Disclaimer: I don't own .Hack.

A/N: Sorry to all those who hate my last chapter and I promise to keep the romance stuff to a minimun, This fanfic is mostly action so don't give me bad reviews just because of that. That and if you feel my rating should put up to R then tell me and if I recieve enough reviews saying so, I will change it. I know my language used makes it borderline R-PG13.

Chapter 9: The Reality of Death

As Jasmine returned to Mac Anu from her "meeting" with Balmung, she noticed that none of her friends were around. She cursed them for having brought her away from her love. She mailed each of them saying that she would be waiting for them. It wasn't long after she sent the messages that everyone started to appear. When everyone got there they began to talk about the offer Helba had made to them.

"Hey Jasmine," Jon said," You sounded angry in you mail."

"Hey come one," Jasmine said," I wasn't that mean was I?"

"Let me rephrase it then," said David," 'I'm here because you all wanted me here, and none of you are here. Bet here soon or I'm going back to what I was doing.' That sounds a bit mean."

"So, I was busy anything wrong with that?"

"Busy with what," Lan asked.

"None of your guys' business."

"And she said she wasn't being mean," Kelly whispered to Jon.

"I'm not being mean, so what about Helba. Are we going to work for her or not?"

"No way," Kelly shouted," I say we never work for that woman."

"I agree with Kelly on this," Lan said," We just can't work for someone who is as mysterious as she is."

"But she's the only one who really knows anything about the bracelet and what it can do," Jon said.

"She may know what the bracelet can do, but we know someone else who knows a good amount about it," Kelly said.

"You mean Kite," David said, "but he relies on Helba to much as we'll need to eventually."

"Guess we're in a tie with Jasmine left to say what we do."

Lan knew what would get everyone to change their minds, "Lets not forget that Helba sent Balmung after us, or should I say she sent him to take out whoever came through the gate."

"Didn't think of that," Jon realized, "Helba could send us off on some mission to kill a player that she says is someone who is a problem and helping the virus but is really someone fighting it."

That changed everybody's mind about Helba and decided that they would not accept her offer to work for her. Jon contacted her and told her to meet them in Dun Lorieag. Jon and his friends sat in the root town of ' server for about two hours before the strange woman showed herself.

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting," Helba said.

"You did, you bitch," Jasmine shouted.

"My, what a temper on this one, you act just like that angel boy, Balmung."

"You used him to get to Kite, but instead got us, we won't let you use us the same way, you whore."

"That was an unfortunate turn of events, and for that, I apologize."

"We just came to say that we would never follow you because of your methods of contact and past actions," Kelly said.

"In other words, screw you bitch," Jasmine shouted.

"That is fine," Helba surprisingly calm afterward," I see you wish to find things out for yourselves, and I saw be here waiting for you, should you need help," she walked up to Jasmine, "And as for you, little dark angel, they say the dark angel will only bring about disaster to all that come in contact with her."

Helba floated into the air and vanished. Her remark got Jasmine thinking about what Helba could have meant. Had she meant that Jasmine would bring disaster to her friends, or did it mean that Helba knew about her and Balmung?

"Yo Jasmine," Jon snapped her out of her trance," What's with you, we're asking you about what we do now and how we're supposed to look for clues as to either Skieth or Aura."

"Why do you want to see Aura again," Jasmine asked.

"If we can't get answers from Helba about how these bracelets work, then we'll get them from the one who gave us the bracelet."

"I need to go," Kelly said," I'll search for anyone who knows anything about Aura. Bye-bi," her body disappeared behind gold rings.

"One thing we could do also is to help other players that are threatened by the virus," David said.

"That would get ours names out there and people on our side," Lan said.

"And someone we save might know something about Aura," Jon pointed out.

"I'll go check the board for any new posts about data bugs or Skieth," Jasmine left.

After about an hour Jasmine returned saying that there had been some attacks from a horned monster throughout the whole ' server. Jon called Kelly and told her that he and the others were going to start searching the whole server for Skieth. Jon and David searched one dungeon, while Jasmine and Lan searched another. Their searching was starting to prove useless because for about a two whole weeks, Kelly and her friends searched many dungeons throughout the ' server. Each dungeon proved to have nothing special in them except other players that told them they had either seen nothing or knew nothing more than they did. One month after the search had started, Jasmine got an email from someone she had helped saying that she had seen a figure resembling Skieth in the dungeon of Theta Frozen Deadly Devil. Jasmine called everyone and they meet at the field.

"What a field name for Skieth to be at," Kelly sounded a bit scared.

"Yeah the name describes his actions against everybody who he has encountered," David said.

"Do you guys think we stand a chance at beating him," Lan asked.

"We won't know unless we try to kill him," Jon said, "Lets head down to the dungeon."

They passed through the field and as soon as they entered the dungeon, an image of Skieth appeared in front of them and seemed to stare at them. It looked exactly like Skieth, but this one didn't attack them but just seemed to stare at Jon. As they reached the bottom of the dungeon everyone's bracelet started to glow brightly. They thought that the bracelet had sensed the bracelet that Skieth possessed. As everyone approached the purple haze, they checked their equipment to make sure they were ready for anything, be it data bug or Skieth. The next room made everybody like they weren't in the same dungeon anymore. It felt like they were transported to the next room, and everything was different than the dungeon they were in. They seemed to be on a floating island surrounded by patches of different scenery. As everyone got their bearings, they noticed that only one thing was there waiting for them. It was Skieth and he seemed to be staring at Jon and only Jon. He pointed his staff at the group then attacked with blinding speed. Before anyone could do anything, Skieth had closed in and slapped Lan with his wand. The attack left her nearly dead, and with her left arm broken.

