I set the colourful, frivolous looking bouquet of flowers upon the black stone and took a solemn step backwards. A small serene smile rose to my face at the sight of a second bouquet of flowers already there. I wondered how Red was surviving, and how she was keeping up with Crystal's antics. They had been gone for thirteen days now. Today would be Red's last full day as an orange player. After she slept through tonight, she would wake up free tomorrow. Although part of me felt foolish for holding what was probably a one-sided emotion, I couldn't wait to see Red again.

I supposed it would be nice to see Crystal too.

With a dull shake of my head, I said some parting words to the large memorial stone, a few more private words for Daniel's ears only, and then left to begin my day.

My feet resounded loudly upon the solid cobble ground, and so I was surprised when I heard a faint, unsettling echo to my footsteps that weren't mine. With Perilous's threat still heavily induced in my mind, I was far more nervous and my movements more jumpy that normal. Without thinking of the consequences I whipped myself around, my Legion Broadsword already in my hands, twirling it's way toward the unidentified footsteps.

I was shocked to discover a middle aged man who looked to be in his forties standing behind me. I was even more shocked when he blocked my powerful swing with the butt of his half drawn weapon.

"My my, quite jumpy in the wee hours of the morning, aren't we, little one?" The old man said, clearly ignoring the fact that compared to me he was the one who was really quite little. He wore a vibrant red cape that ran stoically down his shoulders to his ankles, which contrasted powerfully with his gold tinted, steel armour. It wasn't the heaviest stuff that you could buy in the market, but he wasn't wearing any of those wimpy looking chainmail shirts. It was solid steel he had upon him. He wore a gold clasp around his neck that screamed nobility, but seemed to suit his wizened face.

White, slightly graying facial hair covered his chin and cheeks, and the soft wrinkles at the edge of his eyes truly showed his age. I upped my original estimate. He was at least fifty. He had gray, thinning hair that he appeared to be growing long and made its way down to his ears and the nape of his neck. On any other person the look may have made them look grandfatherly and gentle, but on this particular face, with the hooked nose, and sharp, unrelenting blue eyes, the man portrayed an incredibly strict persona.

Perhaps he used to be in the military. Maybe he was born into the upper echelons of society and was used to a strict life style of ordering others. When I looked at him, donned in steel armour and a long sword at his side, he seemed like a man of regality. If I were to give him a title, I would proclaim his as King, and with that hard, unrelenting gaze, he would be able to rule a country.

But there were no countries to rule, only floors upon floors of hostile lands and vicious monsters. Kings had no part in the world of SAO, or so I thought.

The man gave a loud cough, and I realized I had been caught staring. I recovered myself, and held out a firm hand. "A pleasure to meet you, the name's Sirius," I said, and noticed with some satisfaction that the elder man did not wince when he recognized my name. My title held its own kind of weight in this world, and to find player's who were not influenced by such a petty thing was unusual.

He grasped my hand in his own, and his fingers curled into a tight, dominating handshake. I was sure that if the SAO strength systems weren't defining our power, his handshake would have been bone crushing.

"A kid who knows his manners, not every day you see one of them," the man said, sounding surprised before letting go of the handshake. "The name's Arthur, or at least that's my avatar name."

"Well, it's been nice to meet you, but I must get going-"

"Wait right there, lad," he interrupted boldly, "I didn't wake up this early in the wee morning and walk this distance just to watch you sod off after meeting you."

"You mean you've been looking for me. But a moment ago you didn't even know who I was?"

"No, I knew exactly who you were laddie. Everyone who's got a decent head on their shoulders remembers exactly what you look like. I was just surprised you admitted to being the player named Sirius so simply. Things like that won't help your little poster campaign."

I blinked slowly, trying to change my impression of this old man. He was definitely something more than I'd first imagined.

"Alright then, you seem to know about me, so I'm going to drop the act. What do you want from me, Old Man?" I said, all trace of pleasantry gone from my voice. He gave a soft chuckle at my abrupt change in tone.

"Now that's the Sirius I was looking for, the kind of lad who doesn't take shit from anyone. Excellent, you just might do," Arthur said cryptically.

"Listen, I don't know what you're talking about," I said, irritation colouring my voice.

