Alrighty then, here's the next chapter! It was kind of refreshing to write a shorter one this time around. Kinda forgot what it felt like. Thank you guys for the support as always, and a special thanks to Midland2541 for giving the ol' once over.

Chapter 9

I've never ridden in a limousine before.

You don't see them a whole lot in Japan. A lot of streets are too narrow to accommodate their size, limiting their use to pretty much the main roads and not much else. The few services that do provide rides tend to charge an arm and a leg — per hour. Definitely not worth it to me. That's not to say I never wanted to have the experience, though. There's a certain appeal to riding around in a ritzy car like that.

I just wish my first ride didn't have Rosalia in it.

Turns out, she wasn't the only one sitting in the passenger cabin when we came inside. Faye, her assistant I suppose, had been sitting across from her, though now she'd taken up a post beside her boss to let us have the space. Further down the long sofa from them was Talbot, back in his cowboy getup, looking intensely bored as he drummed his fingers against his knees in a nonsensical rhythm. Neither of them gave so much as a word of greeting when we joined them. The most anyone got was actually Noya, who exchanged courteous nods with Talbot as he came inside. Within a few moments, we were back on the road again.

I crossed my arms and focused on the window behind Rosalia's head. It let me keep an eye on her without making it obvious. I didn't think she'd make a move on us, but I rarely regretted keeping folks like her in my sights.

"I presume you were all down here because you were investigating Blacklight," Rosalia said to us all. She crossed one leg over the other and folded her hands in her lap, the picture of perfect professionalism. "You figured out they were responsible for the attack, and that Cedric helped them."

Argo gave her a tempered look. "Ya make it sound like ya already knew Blacklight was involved."

A small, self-satisfied smile grew on Rosalia's face. "They're pretty hard to mistake with those masks. There are only so many guilds operating out of the Deep Works." Her attention fell on Philia. Maybe it was just my imagination, but her voice seemed to turn a shade more concerned. "And I have been keeping tabs on them ever since they started working for Philia. For her sake."

Philia blinked, her mouth opening and closing several times. "I…I don't understand. Why would you do that?"

"I didn't want you to suffer for my actions. Simple as that," Rosalia said.

"Why? I've never even met you before."

"Of course not. I went through a lot of trouble to keep it that way."

Philia's brow knit up in confusion, and my brain started churning. I already knew Rosalia had an interest in protecting her, she told me as much when I spoke to her during the auction, but from the sound of it, Philia wasn't even aware of what the other woman was doing. What exactly was going on here?

Then, as if she read my mind, Rosalia tented her fingers together. "Alright. Cards on the table here. Everything that's happened the past few days was because of me. You could say I'm the one who started it."

For a long moment, the only sound inside the cabin was the whisper of the limo's tires against the asphalt.

Philia's eyes widened. Her lips parted but no words came out.

Beside me, Sinon leaned forward, her eyes narrow slits of blue. "What do you mean by that?"

Rosalia's single visible eye tracked to her. "Philia was searching the Deep Works because of me. I arranged things to make sure she would."

The pieces fell into place. I started to see the bigger picture, and a ball of fire grew in my chest.

"Oh," I said with rising anger. "Oh, you self-absorbed—."

"Masai," Argo cut in.

I kept talking. "Those brokers Philia talked about, the ones who told her there was undiscovered treasure down here. They were yours, weren't they? You told them to lie to her so that she'd go snooping around the Deep Works for you."

"Yes," Rosalia said.

"Why?" I growled.

"If Philia knew the real reason, she'd be in even more danger than she is now. This is the best thing for her."

"The best thing would have been to leave her alone."

"I couldn't do that."

"Bullshit," I said, my voice hot.

"Ease up on the gas, Masai. Nothin' is gonna get helped until we figure out what's goin' on." Argo said.

I clenched my jaw shut. Every fiber of my being wanted to push harder, to make Rosalia answer for manipulating my friend. But Argo had a point. As much as I hated to admit it, Rosalia was the only one with the answers here. I wasn't helping anything by blowing up on her. Yet.

"Thank you, Argo." Rosalia settled herself in her seat, smoothing out the creases on her skirt.. "There is a rash—"

"You can get creams for those," I said.

