hackGU: Return Chapter 2: Change, a .hack/sign fanfic

I do not own .hack or anything that remotely resembles it; I only have the games. Please do not sue me; I am exceedingly poor.

Chapter 2: Change

Haseo made haste back to the Breg Epona server. If by 'urgent' Pi meant AIDA, then that would only lead to even more trouble; not only for himself, but for the entire network as well. Once back at Breg Epona, he immediately opened up the Town Transfer command and the three of them were off to Mac Anu before anyone could say 'Aura'.

"Let's hurry to Mercenary District." He told Atoli, then turned to Zelkova. "I think that—" He started, but Zelkova held his hand up for silence.

"I understand." The hacker shrugged, forcing a smile onto his face. "I'll be in the Net Slum if I'm needed." With a nod of goodbye, Zelkova transferred to the Net Slum: Tartarga, wordlessly.

Haseo turned back to Atoli. With another nod, the two of them left the Cathedral and took the warp point to Mercenary District in silence.

"Do you think that this will be about AIDA?" Atoli asked, though the answer was already obvious. Both of them knew it.

"I dunno, could be." A new voice answered her question, making Atoli jump, startled.

A familiar blue-haired Steam Gunner stood before them, forcing a grin onto his face, though painfully aware of their current situation as an Epitaph User.

"Hey, Haseo! Long time no see!" Kuhn tried to lighten the mood, but Haseo's frown stopped all further attempts.

"Sh-shall we go then?" Atoli asked, and without an answer, entered the Home. Haseo and Kuhn entered after her, looking around the old, level one guild Raven: also known as the G.U. headquarters.

"C'mon," Kuhn started, "Pi will be in the Serpent of Lore." He led them up the stairs past Wise Grunty (which was going on about a large tub of pickles) and into the back room, leading into the ever so familiar Serpent of Lore.

"Welcome," Came yet another low, familiar voice. Yata stood in front of multiple screens at the opposite end of the long room, one hand extended over top of a floating bronze sphere as he searched through random areas in The World; no doubt searching for AIDA with three of the ten screens displaying the image of black floating bubbles on them. He didn't even need to turn around to greet them; Yata had that annoying ability of knowing everything that was happening around him, and thus Haseo didn't even bother responding to his 'warm' welcome, and instead, stepped forward to join Atoli and Endrance.

"Alright, that makes six out of eight of the Epitaph Users here," Pi reported from beside Yata, also looking through screens to the right of him. "That only leaves Sakubo to get here." She stated coolly, though her tone about onlyseven of the Epitaph Users being here stung Haseo like a bee.

That still meant that Ovan hadn't woken up. That his former Guild Master and friend was still the only comatose Lost One that he knew of.

It was little less than two minutes before Saku ran into the Serpent of Lore at full speed.

"Sorry I'm late!" She panted, "Bo couldn't find the controller, so we couldn't log in!" She explained.

Pi merely nodded before facing the other four Epitaphs who were facing herself and Yata.

"I...I'm not sure how I should start this..." Pi began, looking from one Epitaph User to the other sympathetically. "But, as most of you are aware... AIDA has returned..."

--------------------------------------Sigma: Hidden Forbidden The Darkness--------------------------------------

Eon shivered. Why was she so cold all of the sudden? She shivered some more. Did the heater stop? Or maybe someone took her blanket... Her blanket...?

That's funny... She thought slowly. When did I fall asleep...? She wondered, trying to think of what happened. It didn't come though. Well, I guess that I need to get up then... She silently willed herself to get up, but she just felt so drained for some reason.

"C'mon... Get up..." She whispered to herself, almost silently, it was so quiet. Slowly, she twitched her left hand, all of her fingers responding, slowly to not. That was a good sign... No?

Time to open my eyes... Okay... Open! Slowly, ever so slowly, she opened her eyes a crack, only to see nothing more than black.

The shock was there in an instant. "HOLY AURA!" The Brandier cried out, though where she obtained the energy from was a mystery. "I'm blind!" She cried, before going over possible reason for this disaster. "I knew too many video games where bad!" She yowled, blinking back the tears, only to notice that the darkness was not complete. Every so often, a cloud of darkness would move and reveal a far but white wall.

