Disclaimer: See chapter 14

A/N: I finished chapters 19 and 20 sort of quickly cause I wan to end this fic soon. I've put unknown amount of hours into it and I want to see it done so I can start work on my other ones. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 19: Prelude to the End

"Data Drain," Jasmine yelled as she transformed the once unstoppable data bug back into a simple wyrm. She then slashed the beasts wings until crashed to the ground and died. She had been running around numerous fields, destoying all monsters in her path to get her mind off current developments. To her, it seemed that Jon hadn't told anyone else about her being invovled with Balmung and figured she should tell her other friends face to face before they found out. After Jon took off after getting that mail, Balmung logged out soon after along with Lan and Balmung hadn't been on-line since. She had mailed him many times but had yet to recieve any kind of reply. She had noticed more and more CCcorp. personal walking around the root town lately and thought that they were on alert by Lios' order. After she got tired off destroying monsters for one night, she returned to Mac Anu and was grabbed by two soldiers as soon as she stepped out of the gate, "What the hell are you two doing?"

"Just tell us what we want to know and you can be on your way," one of the soldiers said to her. She noticed the armor on them and knew they were part of the Cobalt Knights, "What's your screen name?"

"DarkAngel."

"This is the one who was with Balmung a while back isn't it," the other soldier asked his partner.

"Yeah, a female twin blade in black and blue. Sorry to bother you ma'am, we are on watch for a certain player. We have to search everyone who comes through this gate."

"Who is it, and what has he or she done?"

"All we know is about the player is that he or she is a heavy blade named Enigma. What that player has done is unknown to me, but it has been ordered by Lady Kamui that he be captured and brought to her."

"Thanks for the info. I'll tell you guys if I see him around," she turned around to re-enter the chaos gate but was held back the soldiers.

"May we ask where you'll be gating to?"

"Delta Frozen Silent Swordman. I heard there are powerful monsters there that give you quick level ups."

"I'm sorry but that area has been closed off by CCcorp. Sorry for the incovience."

"No problem," she walked away to the recorder and asked if Jon had come by there lately. The recorder shook his head, and she walked to the bridge and stared into the water. She mailed Jon to tell him about the knights standing guard at the chaos gate and to not use his screen name if he ran into them. She got no reply and wondered if he was still angry at her for the whole Balmung thing. She contacted Kelly and David to see if they were available. They came to her a few minutes later with slightly depressed looks.

"What's wrong you guys? Bad day at work," she chuckled trying to cheer them up," they told her about the situation at the hospital, "Damn, we can't get a hold of him here except through mail and he isn't responding. Those two guys at the gate said his field is closed off and we can't use our bracelets in front of them."

"How about one of us distract them and the other two go to the field," David suggested.

"It sounds someone nominated themselves to be the bait," Kelly laughed as she pushed David forward.

"Alright, I see where this is going," David brushed back his hair and took a deep breath as he ran back to the chaos gate.

"I'll make some fog so we can get by without the guards noticing us," Kelly said as she dipped her wand into the river and fog soon covered all of Mac Anu. As David walked up to the guards, Kelly and Jasmine began to sneak around them when they heard two screams. They looked down to see a large dark pool had formed.

"CB1ade, you idiot. When we said distract them, we didn't mean hurt them," Jasmine yelled out.

David walked up to them, "Well, at least we can break through the protection without anyone noticing and those two can't say who did this," both the girls shook their heads with a sigh as David walked up to the chaos gate and pulled out some virus cores into his bracelet and stepped through the gate. As they reached the snowy field, they noticed many things were different than before. The camp had been raided and completely destroyed, and there was little of who had done it. They noticed a small knife that had looked undamaged and stuck out of of the fire remains. They knew that was a signal that Jon had moved to one of the hideouts he made in the field. After they found where he was and noticed he was asleep, they wondered just how long he had been down there. They inspected him to see if he was alright being that his HP looked like it was completely gone. He laid there motionless, and without showing anysigns of life and Kelly began to fear the worst had happened. He then sat straight up clutching his chest and screaming in pain. His body twitched and cunvulsed like he was having a seisure, and screamed the entire time. They wondered what was wrong with him, and noticed that part of his legs were becoming distorted and started to dissolve.