It's not my fault. She set me up for it.

Rosalia's eye twitched. Which is just about the worst thing you could do in front of someone who practices smartassery. "There is a rash," she continued, though with a noticeable amount of clenched teeth, "of incidents that have been hurting the Broker Network for some time now. I wasn't going to let it continue, so I put this plan together."

This time Argo narrowed her eyes. "You're talkin' about the Hidden."

"Correct," Rosalia said.

"They don't exist."

"They officially don't exist. Nobody has found proof of their existence yet."

"And you wanted to be the one to do it, eh?"

Sinon shuffled closer to me, whispering. "Who are the Hidden?"

"Rival broker group," I whispered back. "They've been taking potshots at the Network every so often, but they've been so unpredictable and random that some brokers aren't even sure there's actually someone behind it all."

She took that in, nodding. "And Rosalia wanted to find them."

"Yeah," I said, clenching my jaw to keep from growling. "But she made Philia into her own proxy to do it."

Sinon touched my forearm lightly, leaning forward slightly so that her glacier blue eyes met my own. "Easy. Let's get the whole story first."

I swallowed the rising fire and forced myself to relax. "Right," I said, and spoke up. "What were you doing exactly, Rosalia? You obviously weren't winging this entire thing. So what was the play?"

She reclined back in her seat, arms crossed loosely against her chest. "I wanted to find the Hidden and eliminate them so that they never threaten the Network's interests again. It took me several months, but I narrowed down the location of where they could be operating to the Deep Works here in Glocken. Of course if they knew I was looking for them, they would put up a fight. So I sent someone else in my place. Someone with an expertise in finding things."

"Philia," I said. "Yeah, you sent her out there on a lie. That much is obvious. So what, did you think they'd handle her with kid gloves because she's not a broker? That it was just an honest mistake on her part?"

"Potentially. That had been my hope. If they reacted to her exploration, it would have been a lead I could trace back to them," Rosalia said. "There was a chance they would be more forceful, but I saw it as unlikely."

"Unlikely. Yeah, sure. You put her in danger," I said.

"Why do you think I asked you to protect her?" Rosalia replied. "I told you I had the resources and influence to survive whatever happened. You are her only defense."

She was right. She had asked me to protect Philia as best I could, but it didn't make me feel any less spiteful. I avoided the urge to snap at her, if only because the sight of Philia running a hand over her orange hair stopped me dead in my tracks.

"I was being lied to this whole time," she said, her voice hollow. "I was being used."

Rosalia's features softened into something that almost seemed regretful. She spoke to her with that same degree of concern she showed before. "I'm sorry you had to find out like this. I didn't mean to cause you so much trouble."

Philia didn't reply to her. In fact, she didn't show any indication she'd heard her at all. Her gaze was fixed into nothingness. I'd seen her get like this a couple of times in SAO, when she was deep in thought during our treasure hunts. Experience told me her mind was rewinding everything that happened over the past two days, trying to find any subtle clues she had previously missed.

"Clearly things didn't work out the way you hoped," I said to Rosalia. "Blacklight's leader said someone paid him off to betray Philia."

"Obviously," she said. "The Hidden have deep pockets, and money beats everything in this world. Once they had Blacklight on their side, they attacked the auction and left Philia and I in the position we're now."

I shook my head and sat back in the plush leather seating. "So let me see if I got this straight. You wanted to find the Hidden in order to remove a thorn in the Network's side. You dupe Philia into searching the places they could be hiding out in, with the hope that she either stumbles across them or they get rattled enough to make a move you could trace back to them," I said. "Only you ended up getting more than you bargained for. The Hidden pay Blacklight to turn on Philia, and then they set things up so that the auction turns into a disaster. In the end, they hit back at both of you. That about right?"

"Yes. That's pretty much it," Rosalia said.

I digested it for a moment. Sure, it sounded plausible enough when taken as a whole — Rosalia tried to scheme her way into exposing an elusive enemy and got burned for it — but as I pored over the whole story, one little detail stuck out at me.

"Hold on a minute, if even Philia didn't know she was actually working for you, how did the Hidden figure it out?"

