.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 following the end of Quarantine. (Thoughts,) [text,] {email domains}. At long last, we have us some answers. Emphasis on 'some'. Beyond the fluff, lies substance. All this, of course, is to once again cover for the fact that I have nothing in particular to add about this chapter. So, uh... read on :)

This chapter written to the tune of: Godsmack – Running Blind

Chapter 16 – Bend the Rules

Spartan in furnishings, the room was just large enough for its purpose; to accommodate for a half-dozen people. Light came from sconces affixed to the brick walls, and from a lantern mounted on the round wooden table, which was surrounded by six chairs. A sturdy oak door sat on the south wall, locked and bolted shut, ensuring absolute security and privacy for the occupants.

"All right, let's retrace our steps."

Balmung stood from his chair, assuming a commanding posture. The others – BlackRose, Kite, Sanjuro, Ryoko, and Orca – watched every move he made, some nodding as he spoke. "We have four appearances by this 'Dean' character, whatever he is." He made a fist, and then extended his fingers one by one. "The man in black, with Kite and Stolls three days ago. The prisoner, the Wavemaster, and then Dean himself."

"Each time, he's been trying to tell us something," said BlackRose, turning to Kite. "He knew your name, that first time."

"Right. The other players said that he was looking for Stolls, he probably wasn't counting on seeing me. I think he wanted to get my attention."

"To let you know something else was going on," said Balmung in assent. He glanced over at Ryoko. "And then later, you two found the letter from the prisoner."

The winged Axewoman spoke upon being prompted. "As far as we can tell, he was trying to tell us who was involved. We now know it's a man named Felix Croker, who is tied to Dean's past."

"The drug dealer," Sanjuro added.

"Meanwhile, someone bugged Kite's computer," Balmung continued, "to intercept his email; apparently, anything that was relevant to what was going on was deleted. Including fragmented email that Dean was attempting to send to you, and mail from BlackRose saying she also received the same mail."

"That confirmed that whoever's playing Stolls is an imposter." Sanjuro's visible eye jumped from one fellow player to the next. "And that they were after Morganna."

BlackRose frowned. "Which doesn't make any sense. She's gone now, isn't she?"

"Gone, or in some kind of remission," said Balmung. "There's only a handful of people who could say for sure, and none of them are here. It's also possible that Dean simply heard them wrong, and meant Aura, or something else entirely."

A lull in the discussion prompted Kite to speak up. "Have you tried contacting Helba again? Or Wiseman, or anybody?"

"I haven't seen Wiseman around in a while," explained Balmung, "and Helba... well, I have my own suspicions, but first let's finish going over what's happened so far." He waited a few seconds for any objections, and heard none. "Then, you said you ran into him in the middle of the night, correct?"

"Yeah, it was late last night, around one in the morning." Hiroshi took his hand off the controller to scratch an itch on the back of his other wrist. "He acted tired, and confused; he didn't know the date, and he asked if I had seen him online before. Then he said to 'pay attention', because he... or whoever's controlling him, I guess, was watching me."

Balmung nodded grimly. "Confirming that you're under surveillance. And then we all met him as himself, later that day."

Orca joined the conversation for the first time, eyeing his fellow Descendent. "According to the log, he said he was experiencing some kind of cycle... each time he died, or lost consciousness, he became someone else – some other incarnation."

Terajima folded her hands on the table. "And then we found out he's an AI..."

"But for what reason?" asked Balmung. "That's what I don't understand. They created some program to run through aspects of this Dean guy for... what? What's the purpose?"

"Clearly, they wanted him out of the way," was Orca's reply. "They have someone impersonate to him online, probably so no one comes looking for him, and to make sure that nobody finds out what's going on."

"Hang on a minute." Sanjuro leaned forward, assuming partial control of the discussion. "Now, they impersonate him while they have a copy of him run some sort of program... and they're after Morganna. Is it possible that Dean and Morganna are somehow connected?"

The other Heavy Blade gave the samurai an odd look. "Connected? You mean... they're using Dean to get to Morganna?"

"To draw her out somehow." Orca rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Maybe the character is a front for another program... like a virus."

Balmung interjected, sounding frustrated. "Perhaps the two are related, but we must also consider that someone willingly put this... 'program' into the game, which raises a few questions. First of all, who did this? And why personalize it to be this man, specifically? Why not just leave him alone and run it as a normal program?"

