Hi! Emichii here! THIS IS CHAPTER 4! YAAYYYY! Oh I don't own .Hack/Legend of the Twilight. Read and Review! By the way, why on earth am I writing a Mireille/Shugo fanfic? There's absolutely no hint of them being together in the manga but because I love them both- they're the best characters! YAY! Mireille is soooo cute! And they would look so cute together!

CHAPTER 4/WITHOUT YOU BY MY SIDE

When Mireille opened her eyes, she was sitting alone in the dark on the stone ground.

"Ow…" she groaned as she heaved herself up and rubbed her head gingerly. She got up and looked around. She could just make out in the dim light which direction she should go. But it was so silent.

Shugo, where are you? She thought.

Rena, Zefie and Hotaru walked along the top of the mountain/cavey thing. Rena was getting really worried. "Do you think they're all right?"

Hotaru said, "Don't worry, Shugo can look after her,"

Zefie walked along, humming a sad tune.

Then it started raining.

"Why'd you do that?" Rena cried. "You made it rain!"

Zefie shrugged. "I'm bored."

"You're bored! Mireille and Shugo are stuck down there, probably in danger and all you can say is THAT YOU'RE BORED!" Rena exploded.

Zefie said, "I'm an AI. And if I actually bothered, I could probably track them down."

"THEN TRACK THEM DOWN!"

"But I think they'll be fine so stop being a worrywart." she continued.

"AARRGGHHH!"

"Hey, you guys!" Hotaru called. "Look over here! There's a tunnel going downwards into the mountain!"

"It's pretty dark," Zefie said, "Let's go."

Carefully, the three of them plus the grunty made their way into the tunnel.

Shugo ran through the dark tunnel, hoping against hope that he'd find Mireille there, and that she'd smile at him and tell him everything was alright, but there was no sign of Mireille.

Mireille was surprised when she saw the fork in the road.

Which way? She wondered. Maybe she should just wait for Shugo, but who knew how long he would take to catch up to her?

Just then, her blood froze as she thought of something. What if Shugo didn't chase after her? What if he just left her there?

For once, Mireille paused and didn't know what to do. Oh well, she thought, I'll just go the left way. She turned into the left way and prayed silently that Shugo would find her.

Shugo had an idea. He remembered that Mireille had told him about speed charms, so he equipped one and went faster than ever. But when he came to a fork in the road he had no idea where to go. Shrugging, he went in the direction to the right.

And he kept hoping he would find Mireille soon.

Just then, he heard a huge rumbling sound and from the ceiling, Rena, Zefie, Hotaru and her grunty, came flying out of a tunnel and landed on top of Shugo.

"ARRGH!" he cried.

Shugo picked himself up off the ground.

"SHUGO! I'm so glad I found you again!" Rena cried.

"Onii-chan!" Zefie tugged on Shugo's hand.

"Oh! Zefie! Rena!" Shugo said, "I'm glad you guys are here."

Hotaru looked around, "Where's Mireille?"

"I don't know," Shugo said, "that's why I'm looking for her. She got caught in a rope net and then, when I rescued her, there was a weird earth-quake thing, and we got separated- she got carried this way by a huge whirlwind."

"We haven't seen her," said Hotaru.

"Oh no…" groaned Shugo. He said, "I can imagine her now, she's all alone in the dark in this weird place."

"Don't fret," Hotaru said, "this is just a game, I'm sure we can contact her."

I know this is just a game, thought Shugo, but it seems real to me! And Mireille is a real person!

But when Rena tried to send a message to Mireille, she couldn't connect with her. "What's going on? Why can't we contact her?"

"Oh no…" Shugo groaned again.

Zefie said, "Let me try,"

The AI concentrated hard, and finally managed a shaky connection. There was a screen and it showed Mireille on it. She was bruised, battered and dirty but alright. She looked so lost; Shugo's heart went out to her.

"Mireille!" he cried.

Mireille lifted her head and saw the screen where Shugo and the others were watching her with worried expressions on their faces.

"Shugo!" she cried.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"I don't know! All I know is that I went down the left road in the fork. Please find me, Shugo! I don't know what to do!" she cried.

All of a sudden, there was a huge shaking and fizzing sound. The screen started disappearing and Mireille felt herself falling downwards, through a hole that just appeared under her feet.

"Shugo!" she cried.

"Mireille!" Shugo yelled. The screen shook and lost contact completely.

"We have to go find her!" he said. The others were quiet.

Rena wondered, "I wonder what just happened."

Zefie said, "This quest is obviously very advanced, even I can't break through the firewalls they installed around here."

Hotaru yawned. "I'm tired… I'm gonna hit the hay. I'm sure Mireille will be okay. After all, this is a game."

Rena nodded, "Yeah, Onii-chan,"

Zefie looked at Shugo to see what his reaction would be.

"Bye, Shugo, Rena, Zefie. I'll see you tomorrow." Hotaru went offline.

Reina tapped Shugo on the shoulder. "Onii-chan, we really have to go to bed now, goodnight,"

Rena went offline. Only Shugo and Zefie were left.

"I guess you don't need to go to bed, do you?" Shugo said.

"No. I don't know what sleeping is like," Zefie replied.

"Well, let's go look for Mireille then," Shugo said.

"Okay," Zefie took Shugo's hand and they walked back to the forked road and went into the left road.

"I saw Mireille fall down a hole in the ground just before we lost connection," Zefie said. "I think that was some punishment for breaking through the firewalls, even though it was only for a few seconds."

"I hope we can find her," Shugo said, "Here, you can borrow this speed charm,"

They ran to where Mireille was before and found the hole Mireille went down.

"HEY MIREILLE! CAN YOU HEAR ME?" shouted Shugo.

No answer.

"We'll just have to go after her." Shugo said. He and Zefie went down the hole and found themselves sliding down a chute and landing in a dark rocky cave. Walking around, Shugo still couldn't find Mireille.

"Can you track her down, Zefie?" he asked.

"I think she went that way," Zefie pointed in front of her, which led them to a huge, cave.

It was beautiful, Mireille thought.

The ceiling was high and there was light showing from the top. The most amazing thing was that there was a beautiful lake, a beautiful azure blue- in the cave and there was bright green grass and flowers all around her.

Mirei stared in wonder at the beautiful place shown on the screen. The World never ceased to amaze her. It was all so real. She couldn't see any pixels or any flaws in the art. It was so beautiful.

I wish Shugo could see this, she thought.

"Wow, just look at this! It's so beautiful!" Shugo said. "I wonder if Mireille is seeing this right now."

"I'm sure she is," Zefie smiled.

Shugo nodded and yawned. Then he yawned again.

Shugo could feel his eyelids drooping. He was tired but he forced himself to keep playing, but eventually, he had to close his eyes and sleep.

Reina, walking past in her PJ's, smiled at the sight of her brother, asleep at the computer again. She could see that on the screen, Shugo was sleeping with Zefie sitting at his side.

Onii-chan always tries so hard in The World. Too bad he didn't try as hard at school, she thought.

But it didn't matter; she knew Shugo wouldn't give up now, not when he was so close to Mireille.

Emichii here! Whassup? How are you all? I really love this fanfic! I've been working very hard on this fanfic- I actually updated this 3 times this week! WOW! And I'd really love it if you all review! THANKS FOR READING!