.Hack: Penance
A .Hack fanfiction by Renfro Calhoun

Disclaimer: Project .Hack and attached characters and 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 look like this.) It seems, again, I must apologize for the delay. Between the holidays and my computer troubles it's a wonder I got anything done at all. Be that as it may, hope this chapter isn't too confusing; battle scenes are never easy to write, at least not for me.

On another note, Happy New Year, everyone! :)

Chapter 31 – Everybody Watch, Everybody Wave

Stolls was somewhere between sickened and delighted when the staff smashed across Aura's face, throwing her back several paces and drawing a pained grunt from her player's lips. The fight was but thirty seconds old, and this was the third time he had to remind himself the child before him was no child at all. The short swords she was carrying helped to dispel that image, just enough to keep him from feeling guilty about attacking her.

All around him, the field had exploded into a cacophony of combat, with Stolls' eight companions versus ten other hostiles, none of whom he recognized; he barely had time to even count them before 'Aura' closed in. Kite and BlackRose fought back-to-back against three opponents, the Twin Blade's lighter, mobile fighting style complimenting the slower, more powerful attacks of his partner. TamonAdillo and Sanjuro were struggling to overcome a remarkably deft Wavemaster, while Balmung held two Twin Blades at bay.

Nearby, Orca was dueling with a lone Long Arm, and Ryoko was capably beating back two Axemen, both of whom were considerably larger than she. Though he couldn't keep track of BT, the crack and boom of electricity from his right told him she had her hands full.

His skill points drained, Stolls lunged with his staff, aiming at the purlish-white center of mass; the attack was easily parried, a downward chop with one blade that deflected the staff. Aura countered with a thrust, forcing Stolls to sidestep and adjust his stance.

"I've been waiting for this," growled Felix's voice, incongruous as it came from Aura's mouth. "Ever since San Quentin."

Dean felt his blood boil. "You shank me, and you think YOU have been looking for some payback?!" he hollered, rushing the silver-haired Twin Blade with a wide swing.

"You sold us out!" shouted Felix, raising a sword to block; he was forced to use both when the staff connected, as Stolls shoved against him with surprising strength. "I thought you were a stand-up guy, Stollis, but you were just playing along 'till you got your hands on that money! That's all you ever wanted!"

Stolls backed off from the block, sliding his hands further from the center of the staff. "I didn't have a choice. They found the records you swore were hidden!" he shot back, following up with a series of lightning-quick swings.

Aura ducked the first swing, but the second caught her on the side of the neck, forcing her to stumble. Without missing a beat, Felix kept talking. "Bullshit! You were just itching to stab us in the back! Couldn't wait to get back to Claire with all that dirty money, could you?!"

Stolls was forced on the defensive as Aura launched into a flurry of strikes, some which slipped past his guard and cut into his skin, knocking several hundred hit points away each time, though his eyes were nowhere near the data on his heads-up display. "You FORCED that shit on me!" he hollered. "Your man Scott pulled a gun on me, for Christ's sake!"

He expected Felix to retort, but saw only a malicious grin. Without thinking, he ducked to his left, keeping his head low, and saw a steel blur pass just inches over his hair. Righting himself, he identified the attacker as one of the Axemen Ryoko had been fighting, and gulped loudly as the armored warrior advanced on him. He was only dimly aware that Aura was no longer nearby.

Across the battlefield, Tamon and Sanjuro were having even less luck, kept well out of reach by the Wavemaster's magic as they circled around, searching for an opening. The blonde Long Arm broke into a sprint towards the magician, only to duck out of the way as a stream of fire barreled towards him, narrowly missing. Sanjuro attempted the same, coming at him from a different direction, but met the same result, escaping a fiery demise in the nick of time.

"Damn it," he grunted, gripping his katana with one hand as he backed out of casting range. "I need to get closer…"

"Sanjuro!" hollered Tamon. "Keep him busy, I've got an idea!"

The one-eyed Heavy Blade glanced skeptically at the Long Arm, but guessed his plan when he saw Tamon holding the spear with one hand, looking to throw it. Steeling himself, Sanjuro stormed ahead towards the Wavemaster, and banked right as he countered with the same fire spell as before.

