hack//Morganna's Revenge
By: Helbaworshipper
Chapter 3
Kite woke up actually feeling the street's cobblestones. They felt good against his aching body. He didn't know what was happening, but he felt so comfortable just being in a safe zone and warmed by the twilight sunlight. He was sprawled beside the Chaos Gate, looking utterly ridiculous.
Then he tried remembered what had happened and snapped back to reality, where he was still immobile. Funny thing was, he was still in The World.
"Kite! Kite!" Violently shaking, he wanted it to stop. He was scared. "Kite! Come on!" Who's voice was that? Was it Blackrose? Elk or Tsukasa? He was confused. His mind couldn't get anything straight.
"What in the world are you doing? You'll hurt him if you do that!" Who is that. Another voice? Who in the world was talking now? He no longer felt the cold stone ground, he felt arms, and they were strong. What is going on? Who is doing what?
"Kite! Wake up!" Eyes opened, he first saw a blur of pink and gold, along with a siver tinge. He then saw a little blue and white.
"He's up, Blackrose. Give him space and let him come to his senses." A male voice. Kite could once again tell the difference in voices now. The blobs began to take more solid shapes and he began to move his hands around. He felt hard, very dry wood beneath him. He was being rested upon two crates. His Eyes were starting to focus in better to the surroundings. Everything was coming back to him. The cathedral, Mia, and Elk! He looked around more, letting all the settings sink back into his mind.
"Blackrose? Balmung?" Everything was racing through his head's highways again. To him, it felt so much more relaxing.
"What happened? You were unconcious near the Chaos Gate. Balmung had to threaten to kill players who bothered you in order for them to leave you alone." She pointed to the angelic blademaster, and a sweatdrop trickled down her forehead.
"Elk. Tsukasa..."
"Tell me in real sentences, not names, Kite." Balmung nodded at Blackrose' words, and Kite recounted what happened at the cathedral.
D Server Zone: Sleeping Child's Fate
Immense pain... It hurt to move. It was as if a thousand knives were slowly driving into every area on his body. What was under him? Why was it semi-comfortable? Why did it hurt so much?
"Elk!"
Who was calling his name? Was it Mia? Was she all right?
"Mia? Is that you?" He focused only on opening his eyes now. No doubt that, if he tried to move again, it would hurt even more than he could handle. A hand overlapped his own. It felt warm, so warm to the touch.
"Elk, it's me, Tsukasa. You shouldn't try to move." Elk already knew that. Tsukasa's face met his, and he smiled. "I'm sorry this happened to you." He tried to pull some of the vines from the prisoner, but they just dove back, spiralled around him once more, but with a tighter grip. This was just like that time with Aura...
"What do you mean. I was with Mia when..."
"Don't worry Elk, it'll be okay." Tsukasa said, stroking his hand very gently.
"I have to find Mia. I need her..."
"No, you don't have to right now. Your first priority should be to relax. I couldn't heal all your wounds." Elk's brief smile was disrupted by a shooting pain, mass amounts of unbearable, agonizing pain. He began screaming. His cries echoed through the area in a melancholic melody. "Stop it! You're hurting Elk! Leave him alone! Why! Why!?"
"My my... A soft spot for such a weak person. Your loyalty has yet to be tested, Tsukasa You can trust that."
"What do you want me to do?" He knew when Morganna did things like this, it was for a purpose. It was to get his attention. It was always done at the worst possible time.
"I want you to bring your friends somewhere for me. Somewhere deep inside of a field within the S server. The keywords will be so called: Trapped Betrayed Nothingness. Understood?"
"If I refuse?" Tsukasa chimed in, while Elk's screaming became louder. Tsukasa dropped his head and dispatched his snide comment. "Fine... I'll do it." He sighed, and Elk's body was loosened very little from the grip and was knocked unconscious.
L Server Zone: Pulsating Worst Core (Net Slum)
Helba and Wiseman were still talking. Kite had had told everyone within the team what had happened at the cathedral. It was Helba who was not commenting yet on what the twinblade had said.