"Maybe he was investigating them," Kite suggested. "He is a detective. Maybe he was onto them?"

"Possibly." The focused look in Balmung's eyes dissipated, and the Blademaster sat down in his chair, propping an elbow on the armrest with his chin in his hand. "Anyway, and then... the mail to Lios. You said you received word from that address?"

Orca faced away from Balmung, addressing the rest of the party. "Max Kerrek is a business agent from Asara Corporation, which is a rival of Cyber Connect. Kite said he played the character TamonAdillo several months ago."

The eyes of the female Heavy Blade shot wide open. "Tamon?!" she exclaimed. "He's involved too??"

"His address was in a scrambled mail from Dean that Lios received," said Kite, indicating Balmung with a nod. "Balmung cleared up most of it, and we got ahold of Max; he says he can help us, and wants to meet with me offline. I'll go after we're done here and see what I can find out."

"Good," replied the Azure Sky. "See what he says."

"There was something strange though," Kite added. "I saw Stolls before BlackRose and I met up today. He was acting... well, rude. It was very unlike him; he told me to 'stay out of his way' and that they couldn't trust the system – Aura. It's like the guy wasn't trying at all to act like him."

He heard Ryoko ask, "He wasn't trying?"

"I-it's like," the boy stammered, "like he knew. Knew that I knew he wasn't Dean, I mean. And... or it didn't matter anymore. I don't know."

A harsh male voice interrupted and startled all present. "I'm afraid there is a more immediate issue at hand."

Six heads turned to face the new arrival, clad in the familiar skin of an NPC shopkeeper, who had somehow gotten past the door without a sound.

"Lios," said Kite. "What is it?"

"Have you been listening in the whole time?" BlackRose inquired, her tone almost sharp enough to call it a challenge.

"Yes," was his simple reply. "There is a matter that I would like you to attend to. As you know, the system was recently shut down for maintenance. During that period of time, access to 'The World' and its message board was restricted to administrators only. I discovered a post on the boards that detailed the location of another character. It went up just minutes before we started shutting down servers. I erased the message and locked the field before we restarted the game."

"So you want us to get to this character before anyone else does," said Balmung. "Is that right?"

"Correct," answered Lios. "I will unlock the field when you are ready, and seal it behind you to ensure no one else interferes. You will be able to gate out as normal, but I want to make absolutely sure that you are the only ones there with it."

"But, if the character was mentioned on the boards," began Ryoko, "doesn't that mean someone already did find it?"

In response, Lios gestured towards the wall opposite him, behind where Sanjuro was seated. Everyone turned as the wall lit up, suddenly covered with a translucent text window.

[From: Tayine-S7
Topic: Re: Event Character on Delta Server

I just saw a glimpse of another one that looked out of place; he was dressed in blue, but I didn't get a good look at him before he ran off. It was at Theta: Greedy Law's Messenger. There was another character on Sigma server that looked kinda like him; I think they're related.]

Disbelief filled BlackRose's eyes, and laced her words. "Again?! How many times is he going to appear?"

"I think this is the last time," said Lios. "Take a look at this." Another window appeared, covering the last one.

[From: Tech Support
To: Lios {systemadmin}
Subj: Fwd: -im- is ru-nin- ou-

T- Lio- (To Lios)

I ho-e you go- my -ast one. (I hope you got my last one.)

I h--rd them. It g-es d--n t--orr-w. (I heard them. It goes down tomorrow.)

The- --ll -ry to -et her. (They will try to get her.)

St-p him. --op me. (Stop him. Stop me.)]

"In the parentheses is my best guess. Something is going to happen tonight, and judging by what you've all said, it would seem to involve that which is at the core of 'The World'."

"Then we don't have much time," said Balmung. "As I see it, we have two objectives." He looked at Kite. "One, we have to find where Dean is in the real world. Two, we must get to this last character and find out what, exactly, these people are trying to do, and stop them if we can."

"I'll meet with Max," Kite acknowledged. "The rest of you go to that field and find this new character."

There was a chorus of agreement from the other players.

"I will wait for you all at the weapon shop on Theta server," Lios announced, just before teleporting out of the room.

Kite prepared to follow suit, scooting his chair out and standing up from the table. "Orca, mail Max and tell him I'm on my way to the park." He cast his gaze over his friends, and smiled in earnest. "Everybody... good luck."

