A/N: Well, this is my first step outside of the Naruto fandom. First official step anyway. This is Dawn and Dusk, a .hack fanfic which contains spoilers for the following: .hack//SIGN, the Project .hack Games, .hack//ROOTS, .hack//GU, .hack//ANOTHER BIRTH... yeah, thats about it. I hated LOTB and I never read AI BUSTER.
The Pairings for this story are a definite Kite/BlackRose and Haseo/Alkaid. Those are set in stone. Don't try and change them. If you don't like either of those, turn around now.
Here we go!
"About time! That damn network is back up!" Akira, formerly Hayami, yelled. From across the hall, another voice called.
"Kira, what've I said about your language?" he asked wearily. "My mom's coming to dinner tomorrow, and it would kill her angelic image of you if she catches wind of the way you talk!"
Akira sighed, slowly shaking her head as she pondered, once again, the mystery of how she'd ended up with such a goody two-shoes. But then her cry of "Fuck you!" was answered by "Maybe later, if you're a good girl." Akira shrugged, and as she had many times in the past, figured it just didn't matter.
Seven years. That was how long it had been since they had met. Six years since they'd met off line, and five and a half since they had started dating. A year and a half since, at the age of eighteen, he had worked up the nerve to propose. It had been a year, five months, thirty days, twenty-three hours, fifty-nine minutes and fifty-eight seconds since she had accepted. Nine months since the wedding (mostly due to the length of time it took to fly Sanjuro in from North Dakota). Eight months since the end of the honeymoon, and they were still figuring out how things worked, such as Akira's language. Occasionally, Taro's eating habits were brought up, but he had mostly conquered those.
Akira sighed, and went back to what she had been doing before she was so rudely interrupted: checking her e-mail. The entire network had been in disarray for the last few days. It was just like the last Network Crisis, brought on by the wave and Morganna. Hospital systems were failing, traffic lights were behaving erratically, even their toaster had attacked them! But what Akira just wanted to do was get her e-mail. 'Eh," she thought. 'I'll worry about the rest of the world later'.
She began to read off the titles of the mail in her and Taro's combined account. "Junk, Junk, Penis Enlargement, Fund Kenyan Village, trash, trash, 'this is not a virus', garbage…" As Akira clicked on the last file, her breath froze. Taro, perhaps sensing her sudden halt, walked in.
"What's the problem?" he asked. Mutely, the usually outspoken Akira pointed at the final, highlighted, e-mail. Taro's breath caught just like his wife's had as they both stared at the title of the offending data file. "To Kite and BlackRose, I send a plea."
The next day, the two were still sitting in shock. The mail had contained the installation software for 'The World: R2', and what appeared to be two character data files. It had simply been signed 'Aura'.
It was twenty-four hours later, and the two were still in shock. The signature had brought back many memories, some bad, some good. Images of Kazu and Orca respectively falling to comas. Mia warping into the sixth phase before Elk's horrified eyes. The evil intelligence of a homicidal AI named Morganna dwelling behind the cold gaze of Corbenik.
But even as horrifying flashbacks surfaced, good ones rose as well. Simple times of the two of them just sitting there watching virtual clouds together. Seeing Piros chase after his 'eternal feline foe' after Mia had been revived. Kit and Orca standing in Carmina Galadica, attempting to teach Balmung how he should stand when they struck their dramatic victory pose.
The usually passive Taro looked over at his wife, who was instinctively looking to him for direction. "She wouldn't have contacted us if it wasn't an emergency!" he said, rather then asked. Mutely, Akira nodded. "Kra," he said, his voice dropping into the combat tone he hadn't used in years. "I don't know about you, but I'm going in." Akira looked up at her determined husband, and she felt a smile twist into existence on her face.
"It has been a little quiet around here." Akira said, her own voice taking on an excited tone. "It should be interesting at the very least. Besides, you're going, and it wouldn't be very fun for me to just stare at your're body while you were off fighting monsters all day!"
