Hello everyone! Sorry for the long wait. I'll be honest: I haven't felt like working on this fanfiction lately. I've been spending my time working on Flash animations and playing Tales of Legendia and Tales of Symphonia. But regardless, here is the next chapter.

Now, sorry for poor grammar at the end of the last chapter. For some reason, doesn't allow a ? followed by a ! or vise versa, and, not realizing this, I did that many times, so as a result the ?got cut of and question sentences ended with a ! instead of a ?

Now, I forgot to mention this, but my last chapter was my anniversary update. Yes, I started writing this fanfiction in March 2005. I just didn't upload it untilSeptember.

I'd like to take the time to reply to all of my reviewers! I love you all! Except for you, Haka. You bother me. Anyway, replies:

Rayne: Wow, you left a lot of reviews! Half of them didn't even pertain to the story! Oh, well. Thanks a lot for standing up to Haka for me.

Lady Tzarah: Again, enough with the Furuba yaoi! But thanks for standing up to Haka.

anonimious: Huh?

james: Thanks! I want to make him have some new powers, I just don't know what yet.

The New Shinigami Hikari: Yep, they sure are!

Steeple333: It did, right?

Puppyguy13: OK, more is here!

Magical Girl Pretty Sammy-Chan: Thanks for the review!

Haka: Go away! If you don't like the story, don't read it! I'm not holding a gun to your head here! Flames are immature and unhelpful. And worse yet, not only did you rudely and openly express your distaste for this story, but you actually read through the whole thing and flamed it multiple times!Besides, I'd like to see you do better.If you hate the story, close the window and find something to do with your life other than unfairly judge other people's fanfiction!

Anyway, I still don't own .hack/sign.

Oh, and I have a cookie question for you all. If you can find the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time reference in this chapter, I will give you a special prize. (Not sure what yet, but whatever)

You will also likely notice some Tales of Symphonia references if you've played the game through. I've had Tales ofSymphonia controlling my brain lately and so when I realized that Skeith had an attack called Judgment and SPOILER Mithos SPOILER OVER also had an attack called Judgment, I decided to give Senbou some of his attacks. Oh, and if you didn't read the spoiler, no, the person mentioned is NOTColette.

Now, I will end this lengthy Author's Note by saying that if you think that this story is too realistic while playing online, then go read something else because this WILL NOT change. I purposefully blurred the line between reality and the online world.

CHAPTER 11

TEMPTRESS

Kite didn't hear anything from Suzaku for two and a half weeks after what happened in Mac Anu, and decided to keep it that way. Suzaku was being a big baby and Kite didn't want to deal with that at the time. He figured that Suzaku would come back when he was ready. In the meantime, he and the other Bracelet holders had been leveling up and looking for information on the Hackers of Hades. While on the message boards, he came across a thread about an event. It didn't give many details, just that it took place in Delta: Hidden Forested Cove. He thought it might be worth looking at so he contacted the rest of the party informing them of the event.

He met them by the Chaos Gate and prepared to enter the keywords when he noticed that no one looked very happy.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Suzaku..." Akazu muttered.

Kite rolled his eyes and warped to the area.

When the party arrived in the area, they found themselves in a bright green meadow that stretched in all directions. Upon using a Fairy's Orb the party realized that there were no portals or a dungeon entrance.

"Just what kind of event is this?" asked Kenji.

"Hey!" they heard a voice call from across the field.

The party turned around and saw another party of four people. As they approached they recognized three of them, Hikari, Minotaur, and Kojiru, but the fourth one was new to them. She had short, teal hair and teal eyes. Her shirt was white, almost lacy and exposed a small amount of her stomach, matching her knee-length white shorts that ended in three layers of ruffles. She wore white sandals with strips of fabric rapping up her ankles. On her arms she had teal stripes that wrapped from her wrists up to her elbows. On her back rested a large sword.

She's cute, thought Akazu, eyeing the heavy blade. She opened her mouth to speak and Akazu expected to hear a soft, faint voice meet his ears.

