.hack/ Morganna's End rewrite

Chapter 15

Morganna's eyes opened, everything flooded back to her mind. Her spear was gone, and she was trapped in this cage. A wooden cathedral met her eyes. The cage stun her body, and no matter what she did..."I'll get out of here...just you wait..."

Tania's Apartment

Kureno had slept over that night, his mother was going to be gone for a few days. She had agreed to let him stay over for a few days. Many times, she fell asleep against him, and her body would slump over before he would get to sleep. Her eyes slowly opened that morning knowing she was probably in that situation. Kureno's arms were around her body, keeping her close to his chest. He often said that if something happened to his mother, he would want her to adopt him. She would often say back something that he would say he didn't want to happen. However, she moved languidly out of his arms for now. She stretched, pulling a blanket over the sleeping teen's form. She then moved to get herself cleaned and dressed. She came out dressed in kahki pants and a 3/4 sleeve shirt for a change. She pulled her purse on as she pulled out a tea bag of orange pekoe tea for herself. "Tania?"

"What do you want for breakfast Kureno?"

"Pancakes."

"I don't have anything fancy to put with them."

"That's okay, plain pancakes are the best." She laughed as she pulled out the mix box, a medium mixing bowl met her eyes as she pulled out her plastic mixing spoon. The teen moved through to change, going in and out of the bathroom quickly. Sometimes she wondered if he ever got late for school often. Well, he didn't have school today, that was good. For some reason, schools in this place always had breaks everywhere. She laughed slightly at the idea, making no sort of change to her actions.

"So, how late did we stay up last night?"

"I think it was about an hour past morning."

"Makes sense." She yawned slightly. He began to grease the pan for her, starting the stove up. "You seem to be an expert in this, aren't you?"

"My mother isn't always well, if she was my real mother."

"What happened to your real mother?"

"She is off in a drug rehab, they say she'll never recover."

"Then who are you living with?"

"A foster mother."

"Do your relatives ever really take care of you?"

"They just send gifts, they have big famalies already." She nodded to him slightly, what in the world was this teen going through? Her parents were not really spoken to much, but she still knew they were alive. "Besides, I was never very popular with my cousins." She kept mixing, pulling out a soup ladel as she scooped some of the mix with it. She placed it in the pan, watching it begin to cook.

"I know this may sound odd to ask, but has anyone offered to adopt you?"

"No, most of the time they have no one really over. They aren't very popular with adopting couples. They have the worst reputation." The teen's face looked down, and she turned towards him. Embracing his form gently.

"How about...if I adopt you?"

"You want to...adopt me?"

"Yeah, it's nice to have company. I could add to the apartment if I wanted. I have enough money to do anything I want to it. Besides, you're a good kid. You should really be in a place that you want to be. I'll let you think about it. Besides, I don't need an answer right away." She simply continued to finish the pancakes, placing them on a plate. A stack of fifty were on the plate. She placed two other plates on the counter, handing the teen a fork. She placed syrup and butter on between the plates. They then began to eat.

Helba's Work Area

Even though things had gone well for the capture, there was still the one question on her mind. How exactly do they destory Morganna? "Tania always mentioned something about her role, but I can't see the second epitaph like she does." She stared at the screen, all the writing was there. The poem was in front of her, but there was no way for her to read between the lines like they could. Many of the Beta testers had asked her how things were, but Renny was really the only one to react to anything like he did. DA had always been like that, but it was never anything that wasn't unusual. "How do I read between the lines?"

Tania's Apartment

She waited for Kureno to gather what he needed, they were heading to the mall for a little while. It had been a long time since she had been to one without real 'protection.' Her body leaned against the door, waiting almost as if impatiently. "Sorry I took so long!" He was there, looking almost completely out of breath in front of her. She simply patted him on the shoulder, locking the door to her apartment. They moved down to the bus stop. The worn bench was familiar to her body, and the graffiti was the best thing to be around. "Do you really want to...adopt me?"

"Well, yes. To be blunt."

"Why?"

"It's nice to have company around, you really are a good kid. I probably may never marry and have a kid at all. I'm too old." She chuckled slightly. "Besides, you helped me out of one of the worst times in my life. If you ever got hurt, I would do anything I could to help you."

"Elk, thank you so much. I promise I'll see you in the real world."

TBC...