• Published 18th Apr 2016
  • 7,349 Views, 161 Comments

The Terror of Death - FrostTheWolf



[Displaced][.hack//G.U. Crossover] When one mare decides to run away from her destiny, she reawakens a legend that was once a protector to the Crystal Empire... Until Sombra betrayed both him and the ones he swore to protect.

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6- Origins

The Terror of Death- Origins


Golden Oaks Library

The moment that Twilight was told that she had she had an avatar, just like Haseo, everything that was going through her head had immediately slammed to a halt… and simultaneously replaced by even more questions. Ones specific to the situation at hand. Her friends were more focused on asking how if such a thing was possible or (in Pinkie’s case) a party can be thrown for Skeith and Gorre, but for Twilight, her questions were a little more… specific. For one thing, she was only partially familiar with how one can use an avatar because of how Haseo explained to them about Skeith back in the empire. Now that she had one though, it just made her even more curious as to how fighting with an avatar was suppose to work. “Everypony, calm down for a minute so I can expla-.”

“Explain what? How she became so AWESOME in a blink of an eye!? That doesn’t need explanations!!” Rainbow Dash boasted, which really did not help at all in the situation.

“Dash, that’s not helping anypony here,” Applejack then asked. “Haseo, ah thank you for showing up when you did at the end, but can you please try to explain why Twilight got selected for this avatar business?”

The Adept Rogue in response shook his head and folded his arms. “Unfortunately, I can’t explain why Twilight was chosen. Anyone who has control over an avatar is selected randomly. But I can explain a bit more about who the avatar is.”

“You mean Gorre?” Twilight asked, a little curious to hear Haseo’s response to what she just asked.

“Yes. Gorre, The Machinator. It’s an avatar that is composed of multiple parts, but has two primary forms,” He explained, looking back at her. “Unlike Skeith, which is one body, Gorre has two. A red one for offensive techniques and spells along a blue one for defensive. With the right amount of teaching, it should be simple for you to learn how to use it… However, my concern though is AIDA.”

“You mean the black bubbly thingy that made Trixie a meany?” Pinkie Pie then asked out of the blue. Which, to Haseo’s surprise… was actually an accurate summary of what it was if you had to explain it briefly.

“Yeah… We’ve seen it twice now. Once in the crystal empire and the second time here… I’m worried that it would show up elsewhere too…” The Adept Rogue nodded, thinking to himself for a moment. Yet, that was when he heard a question from one of Twilight’s friends that made him think a little.

“Well how can something so brutish and disgustingly impure be created in the first place?” Rarity then asked. Yet, her question soon gave the Adept Rogue an idea as he looked back at Twilight and her friends.

“I’m not sure… but I think I know someone that might.” The single statement had the lavender unicorn that just heard that seem a little curious as to who exactly was Haseo talking about.

When Twilight finally decided to speak, she only had one question to ask the Adept Rogue as she looked back at him. “You do?”

He nodded his head and looked back at the unicorn. “Yeah, she’s helped me before back in the crystal empire… Only problem is, I think she can only stay within the crystal empire given her… circumstances. Not to mention that we were trying to complete some Chaos gates to make transportation to and from the empire a lot easier, but they weren’t finished. Cadence had to teleport me here so I could be able to get to you guys in time before any real trouble happened.” That, to Twilight, sounded more like a puzzling tongue twister than anything else as she raised an eyebrow and look back at Haseo in confusion.

“What’s her name?”

“Her name is Aura. Last I saw her, she was inside the Crystal Heart and probably is still there… She could probably help us find out what’s going on… but I’m going to need you to come with me, Twilight.” Haseo told her, which surprised her at first, but he soon began to explain why. “Since you had a close encounter with AIDA and have an avatar like I do, it would be beneficial for both of us to tell Aura about what happened so she would be able to help us get to the bottom of this.”

“B-but what if there’s a friendship problem here and I am now here to-.” She stuttered for a moment, before she felt Spike tap her on the shoulder and try to calm her down.

“Calm down a bit, Twilight… We can all help pitch in while you are away.” Spike told her. “After all, there are some times where Princess Celestia has to take a break and Luna fills in for her right-.” Just as she said that, a bright yellow light went off in the center of the library and, lo and behold, Princess Celestia herself was now present.

“Speak of the devil,” Haseo chuckled a bit. “Spike was just mentioning you for a moment before you showed up.”

