Oh yeah, final chapter baby! Ah it's been a long road but I'm finally going to finish this thing. We still need a .hack//G.U category in the games section; I mean seriously who really looks in the .hack//Sign section? But I digress, I'd like to thank all of you who've stuck by me since the prologue AKA the chapter known as good-bye Alkaid…I should really change that to prologue…I'll probably make it sound cool by saying prelude though, ha-ha! Don't worry I plan to do an epilogue, which I'm going to name epitaph; I just don't know what to do for it! Hmm maybe I'll figure it out between now and the end of this chapter. Enough babbling, it's time to put on those FMD's and log into the world!

Redemption

"What the hell do you mean Sora's player has the same name as I do?" Haseo shouted sounding as if he was about to snap.

"I think that goes with out saying" Pi responded with crossed arms. "What I'm saying is that YOU Haseo are the player behind Sora!"

A brow twitched on his face "listen here you old hag, I've never played with any other than this one! So why don't you and your stupid idea shut up!"

"Haseo," a voice shouted at his side.

"What?!" He turned to face the source of the voice only to receive a slap to the face.

"You need to calm down" The red haired team mate of his said with a hand on her hips.

Haseo stared back at Alkaid mainly awe struck that she slapped him as he collected his thought. He let out a deep sigh "I'm sorry," he apologized, to who was unknown. "I think I may have needed that."

"I only did it to make you come to your senses," she let out a sigh of her own "how can you be my knight in shining armor if you lash out at the people trying to help you." She gave him one of her most sincere looks. "I care about you Ryou" she said using his real name as she placed her head on his chest.

He gave her a light hug in return "I'm sorry Chika…I'll work on that" he replied using her name in turn.

A cough came to break the silence and immediately the pair pushed away from each other, both their face red in this world and in the real one. "It's good to know that there's someone out there that can make the kid apologize." Pi said rubbing her forehead.

"I wasn't apologizing to you old lady" Haseo said under his breath.

Pi chose to ignore his remark…for now anyway. "Well apparently from this file Sora was the first ever recorded epitaph user. But when the real epitaph project used to create all the current ones he was no where to be found."

"Does it say how he obtained his epitaph?" Haseo questioned.

"Just give me a minute" the tribal grappler responded as she began searching through all the data. "It doesn't say…but strangely here it says that his user hours seemed to have peeked after a certain point."

"Pi read that line back one more time" the voice of Yata called catching everyone by surprise. They had honestly forgotten about him.

"You mean this part about his hour increasing, what does that have to do with anything?" She raised a brow.

Yata stroked his chin "back in the days of R:1 there were records of players whose hours suddenly increased for unexplained reasons. Yet each time research was done to find out why these players suddenly began playing so much the answer always came back the same…" he paused as an eerie silence filled the room as they waited for him. "They all were reported to be hospitalized for being comatose." A wave of shock spread through out the room.

"So what you're saying I could have been one of those victims? I'd think I'd remember something like that!" Haseo protested.

"Not necessarily" was all Yata said. "There have been some cases where some players awoke from the world with no memory of ever playing The World at all. Think back Haseo, was there ever a time you woke up in a hospital yet don't know the reason why?!" Yata's voice echoed throughout the room.

"I d-don't know…" Haseo took a step back. He searched through his memories for the one memory he was looking for. Something clicked inside his brain as a single memory floated to the surface. He remembered waking up in a hospital and his mom hugging him. He could here cheers from neighboring rooms but he didn't know why. Short after he was asked questions, yet couldn't answer a single one and then something about his parents saying its best not to tell him.

Haseo gritted his teeth. "…So that's what they meant" he said under his breath.

"So do you remember" Yata asked with an all knowing smirk on his face. "But how he obtained an epitaph is mystery itself. Maybe he could have once been data drained by skeith and once skeith fell Sora's personality could have taken over…but that's just speculation." It was now Yata's turn to rub his forehead.

"But a better question is how and why a player from R:1 suddenly show up now?" Pi asked hoping for an answer.

"I can answer that" Haseo called "It a few days ago. I had this weird dream where I met Sora in and…data drained by him."

"So you were having a nightmare!" Alkaid suddenly interrupted. "Haha the emperors of emperors had a nightmare." She snickered at the thought. "The pkk who even supposedly death fears is afraid of nothing but a dream!" She was now just flat out laughing as she clutched her stomach, Pi and even Yata gave a small snicker.

