Chapter 21: Aftermath

A/N: Hey guys! I am really on a roll with posting aren't I? Don't plan on that lasting though. I felt bad for you guys, so I wanted to get this done as quickly as possible. I will admit though, this was practically done three days ago :) Why did I wait so long to post? Well, in case you guys forgot, today is October 1 (at least it is for me, don't know about you guys), Fel's birthday! I wanted something to post today and I knew that I wasn't going to be able to write another chapter, SO I held back posting this one. Also i kinda just wanted to torture you all some more. Well, enough of my rambling, please go on and read the text below.

"You should take a break. We're pretty much done."

"Ok." Felicita said a little timidly. She watched Ryner go and thought back to just a few seconds ago. Why did I feel so . . . ? She didn't know how to describe it. Ryner just affected her . . . differently.

Then Felicita saw something in the corner of her eye. It looked like a blur, and it took her a few seconds to realize what it was. Just as she did, it was too late. The blur made a beeline toward Ryner, who only saw it a second too late. On instinct, he drew his sword, attempting to block the oncoming blow. The blur had a weapon drawn as well, a long curved blade. In one fluid motion, the blur cut off Ryner's sword arm, allowing it to drop to the floor. Before anyone could so much as blink, Ryner's head was removed from his shoulders.

Silence. Absolute silence filled the room at that point. It was only broken by the primal scream that ripped itself from Felicita's throat a few moments later. Red tinted her vision as she ran, full throttle, toward the figure with the curved blade.

Everyone heard this and were confused about what was happening. Only Kirito and Asuna reacted. Kirito moved first. When he saw Felicita rushing toward the figure and Ryner's body disappearing, his heart dropped. He screamed "Fel, no!" and ran to try to intercept her. Asuna was right on his heels, a scared expression on her face. But they both knew that they wouldn't get there in time.

Felicita reached the figure and, without hesitation, plunged her knife into his chest. Then she saw his face clearly. It was Agate. She didn't have enough room in her mind to wonder how he was up and moving so soon after she paralyzed him. All she felt was hatred. Pure, unbridled loathing. She drove the knife deeper.

At this point, Agate made no attempt to defend himself. In fact, his scimitar had clattered to the floor. He just smirked at her, a knowing smirk that made him look like he had just won something, but his eyes were cold as they bored into her. Then his lips moved and he spoke one last word before he shattered and disappeared from Aincrad and the real world.

Felicita stood there, frozen, as his last word sunk in. Her eyes were wide as she fell to her knees. Her hands fell limply by her sides and her knife fell to the floor. Then, a scream filled the air, but scream didn't quite explain it. It was a broken wail, full of despair.

Next thing Felicita knew, someone was on the ground next to her, holding her tightly. She vaguely registered seeing long, chestnut-brown hair. In the distance, she could faintly hear shouting. She thought it was Kirito's voice, but she didn't understand why he was yelling. She didn't really care though, because Agate had held true to his word. He had destroyed her.

The thief was in too much shock to notice anything. That was why she had no idea what was going on when a light suddenly flashed in front of her. She stared at it, transfixed, yet not really comprehending what was there or what was happening.

The sound of Felicita's despair broke Kirito's heart and he stopped in his tracks. Asuna, however, rushed toward Felicita and embraced her, her heart just as broken. Kirito just stood there, staring as Felicita sat there in Asuna's arms. He couldn't see her face, but he could just imagine how full of anguish her expression was; how shattered her mental state. The thought of that made his fists clench tighter by his sides. He had to do something, anything. That's when it hit him.

Kirito rushed over to Klein, who was watching Felicita and Asuna in silent shock, just like everyone else was. Klein didn't even have time to react, Kirito just grabbed him by the front of his armor.

"Kirito, what—?"

"Use it! Use it now!"

"What?"

"You still have it don't you? Now's a good a time as any!"

"What are you talking about?" Klein yelled. The frantic look on Kirito's face was starting to frighten him. Then Kirito yelled three words at him and he instantly understood. Klein quickly opened his menu, knowing full well that he had wasted enough time questioning his friend's antics. With a few deft strokes and taps of his hand, Klein selected the item.

The two waited and watched with bated breath, hoping, praying that they hadn't been too late. But there was a small bit of skepticism. Would it even work? Then, a bright light appeared near the place where Felicita and Asuna were kneeling on the floor. Kirito couldn't help but suck in a quick breath and rush over to stand just behind Felicita. Klein followed him as well, unable to believe it himself.

