Author's Note: Another good one for ya! This one is also semi-unconventional with respect to the books and films. The location was in the Fellowship of the Ring, but not in this setting...also I went a little overboard again with the geographic introduction this chapter. Sorry...my undergrad degree was in Geography, and I really like the Middle-Earth Map.

Extra note: Hey did anyone else hear about this SAO live action thing coming to America? Weird...

Also I do not own Sword Art Online or the Lord of the Rings.

Chapter Twenty Six

Graveyard of the Past

"It is not the eastern shore that worries me. A shadow and a threat have been growing in my mind. Something draws near, I can feel it."

― Legolas, The Fellowship of the Ring

To the south end of Rhovanion sat the middle river land of the Anduin. Here were several low-country sides with brown grass and rock, but one place known by name was Emyn Muil.

The hills of Emyn Muil, upon either side of the lake Nen Hithoel, was a vast, seemingly impenetrable maze of rocky crags in the lower middle region of Middle-earth. The vegetation in this region was also a sight to behold in itself. The slopes rose gradually in the north with great brakes thorn and sloe, brambles and creepers. Near the river, ivy clung to grey stone chimneys and further ridges were topped with firs twisted by wind. On three sides Emyn Muil ended in cliffs. In the west the uplands ended abruptly in the East Wall of Rohan. In the south the Anduin cascaded over Rauros, a great waterfall. In the east, although of lower elevation, the barren hills still ended in a steep edge.

The Anduin also cut through the hills on its southward course. In the north the river narrowed and passed through Sarn Gebir rapids. No boats could survive these torrents, and travelers had to use a portage way on the west bank to climb up and down the cliff. South of Sarn Gebir the river plunged between towering cliffs until it passed between the two great statues of the Argonath. A little further and the pent waters opened into a long oval lake called Nen Hithoel. On the southern end of the lake were three peaks: Amon Lhaw on the east bank, Tol Brandir amid two arms of the river, and Amon Hen on the western side. At the foot of Amon Hen was a green clearing, Parth Galen, and south of it was the North Stair that allowed for passage to the bottom of Rauros and Emyn Muil altogether.

It was here that a great host of the north began its departure for the southern wars between Gondor and Mordor. Using the Great River Anduin, a fleet of hundreds (maybe even thousands at this point) of elvish boats were seen sailing down the river from Mirkwood, just coming off the northern wood and down from a rendezvous from the dwarven camps in the north.

In fact, they were lead by a valiant warrior from the north, and of all people, it was the one who slayed Smaug the Dragon who led the Woodland Realm into their next mission and into the coming wars. All the kingdoms of Middle-Earth were assembling their masses, or fighting their battles, but right now Shino Asada was taking her great host into the next phase of combat

Or should we instead call her the great archer Sinon? Even here she was in the virtual world, so her avatar's name was clearly a better reference. After escorting the great dwarves of Erebor past the northern wood, Sinon's elves left their "allies" to fight in the wars at Gundabad while she began her decent down for Gondor. Although it looked like slow progress so far for the Fellowship, Sinon was making her best efforts to make due on her promise.

"I'm getting you an army, Asuna. I don't know if it'll be whole, but I'll get it there…mark my words." Sinon was confident. Scared, but confident. She knew her elves were loyal to her skills ever since they helped her in Lake-town, but now she required their undivided attention as they campaigned down to their next fight, and their next stop happened to be Amon Hen of all places.

Upon Amon Hen were the remains of an ancient road that had dwindled to little more than a path. In places where the hill grew steep, stairs had been hewn, although over time they had become cracked, worn, and split by tree roots. The path wound through rowan trees to the summit, where there was a wide flat circle paved with large stones and encircled with a ruined battlement. In the center of the circle was an ancient chair, the Seat of Seeing.

The Seat of Seeing was an ancient chair built upon the summit of Amon Hen within a great circular stone-paved court surrounded by a battlement. The high seat rested upon four carved pillars and could be reached by a stair of many steps, but today it laid in only ruins.

Sinon studied her map carefully coming down the river, and realized the great water falls were quickly approaching. "Dock up ahead. We'll need to work our way slowly down the cliffs." She had no business or desire to trek through the rocky Emyn Muil to the east, and the west would have taken her out of track. So she made a careful decision to keep trying to go down stream.

That is until her crew started to grow tired. "Milady, we are in need of a break soon."

Sinn grinned. "Eh relax, we'll make camp up at the cliff."

"Whew!" "Oh thank god!" The human playing elves all comically sighed while the NPC elves nodded with modesty. Sinon even enjoyed everyone's mood so far and decided to turn and join them.