"Jasmine stay back and heal everyone that needs to be," Jon yelled to her, "We need David and Kelly to cast their highest skills to weaken him."

"What will you be doing during this," Lan asked him.

"Once Skieth finds out who's hitting him with spells, he'll go after our mages. I stay and protect them."

"Alright, but I give no guarantees if he comes near me," Jasmine said.

David, Kelly, and Jon bunched up near the center of the battlefield, and the two wavemasters started casting spells. Skieths body burst into flames while skulls rained down on him. Lan rushed him and stuck Skieth in the head with her ax. The blade dug into one of Skieth's horns, but it didn't come off. Skieth retaliated by slamming his wand into the ground creating a shockwave effect, which severely damaged Lan. Skieth was about to deal the death blow to Lan when his body became a solid block of ice while tree branches converged around Skieth's body shattering the ice. Skieth glared at where the two mages were and teleported to them. As he appeared in front of them, he raised his wand, and as it came down it was stopped in mid-swing. Jon stopped the wand with his sword, and was using all his strength just to keep from being overpowered. He yelled at David and Kelly to run to a new spot on the map. Skieth broke away from the weapon deadlock and teleported to an empty spot of the field. He raised his wand above him and it started to glow. He then threw the wand into the center of the field. A red glow appeared underneath everybody and after about five second, the red glow became a flame pillar that enveloped each player. After the flames died down only Kelly, David, and Jasmine were left standing, and fairly damaged. David started reviving Lan and Jon while Jasmine attacked Skieth head on. As she got near him, a ring of light started emitting from Skieth's wrist. Jasmine instantly backed away from him, and yelled out something that no one else could hear. The ring of light became Skieth's bracelet and it started shooting out data drain attacks in all different directions. All of the attacks missed but put the fear of the data drain in everyone's mind. Skieth lowered his arm but the bracelet did not fade away, showing he could use data drain anytime he wanted. David finished reviving Lan and Jon, and Lan charged toward Skieth again, this hacking off the horn she hit last time. The large horn hit the floor and started melting into the floor. Skieth howled in pain from the attack and teleported away from anybody. When he reappeared his body was hit with a series of ice and darkness attacks that Kelly and David launched. Skieth raised his arm and fired a data drain straight at them. Both of the wavemaster barely dodged the attack, and quickly hit Skieth again with more spells.

"Everyone get out of here," Jon yelled, "Anyone that Skieth sees as a threat he'll use data drain on. I'll cover everybody's escape."

"What about you," Jasmine said, "We won't leave you to die here."

"Either you guys leave now, or we all die."

As Jon said this, Skieth raised his arm and fired another data drain attack at Kelly. She couldn't maneuver away from it and cringed in fear. After a few seconds, Kelly noticed that there was another scream other than her own. She opened her eyes to see that Jon had sacrificed himself for her. The data drain attack pierced through his body and started to sap Jon's strength. He yelled at her to go before Skieth could finish him off. Everyone was too shocked to move and just stared at the sight of their friend dying. Jon's bracelet began to glow brightly and moved in front of the data drain. It looked like the bracelet was absorbing the data drain, but since no one knew what the bracelet could do; it was anyone's guess as to what was happening. As the attack finished, Jon's body hit the floor and started to fade away. Before it completely faded, his body started to flicker in and out. Kelly and David tried to drag his body away before Skieth could finish to job, but it proved to be no use.

"He told us to run, and he just sacrificed himself for you Kelly," Jasmine said, "I say we do what he said and leave while we can."

"But he's not dead, he's still here," Lan protested, "his body isn't completely gone, so that means he's alive."

"Do you want to end up like him," David asked, "If not, then let's get out of here."

Before everyone left they noticed that Jon's sword lay near his body and Lan ran and took it. Skieth fired another data drain but his aim had gotten worse and the attack wasn't anywhere near anyone. They all looked back at Jon to see that, his body had disappeared behind golden rings. This showed that he had either logged out or escaped from the dungeon. Skieth looked up as Jon disappeared and with that everyone did. Helba had been floating in the air and her strange staff was glowing and the glow had faded as everyone saw her.

"Your friend should be fine, but I would take his advice and leave while you can," she said as she left from the field.

Everybody logged off and immediately mailed Jon to see if he was ok. There was no reply, so everyone decided to wait till school to see if he fine. The next day at school, Jon hadn't showed up, and everyone started to get worried. The next day, Jon was still gone and everyone decided to go to his house to check on him. As they got there, they noticed that something was off. Each of them had a strange feeling that something had happened. As they approached the front door, Jon's parents came to meet them.

"If you're here to see Jon, don't bother," said his dad.

"What do you mean," Jasmine asked.

"He hasn't been feeling well for the past couple of days."

"Is he asleep right now," Lan asked.

"Yeah, he's had a fever since Monday night."

"Ok, if he gets up, tell him we came by," Kelly said. While they walked away, "Do you think he's...?"

"He has to be another coma victim," Jasmine said.

"Tonight we find Helba and ask her what the hell happened and how we can help Jon," David said.

"But she said he would be fine," Kelly pointed out.

"That's why we need to see her. If she said he'd be fine but he's not we need to ask her why he isn't."

"She is the one who teleported him out of the field," Jasmine said," she should know what happened to him."

That night they met in Dun Lorieag. Lan took out Jon's sword and stuck it in the ground as a memorial to Jon. Kelly and David chanted a spell so that no one could remove it, as to prevent thieves from taking his sword. They took off to search once again for Helba. They were on a new mission though, this time it was not only to prevent others from suffering the same fate as Jon, but to rescue Jon from his comatose state.

A/N: I had to make it so that one character dies at the hand of Skieth so there it is. I finished this chapter faster than the others bc of chapter 8. Leave reviews and I will have chap 9 up by next Friday. LATES people.