~quidditchChick6~

Yeah, poor Argo! Who wants to be allergic to dogs? I certainly don't. I do feel pretty bad for Asuna at that point, I get sick all the time and it sucks. Although I'm sure Asuna didn't mean for Argo to have an allergic reaction to the poor puppy. Here it is! Although I may slow do my upload speed with home issues.

~K2-Black-Panther~

Yeah I've heard of the games, that's where inspiration for Asuna grabbing Sinon's tail came from.

Ehhhhh, it's nice sometimes and other times it kicks my butt. Well Asuna is the one who made him defenseless, he had a sword before she disarmed him and Kirito's life was in danger. So in my modified timeline and stuff Asuna follows the books and kills Kuradeel instead of Kirito.

Hmm… I don't think Kirito's a brawler, he's more of the person who inflicts little but critical damage to lessen pain but also incapacitate. Now if Asuna was there and capable she would be the one to inflict the most amount of damage without damaging herself. While Asuna's fast, she's also a tsundere and in the moments in the books where she hits Kirito out of embarrassment it shows well.

Yup, I messed up my feet pretty bad in it. Actually I've had PTSD since I was a kid, lived with it for most of my live actually.

I'm rushed for time which sounds dumb because I'm a high schooler with little to no social life, but my home situation's a mess and I'm losing the option of having internet outside of my school -_-

Let me pull them and read them now while I have a few minutes of free time (I'm a really fast reader)

Soooo my parents are getting rid of the internet at my house. Meaning my stories will have a lot of space between uploads but they'll probably be uploaded in clusters. I want to keep writing these, and I definitely will, but expect more delay because of school and my parents -_-

Hidden Truth, She Found Her

Kirito threw down his pencil and practically screamed in frustration before he put his head in his hands, resting his elbows on his desk. His eyes were squeezed shut, his face screwed up with tears and anguish, and he breathed hard, working to regain control.

The door creaked open and Sugu poked her head quietly into her older brother's room, cautiously looking at him. "Kazuto?" She said in something close to a whisper. "I heard your yell…" Her dark blue gaze swept around the room and she frowned, eyebrows pinching together in worry.

Klein, Sinon, and Argo were all in the room too, the two girls were asleep. Argo was hunched over a portable table, her face resting on her keyboard with it still pressing down keys, and her brown hair was a mess. Sinon was sitting on Kirito's bed surrounded by printed photos with her head currently leaning against the wall, mouth slightly open as she breathed. Klein was scowling furiously as he forced himself to continue reading whatever he was reading on Kirito's computer sitting next to him, unfazed by Kirito's howl.

The three had been helping Kirito since Asuna's death, working with him to find out how someone hacked the game, why they left, and why Asuna had been the target. Sugu hadn't even seen Argo leave the house, the two ex. Beta testers had been pushing their computer skills to the limit, hacking and cracking everything they could to find out how to stop the hack. Sugu also knew that Sinon and Klein felt responsible, unable to get to Asuna before the beautiful girl had stopped breathing.

It wasn't fair for all of them, Sugu reflected as she quietly entered the room and went toward Sinon first to gather up the photos. SAO, Sugo, GGO, and now ALO and the real world were broken apart. Asuna was gone, Kirito was falling apart at the seams, Yui had retreated into Kirito's computer and hadn't been seen in ALO since… the incident. It hurt too much to give it a good name. Sugu had been with Agil IRL when she had heard Kirito's yells, Asuna's spluttering magic, and Kirito's howl of grief, and had been able to do nothing.

Sugu let her brother be as she carefully stacked the photos and pulled a blanket from the floor up and over Sinon. The girl her age was finally asleep and Sugu was glad, Sinon had been beating herself up over Asuna since it happened, and had been working so hard she hadn't been sleeping. Sugu gently took Sinon's glasses from her face and placed them on the edge of the desk where she lightly touched Klein's shoulder to let him know she was there and went over to Argo.