"Okay, so anyone have a good cooking skill in this game…if that's even a thing?"

"Yea I spent some time in Hobbiton back in the beginning. They got a lot of cool meals and treats you can make with just about anything."

"That sounds good!" Sinon admitted. "Can't wait to try some out!"

"Hey captain, you mind us askin' about that dragon you killed? We're all big fans of the films, so we just wanted to hear what it was like."

"Oh that…" Sinon rolled her eyes with a satisfied grin. "I guess. I basically just shot it with a little black arrow my blacksmith friend made for me, and without the elves to help injure him I wouldn't have been able to…" Sinon stopped talking as soon as she began seeing a weird glowing light coming from one of the elf sailor's sheaths. In fact she only noticed it because the sun was lowering, which kept the tiny blue light from staying hidden from view in the approaching darkness.

Sinon then looked around and noticed more and more swords started glowing, and then she even pulled out an elven dagger from her own belt and smiled at its magnificent glow. "Wow, do these elf blades come with build-in candles or something? That's pretty…"

"DRAW ARMS!" Sub commanders from every ship started blowing horns and commanding for a battle that Sinon had no idea was coming. She looked around with chaotic nerve as all the sailors frantically began grabbing their best weapons for attack.

"Uh hey! What is it?! I don't understand!"

"Elf blades glow when orcs are near!" One elf player yelled. "And our host is full of 'em!"

Sinon stopped and remembered seeing Silica's little Sting sword doing the same thing when they were fighting in the Misty Mountains. She shuttered at the thought and turned her head down stream just as the sun set over the western horizon.

"Crap…well now where are they…?" She scanned the quiet forest edges around her with all senses alert. "Could they be on the left…or on the right?"

Sinon kept her ears sharp as her troops were quieting down, but just then flames burst through the left banks of the river, followed by the right.

"AMBUSH!" Her men yelled, and then a few of the front archers started shooting out at both sides of the bank. Before they knew it swarms of orcs were coming from both sides of the river, but weirdly enough not every arrow they shot was aimed at the elves.

"Are they…aimed at each other?" Sinon was trying to break the situation apart in her mind, but it was almost as if their elven host had just entered into a battle between two rival orc factions.

Sinon looked to both sides once again. On the left side was the east bank of the river, and these orcs held black banners with fiery red eyes. They looked a bit less organized, but there were a lot more of them in numbers.

On the other side the orcs looked to have a different banner. These orcs had a black banner with a mint green hand printed on the front. The same shade of green Sinon remembered seeing at Isengard, in the robes of Sigurd.

"Those are his men…" She narrowed her vision looking at all the Isengard orcs, and deduced the others to be some force of Mordor. As a result Sinon whistled to her crew and drew her own bow. "Sail to the west! We'll all dock on the Isengard side!"

"Ma'am!?" one first mate yelled as they tried dodging several flaming arrows.

Sinon shook her head to ignore him. "All men on the western back! Attack Isengard!"

The NPCs followed without a second command, and right then all the barges sailed and docked right up towards the large Uruk-hai warriors. Sinon jumped off the bow of her own boat and rolled onto the shore, quickly stabbing one of the approaching orcs with the tip of an arrow. She then stood and fired that arrow a crossed the river to the Mordor side.

"Archers! Nock arrows and aim for the east at Mordor! Melee-ers! ATTACK THE URUKS!"

Sinon never truly turned her back to the approaching forces of Isengard as she had so much faith in her second-in-commands. In her hopes, the sub captains followed her command and charged the powerful Uruk forces. Sinon on the other hand kept her focus with the archers and had all of them load their bows to fire over at Mordor.

"DRAW!" She declared, and she too drew back on the string from her high elven bow. She steadied her hands and closed one eye, and just as the wind died down and the large host of black orcs came into view on the other side of the river, Sinon made her command.

"LOOSE!" She ordered the fire, and just then Sinon and the hundreds of elven archers fired out to kill all the Mordor orcs who were in easy view along the eastern river.

Sinon repeated her command, and hoped to dwindle the Mordor forces down to irrelevancy, so that she could turn all her focuses on Sigurd's fowl creatures. She remembered he said he was also at war with Mordor, but she never realized the severity with his threats.

Sinon had to keep her command tight if she wanted to make it out of this skirmish with as many troops as possible. She could win with her numbers, that wasn't the issue. She had no idea how many elves would be taken though, or if she would be taken out as well.

