Disclaimer: I don't own .Hack. Don't sue me for the people I use in this fic.
A/N: I know the little explanation for the coma victims in the games I made was a little wierd and has some holes to it. I have it explained a little more and clear up some holes that I saw in the theory but they are explained in later chapters. Enjoy what I have here.
Chapter 11: Angels and Thorns
Kelly, Lan, David, and Jasmine talked it over about whether they should follow Lios' demands. Unfortunately, they had no choice but to accept his demands because they would be unable to log out without putting themselves into comas.
"What do you want then," Kelly asked reluctantly.
"You will work for CCcorp. By helping us eradicate the virus, under my orders," Lios descended down toward Kelly and her friends.
"What would be different about working for you than doing that on our own?"
"For one thing, you have no choice but work for us. Another difference is that you will be given back up, should you need it. You will follow my orders exactly, and you not, will by any means, do anything other than those orders. Failure to follow my orders will lead to the deletion."
"So basically we become your hit men," Jasmine said.
"In layman's terms, yes. You'll be happy to know that we have many operatives and they will accompany you from time to time. This includes Balmung of the Azure Sky."
"Why would Balmung ever work for you?"
"Because he has the same goal as we do and he needed help. So we offered him some in exchange for his services."
"Ok, we'll work for you, can we leave now," Kelly said, "I personally need to get to sleep."
"Very well, I shall allow you to leave. I will contact you through email with your first assignment tomorrow afternoon."
"Fine then," Kelly turned and started to leave.
"By the way," Lios called them back, "Since you'll be working for us, we will keep a constant look-out on your activities here in "The World". Keep in mind also that since you'll be working for us that you should not associate yourselves with anyone who commits illegal activity."
"I see you have already been keeping a look out on us already for you to say that."
"Yes, and we monitored you because you have those bracelets. Just be sure to stay away from any hackers you may know," and with that Lios disappeared.
"Great, not only do we have to Skieth and Helba to worry about, now were working for this lunatic," David said.
"I only told him that we work for him so that we could get out of here, not because I actually want to work for him."
Everybody logged out and rested without looking at anything else that night. The next day, Jasmine looked at the message boards for any new threads regarding Skieth. One thread that caught her eye was titled "Mystery Sword in Dun Lorieag". She opened it to see that the thread was about the memorial she helped set in place for Jon, and players were wondering why they couldn't remove the sword and take it for themselves. She posted other players warning them not to touch that sword because it belonged to Jon and that when he got back he would come looking for that sword. She also added that it would be useless for anyone for anyone to even try taking it because her friends had set a lot of protection and only he knew the password to unseal it. She decided to check if the sword was fine, being that so many players have been trying to take it. When she got there, many people were lined up in front of the sword while some tried pulling out the sword while others tried hacking through the seal set in place. Jasmine ran through everyone and stood in front of the sword.
"Anyone who wants to try and take this sword has to go through me to get it," she shouted out to the entire group.
"Why do you care if we take it or not," shouted one player, "It's not like you can use it anyway."
"I'm a friend of the owner of this sword, and I won't allow anyone to take it."
"I won't either," said a familiar voice from out of the crowd. Kelly pushed her way through and stood next to Jasmine, "No will take this sword and we'll defend it to our last breath."
Many of the players started to leave, losing interest in the sword and figuring that Jasmine and Kelly were taking this too far. The ones that stayed started to take an aggressive attitude toward them and brandished their weapons. One particular player pushed her way through the others.
"Everywhere I go, and everything I do anymore, I keep running into you bastards," yelled Blackrose.
"You again, why would you want this sword, bitch," Jasmine snapped.
"I want it because I need a new sword and that one belonged to your buddy Enigma and he was the winner of that tournament he knocked me out of."
"So this is your form of revenge against him for beating you in a simple tournament," Kelly asked.
"Your damned right this is revenge, but this is also because I can't go anywhere without hearing about you guys," Blackrose charged at Jasmine.
Jasmine avoided the attack easily and looked toward Kelly, "Create a barrier so that she and I are alone."
