Disclaimer: I don't own anything .hack. I haven't really written for Silabus and Gaspard, and since they're not characters I use too often in the game (I use Endrance and Matsu when I can), I'm curious to see how true to their characters I wrote the pair.

And Here You Are With Me: Trojan Horse

Emerging into the shimmering sunlight of Breg Epona, Haseo had to blink even though he was inside of a game. Mac Anu had the sad taint of R:1, and Lumina Cross only existed so that people could kill each other and still play by the game's rules. Dol Dona seemed like a camp set up in the middle of an area field, but Breg Epona was the spirit of R:2.

It wasn't too long ago that Haseo had been allowed into Breg Epona once more, after a long, long time raising his character from level one all over again. It made him smile a little to look out at this root town.

He took perhaps five steps when he realized that he was walking alone.

"Elk?" he turned around, and saw that the strange character obviously shared in Haseo's astonishment. But there was darkness in his appearance that Haseo did not associate with Breg Epona.

"What… what is this place? This isn't Fort Ouph?" Elk said in confusion. "It's so beautiful," he sighed, head craning high to take everything in.

Haseo laughed; he couldn't help it. "Think of this place as Fort Ouph, but upgraded," he told Elk. Was this the feeling that Silabus and Gaspard got from helping newcomers out, hearing the awe in their voices when they took in The World for the first time?

The pride that Haseo suddenly felt in The World was personal, in a way. This was the place he'd chosen to spend his online life's time, and here was someone else who approved of this programmed world, and indirectly approved of Haseo's choice. It was a good feeling.

"Come on, I'll take you to the place I was talking about. You'll like it, you'll see," Haseo said with a lighter heart than he had felt in some time.

"Mia would love this place," Elk sighed behind him as they began down the walkway.

Haseo looked over his shoulder. "So who is Mia, exactly," he asked, trying to be casual about it. "Because I knew someone who also knew a Mia. Don't know if it was the same one, but you never know, right?"

Elk only shook his head. "Mia didn't have any other friends online," he responded. Which made Haseo only more confused. "But… I don't know. Mia is Mia. We liked to go around and collect Aromatic Grass. It's this completely useless item, but we still collected it anyways!" Elk laughed a little. "I remember when Kite gave some that he found to me. It just… I don't know. It wasn't the same, I guess. I think I have to find it myself for it to be worth anything."

Haseo had never heard of such an item. But he did not quite feel like crushing Elk's cheerful mood by telling him the item had been disposed of, in between R:1 and R:2.

"Elk, you think that maybe—" Haseo began, but when he looked for Elk, the strange Wavemaster character was gone. Whether he had been simply absorbed into the crowd or if it was the disappearing that Elk had been afraid of, Elk was no longer there.

"Elk?!" Haseo called out, wondering why Elk had to be so strange and out of programming conventions that he could not simply add Elk to his party and be done with it. That way, he would know where Elk was. But since that was impossible, Haseo doubled back, intent on searching.

"Elk!!"

When the crowd cleared around a circle of space, a sinking feeling dragged down Haseo's hope.

And what Haseo saw not only sparked fear in him, but for a moment he thought that reality had slipped from his grasp and what he saw was the product of a nightmare.

Those two PKs. The two that had gone for him, back when he had begun The World as an innocent new player. There had been no protective group like Canard for him back then.

But he saw at that moment, sometimes even Canard could not protect everyone. Somehow, inexplicably, Silabus and Gaspard were the ones standing over a greyed-out Elk, glaring defensively at the PKs.

The player killers' weapons were drawn, their avatars pasted with snickering, victorious smiles.

"What do you think you're doing?" Haseo raged as he drew up to them. "Never mind—how is it even possible that you just PKed this player?"

They laughed nervously, caught between the stereotypical urge to be a smart-mouthed PK and give him some sort of snotty reply, and the realization that the Terror of Death stood before them.

"This is a PK zone," the male player character finally answered, with less enthusiasm for his antisocial hobby than before. "Up until the first day of the tournament, here and Lumina Cross are PK-friendly…"

"Care for me to test out that new rule for myself?" Haseo snarled, and they made themselves quickly scarce as Haseo cast reviving magic on Elk.

"Um, thanks," Elk said. "Sorry I made you go to all that trouble," he added, sounding genuinely ashamed. "I just didn't think that was how the game was played now, so I didn't take them seriously…"

"That's not how the game is played now," Haseo replied, still seething over the scene. "But these two who were trying to protect you, they're from the guild I was talking about. Silabus, Gaspard, meet Elk. Elk, say hello to Silabus and Gaspard. You'll be staying in our Home for awhile."

Elk nodded, wordlessly greeting the pair.

"Hey, Elk. Sorry for the scare back there," Silabus said quickly, trying to cover up the awkwardness. "It's nice to meet you. A friend of Haseo's is a friend of ours. We should probably be moving on, then," he said to Haseo.

Haseo noticed that Elk was looking strangely at Gaspard. Then he remembered: there were no beast characters in R:1. With every minute that passed with Elk, Haseo felt reminded again and again of those internet rumors that R:2 had been designed to be another game completely, not at all the successor to The World that Elk hailed from. What was it like for him, to be told he was in the same place as before, while everything changed around him?

The walk to the Home was a quiet one. Silabus and Gaspard tried to get Elk to talk, but he seemed shaken by the PK incident. No wonder, Haseo thought. It wasn't until they were inside that Elk spoke up.

"Haseo? This is a little late, but… what's a guild?"

Silabus and Gaspard looked at Haseo strangely as Haseo had no choice but to explain, knowing he would be explaining to Silabus and Gaspard later on.

"A guild's like a group for players with common interests. They're given a special place to meet, called an Home, where we are now. You can stay here while we figure out what's going on with you, Elk," Haseo said to him.

It wasn't until Elk had wandered off and appeared to be engaged in an oddly in-depth conversation with Death Grunty that Silabus and Gaspard approached Haseo.

"So who is this guy?" Silabus said, dropping the ever-friendly look for something more immediate. "Gaspard and I can't put our fingers on him. That and Gaspard tells me that his avatar is actually from R:1. Is that some sort of special promotion?"

Haseo hated lying to them. "Yeah. It didn't run for very long, because it apparently messes with the character's stats. Elk lost all his levels, otherwise he would have been able to take on those PKs in the market, no problem. He's kind of a solo player, so he never really looked into stuff like guilds. So I figured it's kind of like when I lost all my data, and I remembered when you both took me in. I was hoping I could do that for him."

They nodded. Gaspard even congratulated him for embracing the ideals of Canard. Haseo grimaced internally, hoping he could make it up to himself one day for lying to them. But to him, Silabus and Gaspard were innocent. They played the game for the sake of the game, not because it was any more real than what the CC Corporation promoted.

They had no business with the Twilight.