hack/Afterwards

Rated: PG-13

By: NeoMoon

Part Three:

"Hurry!" A20 screamed, through the private voice message she sent Krim, then looked back up, to see that he and the once

leader of the Crimson Knights, raced toward her. She grinned, they'd make, and hopefully the toy that Krim had given her

would work.

They were only about a hundred yards away, when she took the small glowing diamond out of her pocket, and threw it into the

air. Helba, she thought as she watched the small diamond rise high higher. This had better work.

She turned away from the diamond, back toward Krim, and Subaru, saw that the ghostly white woman, was gaining. She had no

clue who, or what the woman was, she only knew that she was trouble, she'd heard rumors in the root towns about what happened

to people that had seen the woman, and . . . A20 shook her head, enough of that, she wouldn't think of it, right now, she

needed to get that damn Hacker Gate to work.

Behind her a flash of purple light exploded from the diamond as it fell back to the earth, A20 turned and watched as the gate

appeared. She smiled, and looked back at Krim and Subaru. "Hurry up!" She screamed at them, just as the gate pulled her

in.

* * * *



Tsukasa looked at the computer station through the darkness of Mimiru's room. Behind her Mimiru slept peacefully.

Tsukasa had been surprised by the easy banter between mother and daughter, back home she would never get away with talking

like; back home she always had to watch herself, everything was suspect, her clothes, her music, her grades. If something

didn't fit into her father's definition of correct behavior for a teenage girl, it often didn't stay that way for long

everything, had to fit the definition.

Tsukasa shook her head, and looked back at Mimiru, the girl slept so peacefully, she barely, moved, it would be so

easy for her to make her bed in the morning. Tsukasa smiled, she wished she could sleep easy, but when she slept she

remembered things both from the real world, and "The World". She sighed, "The World" had once been her home, sometimes,

even with the painfully memories she still felt that it was home.

Slowly Tsukasa crawled over to the computer station, making sure she made no sound as she booted up her friend's computer,

and slipped the headset on.

* * * *

Mimiru's mother sighed as she walked past her daughter's room, and heard the soft clicking of the keyboard. It was

so late, the both girls had school in the morning, how could she stay up and get on that stupid game. She sighed again and

shook her head, she swore that if it wasn't for her meddling her daughter wouldn't do anything but play that game, and after

that escapade six months ago, she wondered if maybe she shouldn't just throw that stupid computer away, people really didn't

need them, she survived quite well during the so called "Twilight of the Gods."

With another sigh she started toward her room, vowing not to let her daughter turn into the delinquent that game had

made her. After all what right minded child would skip a week of school for a game?

* * * *

Kevin Matherson, was an award winning writer, and most people assumed that being a bestseller, meant a live of ease,

being able to write whatever came to mind, whenever he wanted. If only they knew, the days of the true writer were dead, the

publisher ran the show now, they told you the limits of what you could write, they gave you work tables, and schedules. He

couldn't just one day say: Oh well I'm taking a week off! Because his publisher would be furious and would have dropped

him. Sometimes, he even blamed his publishing house for his personal problems. In the end though, he knew he could have

walked away at anytime, could have gotten a normal job, or even a position at a collage as a Writing Professor, hell he had a

Ph d in Journalism, and Creative writing.

He shook his head, he shouldn't be thinking of stuff like that now, it made no difference, he'd told time that he was

planning to retire after his next novel, the conclusion and compilation of a group of short stories he'd started writing six

months ago about a girl stuck in a digital world. After that he'd be free, and the royalties he received from the continued

sale of his books would keep him well above the Poverty Line, and with all the free time he would have, he'd be able to

finally do the one thing he'd never had the chance to do before, watch a child grow. That is, if he could get custody of

that child.

"Mr. Matherson?"

Kevin looked up, at the young, very beautiful secretary of his lawyer. He couldn't help smile as he followed her

into the large office of his lawyer. He knew Matt well, they went to collage together, before Matt decide to go into law,

and he knew one thing, this woman was a little more then a mere secretary. Kevin couldn't help but wonder how much extra

Matt was paying her.

