turning into a seething black mass that rose quickly up around them.

If anyone had been there to hear, they would have heard two drawn-out shrieks of pain, mingling with the sound of a woman's maniacal, crazed laughter.

And in the real world, Keyaki Kigashita and Masato Indou lay unconscious over their desks, never hearing the sirens that eventually screamed in the background when they were discovered.

~*~

When they gather, one must fall. Walking quickly, brushing through the crowds of people at the shopping district not far from her apartment, Karen clutched a nearly-overflowing paper sack of groceries to her chest and murmured distracted apologies to those she inadvertently bumped into, her mind far away from the real world at that moment. The more she tried to ignore it, to tell herself ignoring it would be better for her sanity, she couldn't manage to get what Mia had said off her mind, and not knowing what it meant made her feel as if she was going mad. Better for my sanity. Right. I think about it and I go insane, I don't think about it and I still go insane. Is there no way to win in this situation? she thought with a slightly bitter snort, shaking her head and setting her ponytailed hair to tickling at the back of her neck, pausing in midstep to reach up and scratch the imagined itch the sensation had given her - distracted both by that and holding onto her bag of groceries, she barely noticed someone about to walk right into her, sort of vaguely stepping aside to let them by.

But then a quiet voice near her ear pulled her back into full coherency. "To be reborn, you have to fall first, right?"

What--? Her head snapped up and she looked around her with startled eyes, but no one seemed out of place - just the usual masses of people passing by, paying one young woman in their midst no heed, and she soon realized it would be no use to try and figure out who'd spoken in this crowd. She didn't get much of a chance to think about who it might have been anyway, a thought slowly dawning on her that sent uncomfortable chills up and down her spine, and she was running before she realized it - hurrying to get home, suddenly feeling the overwhelming urge to log into The World and talk to Haseo. She didn't even know what she wanted to say; she just felt a strange sense of urgency pushing her to contact him as soon as possible, and she wasn't going to argue with it.

Ten minutes later, Enoki was in Mac Anu and warping quickly to Δ Hidden Immaterial Power; his intent was to go straight to the Moon Circle and call Haseo there for a meeting, but that proved unnecessary when he pushed open the door and found the other Adept Rogue already waiting there, leaning against one of the supporting pillars with his arms crossed and his face deadly serious. "Good, you're here," he said before Enoki could even say a word, and immediately straightened up, crossing the room to take hold of the blonde's arm. "Something's happened that I need to show you. We need to go to Megin Fi immediately. Can you take us there from here?"

A data hack. Enoki shivered with apprehension; he hadn't had to perform one of those in a long time, but for Haseo to ask...well, he couldn't very well refuse. "I think I can - do you want me to go straight through the Sign, or to Coite-Bodher first?" he questioned, already moving to the Moon Circle's control system, white-gloved hands hovering over the innocuously-glowing ball of data that would silently and tirelessly execute his every command. "It'd be easier to go through Coite-Bodher..."

Haseo shook his head. "Straight there. We can't waste any time."

"You just made this ten times more difficult than it has to be, Haseo." But that was all the protest Enoki gave, opening several screens in front of him and starting the transfer protocols. "Bypassing data lock level 1 - level 2 - level 3. Location, Θ Hidden Forbidden Battlefield, Sign transportation system. Initiating Sign hacking..." He paused then, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.

"...Transferring data."

The sensation was strange. First it felt like falling, then like flying, then there was a horrific wrenching feeling that left the both of them rather nauseated - but neither of them paid it much heed except to stumble a bit when they found their feet on solid ground again, Haseo quickly grasping Enoki's arm again and pulling him along to the very end of the area. "As far as anyone can tell, AIDA appeared here. You can see the damage--" He gestured with the hand not holding on to Enoki, to the twisted, warped data around them that occasionally flickered, tainted with hints of something darker than black that almost seemed as if it were watching them. "But that's not the reason we're here. Well, not the main reason. Enoki, look here." He paused at the steps, gestured a bit weakly to the platform just above, where a stylized wing-shaped mark - it resembled a letter "L" turned upside-down with an extra line protruding diagonally from the angle where the lines met - had scarred the ground, pulsing dimly with an eerie blue energy. "You know what this is, don't you?"