Now irritated Haseo switched to whisper mode and whispered something to Alkaid. The girl in question instantly stopped laughing. (Bwahaha I'm not telling you what he said. But I'll leave some clues here and there) "Now like I was saying, when I woke up and visited the area I didn't find anything other than these strange weapons."

"And these weapons were called?" Pi asked with a raised brow.

"Hold on" he responded as he paused to open his inventory. "What the hell, they're gone!"

"Interesting" Yata suddenly said "I think I know what happened. Somehow your memories of your past resurfaced for an unknown reason and told you to go to an area. In that are you found a pair of weapons, correct?" Haseo nodded in response. "Then what?"

"…I don't remember" the adept rogue averted his gaze.

"I see…" the Mercado dancer stopped to ponder to himself. "You may go now. I have preparations I must make. I'll contact you when I'm ready." He then logged out, followed by Pi and Haseo, which left one Alkaid with a lot of questions in her head.

Ryou Misaki sat in class staring out of a window, forgotten was the world around him. He heaved a sigh and just continued staring. In the distance a voice made an incoherent sound, he just kept staring. He felt something fatherly light touch his cheek, the sudden sensation causing him to jump. He turned to literally come face to face with one Chika Kuramoto who then lightly kissed him on the lips before smirking.

"Chika what the hell? You can't kiss me in school what if the teach-" (apparently dating is frowned upon in Japanese schools) she suddenly placed a finger to his lips before turning his head to look around the classroom. "Hey where did everyone else go?"

Chika placed a hand on her hips "They've gone home. You've been day dreaming since the teacher started his lecture. Honestly what will it look to everyone else if they see you slacking when your girlfriend is making A's."

Ryou's eyes snapped open "What?! I was supposed to be taking notes!" He shouted ignoring her remark. "We have a big test coming and I need to…study" his words suddenly began to slow down as he reached the end. He turned to Chika "wait did you just say you were my girlfriend?" He asked catching that this was the first time either of them had referred to themselves as girlfriend and boyfriend. (Totally did that on purpose…I think I did anyway)

"What, no I didn't!" Chika retorted with a blush on her face as she caught her mistake.

"Yes you did, that why you're blushing" he pointed an accusing finger at her.

"No it's not! Plus it's not like it matters. It's not like we aren't in the first place!"

"Ah so you admit that you said it." Ryou smirked in victory.

"No…I…Arggg!! I'm leaving" Chika became frustrated before turning to storm out of the classroom. "And I was planning to let you borrow my notes too!" A sudden tug to her arm made her spin around and crash into something hard. Looking up she say Ryou's face about an inch or two from hers.

"But you're so cute you're mad" was all he said.

Chika's eyes grew wide at those words. For every time he spoke the something really good/bad happened. She tried to push him away but he just pulled tighter. She stared back at him with slight since of expectation yet still trying to escape. "Ryou let go!" He inched forward. "What about the teacher?" He steadily moved closer. "Don't you dare or I'll…I'll…I'll" she tried to form her words into a threat but failed and ended up in a very deep kiss with Ryou.

It was of those kisses that he planted on her every time she got mad at him. And it always worked seeing as how each time it happened seeing as how each time she clung to him as if begging for it not end and after it was over she'd stare back up at him with a sense of wanting in her eyes like she did now. Yet even though she enjoyed it the result was always the same… "That's so unfair Ryou!" she said before playfully smacking him before she turned to walk away. "Come one we've got work to do!" Ryou happily followed knowing that she wasn't 'truly' mad at him.

Several minutes later they arrived to Ryou's house like they did everyday after school but this time Chika took the pleasure of opening the door with her key. It gave her a sense that the house was 'theirs'. They wandered into the living room, Ryou took a seat at his computer while Chika searched for his laptop and moved it into the living room. They both clicked on the icon labeled "The world". It wasn't long before Chika began to complain about Ryou's old pair of FMD's, "seriously why do you even still use these?"

"I told you they're just a spare set" I don't really use them.

"Good thing I brought my own today. The stupid glare from those things are a pain. I'll probably need glasses because of that." She sighed to herself before she put on her own FMD.

