Fragments of a Shattered Mirror
Disclaimer: I do not own, have not owned, and will never own Bandai or the .hack franchise, including the anime, games, manga and characters, situations, items, and places therein. I do, however, own this plot. It's mine. My own. My precious! Muahaha!
Epilogue numba # 3
(Another sad one. This one, in my opinion, is sadder than the first one in a way, and yet it is so much better than the first one. I happen to like this one the best. You'll see why shortly. )
Darkness. That's all there was. And that's all there would be for a long time. An eternity, or so it seemed.
Aura stood, or rather floated, through the Net Slum, blue-violet eyes flicking this way and that as if seeking something among the data refuse. The resident A.I.s greeted her as she passed, and they attempted to engage her in conversation. Aura nodded to them absently, but did not stop her search for simple pleasantries.
After a time of fruitless hunting, she grew more desperate, face twisted into an anxious expression. Passing swiftly through countless twisting roads running between the myriad of mismatched buildings, she almost didn't see the small opening. As it was, she had just gone by it before realizing its existence. Hurriedly, excitedly, Aura backtracked, staring down the long, narrow alleyway. Her eyes roved its length for a moment before she began to move down it.
The passage had no branches, or other openings, but it was long. Aura was beginning to wonder if she'd made some mistake when she emerged into a medium square. She stopped, skimming the entire area with hopeful eyes. Her expression turned disappointed, and she just began to turn to leave when a glint of red in the corner caught her eye.
Tentatively, the girl approached, a mixed expression of hope and dread filling her eyes. She stopped just in front of the red item and found it to be accompanied by another item. The crimson thing was but a flawless orb floating in the crook of a shepherd's staff. A broken staff. Only the curve and a few inches of the staff proper remained. The object accompanying it was a short blade, one of a pair a twin blade player might use. But its mate was missing. Gone forever, it seemed, just like the remnants of the staff. But they weren't. Not if Aura had anything to do with it.
She regarded the two objects sadly for a moment, then closed her eyes, holding a hand over the two items. A soft glow emanated from her hand, surrounding the dagger and stave fragment. Then, as it faded, Aura withdrew her hand, opening her eyes and backing away. A residual glimmer remained upon the two weapons for several moments. Then, with a strange abruptness, they vanished. Aura backed away more, floating into the air above the square, wishing only to observe now.
A strong, yet gentle hand pulled them away from the darkness, from the numbness. It brought them to a misty sort of twilight… A gray dawn and a gentle return to awareness. Not consciousness so much as merely being aware that there were things besides black and gray. This, too, lasted a long time, though with each moment the light grew. And then…
Two pairs of eyes opened – one set cerulean, the other lilac. They did not at first turn to look upon each other, but gazed at the strange patch of sky visible above and framed by the jagged tops of clunky, mismatched buildings. That sky, these buildings… they seemed so familiar, and yet the owners of the eyes could not place them, could not name them.
Pushing themselves to their feet, the two only now gazed at each other, staring eye to eye. One seemed familiar to the other; the other seemed familiar to the one. Yet feelings were the only things stirring within their memories. No name, though it seemed to dance just beyond the reach of thought, but only feelings…
The one of lavender eyes blinked and tilted her head to the side with a smile. "Hello," said she.
The one of cerulean eyes blinked back, lips curving into a crooked smile of their own. "Hey," said he.
"I don't know why," said the girl, taking a step closer to the boy. "But… I feel as though I've known you before."
The boy nodded. "And I you." He, too, took a step closer.
"This won't do at all, then," remarked the girl.
The boy gave her a puzzled frown. "What do you mean?"
She stuck out her hand. "If we've known each other before… Well… I don't remember your name. And I doubt you remember mine. That must be rectified."
He blinked at her hand, quirking an eyebrow. Then, he reached out and took it. The girl smiled.
"Hey. I'm Tsukasa," she said.
"I'm Kite," returned the boy, grinning as well.
"Pleased to meet, or re-meet you."
"The pleasure's all mine."
Kite and Tsukasa strode hand in hand down the long, narrow passage and into The World. Coming out of the maze of twisting passages that made up this strange place, they emerged in a broad clearing, of sorts, with a crooked arch-type gateway. Blazoned upon the top of the arch were the words "Welcome to Paradise." Behind the arch, a glorious sunrise paved the way for a beautiful day.
Aura watched them sadly from above. And yet… she was happy for them. They remembered nothing of this world or their own. And that was for the better. They could be happy, untroubled by dark memories and terrible dreams. They could have a new life…
Aura still watched them as the pair walked around the gate to sit upon the edge of the cliff there. She smiled to see them lean against each other, Kite's arm around Tsukasa's shoulders, and Tsukasa's head upon Kite's shoulder.