"Linda, you can leave." Matt O'Connell said as he stood from his desk, and walked over to Kevin with an outstretched

hand. "Kev, ol' buddy!" Matt continued with a giant smile, as he grasped Kevin's hand. "That old bag's not asking for more

money is she?"

Kevin smiled, of course Matt would think that, besides the time he had a small problem with his publisher he'd never

come to Matt for anything but his Ex-wife. "No not this time."

Matt sighed and visibly slumped over. "Thank God!" He breathed. "I thought I'd have to deal with that demoness of

a lawyer she's got."

Kevin couldn't help but laugh at his friend's relieve, it was quite true that his Ex's lawyer was known to be the

biggest, most evil bitch in the entire history of lawyers. "No, not this time. I'm thinking of adopting."

Matt gave him a shocked wide eyed gaze. "Dude, you're over forty! Your not even married anymore, it's gonna be hard

as all frigging hell to adopt some orphan."

Kevin waved over to his old friend's desk. "Take a seat; it gets a whole lot better then this."

Matt raised an eyebrow, then gave his best I'm game smile. "This is gonna fun, ain't it?"

Kevin only smiled, as he walked over to the overly stuffed leather arm chair on the guest side of the desk. "Oh

yeah, lots of fun."

* * * *

It was night in the Delta Server's Root town of Mac Anu; the streets were crowded, with shoppers, and just people

hanging out. Tsukasa stood alone, leaning against one of the many bridges that crossed the canals, watching the gondolas

make their way from place to place. Tsukasa smiled, as she watched them. She used to do this for hours before the voice,

before she got stuck in the game, before everything. It was good to be able to just sit here again, not having to worry

about anything.

"You know, next time, ask."

Tsukasa turned around to see Mimiru leaning against the railing of the bridge, looking down at her with a large

smile. "How did you . . . " Tsukasa began. "I mean, I didn't even hear you."

Mimiru's smile grew, as she dropped down and sat next to Tsukasa, and threw her arm around the other girl's shoulder.

"My mom hates me playing "The World," so I learned to be really quiet when logging on." She smiled, and lifted her hand to

rustle Tsukasa's hair. "You type too loud."

Tsukasa couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her throat. "Hmmm, guess I'm getting rusty." Both girls began to

laugh.

Doing her best to catch her breath, Tsukasa stood, up, and looked up the street toward the town gate. "Hey you want

to go on a little dungeon crawl?"

Mimiru looked up at her and cracked her knuckles as she stood. "Sounds fun." She said as she picked up her sword,

and flung it over her shoulder. "Where do you want to go?"

Tsukasa closed her eyes. "The plains."

* * * *

Subaru breathed heavily, as she leaned her head against the wall of the cathedral. "Oh god." She choked out, and

closed her eyes. "I've never run that fast in my life." She turned around and leaned her against the cold stone of the

wall. "Just, what the hell was that thing?" She asked, and looked over at Krim who was standing over A20 who was lying

still on the alter. "Is she alright?"

Krim looked up at her and shook his head. "She was the last through the Hacker Gate." He growled and slammed his

fist against the table, just inches from A20's head. "Damn it, I told her to go first!"

Subaru pushed off the wall, and walked over to Krim, wrapping her arm around his, and forced him to look down at her.

"Listen, it wasn't your fault Krim, we couldn't have known it would have happened." Krim looked away from her, and she

lifted her hand to his chin, and forced him to look back at him. "Listen to me! We thought it was over with. We thought

that waking Aura would free Tsukasa and end all the weirdness that has taken root in "The World," but it hasn't and now we

got to stop it." She looked deep into his eyes. "You say this is a game, but then you say it's affecting the real world, we

need to find the truth because of this."

Krim forced her hand away and looked down at A20. "We haven't seen or heard anything from Sora in months, and now

A20 a girl that was a friend of Mimiru is lying here, no healing potion or antidote is working, I have no clue if she's

really alive in "The World" or the real world." He looked back at Subaru. "I can't blame myself for anything that happened

to Sora, but I invited A20 along, if anything were to happen to her in the real world because of me, I wouldn't know what I'd

do!"

"To . . .loud."

Subaru's eyes grew loud, as did Krim as she noticed. "What?" They both screamed at the same time, and looked down

to see A20 wincing up at them. With a groan the girl rose up on her elbows and looked around the cathedral, then looked up

at Subaru, and Krim.