Argo's portable table was covered completely in little balls of paper, broken pencils, small notebooks open and closed, and various colors of highlighters. Yet Sugu didn't touch any of the stuff on her table and instead tried to very carefully lift Argo's hands to keep her from waking up. She had learned the hard way Argo was a light sleeper when Sugu had lifted her head to move her keyboard and had Argo had jolted awake. She had knocked her head against Sugu's and started rambling about something about complicated code and idiots who weren't smart enough for web safety and went right back to what she had been working on.

"Leave her be dude," Klein grunted from his spot next to Kirito and leaned back in his chair for a moment. "You'll wake her up and she'll start saying words that don't make any sense."

Sugu sighed and carefully dropped Argo's hand, "I know, but I don't think she wants to delete pages of her keys being pressed by her face."

"Let Argo sleep," Kirito's voice was more of a thick croak, "she hasn't slept in thirty-six hours."

Sugu blinked and she went tentatively over to her brother, "Kazuto, when was the last time you slept?"

Kirito didn't respond, not moving from his current position.

Sugu's heart wrenched painfully when she saw tear droplets appear on the paper beneath Kirito, and wet the paper with his tears.

"I can't." Kirito eventually said in his croaky voice, "I can't sleep or I see her again. With me, in SAO."

Sugu carefully put her arms around her brother's shoulders, "if we want to find out what happened you need to sleep."

"I can't!" Kirito exclaimed and his voice broke when he buried his head further into his hands, "I can't… I can't go to sleep and see Asuna again," his voice was choked as he continued, tears now dripping quickly down onto the desk below his head. "I miss her," he choked out, "so much," he pushed the heels of his palms against his eyes to make the tears stop, his shoulders were trembling hard and he was breathing in jerky breaths.

Sugu didn't know what to do. Realistically she should pull her brother into a hug and let him cry, but she also knew that he hated crying in front of her and seeming weak. She felt helpless, unable to do anything to help her big brother when he was hurting like this.

"Kirito?" Sugu turned her head to look at the door where Liz had arrived, balancing a tray with sandwiches and whatever she managed to pull together with her almost nonexistent skill in the kitchen.

Liz saw Kirito crying and wanted to cry herself. When would this nightmare be over? She walked into the room, pushed the random stuff off of her half of Argo's table and set down the tray. She then bumped Argo hard enough that the curly haired info broker jolted awake and went over to Kirito, standing next to him.

"I'ma workin'! I'ma awake and workin'!" Argo floundered, her accent in full force due to her not being awake enough to tune it out just yet.

Liz ignored Argo's rather loud exclamation as she reacted to being bumped by her and instead leaned over so she could partially see Kirito's face. "Hey," she tried to keep her tone as level and calm as possible, even though her blue eyes were silently welling with tears of her own. "What happened Kirito?" He usually didn't do this, rarely ever did he actually cry in front of them all after he had broken down in game and threw himself at Argo and bawled like a child. Asuna's death hurt them all, it damaged them all in a way that could never be fixed. But for Kirito it killed him, Asuna was dead, gone. It felt like their feat of beating SAO was worth nothing. Not when Asuna was killed by yet another vr game. Killed because she was targeted from someone in their SAO days.

Kirito's face screwed up even more and he gave a stifled half sob, "I can't…" He said through the half sob, "I can't do it!"

Liz's eyebrows furrowed, in confusion and in worry. "You can't do what?" She asked, already assuming the answer but asking anyway.

"I can't sleep and see her again when she's not here!" Kirito exploded and his fists slammed down onto the desk with a major rattle. Tears swam in the Black Swordsman's eyes, "I miss her!" He slammed his fists down again and again, "I want to have Asuna back!" His words were only half understandable, "not reminded of her in my sleep! I want her to be here with me!"

Kirito's explosion startled Liz and Sugu and Sugu moved away while Liz took a step back and hesitantly reached for his shoulder. "Kirito…"

Klein looked blankly at Kirito, too sleep deprived and frustrated to be that worried about him.

