This is the last chapter. The ending to the story. Will Tsukasa escape? Will this work out? Everything ends in this chapter. Have fun reading!

Vaccine

Tsukasa's hand was numb. His forehead was drenched with sweat. It wasn't that it was hot; it was the fact that he couldn't see.

Tsukasa had pushed open the door leading out into what looked like a hallway. It was plain, and ordinary at first glance, but Tsukasa realized his first assumption had been blinded by the need to escape. The hallway was actually very fancy, and it looked like a large amount of money had been pissed away on decorating it.

Elegant curtains hung every few feet on the sides of the walls, and in between every other set was what looked like solid gold end tables with highly sophisticated lamps on them. Between the others was a shrubby looking plant growing out of an aqua colored pot with purple bottoms. Every other curtain or so had a portrait of someone hanging above the plant or table.

"Adult's are so selfish," he whispered, reminding himself of the past. He hadn't gone more then three feet when the electric chandeliers above him went out, and darkness covered him. He immediately began to panic. What if this was that freak's idea of a game, and he released some monster into the darkness to attack him?

After a few more feet of blind stumbling, he managed to convince himself there were no monsters, but still hadn't convinced himself that there wasn't a trap set. He'd placed his hand on the wall, and began dragging it along with his body to trace the wall.

That was why his hand was going numb, and because he was being paranoid, he had broken into a sweat. He'd been walking for what felt like a good twenty minutes, and hadn't gotten anywhere.

"Where am I?" he asked the darkness, and was answered by ominous silence.

Ryuoku stared at the center of the town, waiting for Helba. They'd been waiting for twenty minutes, and they were only planning on waiting ten more.

"It's been so long," Sharie said. "Since this all first started. Do you remember when we met?"

"Met?!" teased Ryuoku. "You practically ran me over with questions and your anxious attitude that lead to an adventure in some high level dungeon!"

"Ah, so what?" Sharie argued. "You were a newbie any way."

"So were you!" claimed Ryuoku, which triggered a stupid argument.

"Why did they do that?" asked Tsukazi. "They both knew what would set the other one off."

"I think it's the way the express their feelings about each other," Cheetra said over the war that was forming in front of them. "Neither one can actually admit the way they feel about each other, and they end up being embarrassed by that, which leads to a fight."

Kenshi stared at her blankly. "How would you know?"

Cheetra glared back. "Because I always know."

"Or they could just annoy each other," Tsukazi said. Cheetra glared.

Terry bent her head to the side.

Three new feeling where flowing into her form the others. They were strange, and hard to analyze, but she thought she new what they were. They felt warm, and made her happy. Something she had never felt in her life.

"Care," she whispered. "Love, and friendship."

Somehow the fight managed to work itself over to who lived in the better part of Japan. Both claimed they were near a coastline, both said a hospital was within walking distance from their house, and yet they neither one would tell the other exactly where they lived. Kenshi found the entire fight useless, and Subaru sighed.

"What's all the noise about?"

The cool voice sank into their ears, and made Sharie and Ryuoku stop fighting immediately. It was Helba, and Sharie immediately attacked her with questions.

"Who do you think you are, sending us into a trap like that?!" Sharie demanded.

"I'm afraid that wasn't me," Helba said. Her tone didn't change. "I'm afraid Varuchio has the ability to hide his true identity behind another's body. He simply traced my ID number and had himself a copy of me."

Sharie looked sick. "That's just wrong," she said under her breath.

"Yes," Helba agreed, "But you have limited time left. You must go to Lost, Eternal, Suffering before it's too late. The keywords will bring you to a dungeon. On B3, you'll have a decision to make. One of the two paths will take you to a golden door. The other will bring you to a room full of the virus, and you would be killed."

"Oh," started Kenshi. "That's...nice." he managed to whisper.

"Why don't you tell us which path is the right one?" asked Ryuoku.