“Was he now?” Celestia asked out of curiosity before shaking her head. “Nevermind that, I had heard that something had happened in Ponyville. Is everypony okay?” Haseo nodded, taking a few moments to bring the princess that had just entered the library up to speed on the current events of the day. Including the Magic Duel, the incident with Trixie, AIDA and also Haseo’s plan for him and Twilight to go visit Aura. But what he did not expect was for what Celestia was going to ask about next. “I see… Would it be possible for me to join the two of you when you go to visit this… Aura? I’m a little curious as to who or what she is and how she is inside that of a powerful artifact like the crystal heart.”

Haseo himself was a bit surprised by that as he looked back at her. “Are you sure you want to come along as well, Princess? You don’t have too if-.”

“After what you have just described about the situation with AIDA, I’m most concerned with how this threat can harm my subjects. The more we can find out about it, the more we can find a way to stop it.” Celestia firmly replied, her tone sounding more serious this time.

“Okay, but I’m going to you to teleport us there. Cadence sent me here and we haven’t-” Just before Haseo can finish, a bright shimmering light glowed from Celestia’s horn and in a matter of seconds, all three of them soon found themselves inside the chamber of the Crystal heart within the walls of the empire. Surprising even him once he got his bearing of where he was at along with Twilight.

“I’m sorry for casting my spell abruptly, but time is of the essence… Therefore, we should not waste any time that we have.” Celestia instructed both of them before looking specifically at Haseo. “Now that we are here Haseo, where is this Aura that you spoke of moments earlier?” That was when the Adept Rogue told her to give him a moment before looking towards the Crystal Heart and getting down on one knee as he spoke a small bit to himself. Almost in prayer before looking to the Altar of the Crystal Heart.

“Aura, my companions and I wish to seek an audience with you.” His words had the crystalline heart hum to life as a brief glow could be seen from the artifact as it grew and took form in a small white ball before taking on a physical form. She had a light white mane with that of a light creme colored fur coat. The clothes that she wore reminded Haseo of the original outfit that Aura had in the first few .hack// games, just with the facial features that reminded him of the time in the past where he served Princess Amore.

Greetings…” She spoke, surprising the princess and her student as they heard her speak. “I am Aura… Goddess of the World and soul of the crystal heart. It seems that you have many questions for me… including you, Princess Celestia.” The last part though most definitely caught the Alicorn’s attention as her eyes widened a bit. She was still trying to process how this being… one that she had only just met… knew who she was.

“H-how do you know who I am?” She asked, almost stammering because of how surprised she was in that moment when Aura said her name. Haseo and Twilight herself were also curious on the matter… but her response caught all three of them off guard.

I know you… because your parents created me… a very long time ago.” She said to them, which lead to all of them having stares of confusion and disbelief. “I know… you may have a lot of questions… but somepony else is coming to join us now.

Before Haseo could ask for clarification on what she was talking about, they heard the door to the chamber open behind them and two figures stepped inside. The first one being that of Princess Cadence… and the second one that Haseo knew as Kite. Both of them seemed equally surprised to see what was going on… but only one of them actually had commented on it.

“Dude, what on earth is going on here?” Kite grumbled. His mood was obviously no better than before.

“Well-.” Haseo was going to speak, before Aura beat him to it as she faced Kite and Cadence.

Your friend asked for an audience between us and these two ponies. But you two are also welcome to join us as well,” They heard the goddess speak before she introduced herself again. “I am Aura… Goddess of The World and soul of the crystal heart. It’s a pleasure to meet you two along with everypony else here. What brings you to my chambers?

“We had come to ask about what you knew on AIDA,” Twilight then replied as she looked at Haseo and Kite, looking at the second one a little more cautiously. “My hometown was almost ravaged by somepony who was exposed to it. Thankfully, we were able to see her, but there is concern that AIDA will become a recurring problem.”

Hmm… I see,” Aura then nodded her head before looking back at the young unicorn. “And should I presume that an avatar other than Skeith had beaten it. Because I feel the presence of one coming from you, young sparkle.” Cadence gasped for a moment before trotting to Haseo… and smacking him.

“Oww! What the he-?”

“You promised me that you would keep her safe!” Cadence snapped, before looking back at Twilight as she face-hoofed herself.

“Cadence, Twilight isn’t hurt… her home can easily be repaired and she was able to stop AIDA herself,” Haseo looked back at her as he rubbed his face. “And seriously, you hit me with a horseshoe? That’s like punching me with a suit of armor.” That in turn, had her look back at Twilight for a moment before turning his attention to her. For a moment, she just looked confused… before the Unicorn sighed.

