State: Chapter 06: The Fear of the heart

Concerned Characters: Kite, Tsukasa, Sora, Subaru, Orca...

Pairing: non pairing(?)

A/N: In the serie, this is when we're entering into a large gape of days which is very hard for me to respect.

Also, I'm sorry, but I'm going to be stuck if I can't find some help the Wiki can't gave me. :(

My appologies for my bad writing.

Enjoy!

Chapter 06: The Fear of the heart

He was running. He kept on running until he tripped and fell on the ground. The pain he felt then made him forgot for a while why he was running in the first place. With difficutly and as he was moaning, he managed to stand up, trembling a little.

The event which happened was still in his head, it was hurting him. It had been painful to see the girl so defensless. Tsukasa didn't liked the Heavy Blade much but...

...Why? Why was it so painful to be different? Why did the woman wanted him to contact the girl? Did the woman knew?

He started moving forward again. He was going to the place where the girl was sleeping again, he wanted to calm down like the first time. What she had said. What Mimiru had said, she and the man had been bothering him. Had the Silver Knight really been hurt in the other life? And he was responsible for that? His Guardian's...?

He had been worried back then, when he saw the monster attacking the girl. He didn't wanted her to end up like the knight, even if he didn't like her much. But he couldn't...He hadn't been able to...If it hadn't been for Macha...

She was calling him. Probably wanting to talk about it again. But Tsukasa didn't felt like it. Not now.. Not now that he was unable to control it...

His vision blured as he warped. Not again. He never wanted the monster to disobey him again.

He'll have to work on that.

The snow as covering the entire field. It just seemed nothing could be seen but the single figure in the middle. The blue and white claded girl was walking to the dungeon tower, looking around as if to search for something, or someone.

Lady Subaru was starting to wonder, would this player come? He had contacted her yesterday and asked her if they could talk alone. Apparently, it was important. Maybe it was a hoax...Could it be?

She suddenly heard a wislting sound from upside, alarmed, she looked up and saw the dark figure comming right down on her. Emiting a weird sound, the man landed right on his feet before her, making the snow fly.

The Twin Blade looked darkly at her, apparently satisfied with her reaction. Behind her headset, Subaru's player calmed her heart beat. She was very aware of who this player was and wondered what had come to his mind to contact her. Not that she could do much against his presumed activities.

"So, you kept your promise." He smirked at her.

She retained her calm. "Are you Mr Sora?"

He seemed amused at her manners." It's weird to be called "Mister", but yes" His eyes were piercing her." I'm "Mr Sora"."

"Let's get straight to the point."She didn't liked this at all."What did you want to talk about?"

His smile widened, but he kept observing her without saying a word. She really wanted to go now. With an assured voice, she warned:

"If you have nothing to say, I'm leaving."

"OK, let's get to the point," he finaly annonced, his voice getting lower and deeper, "The Key of the Twilight."

For a moment, she didn't get what he was saying, but then, Crim and the rumor came back to her and she lowered her eyebrows. She didn't like where this was going.

"Sounds interesting huh?" the other said after having waited for her reaction. This was it then? 'there is nothing to gain from those sensless talk', she thought. She turned to leave.

"There is no such thing."

"Oh,oh, you don't listen to what other people have to say," he was still following her."that's not good." She continued her path, trying to look undisturbed. She couldn't ignore him however, when he placed his blade before her in a treatening way.

"Stop." the demand was simple and clear. It was very hard to not panic in those situations, even if she knew he wouldn't dare hurt one of the Crimson Knights. But for how long?

"C'mon, let's talk about it." he was still staring at her with his bloody eyes. His face was scary on more than one level; his scare made him look older. It was going well with his Player Killer tendency. Subaru tried to ignore that fact when she finaly asked him:

"What is there to talk about? Why would you bring such legend out now?"

It just seemed his smile was constantly plastered on his face. "The Wavemaster you're looking for," he paused, as if to wait for her reaction, but she remained emotionless this time."the one who defeated single handely one of the knight in the game AND in real life," he sang darkly the last part, "is using, means, outside, of all, systems!"