"Red." Ryou said out of the blue.

Chika flinched, nearly dropping her FMD, before she grasped the hem of her skirt. "What did you say?!" A blush was creeping across her face.

"Red. They would be a good color for you if you ever needed glasses." He said placing his hand on the chin as if picturing it.

"Get that image out of your head!" She shouted angrily.

"What? Red is a good color on you. Even your FMD frame is red" He said with a laugh.

"But that's not what you were thinking about" she pointed a finger. The sudden chime of new mail alerted them back to reality. "Just remind me to make sure I have everything this time." She gave a light sigh before putting on her FMD and selecting the mail icon.

They both had received an e-mail from Yata telling them to go the area words Sigma: Betrayed, Forgotten, Nothingness and to come fully prepared. The both gated in and slipped into their alter egos.

They both rounded up as many healing items as they could possible before heading to the chaos gate. They didn't bother partying another member because they saw this as their fight only and didn't want anyone else involved…they'd regret their mistake later. When they logged into the area they found it to be a dungeon way under leveled for them to have a significant level gain.

"He's probably on the lowest level and most likely sitting right in front of the Gott statue waiting for a low leveled player to pass by." Haseo suspected.

"I hate people like that. You trek all the way to the bottom of a dungeon just to get pked! Well at least the getting to the bottom will be easy enough." Alkaid said ready to set off.

"Not so fast!" A voice in the distance called out causing them to jump.

"Yata?" Haseo asked as he recognized the voice. The both looked around but could not find him.

"Good, you can hear me. Listen I'm using a form of communication we used back in R:1 to help others through a similar situation." He explained. "I won't be directly joining you but I should be able to give you information on the area." He paused as if awaiting questions when he received none he continued. "The character we know as Sora is most likely in this area for this area had an unusually large memory meaning that something that shouldn't exist is located here. In other words…"

"Sora" Haseo said finishing his sentence. "Alkaid let's go!" He took off with out any further explanation from Yata.

She took off after him "hey it might be dangerous, we should-" her words were lost when battle music started playing, two golem like figures appear before them.

Haseo wasted no time to draw his twin blades to try and cut one down. When he turned to see the fallen monster he found that it still stood! But more surprisingly he had not even taken out a tenth of the monsters HP! "The hell?" Was his reaction. He moved to attack the monster again but it wound its fist and took a swing at him. The hit connected dealing major damage to his hp. "Why the hell is this thing so powerful?!"

"It seem the data anomaly in the area also affected the monsters levels as well!" Yata's voice warned from the blue.

"You could have told us that earlier" Alkaid shouted as she drew her own weapons as Haseo switched over to his duel guns.

"I'm sorry" was the only thing he could say. 'This is just like back then.' Memories from Yata's past when he went by the name Wiseman flooded back to him. 'I hope we don't have another incident on our hands.'

Minutes later the battle between the monsters was finally over. Haseo and Alkaid stood heaving trying to catch their breath. "I've never seen a normal monster that strong." Haseo said between breaths.

"And I never want to see one of those again. We even wasted a good number of items." She used a fairy's orb and brought up a completed map for the current floor. "Our best bet is to sneak by the monster until the final floor, so we'll need equipment customized with cat whiskers. That way we won't have waste any items. And we'll be ready to take on Sora."

"Smart and has good looks. You made a wise choice Haseo!" A Yata's voice called from over the speakers causing Alkaid to blush.

"Shut it old man!" Haseo shouted to wherever the voice was coming from. The both changed their equipment and used a speed charm to move through the dungeon at a faster pace.

Several floors later they found a doorway clouded in purple mist. "I'm getting a feeling of nostalgia" Yata's voice echoed over the silence. "Listen, you two if you step beyond this doorway you may be faced with something you can never run from. And if you fail…" he paused again as if trying to muster up the courage. "If you fail there's a good chance you won't be coming back so I suggest you make your peace."

His words cut through both of them like a knife. Back in the physical world the both of them removed their FMD's to look at each other. "Ryou, are you sure you want to do this?"

There was a moment of silence before he opened his mouth "I have to do this. If this thing is a part of me I have to take responsibility for it. But…" He paused again "…that doesn't mean you have to go through with it."

"As if!" Chika suddenly said sounding energetic. "Who's going to bail you out if you get in a tight spot again?"