Rosalia stared at me with her garnet-red eye. She took a deep breath, and it came out in a small, pleased sigh. "You noticed that. Good. Then maybe you deserve to know after all."

I glowered at her. Even when she's being civil, I feel like I'm being talked down to.

Rosalia tented her fingers together and said, "I think some of the brokers in the Network are…compromised."

Argo perked up at that. Her painted whiskers twitched on one side. "I assume ya got some sort of proof?"

"No. Speculations. Circumstantial evidence. Nothing concrete. But you've seen it yourself, Argo. The attacks on our clients, the faulty information given to us, all of the treasure hunts we sponsor going wrong. None of that can be done unless someone has an insider's knowledge," Rosalia replied. "But Masai is right. Nobody aside from myself, Faye and Talbot, and a handful of my allies know of my connection to Philia."

"Sounds more like you need to clean house rather than say the Network itself is compromised," I said.

"Be that as it may, if there's a chance even one broker is working with the Hidden, then the entire Network can't be trusted," Rosalia said. "Which is why I'm here now. I wanted to ask for your help."

Argo said, "What?" at the same time I barked out a disbelieving laugh, right before Faye turned to her boss and said "You can't be serious, Ms. Rosalia."

"My back is up against a wall," Rosalia said over everyone. "If we don't react, then the Hidden will escape our grasp and we won't be able to avoid their retaliation."

"You're taking a substantial risk," Faye shot a look at me. "Especially where Masai is concerned. He's made it clear he has no love for you."

Rosalia didn't look all too concerned about the idea. "I know that. He has his reasons, but he won't be a risk."

"A liability, then," Faye said.

"You sweet talker," I remarked.

Rosalia shook her head. "He wants to protect Philia and helping us is the best way to do that, isn't it, Masai?"

"You're making some pretty big assumptions here, Rosalia," I said. "In fact, they're so big they can house a family of five…"

"I want to protect her, too. She has the best chance of making it through this if we work together, y'know."

"...With a nice backyard, big enough for the dog and his family of five."

Rosalia couldn't keep the annoyance from bleeding into her tone. "Are you through yet?"

"Never am," I leaned forward, speaking very clearly. "Maybe you forgot what I told you back in the auction. I'm not working with you, Rosalia. It's not happening."

"If you don't, you're leaving Philia to fend for herself. Do you really think you'll be able to find the Hidden on your own, or even Blacklight?"

"For an info broker, you're kinda bad at picking up clues," I said. "I. Am not. Working with you. I'll help Philia my own way, and I don't need to find anyone to make it happen."

"You think the Hidden are going to stand by and let you do that? Eventually, you will have to deal with them, and you won't be able to do it alone. You've seen what they're capable of."

I have. Well to be more precise, I've seen what Blacklight's capable of. They were tough, cunning as hell to boot, and they weren't shy about doing what they needed to. Would the Hidden be even worse? I was putting on a good show of being stubborn about allying with Rosalia, but deep down, at the place where my brain assessed long odds and fickle chances, I wondered if I was making the right call.

Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather tell Rosalia to go pound sand, but the woman clearly had substantial resources if she was able to get this close to pinning the Hidden down on her own. And it's not like I was going to be handing her the crown to make her Queen of the Brokers by agreeing to a truce. I'd be using her for my own ends, no doubt in the same way she'd do to me. It'd be an uneasy alliance, but potentially a beneficial one.

All I had to do was team up with the murdering former bandit leader.

Yeah, there was that wrinkle with the whole idea.

"Why do ya wanna work with me, Rosalia? Ya just said the Network couldn't be trusted but last time I checked, I'm a card carryin' member. What makes me the exception?" Argo asked.

"Simple. Your reputation. Everything that I've researched about you says that you have more integrity than most in the business do," Rosalia said, lifting her hands. "When the beta testers were being mistreated in SAO, you refused to give up their names to anyone. No matter how much money they offered. That says more about you than anything else."

I fixed a dirty look at Rosalia. If there was ever a time to bring it up, it was now. "Yeah, speaking of things we did in SAO, Kirito told me all about what you did to the Silver Flags."

Rosalia's expression took a turn for the chilled, and while I've gotten enough scary looks in the past to blunt whatever she threw my way, the room still felt like it dropped a few degrees.

