Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the .hack/ franchise. It's sad, I know.

"Speaking"

'Thinking'

: Short mail/Email/Text Box:

"Flashback thought"


Δ Delta Server Mac Anu

Haseo leaned against the bridge railing as he always did, grumbling once again. His dash for Raven's Guild had been pointless. Something he should have known beforehand. Yata had been listening in to his and Ovan's conversation and so already knew everything before Haseo even opened his mouth. And to make matters worse, when Haseo had gotten back to the Cathedral, Ovan had already left and gone missing once again. And he had been here in this spot since then, sulking. A few minutes later, he perked up as he received an email. At this moment, anything sounded good to Haseo. Not wasting any time, he opened the message.

: Haseo, there is a disturbance. Gather a team and investigate Σ Continuous Stalking Utopia. –Yata:

Haseo could only smirk; glad that he finally had something to do that would hopefully turn out to be interesting

--

Σ Continuous Stalking Utopia

Three orbs appeared through the field gate and expanded into a portal, depositing 3 players onto the field. Haseo looked around carefully at the field.

"A desert huh?"

"How bleak and empty. Such an ugly field."

"Ah, it's not so bad. I think it looks rather peaceful."

All Haseo could do was look between Endrance and Atoli, personally trying to think one who he would agree with.

"The field doesn't matter. According to Yata, something is here. Now let's start looking!"

--

A thin, lithe figure sat on top of the building that would lead to the beast statue, watching the one's who had entered the field. He sat there watching them for almost 20 minutes, watching as they explored the field to its fullest extent. The only one he actively recognized was the one in the black armor, the other two new faces.

"Hmmm… Now which one did the Old Lady want me to get."

The man only had to watch for a short while longer before he smirked, already a plan in mind. Without a sound, he slipped off of the building.

--

The Battle Area field disappeared once again as Endrance sliced through the final goblin, ending its existence gracefully.

"Such a pity that they had run into us, right Haseo?"

Haseo could only nod absently, knowing that this was the easiest way to acknowledge Endrance without making him start proclaiming this or that. Atoli only smiled and nodded as well, happy that no one was hurt. Haseo was just annoyed that everything had been far too easy the entire time. The field was at a ridiculously low level compared to them, so the monsters were mere nuisances rather than challenges.

"Well, I think the field is pretty much clear. Let's finish this up by checking the Beast Statue."

Both team members nodded, agreeing, as they made their way to the center of the field, the building standing like a monolith against the land. With all of the monster defeated, the land had become silent. As they approached the temple, though, Atoli disturbed the silence was a sharp gasp. Haseo and Endrance both turned to regard her.

"Atoli, what is it?"

"I... I hear something. It's coming from within the building!"

"Well? Is it AIDA?"

Atoli waited for a few more seconds before she shook her head.

"No, I've never heard this before."

Haseo could only scowl lightly as he turned and continued to the temple, slowly walking down the stairs. When they reached the bottom, he cautiously pushed the giant stone doors open. Motioning his team behind him to wait, he entered the room, quickly glancing over everything. But to his chagrin, there was nothing out of place. No odd characters standing, waiting to greet them. No horrible monster lurking in the shadows, ready to maul the next living thing it saw. Just… nothing. Sighing irritably, he called his team and proceeded to the altar where the chest sat, sitting peacefully in front of the floating stone statue. He sighed once again after kicking the chest open, and noticing that there was absolutely nothing special in it other than some common items. As he was closer, Haseo just gave the items to Endrance who was only too thrilled to take them. He quickly turned back to Atoli so Endrance wouldn't go into some speech or such. While Haseo appreciated it, Endrance's affection always creeped him out slightly.

"So, what happened to that thing you heard?"

"I… I don't know. It just vanished before you entered…. I'm sorry…"

Haseo scowled at her, knowing it wasn't her fault. It was the fact that she always apologized for everything, even if it wasn't her fault. Thankfully, he had been trying recently to break her of that habit, though it was easier said than done.

"…Don't worry about it Atoli. Come on, let's get back to Yata."

Both Endrance and Atoli nodded as they began to head towards the doors. But before they reached them, they were stopped by an odd sound that filled the air, a sound that Haseo recognized. He quickly snapped his head around from side to side, trying to locate the monster. He didn't have to look for long before Atoli gasped and pointed to the space in the air where the statue had been moments before. A large green blob seemed to form from thin air and roll over itself before starting to split into two, both orbs connected by a single strand. When finally the surface of the creature stopped rippling, it was in the shape of a dumbbell. Almost immediately they all drew their respective weapons, although Haseo was the only one who realized the danger they were in.

"Be careful of it! That's the thing that can remove your epitaph!"