Ryou liked the thought of her trying to encourage him but this wasn't a time to be joking. He stood up from his computer and walked over to her and crouched next to her "Chika I'm serious. This isn't like before where you didn't know what could happen. This time we might fall into a coma and never wake up." He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head in her lap. "I told you I don't want to lose you again."

She placed a hand on the back of his head "Ryou do you remember what I told you?" He looked up at her. "I'm persistent and I never give up" she said quoting herself. "Even if you tell me to leave I would have come back. Plus…" she cupped his cheeks and closed the distance between their faces until their foreheads touched "I know my knight and shinning armor will protect me." She then pressed their lips together for a short kiss "Remember you are my emperor." She kissed him again. "And I am your empress. As long as we fight side by side we can beat anything."

She kissed him once more but this time it was much deeper the both pulled each other into each others arms yearning to hold the other until the of time. And they would have done so if it wasn't for the pest known as Yata constantly asking them to respond so they had to break away. "Talk about unfair" Ryou said before placing his FMD on but not before seeing Chika cutely sticking her tongue out at him.

"We hear you old man!" This time it was Alkaid being the rude one. She was obviously peeved that he had ruined their special moment.

"Did something happen" Yata asked as he adjusted his glasses, which they couldn't see.

"It's better that you not know." Haseo replied giving Yata everything he needed to figure it out. "Well Alkaid are you ready?" He asked her as he set his equipment back to normal. She turned and nodded back to him.

"Be careful. I won't be able to help you beyond this point." Yata's final message came over the speakers.

They stepped through the doorway and found them selves in an area they'd never seen before. They had been warped to a strange mountain range where multiple sized rocks floated around. Upon closer inspection the rocks seemed to be pieces of an area broken into pieces. "Haseo where are we?" Alkaid questioned as she looked around.

"You're in my area now" A voice said behind them. The both turned to see the green haired twin blade they've been looking for. He smirked at them "have you changed your mind about giving me your member addresses?" They glared back at him giving the response that there was no chance of that happening.

"I see then…" he reached for the mantle he wore "I guess I'll just have to get rid of you like all the others" Sora pulled of mantle revealing his characters full figure. He was dressed in full purple and wore light armor on his chest, arms and legs. He held up an arm and smirked "I think I'll start with the cute red head." A blade shot from the gauntlet on his wrist as he lunged forward at his target.

Taken aback by the comment Alkaid had no time to defend herself. The blow was inches from her, she winced at the oncoming blow…it never came. She opened her eyes to see Haseo blocking the attack. "Come on focus! If this guy is supposed to be me he won't let up at all!" Haseo said before turning to block Sora's other blade with his free hand.

"I see so it's a battle between twin blades" a grin spread across Sora's face. "So in the end it comes down to a contest of speed!" Out of the corner of his eye Sora caught something moving towards him. He jumped back just in time to avoid a slash from Alkaid. She instantly turned to attack with a follow up. Sora was prepared to block her but she suddenly leapt to the side. He turned to the side to prepare for her next attack when he was suddenly hit by several blue rings and sent flying back.

He did a flip to regain his composure and looked up in the direction of the rings origin. "Ah so you're not a normal twin blade are you?" He saw Haseo glaring back at him with a large scythe in his hand.

"You may be fast but…I highly doubt you can keep up with the two of us!" Haseo lunged, as he exchanged weapons for his broad sword.

But his blow was met with a counter from Sora. "Shame it looks like your member address would have been valuable!" Sora shouted that last part as he spun around and attacked Haseo from behind, pushing him away.

"Haseo?! I'll kill you!" The red haired twin blade shouted as she came down from the air. Sora leapt at her and deflected her attack with ease. She clicked her tongue as she glared back at his smirking face while she fell to the ground. "Haseo launch me!" Without a second thought he pulled back on his sword like a bat before swinging it forward and launching her back at Sora. Alkaid let out a war cry before she yelled out "Chaotic strike!" She sliced multiple times at Sora as he tried to block. She pulled back a fist and swung forward blasting him into one of the floating pieces of area which began to crumble around the.