Enoki started to say he didn't, then nearly reeled when he realized he did. "...It's a Sign! Haseo, are you trying to tell me there's another Tri-Edge somewhere out there?!"

Haseo said nothing, wouldn't meet his gaze, and Enoki felt a sinking feeling when the last pieces fell into place. "...More...more Lost Ones? You can't be serious..." he uttered softly, feeling sick again.

Red eyes closed, but not before they were hazed over by grief. "Ovan...and Zelkova."

The impact and sound of his own knees hitting the ground didn't even register to Enoki until several moments after his legs gave out, his hands coming up to cover his face almost absently, as though it were only an afterthought that he might want to hide the tears threatening to obscure his vision. "No," he said quietly, his tone filled with disbelief, then a bit louder. "No. That's - that's not right. That can't be right. Zelkova's helping us, he can't - can't be--" If it had been physically possible for him to be sick, he might have done; instead, the nauseated feeling boiled over into anger, and he bolted to his feet. "No! There is no way this is happening! They're fine, damn it, they're - just fine - they're gonna wake up again, even if I have to kill whoever did this to them - when I find out who did it, they're going to wish they'd never played this damn game!" His fingertips dug slightly into the sides of his head before he let his hands drop, an eerie calm suddenly falling over him like a cloak, his tone conversational as he turned his eyes back to Haseo. "Who did this, Haseo? Who PKed Ovan and Zelkova?"

This is really Enoki...really "The Light of Hope"? I knew he was a PKKer for the sake of his friends, but I never thought he could get this angry... Haseo felt shaken right down to the core for a long moment, and dimly had the thought that this must be how those players who didn't know him personally felt whenever they came across the Terror of Death - he quickly shook that thought off, however, and answered as calmly as he could. "We don't know that yet. Yata and Pi are working on tracing the AIDA signature and finding out what player it's coming from. I'm supposed to bring you to the Serpent of Lore once we're finished here...I guess now would be a good time to go. I'll head out first; just...come as soon as you're ready, all right?" He didn't give Enoki a chance to answer, warping out through the still-open link to the Moon Circle, leaving Enoki to stand amidst the AIDA-tainted scenery and try to gather his composure again. It took less time than he'd expected it to, though that probably had something to do with the realization that he'd scared Haseo deeply working through this mind, disgust at his own actions rippling through him as he started the preparations to transfer back to the @HOME.

But before he could, a short mail suddenly popped up on his screen.

Enoki, please come to Σ Vulnerable Maiden's Fate immediately. I must speak with you.

"What? Who..." he started, but got no farther than that as he noticed the sender's name, his eyes going wide as shock immobilized him for a few seconds. To hell with joining the others; for the moment, this took priority, and he quickly sent a short mail to Haseo saying he had some business to take care of before he could join them, then turned his attention to altering the uplink he had been about to use to transfer back. He couldn't waste any time; it was simpler just to go straight to the area.

"Location, Σ Vulnerable Maiden's Fate. Initiating area hacking. Transferring data."

~*~

He knew he should have been expecting something like this, but it still came as a shock when Enoki appeared in front of the warp platform and the first thing he could sense was the chill of AIDA. He didn't feel that he was too late yet, but he did feel that it was urgent that he progress as quickly as possible, and so he immediately brought out his scythe and set off at a dead run, cold lines of dread spidering their way up his spine as he saw no enemies even while progressing deeper inward - and the dread quickly morphed into all-out fear when he suddenly heard a high-pitched scream and the faint sounds of a faraway battle, growing louder and stronger the closer he came to reaching the center. No...I'm not going to be too late. Not this time. I'm going to make it! he thought desperately, squeezing his eyes shut for a second, determination tightening every line of his body as he quickly searched his inventory, finding a single Speed Talisman and activating it to take him even more swiftly towards the sounds of the fight that rang in his ears.

