.Hack: Penance
A .Hack fanfiction by Renfro Calhoun

Disclaimer: Project .Hack and attached characters/concepts are property of Bandai and Cyber Connect. They are used without permission, but with the utmost respect.

Notes: Happens after the end of Quarantine. (Thoughts), [text], {email domains}. The plot continues! Extra-special applause to Goldberry, who finally came down off of something nasty and got to update her story; Berry, glad to see you're up and about again. I can only assume I speak for more than just myself when I say you've been missed :)

Somewhat angsty fluff this time around. Enjoy!

EDIT: That does it. I'm writing somebody about these formatting problems. Now it's x-ing out the dashes below chapter titles. This is beyond ridiculous.

This chapter brought to you under the influence of: Asprin. Lots and lots of it.

Chapter 13 – One More Thing

"I'm sorry it took so long to process your request," said Lios, gesturing to the empty white space around him, the contents of a private sector of the game. "A number of our best technicians went to the Conference; we've been shorthanded lately."

Kite nodded. "It's all right."

"In your mail, you mentioned you'd discovered the identity of that character on Delta server."

"Well, we never actually saw the character," said Kite, "but the players we ran into did. They found this letter that talked about some... some kind of fight in a prison."

Lios blinked. "A prison? I don't understand."

Kite reached into his pocket as Hiroshi scrolled through his inventory, finding and producing the letter, which he then held out to Lios. "The character was dressed in a prison jumpsuit," he explained. "This letter is a report on a fight that happened in a prison in California."

Lios accepted the note and hastily scanned it; he turned it over, furrowing his brow at the sight of the message on the back. "He's here?"

"BlackRose, Ryoko and I went over it after they gave it to us." Kite stepped up to the bulky administrator, reaching over the man's arm to point out the names. "We think it's one of the three who was involved in the fight."

Squinting, Lios lifted the paper up high, tilting it and staring hard at it. "What does it mean," he muttered.

"We also think the character might be Dea... uh, Stolls. This Wavemaster I know."

The administrator instantly froze. His head slowly turned to Kite, disbelief visible on his face. "Did you say 'Dean'?"

"Yeah, that's his real name."

"Dean Stollis?"

"Yes," Kite said cautiously. "Why, what is it?"

Lios' face lost all trace of expression for a moment; he caught the boy off-guard with the next one as he lifted a hand and brought it to his forehead in a hard slap, his palm covering one eye. "You've got to be kidding me," he grumbled, seemingly to himself. "You have seriously got to be kidding me."

"Lios?" asked Kite, staring oddly at the administrator, who was now laughing under his breath, and painfully so.

"Ohhhh... I... this, uh, are you... you're absolutely sure?" Lios countered, his hand still on his forehead. Out his open eye, he watched as Kite nodded slowly. "I'm gonna kill this guy... I swear, I will find him and I will kill him with my bare hands, I swear to god."

"What is the matter?" Kite urged, audibly growing impatient.

"This man," he started, "has become the bane of my existence. EVERY time he has gotten involved, it has either ended up with me filling out a ton of paperwork, or noticing that the headlines on the paper are more relevant than usual."

The administrator's candor was in stark contrast to his earlier conduct, the stoic, no-nonsense visage long gone; in its place, a weary tech support guru who had worked one hour of overtime too many. His hand fell away, revealing the unsettled look in his eyes. "What on Earth has he gotten himself into this time?"

"I don't know exactly, but he's in some kind of trouble." Kite carefully gauged the stocky man's reaction as he spoke again. "I ran into him last night, too, as Stolls. He said that... he might not be who I think he is. That he was watching me, and... 'they' did something to him."

Confusion reentered Lios' eyes, along with a shred of his nigh-trademark professionalism. "He might not be who you think he is? What was he trying to tell you?"

"I'm not sure." Kite paused, chewing on his lip for a half-second. "Something else was weird, though. He didn't know what the date was."

The admin processed the information with startling haste. "I think your... friend, might be an imposter."

Emitting a quiet 'huh?', Kite gazed up at Lios with a bewildered look on his face. "You mean... that's not Dean?"

"He said it himself. I think he was trying to tell you that's not him controlling Stolls." Kite was about to interject before Lios continued, unknowingly answering the boy's next question. "Of course, if it was Stolls that told you that, it wouldn't make sense for him to..." he trailed off with little warning.

The Twin Blade was left waiting for him to finish his sentence, but instead he began a new one. "That may yet be plausible, Kite."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Technical support just received an email that was directed to me. One second."