"Okay, so I'm not blind... Just in some...some.... Where am I?" She asked herself, forcing herself to stand even though every bone in her body ached for some reason. Eon took a quick look around. Everything looked the same; a murky black cloud surrounding everything, but a circular white room surrounded her from what it appeared it looked like by the tiny movements of the clouds. It was then that she noticed that it was not a cloud that she was looking at. Surrounding her, and the rest of the room, where tiny black bubbles, so close together that they looked like a cloud. Eon instinctively flinched. She did not know where she was, nor how she got there. What was going on?

----------------------------Raven: The Serpent of Lore-----------------------------------

Saku gasped loudly. "Wh-what?!" She demanded. "I thought AIDA was gone!"

"It was." Pi replied calmly, though inwardly she wished that AIDA had remained gone. "But it came back. I think that Haseo and Atoli can tell you all about their encounter with it." She put in.

Atoli fidgeted nervously when five pairs of eyes, including Yata's, were turned to look at herself and Haseo.

"Y-yes... We saw them..." She mumbled, her last few words almost inaudible.

"We didn't just see AIDA." Haseo corrected, staring all of the Epitaph Users down as they did him, "we heard it as well."

------------------------------ Sigma: Hidden Forbidden The Darkness--------------------------------

"Hello?" Eon called out.

Hello! Hello! Hellooooo.... Her echo came back.

She shivered. "Creepy..." She muttered as she began to walk. As she looked around at all of the bubbles, she slowly began to remember what happened to the point of which she was there now. She was in an area, then some PKer's came...then the guy with the weird PC killed them...and then the bubbles...and the monster...

She stopped walking.

The monster? Did that mean that she was still in 'The World'? If so, Logging Out would take her out of this place, right?

Eon tried to open up the Main Menu, which was when she figured out something was horribly wrong.

"Where is it?!" She demanded, quickly looking at the bubbles around her frantically. "Th-the Main Menu! The controller...!" Eon looked down at her hands then moved her fingers. All ten of them responded, no controlled, just by her thoughts alone. "Where am I?!"

----------------------------------Raven: The Serpent of Lore---------------------------------------

"You heard AIDA?" Kuhn questioned, wondering if he'd heard right. With a nod from Haseo, he pet the back of his head, unsure of what to make of it.

"You mean that Atoli heard it." Saku tried to correct, knowing that Atoli had the ability to hear strange noises that no others seemed to notice, but the shakes of both Atoli and Haseo's heads told her otherwise.

"I did hear the AIDA at first," Atoli explained, "but it actually spoke out."

"Yeah," Haseo agreed before turning to Yata. "Can't you see it with the Serpent of Lore?"

Pi and Yata glanced at each other before shaking their heads.

"I only just came here," Pi started, "I was going to quit CC Corp. today, but the sudden reappearance of AIDA, reported by Kuhn little more than an hour ago, made me stay." She explained, looking a little tired, even for a Player body. "We, Yata and I, were just able to catch a glimpse of the AIDA in the area that you and Atoli explored today until we lost all contact with you, and the area itself."

"Even the Serpent of Lore was not able to see what happened in there." Yata continued, "We even sent Kuhn to try to enter the area, but it was cut off from all the rest of The World. It was no doubt an AIDA Server at the time."

"I see..." Haseo muttered, looking down before it hit him. "What about the girl?!" He asked seriously.

"Do you mean the character known as 'Eon'?" Pi asked.

"Y-yes! What happened to her?!" Atoli asked, concerned.

Pi looked to Yata before giving the news.

"We don't know."

--------------------------------------Sigma: Hidden Forbidden The Darkness---------------------------------

"Okay," Eon told herself, arms tight to her sides as she strode in a small circle. "I just need to remain calm... Yes, calm.... Not scared, not at all..." She muttered to herself, attempting to breathe lightly and to think of it all like a B-rated horror film.

It wasn't working.

Maybe if I run in a straight line, really fast, I'll find a way out. She forced herself to think, and with a burst of speed, charged forward.

It surprised Eon how fast she was going, especially since she couldn't tell if she was in the real world or not. Sure, her body was the black-haired Blade Brandier Eon... Yet she felt the bubbles around her touch her skin and bounce off lightly, and even the breeze of running. Maybe a really creepy dream?

WHAM!

Eon had slammed face first into the white wall, bordering the black mist of bubbles.

No... Definitely NOT a dream... She thought as she fell down onto her back, holding what she hoped was not a broken nose.

------------------------------Raven: The Serpent of Lore-----------------------------

"You don't know?" Kuhn demanded before Haseo or Atoli could say a word. He stood up straight and grit his teeth, holding his arms out in front of himself angrily. "Players don't just disappear Pi, Yata! She has to be somewhere!"