Of course she'd be alright. She was doing all of this for Kirito, for Asuna, for Leafa, and for the rest of her friends. In order to see them all again, she had to step up and finish this battle out herself. The Uruks looked tough, but small in numbers. It was a good idea to dock on their side. However, the side from Mordor left her worried, so worried she had no idea how many there were.

In a quick instant she turned on her archery vision not to fire, but instead turned to the hills behind her. Sinon needed a vantage point in order to see the enemy attackers, and she needed a tall one at that.

Amon Hen, the Seat of Seeing. She didn't know what these letters on her map meant, but they looked like some sort of high structure atop a near by hill. She used her memory of these locations to try and find her point, so in a quick flash Sinon rolled out, shot an oncoming arrow with one of her own, threw a dagger at an approaching Uruk from the other side, and then proceeded to run towards the nearby hills.

It took her several minutes to run through the war and fire, but after dodging everything she finally found a stone path to an ancient ruin atop a lone hill in the forest. Sinon climbed up on the Seat to try and look a crossed the river, but there was now a great column of smoke and ash blocking her book.

Sinon equipped her bow to view and used it to gain extra sight as she looked through the trees and a crossed the water over to the Mordor side. She had no idea what to find through the shadows and torch flames, but every black figure that came into view helped her out immensely.

"That's 20 so far…plus those other fifteen on the north side…wow there seem to be a lot."

"Yes, there certainly does."

Sinon heard that voice from behind her and rolled off her rock perch, and watched as a black long sword slammed into the rocks just before hitting her.

Her eyes grew larger as she tossed her bow off to the side and drew two small silver and gold daggers, and then used them in a cross formation to block another blow coming in from the enemy sword. She struggled with the situation for a short period of time before she actually got a good view of the orc attacking her, but the thing was, she wasn't sure it was an orc.

They were cloaked, but not like a Ringwraith. The cloak seemed thinner, and so did the figure inside. The sword looked more like an orc blade, and the person seemed to be tall, but not tough. They were skilled however, and after bringing up the sword once again they back up and went to strike again.

Sinon used this to flip up and grab her bow, and soon enough she had an arrow notched and ready for firing, but just then the enemy held up a bow of his own.

It was compact, large and metal. It looked like it weighed as much as a sword, and the front had blades coming off the stock. It also looked menacing, like the arrow could pierce the steel. Sinon's heart raced for a short moment as their arrows stood face to face until the being started laughing.

"Hehehe Aheheheheheh…well this brings me back…Shino Asada."

The elven archer looked befuddled as she tilted her head, but then she saw it, two piercing red eyes lit like lasers under the dark hood, and now that the light was a little better, the beings cloak wasn't a full shade of black, but a mixture of dark camouflage.

It also had a named gamer tag, and its name was Sterben.

"N-No…what…no this isn't…"

"Hehehehehe…little Sinon alone in the wilderness, just like the Bullet of Bullets."

"D-Death Gun…!? What the hell are you…no, you're not here at all."

*SLASH!*

The arrow this supposed Death Gun had nocked in his string fired right by Sinon's cheek, and without her firing back it grazed right over her skin and left a glowing wound to bleed.

Death Gun laughed. "Looks like I am here…and I'm here with the forces of hell, as if I've risen from the dead."

"But you never died…no, you're both in jail like you should be, and this is all just a nightmare."

"Just cut it out with the shit, Sinon. I'm here, and you seem ready as ever to die…so how about I make up for OLD TIME'S SAKE!"

Death Gun lunged forward and threw his long sword right at Sinon's face, but she jumped down off her rocks to dodge it, and then turned to find her enemy holding a black thin estoc ready for attack.

Sinon drew her daggers and began spinning them to defer the stabbing from Death Gun's rapier-style sword, but he was far too quick to see. She ignored the fire and cries of death from below to keep track of her own life, and right then she knew it would be the hardest fight of her life.

Death Gun knew that too, and started laughing. "Ah how sweet it is. That ass Kirito is nowhere to save you, and now you're left all alone to die. How very fitting!" He swiped with a rare side blow from his estoc, and Sinon readied herself with a block by her left dagger. She back flipped near a tree and lunged off it ready to stab the enemy, but the Sterben avatar simply moved out of the way and watch her fall into the dirt.

Sinon rolled away and kicked a rock at her pursuer, and then flipped up to get back on her feet. She sheathed her daggers and grabbed her bow once again, and raced down the hill away from Death Gun and the battle below.

"Ah-hehh Ah-hehh…" She was beginning to breathe heavily in her sprint, and she had no idea what was going on around her. "H-How…I wonder how the others are all doing…and what the hell is going on? Is the game glitched? Is it trying to make me snap?"