Meanwhile, Orca and Balmung fought against another Long Arm and a pair of Twin Blades, respectively; the former had little trouble landing blows against his lance-wielding opponent, but the latter was almost unable to keep up with the speed of his two targets. Standing perpendicular to where they battled, Ryoko cut a wide swath with her axe, and successfully brought down a Wavemaster with a single mighty strike before locking axes with another of her class, a hulking, armored brute who towered almost comically over her.

"Mnnn," she grunted, drawn thoroughly into the moment; her player madly scrambled with the buttons and joystick, now quite oblivious that it was merely a game. She shifted her stance and applied more pressure to the axe head, which was met in kind by her target.

"You're," grunted the Axeman, "tougher… than you look!" He then broke the hold and reeled back, hollering "For a copy!" as he raised his axe overhead for a downward smash.

Her eyes on the axe, Ryoko didn't have time to ask what he meant as she sidestepped, letting the weapon plow harmlessly into the dirt. She countered with a tight swing, which clipped along his armor, just deep enough to actually harm the man inside, although not for much.

On the other end of the fight, Kite tried desperately to keep a second Long Arm away from BlackRose, who was busy enough with a Heavy Blade and a Blademaster; at least, until the latter of the two shouted to the former, "Keep them busy!" and motioned for the Long Arm to break off and follow him.

Kite tried to follow, but a deft swipe at the back of his legs knocked Kite off his feet. He saw BlackRose scrambling to stand up, having also been knocked down by the attack. The teal-haired Twin Blade angrily faced the remaining Blademaster: a tall, redheaded woman in shining, silver armor and carrying a pitch-black sword.

"You fight like the real Kite," she remarked, amused.

Kite was lucid enough to pick up on this. "Huh?" he muttered. "What are you talk…"

He was interrupted by an earth-shattering "Kiai!" as BlackRose jumped, tumbling head-over-heels in midair and bringing her enormous sword down hard on the Blademaster. She tried to block, but BlackRose effortlessly knocked her weapon aside with the attack, cleaving deep into the woman's head and killing her instantly.

Kite watched, awestruck, as his partner collected herself, stepping away from her fallen adversary. "Wow," he muttered, having never before seen his partner's prowess in player-versus-player combat.

The thorn-tattooed Heavy Blade looked like she might have grinned in different circumstances. Her face was grim as she stared into the melee, watching as Tamon successfully hurled his spear into the chest of a Wavemaster.

Following her gaze, Kite gasped aloud as he saw the Long Arm he had been fighting creep up on Tamon, and before he could cast a spell or do anything to warn him, the blonde spearman met a fate not unlike the Wavemaster he had slain. At the same time, another cry of pain came across the battlefield, sounding distinctly like Balmung's voice.

BlackRose hefted her blade and prepared to charge into battle again, but stopped when one of Kite's hands gripped hers. "Wait," he said, "I have an idea."

She turned to glare at him, but stopped when she saw him raise a flute to his lips and start playing. Mere seconds later, an all-too-familiar "Mon Ami!" pierced the air as a Noble Grunty ran into view at full speed, leaving a trail of dust behind it.

Kite hopped up on the animal without delay, and offered a hand down to BlackRose. "Come on!"

This time, she let a grin appear, and hauled herself up onto the Grunty's back with his help. "Let's go!" she yelled, holding her blade one-handed over her back, the other hand clutching the side of Kite's vest for support.

Together they rode into the fight, in time to watch Balmung dispatch one of the Twin Blades, and Sanjuro arrive to help him defeat the other. As the Grunty sped past, BlackRose spotted the Heavy Blade she had engaged before moving in to even the odds; letting out a holler, she spun her sword around and lashed out at the Heavy Blade, clipping him along the side of the head and knocking him brutally to the ground.

Scanning the battlefield, Kite spotted the ghost of Tamon milling about, somewhat aimlessly, and opened his inventory; he broke out a Resurrection potion and threw it to the Long Arm, shouting "Tamon! Take this!"

Rays of light filtered down over his transparent form, and in a flash, he was solid again. With little fanfare, he gave Kite a thumbs up and spun his spear expertly as he rejoined the fight.