"Klein," Argo seemed to have snapped awake after Kirito's shouting and was now standing up, hazel eyes focused on the back of Kirito's head. "Go an' take a shower. You smell worse than a Trembling Ox." Clearly Argo was having some issues switching her speech and analogies, that or she was doing it for Kirito's benefit, sounding like she had back in SAO. When he, Asuna, and Argo had teamed up for a while and when Argo had really become a sibling to the couple. "Sugu, Sinon needs a place to sleep. You and Liz find everyone a place to settle down for the night." She then approached Kirito, "Ya alright Kiri-bou?" She hald crouched, going eye level with him and waiting patiently for him to say something.

Kirito turned to look at Argo, onyx colored eyes red rimmed from tears and looking lost and confused. "I miss her, Argo."

Argo's expression softened and she lifted one hand to brush her fingers through Kirito's hair like she and Asuna both used to do. "We all do Kirito, but A-chan would wan' us to find out what's happenin' and stop it. Healin' takes time, some longer than others and ya have to let yer emotions out. It's not healthy."

Kirito choked a sob, not noticing the others quietly leaving and following Argo's instructions. "I… I couldn't save her again," he squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists, "I couldn't save Asuna again… It's my fault."

Argo perched on the arm rest of his office chair, balancing precariously as she pulled Kirito into a hug. "Asuna…" She couldn't get the words out, she didn't want to say it out loud, she could pretend Asuna was just missing until she said it outloud, but Kirito needed to hear it to. "Asuna," she hesitated again before powering through, "Asuna died to protect Yui an' the other players in the game an' in the real world." She gazed blankly out the window, feeling like her chest was constricting after she had said that. She had finally said Asuna was dead, it she wanted to go hide in a corner and cry too, Asuna's dead… the phrase echoed in her ears, having finally said it aloud. Then she admitted what she had believed since Asuna's death. "And it's my fault, not yers…" She spoke in a low whisper, "I didn't recognize the hack before it was activated and I should've seen through the quest's hoax."

Kirito stiffened in surprise but Argo didn't notice, her fingers going soothingly through his black hair as she continued. "I'm an information broker and I couldn't even get the info to save Asuna. What a failure I am." She gave a dry chuckle before she hugged Kirito a little closer, pretending it was just for his save. It ain't yer fault Kazuto," she showed her sincerity by using his real name for once, "it's mine and the woman who created tha' darn awful hack." It was a miracle her voice wasn't wavering or breaking from the amount of emotion the girl was feeling at the moment.

Kirito's arms slid around Argo's back and he buried his face into her shoulder, shoulders shaking. "I can't live without her, Akira…" he said thickly through his tears and didn't notice his slip up of using Argo's real name. (Unofficial, unfortunately. It means "Bright, intelligent, wisdom, or truth. Pronounced (Uh-kee-Rah) )

Argo winced slightly at the usage of her real name, having forgotten that he even knew it, and hugged Kirito like a sister would. "It'll be okay Kazuto," she whispered softly, "I ain't gonna give up till we find out what happened…"

"It's been almost four days," a voice broke me from my thoughts and I tore my gaze from the ALheim below me to look over at the owner of the voice. "You have to eat something in game in order for your body to get anything, you know that right?"

I looked blankly at the teenage girl who I could still hardly believe was right around my age, I didn't really care anymore. It didn't change here, even the girl vanished and came back at almost the same time every single day. "Exactly why do you care?" I asked rather harshly, letting my anger lash out at the girl who seemed untouchable to anything I said.

The girl then adjusted her glasses, swiped up her menu, and a plate shimmered into existence in her right hand. "Because you'll need your strength." I knew she was trying to help but she was rather annoying with how stoic she always seemed to be, almost like a robot of some kind. I knew her name, she had told me after she had explained where we were, I just usually chose not to address her by it, preferring to just gaze down at the world below my feet yet unreachable.

"For what?"

"Do you want to sit here staring at ALheim or actually go down there?" The brown eyed girl rolled her dark brown colored eyes and stood with her arms crossed. She was roughly my height, maybe an inch or two shorter, had freckles scattered everywhere on her face and skin, curly brown hair that fell to her shoulder blades unless put up in it's classic ponytail, a thin runner's build, and she seemed to always have this 'I don't like people' vibe going on.