Sinon continued to run through the trees until she heard a deadly whizzing noise. She hit the ground on a roll and saw a great big arrow slam into the tree trunk right in front of her.

"Geeze! How did he fire that from a bow?!" Sinon looked to find two red eyes staring at her, which prompted her to get up and run even faster.

"I gotta get to the river! I need to see my troops, and maybe get…" She tried to think about getting re-enforcements, but more arrows were firing at her from afar.

Then, her foot caught a root, and her head lowered in front of her, but at the same time several fire arrows soared from in front of her and hit the tree in the side.

Sinon looked to find several regular orcs running at her, which prompted her to rise to her feet and stab the first few with her daggers. She then drew her bow and shot the remaining three with rapid fire arrows, and without hesitation she turned to shoot a fourth at an approaching arrow from Death Gun.

The evil avatar laughed and continued walking as he notched another arrow, and without hesitation Sinon took in all her breath and decided to charge him now when the time as right. Neither of them were up or down hill, both were level. The field was pitch black, with the exception of the small kindling that smoked up from those fire arrows. Sinon felt ready to fight, and if she was prepared to fight anyone, Death Gun had to be it.

"You're a monster…I don't know how you made it here, but I'm not going down that easily!" She charged forward with her two daggers in hand and watched as Death Gun drew his estoc to defend. He then took the offense by stabbing her repeatedly, but she was able to dodge most of them in a quick flash followed by a swipe of her two daggers.

They both locked weapons and shoved out to give each other room to breath. They were now separated by several feet which gave them both time to adjust their attacks.

Sinon took her time to breath and concentrate on her enemy, and at that time Death Gun stepped back and gave his blade a twirl.

"You're still the same person, Sinon. So naïve. It kills me that I never killed someone as weak as you back in that tournament…" He pulled out a torch from his inventory and began lighting his estoc on fire.

Death Gun then threw the torch into a nearby bush and let it light up with fire, causing the whole area to become illuminated by flames.

Sinon's sea green eyes lit up like they were about to witness death, and for the first time inside MEO she felt fear just like she did as a child. She had no idea how to cope with any of it, she felt so small in this world of shadows and death.

"AGH!" Finally she held her words and charged forward to combat Death Gun and his fiery sword. She charged up with her daggers twirling, and one by one they landed quick blows on Sterben and his blade.

Death Gun too managed to catch some of Sinon's body and weaponry, and now a piece of her elven robe had caught fire.

Sinon rolled out of battle and rubbed her arm against a tree to scrape off the ash and burnt fabric. She then ripped a sleeve off her left arm and continued to fight. Slash after slash Sinon tried landing deadly accurate blows to end the fight once and for all, but Death Gun was far too quick, and far too good.

Finally, the great killer he was created a star of sorts out of the air and knocked one dagger out of Sinon's hands, and followed up by knocking her to her behind.

Sinon held up her remaining dagger to block his sword, but Sterben kicked it from her hand, and then kicked her in the cheek to spit blood into the dirt.

Sinon coughed up in pain as she leaned on her hands, and as she tried to collect her breath Death Gun started laughing.

"Hahaha…well that was just as easy as I figured it's be." He then put up his flaming sword and drew his metal Morgul Bow, and followed up with loading a large black arrow into its string.

Sinon started breathing just to keep alive, but she knew at this rate she was dead either way. Death Gun was standing over her near lifeless body, and now she understood what failure truly felt like.

"I can't…I can't…I'm sorry Asuna…I'm sorry everyone." Sinon started crying with single tears as she looked into the dirt, and just as she did Death Gun started laughing

"Such a fool…leave this world Sinon, and let Kirito enjoy the darkness." Sterben raised his bow and aimed his locked arrow right at her head, but before he could fire a blinding blue light took his vision from the south.

"NOT ON MY WATCH!" A blue flame came crashing in to hit Death Gun in the feet, and just as Sinon lost all hope, Chrysheight the blue wizard came in with Glamdring armed in his hand ready for combat.

Death Gun spun around and shot his loaded arrow for the wizard's head, and watched as it broke from the staff's magic. The mage then shot out a bolt of blue energy, but it dissipated as Death Gun turned stealth on and vanished into thin air.

Quickly enough he re-appeared behind Chrysheight and sent his sword into the mage's shoulder, but the wizard was quicker than he realized and spun around to knock the attack away. Now they were both locked in battle with a fierce clash of steel. One was glowing blue, the other blood orange. Back and forth they attacked one another, and before Chrysheight could gain the next upper hand he began to grin.