"Because even a hacker doesn't have all the answers," Helba said, and then turned to Ryuoku. "When you reach the main lobby, I'll tell you what to do from there."

"Wait," began Sharie. "Main lobby? What're you talking about?"

"You'll understand," Helba said, and then waved, and warped away.

"Could she be any more vague?" Sharie said. Ryuoku answered with a shrug.

"We might as well get going." Ryuoku said, and then walked over to the Chaos Gate.

"But," started Kenshi. "How will we know which path?"

"I guess we should just, well, guess." Ryuoku answered.

"Oh," responded Kenshi. "You guess we'll... We'll what?!" Kenshi exclaimed, as he finally understood. It was too late, though. The group was already leaving. He groaned, and walked over to the Chaos Gate with Terry. "Let's go,"

"Right," she said, and disappeared into a swarm of rings.

"Well, might as well get going," he muttered to no one. "But I just hope that that was the real Helba,"

Tsukasa walked along in the darkness. It had to have been at least half an hour. He sighed, and stared into the darkness. It'd be easier if he could at least see.

Oh! he thought. Rai Rom, stupid!

"Rai Rom!" he shouted, and the lightning came out of nowhere. He smiled as the room was briefly illuminated, and he could see that another turn in the hall was just ahead.

The light faded, and he walked further along the hallway. At least he knew that a monster wasn't lurking in the darkness ahead. He laughed silently to himself. How could he have thought that there were dangers in such a fancy place?

He smiled to himself as he rounded the corner using the map in his head, and quickly stopped as he heard it. The low gurgling noise that sounded like someone was trying to breath through water.

He froze as the noise grew into a deep growl, and he stared at nothing. He was trapped by some kind of monster with no way to see.

Ryuoku thought he was nervous during the dungeon. It was nothing compared to how he felt when he saw the fork in the path on B3. He felt like he was going to vomit. Even worse, it felt like the entire team was waiting on him to make a decision.

What do I do? he asked himself mentally.

A scream pierced the silence. It was faint, and growing weaker, but Subaru immediately stared down the left path.

"That was Tsukasa!" Subaru exclaimed, and began to charge down the path before anyone could stop her.

"She knew from that?!" asked Kenshi.

Ryuoku stared at him for a second, and then led the others down the path. Subaru better know what she was doing.

At the end of the path was a gold door that Subaru seemed to have already gone through. Ryuoku stared at the door for a second, and wondered why someone could cause all of this, and how the virus could still be thriving when Tsukasa was awake.

Then it dawned on him that he still hadn't met Tsukasa. He could always go by the strange dreams he'd been having, but there was no guarantee that that was what Tsukasa looked like.

"Come on, Ryuoku!" called Sharie. He shrugged off the thought, and realized that the others had already gone through the door.

"Coming!" he called, and steeped through the door.

Subaru ran down the stone hall, leaving Ryuoku and the others behind. She's probably need there help, but she couldn't think of anything besides getting to Tsukasa. That cry had sounded desperate.

When she reached the door at the end of the hall, she was out of breath, but she didn't stop. Subaru through the door open, and saw absolute darkness meet her. She looked around the area of the cave near the door, and saw nothing, until she looked to her right. A fuse box was planted towards the left of the door, and it only had one switch.

"Talk about user friendly and convenient," she murmured to herself. She pulled the switch, and watched it disappear into nothing and the lights come on. She rushed in, and heard Tsukasa's voice again.

Looking around for the source, she saw a small ventilation shaft in the ceiling above her. Tsukasa must've been right above it when he first called. He sounded a little distant know, as if she was backing up. A sharp growling sound also came through the vent, and Subaru stared blankly up it.

A long way up, she saw something like a claw step over the vent. It was big enough to completely cover the vent, but only half of its foot was over the duct. At the sight of this...thing...she ran as fast as she could toward a set of stairs, vaguely taking in the details of her surroundings.

Polished white floor and ceiling, fancy furniture, an elegant chandelier hanging a little ways off the ceiling.

