A/N: The first chapter was shorter than I actually expected. O_o Well, here's chapter two, because I can! Bwahaha. I disclaim any rights to .hack//SIGN, and I claim the rights to this story. So hah. Haha. Ha. On to the fic and such. _

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"I heard the conversation," said Subaru, coming within plain sight of the two.

BT and Bear exchanged solemn glances. The girl had already been in enough danger to last a lifetime, and putting her in something such as this would not allow both of them to sleep at night.

"Subaru.." BT began with her voice ridden with concern.

"No, don't say that this is a matter I cannot become involved in," Subaru interjected quickly. "This is a very, very dangerous situation, and it's not an in-World problem. A dear friend's actual life is on the line, and you need all the help you can get to try to save it. We have to do something, quickly."

"BT, why didn't you tell Crim?" Bear asked as Subaru's words wore off his shock and got the gears in his head whirring. "He should have been the first one you notified."

"What if he didn't believe me?" BT replied with a slightly frantic tone. Her stress level rapidly started to rise to an extremely high level. "It's not something you just pop to someone on the moment!"

"Crim has sense enough to know better than to think you're joking about such serious matters!"

"Bear... I thought it would have been better if we talked to him... outside of the game. You don't know where these guys may be, and simply talking about something such as this inside of a game as if we're discussing a weather is stupid!"

"Then why are we doing it now?" Subaru asked sharply. "Why are we just discussing? Why are we standing here talking about what we should have done instead of doing what must be done right now?"

"You can't just suddenly spring, 'Crim, I have to meet you outside of the world.' without launching into a long explaination! We have no time for that!" BT pointed out angrily.

"He trusts me! He trusts all of us, and we /have/ to tell him!" countered Subaru. Her eyebrows arched down further and further down her pinkening face. The aquamarine locks of hair that were brushed back around her face were now randomly spread over it, and her breathing quickened dramatically as if she had just ran a marathon. "We have to tell him," she repeated as calmly as her conscious would allow. "I will arrange a meeting. You two wait near your inboxes and hope. I guess it is sensible to tell him once we're outside The World.."

Bear nodded. "Do it quickly," he urged, imagining what those people may be plotting at the moment.

"I will," the girl said as golden rings encircled her form and carried her away.

"That girl," BT murmured, focusing cold eyes on the spot where Subaru was previously standing. "She..."

"...has matured a lot," her companion finished, placing a firm hand on the Wavemaster's shoulder. "BT, this is not the time to get angry with one another. It is a time for drastic action."

"You call waiting for mail drastic action?!"

"It's all we can do right now, I'm afraid." Weariness and worry embraced Bear as he stood there, sweeping his gaze around the temple. His train of thought raced faster than it ever had in his life, and he also had half the mind to bet on which one would win this race: the mind or the heart. "It's all we can do," he repeated quietly, squeezing BT's shoulder for the sake of her comfort... and his, as well.

---

The sapphire glow of a computer monitor illuminated a woman's face which was wet with flowing tears. Her body quaked as sobs and sorrow poured out of her. She felt absolutely helpless and hopeless; how could she possibly save a man she only knew from an online game? She had never seen him, and would much rather meet him under much, much happier circumstances, but now things were frantic. Subaru would be quick, but she felt that quick wasn't fast enough.

"If only I had real answers," the woman whispered, burying her head in her soaked sweater sleeves. "If someone could just tell me why this was going on, and why I'm suddenly involved in it. Why did I have to be the one to know this was happening?"

"It's alright," came the reply of Bear from her terminal. "It's alright.. just wait.. we can brave this through."

"You sound.. so unsure.."

"I can't help that I am."

"Do you know that the tiniest mistake, or failure to find Crim.. the real Crim.. can just take his life away..? Doesn't he have friends? Or a relative? Or a girlfriend? Or something? Why are we doing this? To help him? Why are we even going as far as trying to meet him outside of The World? We can just warn him and he'll leave his town, won't he? Is there a reason we always have to go that extra mile out of our way and land ourselves in trouble?"

The woman closed her eyes, refusing to hear Bear's mumbled reply. She removed her headset and dropped it onto the desk, then climbed off her chair and onto the floor. She then tried to fit herself as tightly as she could underneath her desk in a fetal position.

"Things aren't going right," she mumbled to herself in an attempt to block out Bear's calls. "I don't think they'll ever will, either...they never will..."