"There was no data ever saying that you were transported anywhere else. Your logs, and even my logs, say that you were at Hulle Granz. You never left. Of course, she could hide those logs from me." She sounded like her usual, imperious self. Something was now different though. She knew what had happened and gave off the 'I am feeling uneasy' vibe. Data surges like the ones she was receiving recently didn't happen everyday. She had no doubt that what Kite said was true, but there was no keywords in the logs to where Kite might have been. "The fact is, your story does check out, but there is no way to trace the locations of people who have been where... no keyword exists. It may have been a part of that area at some point in time. That is, in the fragment testing stages...and never left. But I have no way of figuring out how to get there right now."
"Well, how are we supposed to find Elk then? He was definately in real, physical pain!" Kite was held back by Balmung because he had been trying to run off to search on his own. The others were beginning to wane, even Helba's voice was edging towards raising her voice in frustration. Somehow, at that point in time, Tsukasa made his entrance fluently.
"Tsukasa is here. I suppose everything would be considered fine then. For now. Where would your little friend Elk be?" Helba asked, her head tilting slightly to the side, ready to go back to monitering her investigation files.
"She... Morganna Mode Gone, was just a little angry, that's all. Elk is fine, Mia saw him earlier." Tsukasa was good at lying for some reason, but this was the hardest to tell. His head lowered, as to not look the others in the face.
"You have no problems now, little boy." Helba gated out with Wiseman. They decided to relocate themselves to discuss the matter further. Balmung nodded to Kite, and then ensuring that Elk would be around again at a later time. He had been busy with something when he noticed Blackrose with Kite before, at the Chaos Gate, where the found him, almost killing him. Tsukasa waited patiently. He knew that he had to continue with this farce. It was his only way to protect Elk.
"Kite...I have a request to ask of you."
"Yes, Tsukasa?"
"I was wondering if you could investigate an area for me. I'm worried about seeing her angry again." This was going beyond his own way of lying. He wanted to stop right there and shout out the truth. Although, unluckily for them, he remembered the line Helba fed most of the people that she met. "Someone is alwayswatching you." Morganna was always watching, and he, more than anyone, knew what she could do to if he did.
"Sure, were you planning on meeting us there later or something?" Kite was oblivious to Tsukasa's insincerity, so he was very optimistic.
"Y.. Yeah. Could you make sure that Wiseman calls Bear there as well? I'm afraid I don't want to bring my friends there directly. I'm rather shaken up right now."
"Sure. What are the key words?"
"S Trapped Betrayed Nothingness." Tsukasa nodded as he gated out. He had to get back. Back before Elk was injured again. Kite and Blackrose made solemn nods, and began making calls to the others.
Q Root Town, Highland City Dun Loireag
Bear sat next to BT on the lush grassland in the mist. His mind was spinning off in other places in The World. "I just don't know. I've been trying to call her for the past half hour. In the real world, that is. She won't even answer the in-house dormatory phone positioned in her room. The school even sent someone in and confirmed that she was still in the game."
"There's no point complaining. It is possible that her new friend has been taking up a lot of her time. Answering flash messages isn't really important to players when they are deeply occupied." BT's hand touched his shoulder, and he nodded, giving a small smile. When a flash mail indicator arrived on his lower screen, he sighed and hesitantly opened it.
Subject: Tsukasa
Earlier, Tsukasa emailed me and a few other members of our team. He requested that we all meet up in a specific area to which we would investigate. Also, he asked me to relay the same request to you and your party. He included a side note indicating that he would find his way there at a later time to give us updates on why we were there.
-Wiseman.
"BT." She turned to face him slowly, hoping to delay some sort of bad news that might have come her way.
"Yes?"
"Tsukasa wants our party, probably meaning you, me, Subaru and the others, to meet him, along with a few of the .hackers to investigate an area. Think you could handle a few for this Old man?."
"You're not that old... Yet." BT smiled, ready for something exciting. Before Bear could counter her mild insult, she gated out with a smirk.