"So this is what you meant Morganna," Jon shouted through his screams. His friends confused at what he was saying, "I refuse to die and let you win," his legs became whole again as he slouched over gasping for breath.

"Jon," Kelly inched toward him and gently grabbed his shoulder, "Are you okay?"

Still experiencing slight pain, he laid back down and stared into her eyes, "I honestly have know idea. I feel like I could be gone at any given second and have no idea why that is."

"I'm gonna go check something," David said as he logged out.

"How long have I been out?"

"Can't say, but Lios has made his move to get you," Jasmine relaying the info about the two guards in Mac Anu.

"Maybe you could stay in Theta server until you feel better," Kelly pouring healing drinks on him.

"It wouldn't help where I went. As long as I'm stuck here, Lios can find me anytime he wants," Jon having a depressed look on his face.

"You seem more down than normal. What's troubling you," the wavemaster asked caringly.

"Just wondering how I get out of this body and back to my own."

"We kill Skieth, that's how," Jasmine blurted out

"I did that already. That's what I left for when you brought Balmung here. Kite, Blackrose, and I defeated Skieth."

The two girls seemed shocked at what he had told them. They stared at him and he wasn't joking with them on this, "Then why are you still here," Kelly the first to react.

"I believe that is in the hands of Morganna, the so called 'mother of the world'," Jon told them about his battle with the heavy axewoman that looked like Subaru, "She may be the key to this while thing.

"So how do we get in contact with her," Jasmine asked him.

"I only know of one way, and that may be the wrong way to do this."

"Well, what is it?"

"Two of us fire Data Drains, at one another."

"Forget I asked."

Kelly smiled at him and laughed, "Why don't we do something to get your mind off of all of this?"

He smiled back at her, "What did you have in mind?"

"How about we three enter a tournament. I heard there is going to be one to celebrate the Lambda server re-opening."

"That cool, but I'm weaponless," Jon pulled out his shattered sword.

"No need to explain. We can get it repaired in Carmina Gadelica," Jasmine slapped him on the back as they helpped him out of the field. As they reached the city of perpetual night, Jon had regained most of his strength and could walk without any help. Kelly said she would go tell the recorder to enter them in the tournament and left Jasmine to help Jon get his sword fixed.

"You haven't told them about Balmung or you little 'modification', have you," Jon asked suavely.

"So what if I haven't," a black feather was in his hand, "You told me it was between us, so I've found no reason to tell them. How did you know I didn't tell them anything, anyways?"

"You were trying to hide them from Sakura just now, and I know it's between us. I haven't told a soul about you and Balmung, not like I can," he chuckled.

They took the broken sword to the blacksmith and he told them that he would have the sword in perfect condition within ten minutes and asked Jon to leave his screen name with him as well as a voice identification. Kelly ran up to them with a small paper in her hands, and a huge smile on her face.

"We'll be called when our match is ready by our team name," her smile hadn't faded one bit.

"I can only guess what our team name is too," Jasmine sighed.

"Team Naruto-chian," her and Jon sighed.

"No!!! I'm not that predictable you know, we're Team Konoha!!!"

"Close enough," both shouted at her.

"What's the prize for winning," Jon asked enthusiastically.

"First place team gets a preview copy of an expansion set to the world that has more character classes in it, and a weapon creation kit that's good for one weapon. Second place team gets a Golden Grunty for each team member and third get a rare item for each player," she informed them.

"I hope there some good classes in that expansion set," Jasmine squealed.

"I can replace my broken sword or make a similair one with a different element," Jon laughed, "You see any of our potential oppenents?"

"I think I saw Lina entering as well with CB1ade, and Blackrose with Kite and Mistral."

"Looks like this tournament will be interesting," Jon thought, and in the back of his mind he thought maybe a little too interesting.

Chapter 19 End