A/N: Please do correct me If I make any chronological errors while writing this story. The SAO story line is quite complicated at times haha so follow, favorite or review. Constructive Criticism is welcome. :D Also This is an Alternate Universe so things happen that shouldn't have happened.

Betrayal

Kise, the swordsman with short brown hair and a raggedy red cape, swung his sword back and forth as he walked up the hill that led out of town. It was, oddly enough, a bright and sunny day on November 7th, 2024, which made it a little more than 2 years since the death game, Sword Art Online, had started. Even after two years, no one had successfully beaten it either.

Kise plopped himself down on top of the hill as he sheathed his sword. He yawned a bit as he leaned on the tree that was sitting on top of the hill before closing his eyes halfway. From the bottom of the hill, Kise saw passing players look at him and whisper to each other. He always grimaced when he saw people like that, they never brought anything good besides random amounts of gossip. Kise assumed that these were passive players, not players that held their own on the front lines and died on the front lines. He frowned at the thought of all the people he had seen die right before his eyes and sighed.

Kise himself had been sucked into the game as well, along with his friend Midori who had died along the way. Everything involving SAO had started out fun and very relaxing, but things took a turn for the worst after the game master said that when you died in-game, you died in real life. That was the part that struck everyone as impossible. Some didn't believe it while others feared for the worst, but all in all everybody still had to play the game and no one was going come out alive until the game was beaten.

Kise drew himself back into reality from his day dream and sat up. He silently picked up a tuft of grass and watched it dissolve in his hand. Throughout Kise's entire 2 years in SAO, he had seen too many people dissolve in the exact same way and disappear forever. That included his friend Midori. He blinked once more at the thought of Midori dying before laying back down to think of something else. He lay there for a moment and closed his eyes, but was suddenly disturbed by the sound of a group of players running. Kise quickly sat up and looked to see what was going on. What Kise saw were a bunch of heavily armored players rushing toward town, most likely to the teleport gate.

"Hey!"called Kise as he scrambled to his feet and jogged down the hill toward the running men, "What's going on here?!"

"Heard something really important is going on at floor 75! All personal that are a part of the front lines are to report there," said one of the players as he stopped in front of Kise, who had reached the bottom of the hill, "That means you too, Red Swordsman. There's no time to waste. I heard that this is an emergency"

The man then turned and ran to catch up with his friends who were almost inside the town by then.

I can't believe people still call me that, it's not that much of a big deal, thought Kise as he pulled out his sword, I mean the only difference between me and the black swordsman guy is that I'm a lefty. That doesn't mean people should go and start nicknaming me.

Kise sighed and quickly dashed in the direction of the other players in an attempt to catch up with them. Within a few minutes, Kise had caught up to the men who were waiting at the town square for some reason. As Kise walked through the town, people stepped aside as if they were afraid of him.

Oh please, no need to act like I'm royalty, thought Kise as he reached the town square where a man was waiting for him. The man wore dragon style armor, so Kise suspected he was a part of the Divine Dragon Alliance. As Kise approached, the man turned toward him and started to speak.

"Hello Red Swordsman, nice of you to finally join us on a mission for once," said the man in a curt tone as he held out his hand for a shake, "My name is Kazuo."

"Cut the shit," snapped Kise as he too recalled how little he ever participated in clearing floors even though he was part of the front lines, "What the hell is going on?"

"The team we sent to floor 75 hasn't returned yet," said Kazuo as he withdrew his hand and gave Kise an odd look, " A team was sent up earlier including leader of the Knight's of Blood Heathcliff, the Black Swordsman Kirito, and Asuna the Flash. They were designated to kill Floor 75's boss, The Skull Reaper."

"So what's the problem?"

"Well... word has it that one of the players has gone rogue and started to pk the others, but that's only a rumor. We really don't know what's going on up there. No one has tried contacting us and no one has returned."

"What do you mean?! That's impossible. There's always a way to communicate."

"Well apparently there's a way to block that now. So we're gathering a second team to go rescue them or find out what's going on."

"Shit, well what are we waiting for?"

"We need to organize a group of men first so we can-"

"I'm not working with a team, if that's what you're thinking."

"But that's-"

"No," said Kise as he drew his long sword, "I work alone. Just try to keep up."

And with that, Kise took out a teleportation stone and teleported to the entrance of the dungeon on floor 75. Kazuo was left slightly annoyed at how rash Kise was being. He sighed and turned to looked at the men that had gathered to go on the rescue mission.

"Well then, we're not gonna let him do all of the work!" said Kazuo as he pulled out his crystal as well,"Everyone teleport! We're going to go save them!"

"Kirito!" screamed Asuna as she struggled to move, but couldn't. Despite all the efforts she put in, the paralysis Heathcliff had put on her and the rest of the team were like shackles tying them to the ground. They were all trapped inside the boss room of the Skull Reaper. Asuna looked up to see Kirito hacking and slashing at Heathcliff. Kirito, who had both of his swords out and was slashing furiously, was in a duel with Heathcliff, who was simply blocking and dodging all of Kirito's attacks. As Asuna watched, she remembered what Heathcliff had said to everyone minutes before his duel with Kirito started.

"I am Kayaba Akihiko, the game master, and creator of Sword Art Online. I am the boss of Floor 100."

The thought of him being the game master enraged Asuna even further, but she still couldn't move. All she could do was watch and hope that someone would come for them or Kirito would win the duel. A few seconds passed of continuous slashing as everyone watched Kirito slash at Heathcliff. Kirito gritted his teeth as he backed up before charging back in at Heathcliff, who seemed satisfied that Kirito was continuing to fight, instead of giving up.