"We understand that, Kuhn!" Pi snapped as she typed something in front of herself on seemingly thin air, but a screen appeared before all of them. "This is the area that Haseo, Atoli and Zelkova were in before the AIDA appeared." Pi explained as a mini map of the area appeared on the monitor, a red circle drawing itself around it. "We believe," she continued, "that the girl was transferred somewhere, via Gate Hacking, preformed by the AIDA."

"So you're saying that to get her back, then all we need to do is Gate Hack in that area?" Kuhn questioned as a thin line appeared on the screen and connected to another area, most likely an Outer Dungeon.

"We believe so." Pi corrected. "Master Yata and I cannot be too sure at the moment, especially with the lack of information we are currently facing."

"Understood." Kuhn answered quickly, turning to Haseo, "So are you up for one more adventure today, Haseo?" He asked the Adept Rogue.

Haseo contemplated this for a moment, before suspicion sunk in, but he would leave that to the field.

"All right." He answered simply. "I'll go to Sigma Returning Disappointment End of Dreams with you."

"All right, Haseo!" Kuhn cheered, a little too enthusiastically for such a time, and turned to Atoli. "Will you be the final party member or maybe Saku-"

"Actually," Kuhn was cut off, "I will be accompanying you and Haseo to Sigma Returning Disappointment End of Dreams." Yata said, flicking his fan open slowly, then shutting it in the blink of an eye. "I would like to investigate this new AIDA personally."

"All right," Haseo answered before Kuhn could object, "let's get to the Breg Epona server and head out."

Yata made an acknowledging grunt and headed out of the Serpent of Lore, Kuhn slightly behind him, looking down hearted.

------------------------------------------ Sigma: Hidden Forbidden The Darkness-----------------------------------

"Ha!" Eon laughed to herself, standing tall and proud with her hands on her hips. "I'm not afraid of these confines!" She announced, laughing in the face of her peril.

"Not afraid at all...!"

"No... Still... Fine..."

Within fifty seconds of her first announcement, Eon was on the floor in the feudal position, sucking her thumb and rocking back and forth slowly.

"The walls...they're moving in, aren't they?!" She demanded, looking around frantically.

With a small rumble around her, and a slight but still noticeable dragging noise, Eon turned only to see that the walls were in fact, moving in.

She sat there, dumbfounded for a moment, before screaming, "I HATE IT WHEN I'M RIGHT!" and retreated into the depths of the bubble-fog.

-------------------------The Eternal City: Mac Anu: Chaos Gate------------------------

Haseo looked over his shoulder to check if Kuhn and Yata were ready for the transfer. Seeing both of them behind him, Yata looking ahead in thought, and Kuhn leaning to the ground in a similar fashion to Negimaru of Kestrel in silent mourning, he considered himself and his party ready to enter the Dual City of Breg Epona. With a bright blue flash of spiralling light, the three of them transferred into Breg Epona.

Haseo blinked to let his eyes adjust to the difference of the dark Cathedral, to the bright outsides of Breg Epona.

"Ready?" He asked.

"Affirmative." Yata stated formally.

"Sure..." Kuhn muttered, still sulking over the fact that he missed a chance to join a party with at least one girl in it.

"Then let's go." Haseo barked before opening up the Chaos Gate's warp record and then transferring himself and the other two with him to Sigma Returning Disappointment End of Dreams.

--------------------------- Sigma: Returning Disappointment End of Dreams----------------------

Yata was the first to speak when they arrived at the dungeon.

"Let's get to the Beast Statue quickly; this area is blocked off to normal players, the sooner we finish, the sooner CC Corp. can clean up this area from its former AIDA invasion."

"All right," Haseo said before rounding on Kuhn. "Stop sulking, will you?!" He yelled, snapping Kuhn up into a standing position. "The sooner we finish this, the sooner you can go and use that 'illness' of yours!" He growled crankily and started though the mouth of the dungeon, Yata behind him.

"Well, that's not a very nice way to put it, Haseo..." Kuhn muttered, a little hurt, before jogging to catch up with the Adept Rogue and Macabre Dancer.

----------------------------------- Sigma: Hidden Forbidden The Darkness-------------------------------

"NO! Stop moving, darn it!" Eon yowled as the walls continued to close in around her. "I said stop!"