"But I do, and that's the best situation to be in," Arthur said, and I found the graying man irritating to no ends, perhaps more so than Perilous. He continued to talk to me however, ignoring my irritation.

"But you're just like me. You like answers, not questions. I can't tell you everything yet, but when you're ready to fight back, send me a message, and I'll give you the tools to do so," Arthur said, while sending a friend request to me.

I hesitated before accepting this mysterious request from this mysterious man. "Who am I supposed to be fighting back against? And I won't let you use me as your puppet."

"Oh, and don't I know it. You are your own man, or something like that, correct? Don't worry, I won't force you into anything you don't want to do. I think you'll find our interests will be rather… parallel in the near future." The old man seemed to know far too much about me for my liking, and it was causing me to edge closer to the decline button on my screen.

"There are no promises attached to that request by the way. Nothing you have to do or prove to me. Just, when you're ready to fight back, you'll need a means to contact me."

My finger hovered above the decline button, not moving. "No promises, no strings attached?" I asked.

He gave a short chuckle. "You're no string puppet, laddie," he said, and that cryptic response was enough for me to press down on the holographic accept option. I gave a short groan.

"I hope I know what I'm doing," I muttered to myself.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll know exactly what you'll be doing in no time at all," Arthur said cheerfully. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have terribly important business to attend to," and with a polite tip of his head, the graying man disappeared down a side alley.

"He sounds like a bloody wanker, that he does," Thrash said bluntly, as he slammed his heavy war hammer into a scampering Fierce Leopard. The African plains on the eighth floor differed from that of the seventh floor by the amount of seemingly normal animals that were in fact genetically enhanced improvements of the Earth like creatures. There were no Dragons or Boboa Pixies, just enraged safari animals. The leopards were ferocious and battle-versed, relying on more than just primal instincts during a fight.

Despite this, a single solid connecting slash from by broadsword was enough to defeat the wild animal. The other members of the party I was with had far more trouble however, but they were beginning to work beautifully as a team, and any serious problems they might once have had were quickly being solved. Since last night and the groups revelation, Prince had become far more determined in his efforts, and his friends were nothing less then relieved to have their old friend back.

"I know he sounds like a wanker, but he seemed to know some important stuff. I couldn't just turn him down," I argued.

"Well, as long as you don't suddenly begin working for him or something. That would be you downfall," Burger said, to which I snorted. Like that was going to bloody happen any time soon. Someone would have to die first.

Burger and Thrash teamed up together to dispose of their Leopard, and after a few tense minutes the battle was finally decided. Thrash gave a small cheer and after announcing he had levelled up the party went crazy in celebration. I sighed, the joys of being young were lost on me. That thought was rather ironic, considering I was still just eighteen.

They were cheering loudly when I spotted the first warning of trouble. A tight knit group of players seemed to be watching us from afar. It usually wouldn't have alarmed me, but I could tell that they sported high-levelled equipment. Those players were Serious.

I was just over thinking it, I told myself. There's no way Ricochet would send a hunting party after me just for training with the Living. Those Serious were probably being forced to train next to the Living anyway, because when the best training spots were already taken, so they had no choice but to share. I pushed the warning thought out of my mind and continued my training.

The next warning came through the eyes of Goldor, who fluttered down to my shoulder while I was in mid fight with a leopard and began squawking quietly into my ear. No, something was definitely not right. Goldor was warning me of players hiding nearby. Was it the same players, or simply just a coincidence?

I looked at the party of six who were levelling up and fighting so joyfully. Thrash and Burger were together, Prince and Whisker in another party, and Jaxx and his long time crush Iris in the last party. They were laughing and fighting at the same time, and I couldn't bring myself to break up their session. Besides, whatever was coming, I could deal with it. In this world I was more or less unstoppable.

They say somewhere that three is the magic number. I never really believed in that, but I did believe that three is an important psychological number for humans. It's a recurring number in countless situations. A countdown for a race, the amount of sizes (small, medium, large), the amount of wishes a genie grants. Three is indeed a strange number, and although it may not be magical, it is definitely a catalyst for a multitude of events.

