Alley Drendo: Thank you for reviewing! Warped Aura scares me, too. Even though I created her. ^^;
Warnings: This chapter has excessive blood and is I guess a little weird. Beware the False Aura! Erm, slightly Serial Experiments Lain inspired. I think that deserves to have a warning too.
~*~
.hack//dawn
~*~Lies- A False World~*~
Kaori walked up the hill in front of her. For some reason she couldn't even begin to imagine her sprite ocarina wasn't working so she had to walk rather than warp to log out point. This morning when the sun started to rise she suddenly realized Yaoshii wasn't with her. 'He probably logged out sometime during the night' she thought.
She sighed and continued up the steep incline. "I wish I had a puchiguso, right now!" Kaori murmured bitterly. Eventually she reached the top of the hill and saw some users gathered around the Chaos Gate.
She raised her staff as if to log out. At first it seemed like she was exiting as the gold warp rings flowed around her body. Then it stopped and it was dark far as the eye could see.
~*~ Borderline- No More Twilight ~*~
Aura giggled as she looked at her new toy. She cooed, "Oh, your so much more fun compared to last one!"
Yaoshii was pinned to what appeared to be a giant black and purple candy-cane that stuck out of the walls of Aura's sick wonderland. "Da-DAMN YOU!" he yelled out before coughing up more blood.
Aura barely fluttered an eyelash. "You shouldn't use language like that around kiddies," her giggling became hysterical, "the naughty boy must be punished!"
A spike grew out quickly from the stalk and pierced Yaoshii's stomach straight through before quickly retreating into from which it came. The small girl let another small laugh escape her as the blood flowed from him. "The best part is when you die, you lose a little bit of you and get a little part of me!" She winked and disappeared. In Yaoshii's current state he didn't even her the girl much less comprehend her statement.
The ropes binding the boy loosened after she made her departure and Yaoshii slipped to the chessboard floor. Slowly he regained his feet. He staggered though the place looking for a return. A trail of blood marked his way.
~*~ Void- Error: No Data Found ~*~
Kaori wandered through the darkness. It seemed that no matter how much she walked there would never be an end, just an eternal void. 'It's as if I was trying to find the light at the end of the tunnel, the braided girl mused, 'Except according to Murphy's Law the light would be an oncoming train.'
As soon as this train of thought was completed a dim light shone through the place like a beacon. In the half-light a girl was clearly visible, the girl Kaori had seen in the winter world.
"Its you. The girl in the snow field." Kaori sounded a little shocked.
The small child nodded and smiled. Kaori ran towards the young character. Perhaps she knew a way out. The child reached out and touched Kaori's hand and warped out.
Kaori's memories became jumbled and the old memories that she hadn't bothered to make sense of fragmented and joined with others. Kaori appeared in a field on the Theta server.
~*~ Musings- Signs of Insanity ~*~
All things must change nothing can stay the same forever. Or so it has been said. A child who would never grow up and in a desperate attempt to stay the same fled. Fled to a fantasy world. The World changed and she did not. Eventually she changed but still refused to grow, what she strove to achieve, eternal childhood corrupted her. In the real world she died but she continued living in her world. After all how do you kill something that was never alive in the first place?
~*~ Borderline- No More Twilight ~*~
Yaoshii convulsed violently as something came forth from within himself. It was the Midnight Orb bestowed on him by Aura. The object seemed to liquidize itself and flowed silently into Yaoshii's wounds. The gaping wounds closed and became thin scars then disappeared all together. When Yaoshii's eyes reopened they were a shade darker.
The boy shook his head and warped out to the Delta server with Kaori's missing Sprite Ocarina.
~*~ Truth- Dreams of Reality ~*~
Hitoare shook her computer as on the monitor was the luminous words, 'Server Down. The World is ending.' The message clearly stated that the game she had grown to love so much was being deleted. After a final shake she shut down and restarted her computer. Most likely it was hackers again.
Still sitting in front of the terminal waiting for it to restart Hitoare contemplated the worlds shut down. She had heard rumors almost squashed down by the administrator and obscured by time. By no means was she a new player but the last time according to the bits she picked up was five years ago with Shuugo. That was most the extent of her knowledge besides remembering it had something to deal with an A.I. and illegal item.