He had to get there before there was nothing else he could do.

The sounds had ceased by the time Enoki reached the center of the area, and he could hardly believe his eyes when he rounded the final corner and took in the sight before him. There, standing in the center of the ruined area, was a familiar midnight-haired figure in red and white, a large grimoire open before her that was quickly fading away. She stood perfectly still, almost hovering there like a fragile butterfly about to take flight, and Enoki's mind swam in shock as he took a few steps in her direction, too stunned even to pinch himself to see if this was real...but then her head turned, and she gave him the softest, most familiar smile he'd ever seen.

"Aspera..." he whispered, took another step, and then he was running, long strides eating up the distance between them in his desperation to reach her. "Aspera!"

But as he reached her, AIDA bubbled around her, and she silently fell.

"Aspera!" He caught her, sank down to the ground with her; realization was setting in now, that she might not have won the battle as he'd first thought, and panic was beginning to eat its way into his chest. "Aspera, no, please no - you're okay, right? You won, right?! Aspera! Answer me!" He shook her as hard as he dared, his breath shuddering in his lungs when her head lolled to the side and her smile became infinitely more sad, tears welling up in his eyes now. "Oh gods, Aspera, no..."

"Eno...ki." Her voice came then, the scratchy whisper of a dry paintbrush on paper, thickening out into the brushstroke of a sigh, and she fixed glazed silver eyes on his face as best as she could, struggling to lift her hand and touch his face. "You...came. I believed...you would come here..." In her eyes now, tears had risen to mirror his, but they never fell; she just lay limp in his arms and stared at his face, still smiling that sad, sad smile. "Enoki...the rest...is up to you. You and...the others...I tried my hardest, but in...in the end...perhaps it wasn't enough." Her eyelids fluttered, threatening to close, her consciousness teetering perilously on that brink between awareness and becoming lost to the tempting dark. "From here, Enoki...you...are the only one who can save this world."

Enoki's breath cut through his chest like a knife, his tears falling now in lieu of Aspera's as he clutched her frail form more tightly to him. "Aspera - please, Aspera, no...no, don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes--"

She kept smiling, managed to lift her hand a few inches before it fell limply back to her side. "You have...to save it, Enoki. To save everyone...you know that...right?" she breathed more than asked, dark eyelashes starting to descend, slowly but surely. "You mustn't...run away..."

"Aspera, no, don't close your eyes!" Enoki's voice rose high in fear, breaking almost painfully, and he found himself shaking. "Please, you can't - you can't close them, you hear me?! You can't! You've got to be okay - no, please, no, no no no no..." A sob interrupted him, surprising him with its ferocity, but he forced himself to continue nonetheless, shaking her once more. "Aspera, don't close your eyes, you - you're going to be okay, I'll get you out of here, I promise I will...just don't close your eyes, you can't close them - I - I can't lose you...I can't, I won't lose you, Aspera...!"

"E...noki." Her voice was fainter now, almost nonexistent, and she seemed to be struggling to go on. "Enoki, please...remember. I...I lo..."

"You what? Aspera? Aspera--?!" Panic held Enoki immobilized, drew his eyes wide as her own finally closed, her body going fully limp in his arms; an upwelling of sparks tickled his fingers, his face, and he thought it just a trick of his vision for a single fleeting moment before they were gone...and so, too, he realized, was Aspera. Her PC had faded, lost to nothingness, leaving him alone to grasp helplessly at the empty air. She's gone, the words seared themselves painfully across his mind, and he became dimly aware he was no longer paralyzed with fear when he moved his arms, wrapped them tightly around himself and trembled. She's gone. A Lost One. Aspera's a Lost One...Aspera's gone. Oh gods, no, why? Aspera...Aspera...!