"You can still back out of it and live!" screamed Asuna as she struggled to move, but no one paid any attention to her, "We can always beat him on floor 100 Kirito!"

The slashing continued as Asuna was ignored again. She watched as Kirito's attacks sped up to an almost blinding rate while Heathcliff's blocks sped up as well.

It's only a matter of time now until Kirito makes a mistake or gets tired, thought Asuna as she forced herself, with all her strength, to sit up. Asuna breathed heavily as she sat up. Doing that alone had drained her, but she couldn't give up. She gave a glance up and saw Kirito being forced backwards again by Heathcliff. Asuna took this as an opportunity to attempt to stand up, but halway through standing up, Asuna saw Kirito make a mistake.

A huge cracking noise hit everyone's ears, making them gasp in fear and shock. Even Kirito was shocked at what had happened. One of Kirito's swords had broken under the force of Heathcliff's block. This was it, Heathcliff took this chance and raised his sword to strike down on Kirito who was still in shock, but Asuna was one step ahead of him.

Asuna quickly jumped in front of the blade as it slashed down on her, instead of Kirito. Heathcliff frowned as he watched his sword slice through Asuna instead of Kirito.

"Asuna!" yelled Kirito as Asuna felt the pain seep into her body as she collapsed onto the ground. Asuna looked up at Kirito and forced a smiled as she slowly started to dissolve from the fatal wound. Kirito quickly bent down and gingerly picked her up in his arms. Kirito looked on in horror as he watched Asuna slowly fade until she dissolved completely. Kirito's head sagged a bit once she had disappeared completely.

"A-Asuna..." mumbled Kirito as he picked up her rapier and wielded it along with his other sword. Kirito then took a step toward Heathcliff and raised his sword to strike down. Heathcliff grimaced before also stepping forward and plunging his sword into Kirito's chest. He then watched Kirito start to slump as he started to die, but something surprising happened. Something that Heathcliff had never seen before. Instead of starting to dissolve, Kirito looked up with bright yellow eyes filled with rage. Kirito raised Asuna's rapier lunged at Heathcliff with one last effort, but Heathcliff easily blocked the lunge and sent the rapier clattering to the floor.

Kirito, whose eyes were wide and filled with pain and anger, looked over at the rapier in shock that it had been knocked out of his hand.

"Hmph, how pitiful," said Heathcliff as he pulled out his sword and watched Kirito collapse onto the ground. Heathcliff raised his sword for the final blow, but a voice stopped him. Heathcliff looked over to where the voice had come from and he saw a young boy holding a long sword with his left hand. The boy had a red raggedy cape and standard dark black armor. The boy also had a red bandana on his neck.

"And who are you?" asked Heathcliff as he hesitated, his sword hung above Kirito's neck.

"Kise, the Red Swordsman" yelled Kise as he boldly advanced on Heathcliff while turning on his sword skill. In one smooth movement that was almost as fast as Kirito, Kise charged and slashed Heathcliff's sword out of his hand. Kise then took advantage of Heathcliff's shock and lunged with his sword, but Heathcliff had his immortality on so the sword just deflected off of his chest.

"Foolish boy," said Heathcliff as he took his shield and smashed it into Kise's face, throwing him across the room and skidding across the floor. Heathcliff then looked down at the dying Kirito who was grabbing onto his ankle in a last ditch effort to kill him somehow. Heathcliff sighed before he kicked Kirito in the face and frowned.

"You should have just listened to Asuna. But I'm going to be kind to you today and let you live, I'll let you live with the memory of your precious Asuna's death," said Heathcliff as looked at Kirito who struggled to get up.

"And as for you," said Heathcliff as he turned toward Kise, who had already stood up, "You were the one that killed Asuna. Why would you do that! Arriving to see if we're safe, then killing one of our own. You had this all planned out! You set the food to a stalled paralysis so that we would all become paralyzed after our fight with the boss."

"What?! What the hell are you-" began Kise but the sound of movement near the entrance cut him off. Kise turned to see that the rescue team had caught up to them.

"You see! Kise was behind it the entire time!" said Heathcliff as he pointed at Kise. Kise turned to look at Kazuo and the others, who all had their swords drawn and pointed at him. Kise then looked up at his marker, which had just turned from green to yellow to red, the symbol of a player killer.

"Is...is this really true Kise?!" asked Kazuo as he raised up his sword in an attack position, No. It has to be true. The marker says it all."

"No! It's not! I didn't do-"

"It was!" said Heathcliff, "He even wounded Kirito here. Who would you rather believe? The leader of the Knight's of Blood or some rogue solo player?!"

The entire rescue team mumbled amongst each other at those bold words from Heathcliff. Then at once they all looked at Kise who was backing away from them.

"Come on guys, don't do this!"

"I..I'm sorry Kise," said Kazuo, "But orders are orders. Men, attack!"

The group charged and Kise quickly charged in as well. Out of the corner of his eye, Kise saw Heathcliff open up his menu and push a button. Instantly teleporting Kirito and the rest of the people in paralysis away. This left just Kise and the rescue team that was trying to kill him.

Damn't! That asshole's gone now, thought Kise as he parried three swords that lunged at him before ramming the nearest guy to the ground. Kise then dodged a few more strikes before setting out on a full sprint out of the room's entrance. Kise did manage to get out unscathed and because he was a higher level then the others, Kise out ran them

After a few minutes of running, Kise stopped to take a breather. He looked back at where he had come from and sighed.

"First Asuna gets killed, then Heathcliff is evil, and now I'm being hunted as a wanted criminal by everyone for being framed as Asuna's killer. Great."

A/N: Constructive Criticism is appreciated. Tell me your opinion on the story as well or predict what will happen next too.