---

Subaru looked at Crim, worry creasing her face. "Please.. you have to.. you have to give me your phone number, Crim. I can't confide such matters to you in a virtual environment. It would be silly, and it would also be risky."

"It's just a game, isn't it?" interrupted Mimiru. She was trembling slightly, suddenly cold and revolted from the information she had just heard. "This is just a stupid game! If you can't talk about serious matters involving in the real world because it's just silly that way, then why would they talk about murdering Crim in the game?"

"I have no idea," Subaru admitted, bowing her head slightly to show she respected and agreed the Heavyblade's statement. "Maybe they don't see it that way. Nonetheless, Crim, I need you phone number and I need it now. I'll pass it along to Bear and BT, and - "

"Bear and BT are in this too?" Mimiru cried in disbelief.

"BT was the one who overheard the conversation, and Bear was the first person she told, " Subaru replied impatiently.

Crim's fearful, widening eyes darted between the two ladies. His churning stomach and melting brain couldn't digest this... it wasn't real, was it?

"Crim, I know you must be very, very scared right now, but you're not alone. We're all scared. But please, we can talk just a little of the shock away on the phone."

He looked at Subaru, who stood on either side of two Mimirus. The colors of their outfits mixed, making Mimiru seem as if she were clad in pink, and Subaru in a shocking bloodshot red.

Crim choked out an indistingushable noise. [Blood]... he thought, trembling vigorously at the thought of himself, drenched in...

"Crim!" the girls cried in unison, running forward to support his straggling body.

"It's done.. I've sent it to you, Subaru," he murmured. "Call when I regain consciousness.."

"Crim!"

---

A wicked grin, the flash of silver, and a blur of green all but gave away another player's position admist the rocks. It was amusing for him to watch them fret and writher in fear because of some stupid death threat that they failed to see was most likely fake if someone actually would mention it on an /online game/. It was also amusing to be up there, to know it all and to laugh at their ignorance when he slipped and swayed in his hiding place, trying hard to catch their attention. But /noooo/; Crim was their only current concern. Crim was only /Mimiru's/ current concern. And that really mad his blood boil.

"If he thinks he can get her member address, let alone her phone number, before I can even have a chance to pounce, he might as well fall dead. That is /my/ territory, and nobody should intrude. However.." Sora rested his hand against the cool feel of one of the blades. "Perhaps I should cut them some slack.. just this once? ... of course not."

The devious Twin Blade sprang up, placed his feet on the slope beside the mound of boulders and pushed his weight forward, surfing down the slant in a cloud of dust. "Yeehaw!" he called, letting his feet trip over another pile of boulders at the bottom just to push himself up with both hands and preform three flips in quick sucession in order to reach the group. When Sora's feet touched the ground, he wobbled slightly and fell forward on purpose to hang on Mimiru's arm which was moving quickly toward her sword.

"Agh!" she cried as Sora wrenched her other arm away from Crim and pulled them both together behind her back.

"Saaay uuuncleeeee," he taunted in a high-pitched voice, twisting the Heavyblade's hands together tightly. "Or I just might have to kiiiiiill you~! Speaking of killing, I heard Crim's going to finally kick the bucket. How does it feel, spending your last moments in fear?" he asked the unconscious man, a wicked gleam in his eye. "Passing out isn't a very good alternative to death."

"You ARE cold hearted monster! This is serious! VERY SERIOUS! And you want to /play/ and /kid/ at a time like THIS?!" screamed Mimiru.

"Hey, no skin off my nose." The Player Killer gripped Mimiru's hands with one hand to free the other, unsleathed one of his wrist blades, and swiftly sliced it through Crim's midsection. The data drain was a rather quick process; Mimiru and Subaru only had to bear the horror of seeing Crim's monochrome body slump forward and disintegrate for a few seconds.

"Now that he's not a distraction..." Sora's grin gleamed in the sun. "Let's have some fun."

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A/N: I have a feeling that people are going to kill me for making Sora so uncaring to a serious situation. However, I'm a LARGE Sora fan myself and.. well.. I have no idea why, but I needed SOMEONE not to care about this whole thing, and it's Sora I picked. I apologize in advance, but flames really won't help you nor me anyway. _ And, despite its length (it seems really long to me since I'm typing this in Notepad and I have a large font size on O_o), I'm really kicking myself in the head for this chapter. I didn't portray the fear everyone felt for Crim near well enough and I thought I just barely got off my writer's block, hence the overdose of crappiness. Oh, well.. review what you can. x_x;