Death and Rebirth

Summery (the sort that would go on the back of a book cover):

Before CC Corp. finalized the career werewolf expansions for high-level fighters, they had beta testers, of course. They were also testing two more expansions, one a career vampire for any player and a career summoner for wavemasters. In the end they decided to use only career werewolves, but why? Perhaps this will explain it.

Maya - having leveled up her wavemaster character as high as possible, and winning renowned by her completion of an event deemed impossible to beat, much like the One Sin event the Descendants of Fianna had beaten and with a similar prize - Idryth, a high level twin blade character who had formed a party with her to complete that event, and, also Taran, a long arm member of that party, form the Black Angel party. These three have been offered the chance to beta-test three new expansions for high level characters; the vampire expansion for Idryth, the summoner expansion for Maya and the werewolf expansion for Taran. Eager to try it out, the three accept, but it winds up being more than they bargained for.

Disclaimer: I do not own .hack (more's the pity), neither the games, nor the anime, nor the manga. OK, so I own copies of most of the above, but I don't own the copyright, the original ideas or the characters. I do, however, own this plot and I do own my characters, although cannons do pop up here and there. Like Balmung (recently made a Sys admin), Kamui, Reki, Magi, Wiseman, Orca, Ouka (before she becomes a werewolf) and others.

Further disclaiming: I do not own the songs, books, poems, etc. to which I will occasionally allude, borrow from, quote, etc. For each chapter, I might post a quote or lyrics from a song, but I might not, so don't flame me if I don't.

Reviews: I like reviews. Even if I don't get many reviews, if I have inspiration to write, I will. However, reviews help me to be a better writer and help me to realize dumb mistakes I've made so I don't make them again. Smart mistakes are rare, but I like those pointed out as well.

About character's names in real life: A cannon character /may/ already have an official name. Except for the first names of Tsukasa (An, though in my Fragments fic, I give her the name Amaya) and Orca (Yasuhiko), I don't know them. And I'm too lazy to go and look /everything/ up. And I like coming up with my own names, but I don't mind if you point out that the names I give characters are not correct. Just don't be snotty or "holier-than-thou" about it.

On to the story!

Prologue:

"Are you sure you want to start beta-ing the new careers, now? We haven't made sure all the kinks and bugs are out of them, yet."

"That's all right. If the beta testers discover anything wrong, they'll report it and we can fix it then."

"But..."

"No 'buts,' please. Just find three players who qualify for the first round of beta testing. Although, we really ought to call the first group alpha testers."

"Hmm. All right, but make sure you tell Kamui so she doesn't try and delete them. While that would be entertaining, it wouldn't be productive."

"Don't worry. I already forewarned her about the new careers and I'll be sure to tell her and the other administrators when you've picked the players. Are we giving them three or six months free access?"

"Six months, the duration of the testing and, if we decide to initiate the new careers, they can choose to be the first official members of the new, exclusive careers. If they choose not to, then they can pick one of the new weapons to be released at the same time, or something. But are you sure you only want one player per new career?"

"For now. In three months, if things go well, we'll add a few more."

"All right. I'd better go find qualifying characters, then."

AUTHOR's NOTE: It will be a while before I post the first chapter, though I am nearly finished with it, due to my internet condition. That is to say, I don't have internet at home. It's broken and dead... Yea... But, don't worry.. the actual chapters will be significantly L o n g e r.