“Let me take care of it.” Twilight said, before opening the tome she kept with her and calling out the name of her avatar as Gorre formed behind her. “Haseo may have Skeith, but I have Gorre. I was able to use Gorre’s power to save Trixie back in Ponyville and afterwards, Haseo said that we could come here to try and find out if Aura knows of a way to stop AIDA.”

“What is this, Final Fantasy?” Kite grunted. “Can someone tell me what that is?”

“No. Remember when I told you how AIDA had shown up when I was fighting Sombra?” Haseo asked, trying to get Kite to somehow remember what he was talking about only a couple of hours ago as Twilight dismissed Gorre a few moments later. “Well, another incident happened and well… Twilight here is an Epitaph and her Avatar is Gorre, the Machinator. Like how mine is Skeith, the Terror of Death… Or as you described it… summons based off of bosses from the first game series.” He whispered the last portion since it was something that only he and Kite happened to know at the time. “Does that help?”

“Yeah… I suppose.” Kite shrugged as Haseo patted him on the back, leading to all of them walking over to where Aura was. Princess Celestia herself was wanting to ask the first question to her, but instead let her student speak as the young unicorn cleared her throat and looked towards Aura.

“Aura… Do you know anything about AIDA? Anything at all?” The question in itself had the goddess sigh as she looked back at the small group and began to speak again.

I do… but in order to explain about AIDA, I need to explain to you about myself… because my origins and the origins of AIDA intertwine with one another.” She first spoke before looking towards Celestia. “A long time ago, your parents, Phyrron and Lunaria, had assisted Starswirl the Bearded with an experiment to try and somehow create artificial life. They were successful and the one who was created was named Morganna. She assisted your parents for a long time, but as time passed, her primary functions began to falter… and with it, Starswirl began to work on somepony to replace her.

It took some time for them to process, however, it was Haseo who soon realized what she meant as the Adept Rogue looked back at her… and when Cadence then spoke up. “Is that somepony… you?”

She nodded, shortly before continuing to speak. “Yes… They made me as a more advanced version of what Morganna was suppose to be, ultimately to replace her when the process was complete. However, when the process was almost complete, Morganna… lost it. She went insane and tried to destroy others while I was unable to protect myself… or them.” Aura paused for a moment before looking towards Celestia, closing her eyes for a moment before looking back at her. “However… your parents gave their life to save mine… and it is a debt that I can never repay, no matter how much I want to.

Celestia did not know what to say… but just said nothing as she placed a hoof across her birch and looked back at the goddess. “I… don’t know what to say……” She took a few moments to think it over before giving her an answer. “No matter how I feel… I can’t let it distract me from my duties… so thank you. Thank you for telling me about what happened. It wasn’t in your control… so there’s no reason to feel that you are the one to blame.”

Aura was surprised by that statement… along with deeply touched by her words as a non existent tear flowed from her eyes. “T-thank you… Those words… mean a lot to me.”

“Uh… I hate to interrupt this touching moment, everypony,” They all heard Cadence speak up from next to Kite as she looked back towards the crystalline heart. “But what does Morganna here and this… incident have to do with AIDA?” That had Aura sigh for a moment as she looked back towards the pink alicorn and began to speak.

It was because of the Morganna incident that someone found out about my existence. A centaur named Sendak. He became jealous of me and my creation and sought out to try and make a duplicate version of me. He was successful… well… mostly successful.” Everyone looked back at each other in confusion before Twilight decided to speak up.

“Mostly? What do you mean by that?”

There was an important piece to me that makes me who I am that Sendak did not have,” Aura told them. “That piece was Harmony. Harmonic magic is what you would see as my soul. Since Sendak did not have that, all he had was what was created from his experiment while being fueled with magic and hatred that was stolen from others. It did not help any that this… anomaly of his was mistreated and seen as a waste. So… when his apprentice Tirek betrayed him and stole his magic, he allowed for AIDA to manifest, giving it the power needed in order to spread like an infectious diesease.

“But Lord Tirek is locked up in Tartarus. How is it that if he had so much power, why couldn’t he use it to break out?” Celestia then asked Aura, confused at her statement.

Because Starswirl and I stopped them both thousands of years ago. He and I combined our power, not only depriving him of the magic that he stole, but also sealing away AIDA in a crystalline form and hiding it deep within the mountains of the Crystal Empire. Afterwards though, I was too drained to use any of my other abilities to help him, so to keep me alive and safe, Starswirl encased me inside this crystalline heart and with Princess Amore’s help, made me the heart of the Crystal Empire.” She answered, causing Cadence to look back at her in surprise of her mother’s name being mentioned. “Amore made sure that I would remain safe… and even when Haseo served her back then and did not know about me, his will to keep her safe made me see him as someone that could keep me safe too.