She pushed open a door, and found a staircase leading up stairs. She ran up the steps, and didn't even realize the camera that was watching her.

Varuchio glared at the screen that showed the angel-girl running up the steps of his building. How dare they intrude on his property! It didn't matter anyway. The girl was about to be eaten with her little escaping friend.

Something shining on the screen caught his eye. It was Ryuoku and his little patrol of annoyances. He grinned to no one as he moved to the center of his office. It was time to pay Ryuoku a personal visit. The carpeted circle of a platform moved slowly down a secluded elevator shaft. It was big enough for ten, but he enjoyed his space.

"Ryuoku," he said quietly. "It's time to die."

Ryuoku ran into the main hall to join up with his friends.

"I guess that this is what Helba meant," whispered Sharie, absorbing the grand, yet ominous elegance of it all.

"Speaking of her, shouldn't she be contacting us?" asked Ryuoku.

"I thought so too-!" Sharie was interrupted by a strange noise. The chandelier disappeared into the ceiling and a large elevator came down with a crooked looking man on it. His pale skin and dark matted hair were the only visible features. Everything else was covered by a long trench coat.

"I'm afraid she won't be able to contact you." he said in a smooth voice.

"Why not? And just who do you think you are?!" demanded Sharie, But Ryuoku knew who he was, even before he said his vile name.

"Varuchio Zespugo," he said. "And she can't contact an area that's not a server."

"How can you do something like this in a game?!" demanded Ryuoku, his rage building.

"A game?" he asked rhetorically. "This game is my life. I no longer exist in the real world." At the look of confusion on Ryuoku's face, he continued. "I used my virus to put myself in this game. I had my servants disguise my death as a suicide-," he was interrupted by a young voice.

"Death?!" Tsukazi cried. "You died from this virus?!"

"Yes," Varuchio said calmly, and then grinned. "And I can pretty much guarantee that your brother will too. Unless the virus is deleted from the world, then all comatose players will die, even if paramedics have kept them alive this long,"

Tsukazi and Kenshi had on faces of pure horror. Varuchio was grinning. Ryuoku and everyone else were angry.

"How could you do that?" asked Sharie. "Without honestly feeling remorse for you actions?"

"The same way I could do this," he whispered, and pulled out a remote control with a single button. He pushed it, and an alarm sounded. A recording of a calm woman began.

TEN MINUTES UNTIL VIRUS STORM.

Ryuoku's first reaction was to try and log out to warn people to stay away from their electronics, and then realized that he wasn't holding a controller anymore. All he felt in his hand was the smooth metal of his axe.

REAL WORLD

Ryu wasn't moving. His head was down on his desk. His breathing slowed, and the controller fell from his hands.

GAME

Ryuoku felt his mouth go dry.

Tsukasa ran away from the being that was chasing him. Why had he been so stupid as to call for help? No one was there but him. He was so scared that he barely realized the lights had come back on. He skidded to a halt as he realized that he had ran back to the door he began at. Feeling trapped, he turned around, and saw the beast for the first real time in the light. It was like a small-sized dragon, if you could call bigger then a car small.

He was about to admit death when he saw a flash of blue, and then the swift swing of an axe. The demon faded away like a normal monster.

"Subaru!" he cried. "You're here!" She ran up to Tsukasa and hugged him.

"I've missed you so much," cried a teary eyed Subaru. She was the happiest person in the game at that point, but it quickly changed as she realized that she was actually holding the axe in her hand, and that she could feel Tsukasa's warm clothes.

TEN MINUTES UNTIL VIRUS STORM.

Subaru pulled away from Tsukasa, and realized that now wasn't the time to be all teary eyed and weak.

"Tsukasa, did you see an office?" Subaru asked.

"Yeah," he began. "That's where I woke up."

"Show me!" she said anxiously, and Tsukasa wondered why she cared about an office. As he led he through the door behind them, he immediately realized something wasn't right.