Something welled up in him then, and he threw his head back, clutching himself tightly and shrieking his sorrow and anger to the still, empty air. "ASPERA!!!"

~*~

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you sooner, Enoki, but Master Yata and I have been tracking you from here. Master Yata has had...concerns that someone might try to do the same to you as was done to Ovan and Zelkova...and now, to Aspera. Therefore, he brought you straight here the instant Aspera disappeared." Pi, her expression grave as she fought not to give in to her instincts and just tightly hold the broken, sobbing Enoki until he calmed, paced restlessly back and forth in front of the silent screens of the Serpent of Lore and toyed nervously with her hair with a trembling hand. "I understand all you want right now is time to grieve, but that's time we don't have. It's possible that we've figured out who is behind this - who is turning players close to the Epitaph Users into Lost Ones. I don't want to force you, but you need to get yourself together and lead us all," she said gently, hating herself for having to say such heartless words, hoping that Enoki would understand the sentiment and not simply lash out at her for sounding like she didn't care.

"Who's behind this..." Enoki's voice rang hollow, clogged with relentless tears, but the words seemed to give him some sort of odd strength, and he drew himself reluctantly upright from where he'd simply been sitting in a tear-soaked heap since being transferred away from the area where Aspera had fallen. "...I have to know, Pi. I have to know who did this. Why they did this. I was angry enough...when it was just Ovan and Zelkova...but by bringing Aspera into this...they've made it personal. I have to see this through to the end, even if it means I have to destroy them with my own two hands." His shoulders trembled and he looked down at his white gloves, stained by the tears that had soaked into them from covering his face in shame once he'd found himself amidst the other Epitaph Users. "Tell me who it is. I'll settle the score so I can grieve - so all of us can grieve."

Pi looked at him sympathetically, once more resisted the urge to pull him into a hug and instead turned her eyes to the white-clad cleric nervously pacing at the side of the room. "I'm not the one you need to be asking that question, Enoki. Rinne is."

All eyes turned to Rinne, and she jumped slightly, her cape fluttering as she trembled with something not quite fear, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. "I don't really..." she started, then shook her head wildly, sending her braid whipping about as she forcibly got a grip on herself, taking a deep breath and finally looking up at them. "...I played The World seven years ago," she started, struggling to keep her voice level and unafraid, "and I sort of...tended to butt heads, I suppose you could say, with another player who...found me rather depressing. I recently found out she's also playing this version of The World...and just the other day, I saw her at Moon Tree's @HOME, just...looking. Watching. Waiting, I suppose. I wasn't sure when I first realized she might still be playing, but when I saw her, I knew she was definitely the same person I had known seven years ago."

She paused, took a deep breath and picked at the edges of her sleeves before lifting her chin slightly in stubborn determination. "Her name is Tessa; she's an Edge Punisher wearing blue and white. She's always hated...'pacifistic' guilds and their leaders, as I think she once put it. I found it strange for her to be at Moon Tree, and I wondered why...maybe if I'd said something to Master Zelkova..." Her voice cracked then, her courage failing her, and she quickly returned to pacing, eyes falling back to the floor. "I...I'm so sorry. It may very well be my fault that the other players are..."

"...No. It's not your fault, Rinne." Enoki, much calmer now that he had an objective to focus on, kept his tone quiet and sympathetic. "I think you did the right thing by not saying anything. You probably would have been targeted as well if you had. But I'm going to make sure this will never happen to anyone else." His eyes turned steely-hard and cold for just a moment, but it was quickly gone. "I just need to decide who I'm going to take with me to fight her."

Horror wrote itself over Rinne's face before she could stop it, and she cried out. "Please don't hurt her! She's not a bad person at heart - I'm sure it's just the influence of the AIDA! She'd never deliberately hurt another player!"

"...All right. I promise I'll do my best not to harm her in any way." Enoki surveyed the assembled group and made his decision, tempered now by the fact that they needed stamina rather than power for this fight, in the hopes of wearing Tessa down enough to Data Drain her successfully without hurting her. The answer was obvious, he realized with a wry little smile, and turned to Pi and Yata, falling automatically back into the role of leader without even batting an eyelash. "Pi. Master Yata. Can you track Tessa down and tell me where she is right now?"