It is for that reason that by the time I discovered the third warning of danger events were already spiralling uncontrollably into motion. I saw a flash of steel behind a tall African acacia tree on the clearing opposite me, close to where Prince and Whisker fought. With a quick glance to the right I discovered a bright red figure snaking forwards through the wild grass, and I realized the implications. We were being surrounded.

"Party, together! Jaxx, Prince, Burger, come in. Now!" I shouted as I ran to the middle of the three groups. They looked confused, but had been with me long enough not to disobey a direct order, and they scrambled towards me, leaving half defeated monsters in their midst.

"What's wrong?" Burger asked, worry layering his voice. He knew me well by now, and he recognized the tone of panic in my words.

"Weapons out, backs to each other, make a defensive circle," I ordered quietly, my eyes focused on a snaking black figure in the wild grass.

"Sirius, what's wrong?" Thrash asked, but it was Prince that answered.

"Enemies," he said, and he hissed as he began to process what was going on. "Why are they here Sirius?" He asked.

"I don't know, but they're here for me, not for you. You guys need to escape at the first possible moment." I saw Jaxx open his mouth to complain, but I interrupted him. "That's an order." The group was quiet as the severity of the situation revealed itself to them.

Finally, I could stand waiting no longer, so I called out loudly. "Come out sneaks, we know you're there," I shouted loudly, and to my surprise, a figure stood up in front of me. From the surrounding gasps around me, I deduced that a few other figures had also revealed themselves.

"You're Serious?" I asked. It was an honest question, as the players face was not familiar to me.

"Of course. Of course you recognize me," the player said proudly, but when he discovered the blank look on my face he became angry. "I was there yesterday when Ricochet warned you. We all were, and now we've come to carry out the threat."

"You mean to say Ricochet ordered you to punish me because I'm helping the Living?" I asked. This kind of action was really not Ricochet's kind of thinking. I wondered just how corrupt he had become.

The Serious in front of me laughed, his steel, two handed war axe shaking slightly in his hand. "Not exactly. He didn't order us, but we're taking the initiative. It was only a matter of time until things would grow out of control with you. Share the resources, what kind of stupid thinking is that. We need the resources. We need to become the heroes."

"What kind of thinking is that! It's like a dictator's line of thought. Has power blinded you that much," I said, sorrow in my voice as I recognized what authority and power had done to this once possibly innocent person.

"I'm not blind," he shouted loudly, before reigning control over himself. "Besides, Ricochet's a fool too, in his own way. No this isn't just to threaten you, this is so we can join the ranks of Perilous. Once he hears that we helped him by carrying out his threat to you, which we all know about because we heard you crying about it to Ricochet in the great hall yesterday, Perilous will welcome us with open arms."

I was a fool. I had never thought that the Serious could become this corrupt. Perhaps Ricochet wasn't this far gone, but these players definitely were. I had to get this party of teenagers beside me to safety. They were caught up in the wrong kind of business here.

"Fine, I'll do what ever you want, but let these players go. They have no role in this argument," I said, praying that this simple plea would work.

"No role? No role!" the Serious player began laughing hysterically. "They're the main role of this whole thing. Their sacrifice will become your suffering Sirius!"

And with that he leapt at me, his giant war axe swinging down upon me in his two hands. I dodged nimbly to the side, and spun 180 degrees to narrowly avoid the follow up strike. Now that the positions had been reversed, and I was facing the opposite direction, I could see the rest of my party and the horror that was unfolding.

There were three other Serious with the war axe wielding leader, and they were tearing into my friends. I launched a powerful Vertical Crush at the leader Serious in front of me, momentarily stunning him but drawing limited damage, and rushed over to aid my friends. I activated Sword Play and parried another of the Serious back a meter, drawing health from this player. I was about to continue my assault when I heard a scream of help from behind, a scream that had come from Whisker.

I turned and flew myself at the attacker, but was forced to stop short as a war axe landed in my path. I slashed out at the weapon and the powerful strike disarmed the player, but his goal had been served. I had been sufficiently distracted for several seconds and I was now forced to watch as a Serious with a nodachi severed Thrash's head from his body as the small stocky man stood protectively in front of Whisker.

