.Hack: Penance
A .Hack fanfiction by Renfro Calhoun

Disclaimer: Project .Hack and attached concepts/characters 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.) Well folks, it seems like ol' Renfro can't count to save his life. Once and for all, there will be 21 chapters for Dean and 21 for Hiro – totaling 42. There will also be one epilogue, so ultimately it will be 43 chapters, all in all. Yes, I know, it's technically another extension, but fret not! The end is coming quite soon.

It's been a long haul for all of us, and for me sometimes it got downright painful to keep up with the work. Still, this is a labor of love in the very real sense, and I'd like to thank each and every one of you who read this story and decided to keep reading it; you're one of the reasons I've kept writing. Thank you, thank you for everything.

This chapter done to the tune of: Headhunter OST – Jack's Dream

Chapter 40 – A Final Layer

He could hear her breathing as he hung up. The office was just that quiet.

"Are you okay?" Miku asked, taking a tentative step towards Dean.

"Yeah," he said, his voice dry and shaky. His hand was still on the phone, palm slick with sweat. He didn't look up as she neared, instead staring into the darkened computer monitor, which stared back at him emptily.

"You left so suddenly." More footsteps. Dean finally released the phone and looked at her, his face cast in a flat, tired expression. She saw hints of darker emotions in his eyes; despair, sadness, pain, all evidenced by what might have been tears starting to well up.

Sensing her gaze, Dean looked away for a moment, wiping his eyes clean. "Ah, I… I was just…" he clamped his lips shut, exhaling through his nose. "I was hoping to get ahold of 'em… mom or dad."

"They weren't there?" she guessed.

He shook his head. "I got the machine. Just as well, I mean… I don't know what I'd say to 'em anyway." Kneading his forehead with one of his hands, he added, "I just had to tell them something. Something, just in case."

She didn't have to ask what he meant. The thought sent a chill through her, along with traces of another feeling, something warmer that she wasn't ready to face. "Do you really think it'll come to that?" she asked in a small voice.

"It might," Dean said with a certain finality. "They got Hiro. I don't know how, but they did. I… I can't imagine how he's feeling right now, what they're doing to him." His voice started to shake again, and he swallowed loudly. "He, uh… his dad's stateside, they're, uh… they're separated and all. I was kinda looking after him, y'know? I wanted to make sure he'd be okay."

"This whole thing," he continued, "it's just too much to ask someone that young. I know he's a good guy, and he's… he's a hero, too, but he's still just some kid. Some guy who wanted his friend back." He sighed. "He deserves better than this. I kept telling him, he'd have a life after this was all over…" Dean trailed off for a second, and started a second train of thought. "And then there's Aura… another kid who lost her parents, sort of… held somewhere – god only knows where. Jesus, it's just too much."

His head fell slightly, a few of the longer locks of his hair falling over his forehead, one hand feebly clasping the end of the desk. Miku could hear him breathing; long, deep puffs of air, the kind one would take to calm a pounding heart or shattered nerves. She fought back the urge to cringe, and was struck by another wisp of that warm feeling, a feeling meant for one person in particular, though she still wasn't quite ready to address it.

Her hand touched his shoulder, and he exhaled, slowly and softly. "Miku, I…" he murmured, glancing up at her. "I don't know what to do."

She was lost for words, staring pitifully at him. Defeated, battered and badly cut, the detective looked only a little better than the man she had shot to save him. That same mysterious emotion compelled her to say something – anything – to cheer him up, but she found nothing. Part of her chided herself for being bad with words when they were most needed.

Another part of her was too busy gazing into his dark brown eyes, and she could tell he was similarly preoccupied.

"Still…" he said, breaking the brief silence. "I gotta thank you again, Miku… for everything, I mean."

She drew her hand away from his shoulder. "What do you mean?" she asked rhetorically, wanting to hear what she suspected he meant.

"You've done a lot for me, you know," he said, his voice coming through clearer, his mind off the pain, the worry. "And you didn't have to. I-I know, Ryo and some of the others said you were kinda on the quiet side, and I respect that, I do…" he stopped to swallow again. "You really came through for me, though. And, I don't know exactly why… but I want you to know that I couldn't have gotten this far without you. No matter why you did it, I just wanted to thank you once more."

"Dean?" she said, half flattered and half perplexed by his change in tone.

"I don't what's gonna happen," he started, sniffing and looking away from her, "but no matter what…"

There was a subtle quiver in the words 'no matter what'; that chill came back, along with its companion emotion. "Stop," she whispered.

He met her eyes again. "Huh?"

"Stop talking like that," she clarified, now quite obviously an order.

"Wha… what do you mean?" he asked, craning his neck back to face her directly.

It was her turn to sound uncertain. "Like you're… going to die."