She'd been playing about three years so by no means was she a newbie but she wasn't as advanced as the players of legend such as Balmung or Subaru. After the computer restarted she saw the ridiculous message was gone. She typed in her username and password and waited patiently for the computer to log her in.
'Username recognized. Welcome back Hitoare.' The computer told her in its oddly female mechanical voice. Not really paying attention Hitoare quickly decided to log in and scan the message boards later.
~*~ Lies a False World ~*~
Gold rings surrounded a player the sign that she had either warped or just logged in. The player was a Twin Blade and had her two blades fastened to her thighs. Dark blue spiky hair slightly less than shoulder length, a style similar to the player of Rena, a character she remembered seeing when she first started the game decorated her head. A black ribbon was tied around her forehead like a bandana keeping the bangs from her eyes. Her eyes were bright green and below her left eye on her cheek was a small blue marking a circle in the middle of a crucifix. Her pants were plain black with two loose belts around her waist a blade hanging from each of them. On the shoulder lay light iron armor decorated with sharp small spikes that covered the shoulders and nothing else. A light blue long sleeved shirt was the only upper body garment she had beside the armor.
Hitoare's eyes scanned her surroundings and then widened. The message on her screen before no longer seemed so ridiculous. The buildings of Carmina Gadelica were now just wreckage and twisted metal with various debris and the few standing buildings had gaping voids like half of the data had been ripped out. Monsters that she had never seen the like of before came crawling out of the void tearing up various things. Her head swung about wildly as she realized she was the only player here.
She started back up in fear forgetting that it was only a game as the controller was sweaty in her palms. She heard a soft 'aaa' sound as if it was warning her of something. Quickly she gated out of the server. Less than a second after that a building toppled down on the spot she had been standing just an instant before.
~
The twin blade character reappeared at the Sinking Distant Paradise Mushrooms on the Theta server. The field seemed to be untouched by what ever hit Carmina Gadelica. Silently she mused to herself that perhaps Dun Loriag's server really was protected by 'A Weaver Guardian'.
It was always dusk here, a field created by her knowledge of passwords. The forever slowly sinking sun had a few wispy clouds in the red orange skies and mushrooms giant mushrooms were scattered throughout. All the enemies here were beatable for her and she had little to worry about. Today the spot seemed even better than usuasal after seeing the Chaos of Carmina Gadelica.
~
Kaori stumbled along in the field she had found her self in. Not even bothering to sort through the confused state of mind she let thoughts, memories, and data alike flash through her head none with anymore priority than the other.
She could clearly see where she was but wasn't making much sense of it. She saw a figure in the distance. A fragment flashed through her mind. Yaoshii
She stood hesitating for a moment before her vision became clear and sharp. That wasn't Yaoshii through the mess she could figure out that from that sudden flash this figure was nothing like the boy who had found her. But it didn't matter there was something that wasn't changing.
Kaori walked on towards the girl she saw silhouetted against the sunset braid swinging behind her. She approached the range in which she could see the blue haired girl better. She was still there.
Kaori pushed away the jumble and began to focus. It didn't matter if she didn't know now. She could try and understand and find the one beacon that shone through her mind. Yaoshii.
~
A song echoed through Carmina Gadelica barely audible through the chaos and destruction.
~*~Noise- Whispers on the Wind~*~
From the other side of the chasm of Time
The last Message pierces darkness with light
Some warnings are never heeded
Like Invitations to a crazed future
The days are without order, it's way too late
The World is sighing and rumbles
The prophets pray that
Time will forget about us.
The End, The End, The End
In the beginning, we loved ourselves
In the beginning, we loved each other
Heart's scars stitched in marriage
Shred without warning, wicked blood spilling
In a shattered mind, emotions crumble
The earth is dying so to be reborn
Both reason and irrationality
And everything else swallowed away
The End, The End, The End
The earth is sighing and rumbles
The prophets pray that
Time will forget about us.
The End, The End, The End
-The End
Weiß Kreuz
~*~ Authors Notes ~*~
Sorry the chapters so late… ^^;