Right then Death Gun went to stab him in the chest, but in the quick flash of time Sinon came crashing in with a great big steel longsword and hacked Sterben right in the neck, decapitating his upper arm from the rest of his body.

Chrysheight somehow recognized the blade to be Andûril, the Flame of the West. She must have earned it from Lisbeth on her departure from the north, and he had never been so happy to see a sword in his life as Death Gun fell to his knees and right to his death.

Sinon never changed her serious expression as the evil Sterben avatar turned into black particles and disappeared into nothing, leaving the two allies there confused in the conclusion of a great battle.

Sinon turned up her hearing to find her elves seemed alright below the hill. She then turned to Chrysheight. "Sorry, I would have been quicker but I ran into someone."

The Wizard laughed. "Relax, I never even expected you guys to bring your armies down so fast…bonus points by the way."

They both sheathed their weapons and Chrysheight decided to act serious. "He wasn't real you know. It was just his avatar, or his memory like Kayaba."

"But he was never killed in the real world, and it wasn't just one person." Sinon argued, remembering the Death Gun members were never killed.

The wizard nodded. "They weren't, but that wasn't any of them. In the virtual world, Death Gun is dead as dead can be. Do you remember the early powers of the Dark Lord Sauron, the works of a Necromancer? Sauron can revive the dead, and he knew you were approaching his borders. He used a dead memory from your past and sent it to lead his forces to attack you."

"But what about the Uruks?" Sinon argued. "These orcs were fighting each other far before we arrived."

"They were." He agreed. "But Sigurd sent his force to attack you as well. I suppose he knew you were going south the moment you went to Mirkwood. Wasn't he their original leader? I suppose he had a bit of envy for this host and wanted to see it die. The fact that they both ran into each other is just a coincidence."

Sinon shook her head with the collection of all that info, but either way she took her legendary long sword and tossed it to Chrysheight. "Here. You can have it."

The Wizard nodded. "Gladly. I was looking for this sword exactly, and I'm glad I only had to travel half the way."

Sinon picked up her bow and daggers and looked into the dark forest. "So where do I go? Should I keep rowing south?"

"No." Chrysheight said with a firm answer. "You'll head back west. Sigurd needs to be defeated, and the Rohan forces are not strong enough alone. You'll give Silica some help with the remainder of your army, and then assemble with her, Leafa, and Recon once you all have armies. From there you'll return to the east and join us all in Gondor."

Chrysheight then sighed and looked to the south. "The hiding shadow that scowls in the East will soon take its shape. Sauron will suffer no rival, and certainly not from Sigurd. From the center of Mordor that creepy eye watches eternally, but he isn't so mighty that he is also above fear. He has his own doubts heading into this war."

Chrysheight grinned yet again. "Why he won't just kick us out of the game and end it all is beyond me…but either way the rumor of our host has reached him. However, for all his greatest fears, we have one advantage…The Ring remains moving. Asuna will deliver that thing to Mordor, and each day she brings it closer to the fires of Mount Doom…We must trust in Asuna to complete her mission, and eventually we'll join her."

Sinon nodded slightly, but hung her head low with a slight bit of grief, like she was at fault for something in the world.

Chrysheight grinned. "Hey, don't doubt Kayaba's plan on having all of you split up. We needed to leave her…Asuna needs to finish this task alone, and I already found my own guilt for abandoning her in Gondor with a fallen captain and a crew of fools."

Sinon stopped him. "She's not alone, Yui's with her in that necklace, remember?"

Chrysheight lifted his head with a small eye of hope. "That's right…Good. Yes, very good. She's going to need that extra bit of comfort to get along with her mission."

Finally Chrysheight clapped his hands together. "Great. I'll deliver this package to her now, which will take a good week…in the mean time make your way west to rejoin the others."

Sinon paused for a long time and took a deep breath. She then turned and began walking back down to the river to find her men. "Right…and if I see him again?"

Chrysheight laughed and whistled for his white horse. He then waved a hand. "Nah, I think you'll be fine. Sauron only has a set list of tricks, and I think he's all out of plans for Shino Asada."

God dayum Chrysheight plays a pretty convincing Gandalf! Lol they're all fun characters to write actually. I re-watched SOOOO much SAO II for this chapter, specifically Gun Gale...however, this story is meant to be written in the POV of the English Dub (because I can't write in Japanese...) and English dubbed SAO episodes are very hard to come by. So this was one of the most challenging chapters to write.

I wanted to give every character at least one good/solid chapter, we had a good Klein one last time and today's was Sinon's...more to come on Monday, but until then please comment and review!