By Sargent Snarky
Disclaimer: I do not own .hack. I've said that at least forty times now. And… I'm getting pretty sick of it, truth be told.
Quote thing:
"Everything in this room is eatable. Even I'm eatable. But that, my children, is called cannibalism and is frowned upon in most societies."
Willie Wonka (as played by Depp)
Kite: What the hell? That quote has nothing to do with this story!
Me: So…? It cracks me up every time I think about it. I LOVED that movie. It, along with Batman Begins, has been the best movie I've seen this summer.
Kite: … -- But why use it as a quote?
Me: Because I can.
Kite: -sigh- You could have at least used a quote from War of the Worlds, or something… At least that movie is as depressing as this story.
Me: Well, because the movie War of the Worlds sucked!
(Tsukasa: -aside to Kite- Oh dear… You've put her in rant mode…)
Me: First of all, there were too many little annoying inconsistencies! For example, if the lightening blast thing had knocked out ALL electronic devises, then how the hell was that one guy VIDEO TAPING the alien tripod! Secondly, why the hell were the Tripods be buried beneath the earth! I mean, for pete's sake! Why would the aliens go to all the trouble of burying the Tripods thousands of years ago, but not just go ahead and take over then? Besides, how could these Tripods stay in tact for the hundreds of years they'd been buried? Thirdly, the little girl screamed entirely too much. Furthermore, if she was as terrified as all that, then she would have been catatonic from fear-induced shock less than half-way into the film!
-takes breath-
Fourthly, it's like Speilberg couldn't decide what the hell the aliens wanted the humans for, or what they wanted to do. First, the Tripods were killing as many as they could find, vaporizing them and destroying everything. Then they were collecting the humans and spraying their blood all over the place. And what the hell was up with the roots containing human blood? I mean, there was seriously no point to those other than to freak everyone out and for the computer & set people to go "oh lookie what /I/ can do!"
Fifthly, they did a bad cutting job. By that, I mean first you'd see, say, one guy grinning like a madman. Then, you'd see someone else's face. Then you'd go back to the first guy and his expression would be completely different for no reason. Then you'd return to the second person's face and then go back to the original guy only to see him with the grin again. XX
Sixthly, how come like everywhere was destroyed, but at the end when the guy gets to his wife's home, their whole neighborhood is in tact and they are still in their house! I mean honestly! Like, everywhere else in Boston is trashed… Why not their row houses? Or any of the surrounding streets? And, if everybody else flees their homes, why doesn't this family!
Seventhly, and this is just a complaint about Tom Cruise, why the hell does Cruise get paid so much to do a mediocre acting job! Well, his acting really /wasn't/ all that great. It was all right, but… They could have hired someone else for a boatload cheaper and have gotten the same (or perhaps better) acting. Sheesh.
All right. Sorry… I'm done ranting about War of the Worlds, now. Go read the book! It's a /lot/ better. Herbert George Wells ROCKS! So, go read the Time Machine (better than the movie) and the Invisible Man. Ok?
And while you're out reading, go read Roald Dahl's stuff, too. Like.. The Witches (better than the movie, but the movie is still really good) or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or the Minpins or The Magic Finger or Fantastic Mr. Fox or Matilda (better than the movie) or any others of his stories & poems and stuff… He's written a lot and, though I haven't read /everything/ of his, I still recommend anything by Roald Dahl.
Kite: You done yet?
Me: Yup.
Tsukasa: Finally…
Blackrose: You natter too much.
Me: … so?
Kite: -sigh-
Author's notes added at the time of posting:
I appologize immensely for the extreme delay in my posting. Our hard drive crashed, so I have had no internet for a while. And, I don't really now, but I find ways sometimes. Anyway, school also starts on Thursday for me, so don't expect many updates soon, either. I'm really, really sorry! But... computers live to spite me. So... Yeah.
Also, PLEASE read the notes at the end of the chapter, for they, unlike my random rants (-points upwards-) are actually noteworthy, especially concerning this story.
Part V – Resistance(Kite's POV)
Why am I not surprised that Helba is here now? I turn and just look at her for a moment, gazing up through tear-blurred eyes. Blackrose, too, turns to look, though I see her eyes flick over to me every few seconds. I then shake my head and let my gaze wander, looking at everyone who is gathered there. Not everyone who was in that building has come, but there are a few others besides Helba and Piros: Ryoko, Moonstone, Gardenia, Natsume, and Sanjuro.
"How… how long have you been there?" I ask to all of them, but mostly Helba.
"Long enough," she replies.
I sigh, and then I stand up, gazing at the ground, at one of the walls: anywhere but where I might meet someone's gaze. So… they all heard. Oh joy. Just what I need! Pity… I can feel their pity without having to actually look into their sympathetic gazes.
