.hack//EVA: Catharsis

Disclaimer: In this universe in the quantum foam, I do not own or in any way shape or form hold a claim to the .hack series or Neon Genesis Evangelion.

A crossover between the worlds of .hack and Neon Genesis Evangelion. Set in early 2015, shortly after the defeat of the fourth angel. CC Corporation, creator of the ALTIMIT OS and the internationally popular MMORPG "The World" has recently recovered from a disastrous fire at their headquarters in Osaka-2, which destroyed most of their game data. Newly released is The World: R2, and to ensure that it becomes popular, several thousand individuals around the world were selected as part of the Renaissance Project, the first wave of new players.

" " denotes speech

'italics' denotes thought

'bold' denotes location or emphasis

'bold italics' denotes skill use

The Queen of the Dark was having a bad day. No, to be perfectly honest, she had been in at least a mild state of annoyance since the end of last year and the beginning of this entire mess. With the disappearance of Aura, CC Corporation's foolish attempt to recreate her in their own image, the fire that had destroyed 80 of The World's data, and this recent rollover into R2, she was, to put it mildly, displeased. What had the suits in CC Corp been thinking (if those lower level life forms could be said to do so at all), thinking that they could control the power of the Phases? If anything, the phases would find characters that they thought compatible, not the other way around.

Those at CC Corp had never understood that what they thought of as just data was just as alive and intelligent as any human being. Or maybe they did understand, and they were afraid, just as they didn't care for Aura but had grudgingly accepted the Ultimate AI's existence. They had rarely accepted the Queen of the Dark, grudgingly or no, instead seeking to gain access to the Net Slums and delete everything, even all her digital friends.

Now and then, one of their administrators would come to understand the truths behind The World, but the higher-ups never did. Invariably, something would happen: Watari had been blamed for the Twilight Incident and had left The World of his own free will; Lios had been relegated to management duty once again (as much of an ignorant pig-head as he had been, he eventually listened to reason…he had even offered to make the Net Slums an official root town, though she couldn't allow that. CC Corp would only try to clean it up and take control of it, trying to leaving her out of the details entirely); Balmung (and as arrogant and self-righteous as the man had been in the past, she was amused by him) had been fired after helping out another of Aura's chosen ones. The list went on, and remembering this left only a wry expression on the face of the player behind Helba.

And now this foolishness, to try and control the power of a goddess…if she had been around in the last few months, she would have tried to stop it, but other events had precluded her involvement. She wondered idly if anyone had noticed her rather reduced presence online recently, letting a grim little smile crossed her lips for but a moment before reverting to the earnest expression she kept as an ever-present mask.

She thought back to the past, to all those that she had 'known' in her long association with The World: Tsukasa, who had become trapped in the game by Morganna and yet had found the strength to escape to reality, waking Aura in the process; Sora, the enigmatic young (he had only been 10!) man who it amused her to talk to…and whose PC had become a vessel for Skeith, the very model of what CC Corp was trying to recreate; Kite, the brave Bearer of the Bracelet who had fought the Cursed Wave alongside his companions (particularly Blackrose); and the other associated .hackers, all of which had borne the weight of two worlds upon their all too narrow shoulders.

A troubled expression took hold of her then, as an all too familiar notion went through her mind once more:

Why is it always the young who must fight our battles for us? In The World and even…

And that brought her back to reality, for there was more to her absence from World Wide Web than one would suspect. No, she had not given up her career as a professional hacker, though she had found herself drawn into an organization that was nearly as secretive as she had been, one that had claimed to value her skills with computers.

But that had been the case for many months, and even years. Still she had found time for those few that she considered her friends online, and for her other job that by necessity needed to be kept secret. Since the events of Deadly Flash and Pluto's Kiss, the World Network Council (WNC) of the United Nations had passed harsh penalties for hacking or endangering computer systems, even up to death, and so she maintained an illusion of innocence in her day job (for another agency of the UN, no less!). At least she was able to work with what might well be the single most advanced computer system on Earth, running on aspects of their creator, but she had never forgotten that there had been another power at the center of Earth's networks until recently.

And insultingly, her boss, her sempai, the one who she respected and had grown fond of over the years, had relegated her to simple tasks that any merely competent programmer could perform. She, the Queen of Dark, a hacker of extraordinary skill, as anyone who knew her work could attest. She had even faced a nearly omnipotent AI and her Phases, being the equivalent power behind the scenes for those who had fought the Wave.

To be sure it was easy enough work, and it presented the challenge of roleplaying someone who was meek, as a mere 1st Lt should be to a Project Director. And she was good at that too, but in a way, that made her resentment chafe at her limitations all the more. There were times when she wished that she could simply reveal the extent of her knowledge of computers to someone offline, but she couldn't, not without risking everything. So she put on another face and tried to look on the bright side, though recently, it was becoming harder again.

She had been assigned to monitor those fighting against…she supposed that one could identify the current fighting as a real life example of the Cursed Wave. And once again, those called to action were mere Children fighting in a war they didn't choose or understand, a conflict that could tear them apart if they didn't support one another.

Again, why is it always the young who must fight our battles for us? In The World, and now here in the physical world as well?

That was an odd thing about her. Despite all the hacking that she had done, and the battles in an online world, she detested violence in this world. Why? She couldn't begin to say, though perhaps the fact that what she fought was rarely ever alive, and even if so, never bled or displayed gruesome images upon death. Very much unlike her first experience of battle, monitoring the synch ratio of another child as he went berserk, tearing his foe apart.