Her eyes narrowed in understanding. There was no way she would follow him on this theory." There is absolutely no proof of this."

"Oh, I got some!" he said, "Don't you want to know how he passed unoticed to your watch?" He waited a moment, a playful gleam in his red eyes, "I saw how he did, you wont catch him like that!" again, he stared at her and she said nothing "Going through walls isn't something people -even Hackers- can do easely now, can they?"

She was still silent, but it was because she pondered what he had said this time. So, as she thought, the Wavemaster wasn't on the Delta server anymore, though she didn't expect it was because of a hack. He asserted it was because he passed through the game, but could she believe his words? Did he have any reason to lie in the first place?

"And you think this is related to this rumor? Are you thinking he found it?"

"You knights should know these things after all," he still had his cunning attitude " you're very close to the admins right?"

So, this was why he contacted her, he thought the higher grades had more informations on this. "You're mistaken, such rumors aren't taken seriously by the Knights," 'anymore' she added in her head." there is no roots to it."

"And is there any root to the fact that a player of the game was hurt in real life?" he seemed to enjoy this...and she didn't know what to answer him.

"In any case," she finaly said," we are still investigating now and there's no place for such fantasy."

"On the contrary," he chukled,"see? What did I tell you about not listening to others?" his bloody eyes were on her again,"You should consider every paths that may lead to the truth, even the most unbelievables."

Again, she was silent. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. She didn't thought it was possible, but she still couldn't deny this possibility. It was her duty as a knight, even if she hated having to stay with such a dangerous player.

"Fine," she conceded, "we'll look into it." She stepped once, he didn't stop her this time. "You'll have to accompany me to the Crimson Knights for now and explain everything you know."

Looking satisfied, the Twin Blade jumped before her and they both warped back to the root town.

Before this conversation ever started, the player by the name of Kite had already cursed numerous times his inability to send any email or clear flashmail to his associate. How was he supposed to go to the upside down dungeon alone? He knew he could have, but this would mean risking unecessarly his life: he knew the monsters had strong levels there and the boss was a pain to beat. Of course, his level was much higher than when he first did it, but he wasn't too keen on dying in this World. Who knew what would happen then?

He had looked into every Root Town for the Twin Blade, even on the higher server before realising Sora wasn't on a level high enough yet to practice on the Omega server. He decided to go back on Theta, since it seemed the PK liked the first two server of the game. As he arrived, he found himself right in front of a strongly built blademaster who looked ready to use the gate.

Kite's heart jumped in his chest. The player had surpised him for a moment. Again, he remembered seeing him before, and like he nearly did now, he mistook him for Orca. The blue tatooed warrior had a different set of tatoo than his green tatooed friend had and his eyes were in a shade of purple his friend didn't shared either. Other than that, both of them seemed to like half naked looks. Seeing Kite's expression, the Orca lookalike named Bear misunderstood his feelings and spoke:

"Ah! Sorry I startled you!" he laughed a little,"it's nice to see a new face here! Fresh beginer I presume?"

For a moment, Kite just couldn't contradict him. The idea of him being a beginer was so ridiculous it barely reached his mind. Again, Bear mistook his reaction.

"Dont worry, you may just start the game, but you'll always find helpful players like me to show you the ropes."

Not really feeling like arguing with the Blademaster who looked so much like his friend, Kite just nodded numbly. The other waved at him and warped. A little further from the gate, he saw a blonde female Wavemaster chuckling at the scene. She disturbed him and he didn't knew why. Deciding it was best to leave for now, he warped in direction of the Delta server.

Mac Anu was as populated as ever but it seemed like there were some strange event. Curious, Kite followed everyone's eyes and was surprised to see his partner in the middle of the Knights boat. This one seemed to enjoy himself a lot -at the great damn of all the knights- and looked even more happy when he spotted the blue-haired boy at the gate. He apparently said something to the knight before jumping high and out of the boat, leaving them behind and hurrying to Kite.