"Paradise indeed," whispered Aura, leaving as the pair gazed off into the dawn. "Paradise indeed…"
The End
Author Notes… THE FINAL ONES FOR THIS STORY! –sniffle-
First things first: Notes concerning this Epilogue:
In case I was too subtle, and you didn't get it… Kite and Amaya are dead, or at least permanently comatose in the real world. Ergo, Aura decides to give them a new life. Why in the Net Slum? Because all excess, 'deleted' and trash data tends to collect there. Any remnants of Kite or Tsukasa's data would be there. You can piece together the rest, no?
If you have any questions about this or any bit of my story, please feel free to either drop me a line on my email (but be sure to put "About Fragments" or something like that so I don't delete it) or say so in your review. If your email address is either accessible through F.F. or posted in your review, I will reply to your reviews of this, the absolute final chapter of Fragments of a Shattered Mirror.
Y'know… Come to think of it, this REALLY needs a better title. I mean, if I made a sequel off of this Epilogue, or the last one, 'Fragments of a Shattered Mirror' would work so much better as a title for those stories than it would for this. So.. If you have any suggestions as to the title, I'm quite open.
At some point in the future, I will be editing this story and possibly rewriting parts of that. If you really want to read it again in its revised (and hopefully improved) state… Um… When I get around to actually re-posting chapters, I will be sure to put a note in bold on my lookup somewhere. However, don't think that this will happen any time soon. It won't. I have other stories to work on and I really need to forget about this story for a bit before I go back and edit. That way, when I do edit, I will (hopefully) be more impersonal in my corrections and cuts. It's hard rewriting and fixing your own work, believe me. Oh, that reminds me! If anyone has an overwhelming urge to help me with this process, I will be much obliged. Either tell me in your review, or drop me a line at my email.
Next order of business:
A cast of characters… Their names in the World and in the real world (if applicable)… And I know some of them didn't appear in this fic, but I refer to them at some point or other.
Starring:
Kite – Nakahara Akira
Tsukasa – Yamamoto Amaya
And Introducing…
Evil Kite – Dark Clone – Morganna
Dusk – Morganna
Morganna's evil voice – Morganna
In other words… Morganna…
Cast:
Nakahara Family
Akira
Emi
Naomi
Kite's Dad
Akira's friends
Orca - Nishimura Yasuhiko
Elk – Moro Hidezki
Mia - Maha - Macha
Blackrose - Akemi
Balmung
Helba the enigmatic hacker
Yamamoto Family
Amaya
Yoshi
Kai (Amaya's dead mother)
Amaya's Friends
Mimiru – Kurosawa Mimiru
Mimiru's mother
Bear – Sakuma Takeshi
Subaru – Misono Marie
Sora
Artificial Intelligence
Aura
Morganna
Dark Kite
Everyone else…
Dr. Misono
Nurse 1 – Shinji
Nurse 2 – Keiko
Thank you to ALL my reviewers (even the ones who stopped reviewing):
dreamcaster555
Sarah
Alex Warlorn
Seia
Spirit Alleron
Shar-dono
Sesuna
Mack
kitedragonTwilight Faerie
TsukasaTheFoaminian
LittlePeepersLostTheirSneakers
Murgatroyd
WaveMasterAriesMinako
Steeple333
Macky
twilight
Second Hand Devotion
angelyoshi4444 / Cassiopia
Arakasema
windchaser90
Wind Kaze
Twilight Memories
Andrius O'Conner
AerisValeria
Shadow Rave
Shiner
A special Thank You to the following people/ things:
Aeris for giving me the idea for this final epilogue
Dragon's Hitokiri for an entertaining poking war thing
Cat (my cat) for serving as a foot warmer
The assorted dragons who hang out with me and happen to be my muses
The laptop upon which I have written most of this story
Liz (from my school) who is one of two people I know outside of F.F. to have read this story, although she does not have an account here and has not reviewed it on this site. She just tells me what she thinks.
Sesuna / Kenneth / Goten / The guy obsessed with Herps, (not a typo!) who is the other one of those two people. He does have an account here, although he's been without Internet for quite some time.
My bed. My pillows. My blanket.
My iPod. I love listening to music.
Starbucks for selling bottled Frappachinos… Mm… Chocolate coffee….
Caffine in general
Chips, chocolate, and other assorted snacks
My desk and desk chair
The computer with Internet from which I upload just about everything.
Mozilla, the best Internet browser… EVER
Microsoft Word
Assorted notebooks, pens and pencils.
My brain. My sick and twisted brain.
Youth which allows me to stay up repeatedly until about three, then get up three hours later and go to school and still be relatively all right.
Did I mention coffee?