He inhaled sharply, recoiling. "Miku, I… I-I wasn't…" Speechlessness overtaking him, he rose to his feet, pushing back the swivel chair in the process.

Miku clenched and unclenched one of her hands, then the other. "Do you want to know why?" she asked, though not exactly as a question. "It's… it's…"

"What?"

She let out a low, grumbling noise of frustration. "It's because I like you," she finally blurted out. "At the start, I guess I was just interested in what you do." She watched him closely, hurriedly explaining to his look of confusion. "Despite it all – the kidnappings, the gunfights, the mysteries – I was interested. Or maybe even because of it all… the danger, excitement, it was all so… different." A bit of hesitation lined her words, her brow furrowing as she tried to form more of them. "But you weren't that different at all."

"You're a nice guy, Dean. You care about other people – even people you haven't met; you keep in touch with your parents, you worry about things…" she gave that soft chuckle of hers, a ghost of a smile on her lips as she visibly relaxed. "When Ryo first told me about you, I thought you'd be some kind of cliché hard-boiled detective type, like in an action movie or something, but the more I see you… the more I realize you're just a normal guy."

"You're like no man I've ever met, Dean… and yet, you are." Her smile grew, causing him to return the favor, his own demeanor lightening.

"You're an intriguing woman, Miku," he whispered back. He was almost oblivious to the fact that she'd taken a step closer. "Something about you…" he lifted a hand, gently running his fingertips along one of her cheeks.

Her head tilted slightly into his touch, her eyes still trained on him, her heart beating a little faster. She was surprised how smooth his hand was, and couldn't help but chuckle again when her nose detected the scent of lilac.

His face grew more serious. "I'm not going to die, Miku," he said softly. "I promise."

"You'd better not," she replied. "I'm not always going to be there to save you."

"Hah," he grunted, amused. "I'll keep that in mind." He smiled at her, his hand falling from her face, sliding down her arm.

Before he could take his hand off her, she took another step closer, bringing her body quite close to his. This action prompted him to slide his free hand around her waist, drawing her even closer. She relented, lifting her arms and wrapping them around his neck, as his tightened around her back.

Pressed to his modest frame, she found herself staring into his eyes once more, the smile gone from his face but the feeling still there.

Dean inhaled deeply, savoring the scent of her hair, which bore remarkable resemblance to that of the hand lotion he was particular to. Her warm, slender body molded nicely against his, and he found his face nearing hers, tilting to one side expectantly.

She matched his move, stiffening briefly as her lips sought and met his in a tentative kiss. He gave a pleasurable sigh as the kiss gradually grew more intense, not yet lust but clearly more than like. She groaned into his lips as one of his hands stroked her back through her sweater, causing her to press herself even more firmly to him.

His eyes shut of their own accord as they continued to kiss, his hand moving further up her back to caress her hair, the silken strands lightly tickling his sensitive fingertips. He shivered in delight as one of her hands dropped from his shoulder and began rubbing up and down his arm, encouraging his own touches.

Less than a minute passed, though both felt it closer to five. Their lips parted with a wet smack, both panting heavily, faces flushed as they stared at each other.

"Dean," she said in a hushed voice, seeing a spark within his eyes she'd never noticed before.

He saw much the same, his body almost trembling. "I…" he said breathlessly. "Miku…"

A knock at the door startled both, though they didn't immediately release each other. Dean let one of his arms drop and turned to face the intruder, Miku doing likewise.

Francis stood in the doorway, looking slightly amused, a clipboard in hand. "Am I interrupting something?" he asked rhetorically.

Dean slowed his breathing, reluctantly letting go of Miku. "What's going on?"

The middle-aged security official stepped into the office, towards the desk. "There's something I think you should see."

"Wait, how's Aura doing?" Dean asked. "Did you make any progress?"

Francis frowned. "Helb… Yumi is still working on it, but it doesn't look good. She doesn't think we can free her before she opts for self-termination, at least not without the code."

Miku raised an eyebrow. "The code?"

"Some kind of contingency system," said Francis. "Perhaps in case they needed to access her before it was done. Problem is, it requires a unique code to do it, and it appears to be a combination of numbers and images." He shook his head, giving an aggravated sigh. "We can't just guess it, and there's too many combinations to try them all. She's trying to hack around it, but she said we should get to that code ASAP."

"Shit," muttered Dean. "And I'd bet you a million the only guys who have that wouldn't exactly part with it willingly."

"She thinks it's the insider. It has to be someone that knew about Aura, and someone familiar enough with our networks to tailor something like this for her."

"That can't be too many people," said Miku.

"Three, actually." Francis scoffed. "I'm one of them. The other two are the President and Vice-President, Yusuke Hakamura and Kyoya Takahashi."