Then it registered what she had said and my jaw dropped, "y-you'd take me down there?"

"If you eat," the girl shrugged, "I have an ALO account too so I can smuggle you in there if you wish to. But only until we are noticed, then we have to leave. Even my magic isn't strong enough to conceal us completely and forever."

I jumped to me feet and hugged her tightly, hard enough that I heard the air leaving her lungs, "thank you! Thank you so much Caylee!"

"Welcome…"

I quickly released her and grasped the plate from her before I looked at her and offered her one of my hands. "I believe I still need to introduce myself right?"

Caylee rolled her eyes, seemed to instantly recover from my death hug and nodded. "Uh huh."

I couldn't help the smile spreading on my face, "my name's Asuna Yuuki, SAO survivor."

Caylee grasped my hand in a soft but firm grip, "Caylee Mitsuko, computer specialist." Oddly enough Caylee's hands were cool, like she wasn't half as warm as I was, which was odd.

My eyes turned a little puzzled, who is she really?

(Pov Switch)

Whispers filled my ears as I walked away from the school, whispers likely about me and about the whole SAO incident. After a year I could've thought people were smart enough to get over it, but after what I witnessed on a day to day basis I guessed they weren't comfortable with a 'computer nerd' and death game survivor going to their school. I pushed my glasses further up my nose and continued to walk. I could care less about what people thought of me by now, it wasn't like I was like the rest of them. I wasn't a rich kid, I was a middle class girl with an actual brain and who could actually use it. For the most part I stayed to myself, preferring to find my ride straight away than go off and chat with the other girls in my class or be bothered by the guys.

In SAO I had been one of the silent players, not weak but also not in full view of everyone. In fact, while Argo got the nickname 'the Rat' I was called 'the Hacker' or 'the AI' because some people had believed that in the game I was an AI and not a player. I wasn't one of the ones on the front lines, I had been one of the info brokers in a way. I worked with Argo to fill her field guides to the brim with any and all of the information I could find, hack, and force out of Cardinal. So people rarely saw me, never saw my expression really change, and rarely heard me say anything. Argo was pretty much the only one who had really heard me speak more than this sentence 'visit Argo, she has the information you're looking for.' Argo and Liz were childhood friends of mine, I knew them both pretty well up till the SAO incident and after I knew them better than myself.

"Caylee!"

My half blank gaze flickered over to the voice and my eyebrows raised in surprise. Klein, Liz, Silica, and Sugu were standing there near Argo who was sitting on her motorbike and looked rather moody at the moment. I already knew why, Asuna was dead. Or supposedly to them she was anyway. And I had to let them believe that till I could fix it, till I got Asuna out of my uncle's lab. I had met all of them through Argo and Kirito when a year ago Argo had practically dragged me from my school to hack into ALO and look for a player name 'Asuna' to confirm she was there.

With a sigh that showed my rather fake disinterest and caused a cloud of cold air to briefly obscure my vision, I started to walk toward them. "Klein, Liz, Sugu, Silica," I greeted with a remaining flat tone, controlling my tone to avoid any questions I didn't want to answer. "Usually Argo's the only one to pick me up, what's wrong."

Liz crossed her arms, "you know very well what's wrong Caylee, you were there!"

I looked blankly at her, "I wasn't there in ALO that day. If I had I would've killed the hack before it did any damage."

Smack!

My back hit the metal gate of my school's yard and pain shot up my spine and back. I kept my expression neutral beyond the faint twitching of my eyebrows and looked flatly at the man holding me against the gate with a bandana in his red hair. "Kindly put me down."

Instead Klein lifted me up, his fists balled around the fabric of my dark blue coat, till my toes barely brushed the ground. "Why didn't you stop it?!"