"I'm already working on it," Pi responded, her fingers flying over a holographic keyboard. "She's moving quickly throughout the system - it seems the AIDA has given her the ability to bypass Chaos Gates and pass through the Sea of Data itself. But she has to stop eventually, and when she does..."

"Θ Hidden Forbidden Hades," Yata interrupted suddenly, causing Pi to look at him in surprise. "Challenge her there."

Wailing Capital Wald Uberlisterin? It's fitting, somehow. Enoki snorted wryly at that thought, nodding and turning back to the Epitaph Users. "We'll go immediately, then. As for who I want to come with me..." He paused, even though he'd already made his decision, then smiled. "Endrance...and Mia."

~*~

Enoki found himself entertaining the fleeting thought that Lost Grounds were nothing but trouble lately as he, Endrance and Mia appeared in the underworld that was Wald Uberlisterin, slowly making their way towards the gigantic lake that made up much of the area's latter half and trying not to become frightened as badly damaged data twisted and threatened to disappear under their feet, fading from unearthly scenery to the cold, unforgiving grid of the game's base data before snapping back again, quickly enough to instill a sense of nausea and fear that taking just the slightest misstep might send one plunging into an impenetrable abyss of nothingness. It wasn't entirely bad, however, as it kept their guard raised and them on full alert as they paused at the lakeshore, none of them daring to break the silence tempered only by the oddly faint notes of the background music until finally Endrance took a breath, casting a nervous glance about him and nearly whispering in the face of such fragile almost-peace. "I...don't see anything. Were we perhaps misled...?"

"No. She may not be here now, but I think Master Yata knew what he was doing sending us here." Enoki had foregone his scythe this time, and instead tightly gripped the staff Zelkova had granted to him what seemed like forever ago; its feel was unfamiliar but somehow comforting nonetheless as he, too, looked about the area. "If he says Tessa is going to stop here, he's most likely right. I don't like waiting games, but things will probably be much easier if we can manage to catch her by surprise. And then...all that's left is to wear her down and Data Drain her." For the first time, he showed uncertainty, but quickly forced it from his voice, though he couldn't dispel the worry that it wouldn't be nearly as easy as he made it sound. "That's why I brought you two along. We still have to focus on our primary goal of awakening Mia as an Epitaph User, and the longer the battle goes on, the higher the chances are that the strain will be enough to cause it. I don't like having to force her to awaken like this, but at this point...we have no other choice. We need to take Corbenik's power into our hands, and fully execute the final steps of Nibelung's Fall." He bowed his head, feeling guilty, but took a deep breath and looked up again when neither Mia or Endrance protested. "...So, we'll wait."

"Oh, you'll wait, will you?" The sudden voice from seemingly nowhere took them all by surprise, but not nearly as much as a sudden fountain of AIDA spouting up from the midst of the great lake, peeling itself neatly apart into two halves like a pair of curtains opening and allowing Tessa to step from its midst, surveying them with eyes turned solid black from the depth of her AIDA infection and giving them a frighteningly serene smile. "Of course...of course you'll wait. That's all a pacifist can do...wait and hope, talking big but never acting on their words. Hoping their pitiful, soft little hearts will somehow cover up the fact that they don't know what they're doing. Someone so unskilled..." Her focus sharpened then, a not-quite-sane look crossing her face, and she abruptly pulled out a broadsword easily as tall as she was and twice as wide, lifting it above her head as though it weighed no less than a feather. "Can't possibly hope to even touch me!"

Enoki hissed between his teeth and raised his staff. "Here she comes! Let's do this!"