"Yeah, I got the whole scoop," I said, putting up an air of indifference to her reaction. "You weren't trustworthy then, so why should we believe you are now?"

"Kirito," Rosalia began, her voice turning acidic. "was too busy playing Hero to understand what was going on."

"It doesn't take much to understand. You got your cronies to butcher an entire guild, and for what? Money? The Silver Flags were innocent people and you—"

Rosalia tilted her head back and barked out a haughty, bitter laugh. The curtain of hair on her face parted from the motion until both of her eyes were glaring at me. "The Silver Flags were innocent? According to who?"

"Kirito," I said.

Rosalia's lips twisted into a venomous little smile. "And who did he hear it from?"

A hushed silence fell over everything. The air turned thick and dangerous like a pressure cooker ready to blow, just waiting with bated breath for a spark to set it alight.

"Maybe I missed a memo, but I thought we were supposed to be parleying with these folks," Talbot murmured. He was still slouched over in his seat, eyes half closed like we'd just stirred him from his nap. "If something's changed, you really oughta let me know so I can toss Masai out on his ass and be done with this."

Rosalia glared at him. Then she blew out a short breath and said, "It's fine."

Talbot grunted. It sounded unconvinced.

Rosalia ignored him and fixed her hair, her right eye disappearing behind its veil again. "Kirito was young and idealistic and…" her mouth twisted in distaste. "Naive. He saw a poor boy begging for help and took him at his word. It honestly would have been adorable if it hadn't led to me being imprisoned."

"You're lying," I said.

"I am? Ask him what the Silver Flags were doing before they died," Rosalia shot back. "Go ahead, see what he has to say. I'll admit I've done plenty of things for the wrong reasons. But right now, stopping the Hidden and protecting Philia, that isn't one of them."

"I find that hard to believe considering you're the one who put her in this situation in the first place," I said.

"Then believe this: Philia needs your help, and I want to make up for deceiving her. I'm offering my assistance to make it right." Rosalia spread her hands wide open. "You already know I have a lot of resources. You know that I'm very close to exposing the Hidden. All I'm asking for is your cooperation. Not your loyalty or your allegiance. Help me help Philia. That's all I'm asking."

The limo slowed to a stop. Rosalia tilted her head to one side, as if listening to a voice only she could hear, and nodded.

"Here's your stop. Think about what I said. If you decide to take me up on my offer, meet me in the Black Diamond Lounge in two days." Rosalia said.

I glared at her, and then we all stepped out of the limo onto an empty stretch of concrete that reminded me of a train platform. Stairs a bit further away led up to what I presumed to be the surface level of Glocken, where I could hear the din of the crowd even from down here.

"Well, turns out this was a lot more complicated, huh?" Argo said as she watched the limo drive away.

"You going to take her up on her offer?" I asked her.

Argo fell silent. For several seconds, not a single flicker of emotion crossed her round face. "Members of the Network have an obligation to defend it, but that doesn't mean I have to play along with her." She nodded to herself and faced me. "If anythin' I'm gonna look into this claim about the Network bein' compromised. But I ain't gonna make it look like Rosalia tipped me off about it. No way am I puttin' that kind of a target on my back."

It made sense. Argo probably wouldn't be too thrilled at the prospect of being seen as Rosalia's ally. Drama is usually a hassle to deal with even in the best of times, and broker drama in particular tends to be even more cutthroat. She'd probably catch the Hidden's attention as well if they caught on to her prying.

That's assuming that, y'know, Rosalia was being truthful about there being a mole in the Network.

"I guess that works out. Philia…" I turned to ask her something only to find her already hurrying up the stairs, hands in her pockets, her head bowed so that her face was obscured. I sighed. She probably wasn't taking things too well. She was under fire for doing what amounted to her favorite hobby. She'd been manipulated into being someone else's pawn. It didn't matter how regretful Rosalia was about it, or how concerned she was about her safety, being used doesn't feel good — period.

"She deserved a whole lot better than what she got," Argo said, watching her go as well.

I chewed on my lip. "Won't get an argument from me."

Argo tugged on the beak of her hood and started walking away with Noya. "I gotta go meet up with some contacts."