I could see everyone else's shock at Klein's actions, especially when I was a girl, but none of them bothered to help me. Like they wanted the answer to. Only Argo looked down at her bike, looking to be lost and torn in what she should say and or do. "Because unlike what you believe I am not your personal hacker," I responded in a cool tone and let Klein do what he wanted. My breathing was beginning to get constricted from my own medical problems, but at the moment I couldn't care. If this was what he needed, a literal punching bag, then I could be one for him. I knew Asuna wasn't dead, so I could act and pretend I didn't care all I wanted when I already knew the truth but couldn't tell them.

I saw Klein's teeth grind together and tensed up to take Klein's punch after what I said next. "I had a job to to outside of the game despite the hack, I was aware of it but didn't do anything." Now that was a fat lie. In reality I had been there irl with Asuna during the fatal hack and barely managed to kick the thug's pathetic excuse of a butt without getting myself killed in the process. But I had been in the middle of clearing and deleting the hack before the fight and my laptop had been smashed to pieces and stained with blood after it.

Crunch.

I could taste blood now, from the punch to the mouth I was just given. Instead of spitting out the blood now pooling in my mouth I forced a half smirk, "it's my fault." For that smart alex comment I got another punch. Now my mouth and jaw were aching along with my split lip and the blood pooling inside my mouth.

"Klein!" Sugu gasped, and I could see Liz pull Silica around to protect her from what Klein was doing.

Lifting my chin into a more arrogant position, I spoke again. "I didn't bother to stop the hack-" this time I was cut off by Klein putting me down and socking me in the stomach. I could see the tears in his eyes and let him punch me again, this time between the shouldblades when I bent over my stomach to protect myself in a half hearted fashion.

"That's enough!" Argo, her small figure stepped between me and Klein, and from her voice I could tell she was angry, but her anger was dulled by grief, loss, and upset.

"It's her fault!" Klein spat at Argo and balled his fists, "it's that cheater's fault!"

I remained on one knee, feeling my already messed up spin now aching rather badly to the point where I wanted to go home take a medication and sleep for a day. "Feel better?" I asked Klein and spit out a mouthful of blood, the crimson liquid now glistening on the frosty sidewalk. I lifted my head to look at him, keeping one of my eyes shut as a way to balance my pain levels. I didn't regret letting Klein get his anger out, I just wished my body was a little stronger.

When Klein just stared at me in shock, I explained and let Argo help me up into a hunched standing position. "I knew you wanted someone to blame, so why not blame the hacker capable of deleting the hack?" I spoke, my voice was a little raspy after the hits to the face. "Now I know you don't usually hit girls, but hey. I'm probably one of the only hackers you know not counting computer nerds Argo and Kirito. So I let you hit me. Feel any better?"

"W-What?" Klein asked with a confused expression while Argo helped me by pulling one of my arms over her slim shoulders.

"I gave you an outlet," I explained and spit out more blood, "you wanted someone to blame and rage at so I gave you one. Now, for the question you were all going to ask me," I straightened up and winced when fresh bouts of pain shot up my spine. "What did you need?"

Liz cleared her throat and stepped forward, Silicar peering cautiously at me and Klein. "We wanted your help on finding out how to stop the hack in ALO."

I lifted one hand and wiped the blood from my stinging split lip, "I already stopped it. That's why you can't find any traces of the program," I secretly enjoyed the look of shock of their faces. "I'm already working on finding the person responsible and tracking down the security camera footage of the hospital." Now that bit I couldn't give them, not till I figured out how to get Asuna and Kirito to meet without setting off any alarms.

"Oh," Liz said and I saw her blink in surprise. "To be honest I thought we were going to have to bribe you."

I tried to smile but decided not to at the last minute, "normally you would with a video game or some kind of chocolate, but this is for a friend. It's for Kirito, to help him find closure." Closure, something they all want. When in reality Asuna's still here, just hidden in a lab in an area I don't have access to.

Sneak Preview

Asuna took a deep breath and spluttered, sitting on her knees and staring at the person in front of her, separated between thick glass of the test tube, and soaked with a pale blue transparent liquid. Her dark colored haired was sticking to her face, her light gray shirt and jeans were drenched, her brown eyes were gazing distantly at Asuna, and blood was running with the liquid on her face. "Oh my gosh," Asuna's breath hitched, "Caylee, what… what did they do to you?"

