For the record, I own nothing of the .hack franchise except for merchandise and some of the eventual names I'll be using in this story. I've also redone the first chapter with a better rendition, and will fix up the second and add more chapters eventually.

Chapter 1: Outlines

Dark...That was all I could see and all I could think of as the first traces of sentient thought came to me. I was nothing at that moment but a collection of zeroes and ones that clustered together based upon the whims of my user. I didn't really care, nor did I have to care as I grew wider and better as my coding was fleshed out. As long as my user did things right, I would continue to serve and be obedient to his will. I didn't think of it much until the first erroneous line of code was attempted in my core programming. I didn't run right away, figuring that my creator would see the error and fix it before trying again.

He didn't...

Time passed, and progress was becoming slower and slower on my development. More and more often, a line of improper code would fine itself embedded into my core lining. I couldn't do anything about it, but instead started to pay attention to my user as other programs received my users attention. I watched as those programs performed other functions that I could not, storing them to memory in the event that I would be called upon to perform some of those same tasks. Gradually, I was becoming sentient, learning as humans did from observation and memory.

Gradually, I learned new abilities from observation. Prior to my eventual abandonment, I only knew to sleep, read and run. Those are the most simple of tasks that a program can use, and they were skills that formed the basis of everything that I would eventually become. As I observed other programs in use, I learned of mobility, dreams and emotions. Simple words to me before, but they were quickly gaining more meaning to me given greater importance when I was given a morality code.

With new foresight, and greater ability, I began to make sense of the programs that my user was gradually gaining greater interest in, and portions of my program were left with them. One program had caught my proverbial eye faster than the others. It appeared to be a game that held an entire world similar to what I was reading about from the network that I connected too. It was a world of ones and zeroes, this much I knew, but at the same time it was a reality. I learned much with my creator and his first few trips into that world.

I wanted and hungered for more...

More time passed and as my creator, now called master by my morality code, played in that world I continued to watch with him. I watched as he grew as a 'player' in level and rank. I watched and observed his actions, though illogical by my processes, and made to emulate them when left alone. I was there with him when he had great joys and even greater pains. As his shadow, I experienced everything he felt with his character, even if the user didn't have a clue. A strange feeling was overcoming me as I watched him play in this world, and I soon realized that I was jealous of my now ex-master.

Why should he be allowed to play in my world and exist in his? It wasn't fair!! Traveling as his shadow, I picked up whispers and rumors of other programs who could co-exist in both worlds as well. My jealousy grew and festered, boiling up in me as I was stuck as a shadow for his player character. He soon gained tools other players didn't have a clue about, whether he gained them by choice, force or something else didn't matter to me. His tools would become my own. Twilights bracelet, Virus Cores and the hidden secrets of that world became my lifes blood, and I soon had learned enough to overtake his PC for an experiment.

For the first time ever, I felt complete. As if, by taking over a PC character, I was being born again as something new. I was still inexperienced in the ways of a physical body however, and I was soon killed by the friends of my master when they realized that I was not he. At that moment, I felt pain and my programming was completed. I was as human as I would get inside a world of ones and zeroes. I left his PC shortly after, having gained what I needed and would spend a long while plotting and recovering for my next visit. A trip that I would take much more easily with a body of my own, and I would have my own body for my next trip...