Eventually, the light faded away to reveal a figure wearing red and white. Kirito's eyes widened in shock. Asuna could see this and was confused as to why he looked so dumbfounded, but when Felicita stood up and she was forced to turn around, she understood why.

Ryner stood there, as plain as day, as if he had never died. He blinked in confusion before looking down at his hands. "What?"

Kirito sighed as he sank to his knees, relief flooding though him. "Thank God."

Klein soon fell to his knees as well, shock prominent on his face. "It . . . actually worked."

"How? But I was . . ." Ryner looked down at himself before looking at Felicita who was closest to him. She was just staring at him, not fully believing what she was looking at.

"What's going on, Kirito?" Asuna asked breathlessly.

"He's just one lucky bastard." Klein said.

Kirito, however, gave a more satisfying answer. "We used the revival item."

Asuna's eyes widened. "R-Revival item? But how did you have one of those?" She looked from Kirito to Klein, her eyes pleading for an answer.

In the end, Klein sighed before answering. "It was from when Kirito gave it to me last Christmas. I hadn't used it until just now."

"That long ago? Wouldn't you have used it before now?"

Klein shook his head. "I would have if I could. I would have used it on the first person I saw dead, but it's not as easy as it sounds. Whenever I would see anyone die, which is not as common at this point in the game, it was always in the heat of battle, and I would never have enough time to use it." Then he looked at Ryner. "I guess this guy was just really lucky."

"I-I guess I am." Ryner marveled, looking at his hands again. Then, he bowed very low in Klein and Kirito's direction. "Thank you very much." He remained in that position for a while, so he didn't see the smiles that appeared on Klein's and Kirito's faces. He also didn't see the fist that was speeding toward him.

Everyone stared in shock as Ryner fell to the ground, his back smacking the stone floor hard. He curled up in a gasp of pain, his hands clasped tightly over his injured jaw. Then when he remembered that he felt no pain, he sat up and looked, with a dumbfounded expression, at the girl in front of him.

"Fel?" He asked, for he could see her trembling as she stood there.

"You idiot!" She screamed at him. "How could you let that happen just now? I can't believe you!" At this, she knelt down in front of him and grasped the front of his shirt. "You made a promise, didn't you? We made a promise!" She was shaking him vigorously, and all he could do was stare. "We promised her we wouldn't die! Did you forget that, Ryner? Did you forget her?"

"N-no—."

"Like hell you forgot!"

"I-I'm sorry—." He said weakly, but the barrage continued.

"You better be sorry!" Felicita yelled. Ryner was surprised to see tears brimming her eyes. "You were dead, you moron!" The tears began to flow freely now, down her cheeks and into his lap.

". . . Fel." Ryner said softly.

"You were dead." The girl whispered. "I thought you were dead." Then she bent her head to lean it on the fabric clutched between her hands. "Don't ever do that to me again." She sobbed quietly, her shoulders shaking with each breath.

Ryner looked down at her, eyes wide. Then, he slowly put his arms around her and pulled her close to him. "I'm sorry. I won't." He said into her hair. She continued to cry into his chest, her hands still gripping the front of his shirt.

Kirito's shoulders sagged as he watched Felicita sob, Ryner's arms still around her. He had been alarmed when Felicita had punched the KoB member. He thought she had lost it. But now he sees that she had, but only momentarily, and now, this breakdown was the result.

Asuna then caught his attention. She had just turned to look at him, a small smile on her face. He gave her a slight smile as well, before she turned toward the rest of the Assault Team, who were just standing there, watching what was transpiring.

"Alright, people, there's still a lot to be done here! Let's get moving!" Then she looked down at Ryner, who was still on the floor with Felicita. "You can stay there, though, Ryner." She said gently, glancing at the girl in his arms.

"Uh, ok." Ryner said.

Felicita shook her head, suddenly sitting back on her heels and hastily wiping her eyes. "No, it's ok. I'm ok." She reassured them. Then she stood up to look at Asuna. "What can I do?"

"Um, well . . ." Asuna began, not really sure if she should give her something to do.

Then Kirito came to stand beside Asuna, a smirk on his face. "Go ahead and give her something, she can handle it."

Asuna contemplated for a second before nodding. "Alright then. You could go out and check on those who were on the perimeter. I want to know how Laughing Coffin and their leader were able to escape."

Felicita blinked. "How do you know they actually escaped?"