I screamed in rage and rushed the man with a Ghost Strike before he could finish off Whisker. The two-chain sword skill slammed him backwards several meters onto his ass, and cut off more than half his health. But I was distracted once again, and as I turned around to face the next opponent I saw the fourth Serious raise his claymore and sever Burger from shoulder to toe. I felt sick as I watched one of my best friend's body shatter into polygons, and then I felt even sicker as I imagined his brain being fried by microwaves in the other world.

It was all too much and I lost control of my emotions. I made a sudden move at the fourth Serious who was recovering from his sword skill and dropped the most powerful Vertical Crush I could land on him. It was a clean hit, and his health dropped to red, but he remained alive. I was about to fix that mistake until I was forced to drop and roll out of the way of a war axe. The leader had retrieved his weapon and was once again distracting me.

I screamed at Jaxx to warn him of the incoming nodachi, but I wasn't there in time to help him. The leader had been joined by one of his comrades, and the two were successfully holding me at bay as I watched the scene unfurl. Suddenly Whisker, in an attempt to protect Jaxx, launched himself at the nodachi wielder, who was in critical health due to my sword skill, and knocked the Serious over to the ground. Whisker then repeated to stab the man in the face with his short sword over and over until the Serious shattered from existence. Before I could celebrate our victory however a claymore was pierced into Whisker's heart from behind, pinning him to the ground. The last sound he made was a cry of agony before his body could be seen no more.

I activated Horizontal Bolt, but both distracting players defended the attack perfectly. They were Serious after all, and they had far more battle experience than any monster I had fought in the field, but god was it irritating. I felt powerless against them. I watched as Jaxx and Prince parried off against the injured claymore wielder and appeared to hold their ground. Finally, Jaxx managed to break through the Serious's defence and rip his insides to shreds. The Serious died with an honest look of surprise on his face. He had not expected to be bested by a Living.

But the victory was short lived, as the leader activated a rather devastating war axe sword skill that force me to flip backwards and lose several precious meters from my remaining friends. The other Serious, who had been distracting me, dashed over to the now unprotected Iris who screamed in absolute horror as she watched her inevitable death flash before her eyes.

Suddenly Jaxx, the boy who'd had a crush on Iris since the day he'd met her, and to this very day still held the same crush, pushed his beloved's motionless body out of the way of the incoming blade. Iris watched in horror as the Serious's long sword impaled Whisker through the chest, directly through his heart. Perhaps Whisker managed to whisper a word or two to Iris before he disappeared in a sorrowful twinkle of lights, but it had not been enough time. Whisker would never be able to express to Iris what he'd felt all those years. Whisker was dead, in this world, and the other world.

Iris went mad. Her eyes, usually calm and collected, now burnt with lighting and crackled in pain. She gripped her spear and began connecting a chain of sword skills mixed with a flurry of her own, rapid stabs. The Serious in combat had already had his health batted away by me earlier in one, clean Vertical Strike, so it was only a matter of time until he fell beneath the furious onslaught and his body was demolished.

While that was occurring, Prince had assaulted the leader, the Serious who was at least five whole levels higher then him, and fought him in a one on one duel. There were no unfair health advantages. The war axe wielder had lost only a minute fraction of health from my sole sword skill. In any other situation, Prince should have been doomed to lose.

But he wasn't losing. His eyes were flashing fire, and his normally mundane hair was whipping behind him in a mane of fury. His response times and reflexes were off the charts. In one clear slash, he actually feinted at three different instants, causing the Serious's battle composure to collapse in confusion from the overpowering technique.

Prince's sword hand was a blur, and I could tell that he was forcing the limits of SAO. He was reaching the point where the system couldn't transfer the messages from his brain and transcribe them to the game in time. He was moving too fast, thinking too fast, acting too fast. Everything was a blur, constructed from computer generated lag. Prince was a monster.

The Serious didn't stand a chance, despite the overwhelming level difference. Prince's sword cut constantly and deeply between the gaps in his opponents armour, and the Serious' health bar was dripping into non-existence.

With one final yell that contained all Prince's emotions; revenge, pain, regret, anger, he brought his sword down directly into the heart of the Serious, who looked at the furious boy in front of him. The murderer's only expression was that of fear, before disappearing from this world forever.