He gestured to the empty air, causing a window to spring out of the nothingness – large, gray and translucent. The words on it were barely words at all; gaps in text, replaced by horizontal dashes, where there should have been letters. Kite knew instantly who it was from.

[From: Tech Support

To: Lios {systemadmin}

Subj: Fwd: I'm n-t cr-z-

Lios, I d-n't kno- w--t you'-- he--d, but
she's wr--g. I can -rov- --!
I-- me, - h-ve -o be. M-x k--ws. C--tac- -ax.
MK-rre- {und--ne-/asar-e-st}
"O-en your -ask, Ta--n." = P--sw-rd
No -ne l-ft - c-n cou-- on. Th-y'—all co-pro--sed.
He w-ll k--w. -- -il- -n-w. He will know.]

"It looks like gibberish, though I can almost make out some of the words..."

"Can you send this on to Balmung?" Kite interrupted. "Orca told me Balmung's good at figuring these things out."

Lios frowned, but gave an affirmative grunt. "I certainly can't think of a better idea. One moment." He froze for a handful of seconds, then continued with his character's idle movements. "There. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have others look at this. It appears to be an email address in there."

Kite scanned the text over and over, struggling with its meaning. (That almost looks like... Max. Max who, though? Someone Dean was working with? He's definitely trying to get us in touch with someone.)

"In any case, you've reported to me everything you've learned since our last meeting, correct?"

Kite turned back to Lios. "Yeah, that's everything."

"Good. Though I admit this news has been somewhat... disconcerting... I thank you for your assistance." He gestured to the teal-haired boy. "If you would excuse me, I have more referrals to tend to."

"Sure. And thank you too, Lios."

The corners of his lips curled upwards into a small smile. "As I've said... this is the least we owe you."

"Kite, hello!"

He was as surprised as she appeared to be; mere seconds after touching down in the Sigma root town, he was beset by the voice of an all-too-familiar Axewoman, polite and proper, every bit as ladylike as her countenance.

He waved to her as she neared. "Hi, Ryoko."

"Were you busy?" she inquired as she stopped before him. "I saw you gate out of the town, but it showed you as still online."

"Yeah, I just spoke with Lios, about what we found about that prisoner character."

"Ahh," she nodded. "There's something you need to know, Kite. Do you have time? Can we talk?"

"Sure, of course." He gestured to the path behind her. "Let's go over by the grunty pen, it's quieter there."

Both started along the solid bridge which spanned between battlements, the ground below obscured under thick clouds which sped beneath the city, as fast as any earthbound river. Before long, they found themselves at the pen, with no one around except for the NPC caretaker, and a lone player who was tending to an immature grunty.

"So what is it?" asked Kite, turning to address Ryoko properly.

She took a deep breath, her eyes never leaving his. "We saw Dean tonight."

He leaned forward, lips puckered as if to say 'What?'.

"Not his character," she explained, "not Stolls. I mean, the real Dean – the man in black, who you first saw."

"Wh-... how? Why didn't... why didn't anybody tell me?" He held his arms open, palms out as if pleading for answers. "What happened? Did he tell you anything?"

Ryoko fidgeted, clasping her hands behind her back. "He said it was him as the prisoner... and again when he met you last night, or so he said." She gulped. "Helba arrived, too..."

"Helba?!"

"Yes, and she... well, helped us deduce that someone else was controlling Stolls, and that Dean – the character we keep seeing – is some kind of artificial intelligence."

Kite sucked in a short, sharp breath of air. "No way..."

"Balmung is finding a way to get the log to you offline," she said, "because of the problems with your mail. Dean said they couldn't track you offline. That should tell you everything we were told."

"Lios was right," Kite whispered. Speaking up, he added, "when I was meeting with him just now, he received an email, another scrambled one from Dean. It said to contact someone I think was named 'Max'. There was an email address, but I couldn't read it. Lios suggested that Stolls might be an imposter... and I think he might be right."

"This is all so very strange," said Terajima, her gaze leaving Kite to scan the area nervously. "I don't know what's going on, but it all seems to involve your friend. And now all of us..."

Kite's voice took on a firm tone. "If there's one thing I've learned from Dean, it's that things aren't always simple and obvious. There's something deeper going on, I'm sure of it... I just can't put my finger on it."

"I think you're right. Dean said they might be after Morganna."

Kite gawked. "Morganna?? But... but how? She's... gone, isn't she?"

She lowered her head, shaking it lightly from side to side. "There's too many questions," she murmured, shoulders rising and falling in a silent sigh.