The clang of metal could be heard as they clashed within the smoke. "That's a technique I never seen before. Now here's one of mine, staccato!" Sora slashed at her multiple times before doing an aerial spin and followed up with up with one final slash that threw her out of the smoke as she let out and agonized cry as she slid to a halt next to Haseo.

She grunted as she stood up clutching her arm. "Dammit what was that? I've never seen a twin blade use an attack like that." As the smoke cleared she could see Sora with his hand on the side of his head as he stuck his tongue out at her thus putting her in a worse move.

Haseo put an arm out in front of her to stop her from advancing "Calm down. I'm the one who should be mad. To think I used to be this childish." He said with a slight chuckle in his voice.

"It's not nice to talk in the middle of a fight!" Sora shouted as he charged at the pair, weapons raised. He swung only to be blocked by Alkaid. "You again?! Stay out of my way!" He prepared to attack with his free arm but there was a loud bang and his attack was deflected. Looking past Alkaid he saw Haseo had a gun pointed directly at him.

Sora sprinted off to the side as Haseo began firing round after round after him. Sing the fragmented area as coverage Sora was still only barely able to get away. "You can't hide from me!" Haseo shouted before he fired in multiple directions yet all the shots converged on their target for Sora could be heard letting out a scream of pain. "Alkaid go!"

She charged in the direction of the scream "I know, I know!" She dashed around the fragmented area to clash head on with Sora. She had him on the defensive now. Her attacks came fast and heavy as she forced him back as he blocked.

"Staccato!" Sora shouted trying to activate his skill again but Alkaid jumped back and the attack never activated. Not wanting to miss the opening she swung side but Sora flipped backward as he clicked his tongue. He landed on a piece of area to stay out of range but she still pursue for she leapt after him but he kicked off the platform just narrowly dodging a hit from Haseo's gun.

"Ghost Falcon!" Alkaid shouted as she flew after Sora, her character covered in a ghostly aura. She slashed once sending him into the air before she followed it up with something that resembled a flip kick to send him higher. She rained down an immeasurable number of blows, she held her sword high as she concentrated the ghostly aura into the, before performing a cross slash that drove him back down to the earth. "Haseo finish him off!"

"Justice!" Haseo flew towards the falling Sora and slashed him once, twice, before raising his own weapons for a cross slash. He fired round after explosive round of bullets before flipping to pound him back toward the earth. "It all ends here Sora! Double trigger: Judgment!" Haseo fired two powerful shots before pulling both guns back for one explosive finish.

Sora's body landed with a loud thump on the ground looking up at the sky as Haseo and Alkaid stood above him as if making sure he was dead. They were sure it was over but they didn't see any indication of Sora logging out or being deleted. Instead he started laughing! "This isn't over you hear me! It's not, IT'S NOT, IT'S NOT!" His laughter grew louder and soon was being accompanied bya roar of static.

Back in the net slums Yata was reading over the areas data. "Oh no!" He shouted as he gazed at the information in front of him.

"What is it Master Yata" Pi asked not knowing the reason for his concern.

"It's this data spike. The only time it's ever reached something of this magnitude was back in R:1" he had a solemn look on his face. "…back when we had to combat the phases of the epitaph."

Sora character design completely disappeared and was replaced with strings of data in that had begun to take form of something else. The data strings inexplicably shattered and where Sora once stood was now a large figure made completely out of stone. There were two large horns on its head and a ruby red rod of crystal in his hand. It looked like…death.

"Haseo what is that thing?!" Alkaid shouted afraid of the large being that she had never gazed upon.

"It's…" Haseo was a little surprised his self, "my epitaph!"

"What? That's your?! Wait…is this the thing you used to beat me during the demon palace tournament?!" She sounded livid now that she actually had proof that he had cheated to defeat her.

"We'll talk about that later! I suggest you get as far away as possible, things are about to get crazy!" He glared back at the monster "so you're what my epitaph used to look like? We'll it doesn't matter because I'm stronger than you ever were!" He shouted as if trying to intimidate the monster. "Come on, I'm right here!" Haseo clinched his fist as if he were trying to dig down to the depths of his being as if to summon something. "SKEITH!" He shouted the name of his epitaph to the heavens to call it forth…yet nothing happened. "Come on Skeith!" He shouted again…and still nothing came. "Why won't my epitaph come out?!"