BlackRose hopped down off the Grunty to finish off the Heavy Blade, leaving Kite alone on the back of the beast. The boy managed a small, satisfied smile when he saw three more of the attackers fall; Ryoko took out her Axeman, Orca struck down his Long Arm, and BT, whom had been quietly charging her skill points along the outskirts of the melee, crushed a hapless Long Arm beneath massive, magically-summoned rocks.

"Shit!" hollered the Twin Blade fighting Balmung. "There's too many of them! I'm bailing, I don't need it that badly!"

As he gated out, the only other survivor, an Axeman, seemed to share the sentiment. "Never fought anything THIS tough before… I'm outta here!"

The ghosts of the other players soon left, forced out of the field by their party's departure, leaving the heroes by themselves.

Eyeing his surroundings with a steely gaze, Balmung was first to speak up. "Is everyone okay?"

"Just fine, I think," replied Orca.

"Yes," said Ryoko between pants. "I'm okay, but… who were those players?"

Climbing down from his Grunty, Kite sheathed his weapons and straightened out his vest. "I don't know. There was something weird about that girl…" he glanced at BlackRose. "Did you hear what she said? Before you, uh… I mean, before you attacked?"

She shrugged. "I dunno… I heard her say your name, though."

"There's something off about this," said Tamon, lightly tapping the bottom of his spear against the ground. "Those didn't seem like the guys Dean's been after." He then pointed the tip of the weapon at Orca, and then at Balmung. "And if they were players, they sure as hell should've known who YOU were, at least…"

Sanjuro furrowed his brow. "He's right. They had to have been duped, there's no way they would've come after us like that out of the blue."

"Didn't…" Orca began, trailing off as his eyes shifted upwards, as if reading invisible lines of text. "Yeah, that guy controlling Aura… he said 'Monroe, let's introduce them to our contestants.'"

BlackRose swallowed. "That's the name from before." She turned to Ryoko. "Remember? When they tried to kidnap Aura the first time?"

"Um… hey," muttered BT, joining the conversation. "Hey!" she repeated louder, getting everyone's attention. "Where's Stolls?"

(Goddamnit… where did you go, you son of a bitch…)

Stolls crept by a small natural archway, placing one hand on the rock as he peered around it, searching for Aura. During the battle, a well-timed blast from BT knocked the Axeman away, giving Stolls time to spot the footprints that led away, into a small, rocky portion of the field. Determined to catch Felix, he followed them, but now he wondered if leaving the group wasn't the smartest idea he'd ever had.

(Easy, Dean… easy,) he thought, trying to calm himself. The controller was slick in his hands, and reflexively he tightened his grip on his character's weapon, ready to strike anything that got close enough.

"I know you're there, Dean," called Felix mockingly, his tone growing increasingly hostile. "You never could let things go, could you? Never knew when to just walk away?!"

"You never gave me that option," Stolls replied. "It was either play dumb or get suicided."

"Is that what you've been telling yourself, Mr. Boy Scout? Or is that just what you're telling me?"

Stolls glowered, vaguely addressing the direction Felix's voice was coming from. "Scott pulls a gun on me and threatens to kill me AND my parents, and then your dumbass friends leave behind everything IA needed to throw me in a cell 'till the end of the next decade! And you have the nerve to talk to ME about walking away?!"

"I didn't want to believe you'd sell us out, Stollis, but it was always there, in the back of my mind. 'He's just a goody-two-shoes,' they said. 'He doesn't have the stomach for this,' they told me."

A pair of soft footsteps prompted Stolls to whirl around, finding himself face-to-face with Aura, a pained look on her pale, fragile face. "I stood up for you," said Felix. "I knew you wanted to provide for Claire, more than what a cop's salary could offer."

"I. Didn't. Have. Any. Choice!" Dean yelled, enunciating each and every word. He could feel his face growing red with anger, but he had long since ceased to care; hefting his staff, he charged toward the possessed girl, eager to swing as many times as it would take to get him to stop talking.

Aura smiled coldly. "I suppose you didn't." Before Stolls could reach her, there was a slight hissing noise, followed by the sound of someone gating out. Aura's face returned to an empty stare, and she collapsed lifelessly on the ground, her blades slowly disintegrating into nothingness.