Kite did not wanted to know what exactly the PK was doing with the knights, but he had the nagging feeling he would soon find out. As to prove him right, Sora stopped in front of him, apparently satisfied of himself. He sighed before speaking to the PK.

"Hi, I was looking for you."

"Huh? What with this greeting?" Sora seemed annoyed at his reaction, "Cant you be polite enough and ask me how I managed to get 'best buddy' with the knight guys?"

Kite sighed again. He was right: No escape to this. "I thought you didn't like the Crimson Knights?" he noted.

"I said I didn't like them, not that I couldn't use them." he smirked at this, "They're getting well with the admins after all, they're good for informations."

"Well, why don't you tell me everything while we'll go exploring." proposed Kite, "There this new dungeon I want to try and..."

"Another of those! How boring!" Sora whined, apparently not ready to leave Kite do what he wanted this time,"I'll have more fun at seeking informations."

Tiredly, Kite started. "Look, all I ask is for this one dungeon! I promise you we'll look for your Wavemaster lat..."

Kite stopped, suddenly realising his previous forgotten promise."Ah, oh no I'm very sorry!" he excused himself. He should have realised it. "I'm sorry, I completly forgot last time...err, all right, how about we'll look for your Hacker first and..."

"Ho? Dont be so hard on the excuses." the other one stopped him with a smug face," We wouldn't have been able to find him had we looked directly for him anyway. Beside, the Wavemaster isn't what really matters here."

"Huh? What do you mean?" now, Kite was surprised. The PK had seemed so exited at the thought of meeting the player.

"Let's talk about it somewhere else." the other smirked as he looked around. Kite noticed then a lot of people staring at them. Even with the 'party only' speach, it was still bothersome. Nodding to the other Twin Blade, he teleported them to a deserted field.

After he asked again the PK what it was all about, Sora just nodded for a moment, his knowing look never leaving his smilling face. When he saw the other was starting to lose patience, he talked.

"I'm pretty sure an old guy like you know of it." he had started to walk around Kite, both his arms behind his head. "After all, the story is pretty old itself." he stopped."Actualy..." his eyes were now staring directly at Kite, as if to find some hidden clues "...this may be the reason why an old timer like you came back to the game... "

"Wha..." Kite's confusion was at its higher level. Could he be more elusive? He didn't get a word of what he was saying!

"Yes..." Sora was now in deep thought."that would explain the intensive search in the dungeons... and why you're doing it now of any time...you've probably heard of the recent event and decided to look for it after all this time."

"What are you talking about?"

Sora's smile was triumphant. "The Key of the Twilight."

And this smile was met by the most blank stare one could ever get. Kite felt just as if he suddenly found himself in the middle of a trivia show where someone would have asked him what was the exact number of Pi. In order to not completly lose his calm, he tried an answer.

"Are you refering to what is written on the blade of the welcoming page of the game?"

"What?"

"Yeah, you know, before accessing the game," Kite had a feeling his answer was completely wrong, but it wasn't worrying him the least."there is a blade on your left. Everytime I log in, I see those words on it."

Sora looked completly disfigured: his unmovable smile had left his face and his eyes were wider than anyone had ever seen him make. He quickly regained his composure, but not his smile as he was throwing a dirty look at the other Twin Blade.

"There is no such thing on the blade." he simpy stated slowly.

"Really?" Kite was surprised.

"I'm telling you, there isn't!" the other affirmed. "That is, unless it has something to do with your outdated version."

"Hum, you're probably right on that." agreed the boy, not wanting to stay anymore time on this topic.

"So, you're telling me you've never ever heard of it?" Sora seemed quite stuck to it.

"No, I haven't." assured Kite, passably annoyed with all this. Did this key had something to do with the Epitath?

"This is just the biggest rumor The World ever had!" clamed the other.

Kite groaned. Rumors were numerous here, weren't they?

"Well, I suppose we can look for clues and all for it if you want," Kite felt like he had wasted some precious time he could have used to look for Aura."but after we look at the dungeon ok?"