“What happened to Amore though?” Haseo then interjected, hearing the former princess's name as he looked back at her. “You told me, before we beat Sombra together, that you were Amore, but now you were known as Aura… What do you mean by that and what happened to Amore?”

It was then that the goddess took a moment to clear her throat and to compose herself. Because the words she was about to say would most likely shock them all. “When Sombra killed Amore, I reached out to her in her dying moments before her spirit would be lost forever. Giving her an offer. To become one with me so she could watch over the empire. Despite her personal confusion and concerns, she accepted it and the two of us became one. We share our memories, appearance and abilities along with trying to help anypony who is deemed worthy of our strength.

It was then that something began to click inside Haseo’s head as he remembered something from back to when he fought Sombra several weeks ago. When he was near the brink… and Aura helped him. Realizing it now, he began to reply back to the goddess. “So back when I was fighting Sombra… that’s why-?”

Despite the negative persona that Sombra has put on you, you are still the Guardian of the Crystal Empire and it’s protector. We know that you will do everything in your power to protect the Empire from harm… and with it, we bestowed some of our power onto you when you needed it most.” Aura told him, extending a hoof and touching his forehead as Haseo’s appearance had changed. Now in his Xth form from when he fought against Sombra. However, this didn’t feel like a temporary change… but a permanent one. “This is our gift to you, Haseo. Use it wisely.

Haseo nodded, looking back towards the others before a question appeared in his mind. “Aura… How can we be able to stop AIDA?”

AIDA is something that can not so easily be stopped. For now, find the other Epitaph’s and their avatars. But remember… just because somepony may have an avatar doesn’t mean that they are invincible. Epitaph’s can also be infected by AIDA as well, so you must remain cautious.” She told them before closing her eyes for a moment. “I would want to continue answering your questions, but I too must rest at some point. Good luck, everypony. I will be watching over you.

With that, the light that was around Aura soon disappeared as she returned to the Crystal Heart. Causing Haseo himself to look back at everypony in the room, along with his best friend Kite as he then heard Twilight ask him a question that was on everypony's mind.

“S-so now what do we do?”

“I’m hungry.” Kite announced. That was followed by the grumbling sound of Haseo’s stomach as he scratched the back of his head and sighed in embarrassment.

“Well, before we do anything… we should have lunch first. We can’t really do anything if any of us are on an empty stomach.” The Adept Rogue smiled, a lit embarrassed as Cadence and Celestia both chuckled in amusement before leading them out of the chamber and closing the door behind them on the way to the dining hall.


Elsewhere…

“Something’s… Missing…” A white figure said, floating in the badlands. Her hair, skin, and dress were pure white, while her visible eye was yellow. She looked around, a stoic expression on her face as she stumbled across a black castle-like building with pony/bug-like creatures swarming it. “A key… No… Code… No… Me… I’m missing, yet I’m here…”

Shortly, after a little bit, one of the creatures flew from the castle and landed in front of the figure. “Hold it right there… State your name, creature.” It spoke, it’s horn glowing green as it looked at the figure in white.

The child-like girl looked down for a second. “My name… Is Mor… Morti.”

The creature looked around for a moment, inspecting her around all angles before raising an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, miss, but what exactly are you? You don’t look like any creature or changeling that the hive has ever seen.”

“I am… Was, a maker… I created things… Beautiful things… Now all that’s left is death… Everything I’ve made, turned to dust in the blink of an eye…” Morti looked down, a sorrow building up in her chest. “Everything I made… Gone… Except one thing… My masterpiece… That they took away…”

“Miss, are you okay?” The Changeling asked, reaching a hoof out to try and touch her, but he was just sent flying away, frozen in time.

A cold, unnatural smile formed on Morti’s lips as her hidden eye was revealed due to a breeze that blew her hair away from her face. Her other eye was surrounded by a discolored beige skin, and a green eye.

“I will not be forgotten… Not again… And I will have what I created.” Morti laughed, but it sounded almost fake. Until she finally stopped. “See you soon, my little Aura…”


Author's Note:

I felt like I put Haseo on the back burner for far too long and after listening to the Game of Thrones experience concert at the MGM grand last Saturday in Las Vegas. A lot of the songs and melodies I remember from that concert helped with the ideas as Brony Parasite and I helped work on Aura's origins for this story. Hopefully, the next chapter doesn't take as long in order to get it out to you guys.

Now that Twilight is in the Crystal Empire though... it's only a matter of time before a certain pair of changelings happen to notice her... Goddess help us all.