Leaving her statement unchallenged, the Twin Blade folded his arms over his chest. "Well, I guess I'd better wait and see this log for myself. But thanks for telling me." His hands dug into the white cloth of his sleeves. "I'll have to be careful around Stolls, at least until we find out what's going on."

"Right."

He watched her carefully, noting how she fidgeted, how her hands were still clasped demurely behind her back, how her posture was guarded and cautious. Part of him suspected there was more to the story, and he was quick to pay heed to his suspicions. "Ryoko? Is there anything else you wanted to tell me?"

She lifted her head and met his eyes once more. "There's... I have a confession to make, Kite."

Puzzled, Kite relaxed his arms, tilting his head a few degrees to the right. "What's the matter?"

"Remember yesterday, when you helped me upgrade my weapon?" Her demeanor was apprehensive, and obviously hesitant; she avoided eye contact, as if in shame. "Th-there was... I had another reason... for contacting you."

He let his arms drop to his sides, focused on her words. "What was the reason?"

Her eyelids drooped shut. "I... I... w-wanted to spend some time... with you..."

"Oh," he gasped, even as the more analytical part of him was doing a round of I-told-you-so's in his head. A slight flush came to his cheeks as she continued.

"A while ago... back before the dungeon, I didn't even think of it..." again, her head went down, "like that. But in there, something... something happened. T-to both of us, I mean."

Kite felt his throat being squeezed, knowing which 'us' she was referring to. (Here it comes,) he thought with dread, his heart starting to pound.

"You've always been so nice to me, Kite, and I never really had the chance to thank you for it." Her eyes opened once more. "I didn't have any problem with BlackRose, and I honestly didn't mean to come between you two like that... or force you to make that kind of a choice."

"Ryoko... I know," Kite assured her. "You don't have to say anything."

"I think I should, though." She looked up at him, tears in her virtual eyes. "Because it didn't come to me until now to even face up to it. Not until I had spoken with her, and worked with her." A long pause – as long as five seconds could be – and then she said, "It wasn't fair to you."

Tentatively, he reached a hand out to her, resting it gently on her shoulder. His voice was slow, full of care and concern. "You're right... it wasn't... but I know you didn't mean to."

"It wasn't even supposed to be a choice," she admitted. "You're a nice boy, Kite, and I really do like you... but I didn't mean to be so presumptuous. We haven't known each other that long, and I would never assume something like that."

"Then... why?" he asked, letting his hand fall away.

"I don't know. I guess... I was afraid... we wouldn't be friends anymore. I wasn't thinking clearly... I was just worried. And then when we joined up together, I knew I had no reason to." She smiled, albeit sadly. "I knew all along, and I just..."

"Forgot for a bit... didn't you?" he asked, completing her thought.

"Mm-hmm."

He smiled back at her, remembering the words of another girl. "It's okay... really. That happened to me too. It happens to everybody, once in a while." His smile grew. "You'll always be a friend of mine, Ryoko."

The forlorn look in her eyes began to fade, quickly replacing itself with hope and joy. She brought her hand up to wipe away her tears, tears of shame and regret, quickly turning into relief and happiness. "You too, Kite... thank you." She bowed to him, her wings folding back slightly. "Thank you very much."

He grinned. "Hey, come on... you're helping me investigate, and you've proven you can work with BlackRose. I think that proves we don't have to worry about anything." To echo the statement, he threw a smiling emote her way.

She touched a gloved hand to her mouth, hiding a giggle. "I suppose so... you've certainly a way with words, Kite."

The blush returned to his face, not yet deep enough to alter the boy's behavior. "I try," he said in a soft voice.

Another giggle, though some of her exuberance began to fade. "Well, I need to log off for the night. Still, I am glad I found you today."

"Me too." As if the night's revelations were all but forgotten, he offered yet another smiley face, and said, "Good night, Ryoko."

She bowed again, offering a courteous "Good night," in return. She then started to leave, but stopped in mid-step and faced the Twin Blade. "Oh, and Kite?"

"Yes?"

The Axewoman cleared her throat, a look on her face Kite was certain he hadn't seen before, one he couldn't immediately identify – 'sly' was the closest he could come up with, but her posture, her voice was still too polite and friendly.

"She really likes you, too."

Hiroshi couldn't stop himself from blushing, and wondered how much of it was visible on his avatar. He let his head bob up and down in a nod, and replied, almost inaudibly, "Yeah... me too. A lot."

- End of Chapter 13