But from the moment it began, it became clear their planned strategy wouldn't have worked no matter how hard they tried. They'd severely underestimated the strength of both Tessa and the AIDA infecting her, and they were the ones wearing down as they tried to break through Tessa's guard and knock her away enough to get the advantage while trying to keep themselves alive at the same time. Even landing the occasional lucky hit wasn't doing anything to chip away at her frightening power, and when a swipe of her broadsword came just a bit too close to slicing the entire party in half like a hot knife through butter, Enoki realized he was going to have to make a quick decision if he wanted to keep them all from becoming Lost Ones right then and there. Dropping back, quickly casting LaPha Repth with the last of his rapidly-dwindling SP and beckoning Endrance and Mia to him, he breathed sharply in and made the decision he really hadn't wanted to. "It's no use. We're just going to have to try and Data Drain her anyway. She's too strong. I really don't want to do this, but we have no other choice."

"What are you just standing there for?! Come on, come at me!" Tessa loudly taunted them, lunging with a high-pitched, maniacal giggle on her lips and her sword held high, breaking into all-out raucous laughter when they quickly scattered and orienting on the nearest of them - the fearful-looking, faintly trembling Endrance, who could only stand with Princess Blade raised in front of him in a guard stance as he frantically reached out with his mind, searching for the presence that should have been waiting just beneath the surface of his digital soul but was somehow nowhere to be found now. "You're all pitiful! Standing there scared like lambs at the slaughter, hoping for some little miracle to save your lives! But nothing's going to save you now, not even your precious little Avatars! That's right," she giggled as the looks on Endrance and Enoki's faces turned to outright horror when they realized exactly what was happening. "You're so weak and pitiful you can't even make that little tiny connection! You've spent so much time looking at the little details that you can't see the big picture any more! It's almost a shame I've got to kill you now, you were almost entertaining - but now you're just boring me to tears! I'm finished with you!" Starting to laugh again, she drew herself up straight, tendrils of AIDA whirling around her blade now as she pinned Endrance with that eerie midnight gaze and slid a foot back just slightly in preparation to attack. "I'd tell you it only hurts for just a minute...but that'd be a lie!"

As she rushed Endrance, lashing out in what was sure to be a killing blow, Mia emitted a wordless shriek and quickly threw herself in front of him, her body flaring with a burst of light.

They had both shut their eyes tightly at Tessa's lunge, neither wanting to see the inevitable, but the sudden weightless sensation and feel of crushing power that came along with the opening of avatar space made both Enoki and Endrance's eyes snap open in surprise, staring in disbelief as they found themselves staring at a highly agitated Corbenik, the Avatar seeming to stare Tessa down and relish the look of sudden fear that had crossed her face as she fought to make her voice work. "No - this - how can this be?! Your minds are...your souls are...!" she gasped out finally, taking a few steps back as Corbenik's arm raised to point directly at her, a ball of light gathering at the palm and soon becoming almost too painfully bright to look at. "No...no! This is impossible...!"

"...You're pitiful," Mia told her quietly, and let the Data Drain go, striking Tessa squarely in the chest.

And just like that, it was over. As the last remnants of the AIDA drained away, as Mia's hunger for revenge was sated and Corbenik faded quietly back into the Sea of Data, Tessa fell near-lifelessly to the ground, her eyes wide in agony and her body trembling from the shock. It had happened so quickly and been so painful she hadn't even had the time - or coherency - to scream, and she thought it might be nice to do so now but she couldn't summon up the strength. All she could do was lay there and stare blankly upward as Enoki slowly approached her, trying to move her lips to tell him to get away from her but finding herself pitifully unable. There was no way to escape it, then, she supposed - she would just have to take whatever was coming to her, would just have to hope he'd make it mercifully quick and put her out of the misery she'd been plunged into when the AIDA had torn away from her PC. But...it'd serve me right...if I was just left here to die...wouldn't it? God. In the end, I...I did turn out to be the pitiful one. I...hate myself so much, she thought, and would have laughed at the irony if she'd been able to get enough air into her lungs.