BlackRose smiled back at him, her expression relaxed. "You be careful, okay?" she told him, making audible the concern that was absent from her eyes.

"Yeah, I will. And you too."
"Everything's in place?"

"Everything we need. Just have to wait for her now."

"Which 'her' are we talking about, now?"

"The hacker. Once we have her, we move to phase two."

"Right. Collect that AI. That's why we need Helba, right?"

"Something like tha... what the hell?"

"Shit, he's waking up! Get the tranquilizer! Go!"

His feet kicked away flecks of gravel and tiny rocks, scraping with every step along the path. Around him, a park in the very loosest sense of the word; a small patch of green smack in the middle of the suburbs, little more than a narrow walkway through a half-acre of land, carpeted with grass and populated by maple trees. A few benches sat along the path, and a few more flanked a tiny pond.

There were seven others with Hiroshi in the park that he could see, but the one on the nearest bench caught his eye – a blond westerner clad in a purple-and-gray jogging suit, looking just like the description Yasuhiko had phoned to him.

A purpose to his stride, Hiro approached the man on the bench, speaking as he neared. "Open your cask, Tamon."

The man stiffened, then rose from the bench and faced his addressor. His face could only be described as boyish; his jaw, nose and chin were smooth and rounded, and his blue eyes shone brightly in the afternoon sun. The grown-up poster boy of the all-American youth.

"Hello, Hiroshi," greeted Max. "Thank you for coming."

"Hello, Mr. Kerrek." It took the boy only a second to reply, though it took ten for him to grasp that the man was speaking to him in Japanese.

"If what your friend said is true, then there's little time for catching up," said the business agent. "You can fill me in on the details later, but for now I'll tell you what I know."

Hiroshi let his numerous questions lay unasked for the moment. "Please."

"About two weeks ago, Dean contacted me and said he found out something that had to do with Asara Corporation, and specifically our CEO, Aldous Rosenberg. He was the man who authorized our... prior excursion, if you will. I'm sure you remember."

(How could I forget?) thought Hiro. (That's how I met Dean.)

"He wasn't specific, he was just asking me to keep my eyes open. Said it also had to do with someone he used to know, from prison." Max paused, taking a cautious glance left and right. Confident that no one was paying close attention to their conversation, he turned and sat back down on the bench. "He said he might need my help later on."

"Did he say what was going on?" asked Hiroshi.

Max grumbled, brow creased and adding unnatural wrinkles to his forehead. "No, that's the part that bothers me. He's usually fairly explicit in things like this; I can only imagine that he knew just enough to know how serious it was. However, as a precaution," he reached into the pocket of his jogging suit, "he sent me this."

He pulled a small, folded-up envelope out of his pocket. "It's his room key and apartment address. Since I stopped hearing from him, I haven't gotten around to going and checking it out, and with the conference started I'll have even less time to do it. But, if anybody could tell you what's really going on, he could." He offered the envelope to Hiroshi. "And if not him, his notes."

Hiro timidly accepted the envelope; he felt the metal of the key between his thumb and forefinger, buried in the folds of paper and glue. "His notes?"

"He's very meticulous in his notes; reports, documentation... if you can find anything there, it should tell you what you need to know." The agent reached into his pocket again, and pulled out a small handful of yen. "This should cover transportation if you need it."

He was less hesitant about taking the money. "Thanks," he said gratefully. "I'll go check it out."

"All right. I better get going. Anything else I can do for you?"

"Actually, there was one other thing I wanted to know."

Max stood up, watching Hiroshi expectantly. "Shoot."

Hiroshi met Max's eyes, his own hands stashing his newfound possessions. "Why did you name your character after the story? 'The Cask of Amontillado'?"

The agent laughed quietly. "You know, you're one of four people who figured that one out." The laughter died, and he grew more serious. "It's complicated. Ask me again sometime, when you're a little less in a hurry."

Remembering his goal, Hiroshi nodded and started down the path, towards the park entrance. "Will do!" he said as he walked off, seeing Max wave out of the corner of his eye.

Sliding his hands into his pants pockets, Hiro clasped the envelope in his hands and gave it a squeeze. (We're getting closer,) he thought. (Hang in there, Dean.)

- End of Chapter 16