"Meh! You and your dungeon!" Sora's tone didn't hide his boredom."Fine, it's not like I have anytime to lose until the knights call me anyway."

"Glad to hear that." Kite answered, though he was starting to regret himself having proposed it: he now felt as if his insomnia was coming down to him. Why did Sora had to woke him up this one day? Couldn't he have just continued on sleeping, thinking he had just fell off his couch? He'd sell all his weapons for a bed now!

The two players headed to the Theta sever. Kite was glad when he saw neither one of the Blademaster or the blonde woman. He stepped a little and turned to the gate to put the keywords. "Bitter Fantasy Mirror World"... would Aura be there? Would there be any clues as to what happened to the others? He felt his heart pounding as he confirmed his choice...

And felt himself dying when a horrible sound echoed around and through him. He yelped and jumped back.What the hell was that?

"Huh? What happened?" the PK didn't seemed to much bothered by the sound, but was looking at the other boy curiously.

"It's...protected?" Kite realised as the red letters were flashing before him.

Sora looked at the gate, mildly interested. "Heh; it's seems the admins are keeping some secrets from us after all."

"Why is it protected?" wondered the red-claded boy aloud. He knew protected areas weren't made by the sytem admins. They were bugged areas from the corruption of The World. Did this mean the area was corrupted? Even now, there were corruptions in the game? The troubles had already started? When exactly was he anyway? He'll have to ask Sora...

"I wonder..." Sora finaly said, " would a Hacker do the trick?"

"What?" Kite turned to the man. Was he thinking about his Wavemaster again?

"I have relations you know," explained the other, "I can come in contact with some powerful people." he looked at Kite expectantly,"Say," his smile was on his face again,"you're saying you know nothing about the Key but...I'm sure even a light head like you already heard the name of "Helba"."

Kite felt his heart jumping off his chest at the name. In truth, he had already thought of contacting the woman before, even looking for her in Net Slum, however, he hadn't took time to do so and when he had realised he was probably in the past, he completely gave up on the idea. What if his encounter changed the future even more than what he already had? Would this be a good thing? Mayber this would stop the Waves...but could he risk it knowing his life's friends were in the balance?

Kite shook his head. He didn't knew if Helba was aware of him or not, but he felt it was better to avoid those who knew him for now...as much as it pained him.

"It wont work." he finaly answered.

"What?"

"A simple hack wont work on these." assured Kite again. "You need something more." 'And, unfortunately, I dont have it anymore.' Kite touched his right arm where the bracelet had been in regret. 'How am I supposed to go in then?'

The black-clothed man looked like he wanted to ask him something, but finaly said: "Well, I guess our mean of travel will have to surpass the fondation of The World then."

Kite looked at the PK in surprise. He couldn'd think of...

"You dont think that 'Key' you keep talking about could help us access it, do you?"

"It's not as far fetched as you make it seem," retorted the man, "actualy, I was thinking more that..." he was suddenly interrupted by a beeping sound.

"What is it?" the boy asked.

"News from the knights apparently," he grined,"let's talk about that later."

"Why are you suddenly so interested in the dungeon hunting?" Kite looked at him curiously.

"Meh, It's not the dungeon that interest me," avidly, Sora looked at Kite, "if my suspition is correct, then I wasn't too far of my lead when I guessed you were looking for it." before the other boy could protest, he had already warped.

He was anxious. The pedestral where he was sitting was cold, as was the entire church, but he didn't minded. His exitement was big now. It would be alright. They wouldn't need to fear it anymore. He heard the creaking of the door as it was opening. This simple sound made his heart race and a smile appearing on his lips. She came after all! He had been afraid that...

His felt the smile on his face dying. No, it wasn't her, he realised as the massive blue tatooed Blademaster stepped in the church. Tsukasa hadn't been waiting for him at all.

"Sorry," started the other, "but I've been officialy sent by Mimiru."

The white haired boy felt his heart tightening. "She...is not comming?" he asked hesitantly.

"She said she didn't want to fight with you." the Blademaster apologised.