No reaction from the walls, other than continual movement, rather than what she asked for.

Eon was growing tired of moving so much. In the real world, she wasn't able to go outside to get actual exercise like this.

"All right mister wall," she finally growled, too tired to keep up the pace. "I'll teach you to try to squish me!" And with a mighty swing of her trusted, level one sword, she swung at the wall hard, and with a clang of metal on something similar to brick, the wall stopped advancing.

"YES!" She cheered, pulling her sword back and sheathing it behind her, where it soon disappearing into nothingness. She turned her back to the wall, and pulled her arms up behind her head calmly. "See, not even a wall can beat me!" She told herself, grinning inwardly.

CLUNK!

"Huh...?" Eon turned around. Her arms dropped instantly as she saw the wall begin to move again, and not only that, at twice the speed as before!

---------------------------------Sigma: Returning Disappointment End of Dreams-----------------------------

"Alright, there should be a disturbance around here, where we will be able to Gate Hack." Yata explained, initiating the search at once.

"Over here!" Kuhn called, little more then a minute later, standing to the left of the Gott Statue. "The sound's over here, Haseo!" He announced triumphantly as Haseo moved from his current position to beside Kuhn's. Instantly, he heard and saw the ripples in the screen, proving the disturbance still remained in the area.

Haseo clicked 'R1' on his controller in the real world, and with a sound similar to a high pitched radar, a spiralling portal appeared a few feet next to them.

"Let's go." Yata commanded as he disappeared into the abyss of the portal, his last words almost inaudible over the sound of his warp. Kuhn followed after him next, and finally Haseo went last, though not before taking one last look around the room. The Gott Statue was in shambles, pieces of it were surprisingly lying around the ground by his feet. Some of the floor, walls, and even ceiling were eroded; no doubt from all of the AIDA that appeared, and the normal shimmering of the ceiling had stopped.
Was this area really just like any other?

Haseo stepped though the portal, and a horrible, familiar spinning motion filled his gut as he watched the spiralling from his screen, before appearing several feet from Yata and Kuhn.

"C'mon, Haseo," Kuhn started, though not bothering to look at him, "She must be up that way."

"Just one minute Kuhn." Haseo said, making the Steam Gunner stop in his tracks. "Why was it that you chose to come here? You didn't even know her. Wouldn't Atoli, Yata and I be a better choice for this mission?" Haseo questioned as Kuhn looked over his shoulder slightly from the accusation, "If so, then why did you choose to come?"

Even though he knew the answer the whole time, he couldn't help but ask.

"Well, isn't it obvious, Haseo?" Kuhn asked back as he turned to face Haseo, only to look up dramatically. "Because she, Haseo, is a damsel in distress, and it is my duty an Epitaph User, no, as a man to save her—"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it, wonder boy..." Haseo muttered dryly, pushing past Kuhn to the nearest path to the next section.

"What? But I didn't finish!" Kuhn tried, but his two party mates had already past him, and were battling a swarm of Big Born Gamma's...without him...again...

------------------------------- Sigma: Hidden Forbidden The Darkness--------------------------------

"Bad—Wall---Bad----Wall..." Eon huffed and puffed. She was completely out of breath, and what's worse, she was running out of places to run... The room was a complete circle, as she unfortunately found out when she attempted to outrun the enclosing walls, looking for some way of escape.

"Well—Is this—It...?" She asked herself quietly as she could see the entire wall closing in around her, the mist of bubbles no longer cloaking it.

Twenty feet away... Fifteen feet... Ten...

Eon shut her eyes tight as she silently promised herself, that if she ever got out of this alive, she would never think her room was small again.

Seven feet and closing in. Eon could now hear the rumbling louder that ever.

Five...Four...Three...Two...!

"HALT!" A loud, deep voice echoed across the room, its order making the walls stop at once, before they retreated back to their original positions slowly.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Eon uncovered her head with her arms, and opened up an eye, just a crack. Before her stood, or to be more précised, floated a large, translucent purple monster; The same one of which she had met in the dungeon, and had brought her to this place.