"This isn't right," Tsukasa said as he pushed the door open into a foreign room.

"This is the main hall," Subaru commented. "And that is Ryuoku,"

Sharie turned around to see Subaru and Tsukasa walk into the room. Apparently, Varuchio saw them too.

"Good," began Varuchio. "You're all here. It's time for fun." At his words, the walls melted away, and complete darkness filled everything. A heartbeat began. It slowly grew louder and louder until it was almost defining; and then he saw it. Ryuoku saw the ultimate terror.

A giant monster appeared from nowhere. It was a skeletal type monster, with mostly a ribcage showing. A small head was perched on top of the massive thing, and a long clawed arm was hanging on to the ribs. What looked almost like a heart was in the center of the thing.

"Jesus," whispered Sharie. "It's huge,"

The awe that the team was in was broken as the thing lunged at them. Varuchio laughed at the scene. Sharie quickly pushed Ryuoku on top of Varuchio. He immediately caused the man the collapse. Pretty weak.

"Go!" cried Sharie. "End this nightmare! Take the elevator to his office, because I'm sure that's where it goes, and place Terry in the capsule! go!" She wouldn't allow Ryuoku to protest.

The elevator was the one lone thing that hadn't disappeared. A stroke of luck in an otherwise hopeless situation. Sharie slammed her fist onto the start button on the console that had traveled with the elevator. When it was out of view, Sharie focused on the monster, only to realize it had gone after Ryuoku.

Ryuoku glared at the frail man hiding in the corner of the elevator that had turned out to be Varuchio. "How could you do this?" Ryuoku demanded finally.

"Easy," he answered, regaining his cocky attitude. "I was an outcast in the real world, so I decided to make everyone come here, where I was all powerful." His grin turned into a frown. "But then you had to get that stupid weapon," he motioned at Ryuoku's axe. "And begin draining my beautiful virus."

"Your sick-," was all Ryuoku had time to say before the huge, thing, crashed into the bottom of the elevator, speeding it up for a short time before causing a dramatic decrease in speed.

The thing roared, and flew up next to the elevator platform. It roared again, and swung its inhumanly long claws. Ryuoku dove down to the ground with Terry, but still heard a high squeal of pain escape from behind him as the sound of ripping cloths chorused it.

Ryuoku turned his head, and saw what he was afraid of. A strange mix of relief, disgust, and unhappiness filled him as he saw three claw marks embedded in Varuchio. What confused him the most was the blood. Varuchio was bleeding. The virus was causing him to die in "The World". He was horrified, and his eyes met only the cold lifeless stare of Varuchio's.

"No," he whispered, and immediately feared for Kenshi, but that lasted about half a second before he realized that the thing was still hovering next to the elevator. "Virus..." he began as he pushed Terry behind him. "Drain!"

The blue strand pulsed from the axe, and inserted themselves into the creature in front of him. It glowed blue, and Ryuoku thought it might have been this easy, until the glowing stopped and the creature had barely a scratch on it.

It started to roar again, but it was cut off as the elevator reached its final destination of a dark office.

Sharie stared blankly at the darkness above, and saw nothing. "The creature must've been after the girl.

"That creature," began Subaru. "Was the one that took Tsukasa that day." Sharie stared in disbelief.

"Are you serious?" she asked. "Varuchio has complete control over the thing that took him in the first place?"

Subaru barely had time to nod before her eyes widened in horror. The creature was coming down form the ceiling, in a complete rage. It was most likely frustrated that Ryuoku and Terry had somehow gotten away.

Now it was pissed off. It looked like it could kill them in less then a second just by venting its rage. If Ryuoku didn't hurry, they were doomed.

FIVE MINUTES UNTIL VIRUS STORM. REPEAT. FIVE-

The voice was relentless in Ryuoku's ears. He only had five minutes to figure out what he had to do or they were doomed. As he looked around the office, he saw a set of seven black computer screens that he had no doubt were the ones Varuchio used to monitor where the team was, and when to throw the switch to activate a phase.