The boy didn't looked at the man in the eyes. That's right, she was upset. " She hates me?" he wondered half to himself.

"Well," The warrior explained," She may think that's what you think of her."

"Not much I can do about that..." the boy pondrered, a sad smile on his face. " But, it's not a problem anymore."

" What do you mean?" the Blademaster looked curious, "you mean you can log out now?"

The boy shook his head. It seemed his problem of log was the only think in the head of this man. 'But', Tsukasa realised, 'I can show it to him too.' Exited, he asked: " You wanna see?"

Before the other could ask him anything, Tsukasa stood up and brandished his staff. Soon, he felt a familiar wave in the air and saw the Guardian appearing right before him. The other player's expression tightened. Noticing this, Tsukasa reassured him:

"It's all right. Look." to proove his words, he holded a hand up and let the monster lashing one of his slugish filament in his hand. He made him learn this trick along with others in the same way someone would teach a dog. Apparently, it worked.

"See?" the boy turned to the man, happy of his work. But the other didn't seemed to share his entusiasm.

"What's "all right"?' he questioned, ""see" what? I don't get it boy."

Tsukasa stared at him for a while. Was he blind or something? "It wont happen again." He explained. The monster will never attack them again. "Don't you understand?"

The man looked disappointed. "You contacted Mimiru just to say that?"

What with this question? Wasn't it important enough? "But, isn't it great?" he exclaimed.

The man looked at him for a while before speaking: " So, what are you trying to tell me? It doesn't make sense to me at all. Is this really good enough for you? Do you believe you have finaly become something great?"

Tsukasa didn't answered. Adults. They were all like this. Sermoning out with what they have and never applying their own advices to themself. He just couldn't understand. And wasn't this something great? All this hard work and all he could heard were criticisms.

Without a word, he warped to another field.

Omega server. The quietest of all of the five server. Lia Fail, the relic city was a place frequented by the highest players only. This made it the perfect place for such a known player to relax. Albeit he liked his popularity a lot, Lord Orca also had of those times too. He looked around. There were barely a dozen of players who came here regulary, but it was disapointing Balmung wasn't logged in yet. It would have been a blast if they could have gone to this field together. However, Orca had to go alone. A dead end again.

He walked to the shop to fill his stock of items. Actualy, it was bad, he didn't even knew what he was looking for in the first place! All he knew was it involved some strange occurences which happened in the game recently. Bugs which shouldn't have been. The most recent he heard of was a glitch which happened in both the Lambda and the Theta server five days ago. He didn't knew what this was all about, but heard when the admins finaly located it and found where they occured, nothing unusual had been found.

His eyes caugh a flash of yellow light and he turned around to the Chaos Gate expectantly. He was disapointed however, when he didn't found the character he was waiting for. He couldn't see well the red-claded figure who was looking around, but he knew he wasn't the one he had been expecting. It looked like someone new to this server. He turned back to the shop.

He had been surprised when Albireo contacted him. He didn't thought the Long Arm had ever been more than a solo player. And he barely contacted anyone either. Apparently, it had something to do with the recent glitches, though Orca had no idea why the strong player would contact him on this subject. What could he want from him? Informations? The warrior had a suspition Albireo didn't needed his help for this.

He heard a sudden gasp. Surpised, he turned around and saw the player from the gate looking at him with wide eyes. Before he could even ask him anything, he had warped. Damn, those player were frustrating. He knew his title was famous and all, but they didn't have to be so embarassed from that! He was a player like any other! And he wasn't Balmung either -this guy would impress anyone!

This was one of the fiew things he didn't liked in the game. Even if overall, it wasn't so bad to be famous here. He had bragged about it to his best friend in real life, but he hadn't convinced him to play yet. Dang, this guy could be so stubborn sometime!

Finishing his buisness, he turned back to the gate to wait for the Long Arm.