D Server Zone: Sleeping Child's Fate
Tsukasa arrived back, relieved to see that Elk was still safe from the last cycle of Morganna's unbearable torture method. He activated PhalRepth almost immediatly, making no chance for Elk to succumb to death.
"Good boy, Tsukasa. Do you wish to watch your friends' demise?" Tsukasa glanced up at the cloud-blotted sky in the domain, letting no facial expression of mental pain show.
"You're going to kill them?" Tsukasa retorted, shocked.
"Possibly. The concept of death in the world that you break into this realm from is still a mystery to me, Tsukasa. Apparently though, they are not dead for long there. But wouldn't it be utterly fascinating if true death could be discovered?" She was apparently unaware of what a coma was.
"That is because they never died... They were put into a deadly sleep. Also, I would like to see this little plan of yours."
"Then you can watch, live footage, from right there, alongside them. I'll make sure that you don't do anything stupid though, of course." Tsukasa didn't want to leave Elk alone again, not ever again. He made a quick, silent nod, and rested a palm on Elk's forehead very lightly. The vines appeared lifeless when there was no movement coming from the host they surrounded, but as soon as one was broken, it simply reattached itself and tightened down on that area. No matter what happened, he wouldn't be able to free Elk until he figured out a flaw in Morganna's twisted plan.
"I would rather watch from afar, so I won't be double-crossing. I'll stay right here." Morganna seemed sufficed with this explanation and allowed it. A slight invert of the field before Tsukasa changed, opening somewhat of a one-way window to the destination Morganna had planned his friend's destruction.
"Are you happy now, Tsukasa? Have you been given all that you desire at this time? Yes? Good. Now, watch as my ingenious plot unravels before your very eyes."
S Server Zone: Trapped Betrayed Nothingness
Kite waited around, everyone was there, except one person. The dark field looked as menacing as the vines that had been circling the statue. It felt as if everything would suddenly come out and ambush the parties in their wake. A blue-clad heavy axe turned towards him, almost as if by reflex. "Where is Tsukasa?"
"Um... I have no idea. He said that he would meet us here at a later time." Kite looked at the heavy axe. "What is your name, Miss?"
"My name is Subaru." She nodded and bowed. Kite nodded and smiled Tsukasa's accquaintance. A long arm donned in red, greeted Subaru, causing her to turn to Bear.
"Subaru, has Tsukasa contacted you?" Bear said.
"Bear, I've tried everything in my power, but she won't answer. To suddenly act like this, it isn't normal. I am worried."
"What are you two talking about?" Blackrose turned to Mimiru, who was more than happy to explain.
"You heard that Tsukasa was a girl in the real world, correct?" Mimiru whispered this fact into her twin's ear.
"Well..."
"There's no point worrying about it. I'm sure Tsukasa will be here soon." Mimiru's voice became optimistic.
D Server Zone: Sleeping Child's Fate
Elk began to stir, the pain slightly subsided. He could move his hands a little, his body a little numb. He could even manage to turn his head from side to side. "Tsukasa. Is it over yet?" Elk chuckled, trying to create a mildly humorous atmosphere in this dark place.
"Just wait a little longer. I promise you, I will have you out of here soon."
"Tsukasa, what's going on?" Elk was feeling that he was being shielded from the plot.
"Don't worry. You'll be out soon, I promise." Tsukasa effectively avoided the questions his young friend pondered aloud. Morganna's implanted jealousy began to creep back into her. She squeezed the vines holding her captive in a vice grip. "Stop it!" Tsukasa shrieked toward the malevolent sky. The bed beneath Elk and the entanglement of vines began to morph its form into a rather familiar site. The Red Wand.
"Tsukasa! You have disobeyed me yet again! If you continue to babble on about a false hope, I will kill him! Again, do not disobey me Tsukasa. You know my power succeeds yours." He slumped over in defeat. This made the angered voice calm down. Elk's position to return to normal, and the bed returned.
Elk. I promise that I will free you soon. Tsukasa thought, holding on tightly to his friend's hand.