Two sides of the same coin. If Aura's words were true, then there was absolutely no way we could defeat Cubia without harming Kite. As I stared at the version of our Twinblade that had slept peacefully in Cubia's heart, panic arose in me. We had to sacrifice something or else we could never put an end to this.

"We have to kill it now!" Kite demanded, rushing past BlackRose and me to slash away at the heart. I turned and looked back at Balmung desperately, as if he knew exactly what to do. He returned my stare and followed Kite's actions.

"We'll stay back," Mistral suggested, pulling on my hand as she led me away from the cries of pain coming from Cubia's mouth.

Even though there wasn't a Cubia Core, the Gomoras continued to appear. Kite and Balmung stuck close to the heart while Mistral and BlackRose chased after the smaller monsters. I consistently shouted healing spells, even if my teammates didn't need them. I didn't want anything to mess up how close we were, especially my abilities as a Wavemaster.

The crackle of thunder echoed around us. Before I could comprehend what was happening, lightning struck the ground in front of me, sending me toppling back onto my butt. "Oh shit," I hissed, then addressed the rest of my team. "Its sending lightning! Watch out!"

I watched helplessly while everyone scrambled from the attack. Balmung, who had thought up a fantastic idea almost immediately, pressed his body against the fleshy roots surrounding the heart. I didn't waste any time jumping to my feet and copying him. The lightning came dangerously close to us, but didn't hit us; Cubia wouldn't attack itself.

"Good thinking," I complimented once the sounds had died down. Balmung let out a hysterical chuckle and shook his head.

"When faced with instant death, my brain tends to work faster than normal," he explained sarcastically.

Kite and BlackRose were already returning to the heart, crying out in frantic desperation as their blades slashed at the roots. Cubia roared loud enough to cause a dull ache in my ears. I wanted to cover them with my hands, but there wasn't any time for that. We needed to finish it off soon.

"Give – me – back – my – brother!" BlackRose screamed between swings of her weapon. She fell into a crazed state of mind and I wondered if it was just a spell Cubia had casted on her character or if it was her true emotions breaking through into the game.

Mistral took a step back. I could faintly hear her short breathing. "I'm completely out of items," she admitted weakly. "I don't even have anything for SP recovery."

"Almost there!" Kite urged. "Its almost done!"

The second the last word came from his mouth, Cubia reared its head back in a pained wail. We stopped moving and watched it writhe in anguish. We had done it. We killed Cubia. It was finished. But as quickly as I'd gotten my hopes up, a glowing green light lit up Cubia's body. White smoke poured from its jagged teeth and the roots that surrounded us shattered like glass, dropping into the never-ending abyss below.

A heavy wind blew us back. If Balmung had not been directly behind me to catch my body as I flew through the air, I would've toppled over the side of the vein we stood on. Luckily, he dropped his sword just in time to plant his feet onto the flesh and open his arms to create a human net for me. I slammed into him roughly, my neck jarring back in a sharp motion. He gave a soft grunt before his arms wrapped protectively around me.

The copy of Kite inside the heart twitched sporadically until it dissipated. Then he fell back into a heavy sleep. Wind receding, Cubia stared at us, its eyes now blood red.

"I guess it's really not running away this time," BlackRose commented.

"Then we'll settle this once and for all!"

Cubia's health had completely restored and even doubled. The attacks it sent out became more frequent and more dangerous. Mistral and BlackRose both died twice and Kite escaped death narrowly before I was able to heal him. Everyone had run out of items halfway through the battle, so keeping my teammates alive rested solely on my shoulders.

The horrid monster seemed to know that Balmung and I were special. It targeted the winged man more often than not to cast Charm on, so I spent the majority of our fight running from him. At one point, he had tackled me to the ground and delivered a hard fist to the side of my head. His image blurred in and out, and our teammates sounded miles away. Luckily – and I'm still not sure how I was able to – I shimmied my foot underneath his abdomen and kicked him off. He landed back-down opposite of me, coughing harshly.

"Rip Synk!" I screamed, struggling to stand to my feet. The strange world swirled around me. I wondered if this was what it was like to be drunk. The effect instantly fleeted Balmung's body and he rushed to my side, wrapping his arms around me to pull me up.