"Hi, " she said, her voice loud and low. Akazu winced a little bit. "I'm Pixie."

Everyone introduced themselves to her.

"So, do you actually know what's going on here?" asked Michoru.

"Not really," said Hikari.

They suddenly heard the sound of a warp behind them and turned around to look at the new entrant in the event. It was Suzaku and Fleur. They were both laughing hysterically, apparently one of them had just told a joke. As Suzaku looked up and saw Kite, he quickly frowned and grabbed Fleur's hand.

"Let's go," he said, beginning to walk away. As they were leaving, Fleur looked back at them and smirked. She and Suzaku warped out of the area. Suddenly, there was a loud crash and everything went black.

When Kite awoke, he found himself wet. He opened his eyes and sat up. He was in a large area filled with mist. The ground was entirely covered in water. In the center of the area was a dead-looking tree missing all of its leaves. Kite stood up, leaning on his staff, and advanced toward the center of the area. As he began his trek, he heard footsteps sloshing around in the water. He raised his staff, preparing for assault. Michoru advanced from the mist.

"Kite!" she screamed, running toward him. "There you are! I was so worried!"

"Uh, are you feeling OK?" asked Kite.

"I'm fine!" she said joyously. "I'm fine since I know you're OK!"

There were other footsteps approaching the two, and another Michoru appeared.

"What the hell?" Kite said confused.

A booming voice rang out through the entire area.

"One of these is your real friend," said the voice. "Another is an imposter. You must choose which one you will kill."

"Oh, don't kill me!" shrieked the first one, grinning.

"Oh, it's OK if you kill me," said the other one, sighing and looking to the ground sadly. "I understand..."

Kite rolled his eyes.

"Oh, brother."

He lifted his staff and pointed it towards the area in between the girls.

"Juk Rom!"

The tornado struck both Michorus at the same time, killing them both. As their blackened bodies fell to the ground, slugs crawled out of them and they vanished. The slugs melted into black ooze.

"Ew..." said Kite. The black puddle of goo began to move and formed a large building with a door in it. Kite opened the door, seeing nothing but darkness. Taking one last look at the room, he stepped through the door.

When he reached the other room, Michoru, Akazu, Kenji and Magora were waiting. It was a small, dark, stone chamber with no windows and only one door. Soon, Hikari, Kojiru, Minotaur and Pixie joined them.

"How'd you guys make out?" asked Kenji.

"OK, I guess," said Kojiru. "Wasn't really that hard, though."

"Yeah, everyone was acting really weird," said Hikari. "It was totally obvious that they were both fake. I completed the event with flying colors!"

Pixie rolled her eyes and sat on the floor next to Akazu. The others followed. Soon, they began to hear footsteps. A figure could be seen entering the door.

"Get out!" cried the figure. As it entered the light it revealed itself to be Balmung of the Azure Sky.

"LA!" cried Pixie, standing up, holding her low note. Balmung covered his ears.

"How many times must I say this? I'm not a system admin anymore!" cried Balmung.

Pixie rolled her eyes but stopped singing. Everyone else looked at them strangely.

"Anyway," said Balmung, "you need to get out of here! This isn't an event! It's a trap!"

"Very good."

A figure emerged from the door, holding a staff and wearing all green.

"Senbou!" cried Kite.

"You know this guy?" asked Minotaur.

"Yeah," said Michoru.

"What do you want?" asked Akazu, raising his axe.

"Just thought I'd tell you how much fun Inyoku is having with your little friend," he said. "Looks like you're going to have one less teammate from now on. He seems to like her a lot more than he does you."

"You shut up!" said Kenji, brandishing his sword.

"What? I'm only stating what's true," said Senbou. "And if you deny that, you're hiding from the obvious."

"You're really starting to piss me off!" said Kite.

"What do I care?" said Senbou. "Your nothing more than an insignificant worm anyway."

"If I'm so insignificant, how come I've been destroying your data bugs? If I'm so insignificant, why are you sending hacker after hacker after me?"