---------------------------------------------Outer Dungeon--------------------------------------------

"All right! We've got to be getting close by now!" Kuhn exclaimed as if nothing had gone wrong in their time within that particular Outer Dungeon. The truth was, though, that anything and everything that could possibly go wrong did and, by then, Haseo presumed would go wrong. Not only had they needed to fight their way through all of the Bug-Data-monsters since as it turned out, not a single one of them had a smokescreen on them, but there were even a brand new type of Bug Data called Bug KING Gamma! This monster was stronger than a Bug Born and a Bug Queen combined, able to shoot its limbs off at the party all the way across the field, and had an extremely high defence and Health Points as well! This forced Haseo to waste almost all of his healing items, which included:

43 Health Serums (Heals 200 HP)
15 Healing Potions (Heals 350 HP)
27 Sprite Drops (Heals 50 SP)
32 Fairy's Drops (Heals 100 SP)
AND use the Pure Medallion (Heals the party's HP by 350) a few times!

Not to mention that he also had a 'Boost Candle' equipped, which doubled all item's effects.
Kuhn was beginning to drive him insane with his constant practicing of the speech that he would give to the girl, if they found her, and Yata wasn't helping matters by continuously saying, "We must hurry," After he had just finished healing him from critical health. To top it all off, they we lost horribly at a point with ten possible warp points to choose from, and every time that they chose the wrong one, were forced into a floating platform with a party of two Bug King's, and one Bug Queen Gamma.

Kuhn was racing towards one of the two remaining warp panels, (which meant that the three of them had just fought sixteen Bug Kings, not to mention the three that they met on the way to the area…) and looked from that warp panel, to the one ten paces before it.

"Which one do you want to take?" Kuhn inquired.

"The right one." Haseo stated grumpily.

"Alright, so the one to the right it is!" Kuhn announced before racing towards it instead, obviously misreading what Haseo had meant when he said 'right'.

Yata followed him calmly, his arms crossed in his normal, 'high ranking' way, still thinking hard about something. Haseo made a small grunt, wishing that he had chosen Atoli for once. At least she wouldn't go on about—

"It must have been fate that brought us here…" Kuhn practised.

That…

----------------------------------------- Sigma: Hidden Forbidden The Darkness-------------------------------------

"Welcome." The monster's voice boomed around the room.

"Uh... Sure...?" Eon asked timidly, shrinking away from it the best she could. The monster was easily fifty times bigger that her, and loomed over her, as if it was ready to devour her.

The monster paused before speaking again, apparently seeing if Eon was going to ask any questions. She didn't.

"This is the---Lost Ground." It explained, though Eon could do without the dramatic pause. "We have been...waiting for you..."

She flinched a tad as it said that. Waiting for her? Just who or what were these things? Why were they waiting for her? How did they even know her? And how many were there?! WE?!

"Now..." Its voice booming again, "Become one, Judgement!" It yelled, holding its huge, clawed arms out and around Eon.

She stepped back as the ground around her started to shake violently, and large hexagons from the white floor flew up into the air, revealing a strange, blue-black ground below, some orange way off into the horizon.

The bubbles around the entire room started to shake as if in spasms, and suddenly shot towards the monster, combining to the outside of its body, forming strange shapes onto it.

New weapons...

--------------------------------------Outer Dungeon: Last Area---------------------------------------

To his amazement, the 'right' warp panel had, in fact, been the right one after all! Thank Aura for dumb luck…

Yata stepped towards the red warp panel in the middle of the platform.

"This must lead to the Lost Ground." He explained. "Are you ready, Haseo?" He asked, ignoring Kuhn entirely to the Steam Gunner's dismay.

"Yeah, let's go." The Adept Rogue answered, and stepped up to the portal and warped, Yata after him.

"What about me...?" Kuhn asked, displeased and hurt with being ignored, before warping after the two of them.

----------------------------------- Sigma: Hidden Forbidden The Darkness-----------------------------------

It took less than a second for Haseo to recognise the AIDA monster before him, even with all of the new, strange features on it. On its head were now two long antennas, similar to an AIDA Anna, and on its back, a long, pointed fin, like a shark version of an AIDA Helen. The sickles on its stomach duplicated from two to four, and were sharper and larger than before. Had this...thing absorbed other ADIA to further itself?!

"Haseo!" Kuhn yelled, pointing just under the huge AIDA beast, where Eon stared up at it, horrified. "We need to save her!"

"I know!" He yelled back. Even though he and Kuhn were only a little more than three paces away, he had trouble hearing him over the loud rumble of the floor as more tiles flew up to reveal the familiar Cyberspace that he'd fought in so many times before.

Eon stepped away from the AIDA monster, but another rumble, more violent than before, caused her to lose her balance and fall onto her hands and knees. She grunted lightly in pain before the floor beneath her suddenly flipped up and span, sending her off of it quickly, and plummeting below, into the abyss of the Cyberspace.