The heart beat of Kite could have very well been imitating a semi-automatic at this moment. He was now in Dun Loireag and was himself as pale as a ghost. Still shaking of emotions from his nearly encounter with his lost friend, Kite took long and deep inhalations to calm down. This was bad, he had nearly crossed the path of one of his 'future" partner and changed the entire timeline! Well, actualy, he had the impression this would happen anyway, since he was from outside of the current timeline, he may have changed the future simply by being here. But, there were also the possibility that his presence was meant to be, and if this was the case, then he couldn't risk any harsh moves.

He had a hard time breathing. Even with all the air he was feeling coming into his lungs. It was as if he was trying to breath underwater. The wave of sadness and other strong emotions was causing this. Orca...ever since Skeith...no, ever since the last fight with Corbenik, he hadn't seen his face somewhere else than on Bear's avatar. It was hurting him. Even more when he knew he couldn't just go to him. He wanted to tell him everything and yet...he just knew his best friend would think he was crazy.

'But am I really sane in the first place?' the Twin Blade had started to wonder. People do not usualy feel what's in the game. Not only that, how could he still call himself Orca's friend when he even forgot his real name? He felt a rush of guilt in his stomach, even though he knew it wasn't his fault. The worst part of his situation was his insomnia. He didn't felt like sleeping. No, he just couldn't sleep even though he wanted to. He knew this had been days since he hadn't rested. The only way he had of having a goal was in keeping on exploring, in order to find clues about his state.

This was why all his hopes were now in the upside down dungeon Plaird told him about. Plaird... what did the AIs knew about him? He wondered if they didn't have some answers themself. If he wasn't fearing of crossing path with Helba, he might have gone to Net Slum already.

Kite walked to the ranch to calm his nerves. Sora had gone for a while and he couldn't go to the upper servers. He'd rather avoid them for now, the risk of being noticed were too high. Deciding it was best for him to wait, he just stared at the little grunties who were running in the ranch. Kite wasn't really tempted of breeding a grunty now event though he already had. What point would there be for his future/past self? He lazily watched as a brown haired Blademaster girl was feeding her own baby grunty.

"Hey you!"

The boy turned around in surprise. Right in front of him, three players were staring at him, smiling. One of them, a Blademaster, started talking.

"We saw you on the Delta server. You're a friend of Sora right?"

"Huh?" What was it? Did Sora sent those people to look for him?

"We thought you were!" the dark haired Blademaster beamed, "We're friend with him too! Didn't he told you about us?"

"Err..." Kite didn't knew what to say. In truth, he didn't knew much about Sora. He wasn't sure if he was a friend to him either.

"Anyway," started a Long Arm, "he told us about you and we wondered if you could help us with something."

"Yeah," agreed a brown-haired Wavemaster, "a dungeon. He said you were strong at them so..."

"Can you help us?" finished the Blademaster.

Kite considered it for a while. He stood up from the fence and brushed his yellow marked pants. It wasn't like he had anything to do now, but...

"Aw come on!" urged the Long Arm, "It wont be long, we promise!'

"Uhm, alright then..."

Soon, all four of them were before the Chaos Gate, entering the coordinates of a field. Kite wasn't sure why he felt goosbump on his skin at this time.

Arriving at the field, his uneasiness was still high. Looking at the nice plain, he wondered what would cause him to be on alert.

"That's strange," he wondered," it looks like this field have been cleared recently."

"You're perfectly right on that."

A wave of pain suddenly emerged from his shoulder. He yelled and stumbled, trying to see what had caused it. He saw the Blademaster, still holding his blade high, a smirk on his lips.

"You dont know for how long I wanted to do that!" he laughed darkly at Kite "Though I'd had prefered you were the real thing!"

"Yeah!" agreed the Wavemaster, his own staff raised "It's really too bad Sora's so strong! We cant take him on, he'll just PK us like always!"

"But," continued the Long Arm, " we can still take revenge on his friend!"

Kite backed away as the others were approaching. Soon, he had his weapons in his hands but he was still hesitating. Not counting Sora, he never had to fight other players before. Not only that, he was against PKing, how could he defend himself against three players? He could deal with one, maybe two, but he couldn't hold with the three all together, even at his level. He'll have to flee.

