I hope you like how I introduced Kayaba as a good guy, and his is important to the gang, especially [spoiler alert], against Suguo

We logged off soon after within an inn, that I payed for, of course. I took of the NerveGear. I looked at the window of my room, and saw it was dark out. Hrmph, we should pay better attaention to the time. Before logging off, we agreed to meet the next day at ten AM, so we could eat, sleep, and then eat breakfast. I looked at Argo, who was returning my look. Before anything intimate happened, our stomachs demonstrated the mating cry of the humpback whale. We giggled at the audio display.

"Hey, I'll go heat us something up for dinner" she volunteered. I nodded my approval, and she left. I sat, recollecting over what just happened.

First, we learned I am no where near as good as we thought. Second, Lancelot is Akihiko Kayaba. That was a huge shocker, but after he explained it, it made sense. Third, his explanation. Suguo killed him a while ago, and all Kayaba is now is a program? That is hard to take in.

"Dinner is ready, love!" She called. Hrmph, now she is calling me "love"? Oh well.

"Coming kitty!"

"That is the last time! Do you hear me!" I giggled like a schoolgirl.

"Yes I do, love!"

I walked into my kitchen, and sat next to her at the circular table. She had made ramen, which smelled sooooo delicious to my starving body. I wolfed it down, and after I finished, pushed my plate back and groaned. She looked at me reproachfully.

"What?" I asked.

"Your table manners are terrible!" She responded with.

"Well, considering that I was trapped in a Death Game, where I lived by myself and ate by myself most of the time, and most of the time while walking, cut me some slack!"

"No!" She shook her head, "I was in the exact same circumstances, and I still have manners!"

I giggled again, which made her unable to keep a straight face, so she choked out, "What's so funny?" Which somehow, made me laugh harder.

"Your face is so cute when you are mad!" She punched me half heartedly. The scolding over, and her meal over, we went to bed, and curled up with each other. I was about to fall asleep, with her warm body pressed against mine soothingly, when she spoke, "Hey, Tryth?" I sighed mentally. Verbally, I grunted. "Hrmph."

"If I was the one captured, and being held prisoner, would you try as hard to get me out?"

My eyes flew open. What is this about. "Umm, Argo? Why are you asking?"

I felt her sit up behind me. "Well, I see the expression you where when you talk about her, and when you saw her in that photo, you looked livid with rage. I was wondering if you loved her and no-" I cut her off.

"Ok, dumbass" not the best start, but, how else could I? "If it puts your mind at ease, then no, I would not try and break you out as badly as I am now, for Angelica." I turned in the bed to see her look crestfallen. I continued, "I would try so much harder, in fact, I would not eat, or sleep, until I had you back in my arms, safe". I saw a tear fall from her head, while she was looking straight down. I stroked the dark air out of her face, and pulled her chin up. I kissed her deeply. Her tears weren't of depression, but more of relief and joy. I took my lips off hers, and whispered, "Nothing can keep me from you, not Kayaba, not Suguo, not anything".

She wrapped me in a hug. "Thank you, I thought I was loosing you" I rubbed her back soothingly.

"Never, love"

I woke the next morning to see an empty bed beside me, and sounds coming from the kitchen. I was about to sit up when Argo walked in, with a tray of food. "Well, rise and shine! How about some breakfast in bed?" I blinked rapidly in surprise.

"Okay, you never do anything for free, not even for me….. what is the cost for this?"

She smirked with mirth. "Oh, maybe a date…"

I sighed, "That doesn't sound too bad!"

"At the Couples Diner…"

"Ok, that's a big price…." the Couples diner was a restaurant that was made for romantic evenings. Deep reds all over, and low lighting. Candle chandeliers over each table, and it had rooms on top, on the next floor, for when the romantic evening got… well, romantic.

"And, we are going! As soon as we get Angelica back, we are going!" She proclaimed.

I sighed. "Well, knowing you, my life will go to hell unless I agree…"

"Exactly! So choose carefully Baka!" Great, another pet-name! And this one was derogatory!