"...It was too deep. She's going to disappear soon." Enoki shook his head, sounding sad, and knelt suddenly by Tessa's side; she heard him murmur something and felt an odd warmth fill her, only vaguely realizing he'd cast a healing spell and wondering why he was trying to help her until his next words reached her ears. "Tessa...why? Why did you do this? Why did you let AIDA take you? Why did you turn my friends into Lost Ones? Maybe I'm assuming a lot...but Rinne told me you're not that type of person, and I believe her. So before...before you're lost...I just want to know why."

She wondered vaguely if she could actually speak now, but decided it was worth a try, and managed to produce a scratchy whisper. "Rinne...told you...?" she started, broke off with a sound meant to be a saddened laugh and closed her eyes as tears began to stream down her cheeks. "She was always...far too nice...for her own good. I..." A sob forced her to pause, but she struggled to go on, feeling the pain growing worse and knowing there wasn't much time left. "I said...I hated people like you. People...who could always take the peaceful path...people who would try to solve the problem with words...before resorting to force or violence. I said I hated it...but...that's because...that's the type of person I knew I could never be. I wanted to be able to help people...like you do...like the others do...and I thought...if I could drown that out with power, maybe I'd stop...feeling so damn guilty about it. So...when the AIDA came...when it offered me power, I took the coward's way out...and I let it happen."

This time, the laugh was bitter, and the tears fell faster. "I didn't want...to hurt anyone like I did. I wanted...to be recognized, to be someone The World could accept...but it all backfired. I was an idiot, I was pitiful - I am pitiful - I just...I just want to die...and let all the pain I caused just follow me to the grave. It won't...make up for anything...but I..." She would have put her hands over her face if she'd been able, but all she could do was just quietly sob, the sounds crackling with static in her ears as she slowly began to feel like she was floating, becoming steadily more weightless. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to, I never meant to, I just...wanted someone, anyone, to care about me! I...I'm actually really, really glad...that you fought me here, you know...be...because..."

The pain was fading; she managed a weak, helpless smile.

"...Because...you cared...enough to try and save me. Enoki...thank you."

And then, just as Aspera had done, she simply dissolved away, sparks of light coloring the air with a sad brilliance as they drifted upwards to disappear into nothingness.

Enoki knew there were tears on his face too, but he didn't bother to wipe them away as he slowly rose, reaching for the sword which lay abandoned in the sand a few feet away and taking it to the edge of the lake, letting it fall into the water and melt into oblivion just as its owner had done; somehow, he felt as if that had really hammered home the finality of the situation, and he quickly turned away before he could break down and begin sobbing as well.

"...Rest in peace, Tessa," he whispered finally, then with Endrance and Mia following, started back to the warp platform with a stride weighted by sadness.

~*~

"...All that...and they haven't awakened?" Enoki could hardly believe what he was seeing as he stood in the Serpent of Lore and stared at the screens hovering in front of him, three screens each marked with a name, displaying comatose figures laying in hospital beds and showing no signs of waking. "But...why? Why? We defeated Tessa...we destroyed the AIDA infecting her! Since they were PKed directly by her, they should be waking up by now! What went wrong?!" Feeling suddenly sick, he turned away and drove his fist hard against the wall, shoulders giving a convulsive tremble as he fought back tears, trying his hardest not to feel like he'd failed after all. "Are we fighting for nothing, then?! Are we just going to see everyone around us disappear and never come back?! If this is all just a waste of time, then I...I can't do this...!" Hitting the wall again, he sank slowly down to his knees, directly under the screen that showed a painfully thin girl with wispy, dark hair and what he instinctively knew would be moon-silvered eyes - Tsukiyo Sannotake, the screen read, and just beneath it, PC: Aspera.

Perhaps it was fitting, to feel so shameful and weak beneath the presence of the person he'd been fighting for all this time.