Before he could move however, he heard the Wavemaster yelling:

" Suvi Lei!"

Kite tried to avoid it, but the pain of his shoulder slowed him down. Soon, he found himself unable to move an inch of his body. He was paralysed.

He heard the dark laugh of the Blademaster who then slashed at his chest. The pain which exploded in him made him scream as he was projected to the ground. He felt his closed eyes watering at the impact. He had to heal himself quickly from the paralysis. But as he tried to open the menu, it was the Long Arm who attacked, each slash of his spear made him shout horribily. He couldn't concentrate on anything.

"Damn! Will you stop screaming already!" the Wavemaster seemed disturbed with this scene.

"Just let him do!" assured the Blademaster, "this is way more fun if he take this so seriously!"

"I told you this was a good plan!" the Long Arm was grinning, "When I saw him do all those dungeons, I knew he wouldn't resist comming to help us!"

Kite couldn't understand what they were saying anymore. It just seemed the entire world was crumbling down. The pain....He was feeling himself dying. He was dying and he couldn't do anything against it. There was just no way. There was no way he would die like that! Why....

Aura...

"This is no good."

The voice was different. Lower, calmer. The Blademaster didn't realised he had been slashed from behind. As he turned gray on the ground, the two others were petrified when they saw the player apparing. Again, he spoke:

"Player Killing like this isn't fair play."

"Eh! What is your matter creep!" the Long Arm spoke. Before he could do anything else however, the spear slashed his own character, he instantly turned gray. The Wavemaster emited a cry as he was killed like the others.

Kite choose this time to cure himself. After the paralysis dissipated, he healed himself with a Pha Repth. Though his life bar was barely damaged, his wounds had been unbearable. All his pain disappeared in an instant. Relieved, the Twin Blade got up on his feet with dificulty, and turned to his savior.

It was a taned young man with brown hexagon-shaped tatoos on his shoulders and dressed in scale armor. What disturbed Kite the most was his eyes. His right eyes was of a nice shade of blue, but the other was golden, like some raptor's.

"Thank you!" breathed finaly Kite when the other kept silence. "I dont think I coul've resist them for long."

The other didn't answered right away, but nodded. The red-claded boy had a strange sensation when the Long Arm kept staring at him. The way he did it made him feel like all his secrets were exposed to every eyes. Of course the different colors weren't helping.

"Uh... Well anyway, thank again, er..., I'll be going now so..."

"Name."

"What?" Kite was taken aback by the sudden question.

"Your name." the man clarified, "I can't read it."

For a moment, Kite was at a loss of words. He knew what the man meant. He was refering to his corrupted name, but it was the first time someone asked him. For Sora, he didn't felt like lying but...There was something about this man which...

"Speak."

The boy jumped. Suddendly he had a feeling he knew what to do: getting away from the Long Arm as fast as he could. He didn't knew where this sentiment of terror came from, but he didn't ponder on it. He warped out of the field. Once in town, he rapidly warped to Carmina Gadelica and searched for some place to hide.

'Who was this man?' he asked himself as he finaly found a bench to rest. Now, this was a good question. His level had been high but Kite never met him before in the future. Why was Kite afraid of him when he had been the one who saved him from death? This was strange. Was this somehow related to his condition?

He was so deep in his thoughts he didn't realised when a strange slumber had taken his mind. Soon, everything was dark.

A/N2: Time travel is a real pain, seriously! For Kite, it means having to wonder wether or not his presence would alter or not the timeline. His thoughts are a little scrambled, but hopefully understandable (if not, tell me please).

My biggest problem is that I've never read .hack//AI buster or AI buster 2, therefor, I barely know anything about Albireo or the Cobalt Knights of that time. :(

Were they a secret organisation or were they known from everyone? How much do the Descedant of Fianna know about them or Albireo? Or about Harald or the AIs? And what about Kamui? Did she had the same avatar and name?

If anyone know anything about this, please tell me ! You'd be of a great help!

If I can't find anything, I'll keep updating anyway, but I'd rather stay close to the big timeline.