"Rin, I am so sorr—"

I lifted a hand to cut off his words, a feebly smile growing on my lips. "Don't worry about it," I told him, though the horrified look of guilt remained on his face. "That Charm does crazy things to people."

Although I meant it as a joke, Balmung shook his head and cupped my face. He whispered another apology as his lips pressed onto mine. Our kiss quickly ended as Mistral shrieked at us.

"In case you two lovebirds haven't noticed, we're in a life-or-death battle here!" she reminded us rudely as she dodged a root that crashed down near her. Balmung and I exchanged a hard glance before returning to our possible deathbed.

The fight lingered on for longer than I could keep track of. As much as we struck Cubia, it only seemed to be growing stronger and faster. The Gomoras reproduced quicker than we could kill them off. My muscles ached more than they had the entire time I'd been trapped in the game. My head pounded with a headache thanks to Balmung's fist. My feet felt as if needles were sticking straight through them. Casting spells even became a difficult task. When I tried to heal my teammates or fire off a few ice blasts at Cubia, the chanting words seemed to disappear from my mind. Was I going crazy?

Finally, Cubia's health dropped to 0. I let out a sigh of relief, but knew better than to start celebrating early. For good reason, too; the dazzling green light reappeared and the sleeping Kite thrashed in his sleep. A shattered cry escaped my mouth as Cubia's eyes flickered back to life.

"I can't believe this," Balmung mumbled, taking a step away from the monster. "Back to full health. How many times do we have to do this?"

"Do you think we can really defeat it?" BlackRose thought aloud.

Kite's attention focused on his wrist. "Two sides of the same coin," he mumbled. "BlackRose, strike my bracelet!"

"You want me to do what?!" she bellowed in response, holding her blade as far from Kite as possible. "Have you gone mad?!"

I watched as Kite tried to persuade her to do as he said. Meanwhile, Gomoras were sprouting up again and Mistral was alone at the heart, belting out a squeal as her staff collided with Cubia. The Heavyblade continued to refuse, but Kite seemed to know what he was saying.

I pushed myself from Balmung and lifted the point of my staff high over my head. With a sharp inhale, I delivered it as hard as I could onto Kite's wrist. The bracelet became apparent: a bright blue and yellow piece of data jewelry that was much too large for Kite.

The sound of static filled the air. An invisible force pushed at me, trying to keep me from damaging the bracelet any further, but I persisted, teeth grinding hard against each other and sweat seemingly pouring out of every inch of my body. Kite yelled in pain, but urged me to keep going. The force became stronger until finally, I found myself flying away from the Twinblade. I landed only a few feet away with a hard thump.

Electricity shot out from the bracelet as Kite fell silent. Then, a single shard of the data flew off and disappeared in thin air. Another cry of pain erupted from his mouth as he raised it toward Cubia. A broken Data Drain shot off and flew past Mistral, colliding directly with the version of Kite inside Cubia's heart.

The creature gave up then. Neon green 1's and 0's littered its body and spread toward the heart like a wildfire. Once it reached the heart, Cubia's entire body expanded like a balloon before popping in a slow explosion of data.

In a panic, I rushed toward Balmung before we were swallowed by Cubia's remains. Our fingertips merely grazed each other before the world fell dark.

Hello everyone! I just wanted to say a quick Happy New Years to you all! I hope 2015 brings you everything you've been striving for in 2014!

I know this story has been going for quite some time. I started it the summer before my senior year of high school and here we are almost three years later nearing the end. For those of you who stuck with me through my sporadic updates and random hiatuses, thank you so much. I honestly can't describe how much it means to me that you've taken the time out of your lives to read my story. And for those of you who weren't here since the beginning, thank you too! I wish I can express how much I appreciate every single one of you.

Just a heads-up, this story will be completed within the next week. I'm still bouncing around the idea of a sequel in my head based off the .hack/G.U. games, but I'm still on the fence about it.

I hope you continue to enjoy reading my story as much as I've enjoyed writing it until the very end!