Their decision made, the two flung themselves into modifying their computer setup. M2Ds, previously dusty, were unearthed and cleaned. Software was installed and removed. Luckily, both of their jobs had been highly affected by the network crisis, and it would take months for them to be sorted out, freeing up valuable game time.
As Akira deemed them ready, Taro slid into a seat before their computer. His mouse hovered over the Icon for 'The World', but he moved it over to the 'write e-mail' button instead and began to type.
Akira walked back into the room and observed her husband working. In response to her unasked question, Taro said "I'm just sending out a few e-mails telling a few friends what's going on." His voice turned mischievous as he continued witg "If they want to join us, the, well, that's their decision."
Akira smirked, and slid into the seat next to his. "I can do you one better." She said with a wide grin. Hastily, she pulled up a new internet window. A few keystrokes later, she had pulled up a message board frequented by the original players of 'The World'. A few more, and she had typed a new post.
Taro looked on as she typed a simple sentence, clicked the post button, waited a few seconds, then clicked delete. He grinned as she spun around towards him, a smug look on her face. "You're evil, you know that?" he asked. Akira shrugged, as if to say 'what can you do?'
With all notifications taken care of, Taro moved the mouse over the icon for 'The World'. At Akira's confirming nod, he double clicked and the two secured their M2Ds. There was a flash of light, and the scenes of 'The World' faded into existence.
Taro looked over at his wife, who had transformed again into the person she was when he had first met her: BlackRose. She looked back at him, and saw his new, yet old, body: that of the former Outlaw Player, Kite.
Kite checked his meu quickly. "It says that we're in Mac Anu, but doesn't look a thing like I remember. Let's get moving. We'll check out the town first, then we'll check out an area to see what's different." He paused for a moment, secretly savoring the feeling of the virtual world once again. Then, with a dash, the two were headed out into Mac Anu proper.
The two quickly reached what seemed to be the town square. It was nothing at all like they remembered. There was a large fountain which many people were gathered around, chatting. Many seemed to be haggling with a fat, pink, bestial NPC. "Wow," BlackRose said as they passed by. "The NPCs sure are getting stranger and stranger." Surprisingly, the thing's ears twitched, and it turned towards the pair.
"I am not an NPC!" the beast thing said indignantly. "I'm Gaspard, third in command of Canard, the noob support guild!" The beast-man waddled over, and stuck out it's paw.
Taken aback, BlackRose blanched and took the offered handshake. "Wait a second…" Gaspard mused out loud. "You guys don't know about Guild Shops, and you don't seem to know about beastmen… you guys are noobs?!" At the end, the character's face lit up like Christmas had come early. "As a member of the best noob support guild in the game, it is my sworn duty to help you out!"
Suddenly, his obvious enthusiasm dimmed and his ears drooped. "But I have to stay here and watch the shop. Haseo just brought back a really big crop of awesome items, and they're in high demand." Before BlackRose could get a word out, Gaspard straightened up again, his enthusiasm returning. "I know!" he squealed. "I'll call Silabus!" There was a pinging sound and Gaspard grinned. "He's on his way!" With matters taken care of to Gaspard's satisfaction, he turned back to his teeming stand.
Within moments, a new player showed up. This time, he was human. He was wearing all green, had a long ponytail going down his back and a kind look on his face. "Are you guys the new players Gaspard found?" he asked. When Kite nodded warily, the man broke out into a large smile. "Good." He exclaimed. "Gaspard always works so hard for the guild and tries so much to find new players that he comes on a little strong. It makes him so happy when someone gets better thanks to his help"
The hard, biting return BlackRose had on the tip of her tongue died at that moment. 'How can I be mad at someone who honestly just wants to help?'
She was still asking herself that question when and Kite had been invited into Silabus' party and were heading out into a dungeon. When she realized what was going on, she almost objected again. But as she opened her mouth, a flash mail popped up in front of her eyes saying "We were planning on doing this anyway. A guide could only help." Shrugging, she followed along mutely. After all, in 'The World, Kite was in charge. Outside of it was a different story, however.