While Haseo tried to summon his epitaph the figure advanced on him. It raised the staff in its hand before swinging it. The attack blasted not only Haseo into the air, taking a chunk of his hp, but bits of the earth as well. He was swiftly joined at the side by Alkaid who used a healing item to recover his lost hp. "That things a monster! It's to damn strong!"

"And we can't log out" She added. "Smoke bombs don't even seem to work. How are we going to escape?!"

Haseo stood drawing his broad sword. "We don't," he lunged at Skeith! "We cut it down to size!" He delivered a mighty slash but the monsters life bar showed no sign of lowering significantly. He slashed again yet he still saw nothing. "This defense is crazy! Alkaid help me out!" She joined him in comboing the monster but he still didn't see any change in its health "Armor break!" Haseo swung his sword in a larger circle before pulling back and slamming the blade down on Skeith causing a huge explosion. Its hp still didn't change. He finally realized what was going on. It wasn't that Skeith's defense was high. They couldn't damage it at all!

Skeith held its rod high into the air before thrusting it into the ground creating a large shock wave all around itself and drove them back. The word 'judgment' appeared in the text log and both characters were surrounded by a strange mist that formed into a single light that rose into the sky before both Haseo and Alkaid were frozen in prisons of ice that shattered dealing a large amount of damage sending their hp into the red zone.

They both dropped to their knees. "Wh-what the hell was that?" Haseo asked to no one in particular. This things to strong."

Both their HP turned back to green "come on Haseo. We can't give up now!"

"But we can't even damage the thing! How the hell are we supposed to beat it?" he asked growing angry with the her that she didn't understand the situation.

"I don't know!" She shouted back at him. "But you've beaten other things like this right? Maybe we have to attack it a certain way? But I do know you promised to both be my knight in shinning arm and do whatever it takes no matter how demanding or needy I got, so stop acting like it's over and at least try. Do it for me Ryou?" She asked him almost sounding as if she'd cry if he didn't agree.

He sighed as he turned to face Skeith for her. "Fine. But if-"

"When!" she shouted back at him.

"Fine, WHEN we get out of here you so owe me a huge favor." He said putting emphasis on the when. She smiled and nodded back at him. "Okay let's go!" The both charge at the monster ready for a full assault. Skeith lifted his staff again and swung at the two, but they blocked and launched their onslaught. Just when they were about to land a hit Skeith swiftly moved out of the way as if it had never stood their in the first place.

They turned back to face Skeith but something seemed off. Looking closely the noticed that its staff was gone! "Where the staff go?" They said in unison as they looked around frantically.

"Haseo!" Alkaid shouted gaining Haseo's attention. He turned to see that the staff had appeared behind her and was now lifting her into the sky. "Haseo, I can't move!"

He turned back to skeith to see something similar to a bracelet form around skeith's arm. Before five prongs sprout from it. "Is that?" Images of what Haseo thought he was seeing swam through his mind. "No! It's…" he didn't have to say it for the words he fear appeared in the text log. Those two horrifying words were 'data drain'. Several streams of rainbow colored data shot from the bracelet and converged on Alkaid and shot out her back, she let out an agonizing scream. She was incased in a strange yellow orb before she fell back to the ground.

Haseo turned his eyes from Alkaid fearing the worse "You bastard!!!" He lunged at the skeith with all he had. He was now an enraged man who had nothing left to lose. "Give her back dammit" he swung at Skeith but the being easily dodged the blow and slipped pass him. "I said giver her back" Haseo switched to his dual guns and fired round after round at the monster yet still doing no damage. He saw something blue floating down from the sky but he ignored it and continued firing. He switched weapons again, this time his dual sword, and lunged at skeith.

He was feet away when the blue thing he saw earlier appeared between them. It was a single blue orb of light. "…That's" was the only word he could say before the orb exploded pushing everything back behind a wall of blue flame. In the center of the flame stood a being modeled after one of the three legendary descendants of Fianna, it was azure flame Kite. Azure Kite stared back at Haseo with an empty eyes. "Get out of my way!" Haseo lunged forward still after skeith but Kite raised a hand to him.

Haseo stopped afraid that he might be data drained but instead Azure Kite just pointed in his direction before wordlessly turning around to face skeith as he drew his weapons 'empty skies'. Haseo wandered what he was pointing to until he heard a groan. He turned to see Alkaid's character still standing. "That attack gave me every status effect in the game."