"Ffffiiiinnnneeee" I groaned, nad she almost slammed the tray in my lap, stealing in glee.

"Yaaayyy!" Seeing that look on her face made it almost worth it, especially since the prices at the Diner were through the roof. She spoon fed me, which I was very indignant about, and afterwards, we dived into ALO.

We were fist up. The other's avatars were still in their beds, immobile. All except Lance/Kayaba. He was standing there patiently awaiting our arrival. I decided to get some shopping done. I bought some potions from npcs, whose prices I hated, but payed grudgingly. Well, it was a drop in the pacific compared to my lump sum!

I walked in the door, to see Liz and Silica stretching out the kinks in their virtual muscles. I threw a bag of potions to each of them.

"How much did this cost!" Breathed Silica.

"Knowing him, absolutely nothing!" Said Liz. "You haven't been told how much he has, have you?"

Silica shook her head, so Liz bent over and whispered in her head. When Liz pulled away, Silica was scraping her bottom jaw off the floor. "Wow" was her only comment.

"So, shall the Blades of Aincrad and Kayaba leave now?" I asked. They nodded in agreement. We walked out of the inn, spread our wings, and took flight. Even Kayaba was agile in the air, even with all of that heavy armor. We flew towards the base of the Tree. It was huge. It looked like there were two intertwining trunks, that reached hundreds, maybe thousands of feet into the air. The trunk's width was larger than the town at its base. It looked beautiful, yet imposing. To me, it was very foreboding.

We were tight next to the door when our wings gave out. It seemed everyone but me landed gracefully, while I got a sore ass for my trouble.

After everyone giggled at my discomfort and embarrassment, we looked at the tree. The doors themselves that lead into the trunk were at least thirty feet high. I walked up to it, and a notice appeared in front of me.

Would you like to start the [World Tree] quest?

I looked at my compatriots, they nodded, and I pressed the [Yes] icon. The tree opened slowly, with a creak. We walked inside. It was huge, almost unrealistically huge. No, this was unrealistic, this was enormous. Many thousands of blue lights, in the shape of a cirle were plastered to the walls of the trunk. A dull, and low 'hum' foreshadowed something that I couldn't place. The light directly in front of me glowed, and a [Tree Lancer] spawned. It rushed to us, and I flashed behind it, a critical hit to the neck, killing it instantly.

"Well, that's not too hard, we can do this!" I shouted over my shoulder.

"You dumbass!" Shouted Liz and Argo in unison. "You are never supposed to say that's its 'not too hard'! That just triggers-"

They were cut off by a louder, and lower 'hum'. All of the lights were glowing, and a lot more mobs were spawning. Oh shit.

I looked at Kayaba/Lance. He nodded. We both took flight, hacking and slashing at everything. His defense made him nearly invulnerable to their attacks, and my speed making me unhittable. My knife flashed dangerously, killing dozens upon dozens of them per second. But, this became very tiresome after about thirty minutes. For every one we cut down, ten more took its place. I started feeling that exhaustion. I started getting clumsy. I started getting nicks and scratches. After clearing a circle around me, I took a few seconds to take in the situation. Kayaba had as much HP as I did, the only difference was that his was draining slowly, but consistently. Time to initiate a combo! I appeared at his side, and said "Do you have the skill, [Shining Sword]?"

"Yes, I do," he commented. "Ahh, that's what you are planning" he said. We got back to back, and became a spiral of death. [Shining Duo Hellstorm] was its name. It was only possible with two people who had the skill [Shining Sword]. It allows us to create a sphere of death, moving so fast that anything that got caught within this sphere was carved finer than a Thanksgiving turkey. This attack was perfect for the situation, had there not have been infinite amounts of the enemies. This technique took a lot of stamina, and we were soon drained, and cut down. Argo caught my little floating flame, and Liz got Kayaba. They took us out of the tree, until we re-spawned.

"Well, that sucked!" I said.

"Baka! I told you so!" Scorned Argo.