Four minutes were left when Ryuoku discovered that the shattered pieces of glass and a stand with wires connecting, and probably holding, to the top piece were the remains of a capsule. Ryuoku helped Terry stepped into the capsule.

"Virus-?" Ryuoku was cut off by Terry's cry.

"Wait!" she cried.

"What is it?" asked Ryuoku.

"What'll happen to me when this happens?" she asked.

THREE MINUTES LEFT BEFORE VIRUS STORM. REPEAT. THREE-

"I'm not sure," Ryuoku said as best he could. The girl wasn't that old, and telling her that she might cease to exist was; well, hell, she was only thirteen. She stared at her feet, and Ryuoku wasn't sure if he could do this.

TWO MINUTES LEFT BEFORE VIRUS STORM. REPEAT. TWO-

"I'm ready," she said quietly. As Ryuoku was about to raise his axe and end the nightmare, the girl pulled him into a hard hug, and she didn't want to let go. Soft tears trickled down her cheek, and onto Ryuoku's shoulder. The girl pushed away, and let the drain commence.

She screamed in pain, but slowly faded away. Ryuoku watched her go, and saw her no longer.

REAL WORLD

A young girl shot up in a hospital bed screaming. A nurse in the room came over to her said and calmed her down. The nurse had a look of unease on her face. The girl was said to have been never able to wake up, but she did. The girl woke up. Terry woke up.

GAME

Before she faded completely, her rags seemed to become clean, and formed a smooth short sleeve shirt and neatly ironed blue jeans. She looked almost like she belonged in the real world.

The effect of her disappearance was immediate. A blue wave that looked almost liked a curtain swept out from where she had been standing, and Ryuoku had no doubt that it would destroy the virus.

WARNING, ONE MINUTE LEFT. 59...58...57...56...

The curtain swept over the computer console, and the countdown faltered, and the message changed.

53...52...51...APPLICATION TERMINATED. REPEAT. APPLICATION-

The new message made Ryuoku sigh in relief. The wave of what seemed like a true vaccine swept around the room. It seemed to absorb the capsule, and melted into the walls of the room; surely seeking out more of the virus, and, with any luck, causing the comatose players to wake up. He'd done it. It was over. Hopefully.

The monster stared at them. Hating their existence. It felt like killing them all. Like killing everything, and sense the girl seemed to no longer exist, it had nothing to distract it from this job.

It roared, and stopped as it saw the blue wave hit it. The pain was agonizingly long. It was like what that blue haired one had done, only a thousand times over. It knew it was dead before too long.

Kenshi stared in awe as the creature slowly disappeared from the wave. He saw it vanish in one agonizing cry, and he saw that the wave didn't stop. It kept going, and it passed the others. Nothing seemed to happen to them. He smiled and expected nothing to happen to him. He never expected the wave to engulf him in pain.

He screamed in pain, and began to lose feeling in his fingers, his body, everywhere. His vision faded, and the last thing he heard was a desperate cry from Cheetra.

The wave swept around "The World", cleaning out the virus it saw. The special event keywords that Varuchio set as a trap disappeared of the word list, and all comatose players began to wake up as the wave swept over their bodies in the game.

The virus that had began crawling over everything and every server was deleted. The event that had caused so much pain and suffering that the players placed in the same category as the Deadly Flash slowly faded from the game. Destruction server was completely deleted from the game, and not even a hacker like Helba could bring it back.

Rumors began spreading like wildfire as the number of players increased again as CC Corp. sent out mail that excused all of their other notices, and said that "The World" would not be moving offline after all. Only one group knew the strange happenings that had actually taken place. Tsukasa decided not to log in again, until he had created a new account.

EPILOGUE

A boy moaned, and stirred in a hospital bed. His character name had been Kenshi in "The World", now he was just plain Ken Irowka. He finally managed to open his eyes, and burning sunlight met his gaze.