"MAGUS!" Kuhn yelled, holding his arm out in front of himself as yellow symbols appeared all over his face, shoulders, legs, and torso. There was a light tuning sound as the Steam Gunner's Avatar appeared in its full green glory.

Magus flung itself after her, as fast as it could, but the large, purple claw of the AIDA stopped him from going any further.

"BECOME!" It yelled as the three of them watched in horror as it shot two of its large sickles down at Eon, who was still falling, unable to protect herself.

Eon's eyes widened as she saw the attacks coming at her. The sickles themselves her still about four times larger than herself, not to mention two of them!

"No....no..." She muttered quietly, tears slowly dripping from her eyes, and flying upwards from her momentum. The AIDA sickles raced towards her, only to suddenly split into thousands of black bubbles and cross each path in an 'X' shape, before slamming into her stomach and chest, the pain unbelievable before her body disappeared in flashes of light blue light, little balls of her data slowly streaming upwards.

"NOOOOOO!" Kuhn yelled, before turning to the monster which removed its claw from his way. "You Bastard!" He screamed, and shot towards it, hitting it in the neck and forcing it to topple over backwards onto the remaining white tiles and crushing them.

Yata narrowed his eyes in thought. "Interesting..." He muttered.

Haseo turned to him, confused. "What do you mean?" He asked.

Yata was silent for a moment, and watched Kuhn hit the monster with a three-hit combo using Magus' claws and tail. The monster did not defend itself.

"It's blind." Yata stated simply, making Haseo stare at him, dumbstruck.

"Blind?!" He asked, "You mean to say, that this AIDA can't see what's going on?!"

Yata nodded.

"It has not defended itself once since the girl vanished. It must have been acting on impulse; like an animal, or bug."

Kuhn slammed Magus into the AIDA-monster's stomach. Even though it let out a furious howl of pain, it still seemed like he was doing no damage to it though. What is up with this thing?! It still hasn't had a protection break after all this time! He easily dodged its claw as it tried to swat him like a fly. Was it really blind, like Yata just said?

"But...how?" Haseo asked, but Yata only shook his head.

"There are things in this 'World' that we cannot hope to understand. The Lost Ground, the AIDA's return, and a blind AIDA may all be one of them."

Haseo grunted angrily. If that was so, then why did it even attack her in the first place?

----------------------------Unknown: Realm of the God's------------------------------

Eon clenched her teeth in pain. Her stomach and chest were in so much pain that it was hard to bare. Was she even alive now? She couldn't help but wonder, but couldn't manage to open her eyes, not with this much pain…

"Be still, little Child of the God's." A soft voice came, surprising Eon.

Who...? She wondered, attempting to open her eyes, if not just one, but the pain stopped her from doing so yet again.

"I will release you from your pain." The voice came again, as Eon felt a cool feeling brush over her body. The pain from the attack suddenly ceased, as if it was never there to begin with.

Relief brushed over Eon like cloud of happiness. The pain was gone, thanks to whoever the voice belonged to. Now to see who it was...

Eon slowly opened her eyes. Everything seemed dark again at first, and blurry. The only thing that she could make out was something white, looming over top of her, though, for some reason, she wasn't afraid.

"Do not be afraid, little Child of the God's." Said the voice belonging to a girl... In white...?

Why would I be afraid...? Eon wondered, her eyes now quickly adjusting to the darkness of the room. She blinked a few more times before she could see the girl clearly. Her clothes, similar to a long dress which covered her whole body, were completely white and held up by the symbol of Infinity, which was also white with a slight bluish tinge. Her hair was just as white as her dress and went down her back, her eyes blue like the sky, and her face, pale, as well as her hands, which were extended over Eon slightly. Eon looked around a little more at her surroundings. The room was pitch black, minus the small pool of water that she and the girl were hovering over, which was continuously rippling at a calming rate, though nothing was touching it. It was then, that she was looking down, that she noticed what had happened to her body. There were chunks missing from it where it flashed and rippled, like tracking snow on her old T.V.. Her stomach and chest were almost not even there anymore, and she was missing her right arm completely.

Eon's breathing quickened. How come this was all happening? Was this really The World, or the real world? She felt the pain of the monster's attack, and the coolness of the room that she was now in. She knew that the girl in front of herself was there too!