I told Blackrose… because I knew she'd understand. My memory is still sketchy, and most of what I do remember clearly is… bad. However, I do remember that Blackrose understood. Understands. She empathizes… And I'd rather have empathy than sympathy right now. I got enough sympathy six years ago.
'I understand…' says she… that voice. Morganna. But she only speaks to me. No one else hears her. So, I just ignore her. Like hell she understands…
Blackrose, too, stands up. You know, she reminds me a lot of Naomi. In her temperament, attitude, and how she deals with things. Maybe it's the 'older sister' in both of them, or maybe it's just that they have similar personalities. I don't know. I don't think I care. Right now, I'm just grateful to have Blackrose around…
Anyway, we all stand in awkward silence for a few moments, then I feel a twinge, and a warning bell goes off in my head. Something's coming… I frown as I try and figure out exactly what. Then, a shudder courses along my spine, and I feel… whatever it is inside of me struggle forth, attempting to let its self loose, and shove my own consciousness aside. The way this is manifested within my body is sudden fire lacing my insides, and a splitting headache. This is also accompanied by the sensation of a strong force pressing against my mind, trying its hardest to direct me, to force me to do… something. I'm not sure what. To change, I think.
Anyway, I groan, clutching at my abdomen where the pain is greatest (besides my head). I loose any and all awareness of my friends, even Blackrose standing next to me, and anything not directly connected to my body or my psyche in some way. It is a struggle to keep just myself. To fight off whatever it is inside of me.
I only hope I can win… Because if I don't… I know I'm lost… And so is Yasuhiko… and Blackrose's brother… and whoever else is trapped here, too…
( Blackrose's P.O.V.)
"Kite!" I cry as he shouts and doubles over, trembling and clutching at his stomach. "Kite, what's wrong?"
He elicits no response but a groan as he falls to his knees. I fall to my knees next to him, calling to him. What the hell is going on!
"Kite! Speak to me!" I implore.
To my surprise, he moans softly, saying, "No…"
"What?" I query.
"Leave me alone!"
"No! Kite," I demand, "What's wrong?"
"I am not! Get out of my head, bitch."
It suddenly occurs to me that he isn't even aware of my existence at this point. No, he's talking to someone else. Probably her… Morganna. Helba, meanwhile, instructs something or other, but I pay her no mind, nor do I pay attention to any of the others. Some of them say things, and I'm vaguely aware of movement. Otherwise, who the hell knows or cares what they're doing?
It is at this point that Kite goes almost completely still. Absolutely ridged, though he still trembles a little. His eyelids are half-open, but his eyes are unseeing. I can see a vicious struggle within those eyes, and his pupils are as wide as they can possibly be. I didn't know pupils could expand so much…
I put a hand on his shoulder, and he seems to come back to himself a bit. I think. His eyelids open completely, and his pupils shrink, but instead of just staying a normal size, they become pinpoints. It's really quite freaky.
"Kite!" I call again.
He turns his head and looks at me, not blinking. His expression is vacant, utterly lacking in any emotion whatsoever.
"K-kite?" My voice quavers.
He closes his eyes and shakes his head. When they open again, the pupils are the normal size, and he seems to actually see things now. A troubled look crosses his face, and he staggers to his feet, nearly falling, but I catch him. His eyes travel to Helba.
"You… did you do that?" he asks, softly.
She shakes her head. "No. That was Balmung."
Kite blinked and nodded. "Can… you tell him thank you?"
Helba nods. I'm just confused.
"What are you talking about?" asks Sanjuro.
"It would take to long to explain," says Helba, curtly. "Let's go. This place… isn't good. It's… It shouldn't even be here."
"Hey, Kite, are you all right, now?" asks Natusme.
He sighs and shakes his head, gazing at her with weary, pained eyes. "No... no I'm not..."
Something in his tone silences any further inquiries. And so, he staggers to his feet, or tries to. I have to help him a bit. Is it just me, or is there more of his data eaten away? Are the patches of raw programming bigger? Something tells me we're running out of time...
As he and I reach the edge of the creepy square, he stiffens and stops. A wild fear fills his expression, though I can't imagine why.
"Kite?" I entreat. "What's the matter? Come on... We've got to go."
He says nothing, but struggles against me as I pull him forward. Still, he's weaker than I am in this state, so it is easy for me to bring him across the threshold. However, as we do so, I suddenly understand why he didn't want to. Static flickers across my vision, and the world about me reels. Then, amid an absolute wave of sickening white noise, I hear it shift to something more like the roar of an ocean. Amidst the sound, I hear a faint tone, like the striking of a tuning note, and then, the sound of a drop of water falling into a perfectly tuned glass.
