Disclaimer: I do not own .hack, Bandai, cc2 corp, or anything else associated with /hack
AN: sorry I took so long to update this....but now I have the whole saga planned out!! ( prolly gonna be 30 some chapters, cut up into books....)
Oh yeah....I seem to remember BT and Crim met in real life, and I got the idea that she prolly knew his address
Lost: Chapter 2: Recoil
" What?" Bear asked, taken aback.
" Subaru....she...she..." BT said, voice shaking, " It wasn't a hallucination! I still have buises from it!"
Bear shook his head, " I never said it was... it's just....hard to believe."
" I know it is, but..."
Bear cut her off by lifting his hand up in a silencing motion, " You say she looked battered and bruised, and she attacked you...without reason?"
" And she inflicted damage on me...physically!"
" This is definately linked with Morganna's 'plans' for Subaru....and I have a feeling this is linked with Mimiru, too." Bear deduced, " We need to have another meeting...."
" With Helba?"
" Maybe not her.....but....BT, do you still know when Crim lives?"
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Sora frowned as he read the flash mail, it simply read ' Meet at usual place, crucial information'.
He knew he shouldn't have went to Bear, no matter how hard it was to find the information on his own...all Bear did was call meetings every other day.
True, it had been a relief that he'd finally gotten fresh information both on Mimiru, and on Subaru, whom he'd tried to investigate after she'd been acting weird, but all he could find on her was that she'd mysteriously disappeared, and no one could contact her anymore.
There were, of course, the common rumors that always seemed to be floating about, The Lady was insane, Subaru had died, the leader of the Crimson Knights had given up the 'world' because of the pressure.
Sora had ignored all of them, though, there were never any substance to such knowing whispers exchanged in the dark alleys of Carmina Gadelica.
In the end, he gave up on trying to find Subaru, and went back to looking for Mimiru.
And now he was here....where it all began...or perhaps. where it all ended...sanity...normality....reality.
The blood had not faded from the rocks, nor the grisly scene from his memory.
Something caught his eye as he shook his head, intrigued, he walked over to where it was lying in the rocks.
It was a Nautica Staff.
Curious, he picked it up and examined it, it was worn and chipped, but what stood out about it was that it was charred and twisted, exactly where one might hold it in battle.....to his memory that was not what it was supposed to look like... there were no monsters in this zone, and even if there were, items could not be damaged...not permanantly, not like this...
There was nothing, only silent darkness....the chill wind blew across him, and he shivered from more than just the sudden cold....the virus had infected him as well, began rewriting his data....perhaps even his DNA.
Then he heard it, that low, menacing laugh, carried on the light breese.
He had not heard it at first, it had been so quiet, but it was steadily growing louder.
The world around him began shaking, and a low rumbling sound permiated the area.
His breath caught in his throat, something was materializing infront of him!!
His legs felt like putty, he couldn't move, he could hardly breathe...the mad laughter was pounding in his head so loudly he couldn't even think.
Then he heard a familiar whisper , RUN!!!!!
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
He stared at his inbox for the twentieth time...Subaru had sent panicked letters...her 'caretaker' had tried to keep him informed, but he hadn't listened...at first he simply deleted any and all letters from Subaru....and then he'd left his phone off the hook, not bothering to check his e-mail of even his physical mail....wallowing in self-pity...hiding in 'the world'...barely even eating.
Subaru had been pleading, begging for help, insisting the game, and Mimiru's ghost, wanted her dead....her caretaker claimed she'd gone mad.
One day, Subaru's emails had ceased, and her caretaker had written to say that they had disconnected the network, because they felt the 'world' fostered her delousions, and they did not want her calling people over and over, running up both their phone bills, just to babble incoherently about sentient computers, ghosts, and all sorts of nonsense.
Subaru had attacked her caretaker once, so that she could use her cell phone....
To call me... he reminded himself, not for the first time. A tear rolled down his cheek, as the memory returned to him, the motivation he'd had to keep the phone off-hook...the strange, anonymous, caller, that had rang and rang for what seemed like hours, until it abruptly stopped.
The caretaker's letter did indeed go on to say that when she had come to, she had found the cell phone's batteries drained, and Subaru had been missing.