"Please, be calm, little Child of the God's." The girl repeated, and Eon attempted to take smaller breaths, though it didn't help by much.

"Who...are you...?" Eon asked timidly.

"I am the one that the residents of this World call Aura." She stated simply.

Eon nearly choked from shock. AURA?! The Super AI that people were always talking about on the Forums?! Why was she here, now?!

"Why--?" Eon started, but was cut off by Aura.

"Now is your time to choose, little Child of the God's." Aura said, her blue eyes fixed on the remains of Eon's PC body's face. "Will you choose a difficult path, and continue to walk the roads in this 'World'?" She continued, "or take the easy path, and forsaken this 'World', once and for all?"

What...? Eon thought. What's she talking about? A difficult path, or an easy one...? This doesn't make any sense! And what about the 'Child of the God's' part?!

"What will you choose, little Child of the God's?" Aura repeated, her gaze now fixed on something in the distance. Eon narrowed her eyes in thought, before turning her head towards the direction that Aura was looking.

It was faint, but she could make out the purple outlines of the monster that attacked her earlier, and another large, green monster, which was apparently fighting back.

"Do you see it, little Child of the God's?" Aura asked, though without waiting for Eon's reply, continued. "You have a gift, buried deep within yourself, a gift that only lives within this 'World'; a gift that only you, and few others, possess. If you choose to walk the path of strife, then I shall awaken it for you, little Child of the God's."

Eon watched the green monster ram into the shoulder of the AIDA beast, her eyes glazed over in thought. To choose the hard path, and have a gift...? Or to leave this place for good? The very idea of leaving this 'World' at all seemed foolish. It was the only thing that she had! But to take a hard path? What did Aura mean by it? Eon shut her eyes tight, before turning her head to stare back up to Aura.

"I...I will stay...!" She answered with as much strength that she could muster, but inside, she was afraid. Afraid of what this'hard path' truly was. She'd heard of all of the troubles that the '.hackers' had went through in the past; would it be like them...?

Aura nodded lightly and extended her arms fully over Eon's partly destroyed PC body. She started to chant something that Eon did not understand...maybe German...as she slowly floated upwards, until twenty feet above her. Suddenly, Aura's chanting stopped, and Eon's PC body rose, as if standing by itself. There was a flash of blue-green light around her, and a wire frame sphere appeared around herself. Eon shut her eyes as she saw the feet of her PC body start to glow, the shine moving up to her knees. As the light started to advance though, a white powder-like substance flew off of her, shimmering as it collected around Aura, leaving a completely new design in its place. The light moved upwards to her torso, and Eon couldn't help but peek at wheat was happening to her. What used to be light blue Blade Brandier clothes had completely reformed to some type of white pants with a red spiral starting from the sides down the legs; something that Eon knew was not part of 'The World's' design. She shut her eyes again as the light reached her neck, and crawled up her cheeks, and finally to the rest of her head as well.

"Be awakened, little Child of the God's—" Aura said, but her voice seeming distant now.

"Wait..." Eon muttered, but there was a bright flash as the shine from around her body had disappeared completely, the wire frame sphere with it. She had to shut her eyes with the difference of the colours, and suddenly felt a pulling motion as she was flung back into the area of Sigma Hidden Forbidden The Darkness.

-------------------------------------Sigma Hidden Forbidden The Darkness----------------------------------------

"Give her back you bastard!" Kuhn yelled again as Magus attacked one final time, before AIDA beast opened its wings and flapped them so hard, that it sent Kuhn flying into one of the few remaining tiles, where he separated from Magus, exhausted.

"Kuhn!" Haseo yelled as he rushed over to the Steam Gunner's side. "Are you alright?!"

Kuhn panted heavily before looking up to Haseo. "That thing has no weak points! Even after all of that, there was no Protection Break!"

"I know," Haseo growled as he helped Kuhn up, allowing him to lean on his shoulder for support. "We just need to find another way..." He muttered, though cursing inwardly at the AIDA.

The AIDA roared angrily as it extended its claws and slashed at the ground randomly.

"BECOME!" It screamed as it swung its head wildly, until it suddenly stopped, only to turn its sightless gaze to a portal appearing twenty paces from Haseo and Kuhn's current position.

Eon flew out of the portal, her stomach feeling queasy from all of the spinning that she felt from within it. It took a few steps for her to regain her balance, then she shook her head to lose the rest of the dizziness. She looked up to the AIDA monster before her and blinked. It seemed that the green monster was gone... But where? She wondered.