Kelly backed up and called forth a blizzard to the area. Large layers of ice formed to seal Jasmine and Blackrose inside with all others stuck inside in ice because they tried to rush in or outside the ice walls. The sword stood between Jasmine and Blackrose in the center of the make-shift arena. Jasmine had unsheathed her swords and waited for Blackrose to charge her again. Blackrose lifted her sword high into the air and charged as fast as she could. As she got close to Jasmine, Jasmine rolled to the side and sliced Blackrose in her left thigh. Blackrose barely registering the pain turned and attempted to knock out Jasmine with one stroke. The giant swing missed as Jasmine jumped backward and readied herself to strike. Jasmine tried slicing Blackrose with her left blade only for it to be held back by Blackrose's sword. When Jasmine tried the right blade, Blackrose grabbed and held Jasmine's wrist keeping the blade from reaching her. They each struggled to overpower the other, but neither gaining much of an advantage. Blackrose took this chance and kicked Jasmine hard in the stomach, which made her start to fall backward. Blackrose seized the chance and quickly slashed at Jasmine. The blade hit Jasmine in her stomach leaving a large wound, and Jasmine held it in extreme pain. She thought to herself why the hit hurt so much compared to wounds she suffered before. She even felt the pain from her real body only to discover that her real body was in pain but, no marks. She then remembered what Lios had said about the connection the game made. She figured that if she didn't want to take anymore hits, she would have to use her speed and not her power to beat Blackrose. Outside the ice walls, many players were trying to climb the walls and attempt to take the sword while Jasmine and Blackrose were busy. Kelly saw this and started setting all those who tried ablaze and killing those players. She felt bad doing it, but she knew it had to be done, since they would only cause Jasmine more problems and she had her hands full with Blackrose. As she was about to finish the last player from getting over the wall, she froze as she saw the player's face. She only hoped that is wasn't who she thought it was, and would be hurt during the fight inside.
"I finally have the chance to beat your ass after all the crap I took from you," Blackrose snickered.
"I don't need them to take care of you, you retarded ho," Jasmine motioned her hands and suddenly made copies of herself, "I only need more of myself to quickly kill."
"What the hell is this, this can't be right. There's no way there can be more of you."
Blackrose had become surrounded by the clones and they started attacking her, one by one. Blackrose held off about four before they started to get hits by her, but they were minor attacks that slowly chipped away at her health. Jasmine stood back and watched as her clones did the work for her. Blackrose killed the last of the clones, but she was left drained and barely able to stand. She balanced herself on her sword and slowly walked toward Jasmine.
"What's the problem, did you wear yourself out before we could fight some more," Jasmine laughed at Blackrose.
"Bitch," Blackrose yelled, "all you 'did' was make copies of yourself. 'You' really didn't do anything."
"Maybe, but none the less, you will die by my blade today."
Jasmine ran straight toward Blackrose, and the heavy blade got herself ready to try and counter attack. As Jasmine got close enough, Blackrose made a desperate swing at Jasmine only to see the blade pass through her as Jasmine body seemed to fade away. The next moment, Jasmine was behind her with her swords on her neck, one in the front, and one on the back.
"Just finish me off quickly and don't gloat about it," Blackrose sighed and accepted her defeat.
"Just leave here now, and don't try to take this sword again," Jasmine warned her again.
"Just one thing before you kill me, why is your buddy Enigma not carrying that sword anyway."
"If you have to know, he was put into a coma by Skieth about a week ago, and this is a memorial to him."
"So that's why you guys guarded it with your life. Balmung said something about how more players, and better ones were being attacked by that monster."
"And with that last bit of information, you die just because you piss me off bitch," Jasmine crossed the blades, severing Blackrose's head.
Jasmine walked toward the edge of the ice wall and told Kelly to let her out. Kelly burned away a section of the wall so that Jasmine could get out.
"Damn Kelly," Jasmine saw all the charred bodies around the wall, "What's with all the bodies burning here?"
"I kept people from climbing over the wall so that you could take care of Blackrose," she replied.
"Maybe setting them all on fire was a bit much."
"Uhhh… not all of them."
"What you talking about Kelly?"
"One guy got over before I could get him, but for some reason I just couldn't do it."
"Why is that, you ran out of SP and recovery items or what?"
"No. The guy looked a lot like Jon, but different somehow."
"I didn't notice anyone else in there with me, but I could have just not noticed him. What do you mean that the guy looked like Jon?"
"He turned to look at me, and at first glance I could have sworn it was him."
"Your paranoid Kelly, there is no way that he could be here. He's in a coma and there is no way he can be here."
"I guess your right; I've been a little on edge lately because of Lios and other things happening."
"Yeah, the whole Lios, Jon situations, and school has been stressful," a chime rang,
"Oh that's for me, I'll see you guys later at school."
Jasmine disappeared behind the gold rings and Kelly was left alone. She decided to check out something that the one player wasn't who she thought it was. She walked through the whole arena she made in the wall and looked toward the memorial. To her surprise, the sword was missing and there seemed to be something in its place. She ran to the place where the sword used to be and noticed it was a note. The note said that whoever helped keep the sword safe, the player thanked, and signed in anonymous. Kelly knew that only one person could take that sword from where it used to be, and the thing that caught her eye the most is the way that the person signed it. She mailed everyone what she saw and told them about the note that had been left for them.
Chapter 11 End
Serious A/N: About the violence I put in my chapters, please don't report me cause I don't feel I'm out of line. If it is then write me and when enough people say so, I will change the rating. I'm just trying to make a good fanfic and if I cross the line between PG14 and R then I'm sorry. I don't want my account taken away because someone felt offended by what I write. Be done with next chap by next Sunday unless plans come up. LATES.