Stolls stopped, literally in mid-step. All the hatred at once drained from him, and he knew that Felix was gone.

Sighing wearily, he approached the fallen girl, dropping to one knee to examine her more closely. She didn't so much as budge, her hair and dress askew yet unmoving. Hesitantly, he reached out to touch her, and was startled when his hand met with resistance; skin, hair, and even folds of cloth were utterly immovable, as sturdy as if she was a statue.

A full color, flesh-and-blood statue.

A thousand questions ran through his mind, each generating a thousand possibilities, yet only one shone through the confusion, one that caused his stomach to turn.

He heard footsteps from his left, his right, from all around; he couldn't be sure where, but within seconds his companions had surrounded him, and Aura.

"Dean?" Kite's voice called, timid and uncertain.

The detective answered, just as unsteadily: "I think they got her."

"The administrator you seek is not currently available."

The letters glowed in the message hanging before his eyes, irritating and mystifying. "Where the hell did he go?" muttered Stolls, reclining into the wooden chair, which seemed to barely hold up his battered, weary figure.

For lack of a better idea, the group retreated from the field to a private room, only to find that Lios had stepped away from his desk, or lost his connection, or any one of a dozen or so potential maladies.

"It just doesn't make any goddamn sense," said Tamon, one of the five who was still there, head placed firmly in his hands, elbows propped up on the table. "Number one, how do you take her out without a hacker, and number two, why would she just be lying there if all they did was make a copy?"

Ryoko left shortly after they exited the field, ostensibly to tend to chores offline, and on the promise that she be briefed upon her return. Orca left for similar reasons, the thirty-six minutes of combat and dialogue just pushing him over the one-hour limit set by his mother. Sanjuro left without a word, seeming more pensive and quiet than was his nature, and Balmung followed his lead, silent but clearly haunted.

"They did something to Helba that first time," said BlackRose, snapping her fingers. "He… well, he kissed her, remember, and then they took over? Could they have done that to Aura?"

"Then why wouldn't they have done that in the first place?" BT countered, keeping an air of resolve, though her eyes betrayed a darker emotion.

"I don't know," BlackRose admitted. "Maybe they couldn't find her?"

Kite nodded to BlackRose. "She was… dormant, I think, wasn't she?"

"Perhaps," said BT. She noticed Stolls lower his head, facing the rest of the group. "Any luck?"

"Not a word," replied Stolls. "Guess he stepped away from his desk or something. That figures."

"So what do we do now?" she asked.

Stolls kneaded his temples, shaking his head back and forth. "Well, I'm out of ideas. This was kind of a long shot as it was… now we got nothin'."

"Don't be so sure, detective."

All five turned at the sound of Lios' voice, his avatar emerging from a darkened corner of the room. "I'm sorry for that. The boss wanted to see me, I couldn't get out of it." His tone, bearing hints of apology, quickly grew more serious. "But I think I've found something you should have a look at."

A text box appeared at the head of the table, between Lios and the players. "I was monitoring those ten players who attacked you, and I noticed a few discrepancies. First of all, they appeared to share an IP address."

Tamon crooked an eyebrow. "Ten of them? That's not possible. That'd mean all ten of them were alternates… on the same account or computer something. Wouldn't it?"

"If they're on the same network," said Lios, "the administrator could mask them if he knew what he was doing. It'd look like a discrepancy on our part, unless you took into account this next piece of information." The box flashed, and more text appeared, listing player names and logoff times, all ten of them at the exact same time, down to the second.

"I don't understand," said Stolls. "Are you trying to say they're all the same character?"

"They're all the same account," Lios corrected, "linked in such a way that ten can be logged on from one account at the same time. Even if they log off at different times, only one time is listed – that of the last character."

"So, what does that mean?" asked BT.

"It sounds like a place where there'd be a lot of computers," BlackRose answered. "Maybe an internet café?"

"Any place with a network," said Stolls. "That narrows it down, but not by much. Can you show me that IP, again? I know a couple guys who may be able to do something with it."

Lios eyed Stolls questioningly, but complied, showing the previous screen. "I hope you know what you're doing," he muttered.

"Yeah… me too."

- End of Chapter 31