"What am I supposed to do?" I called after her. "Technically you're my boss. Wouldn't it be trouble for you if I go off and do my own thing?"

Argo turned around, walking backwards as she said, "Ya got a good head on your shoulders, Masai. If ya do somethin' I'm gonna assume ya got a good reason for it." She turned back around and held a thumbs-up in the air as a farewell.

Rei sidled up to my side and said, "What do we do now, Master?"

That was a good question. I massaged the spot between my eyebrows with the pad of my thumb for a moment. "Go on and head back home, Rei. I'm going to bother Sinon for a bit."

Rei looked from her to me and nodded. With a quick salute, she turned and headed up the stairs back to the surface, blending into the crowd as easily as another drop of water in the ocean.

"Should I brace myself for whatever it is you're about to do?" Sinon asked once we were alone.

"Sort of," I said with my best lopsided grin. It felt a little too forced. "Mind being a sounding board for me? You usually have a good sense of judgment so…"

"Are you implying I don't always have good judgment?" Sinon said. Her eyes scrunched slightly at the corners — in that familiar way that told me she was holding back a smile.

"Well, I question your taste in partners. The one you have right now keeps getting into trouble."

Sinon lifted her hands in a helpless gesture. "He has this problem where he can't help but get involved in things that clearly aren't healthy for him," she cracked a small grin. "But…he's doing it to help people, so I find it a little endearing."

A small warm glow bloomed in my chest. It's the little things she does that are really special to me.

I beckoned her to follow. We walked down the length of the platform together. Nobody was around to eavesdrop on us, or maybe they were and I hadn't noticed yet. That's the scary thing about being involved with people who made a living discovering and selling secrets. You find out how easy it is for them to learn things by just listening to the right people, sometimes without them knowing.

"Okay, so this entire thing from the start has basically been Rosalia picking a fight with the Hidden. She's certainly got one now, but the problem is Philia is going to be collateral damage unless I do something about it," I said.

"Unless we do something about it," Sinon corrected me. "Don't think I'm letting you do this alone. Someone has to watch your back."

Not an instant of hesitation. I smiled at her, grateful. "I thought you'd say that. But, hey, if we're lucky, there may not actually be any fighting for us."

"What makes you say that?"

I scratched my cheek. "I still know a few folks in the Treasure Guilds from back in the day. Right now Philia needs friends. People who'll stand up for her. We get enough together and maybe we can shield her from the fire."

"Sounds reasonable," Sinon said. "What about Rosalia and the Hidden?"

I shrugged. "That isn't really our fight. I say let them duke it out. It's got nothing to do with us."

Sinon fell silent. I didn't notice she'd stop following me until I'd taken several steps ahead of her. When I turned around, her mouth disappeared behind her muffler.

"I'm not so sure of that," she said.

I arched an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I think we can both agree that the Hidden were the ones who made Cedric open the way for Blacklight, right?" she said.

"Sure," I said.

"Do you remember what he said? They used his personal information to pressure him into helping them," Sinon crossed her arms. "Then doesn't it make sense to say that the Hidden know things they're not supposed to know? Like…like maybe my fear?"

I thought about it — and she had a point. A very good point. Ikuchi found out about Sinon's fear of the Black Star from an unknown third party. We weren't sure who they were, and the list of probable suspects was terribly short and inconclusive. We'd been working for over a month to uncover their identity and weren't any closer now than when we started.

What if it had been the Hidden? What if they somehow found out about the Black Star and passed it along to Ikuchi? What if they were the ones who'd been enabling things from the start? It wasn't outside the realm of possibility. Hell, during our final confrontation, Ikuchi flat out told me that I didn't know the true breadth of information that gets passed around in GGO. Was this what he was referring to?

And what about the woman who first approached him to go after Sinon? Was she one of their members, or a client of theirs? Hard to say, but the pieces certainly fit.

"I'm not saying we should team up with Rosalia, but I don't think we should ignore the Hidden either," Sinon said.

I nodded. I couldn't say for sure whether the Hidden had any part in our feud with Ikuchi, but at the very least they were the closest thing we had to a prime suspect right now.

"If we do decide to stick our noses into their business, we have to be careful. These guys are major league badasses," I said.