The AIDA growled viciously, its claws now shattering any tile that they touched.

"BECOME!" It screamed violently, and lunged at the girl.

Eon grit her teeth together hard and stepped back on instinct, but had nowhere to go. The tile that she was on now was the only tile nearby, the next closest being the one that Haseo and Kuhn were on, twenty feet away. Great... Lucky me... She thought sarcastically as she waited for her impending doom.

Haseo swore as he let Kuhn go and began to summon Skeith.

"Come on! COME ON!" He yelled, Kuhn on his knees beside him, unable to stand. "I'M RIGHT HERE!"

"SKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIITH!"

With a tuning sound, the red symbols surrounding Haseo's body turned into a bright red flash as he summoned the Scythe-wielding Avatar. Haseo quickly floated up above the tile that Kuhn was on and charged his shots onto the AIDA beast. They all hit it simultaneously, and the AIDA stopped dead, slowly turning, what Haseo presumed was its head, towards him.

"Destroy..." It gurgled, holding a claw up above its head. "DESTROY DEATH!"

Haseo barely had time to dodge as it came down at him faster than he had expected. Was this thing getting faster?! And not only that... But smarter too?!

Luckily for Eon, the momentum of the shots that the 'Terror of Death' shot caused just enough force to move the tile that she was on to the walkway of tiles that Haseo just used to get to Kuhn earlier. She jumped across the gap, happy that she didn't begin to plummet twice in one day, and raced over to the blue-haired companion that 'Death' had with him.

"Are you okay?" She asked, the Steam Gunner looking up at her confused for a moment, before giving her a surprised look.

"Are you--?!" He tried, but Yata cut him off.

"The Player 'Eon'?" He asked.

Eon hesitated before nodding at him, noticing Kuhn stare at her wide eyed.

"You PC body... Changed!" He exclaimed.

"Well uh..." Eon muttered, rubbing the back of her head with her hand. How much did my PC body actually change, she wondered, before noticing a strange knot in the hair. She tried to pull it, but felt a sudden pain, pain that did not come from hair. She reached up and tugged onto what she felt earlier, only to find that there were two of them, and they weren't hair, but in fact, ears. Dog ears to be exact. Her mouth dropped open as she tried to grasp at what just happened here. She turned her head around, only to see that her hair wasn't black, but silver instead. More dumbfoundedness. She looked down at her new red vest with blue trimming, and the tank-top-like shirt under it, a light blue matching the trimming. One arm was completely ripped off by the looks of it, the other only attached from below the shoulder with two intersecting white belts. She turned to notice a silver tail to go with the ears, and even a nifty pair of silver wings as well. What had Aura done?!

"M-m-my..." She murmured, unable to think of what had just happened. Her character had been completely reformatted. She didn't even have a weapon by the looks of it!

"It would appear that you were reformatted within this time..." Yata stated calmly; it took all of Eon's willpower to not trot up to him and start to throttle him for answers.

"Y-yeah..." Kuhn muttered as he forced himself up to his feet. "W-well then... Nice to meet you, Eon!" He said quite cheerfully considering all of their situations right now, and held a hand out to shake.

"Is this really the time?!" Eon asked as Skeith flew by, narrowly dodging the beast's attack, nonetheless their tile.

"I-I guess not..." Kuhn muttered sheepishly, withdrawing his hand at once and looking up to the two of the fighters.

"Hey... What is that thing anyways...?" Eon asked as Skeith passed again, this time attempting a counter attack.

Yata and Kuhn both turned to her, Kuhn looking wide-eyed, and Yata thoughtful.

"You mean to say that you can see him...?" Yata asked carefully. "What exactly to you see?"

Eon's ears flattened angrily. What was up with that baldy anyway?!

"Whaddya mean what do I see?!" She demanded, Kuhn flinching a little with the strength within her words, considering whatever she'd just been through that day. "The white monster with the scythe of course! And…that purple thing too!"

Kuhn stared at Eon, his eyes nearly wide enough to pop out.

"If you can see Skeith... Does that mean that you're a..." He started, but Yata finished for him.

"An Epitaph User."

How was that edit? Less coma splicing and a few errors fixed, plus I was able to go over it and remember what DID happen all this time ago, so hopefully Chapter 14 will be up all the sooner... Sorry for the delay, I've been so busy...

Reviews are welcome, as always, and good day until Chapter 3 is redone! Later!