"Because you're in my way," said Senbou. "And that's not something I can allow!"

He closed his eyes and began to glow, a grey flow of energy shooting outward from his body. He raised his staff high in the air.

"Gravity Well!"

A black dome of energy rose around them while they looked around in panic. A crushing force of gravity struck them from above, crushing them under their own weight. When the dome finally disappeared, everyone was on the ground.

"Heh... weaklings," said Senbou, turning around.

"You... bastard..."

"Huh?"

Kite and the others were forcing themselves up, prepared to attack.

"La Repth..." said Kite, restoring everyone's health.

"How could you survive?" screamed Senbou in frustration.

"You underestimate me," said Kite.

"Damn..." said Senbou under his breath. "Fine then!"

He began to glow again, but this time with pale blue energy.

"Absolute!"

A star of ice erupted from the ground, piercing them with spears of frost. The star then exploded, leaving everyone on their knees, but alive.

"I'm still here..." said Kite.

"Argh!" cried Senbou in frustration. "I've had enough of this!"

Feathers of light soared around his body. White light was erupting from his body.

"Judgment!"

Beams of light struck all around the room, hitting everyone multiple times and leaving them all with one hit point.

"That ought to teach you," said Senbou. "Don't get in my way again!"

He warped away, leaving the others in silence. Soon, they gated out and returned to Root Town.

"What is going on?" asked Kojiru once they had returned to the hideout. They told the entire story, from Aura giving them the bracelet to Skeith Data Draining Kenji to Inyoku seducing Suzaku. There was silence for a moment when Hikari stood up.

"Well, it's late, I've gotta go," she said. "But you can ask for my help whenever you need it."

She warped away and Minotaur, Kojiru and Pixie all followed.

"What are we going to do about Suzaku?" asked Michoru once the others had left.

"What about him?" asked Kite.

"Oh, come on!" she shouted. "Kite, if we don't help him he could be seriously hurt!"

"I know..." said Kite softly. "But what can we do? He won't listen to any of us. And I still haven't forgiven him yet."

"That's not the point!" screamed Magora. "It doesn't matter if you've forgiven him or not! He's your friend and he's in danger!"

Kite looked down at the ground.

"But he won't listen to any of us," said Kite.

"We'll make him listen," said Akazu, standing up. "That girl is evil and I know it. If he won't listen to us, we'll cut her apart and feed her to a dog!"

"O...K..." said Kenji slowly.

Akazu rolled his eyes.

"You know what I mean!" he said.

"So what do we do?" asked Kite.

"I have an idea," said Magora. She pointed her bracelet toward herself.

"What are you doing?" cried Kenji.

"Relax," she said. She fired the bracelet at herself, and was engulfed in a bright light. When it cleared, her character design had been completely altered.

"See?" she said. "This way, we can get close to Suzaku without him knowing it's us."

Catching on to the idea, the rest of them altered their character data, Kite modifying Kenji's because of Kenji's lack of a bracelet. When they were finished, the completely different looking group began to search the Root Towns in search of Suzaku.

"We'll all go to a different Server," announced Kite. "And send the others an email if you find him."

The group split up, Magora going to Delta Server, Akazu to Theta Server, Michoru to Lambda Server, Kenji to Sigma Server, and Kite to Omega Server. Kite arrived in a place built on rolling hills, with dirt pathways and a gray sky lit up by a gigantic orange moon. Lanterns on poles stood on the sides of the roads. Kite didn't get long to explore because he received an email from Magora saying she had found Suzaku.

Kite and the others gathered at the Chaos Gate and ran to where Magora said she'd found Suzaku.

"Hey," said Kite casually.

"Hey," said Suzaku. "I'm Suzaku."

"I'm... uh..." it was at this point that they realized that they had forgotten to pick new names. Kite mentally smacked himself and blurted out the first name he could think of. "Hideki! Wanna go to a dungeon?" he asked.

"Sure," said Suzaku. "This is my friend Fleur."

"Pleased to meet you," she said with poison in her voice.