Oh dear! Not this! Anything but this! Of all the times and places for the next phase to spring, why here? Why now?
We emerge suddenly onto that queer floating island upon which all of our battles with the phases have taken place. And, strangely enough, nothing else seems to be there. But I know something lurks out of sight. At the other end of the island, a round pool of brown liquid bubbles and seethes. And then the phase pops out, dripping the ichor. The closest way to describe the thing is to call it a stone worm, impaled upon a walking stick and with evenly spaced markings here and there.
This is bad... This is very bad.
"Tarvos," whispers Kite, and I look at him. "The Avenger."
His eyes are wide, still full of that wild terror. At least now I have some idea of why. Then, he looks at me. "Blackrose... I..."
"Don't you DARE say you can't! You can, and you will!" I snap before he can say anything. "We can, and we will defeat this thing. You'd better be able to at least stand on your own. You still have your healing spells right? So play healer while I kick this thing's ass!"
"Blackrose," he says, lips twitching with a pitiful attempt at a smile.
But he nods, and I take off, drawing and lifting my gigantic sword. I swing at the thing, but my blade bounces off an invisible barrier. "Damn it," I swear. "Physical barrier..."
So, I use a skill I happen to have on one item. "Dek Vorv!"
That gets rid of the barrier, so, despite receiving damage from the creature ramming into the ground and sending shock waves around, I begin to hammer the creature with physical attacks, hitting as hard as I possible can. Have to end the battle quickly! It casts PhAni Zot, and 'fingers' of darkness do some major damage to me. However, I am saved from dying by a Pha Repth from Kite. At least he can still cast spells. That's a good sign, isn't it?
After a bit more hacking and slashing on my part, (and some more damage), a large puddle of that nasty brown stuff (I'll never be able to eat chocolate pudding again, methinks) opens up beneath Tarvos and I am forced to leap back to avoid falling in. The creature then drops into it and disappears. Kite and I exchange a worried glance. Before we can do anything else, though, the burbling pool opens right behind Kite, and out pops Tarvos! Damn it.
Kite spins around to face it just in time for it to slam into the now solid ground, sending a ripple through the earth, and causing Kite to lose his balance. I run over as fast as I can, leaping at the creature (who is now Magic Tolerant) in hopes of distracting it. I sort of distract it, although it casts PhiAni Zot, again, and, due to our close proximity, both Kite and I are affected. I spare a glance for my friend, and I see him grimacing, but, to his credit, he doesn't yell or anything. He just looks… dejected, and kind of irritated, and at the same time afraid. Makes for a rather odd expression if I do say so myself.
Anyway, I deliver a series of blows to Tarvos before it creates a new pool of ichor and disappears only to reappear not far off, but with a renewed Physical Tolerance. Damn. This is going to be one hell of a long and vexing fight.
"Dek Vorv!" I cry and, like before, the Physical Tolerance is gone.
So, I attack again. After another couple of rounds of this, with Tarvos delivering moderate attacks at best, it decides to go into hyper mode. It uses more powerful attacks, special attacks that aren't in normal listings, like, say, the PhiAni Don it used earlier. I have no idea what to call these attacks, so I don't even try to name them. But, whatever they are, they cause a lot of damage to me, and to Kite, who grimaces and bears it, since he can actually feel the attacks. Lucky me gets to just watch my character avatar get pummeled. It's a good thing that Kite's a good healer.
Tarvos suddenly draws away, and that pool of mud forms beneath it. Great. Back to the Physical Tolerance again… or not! A drop kerplooshes into the pool, and ripples form, but the smaller drop that hops out (Why is something I have yet to cover in physics) expands and forms a slightly brown-tinted clone of Kite. The walking stick thing that impales Tarvos floats out of whatever holds it in place as if pulled by someone's hand. Anyway, it impales the image of Kite, and he cries out.
I look over at him and see him collapse to his knees, doubling over and clutching his chest. His eyes are squeezed shut against whatever pain this attack is causing. With a glance at Tarvos (who calmly puts its stick thing away and drops into the ichor pool), I run over to Kite. And I reach him just in time to watch his body turn grey and disappear, leaving behind a huddled, bluish ghost form. This ghost form of Kite is just as eaten away by data corruption as his regular avatar, but somehow it looks worse with him as a ghost.
He shudders violently, not actually focusing upon anything. Then, his eyes alight on me with a pleading sort of expression. However, I've no time to do anything about it, for Tarvos has taken my distraction as an opportunity to bombard me with PhiAni Don and then one of his special attacks. This would leave me with a HP of zero, but luckily I've just enough time to use a health potion between the two attacks.
He, now being a ghost, cannot do anything to help, so he watches concernedly. Then, as I try and avoid Tarvos' attacks so that I can cast Rip Mean, he stiffens, staring at Tarvos. Kite shivers again and nods.