The Lightning Flash sighed. "Well, I got some messages saying that a large group of red players broke through the perimeter. There's no doubt they were Laughing Coffin. Also . . . most of our men were killed."

"How?" Kirito asked incredulously. The players assigned to the perimeter were skilled members of guilds like the KoB. How were they all beaten so easily?

Asuna just shook her head. "That's what I want to know." Then she nodded at the two darkly dressed players in front of her. "How about you two go and check it out. If anyone can figure this out, it's you." Suddenly she turned on Ryner. "I need you, by the way, since you're . . . free."

"Uh, yeah, of course." Ryner said as he hurriedly stood up. Then, his eyes met Felicita's. He blinked once before giving her a smile. She stared at him for a second before remembering that she had just punched him, yelled at him, and cried on him just a minute ago. She blushed and quickly looked away from him. Then, seeming to remember the same thing, Ryner's face slightly reddened as well before he went to follow Asuna.

Felicita watched them leave for a while before turning toward Klein and Kirito. They were watching her expectantly. ". . . It was your idea to use the revival item right?" She asked Kirito. He nodded slowly. "And you used it?" She asked Klein. He nodded as well. "I never knew that you still had that. But to use it on him . . ." She trailed of, not sure of how to complete her sentence. Instead, she quickly embraced both of them. "Thank you." She said softly. The two of them blinked in surprise, but then, as they glimpsed each other out of the corner of their eyes, they smiled and returned the hug.

"What could have happened here?" Kirito mumbled to himself as he knelt down to pick up a lone sword on the ground.

"Who knows?" Felicita thought aloud. "But it was obviously something. How else could over half of the biggest murder guild in SAO escape the Assault Team?"

Kirito dropped the sword and stood up in thought. That was a valid point. LC couldn't have gotten passed the perimeter so easily. But how did they do it? They couldn't possibly be that strong. Did they just have something up their sleeves? That wasn't likely. Something like that would have to have been really powerful, but the system wouldn't allow something so unfair to exist in the first place. The only likely scenario that Kirito could come up with was . . .

"There's a mole."

"What?" Felicita asked him.

"We have a spy." He said, his theory suddenly coming together. "How else did Laughing Coffin know about you and when we were going to raid them?"

Felicita stared at him, before finally starting to see what he was saying. "The spy also helped them escape through the perimeter."

Kirito nodded. "Exactly." Then he put a hand to his chin. "This could be a problem. If people found out, then no one would trust each other and we would destroy ourselves from the inside out. Aside from that risk, this person could leak, or already has leaked, information that could potentially destroy us." He stood there, remembering the number of people who died (or almost died) as a result of this coward. "Dammit! Who is it?"

Felicita quickly looked around at their surroundings. It was still dark out, but she could just see the pink in the sky as the sun was about to rise. "Whoever it is, they're crafty." Then she looked at him. "But we can't figure that out here. There's obviously nothing here to go by. Let's just tell Asuna what we were able to figure out."

The boy in black looked around a little before sighing. "Yeah. You're right. Let's just tell Asuna." And so, the two of them began to make their way back to where the Assault Team was still "cleaning up." It was unusually quiet as they walked back, and that made Kirito feel uneasy. He looked at the girl next to him out of the corner of his eye. She seemed deep in thought.

"Hey, you ok?" He asked.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Why?"

Kirito looked at her for a moment longer. "No reason." She was avoiding talking to him and she had been acting strangely distant a few moments before. Something was obviously bothering her, but it didn't look like she wanted to talk about. It probably had something to do with the raid. Regardless, he would be there when she was ready to confide in him.

They returned to silence again. Kirito, unsure of what to do, decided to look through his menu. That had become a habit of his, just going through his stats and items, making sure that everything was in order and making plans on how to get stronger. He found that helped with his day-to-day virtual life.

It was another few minutes until he suddenly stopped walking. Felicita noticed a few steps ahead of him and turned around to look at him in confusion.

"Kirito-kun?"

He stood still for a few more seconds. "This might be a weird question, but have you seen this in your menu before?"

Curious, the petite girl went over to see what he was talking about. On the small screen, he had pulled up his skills menu. He was pointing to a particular skill that was about in the center of his screen. It read "dual-wielding."

"What is that?" Felicita queried in wonder. Kirito just shrugged. Quickly, the girl pulled up her menu and scrolled through her skills list, but she couldn't find "dual-wielding." "No. It's not in my menu."