Haseo smiled, happy to know that she was okay. He wanted to ask her if she was okay but she had rushed past him to attack Skeith. She didn't even bother questioning who the other player was. Truth is she didn't care, she wanted revenge!!! Haseo quickly rejoined the battle as all three of them unleashed blow after blow on Skeith before they all activated a skill trigger in unison. The words "Ghost falcon" and a cry from Azure Kite filled the are as they unleashed the same move on Skeith. The words protect break appeared on above skeith. "What's protect break?" They both asked in unison. They heard a strange hiss come from Azure kite as he raised his arm and pointed at skeith. The same bracelet appearing around his arm, Alkaid momentarily flinched, before it shot out the same blast from earlier but targeting skeith.

They once again saw the shattering of data but now Skeith was replaced by floating rocks that seemed to have shaped his form. They charged in to attack Skeith new form and were surprised. They actually now did damage! Skeith tried to run and in some last ditch effort to survive reused its judgment skill. However it was severely weakened. It tried to run but within seconds it was struck down.

The rocks slowly disappeared and the only thing left were Sora's weapons which shattered when as soon as they touched the ground. "I guess it's over." Haseo said as he put away his weapons.

"Yeah I guess you're right." Alkaid said agreeing as she smiled back at him.

Haseo was about to thank Azure Kite as well but when he turned to him all three of them were surrounded by the light of logging out. They appeared back in Breg Epona, Azure kite gone. "Guess he left. Alkaid you can go ahead and log out I still have a few thing to do."

"Sure. I'm a little tired anyway." She logged out.

Chika pulled off her FMD laid back on the couch. She massaged her eyes as they adjusted to the now darkened room. "If this keeps up I really am going to need glasses huh Ryou?" She turned to see him still playing, the click of the button keys let her know that he was typing a message to someone. "Ryou who are you sending a message to?" Chika asked as she looked over his shoulder. Ryou jumped at the sudden sound of her voice and blocked the screen. She sensed that he was trying to hide something. "Come on let me see!" She tried to push him out of the way but he wouldn't move. "Move Ryou!"

"No way!"

"Come on move"

"No!"

"Move or I'll…" Chika stamped her foot threateningly.

Ryou grabbed her arm to stop her from moving. "Or you'll what?"

Chika struggled in his grasp but he wouldn't let go. She looked up at him growling. She felt a chill run through her spine. It was similar to the same feeling she got earlier that day, she could still feel Ryou giving her 'that' look "Ryou let go." She took a step back.

"No way" there was a slight chuckle in his voice as he followed.

"This isn't funny Ryou" she continued walking back. "My parents are probably worried about me."

"They've probably figured out that you're here" He smiled at her through the dark as they continued walking.

"But…but…but-ah!" She had tripped over something in the and fell. She expected to meet with hard floor but instead landed something big and soft. It was Ryou's bed. She could feel him hovering over her. "Ryou get up I have to go."

She felt something soft brush against her neck. He had kissed it. "Come on stay?" Chika looked reluctant as she gazed of to the side, trying not to look Ryou in the eyes. He chuckled before kissing her neck again. "Please stay?" She looked like she had no intention of turning to face. Ryou gave a frustrated sigh before leaning close to her "we can pick up where Yata interrupted us."

That had did it. She had made the attempt to look him in they eye and that's when he claimer her lips. He pulled her in a tight hug, he could feel her relax in his arms before she cupped his cheeks in her hands. She suddenly pulled away "can you please tell me what we were typing?"

"You'll find out" Ryou followed this with a sly smile.

She groaned in defeat "…fine" she attempted to look depressed but she couldn't fool him. He pulled her close again an kissed her again, this time there would be no interruptions. They could be in each others arms forever.

Back at Ryou's computer his inbox was open. He had received an e-mail from everyone on his user list. All the messages were titled the same thing: Re: you have been invited to Hy Basil for the wedding of Haseo and Alkaid.

FIN.

Woot! It's over. That was longer than expected though. But I bet not a single one of you were expecting a phase battle! I had to do research on skeith and watch a few battles to see what his attacks were like. I'm happy how it turned out too. Now I just have on the epilogue. I'll get around to it…eventually. Well later!