I opened my eyes and sat up on my bed. I had the same nightmare, night after night, the memory when I sent a small group of players to their deaths. I got up and walked out of my room. 'It was months ago, why can't I get it out of my head.' I went outside our cave hideout.

"Can't sleep, again?" Said a voice from above. I climbed the tree where the voice came from. It was my "friend" Kai, with bow in hand.

"What makes you say that Kai?" I said.

"It's three in the morning." He said, giving me a look. "Same nightmare?"

"What do you think?" I said, putting on my shirt

"I think we all made our choices, Kirito. We need to live with them."

"Well in case you forgot, I didn't come here of my own free will. Unlike someone I know." I said, shooting him a look.

"And you forget I have a family and a girlfriend in the real world; I'll do whatever it takes to get back to them, no matter what." He said, slightly tightening his grip on his bow.

"Okay calm down, I remember. I'm just saying not all of us had a choice." I said, placing my hand on his shoulder. "Anyways, what are you doing up and in a tree of all places." Kai looked at me and sighed.

"I have trouble falling asleep and I got a feeling something was going to happen."

"Ha, Kai Kelso: Archer, insomniac, paranoid." I laughed.

"Yeah, laugh it up jackass." A few seconds later, Kai squinted his eyes and pointed to one of the bushes. "Hey, I think I saw something in the bushes. Go take a look."

"I think you're being paranoid."

"Maybe I am but just to be sure. Go check, I'll wait for your signal." I put on my coat, hood, bandana, and equipped my sword.

"Paralysis only. If it is a player, PoH will want to know why they're wandering so close to the cave at night." I said, before dropping out of the tree. I moved slowly towards the bush, and applied some poison to my sword.

"Hey, buddy have you seen a short blonde girl run through here?" Said a voice. I turned around saw six players, two of them were green. I glanced over to where Kai was, but there was a tree next to the bush that was blocking his view of about half of the group. I signaled to that there were six players.

"Why are you looking for her?" I asked.

"She has something we want. Have you seen her or not." The "leader" said, impatiently. I lifted my hand and clenched it signaling Kai, who nailed two players in the shoulder. I threw my picks at one of the players, paralyzing him; I drew my sword and activated the Rage Spike skill, stabbing and paralyzing another player. One of the green player fled before me and Kai could stop him.

"Kai, go get some guys to bring the bodies back to the boss! I'm going to see if there's anyone else around, maybe a camp!" I shouted. I removed my hood, and kicked the bodies in the head. I heard the bushes rustle and I threw one of my picks into the bush, strangely there were no sound except the pick going through the bush. I walked around the tree, drew my sword and extended it out. To my surprise I knew the person hiding behind the tree.

"Argo?!" I said, sheathing my sword and removing the bandana around my face.

"Kirito? I heard you were dead, what the hell happened to you" Argo said, sounding as shocked as I am.

"That doesn't matter, you need to hide before someone sees you." Argo hid behind the tree as the cavalry arrived, PoH among them.

"PoH, I apologies for waking you. I think these six may be spies, but nothing concrete. They're a long way from town, so I think they have a camp nearby."

"Good work kid. Lets get the bodies back to the hideout for interrogation. Kid, you check for the camp." PoH said, as the group of players were hauled back to the hideout. When they left, Argo emerged from the bushes.

"Kii-bou, since when do you take orders from people?"

"I'll tell you later. Did these guys have a campsite anywhere?"

"Yeah, I'll show you. While we walk you can explain how this happened." She said.

Ten minutes later. At the campsite

"So let me get this straight. After Morte attacked you for the second time, PoH approached you with a way to stop Morte. Later, PoH had two of his goons kidnap Sugu and Asuna, then told you to choice which one of them lives and which one dies."

"Yup, that about sums it up."

"Why don't you just tell Sugu you're alive?"

"Oh why didn't I think of that?" I said sarcastically. "Have you met my sister? She'll get herself killed if she finds out. This is the only way to protect her, for now."

"Damn, you are in some real trouble."

"Argo, why were these guys after you?"

Argo sighed "That information comes at a price, Kii-bou."

"I just saved your rat ass, again and sent six people to their deaths. I'd like to know if it was worth it."

"I guess you're right." Argo opened her menu. "It was for theses." Argo said, opening her menu.

"Six lives for a book and a ring?"

"To keep it short, the book is about a library called the Grand Archive. And the ring, supposedly allows an orange player to walk into a safe zone, only for about an hour. But I don't why they would want the book though."

"Hmmm, let me take the book and the ring, its better in my hands than in the hands of someone infamously known such as yourself."

"Maybe you're right." She said handing me the book and ring.

"Argo one more thing. Don't speak a word of this to anyone. Not to Sugu, or Asuna, or even some guy you met at a bar while drunk."

"Got it, for 500 col."

"Oh Argo, determined as ever. You pretend to do it for the money and nothing else, but deep down we both know you have a heart, half of it maybe stone cold but the other half is a beating heart. So here's what we'll do, I'll pay you 250 and with three of the lives I just indirectly ended, and the other three will be for a favor out of the goodness of you heart."

She gave me a half smile as I transferred the col to her "Pleasure doing business with ya."

"Oh, Argo do yourself a favor, Show people the best side of you every once in a while." She gave me another half smile, before we went our separate ways.


Let me know what you think.