"I understand you now," Kite says softly. "Yes… I understand your purpose for me… and for your phases. Tch."
A sickly smile curls Kite's lips, and he tilts his head to one side. "No. I think not…. I think not. You may be The World, but The World is not yours."
I suddenly notice that what little remains of his bracelet is glowing quite visibly. It shifts, like a cog in a clock. Then, Kite lifts his arm, not even wincing as the fragmented bracelet sort of expands. Still, this incomplete, broken thing is enough, it seems, for a data drain of a sort occurs, leaving behind a skeletal stone framework for Tarvos.
Goodbye, Blackrose… Don't worry about me.
I don't hear those words from Kite so much as just, well, sense them. But, when I look back at him, all I see is his ghost fading away, vanishing completely. Just before he completely disappears, though, I see that he his holding a red glowing thing… A fragment of Aura's data.
But, I don't have time to worry for the moment. Instead, telling myself that Kite will be fine, I attack the stone thing with all my strength, brining it down surprisingly quickly. Then, the world around me breaks into static. Then, I warp back to Lia Fail.
Author's Notes:
Muahaha! I'm leavin' y'all hangin', aren't I? Muahahahahahahahahahahah! Umm… well.. As it is, I really don't like this chapter. Eh.. There's just something not quite… right about the past few chapters. So, during my time of no internet, I went ahead and rewrote everything from Chapter 2 onward, and even corrected a few things in chapter 1, as well. Ergo, as of whenever I finish uploading and getting things in order, there will be two versions of this story posted on here. The first (this one) will be titled Systematic Error (orig. ver.) and the second one (the one I will upload shortly) will be titled System Error (new ver.) ok?
Wow! I got a bunch of reviews! Squee! But, is it true that you can't have review replies in your chapters anymore!I hope not... I read through the rules and it didn't seem like that... So.. -shrugs- I know you can't have a chapter purely devoted to review replies & stuff. Oh well...
-dances with exuberance-
Reviewers:
Aeris Valeria: -blush- Thank you. I know -exactly- how you feel about a wiped hard drive. -cries- I lost so many roleplaying character descriptions and random things! Not to mention the lack of email or anything. -.- -hugs joo- But, you'll get through! .hack/G.U. is supposed to come out in November, I believe...
Nessmk: Yes,I can write happy stuff, but I just... didn't in that chapter. I'm sorry? But, I'm glad you liked it. And... Please don't hate me! meep -cowers, wimpering- I don't like being hated... I have a sis, too. And a sister in law. And two nieces, one of whom is very much like a lil sis. So... Um... yah. I've been writing! I won't be uploading everything I've written in the intervening time yet, as I don't have enough time at present to do so... But, I have been writing. Like, I have the next two chapters of Antilogy done, too, but they're on my lap top, and I'm too lazy to go and get them at the moment.
Reveiwer: Yeah. That's kind of where I drew inspiration... Yes, yes.. I fully intend (in the rewrite, and intended in this one) to have a Kite Blackrose pairing. I very much like that pairing.
Angelyoshi: Oh? That is sad. Man, if I were her brother, I would feel sooo terrible. -sigh- Yah. I've never seen the comercial. Just heard people sing the song. See Rayne's review for the rest of the lyrics...
Rayne: Sweet! Someone else knows the song! I've never wandered around singing it, though. No, I'd wander around pesting people with random comments. -grin- Or playing wall ball. I know what you mean, though! It was so disappointing when I, out of curiousity, worked at getting a system error. Only a Game Over! Bleck, indeed. Thus, my embellishment. -wink-
Shiner: Piros' theme song is just... strange. I like Blackrose's a lot better. Aaanyway, yes Piros is annoying... and I'd just replayed one of his annoying quests in one of my games... so I was feeling particularly vengeful towards him and his voice. However, he's got a good heart, so he's not all bad... Thus... the balogna song. XD
Twilight Memories: Hehe... It's ok. I totally sympathize (and empathize) with computer problems. Yup. Bye Naomi! Here's the next chapter, and the last one I'll write for this version. Sorreh?
Calisto-divine-blue: You changed your name. -pokes- DD17. I like that nickname, though. It's almost DDT in l337.. but then it isn't. XD Feel free to email me your questions. Just don't expect a frequent reply.
Empathica: It's up, it's up!
Kite Guy 232: Nice name. And it's continued... sort of.
APZAE: This was as fast as I could. So, sorry for the delay. Thanks, though, and I'm glad you enjoy it! Makes me happy when my writing apparently isn't as shoddy as I thought it was.
ACE ACE: S'continued!
Wooow... such positive responses! Again, SQUEEE!