Endrance and Atoli both nodded, understanding the pressure they were now potentially under since they both still had their Avatars. Haseo and Endrance wasted no time in charging their adversary while Atoli stayed back and began to cast boosting magic on them. Haseo felt that it would do little to no good though as the monster let out another mournful wail and attacked back, long tendrils spearing out from the surface of the monster and lashing at them. Endrance was driven to the side by a swipe made from the Guardian as Haseo block another tendril at the last second, the sudden ferocity of the attacks startling him. He quickly recovered and tried to rush at the monster again, but yet another flailing tendril cut off his path. Looking over at Endrance, hoping to get some help, he noticed that he was having much the same problem. But as suddenly as the monsters onslaught had started, it had stopped, leaving all of the startled. Haseo took the time though to back up a few feet to prepare himself for another onslaught from the Guardian, and he wasn't disappointed. The monster wailed as it sent tendril after tendril at the warriors as the dodged, blocked, and slashed back at it, trying their best to keep up. Finally, after an unknown amount of time to Haseo, he found an opening. Acting upon it while he had the chance, he dashed forward, narrowly missing getting impaled by a tentacle as it pierced the air he had occupied not but a second beforehand. He ducked, dodged, and weaved through the attacks, quickly working his way closer to the monster. Approaching the creature, he leapt up into the air, straight for it. When within range, he let out a cry as he slashed at the monster in every way possible, stopping the creatures attacks as well. After his attack was finished and he landed back on the ground, he looked up at the Guardian with a smirk on his face. It quickly vanished though when the Guardian swooped down out of the air and smashed its large side against him, sending him flying. It also made Haseo wonder how something that looked so liquid-like, and yet it felt solid when it rammed him.

After he got to his feet, he couldn't help but feel annoyed when he noticed his attacks had done little to no damage to it. Getting a new idea, he quickly put away his twin blades and then reached over his shoulder, drawing his broadsword in a burst of light. He quickly revved the blade a few times as he smirked at the Guardian. In a burst of speed, he was quickly running at the monster again, but before the tendrils could strike him, Endrance jumped into their path, keeping pace running in front of Haseo to deflect the blows away from him. Every once in awhile, he could see a healing spell hitting Endrance, telling him that Atoli was still with them, doing what she could to help. Upon their final approach though, Endrance finally broke off to try and draw the Guardian's attention, if for but just a few seconds. And with the seconds spared, Haseo leapt up again at the monster, blades on his blade ringing through the air as he brought it down in the middle of the beast, right onto the ring that served as its center. The sound of metal grating over metal could be heard as he pushed against the ring. Haseo was glad to know he found the right spot to hit since his blade actually met with resistance this time. Dimly, he could feel the ring giving out under the pressure of the sword until it finally shattered, and Haseo fell through the rest of the beast, landing on his feet. Looking up, he was able to see the monster as it wailed out one last terrible time as it grayed out and began to dissipate. Haseo couldn't help but smirked, glad that nothing bad had happened this time. But before he could turn and congratulate his team, the air was once again filled with noise. This time though, instead of wailing, they heard noise that sounded like somebody was clapping.

All three of them cautiously looked around the room, trying to locate the source of the clapping. But since the acoustics of the room were already awkward as it was, the noise was difficult to pinpoint. The clapping continued as somebody spoke out to them.

"Wow! That was simply amazing, you rock Haseo!"

The clapping stopped as they could hear somebody moving. The only warning they had though before something fell down from the ceiling was a small spoken 'boing!' Now standing in front of them was a person that Haseo could only describe as odd. The characters model had defiantly been tampered with, since he had the appearance of a ninja.

"Who are you?"

The ninja only smirked at them from where he stood.

"A fan of yours, you could say. I must say, that was spectacular how you beat the Guardian. I've only ever known a single party to defeat one of them. Of course, they were then immediately outclassed by three of them."

Haseo continued to glare at the newcomer. He felt distinctly uneasy about the character. A part of him felt like he should know exactly who that stranger was, and why he shouldn't be here. And yet another part of him said to not trust a single word the stranger said. So he kept glaring at the man, wishing that smirk would vanish from his face, until a name seemed to float through his head.

"…Sora?"

If anything the name caused the man to grin even wider.

"Bingo! I must say, I was starting to think that you weren't ever going to remember me."

Haseo could only scowl further, the amount of people around him who loved to speak in enigmatic ways kept growing, and it was seriously starting to piss him off.

"Damn it, stop screwing around! What are you doing here? And what did you have to do with that monster? Are you the one sending it out to attack us?"

Sora only yawned and began to stroke one of his bangs.

"Awww… is little Haseo getting angry? You're no fun at all. Fine then. Yes, I'm the one whose been sending out the Guardian's, under orders of course."