Slowly, BlackRose began to appreciate Silabus' lecturing. After all, without his pointers, they never would have noticed the Rengeki. Neither would they have figured out how to perform an awakening. As they reached the Beast Statue, Silabus turned to the two of them. "Do you guys have any questions?" BlackRose shook her head, but Kite did have one.
"Earlier, Gaspard, I think his name was, said he was the third in command of your guild. You said you were second in command. Who's the guildmaster?"
Silabus broke out into another of those wide smiles. "Oh, we have the best guildmaster around! Haseo is really touch and mean when you don't know him, but when you do, he's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet anywhere! He brings back all these awesome items for the shop, goes around stopping PKers, and is always around if you need a hand.
BlackRose broke in here, fueled by genuine curiosity. "If hje's so nice and cool, why did Gaspard call you instead of him?"
"I guess because Gaspard didn't want to get in the way of his alone time with Alkaid." At their confused looks, Silabus elaborated. "Alkaid's a girl he fought in the arena a while ago. Afterwards, the two hit it off and started teaming together a little while ago. I think they started dating in real life. But they live pretty far away from each other, so they can only see each other rarely. So they spend a lot of their time together online. If the two are interrupted, Haseo gets… testly."
Kite grinned in front of his computer. The situation with Silabus' guildmaster sounded very, very familiar to the Twin Blade. It sounded exactly like what he and BlackRose had done before they managed to transfer to the same High School. Kite couldn't count the number of times he and BlackRose had just been sitting in an empty area and he wound up screaming at the unfortunate soul who had sent him a regular flash mail.
Kite was jerked out of his memory by a warping sound. With a brink, he reoriented himself to the game. Three tall Obelisk-like creatures on spider legs had appeared there, clicking menacingly. He raised his blades defensively, but heard Silabus gasp and say "W-what are those?! I've never seen anything like them before in my life! They're way to high a level to be on this field!"
BlackRose had also raised her weapon, but stammered out words hat seemed familiar. "What are those things?! They're so freaky! Is this for real?!" Those words sent Kite careening doing the corridors of his mind, back to when he was fourteen, his best friend was in a coma and a knight with white wings was fending off a freaky, green-tinted monster with infinite health.
Instinctively, Kite grabbed his right arm and pointed it directly at the approaching monsters. 'What am I doing?' he asked himself 'I'm in a new character! This one doesn't have the bracelet!" But even as he thought that, the field seemed to turn white. A familiar blue and green crystal structure warped in around his arm. Instinctively, Kite ducked, hunkering down behind the growing bracelet.
There was a flash, and the sound of data shattering, and the monsters vanished. Kite straightened up, hearing the noise that signaled a new item. From behind him, Silabus gaped. "What… was that?!" he asked.
Kite looked down at this hands, seeing this somewhat unsettling sight of the Twilight Bracelet on his right wrist. "I really don't know!" he half gasped, half yelled.
On another field, in a different server, Haseo bent over and howled in pain. Alkaid, who he'd been talking to, spun and crouched in a defensive position. Seeing no enemy, she looked over at the still screaming Adept Rogue. Instincts took over, ad she crouched down to hold the yelling virtual figure of her man.
Deep in the see of data in 'The World', Aura stirred. The human, the first she had reached to, had once again activated his power. Before the Ultimate AI could think more, she sensed movement. Quickly, she faded away, leaving behind a whisper of "He will no longer control you, mother."
A/N: Now that you have finished this chapter, ask yourself the following questions:
Why did Aura call them in?
Why did Aura give Kite the bracelet back?
Why does it cause Haseo pain?
What were those monsters?
Why does Aura seem to be fleeing from Morganna?
Who was contacted by Kite?
What did BlackRose accomplish by making a post then deleting it?
Until next time.