.hack//FRAGMENT

Saya

version 25.0

Finale

new topic posted 10.17.06

This is the last segment in our not-so-little tale. You'll miss me, right? I'm almost sad to see this project come to an end, but I knew from the beginning that it would have to eventually.

Erika and Koto immediately recognized the man (everyone recognized the girl so there's no point in mentioning that revelation). "You're the dude who programmed Sky!" the Heavy Blade pointed an accusing finger at the figure wearing the suit with said little girl floating a few inches above the ground beside him.

Not that the accusing finger did anything really, except maybe make the man smirk. What was with that confident attitude? It was grating on everyone's nerves (and that's sad, because it's usually just me who gets annoyed). "Brilliant deduction, my dear. And what do you plan on doing about it?"

"We aren't here for you," Claire cut in before the impulsive brunette could say anything more. She would have undoubtedly made the situation worse.

"Brave and very clichéd words," the man said, his arms still crossed over his chest with that annoying smirk on his lips. The blonde balled her hands into fists and bit at the corners of her mouth to stop herself from saying anything. If there was one thing you did not do, it was say that anything the Blade Master did was clichéd.

They may not have originally been there because of the man, or even because of Sky now that they thought about it, but he had just put himself at the top of Claire's "must die" list.

Wait a minute, why were they there? The area didn't look infected in the least. With a satanic smile on her lips, the girl flaunted her power in an attempt to instill fear in the chess pieces in front of her. "You still haven't figured it out yet? I made sure you believed that these 'Net Slums' were infected so that you would come. We," she looked at the man beside her, "thought that now would be the perfect time to stop Aura. She has been roaming free for too long."

Her violet eyes held fast onto Erika's sky blue ones. The Twin Blade would not back down and stared back. And it was the ethereal AI who broke contact first when she saw something fly toward the floating figure: it was a spell Amaya had aimed. She winced and flew backwards a few centimeters after the impact before her eyes widened in surprise, just like the eyes of the man beside her. "How did you do that?" she asked angrily.

And then continued, "How did you hit me? You are not supposed to be able to hit me! I am the ultimate being in 'The World,' you cannot touch a divinity!"

"No weapons should be able to touch Sky…" the man said.

But these weren't ordinary weapons (just a wild guess, you know). "Didn't we find these with Aura's fragments?" Koto asked, staring curiously at her own large blade as she held it easily in front of her face with one hand.

As usual, at the sound of the name, Sky's glare snapped to the speaker (me, in this case). "Of course, even after she had disappeared from this place she left traces of herself," the glare moved once again onto the white-clad Twin Blade. "She cannot help but meddle…"

A nice little gift left by their benefactor, who also happened to be standing in their little group (thank you, you have my eternal gratitude, my dear…and no, that isn't sarcasm, and I am not crossing my fingers behind my back, that would make typing extremely difficult). "I call what you're doing meddling, Sky," Erika said, stepping forward and lifting her chin (not out of confidence, but because the other girl was still floating). The Twin Blade went to attack, but was knocked over onto the ground.

"Aura abandoned this world, she doesn't deserve it!"

"Now what? Now that she knows we can hit her, we can't hit her!" Koto yelled, lifting her hands up in annoyance (did that comment make any sense?).

Claire examined their group and mumbled to herself. "You guys help Erika against Sky, I'll take the suit…" she said with satisfied smile. Revenge would be sweet; he'd regret having said she was clichéd.

The others watched for a moment as she sprinted forward and slashed her sword down, trailing darkness as she did so, and her blade was reflected off of thin air. A smug smile remained on the man's face, though it disappeared a moment later when a cut appeared on his cheek (talk about your delayed reaction, and I thought I could get bad).

All things considered, had the strike actually made impact the damage would have been a lot greater. "You can hit me, too?" he asked with a stunned look on his face while his one hand covered the lightly bleeding wound (clearly, since you're bleeding!).

Claire did not answer as she launched forward again, this time as she struck a bolt of lightning struck the man as well. The blonde looked reproachfully back at the others and her blue eyes fell upon her old friend, the Wave Master. "You can't fight him alone, and I think the others have enough help that they won't be needing me…" Amaya declared before sending a ball of flame in the man's direction.

Erika, Koto, and Death decided to turn their attention to their most immediate problem: what to do about Sky. The white-haired girl stood back as her two friends tried to attack the floating girl time and again to no avail. She leapt out of the way just in time to avoid their attacks every time, laughing all the while.

Enough was enough, right? Erika couldn't let her friends get defeated by an AI that wasn't fighting back, right? But what if she actually did defeat Sky? What would happen to her then, now that she knew what, or rather who, she truly was?

"A little help here, Erika!" the Heavy Blade yelled as she picked herself off the ground after having been thrown a few feet from where she was only moments before. They couldn't so much as land a hit, despite the fact that they were two of the best in the group (I'm not being conceited, I'm just telling the truth).

The girl shook her pale head and nodded decisively; it was clear that she decided to take her chances with the here and now rather than the future. She nodded to her two friends who jumped forward, ready to attack Sky at the same time. Of course, she dodged at the last instant, but she jumped backwards just as Erika had appeared there with her arms outstretched to embrace the other girl.

The two of them floated into the sky, even Claire and Amaya stopped fighting with the man wearing the suit to watch as the two girls were surrounded in a silver light. "You're the last piece to my puzzle, Sky. You are a part of me, and it is time we finally came together again," the white-haired Twin Blade whispered, though somehow her voice carried to all the others.

"No!" the suited man cried and tried to reach out to the girls but was stopped by Claire and Amaya. When Erika reemerged from the light, Sky was nowhere to be found. "Where is she? What did you do to her?"

Erika floated a few centimeters above the ground so that her long white skirt was now just brushing the dirty streets of the Net Slum city. "She's where she belongs, where she should be. Thank you for taking care of her for so long." She looked at her friends with a confused expression on her face, one that was very obviously Erika.

"What do we call you now?" Koto asked.

The girl shrugged, "Aura, I guess. Erika's alright, too, if it's easier; I like the name."

"So now what?" Claire asked from where she was still pinning the man's arms to his sides. "What happens next?"

"Nothing, I guess. 'The World' will start repairing itself and eventually become normal again. But that's it; I can't go back to the other world."

"Then is this goodbye?" Death asked, his voice as cool as ever, though there was the faintest flicker in his eyes. The only thing that might suggest there was something bothering his calm demeanor.

The girl shrugged again, typical Erika. "Nope, I'm still here, you guys can always visit me," she added with a wink before the group was engulfed in a golden light. She was taking them someplace far away while she worked on repairing the world that was hers.

Goodbye