Dean nodded. "Everything we've got so far points to Takahashi. Wasn't he the one responsible for those purges? Supposedly he fired a lot of the design staff for 'The World,' everybody that knew about the AIs and stuff?"

"Basically," said Francis, "although that's not exactly unprecedented. We had pretty high turnover for most of the last decade."

"I see," Dean replied. "So, what's that?" he asked, gesturing to the clipboard.

Francis glanced down at the paper on the board. "Oh, right. Ahem. This whole thing with Sato got me thinking about that night; I didn't understand why he would come after you." He eyed Dean questioningly. "Not too many people know about it, but those that do know that Shinji was killed by those two goons."

The memories of that night came back en masse; sepia-toned flashbacks of a loud pop and the breaking of glass, walking back into a bedroom and finding the body of a bespectacled Japanese man slumped over to one side, a large hole in his head and a flickering laser dot on the wall.

Dean gave a small growl, which came out sounding more like an annoyed sigh. "Why did you send those men after us, that night? I mean… I know why, but why'd you have them kill Shinji?"

Francis flinched at the accusation, but continued without missing a beat. "That's just it. I didn't, and yet apparently I did."

Dean and Miku let out a simultaneous "huh?" The former asked "Wait, what? What are you talking about?"

"Whoever sent those men out was in charge of security for that night," he said, "which, when I'm not here, is whoever's highest in rank. I wasn't working that night, but when I looked at the records I found out that someone had signed me in. The orders to take you and your friends out…" he looked uneasy for a moment, shifting his balance, "were given in my name." He showed the clipboard to Dean, a printout of a timesheet, with Francis' name circled in pen. "I'm telling you, though, I wasn't there that night."

"How can that be?" Dean questioned. "I… I spoke to a man who claim… well, I asked if it was Lios, and he…" He faltered, the events in his mind triggering an alarm. "He… never actually said he was…"

"Someone… wanted them to think you were responsible?" Miku asked. "I don't understand…"

Dean lowered his gaze to the floor. "It was a CYA. In case anyone actually dug into that night, they'd find Frank here was calling the shots that night. Nobody did, though… Rosenberg and CC got away clean."

"So, whoever the insider is," Francis began, "they were able to sign me in, make Sato think you killed Shinji, and they're responsible for collaborating with Rosenberg to erase Aura."

Miku peered curiously at Francis. "Are you sure it can only be one of those two?"

He gave a challenging stare. "Trust me, I know. Nobody else with the clearance to access the logs and the know-how to cover up what happened also knows about Aura, and vice versa. The only people that leaves are the two heads of the company."

"I remember hearing they had to change the keynote speaker," said Miku. "The president had something personal to attend to, I think."

"Right," said Dean. "Takahashi was there, but his bodyguard left during the speech. So we can't count out either one just yet."

"Yumi claimed that the men were talking about her ex-husband – Takahashi," Francis remarked, "and apparently he was planning on stopping by, after they'd killed all of us, of course. She says they left when they heard the gunshot." With a frown, he added, "But, considering who she is, her word hardly counts as evidence."

"Why would they just leave her there, though?" Dean wondered aloud. "I'd be worried she could counter the programming."

Francis idly scratched his jaw. "I know, that puzzles me, too."

"So, it's all pointing to Takahashi, but there's no proof." Miku turned to Dean. "Why would they try so hard to get rid of Aura, anyway? We still don't know that, do we?"

Dean shrugged. "Everything I've learned about Aura suggests she knows something. Whoever it is, he wants her gone and all memory of her." He snapped his fingers. "Wait, wait! Is it possible for you guys to communicate with her? Is she still sending messages to that computer?"

"Last I checked. Why?"

"Ask her about Takahashi," he urged. "Ask her what she knows."

"Eh?" grunted Francis. "You really thing it could be that simple?"

"Never know 'till you try," Dean answered. "Everyone I've talked to says that she's basically like a human being – at least, she's that complex. Even you."

"I… suppose we could try," Francis said slowly. "Maybe it would even help her along, keep her from losing it until we can find that code."

"It's as good a plan as any." Dean faced Miku. "C'mon, let's go find Masamoto, see if we can't track down Felix and Hiro." To Francis, he said, "If you guys can find out who the insider is, we can get the code from them."

Francis nodded. "We'll do what we can."

"All right, I want two teams to check each hole, see if there's any evidence of activity in the past couple hours. And get those extra pictures out as soon as you can, add 'em to the APB."

Dean heard a collective "Yes, sir!" – more or less, as it was in Japanese – from the small group of police officers, who promptly scattered from police car. The officer leading him, a youngish man named Koji, motioned to the Lieutenant, who stood near the hood of the car, holding some sort of schematic flat against it.