"Philia already had something of a start on finding them, even if she didn't know it," Sinon said. "After we help her, she could point us in the right direction."

'True. I'm cool with that. Anything to avoid dealing with Rosalia."

Sinon gave me an oblique look. She closed the distance between us, her voice dropping into a low murmur. "You really don't like her, huh?"

I stuffed my hands in my pockets, busying myself for a moment by tapping the tip of my boot against the concrete. "Yeah, I guess so. I've dealt with her type before."

"Underhanded opportunists?" Sinon asked.

"Player killers," I said. "But I guess they can count as those too."

Sinon looked down at the ground between us. She took a few seconds to maybe gather her thoughts and said, "Have people tried to kill you before?"

An old echo of pain thrummed in my chest, like a healing cut that itches when you pay enough attention to notice it. I grimaced. Most of the time, I prefer to forget everything that ever happened in SAO. All the memories I made back then, both good and bad, were locked tight and pushed off into the darkest corners of my mind. It probably wasn't good to keep everything bottled up and shut away, but it's the only way I can pretend to have a semblance of a normal life.

But…

Sinon was a good person. One of the better people I knew, actually. Whenever I was buckling under the stress of a bad situation, or when I was lost and unsure of myself, she had been there by my side to help me through it. Not once has she ever thought less of me — for any reason.

"Masai?" she said.

"Um, yeah," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "Yeah they tried. About, uh…about two months before SAO ended." I pressed my back against a nearby wall, staring at nothing in particular. "The Ryuujin were going through some tough times and we were just trying to…pick ourselves back up."

Sinon's expression softened as she joined me — a silent, supportive presence.

"It was a bad expedition on the higher floors that did it. Our luck just…ran out. We lost some people. Our commander was one of them," I said.

I felt Sinon shuffle closer to me. She stayed silent, but out of the edge of my vision, I could see the sympathy written on her face.

"Me and my buddy Shu were farming inside a cave. To get back some of the resources we lost y'know? That's when some players ambushed us. They gave us the whole speech about giving up our stuff or we'd be killed."

"What happened?" Sinon asked.

"We gave it to them. They, uh…" I trailed off and rubbed my mouth, warring with myself on what to say next. Hesitation grew. Anxiety gnawed at my stomach. Fear slithered up my throat, almost strangling me, and it made the next few words come out in a rough timbre. "Th-they attacked us. They attacked us anyways."

"Masai…" Sinon said, her voice gentle.

Damn it. Why did I say that? Shame bore down on me. I couldn't look at her, but I couldn't stop either. "I…I fought back. Shu fought back, too, but…god, Sinon, there were too many of them." I took several long breaths, fighting against the tightness in my chest. "Shu died. Right in front of me."

Sinon touched my arm. That simple act and the warmth of her fingers helped me center myself. I didn't want to keep talking, but I needed to force it out before I could clam up.

"I ran. They didn't go after me, but part of me wishes they did so that I didn't feel like such a coward for running."

"You weren't," Sinon said at once.

"I've told myself that for over a year. It hasn't stuck yet," I said, the words coming out flat and bitter.

The hand touching my shoulder reached up and took hold of my chin. I resisted at first, but Sinon's hold was firm. She coaxed me to meet her eyes. They were unflinching and strong, and told me all I needed to know about Sinon's steadfast conviction.

"You were not a coward," she said.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and gave a halfhearted shrug. "Maybe. I guess it doesn't really matter now," I sighed. "But you get where I'm coming from, right? I know Rosalia's type. I'm not helping someone like her, Sinon. Not ever."

She let go of me, folding her arms together loosely against her waist. "You don't have to worry. If you think talking to the Treasure Guilds is the best way forward, then I'll follow your lead."

I raised a brow. "You're putting a lot of faith in me."

"I have good reason to. Argo's right. I've been around you long enough to know you don't do things without a reason." She gave me a small smile. "You're a stand-up guy, Masai. You're strong and confident, and you've always been honest with me. I don't see a reason to doubt you now."

I tried to smile back. But I couldn't.

I was always honest with her…

God, I wish that was true.

I looked away from her. Not once has she ever thought less of me.

But there's a first time for everything.