"Hey, don't sweat it. You didn't do anything wrong. The answer's a little deeper than that," stated a somewhat-familiar voice, and Enoki's head jerked up, storm-colored eyes fixing ashamedly on the PC that stood just inside the entrance to the Serpent of Lore. Standing tall and confident, a hand atop his head as if idly smoothing strands of greenish-blue hair back into their tightly-woven braid, Hagen offered Enoki a warm, sympathetic smile and didn't say anything about his appearance, instead crossing the simulated carpet to the far end of the room where everyone else stood and tilting his head up to glance at the screens. "The AIDA infecting Tessa was a 'Dimension-type' - an incredibly powerful AIDA that can move throughout the system at will, and can even change the game parameters themselves to fall in its favor. That's why you couldn't summon your Avatars, and why you couldn't even damage her. The AIDA was constantly changing the system around you even as you fought, anticipating your every move. Mia's presence seems to have been the one uncertain factor that was able to throw a figurative wrench into the works." He reached out, thumped a hand gently onto Mia's head and rubbed behind her ears, causing her to purr in delight and slouch down till she was curled around his feet. "Whether you knew it or not, you made the best possible decision taking her with you. Not only because she hadn't yet awakened as an Epitaph User, but because she's AIDA herself."

"Don't you think you're talking too much, Hagen? You're going to make certain people quite angry with you at this rate." The quiet rebuke came from the shadows near the door.

Hagen snorted and crossed his arms, still eyeing the screens. "CC Corp can complain all they want. I'm researching the Dimension-type, I know the most about it, and Enoki and the others need that information. You'd do the same in my place, Gunnar, don't even try to say you wouldn't. And come out of there already, you're weirding me out making me talk to a disembodied voice." He couldn't help a grin, finally turning his head to look in the direction the words had come from, pretending he didn't hear the less-than-polite mutter he got in response before a white winged PC seemed to melt into view, looking highly nervous next to Hagen's relaxed confidence but still commanding respect and politeness with his very presence as he moved to join his now-smirking companion. "Anyway, the reason they haven't woken up yet isn't because you did anything wrong. The AIDA was only one piece of the puzzle. It's connected to something much bigger, something much deeper - something else you'll have to destroy before the Lost Ones will wake up again. This is where you really need to kick your plan into high gear - the only thing that's going to save The World now is Rebirth."

Enoki looked away, found his eyes lingering on Tsukiyo's unmoving form and felt like he wanted to be sick again. "...So in other words, it's suddenly hopeless."

"Nope. Another piece of your puzzle just fell into place, and it's an important one." Hagen looked to the door as footsteps sounded, and somewhat curiously, everyone followed his gaze; no one was quite sure what they expected to see, but a tall, redheaded PC wearing a pale blue and gold outfit with a black wrap about his shoulders, smiling disarmingly at them, certainly wasn't it. No one spoke for a long moment, all of them casting about for any small detail that might bring them to realization, but finally Enoki ended up speaking up in a confused voice, "Who...?"

"Another piece of your puzzle, like I just said." Hagen grinned smugly and fixed his eyes on Enoki. "You remember what Zelkova gave you, don't you?"

"What Zelkova...?" Then Enoki gasped, eyes going wide, and spread his hands before him, looking quickly between Hagen, Gunnar and the mysterious PC at the doorway before turning his gaze to the three crystals which now hovered above his hands, glowing much more brightly than he remembered. How could I have been so stupid? I forgot this was what I was waiting for all along!

"I told you, Enoki. The Descendants of Fianna have returned to The World." Hagen laughed and clapped a hand down on Enoki's shoulder, watching as the redheaded PC strode closer to join them and offered a blue-gloved hand to the blonde Adept Rogue, who could only stare for a long moment before letting the three crystals fade back into nothingness and giving the proferred hand a sort of weak shake. "I'm Enoki, of the Wandering Souls guild," he managed to say, though he wasn't sure how, and let his hand drop away when the friendly, tight grip on it was released. "And you would be...?"

"The last connection to really jumpstart your plan," the redhead grinned, and put his hand on his hip. "But you can just call me Heimar."