"Oh yea? From who?"

"Awww…. Sorry little Haseo, but nobody likes a tattle-tale. Tell you what though, I will tell you why I'm still here though."

It was still getting to Haseo with how much Sora kept grinning to himself like that, like he held the answer to some great cosmic joke. That's why he was all the more surprised when Sora simply lifted his hand, and a Twilight Bracelet formed around his wrist.

"Hmm…. Which one, which one?"

All three of them were too startled to do anything, also realizing that there was very little they could do at the moment. Haseo had thought that the only ones with the ability to use Data Drain outside of Epitaph Space were both him and the three Azure Knights. It was this thought that gave Haseo an idea. Keeping a close eye on Sora, he quickly typed up a message and sent it out. Usually, a Data Drain would have fired by now, but he could easily tell that Sora was purposely holding off on actually firing the weapon, instead wanting to continue toying with them. After a few seconds of impatient waiting, Haseo smirked as he heard a familiar sound ring through the area, one that he used to fear and despise. And sure enough a few seconds after the melody note faded away, three small azure orbs seemed to fade into view, floating gentle on some unseen breeze. And then, in a blaze of sound and light, three dark and decrepit characters stood, staring hauntingly at Sora. Sora stared back in a slight look of disbelief.

"Oh no…. not you guys again."

"Get him!"

The last cry had come from Haseo, and the Azure Knights had wasted no time in following through with the order. All three drew their respective weapons and dashed towards Sora. He only sneered though as he turned back to Haseo and his group and aimed the Twilight Bracelet at Atoli and then fired. Haseo cried out in surprise as everything seemed to slow down to him. He could see where the data blast would be heading, but there was no way he could get her out of the way in time, and the Azure Knights wouldn't Sora before it hit either. So he was trapped there, watching as Atoli was about to be Data Drained. But at the last second, he could barely make out a slender blue form darting in front of Atoli and shoving her out of the way before being struck. After that, all he could hear was Endrance crying out in pain as the Data Drain went through and rewrote his characters data.

Haseo could only stand in shock and disbelief that Endrance had actually sacrificed himself to save Atoli. As the attack ended and Endrance laid unmoving on the floor, He quickly turned to face Sora just in time to see him leaping and dodging almost all of the different attacks coming from the Knights. But before Haseo could join in the fray, Sora leapt high up into the air and landed on a protruding ledge, turning only enough to turn back towards Endrance's still form and aim his hand at the fallen man, making a mock up of a gun with his fingers.

"Kapow!"

And with that, Sora promptly disappeared in a display of three golden rings. Right after that, the Azure Knights warped out as well, intent on trying to follow their target through the net. Haseo could only curse before he turned and ran back to Endrance and Atoli, kneeling next to his form.

"Hey! Endrance, hang in there, alright?"

Endrance cringed slightly as he moved to look up at Haseo.

"Is Atoli safe?"

"Yea, she's fine. But what about you, why did you do that? Why did you jump in the way?"

Endrance smiled lightly, trying not to show how much he was hurt.

"Because, if she was hurt, it would have made you sad, Haseo. I didn't want to see you sad again."

Atoli kneeled down as well and looked over at Haseo. She could easily tell that this was bothering him. He always got upset whenever one of his friends got hurt like this. Turning her gaze down to Endrance, she tried to smile as best she could.

"Thank you…"

Endrance only nodded before he finally passed out, his character fading in a distinctive purple light of someone warping out. Haseo continued to sit there for a few minutes longer though, staring at the ground.

'Damn it… First me and Ovan, and now Endrance. Is this going to happen to all of us?'

Atoli, meanwhile, fidgeted from her spot, trying to think of something comforting to say. When she finally thought of something, and opened her mouth to speak, Haseo suddenly stood up and started to walk out of the temple. The sudden act startled her to the point of falling back onto the ground with a slight squeak of surprise.

"Come on Atoli, we need to go report this to Yata."

Atoli quickly nodded and stood back up before making her way to follow Haseo out the door. But before exiting, she looked back at the now empty and silent room. To her, it suddenly felt like a tomb. Suddenly, she found Endrance's description of the field a bit more fitting than her description. After that thought, she didn't hesitate in the least to leave the field.


A/N: My deepest apologies to my readers. I have gotten very busy as of lately, and have had little time to work on this chapter. I also had to rewrite the chapter several times to get it to my liking as well. I hope the chapter was worth the wait.

Also, I am thinking about adding in a romance sub-plot. But as of yet, I don't know who I should pair Haseo up with. So if you think it's a good idea, let me know, and what pairing you would want to see. As a forewarning, I do not do yaoi, so there will be NO Haseo/Endrance. So don't waste a vote.