He rolled to his left, towards the door to his room, and saw a girl of about sixteen.

"Cheetra?" he asked. She smiled.

"Bingo," she whispered. "And personally, I'm glad you're not some forty-year old loser who was playing the game all alone,"

"How did you find my room? And what hospital is this?" he asked.

"Easy," she answered. "All I did was ask the nurse to let me see a comatose player named Kenshi, but before I could finish saying 'Kenshi' she cut me off and pointed to your room. I just figured that your real name was Ken, so,"

"That was dangerous!" Ken said. "What if I turned out to be some stalker?!"

"Well," she started. "I think it's easy to see that you not, so,"

"Well how did you know what hospital I was in?" he asked.

"Just guessed," she said dismissively.

Ken stared at the TV in the corner of his room. Cheetra must have turned it on while she was waiting. A news reporter in a red dress was talking.

"All around the world the comatose players are waking up. We'll have more information on this topic at seven, stay tuned for..."

"Everyone?" asked Ken. "Even Dain?"

"I guess only Tsukazi would know," she said. "I'm just happy you woke up." She hugged him, and Ken smiled weak smile.

Max pushed open the door to his brother's room, and ran up to Dain when he realized he was awake.

"Dain!" Max gasped. "You're alright!"

"Almost wasn't," a deep voice in the corner of the hospital room made him jump. Max turned to see his dad. "They had ta do everything they could ta keep tha' kid alive."

"Oh," said Max towards his dad. "And you would have mad sure that I wouldn't have gotten taken care of?"

"Son," he whispered. "I've been a crappy father, and I know that, but could you at least give an old man a chance to make it up to you?"

"And how do plan on doing that?" demanded Max.

"How abou' goin' ta Taco Bell? I know it's your favorite fast food place. I'd like ta take ya ta tha' fancy restaurant, but I need to get a better job if I'm gonna be supportin' the two of ya."

Max gave a small grin. "One chance," he said.

"I won't blow it," said his dad, and Dain gave a feeble smile.

Ryu walked out in front of his apartment building. It was a fine day, and he new things would be getting better.

FLASHBACK

"Hiyaki residence," mumbled Ryu as he picked up the phone.

"Is this Ryu?" asked a scratchy voice.

"Yes, who is this?" he asked.

"This is the hospital, your mother woke this morning. She's stable, and will be released after a few tests to make sure nothings wrong."

PRESENT

A teenage girl walked out onto her front porch. She saw a boy standing across the street. Immediately she felt her face grow hot. He was Ryuoku, the one she was growing a crush on. He seemed to see her too, and ran across the street.

Instantly she remembered Shane, but no regret came when she thought of Ryuoku. He tripped in the street, but got up. He didn't stay down like Shane did. He got up, and finished crossing the street.

"Sharie?" he asked.

"Mm-Hm. But in the real world, my name's Crystal. Yours?"

"It's Ryu." Ryu said. "Boy, we're dumb. We couldn't even figure out that we were neighbors," Crystal laughed, and then suddenly felt a strong urge to hug him. She didn't fight it, and Ryu returned it.

THE END

Hey! That's the last chapter! But don't think I'm just gonna ditch the fact that Terry woke up! I'm going to write another story to bridge the events of this, and the sequel, .hackHEARTLESS ENTITY. But the bridging story is called .hackSECRETS. Here's a free sample.

The woman in the pink fuzzy bathrobe was concerned. She had long dark hair, like hers, and was young. She looked so old though. She was only thirty-two, but seemed ancient. The man next to her claimed that she had been under a lot of stress lately. Both claimed they were her parents; she had no way to tell. One week ago, she woke up from a coma in the hospital and couldn't remember anything; anything, that is, except for her name. Her name was Terry.

Does it seem like a good story? Well, it'll be up soon, and then it will be followed by the sequel. That's all for now.