Through the malaise brought on by thoughts of war, she couldn't help but smile for a moment, a small thin smile that was real enough for now. How very much like Kite this one was in fighting to protect the ones he cared about, and yet like Tsukasa in wanting to run away. Torn between whether to stay and fight or to flee this ludicrous world. Frankly, she didn't blame him…this world was a terrible place in many ways, which is why Bith the Black did so much of her offline tasks for her. Unbeknownst to 'Bith', he worked alongside the Queen of the Dark, though maybe it wasn't as unknown to him as she may have thought.

We both have secrets, she mused, and yet we find ourselves sharing one very large one just by where we happen to work.

It had…surprised her to learn exactly who Bith was in real life, but no more than it would surprise him to learn who she was. After all, who would ever expect the imposing Helba to be a mousy haired brunette with a boyish haircut?

Sighing and putting all of this out of mind, Maya Ibuki came back to reality as the train reached her stop. She glanced around once, twice to make sure Section Two wasn't anywhere nearby, and then proceeded to head to her apartment. It never paid to be too cautious when one worked for the Bastard King, and one had a secret life that one intended to keep secret. A short walk later, she had reached her apartment, and after a quick sweep for bugs with a handheld wand, she proceeded to enter.

Inside was perhaps her two indulgences in life: a bookshelf of romance novels and a personal computer that was far ahead of almost any other in design and resources.

The operating system, firewall, almost everything about it had been customized until only the Magi could conceivably hack into it, well, the Magi or the Ultimate AI. She couldn't hold back one who was effectively a goddess of the Internet, after all, though that had not been a worry recently. Aura had disappeared, and that was more disquieting to her than anything else about this mess.

Doffing her jacket, she walked over to her work chair, easing herself into it and bringing the computer online with a touch of a button. Having waited obediently in standby mode for quite a while, it was almost…eager to get back to its self-appointed role. In her more critical and suspicious moments, she thought that perhaps in all her dealings with AIs, her computer was evolving a consciousness of its own. It wasn't unheard of…even memory fragments in The World had done the same.

The first thing she did download of The World: R2. It would take only a few minutes, and while she waited, she ran a few utilities that salvaged her character data. Aha! In a matter of seconds, the details were retrieved, and she looked upon her old PC…a statuesque blonde Wavemaster outfitted in a white dress with purple triangular designs and what resembled a matching queen's helm, hiding her eyes behind a red visor trimmed by gold. Oh, and lest anyone forget…level 99, and with all stats maxed out.

She would keep what she could, she supposed, and update the rest, since Wavemaster had ceased to be a class in this version of The World, and she didn't feel like attracting the attention of the administration quite this early on.

'Download complete' popped up on screen and Maya smirked in a way that few who knew her at work would recognize. It was time to play.

She quickly installed The World: R2, using one of her programs to pull from it what information she could. Max stats, levels, item information poured out of nothingness onto her display, and she chose what she wanted to be rather quickly, creating two characters, one with maxed level and stats that would remain dormant for now, and another for the foreseeable future. For the one she would be using to enjoy playing once again, she wanted something rather like her old class…

'The closest approximation would be…ah yes, a Harvest Cleric with…enhanced skills.'

She spliced together the skill data of all three casting classes, though the default appearance would be that of a Cleric. People had always needed the Wavemaster class for healing, and Maya suspected that R2 would not be very different. Once that was chosen, she loaded her former PC's appearance profile, merging it with her new character, wondering just how many people would remember her. Hopefully, no one would give her a second look, and with her carefully edited stats (just a point above the maximum possible for a beginner), and weapon (a staff that could possibly exceed the power of a Edge Punisher's blade in melee damage) she would be able to prove herself quite well on the battlefield.

Finally, Maya (or would Helba be more appropriate) typed in what would likely be her new alias: 'Tsukinoki', named for a certain type of tree she was fond of.

Once that was done, it was time for a visit to the past. She put on her headset and started up The World: R2, as reality faded away to reveal the broken down appearance of the Net Slums, which was now…being carried atop a tortoise.

'Tartarga has certainly been growing in the last few months, and this new release of The World likely finished the final step of evolution for him. It is different from what I remember, but…it is good as well. At least CC Corp was unable to touch the Net Slums.'

A low, resonant voice, wizened with age, spoke to her then in a voice that was strangely enough, a seeming whisper.

"Welcome again to Net Slum, Lady Helba, Queen of the Dark. You have…changed."

"Indeed. But I am called Tsukinoki now. The World changes, and I must change, too. Perhaps I should even call this Net Slums Tartarga, now, old friend, since my Root Town is riding upon your back."

There was a rumbling of what sounded like a pleased chuckle before the vast AI spoke once more:

"Perhaps, mi'lady."

A question came to mind, one that she was certain an AI might know a little more about than a human, no matter how skilled a hacker said human may be.

"Any news as to the whereabouts of Aura?"

"None, save for CC Corp's failures. So who is to be the shadowed one who quests for the Twilight Dragon?"

"We will see, old friend. We will see."

Tsukinoki turned and looked in the direction of the setting sun, whose rays were giving ground at last to the liminality of twilight, as a virtual wind picked up, rippling the hem of her dress. She smiled briefly for a moment, knowing that no matter how much had changed in this new World, it was good to be back. Not only her release from reality, it was also central to her preferred identity as well…closer to a home than anything else could ever be.

It was quite a while that she simply stood there, staff in hand, enjoying the view and the feel of the cool breeze upon her skin. The World's equivalent of Second Impact had passed, and it was time to rebuild, to explore new possibilities.

The Queen of the Dark looked up and smiled, calling out imperiously: "Δ Server, Eternal City Mac Anu!"

A golden spiral of light surrounded her and whisked her away to the place where all was once again beginning...