The Red Wand
Chapter IV: Revelations
Xenmaru and Morgan had split ways. The entire time she was around him, she seemed like she wanted to tell him something. Something rather important. But she never did. So, being who he was, Xenmaru shrugged it off, figuring she'd tell him when she got around to it. She had gone off to level. "This damn character is way too weak for my tastes." Xenmaru had to agree. She had the spells, but not the SP to use them. Of course, unknown to Xenmaru, what she had wanted to tell him, but was so unsure about, was something rather pressing…
Delta: Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground.
"Well…we're all here. What was so important Morgan?"
(Play GU Vol 2: Avatar Space)
"I'm surprised."
The pink haired girl was standing in front of the altar that once housed the statue of Aura.
"You really don't remember me…or anything do you?"
She turned and looked at Haseo when she asked that question. He blinked, bewildered.
"What are you talking about?"
"I remember when you were younger…you used to be one of the most feared PKers in The World…but what was strange about you was that you'd ask for people's member addresses…before killing them."
The Infinity Eight plus Aina looked at her as if she were crazy. However…Haseo was starting to get a headache.
Morgan began shimmering, the area around her flickering.
"It was you…who kept me going…it was you…who I stood waiting in stasis for. The original wielder of Skeith…"
Flashes, pictures ran through his head. They were blurry, contorted, twisted. He saw a male 'wavemaster' with silver hair, a blue haired 'heavy axeman,' a strange looking Blademaster…and a girl…a girl in a white long nightshirt with puffy white hair…floating upside-down.
"The one who helped Tsukasa give birth to Aura." Wiseman stiffened as recognition sunk in. Impossible…
"The one who lead the charge against my ultimate defense…Sieg at your side."
Kuhn's eyes widened. He remembered what she was talking about. "No…"
"The one who played both sides of the field…in search of friends…"
Haseo fell to his knees, clutching his head. "Argh…" His hair flashed green for a moment.
"The one…who was my first true Data Drain…"
Everything fell into place. He remembered.
"O…oba-chan?"
Morgan gave a small sad smile…
"It's been a long time…Sora."
He stared at the girl in disbelief. Then what he remembered sunk in. His eyes blazed red.
"You…BITCH!"
He leapt at her, weapons brought out, ready to attack the one that caused him so much pain, that took away a good portion of his life.
Morgan had steeled herself to her fate, ready to be assaulted, willing to take whatever and any pain he brought…when she was forced to move away as a black and red scythe slammed into where she just was, halting Haseo in his tracks.
"What the-
"YOU BITCH!"
Haseo, Morgan, everyone blinked. They all turned to see Xenmaru standing at the entrance of the chapel. Rage was flowing off of him like a black writhing aura. He shot towards her like a bullet, right arm flung to the side as a blood red staff appeared in his hand.
"YOU KILLED ME YOU FUCKING TWAT!"
His form shimmered and vanished. Morgan had just barely gotten out of the way before the ground where she was once standing just exploded, shattering like fine glass. Morgan hid behind Haseo, who was very, VERY confused. He felt her shaking. SHAKING! As if she were scared.
And indeed she was. In fact she was scared shitless. Haseo, even Avatar Skeith she could deal with. But Xenmaru, who unknowingly has a small portion of her power over The World…He could literally kill her, and not even Aura herself would be able to reconfigure her data. However she had no idea what he was talking about.
Moments before: Delta Server Root Town: Mac Anu…
Xenmaru was roaming the city rooftops, leaping around from roof to roof like a bad Naruto rip-off. Well this is fun…doesn't help me Log Out though…
Not long after Morgan left, he decided he wanted to rest a bit, and went to log out. However the words "Action Invalid" appeared in front of his face. He blinked, and then focused on releasing himself from his headset to reset the computer…when he heard a static sound and was knocked flat on his back.
"Awe jeez what the hell?"
He tried again, same sound, same feeling of nothingness, and same result. Why…do I have a really bad feeling about this. Deciding to try again later, he left the Chaos Gate and wandered aimlessly, attempting to decipher this new quandary. He found himself wanting to get a higher view of things (it was near sunset, and he had a little known soft spot for sunsets near large bodies of water) and suddenly was on top of the roofs of town. He had a bit of fun leaping across roofs like a ninja (it was his dream when he was a child) but grew weary of not being able to figure things out, and landed in an alleyway. He strolled to the center of town, when he overheard two PCs talking.
"Hey, did you hear about that kid the police found?"
"No…"
"Well, apparently this guy hadn't shown up for work for a couple weeks. Nobody was answering the phone, and nobody answered when they went to his house."
"Sound's like a loser to me."
"Hey shut up, there's a really messed up reason behind it."
"Fine, keep going." Yes…keep going.
"Well someone called the police, and they bashed into the house. The place looked normal…but when they went into one of the rooms, they found a body lying on the ground, wearing a set of goggles."
"Whoa!"
"It gets worse! The computer was still on, and he was logged into The World…but…"
"But…?" But…?
"Well, he wasn't responding…hell he wasn't even breathing! They called the Para's and…well…he was dead."
Xenmaru felt a cold chill…
"What happened?"
"Apparently he died from either dehydration, or lack of nutrition…or something. His body shut down, he had no pulse…"
"Did they get a name?"
"Yeah, they checked the logs of CC Corp. His name was…"
"Well?"
"Sorry, my wife just called, dinner's ready."
"Tell me the freakin name!"