"What happened?" She asked as she ran her hand through her hair. "Last thing I remember is you two running toward

the gate, then nothing." She groaned and sat up. "I thought I got sucked though."

Subaru looked down at her, a dumbfounded expression on her face. "What do mean? You were still standing there when

we ran through."

* * * *

Kevin sighed deeply as he looked at the mess that had become Matt's desk. This was going to be hard, very, very

hard. "God!" He moaned as he stood and walked over to the wall length window that looked out over Chicago, and watched the

sun set over city. It was amazing, as it always was, but even this did not ease him tonight. "What now?" He asked the

world on the other side of the glass as he ran his hand through his graying black hair. "What do I do now, I can't leave her

there."

From behind him he could hear Matt lay down one of his think law books on the oaken desk then walk over to join him,

resting a hand on his shoulder. "Are you so what you know is true?" He asked quietly, staring out into the city as he

spoke. "Are you sure this girl is in that kind of situation?"

Kevin let out a deep breath, and closed his eyes. "Yes." He whispered with a nod. "I know it's the truth."

Matt tightened his grip on Kevin's shoulder reassuringly. "Alright then." Matt said, almost sounding happy. "Looks

like I get to do my Pro Bono of the year."

Kevin opened his eyes and looked over at his old friend. "What?!"

Matt shrugged. "Hey, I hate people that hit kids." He looked back at his desk, and smiled. "Looks like we got a

lot of work to do," he sighed and walked over to his desk, and hit the intercom. "Linda, hope you ain't doing anything for

the next for months." He looked back over at Kevin and smiled. "Its time to earn your pay."

* * * *

"Duck!" Tsukasa screamed, as she extended her staff, and a bolt of lighting streaked across the room, hitting the

large harpy that Mimiru had cornered against a wall.

Mimiru ducked and rolled, away, finishing as she jumped out of her roll and landed behind the tiny shaman monster and

sweeping downwards cutting the monster diagonally. The creature started to gray and fall over, dissolving into energy as it

did. A second later Tsukasa and Mimiru stood alone in the corridor of the large underground tomb they had stumped across.

Mimiru smiled at her friend as they leaned against a cool stone wall and took a break. "You injured?" She asked as

she turned to look down the dark corridor.

Tsukasa shook her head. "You? I got a few Health Drinks left."

Mimiru shook her head. "What's the map say, I turned mine off?"

"Two floors to go, I wonder what's down there?"

"Well," Mimiru said as she pushed off the wall. "We'll never know unless we go."

Tsukasa nodded, and started to push off the wall when she felt movement down the darkened end of the corridor.

"Mimiru, stop."

Mimiru stopped mid-step and looked back at Tsukasa. "What?"

As if to answer her question the corridor suddenly filled with bright almost supernatural light, making Tsukasa

squint to make out the figure that walked toward them. "You." She whispered.

"That's right." Helba said with a smile. "Me."

* * * *

It was almost midnight, when Kevin unlocked the door to his large apartment, and stepped into its darkness. He

slowly made his way down the large dark hall, letting his keys and baseball cap fall onto a small table with was the hall's

only adornment. Stifling a yawn, he walked into the only room in the apartment with light, and flopped down on the large

leather stuffed office chair and reached over to his stand grabbing the headset that was still lit. He really needed to

remember to turn that off. Slowly he slid the headset over his head, and typed in the command code for the game.

"Username." The computer promoted

Kevin smiled, and began to type: Bear.

End .hack/Afterwards Part Three

Author Notes:

Good news! I finally got the first game. This means I have a slightly less chance of really screwing up. Anyway I hope you

all like this chapter; I've been spending a lot of time looking over online Law textbooks, trying to figure out how to do

this whole battle over Tsukasa realistic. In the end though I might wing it, it's hard to find free collage level textbooks

online when you don't know how. Anyway, I do really hope you all like it 'cause I'm trying my best here, the .hack character

– especially Tsukasa – are a lot more complex then most characters I've dealt with in my Sailor Moon, and Metal Gear Fic, so

its hard to get the right feel from them.

Well:

Peace out ^_^*

NeoMoon!