And.. the following music artist-group-things whose music inspired, distracted, or provided background for me: (In absolutely no order whatsoever) (keep in mind that for many of these, I only listened to one or two songs by them due to the fact that I have a bunch of soundtracks…)
Simon & Garfunkle
Nirvana
Bowling for Soup
The Cheiftains
Yo-Yo-Ma (crouching tiger, hidden dragon)
Monkees
Eurythmics
Ventures
Red Hot Chile Peppers ( I love their music! )
Weird Al Yankovic
ABBA
Avril Lavigne
J. S. Bach
American Hi-Fi
Bangles
Beach Boys
U2
Cat Stevens
Cheap Trick
Christina Vidal
Culture Club
Dan Powel
David Bowie
Don McLean
Duran Duran
Assorted DDR songwriter people… Err.. The DDR tunes ran through my head a lot… specially the Trance music…
DaRude
Harold Faltermeyer
Queen
James Galway
Kenny Loggins
Larry Greene
Loverboy
Mamas and the Papas
Lindsey Lohan
Marietta
Monty Python ( I'm a Lumberjack and I'm Ok…)
Mr. Farrenkopf (Err… He wrote our high school musical. He's an English teacher at my school.. And he wrote all the music, too.. And if you ever see the show Lunchlady: Tater Tots of Love performed anywhere, think of me.. because I was in it in its original showings… And on Tuesday, we're doing a cast recording. Go us! Aaanyway, the show is actually really good! )
Sheryl Crow ( I'm gonna soak up the sun!)
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS!
Tom Lehrer
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Whoever wrote the music to Sleeping Beauty
Whoever wrote the music to Princes Bride
Whoever wrote the music to Pirates of the Carribean
Whoever wrote Ashokan Farewell
Whoever wrote the music of Final Fantasy V & VI
Whoever wrote the music to Edward Scissorhands… Danny Elfman, I think
Whoever wrote the music to any of the .hack things… I wish I had CDs of them…
Whoever wrote Miserere.. Allegri, I think
Pachelbel
Raph Vaughan Williams
And finally… Peter, Paul and Mary.. whose song Puff the Magic Dragon would NOT get out of my head, following a rather… uh.. interesting and not too shabby claymation film (in which I swear I and Joey did ALL the work.. and I did more than him because I did all the claymation… and the clay figures… and part of the filming… and I wrote the damn script… And I put together the set… And I directed the damn thing…) You see.. the film was for Biology as a random project… we were doing the Carbon cycle… and it was starring a random clay dragon I made, among other things, so we started the film by playing Puff the Magic Dragon.. who lived by the sea… and frolicked in the autumn mists of a land called Honilee… arg!
Err…
Sorry for that exceptionally long list of thanks… What can I say? I have insomnia… And I don't have to get up tomorrow… (well today in four minutes)…
Anyway, onto review replies…
Twilight: Well.. this is the last time you need check up on /this/ story. You can go read my other stories. Please? The links are on my userlookup... Sure, I'll send you the story, just as soon as I find where I saved the document. I -think- it's on the laptop, but I'm not sure. It's been quite a while since I worked on it. Err.. as for killing of Kite... I, uh, aim to please? (Kite glares at me, muttering coments best left unposted) And Balmung, well, he and Mimiru pop out of their brief comas almost immeadiately. Er.. When/if I write the sequel(s), I'll mention them, I'm sure. I just couldn't figure out a convenient way to mention Balmung, since he's away at college and thus, no where near Kite & co. Invisible Ninjas beg? Sweeet! -takes a picture with her invisible ninja camera-
Arakasama: Busy life is all right. The only reason I'm able to update things so quickly at the moment is because, for once, I'm not busy. You know what? I think we're on the same wavelength. The first ending I pictured kind of like I'd picture the ending of a movie, and the second ending ran through my head anime style. It was pretty funny, actually, picturing the various anime-ish poses and things... like the pulsing temple, and the sweat drop... XD This one, however, seems to me to be more of a book ending. Ergo, that's probably why I like it best. I've read all five of the Hitchhiker's 'trilogy' and I like them very much. I haven't seen the movie, though... ;.;
Dragon's Hitokiri: Kite: . oy vey... -just leaves- Sora: Boing! me: Hmm.. Thanks for reviewing, again... -shifty eyes- Muahah -steals Crim's Grunty's sunglasses-
Twilight Memories : Err... Maybe I got the Yasu & Mimiru pairing from you. I don't know. It just occurred to me that the two fighting like that would be hilarious and somewhat expected, considering the time they'd spent in close proximity, waiting for their friends to wake up. Err... Well.. all questions will be answered when G.U. comes out for the PS2 later this year...
Angelyoshi: Yes.. That epilogue was better than the first one. And I think this one is better than the first one, too. Hope you like it. -does a little dance- Summer is here!
Kitedragon: Well, I've never had Asian cafeteria food, and I agree that hospital food really isn't that bad. I've eaten in hospital cafeterias when relatives have been in the hospitals. But, personally.. I think living on that stuff nurses bring you for a week would be awful. Besides, some cafeterias are better than others.
You guys still reading the page? -sigh- There's nothing else... Go read my other fanfiction!