"I didn't think so. I don't remember ever seeing this before." It was quiet for a moment as Felicita quickly went through her menu some more. Before Kirito knew what she was doing, she handed him a short sword. He looked at her questioningly.

"Well? Go on and try it out."

He looked down at the blade she had given him. Then he shrugged. It wouldn't hurt. So he activated the new skill before he pulled out his Elucidator. He held both out in front of him in a ready stance. Then he executed a few slashes in the air before him.

Felicita clapped, her mouth forming a small circle. "That looks so badass!"

Kirito shrugged again. "I guess. But it feels awkward. Your sword is really light."

She huffed before snatching it back and placing it into her inventory once again. "Not everyone prefers STR-type weapons, Kirito."

"Well, STR-type weapons are the best." He stated matter-of-factly as he placed his black sword into the sheath on his back.

"Whatever." Felicita grumbled. "Let's just go." She said before continuing to walk.

Kirito hurried to catch up with her. "Hey, uh, keep that a secret for me would you?"

She looked back at him. "Why?" But just as soon as she asked. She understood. Other players would get jealous if they found out that Kirito had a skill that no one else did. It was similar to her unique knife wielding ability. Not many people thought that was fair either. "Oh. Yeah. You're dirty, little secret is safe with me." She replied, a slight smirk on her face.

". . . Thanks."

The two solo players arrived back at the castle, where they were to meet Asuna and the others. As soon as they got there, they pulled her aside and shared with her the conclusion that they had come up with.

"That is a problem." Asuna mumbled. "Right, I'll share this with the Commander." Then her eyes widened as she suddenly remembered something. "Oh, uh, Felicita . . . that reminds me." The girl in question looked at Asuna expectantly. The Lightning Flash looked almost uncomfortable as she said this. "The Commander would like to see you."

Felicita stared at her, her heart seemed to stop beating. "Oh. Right. I'll see him then." She glanced at Kirito, he looked just as startled as she did. But there was no avoiding this, so Felicita just took in a breath and marched over to where she could see Heathcliff. He was deep in conversation with someone when she got there, but as soon as he saw her, he ended it abruptly and turned his full attention to her.

"Felicita." He addressed her politely.

She nodded in return. "Commander Heathcliff." It was silent for a moment before Felicita built up the nerve to speak. "I assume you want to see me about my failed mission."

Heathcliff regarded her quietly. "You could say that." A feeling of foreboding swept through Felicita's body. "It is true that this whole raid did not go exactly how we had anticipated, but I wouldn't call it a complete failure."

Felicita blinked. "What?"

The Commander raised an eyebrow. "I believe your mission was to eliminate the Laughing Coffin guild, correct? Not penetrate them. That was only a means to attempt to eliminate them with." The girl stayed quiet so he continued. "The point of this was to evaluate your skills and capabilities. I assure you that I was able to make an accurate measurement based on what I have observed over the past few months. You successfully infiltrated the guild and were able to leak information to us in that time without getting yourself killed, a feat that no average player could ever hope to achieve. In addition, the fighting skills you demonstrated tonight have proved to me that you would be of great use in the future."

Felicita's eyes widened. "You mean . . .?"

The man nodded. "Yes. I will let you remain as the Knight of the Blood Oath's dog." The girl almost jumped for joy before she remembered whose presence she was in.

"Thank you, sir."

Heathcliff nodded. "You will have to abide by any commands we give you, but I will stay true to my word and allow you time to pursue your goals. However, your primary objective is to find a way to take down Laughing Coffin. That has not changed. With your experience in Aincrad's underworld, you are the perfect one for this job. I'm expecting a lot from you, Ms. Shadow Thief."

"Yes sir." Felicita said quickly. "I won't let you down."

"I'm glad to hear it. I will be seeing you soon then." With that, he left.

Felicita beamed. She had done it! Not exactly in the way she had imagined, but she had done it! Now she was free to find Riku and Silica! Now she was free to make amends.

A/N: . . . I had you guys going for a while there didn't I? You thought I had killed Ryner off. Come on now people I'm not THAT heartless. It's her birthday for Pete's sake! I thought it was a good idea to use the revival item in my story because in the anime they didn't say what happened to it. Not sure if they used it in the manga or light novels because I don't have access to them so don't blame me if they actually did use it. I'm following the anime here. Well, I hope you liked this! Please favorite, review, etc. and i will see you next chapter!