It was over. The gruesome battle that took the lives of eight players, four of them the lives of my friends, was over as quickly as it began. There was nothing around us to pay homage to the massacre other than the eight, glowing, tombstone-significant lights. There were no blood sprays. No dead bodies slumped over each other in attempts to protect one another. In a few minutes a player could walk by this exact location and not even be able to detect if a battle had occured or not.

The feeling that remained behind was one of emptiness. There was no victory in our battle. No happy cheers and raucous laughing. No poking fun at Jaxx's cute, childish crush on a high school girl. It was gone. All gone. Forever.

Prince dropped his weapon to the ground and screamed at the heavens. Tears ran down his face as he brought his hands to his opposite arms and tried to tear the flesh off his skin. The system wouldn't allow it but he tried anyway. He screamed in agony at losing his friends. He'd only just learnt the night before that they had never been angry at him for his actions that caused them to be trapped in SAO. He had finally had his friends back, and now the game he had trapped them in had once again taken them away from him, this time permanently.

Iris collapsed to the ground, her knee's colliding with the grass with a loud, painful thump, and she began to crawl her way to Prince's shaking body. She wrapped her arms around Prince's thin frame and held him. She didn't cry, but her face held something worse than tears. Her face showed defeat. She may not cry now, but tonight, and for many nights later, she would cry herself to sleep, remembering what she had lost. Her face was blank, a look of nothing, a look of complete and utter defeat.

Then there was me. I didn't have any tears to spare for the friends I had lost. The tears would come later when I truly needed them. For now though, I had a purpose, a violent purpose. I would avenge my friends in the only way I knew how.

With that thought in my mind I methodically got to work looting the bodies of the fallen. Yes, I even looted the bodies of my friends. It felt disgusting, it felt horribly wrong, but it had to be done. I could almost hear Burger in my mind telling me that the equipment here wasn't going to help us if we let it disappear.

I swallowed painfully, the lump in my throat not receding. I wouldn't cry. I couldn't cry yet. Goldor fell onto my shoulder miserably and I felt his body wrack softly in sorrow. If dragons could cry, then this little dragon was pouring its heart out.

After I had looted the last glowing tomb marker I walked quietly over to Prince, who was still shaking, his body flayed on the ground. He looked up at me, his eyes searching mine, desperately looking for an answer, a way to fix everything, but there wasn't one. There wasn't a gimmick, a trick, or an item that would save everyone and return everything back to normal.

I held out a hand, the only comfort I could offer, and Prince reluctantly placed his flimsy wrist within it. With a solid pull I lifted Prince off the ground, Iris rising up with him, still clinging to him for support. No, there was no such thing as going back to normal anymore. Jaxx, Burger, Thrash and Whisker were dead.

We began the long, slow march back to the safe zone of the nearest city. Our steps were heavy, as if they were weighed down with the burdens of the dead. Our mouths were quiet and lips were silent, as words seemed pitifully empty.

Were we marching away from death, or towards it? Maybe death simply surrounded us, and no matter which way we fled, it would eventually find us.

I lay the colourful, frivolous looking bouquet of flowers upon the black stone and solemnly stepped backwards. No smile rose to my face this time. No happy memories flooded to the surface of my mind. Only moving pictures of my friends losing their lives as I helplessly stood and watched ran through my mind.

I turned around and discovered a middle-aged man with graying hair watching me sadly. He walked up to the black stone and placed a single, white lily to add to the measly collection of flowers already there.

"I am sorry for your loss," Arthur said quietly, and I could here the sincerity in his voice. I knew that I could trust him, and I knew that if it allowed me revenge, then I would trust him with my life, and I would follow him.

"I'm ready to fight back against it," I said to him softly, and he looked at me seriously through his wrinkled eyes.

"Are you sure, lad?" he asked, but he knew the answer. He was the one who had set me up for the answer.

"I'm ready to fight against Ricochet."

*Insert tears here (hopefully)* a rather painful chapter to write, hopefully, in terms of writing skills, the chapter was also painful to read.

This should begin to kickstart some more interesting events. So, remain tagging along. Unless of course you only just got tagged, and in that case, hope you're enjoying.

Cheers

-Council