"I'm Lotus," said Michoru. Kite was somewhat surprised that power-house Michoru would pick the name of a flower, but didn't think much of it.

"I'm Yue," said Magora.

"I'm Zephyr," said Akazu. Kite looked at him sideways for a moment, but redirected his attention to Kenji.

"I'm Ken!" he said.

If this had been anime, this would have been the part where you insert the "come crashing down onto floor with feet sticking up into the air".

"Alright, let's go," said Suzaku, advancing towards the Chaos Gate. He put in a random keyword and they were off.

The party advanced through the dungeon quickly, gaining enough experience to advance to Level 16. They reached the Gott Statue and the group knew it was time to execute their plan.

"Gan Zot!" cried Kite, raising his staff. Large spikes of earth shot up from the ground and blocked the door.

"What are you doing?" cried Suzaku.

Magora brandished her spear.

"Shut up," she said to Suzaku.

She ran forward toward Fleur and shoved her spear into Fleur's chest. There was no scream, she just opened her mouth in shock. She stood there for a moment, then fell backwards and tumbled into the pit behind the treasure chest.

"Fleur!" cried Suzaku, reaching into the pit. Tears rolled down his face. "Fleur, no!"

He turned towards the party.

"You bastards!"

He ran towards Magora with his blades outstretched, but his attack was blocked by Michoru.

"Forget it," she said. "You're outnumbered."

"Why did you do it?" he screamed. "Why'd you kill her?"

"For your own good," said Kite.

He and the others restored their normal character designs.

"What?" Suzaku cried. "You did this just because you were jealous?"

"That's not it at all!" cried Kite.

"Yes it is!" cried Suzaku.

"No, it isn't," said a female voice. Behind them Fleur was rising from the pit on a pair of blue wings.

"Fleur!" Suzaku cried with joy. He ran forward and wrapped his arms around her. She pushed him off and held out her hand. He rose into the air and his hands and feet were trapped by balls of light.

"This is what the Temptress does," said Fleur. "Fools men into loving her then stabs them in the back."

She began glowing with the same colored energy that had surrounded Senbou, only this time it was red. She grabbed one of her fans and directed the energy into it.

"Blade of Betrayal!" she said, swiping with the fan and shooting a stream of red energy toward Suzaku. He closed his eyes, preparing for the impact. A loud scream shattered the air, but it came from a voice that did not belong to Suzaku. He opened his eyes and saw Kite's limp body sprawled across the ground. There was another scream and this time it was Suzaku. The balls of light around his limbs dispersed and he held Kite's weak body in his arms. He shook him slightly, trying to wake him up, but he wasn't breathing.

"Pity he got in the way," said Fleur, waving her fan.

Suzaku was shaking with anger. His rage built up inside of him, boiling over like water in a pot. His eyes turned bright red and a blazing aura of fire surrounded him. In his clenched fists a pair of twin swords composed of flames appeared. Fangs grew where his teeth were.

"How amusing," said Fleur. "Let's see if you can handle-"

She never got to finish her sentence, because Suzaku appeared behind her and drove one of his flaming swords into her back. She staggered around, but Suzaku gave her no time to recover. He ran toward her and slashed his sword upward, dragging her into the air. He disappeared, and then immediately reappeared over her and somersaulted in the air, blades outstretched. He brought her to the ground, where a red circle appeared underneath her. He stood up, and bright colored lights rose up from inside the circle and struck Fleur. He rose into the air and held his swords high above his head. Rings of red energy flowed around the blades and an image of his face painted all in red appeared on the screen briefly. He brought the blades down on her, sending waves of energy in four directions and creating an enormous burst of energy outward. More colored lights shot up from beneath him as Fleur fell to the ground. Suzaku, weary and beat, fell to the ground in unconsciousness. Time passed and Fleur forced herself off the ground.

"This...isn't over..." she said weakly. "I'll be back... and one more thing... My name is Inyoku."

She disappeared in a flash of light.

Ooooo, intriguing. I don't know what will happen next chapter, so ideas would be lovely.