A/N: Eek! Dramatic gap between last update and this update. This sucks, man. Sorry about that...but I'll try and make this chapter long for people who want to stab me.

In this chapter...meet Kite. Average Twin Blade with the magical Bracelet...I like his clothes. They're of a very blinding color. And he's going to be one of the central characters in the remainder of the plot! We love Kite. (I'm also trying to squeeze in a bit of BR/K, simply because I love that pairing. HAHAHA!) I don't plan on making this story far too epic, so I'm still considering a lot of possibilities--let Bear and Tsukasa travel with Kite and friends, or have them watch Sora until they know Kite's fulfilled his mission?

I modeled most of Tsukasa/Annako's personality to fit the antisocial butt he is at the beginning of the series to prove a level of insecurity among strangers...

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Konyo of Dusk does not own .hack or related things... Damn you!

^*^

Chapter 10: Trial By Introduction

Everything that you could never say
Would never matter anyway
I took a hammer and two nails to my eardrums long ago
Before that steak knife took my eyes
I looked up to the sky
For the last thing I would ever see
For the last time I'd cry
Mr. Chainsaw - Alkaline Trio

^*^

Kite logged on to his usual Root Town, expecting to find BlackRose patiently waiting with her blade hoisted over her right shoulder. Instead, he was greeted by a larger crowd then he had expected--namely, a guy who looked a lot like Yasuhiko's character, a guy whose character design faintly resembled Elk's, and...Balmung of the Azure Sky.

Needless to say, Kite was very confused, because as soon as he appeared with his daggers at hand, they all started staring at him. Being a dispassionate hero, this act didn't cease to slightly frighten him.

His eyes swept about the scene for a moment, absorbing all he could, and finally they rested upon a sight slightly more comforting. As inconspicuously as possible--which wasn't very possible at all--he edged to BlackRose, glancing around nervously at the expectant bystanders. He leaned his head towards her ear and whispered weakly: "Uh...what's going on?"

She bit back a giggle, but maintained a semi-solemn disposition. She extended her arm to indicate the gray-and-tan-clad Wavemaster and the blue-painted Blademaster. "Err...they need your help."

"Why?"

BlackRose sighed, rubbing her palm against her forehead in exasperation. "Because you have the Bracelet and know just a little bit about Morganna..." She trailed off, making a slight gesture to prove her point.

"Ah. ...Oh." Kite paused and turned to the group, examining each in turn.

The white-haired Wavemaster scoffed and leaned on his staff, closing his eyes in exasperation. "He looks and sounds kinda dumb, if you ask me..."

"What was that!?" Kite snapped.

For a moment, there was a moment of silence; the air was hung with invisible death threats. Simultaneously, they opened their mouths to say something, but immediately, Bear chose to cut in--a wise decision in his part. "Now isn't the time," he said with a slight frown, "Annako. Remember why we mailed Balmung in the first place...?"

Kite frowned slightly at the name and was about to make a cynical comment on it--at least, until BlackRose elbowed him sharply in the side. "Ow," he complained, glaring sideways at his female companion.

Bear cleared his throat, ignoring his foster daughter's sardonic character. "Kite," he addressed the Twin Blade, subconsciously staring at his wrists as if expecting the bracelet to magically appear in his eyesight, "an AI called Morganna placed...my son...in a coma. He woke up recently and has no memories..."

"And he's calling her 'mother,'" Tsukasa piped in bitterly. "She's a voice in his damn head."

"...long story short, we think that if we were to help eliminate Morganna from the gaming environment, then Sora will be safe from harm and he may or may not regain his memories."

BlackRose scoffed. "Easier said then done, old man."

Tsukasa suddenly reached downward and scooped up Kite's hand, fingers articulately tracing an unseen barrier. "So this is the bracelet," he murmured, occasionally flicking it now and then. Eyes flickered towards what only Tsukasa could see; eyebrows quirked quizzically, but BlackRose took the more unimpressed approach, and Bear, the silent. "Right, whatever," the Wavemaster said quickly, dropping Kite's hand. "He's the one. So what do we do now?" he asked--pointedly at Bear.

Bear paused--apparently, he hadn't drawn up any brilliant plans beforehand. Then, he simply said: "We help them any way we can."

Tsukasa snorted. "How will that help Sora?"

"Do you have any better ideas!?"

The Wavemaster didn't respond. Bear forced a smile, apparently not very happy but still maintaining a bit of his courtesy. "I'd like you to take our member addresses..." he said slowly. "Er...we'd like to hear about anything related to Morganna. We don't want to be a burden," he added quickly, tilting his sword so it leaned against his thigh and cracking his knuckles. Tsukasa knew his foster father well enough to know that was something Bear did only when he was...ah...suffering, from discomfiture.

Kite blinked, and then frowned slightly, tucking his blades in a place unseen--one of the many disputable topics in The World. "I know your Sora," he said stiffly, eyeing Tsukasa and resurrecting his statement from memory. Bear brightened. "Crucified on Skeith's staff. I helped him, but...he wasn't who I was expecting." A downcast tone; Kite's eyes seemed drawn to the ground.

Skeith. Morganna. Tsukasa's head swiveled around for a moment.

^*^

Sora awoke with a jolt as he tumbled out of his bed, tangled in thick sheets and enveloped in perspiration. Beneath the warm quilts, he scrubbed his face with the blanket, and frowned, discarding the object upon noting how damp it became. He had a dream; no, a nightmare. Wrists and ankles and neck pinned to a red cross, the knifelike sides cutting into his skin; the more he struggled, the deeper the cuts became, and the harder to it he was fastened.

The staff was wielded like a Wavemaster would swing it about, and whereas some joints were firmly attached, the rest of his body remained limp; his spine felt the burden of gravity, and when the staff was held horizontally, his arms would ache and his back would crunch sporadically...

It was only a dream, Sora.

"I know, I know," he grunted in frustration, pushing himself off the ground. Not quite unconsciously, he rubbed at his wrists, where dents like thin lines lay askew.

He glanced at them, and held up his arm at eye level. He flopped back onto bed and pulled up his tattered pant leg--the same marks were there. Hell, they had gone through a visible cauterization process. With a mumbled swear and a slight crack from his thigh, he pulled his ankle to eye level.

"Is this a dream, too?" he whispered softly. "What is happening to me? And these scars...

"These aren't dreams," he confirmed, louder this time to ensure that his mother could hear. "What is happening to me?" he echoed.

Nothing is happening to you, she said strongly, a faint pricking sound in the back of his mind fortifying her statement. You are fine; you always have been fine, and content with your life.

"What life?" he ventured absently. "What is there beyond what you have told me?"

There is nothingness.

"I thought you would say that," Sora said quietly, trudging to the computer room from where he could hear the scattered voices of Ryo Sakuma and Annako. "You're becoming predictable, mother," he murmured acidly, using the wall as a support for his somewhat frail body. I cannot be used forever, he told her, mentally this time; his self-awareness was like beseeched moonlight, and he frantically grasped at it--it would only slip through his fingers, and then gradually return. It slipped again as his head drew backwards; a flash of pain announced itself in his mind. Mother's "warning tone". Sorry...old lady.

He smiled to himself; a Cheshire cat smile.