Police had cordoned off a small section of Cyber Connect's ground-level parking lot, using it as a mobile command post; uniformed men and women buzzed this way and that, a dull roar of chatter that was overpowered by nearby traffic. High above, the moon shone brilliantly, its glow aided by the lights of the many nearby office buildings, adding a light haze to the night sky.

Masamoto looked up in time to see Dean, Koji and Miku approach. He waved them over. "Dean! Just who I needed to see."

"Likewise," said Dean. "We've been working with CC security; we've determined that the only people who could've pulled this off are either Takahashi or Hakamura."

"The President and Vice-President?" Masamoto asked, incredulous. "Are you positive?"

"Yeah, they're trying to find out which of them it is. We think Aura has the evidence, they're looking into it right now."

"I see." Masamoto looked grim. "Anyway, we've found out how they were able to exit the building without being spotted."

"Really? How's that?"

Masamoto indicated the blueprint, pointing to one corner with his index finger. "There's a shaft here that feeds piping into the building from the sewer. A crawlspace into the subbasement leads into that shaft, and…" his finger drifted along a single white line, contrasting starkly with the blue of the paper. "There's a small tunnel that runs from the shaft to the sewers, but after a few yards it's too narrow for anybody to get through." His finger stopped about six inches up the line. "However, it does pass over a subway line here."

"They used the subway?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, it looks that way. They left their vehicles behind, but not much in them. One of them was registered to Cole Evans, apparently he was one of the guards who was supposed to be on the floor with you." He released the blueprint, rolling it up into a tube. "We found the other guard in the bathroom – one Erin Todd – tied up and knocked out. She didn't see who hit her, but she did say that Cole vanished in mid-shift and she was looking for him when she was attacked. No sign of Cole, though."

"He might be in on it." Dean folded his arms over his chest. "There was another one – Takeshi Himaru – he disappeared just before Sato attacked."

"Right," said Aniki. "It was the same for him; his car was in the lot, but he's nowhere to be found."

"So they're using the subway to get around." Dean rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "That explains how they've been staying out of sight, at least."

"There's a subway exit near the convention center," Miku said helpfully. "That line runs under both the Expo and the conference."

"And there was one by Shikima, too," Dean added.

Masamoto nodded. "We're looking into similar exits in those buildings. And I think we've found their last hideout. That same subway line runs all the way to the east side, out in the same area where we found your phone."

An anxious look appeared on Dean's face. "Are you serious? Where is it, where are they hiding?"

"I'm waiting on a callback from two tenements on that street, we faxed over some photos a few minutes ago."

"Perfect," Dean said. "So, I guess we just… sit tight and wait for some answers."

He hiccupped noisily, trying to suppress them by holding his breath; his body shook, seated on the bed, alone in the spartan bedroom. The walls were plain white, the floor heavily-matted brown carpet. Apart from the door, the bed and himself, the room was featureless and empty.

(What are they gonna do to me?) Hiroshi questioned silently. (What are they gonna do to her?)

The whole incident was etched in his mind; the blonde-haired man claiming to know Dean, the hushed conversation at the lounge, the words "Come with me or Aura dies." Being led to the stairs, into a small hatch in the subbasement, and through a maze of tunnels leading to a subway platform. He was tempted several times to cry out for help, to run, to offer some kind of resistance, but the phony officer's stern gaze and words of warning thoroughly dissuaded him.

It was all he could do not to burst into tears, and even trapped in an apartment bedroom he was reluctant to purge himself of his fears, his worries, his pain.

(C'mon, Hiro, keep it together. You know they're looking for you right now. Akira saw you, she had to have gone for help. Dean's out there, too. They'll find you. Don't worry!)

Another hiccup. His body wasn't buying it.

He wanted to check the time, but the man had taken all of his possessions, including his watch. Apart from that, however, Hiro hadn't been mistreated; somewhat to his surprise, he wasn't handcuffed, or blindfolded, bound or gagged in any way, restricted only by the locked door and the threat of Aura's death if he tried to raise an alarm.

(I don't even know if he's telling the truth or not… they might just kill her anyway.) He shivered. (And… and me… oh, how did this happen? Please, someone… tell me someone's coming!)

There were footsteps outside the room, followed by voices. "Is he here?"

The voice of his captor answered the newcomer. "Yeah, he's in the bedroom. Hasn't made a peep since, but he was cooperative."

"Good. Everything's as planned, then. Sebastian's getting the money and bringing it over right now. We'll just sit tight and keep a watch. Once we get it, we head to the airport and we're home free."

A third man's voice, mildly impatient. "And what do we do with the kid?"

The second man chuckled. "Nothing, unless my old partner shows up. They should still be dealing with our mess back at CC. If he does, however… well, I'll deal with that."

Hiroshi hiccupped again, choking back a sob. He couldn't even form thoughts, save for one.

(Hurry up, Dean… please. Please.)

End of Chapter 40