A later letter said that they had found her dragging herself desperately down the sidewalk, only a block away from his house....it then explained that they had taken away te wheelchair earlier, to keep her out of trouble, and safely tucked in bed...
She had reached out for him, desperately hoping for him to rescue her...but he had coldly ignored her, even kicked her off of the proverbial ledge into the abyss...he had ignored everyone around him....everyone whom he could help...save for the one woman forever out of reach.
He glanced nonchalantly at the stack of unopened envelopes piled on his desk, which he had retrieved from an overflowing mailbox, but not bothered to look at yet.
Atop the pile of random junk mail and ads, was a large envelope bearing his work's insignia, Bold, red letters were printed across it, reading 'Urgent, Open Immediately'. He laughed, it was already obvious what the letter contained, so he had not bothered to look at it...he had been mysteriously absent from work for months, with not a word of explanation, and had become impossible to contact, of course he was fired!!
He laughed again, and couldn't seem to stop, the bitter irony was too much! Here he was, fired, his worst nightmare from only last year come true, and now he truly couldn't care less!!
He had been dead for months already, anyway.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
Tsukasa swallowed softly, as he stared out off the main bridge of Mac Anu, the water was unnaturally blue, and cold....it was a stunning reflection of the golden city...the bustling trade stirred restlessly at it's edges, knocking the anchored boat about mindlessly, in the distance a golden ship serenely floated on the surface of the water, a silent beauty visible only to those not distracted by the constant tulmult of the river....but most insidious was the invisible pull of the current, hidden beneath the waters, deadly to any fool who would enter, and concealed to all but those who truly knew the water's deceptive beauty....yes...this water was the perfect picture of this cursed town, and this equally malicious world...
His throat ached, and he considered giving himself up to the cunning waters.....Subaru was gone now, too...she would never sail beneath this bride again, never look up at him again and smile....he was alone....
A tear more real than any virtually generated image could ever be fell silently into the river below, and blended perfectly with it's sapphire waters.
Aura's decaying was the fault of Subaru's death....and her decaying was his....all of the people hurt, the people close to him that were dying...they were all his fault...
Subaru would want him to be strong, if only for the sake of everyone's lives...so would Mimiru....
" Tsukasa."
Surprised, he turned towards the voice, and failed to hide his scowl when he saw Silver Knight walking up to him.
" What do you want? Are you going to try to take me in again? I don't see Crim anywhere."
The man frowned, and shook his head, " No, I wanted to know if you knew a girl named, Triiya."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
BT shook her head, as she took off the VR set, Crim had practically attacked her last time they met, ands now Bear expected her to go over to his house, which was completely off-limits, to see if he would help out the 'gang', no less!!
She glanced at the picture of the seven of them, posing happily.
Crim was standing inbetween Bear and Subaru, an impassive look on his face, BT, herself, stood to the right of Bear, a small smirk on her face, Bear, of course, had an easy-going smile on his face, but his eyes showed concern for the wavemaster in the far right corner of the picture, sitting in a near-fetal postion against a rock, looking absolutely miserable, Sora was standing inbetween Subaru and Mimiru, arms looped around there necks, holding them tightly, leaning into the camera with a huge, goofy, grin on his face, neither Mimiru nor Subaru looked pleased with there position, Subaru looking bewildered, and Mimiru with her mouth open in what was a angry yell, fist curled ready to deck Sora.
The picture had been taken only weeks before this mess had started.
BT sighed, everytime they logging in, they risked themselves...it was foolish to continue this...yet still she did.
Yes....why don't you quit? A voice whispered in her mind
She froze.
" No...that was just your imagination..." she chided herself, dismissing it.
Laughter whispered in the back of her mind, as if in response.
BT swallowed a lump in her throat, she thought she was going to be sick.
It's too laaate....
AN: Tried to make this kind of an explanation chapter, so you guys wouldn't be so confused....really trying not to turn this into some twisted version of a .hack horror story...but I am shackled by Morganna's personality....and when you let her run rampid........
Well, gotta sign off for now, but thank you all for your wonderful reviews!! .
BTW: Why is simple HTML not working anymore??
Also try
Alone (the begining of the saga)
Torment ( the prequel to Lost)
Second Chance( What if 10 years later, Mimiru decides to play 'the world' again, and meets a familiar twin blade?)
Yusagi Sombermoon(Queen of the shameless self promotion)