"Oh right. His name was Zero Shinzaki. Nineteen years old, he lived alone…"
Xenmaru froze. Zero…Shinzaki…that's…that's MY name! Wait a minute…Morgan…could she have known? He flashed back to when he was doing a school project on internet gaming. He remembered learning about a program going wild before the CC Corp. main building burned down. He had a few hacker friends look deeper…and he found out the name of the program was Morganna Mode Gone. Apparently this program had the ability to knock players into comas for undeterminable amounts of time.
That…little bitch…she…killed me. She…Killed me!
That thought circulated around his head until all he felt was blinding rage. Never before in his life…had he wanted to rend someone asunder as badly as he did now. Something within him resonated with that wish, the wish to find her, and he vanished. Moments later, with a loud noise, he appeared on the bridge leading to Aura's Chapel. He knew…she was there.
Present Time.
"I'll KILL YOU!"
He raced towards the girl again when there was a white flash of light before him. The flash came accompanied by a wave of force that knocked him backward.
(Play GU Vol 3: The Hope of Dawn)
Floating before him was a pale skinned girl clad in a white long flowing dress. Her shimmering silver hair flowed behind her.
"Xenmaru…please, calm your anger."
His eyes flashed red. "Look lady…I don't know who you are…but you're in my way, and that is a VERY bad place to be right now. I will ask you this one thing. Move."
She shook her head, spreading her arms.
"I shall not."
"I will ask you again. Move."
"I refuse."
"Then prepare to die."
He vanished again. Aura allowed herself one, VERY rare uncharacteristic statement.
"Crap."
There was a shimmer, and then a clanging noise as Xenmaru brought the staff down on Aura. However a figure materialized before her, blocking the attack. Unfortunately that didn't stop the wave of force that barreled over the entire group. Aina went flying, but was caught by a strange figure, clad in black. She looked up and was about to say something, when the figure placed their finger over her lips and shook its head.
Xenmaru's attack was blocked, barely, by Azure Flame Kite's twin blades. However it was the next movement that surprised everyone. He was sent flying back by a kick in the face from…
"Aura?"
Xenmaru flipped in mid-air and landed on his feet. His rage was temporarily pushed aside by the new arrival.
"Not quite."
She did look like Aura. At least in the face. Where Aura had silver hair with blue tinge, this girl had Blonde hair and black streaks. Where Aura wore White and Silver, this girl wore black and red. While Aura's dress was big, and puffy and flowing…this girl…well, she looked like she belonged in a bondage hentai. Tight black top, black fingerless gloves…black frikkin everything. Xen got up slowly.
"Now see, THIS is what a girl is supposed to look like when she's going for the revealing look. Talking Cleavage, you could learn a lesson from her."
Pai glared at him, pulsing vain appearing on her forehead. "What did you say you little twerp?!"
The "Other" Aura laughed. "Talking Cleavage?" "Best I could do on short notice…" "Whatever…"
She turned to Aura, who was staring in disbelief.
"Z-Zefie?"
"Good to see you again Mother."
"Wh-what happened to you? You've…grown!"
"Indeed I have mother. The re-formatting of The World changed me into…this. But I like it."
Xenmaru got back into stance.
"Alright…uhh…Zefie, was it? You mind? I'm kinda trying to kill the pink haired bitch."
"Sorry, you'll have to go through me…since Mother is protecting her. And I cant let you harm Mother."
"Dammit…it's always the good looking ones. So be it…I'll just go through you!"
He flickered again and appeared…suspended right above Zefie.
"Huh?"
Zefie's hand was outstretched.
"Unlike mother, my programming allows me to actually attack others."
A black mass appeared beneath him. Awe…shit.
"Bye-bye!"
Morgan tried to stop her. "Zefie wait!"
She let go, and Xen dropped into the black abyss.
"BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIttttttttttch!"
Morgan slapped her forehead. "Zefie…"
"What?" "Do you even know where that leads?"
"Sure…to grand…father…"
"Exactly."
"oops…"
You have no time to despair worthless child!
"What the-
Large black orbs appeared around them. Within were randomly leveled AIDAs.
"Well…this might be fun…"
Wow…that chapter did NOT go as I had planned at all. I originally planned for Zefie to be the Anti-Aura…but when I had her knock Xenmaru away…yeah, the chapter took over. Obviously as you can tell, the AIDA are controlled by an anti-existance of Aura. And…well…Aura cant fight. It's not in her programming. The next chapter's a bit more tame. Guess who Grandfather is!
Fallen Oblivion Angel: it's not soon, and it's nowhere near the way I had planned it, but it's an update. I hope this can hold you over. The next chapter…well, it'll have an interesting development in it.
Tasogare: If by Dirty you mean perverted…well…it's GU…Pai is like perversion incarnate. I doubt I can hold off much but I'll try…if I can get my bloody thoughts together properly then I'll be able to make the story the way I want it to be. If by Dirty you mean the language…well…I doubt that'll change, sorry. Hope you keep reading though.
YinYangWhiteTiger: IF you mean the fic, then it takes place entirely after GU. There will be game mentions, as well as mentions from the past .hack series as well. And by the way, your Sora wish was granted…although probably not the way you expected!
Azure Euphoria: You'll get your avatar wishes soon enough. As for Aura being the evil…well…you're half right. As for Xenmaru coming from Kingdom Hearts…well, I'll admit Mansex's (AKA Xemnas) name DID spring to mind…however when making this name…I thought of the state of mind, Zen. A state of clarity, calm, and relaxation. Maru directly translated means "Circle" however it's also a popular suffix for names. So basically, what I did was take the word Zen, change the Z to an X, and slap Maru on the end to make Xenmaru, which would mean "Circle of Zen/Circle of Clarity". Pretty deep ne?