Caylee's chest was heaving for air, but she was definitely alive, even after the GM had drawn his sword across her face. Her brown eyes, which in the game had sparkled with a rather smug intelligence were now distant and blind. "It's my punishment for saving you," she said through her panting and stood up, "totally worth it though. Can you make it out or should I break more of it?"

Asuna however grasped Caylee by the face and pulled her toward her enough that she could closely examine Caylee's injury. "They…" her voice wavered, "they blinded you? For helping me?"

Caylee rolled her blind eyes and pulled away from Asuna, "yes, yes, we can cry and whine about my lost eyesight later. We have to leave now or I'm not going to get you out of here."

Asuna's amber eyes flickered over to the only other occupied tube, where a boy Caylee's age resided. "What about Brody?"

Caylee flinched and her brown eyes threatened to well with tears. "I have to leave him here. He's happy in the VR world."

Asuna looked concerned, "but he's-"

"Thea makes him happy," Caylee responded quickly and cut her off, "Brody's happy with Thea as an AI in the VR world. If I shut off the power here it'll be more helpful for him than if I left him here to slowly die."

"But wouldn't he leave the VR world too?" Asuna asked as she shakily got to her feet and watched as Caylee smashed more of the tube with an accuracy that surprised her for a newly blind person.

"No, I did a scan similar to Kyaba's, but this one will let him live as an AI with Thea in ALO forever." Caylee finishing smashing the tube and took a step back, "Can you get out now? I have to shut his off."

"Caylee…" Asuna spoke, trying to convince her somehow they could get Caylee's significant other from the lab as well. "We-"

"I'm not changing my mind," Caylee responded stiffly and managed to make her way over toward Brody's pod without much issue. "It… It's what's best for him. He doesn't want to wake up, that's why had hasn't woken up yet."

Asuna managed to shakily step out of her tube and was beyond grateful for the thin sandals Caylee had prepared earlier so that she wouldn't damage her feet. "Caylee he loves you…" Asuna had met Brody in the VR world ALO and Perfection, Caylee's own creation, and everytime Brody talked about his in game wife Thea and his best friend Caylee. Caylee had been a relationship with Brody before she had entered SAO to try and hack it into allowing players to logout. But she had been trapped for two years, while Brody had been the one waiting for her to wake up. Unfortunately for Caylee, when she had escaped the game with everyone else, Brody had moved on, leaving the poor girl confused and rather alone.

"Maybe," Caylee responded, and it was the first time Asuna had heard her actually admit that she knew Brody would always have a place in his heart for his best friend, "but I love him enough that I'm going to save him." She managed to accurately press a few keys on the keypad she was next to and grasped the thin lever, her arm shaking as she fought for the courage to shut off the power. It would let her imprisoned first love to leave this world but remain in VR forever, to live how he wanted without his imprisonment holding him back.

Asuna's knees shook and she leaned against the tube looking at Caylee with a heartbroken expression, like her heart was breaking for the choice Caylee was making.

Eventually, through tears trickling down her freckled cheeks and one of her hands pressed against the glass, Caylee yanked down hard on the lever and ran from the glass and toward Asuna. Without a word the brown haired girl crouched down, put Asuna's arms over her shoulders, and pulled Asuna ino a piggy back ride. Shen then started running down the hall, away from the testing chambers and toward the exit where Asuna would be free.

Asuna however kept looking back at the chambers even as alarms started to go off, that boy had been to Caylee like what Kirito was to her. Asuna knew she wouldn't have had enough strength to pull that lever and save someone else, she doubted many people would have. So Asuna silently wrapped her trembling arms comfortingly around Caylee's shoulders and leaned forward into a small hug while Caylee ran, her memory guiding her through the twists and turns of the hallways.

But Asuna could feel Caylee's shoulders shaking, and could hear the uneven breathing of someone fighting their tears.