A/N: FF7-CloudStrife here with another fic for you great people. This is a sequel to my earlier fic, Unforeseen Danger. Please read that fic before reading this one cause it will make more sense.

Deliverance

Chapter 1: The Return

The last three years have sucked for me. I wasn't able to leave the hospital for weeks after I woke up, to make sure I hadn't developed any kind of "mental problems". If anything, I have more damn problems than psycho killers thanks to that damn game "The World." I have to admit that being back in reality is kind of great, but some things changed drastically after getting back. When I first got back to school, all the other students would look at me kind of weird like I was going to jump them of something. The principal called me down to her office and said that since I missed so much time, I wouldn't be able to make up the work. We struck a deal saying that as long as went to summer school for English and Economics, then the school would let me go to graduation and all the other cool stuff about being a senior. Home life really sucked, because my mom put a limiter on my computer making it so that I could only use it an hour or so a day. I couldn't blame her being that she was worried out of her mind since I went into a coma. That and walking around now, I always feel there is someone behind me and watching my every move. Probably not to far from the truth there. After school got out, Jamsine moved off to Japan and started dating Balmung, like I could give a shit about what those two do nowadays. The rest of my crew and I still hung out most of the time minus Kelly and David most days due to work and David is off in his own little world a lot of the time. They talked about stuff that was happening in the game often and I would never say anything being that I tried not to ever get into that game again.

I completely cut myself off from "The World." I got pretty damn close to deleting all the files from my computer but my mom's limiter kept me from doing it. Anything that had to do with "The World" was off-limits to me except reading any email that I may have gotten and any support programs like the expansion set and weapon creator I won along with Kelly, and Jasmine.I played with the weapon creator a bit and managed to make another sword like my Tidal Sword but it had lightning version of my Tidal Sword's atttacks. A message said that the next time I entered the game, to check with the recorder about giving the new sword a name. I managed to crack the limiter one night and looked around the message boards for a little news but not much. A thread caught my eye cause it had my name as the title. It was a thread about other players calling me the "Ice Demon Enigma" after I had beat Balmung in Carmina Gadelica and how they thought I was cheater cause no one could beat Balmung, and others saying they wanted to challange me to a duel. I didn't care about the other players, but what did shock me is that Balmung posted a comment saying that he wanted a rematch against me. He would never get it unless I was thrown back into the game or something tied me up and forced me to.

I was a little happy that I couldn't do much with the game being that it had been my home for so long. I became very secluded after I came out of the coma too. I only left my house to hang out with Kelly and Lan, but even then I didn't want to a public place. Being around other people sort of freaked me out and I thought someone in the crowd would jump out with a sword or some other kind of weapon and kill me. I would have been put into a mental ward had I not been able to keep my cool during those times.

I sued Altimit and CCcorp for putting out a product that do what it did to me, and for a while it seemed hopeless in my case, but suddenly, their lawyer came to me out of court and gave me a settlement worth $3 million for all my troubles, plus covered my medical expenses. I used the money to get a great house, since I moved out of my house after a year. The next two years were really uneventful except that Kite and Balckrose had gotten the other players out of comas and that "The World" had returned to 'normal,' not that I played the damn game to tell if that was true. Thanks to the three million dollar check I got from Altimit and CCcorp, I didn't have to work, which was a plus, being that I worked like hell to live while in the game. For some reason, I recieved an email form an Altimit executive saying they needed my 'expertise' to solve a problem for them and gave me an address to one of their offices. I went down to the office and it seemed like they were waiting for me, and escorted me to one of their meeting rooms. I sat there waiting for about an hour before a gruff looking man in a suit walked in and apologized for making me wait, and I would have punched if he hadn't, "I, on behalf of Alitmit would like to ask a favor of you Mr. Del Pozo."

"For one I don't know who you are, and two, why would I help you guys after your product sent me into a coma," I shouted at him.

"I see you're still as rude as ever Enigma," the man scowled at me, and suddenly noticed the voice.

"Wow, they sent the fabled Lios to talk to me," I laughed at him. He looked exactly like the character I saw in the game, "Now I know I don't want to help you guys."

"This is not a laughing matter, we really need your help with our current problem."

"What is it," I waved at him like I wanted to go.

"The World is in a state of panic right now being that there have been recent monsters that have infinite amount of hit points and won't die. That and it seems that players that have died by these monsters hands, have gone into a comatose state. Alitimit would like to send you to help us deal with this current problem."

"What do you think I can do, and why would I do anything for you?"

"We are ready to pay for your services," another suited man with sunglasses came in and set a large brief case in front of me which I opened with little effort and look kind of puzzled, "If you count that, it totals to an amount of five million dollars. Alitimit is willing to give that to you is you decide to help us, and you'll be given full authority in the game and will be allowed into any region you wish to help with your investigation."

"What's the catch," I knew this wasn't the only reason they wanted me here, "I don't really need your money being that you guys already paid me three mil to get off your backs years ago. Besides, I'm a little old for your game, don't you think?"

"The 'catch' is that Altimit will be recording all of your activity," he turned his back to me, "It seems that your friends have been attacked numerous times by these monsters and have escaped by the skin on their teeth each time. Are you saying that you'll do nothing while they could possibly end up like you did?"

He knew which buttons to push, but I kept still in my seat, "Correction, I could care less what happens to DarkAngel since she has Balmung to watch for her. About the others...., fine, you got a deal, but on one condition."

"That is," he turned to face me with an evil look on his face.

"You provide with some equipment that I'll need and I want no interferance from any of your staff."

"What kind of equipment?"

"I'll mail it to you, and don't you dare say you can't do it cause I know you guys can. I be seeing you later," I calmly walked out the door and drove back to my house and mailed Lios the things I would need. I read in a electronic magazine that Altimit had designed a new system that sort of did what happened to me. It would put all the player's senses into the game, but only to an extent, and there were many fail-safes that would keep any player from being seriously hurt. Basically, I told him I wanted all that kind of equipment, but without the fail-safes. If I was going back to this hell hole, I might as well go back the way I left it. It took about a week for a delivery crew to bring me all the stuff I needed. I used the times to look at the game from my old computer and look over the files that were in it. I remembered the expansion set and looked it over. There was indeed some new character classes that I conidered using, including the Werewolf class and the Dual Sword class. One that caught my eye was the Angelic Knight class that I knew was meant for Balmung to use and just remembering that guy cause my blood to boil a bit. After deciding to first go back as my original charcter, I sat in front of my computer screen, which was by the way much better then the one I had, I started having second thoughts about doing this. I mean, I was used to the pain that the game could offer but could I really go through all that again? I slowly typed in the small boxes that would seal my fate to this horrid game once again.

User Name: Enigma
Password: Sakura

A female voice that sounded very up-beat and perky boomed in my head, "Welcome back Enigma, it has been four years and two months since you last signed on. There have been some version updates since you last signed on," I had a broadband connection so the updates were downloaded quikly, "Enjoy "The World!!"

Chapter 1 End

A/N: I know it's only an intro chap, so deal with it. My password isn't Sakura by the way to any of my emails or anything I do, just connects with my earlier fic. Review and I'll have next chap up soon. LATES people.