[Draft Saved: 03/03/31]

Dear Kirito,

Ever since I first met you, my life has been like one long, never-ending dream. It has been the best years of my life, and I will never forget that. I will never forget you. But the last two years… that dream has turned into a nightmare I can never forget. The world has become so complicated, and as it has, so have we, and as we have, I have become more and more conflicted. It was me though, and I want you to know that. I'm the one who doubted you, and as a result, I started us down this path—the path that leads to our end.

I am writing to you to tell you that I have made my decision. If I were to drag this out any longer, I fear it would destroy you, and I don't wish to see that happen. I want to be happy, but I want you to be happy too. Since I cannot, at this point, be happy with you, I feel that the time has come to go our separate ways. I am in love with someone else, and as I have grown more attached to him, I feel my love for you fading. As it does… I feel like I'm waking up from the dream and the nightmare, and I'm coming back to the real world. In the real world, I see my future with Eulsam, and not with you.

I already told him how I feel. I told him that when the game ends, I want to get married. We'll have children of our own someday, too, I bet. The two of us… We will still have our daughter, Yuichi, and I won't try to keep her from you. I hope, for her sake, we can be civil about this, and that we can be friends after this.

I hope you can someday find love again,

(I'm so sorry…)

—Asuna.

September 27th, 2029

Asuna and Kirito were together in Eastown in the first year of the game, almost exactly ten months into the first year of the game. Asuna laid on a bed while Kirito sat with her, and night had fallen. Asuna shook a little, and breathed heavily, and Kirito held her hand. In the real world, Asuna was being moved through the hospital, and her mother, Kyouko, walked with her as the hospital staff moved her. She used her phone to access Pegasus, and sent a message to Kirito.

Kirito looked at his player menu and accessed the message. Asuna looked over to it, and could see it was from Pegasus. "What's it say?" Asuna asked.

"It says your body had some kind of negative reaction to the anesthetics," Kirito said. "And that's probably why you feel cold and jittery."

"So what's going to happen?"

"They're asking me to ask you to choose between a couple options. Option one," Kirito said. "They overload the Full Dive sensory reduction components, and try to use it to stop the pain. But it's risky… they're saying that it could cause nerve damage, and could possibly severely damage the connection between your brain and the rest of your body."

Asuna looked up at him and shook her head. "I don't understand what that means, Kirito…"

"It means that…" Kirito shook his head. "It says that it means you'll lose control of your body, and if you wake up, you'll be conscious inside of a body that cannot move, or even breathe. You'll be hooked up to medical machinery for the rest of your life."

Asuna shook her head. "Doesn't sound like a good way to go. What's option two?"

"They give you nothing for the pain," Kirito said. "And… you'll just have to bare through it all. It won't be an issue in the real world because you can't control your body right now, but you'll still feel all of it, and it will be… well I can imagine it sounds awful."

Asuna groaned, and shook her head. "How can you be so calm about this?"

Kirito took a deep breath. "You told me that you wanted me to be calm and help you through this, no matter what happened. It's not easy…"

"It's just pain…" Asuna said. "It's just pain, right? It's not worth the risk, I can do this… Couldn't we just have me knocked out in-game?"

"That wouldn't matter," Kirito said. "That would stop pain from this world, but not the real one."

"Do it," she said to Kirito, but she was talking to the camera. "I'm in a safe place right now. I'll get through it… I have you by my side, Kirito…" At that, Asuna smiled, and gripped Kirito's hand tightly. "Would it make a difference to opt for a natural birth now?"

After a few moments, Kirito read the next message. "It wouldn't. It would be less painful, but not by much, and it'd take much longer. Your mother says she has the best surgeon for the job. The main part of the job will be done in ten minutes, and the aftercare in thirty to forty. The ten minutes will be the worst though. They say the pain will still linger on for a day or two, but after about two hours, it will be much easier on you."

"I love you…" she said. Kirito smiled, and the two leaned in to one another for a very quick kiss, and then Asuna laid back down.

"They're going to wait for about twenty minutes to make sure the medicine they gave you doesn't have any other unexpected side-effects."

It was twenty-two minutes later that something complicated things in the game world. A small splinter faction of Red-Handed had tracked down the two of them to Eastown, and plotted a revenge mission to kill them. And it was then that Eastown fell under attack. It was meant to be a very quick mission, considering the fact that Eastown at this point was a fortified VPG outpost as well as a player town.

When the attack came, the bells rang out in alert, and Kirito got up to look out of the window only briefly to see what was happening. He was quickly pulled back to Asuna however as she let out a cry of pain. Kirito got the message from Pegasus, letting him know that they just began their operation. He closed the open windows and covered them with curtains. "It's nothing," he lied to her as he sat with her again and held her hand while she writhed.

Meanwhile, the small assassination squad went into one of the two inns in the town, and made their way to the room that intelligence indicated they would find Kirito and Asuna. When they charged through the door though, they found no one there. "Where are they?" the leader asked. "This is wrong. Our intel indicated they were right here! You!" he shouted to one of his allies. "Go check the other inn. The rest of you, check every room in this place. When you're done, get the hell out of here!"

They all nodded and started going. Fortunately for Kirito and Asuna, they had left their former room, which was much larger, so that a player group could use it just two nights ago. That group had since left, but Kirito and Asuna were still in a smaller room, in the other inn.

One of the Red-Handed charged into the door to find Kirito and Asuna. Kirito drew his swords, and turned towards the invader. The man took a half-step back, planning on going to alert his allies, when Kirito threw down his swords, and dropped to his knees. "Please," he said. The man, whose gamer tag read Ryun, stopped. "Normally, I would chase you down, and kill you, but there's a chance you would bring your friends to me. I don't doubt I could take you all on, but I cannot risk it."

"What?" Ryun asked.

Kirito pointed to Asuna, who was screaming in pain on the bed. "Look at her vitals. She's not taken damage and has no buffs. She is in pain because in the real world, she is giving birth to our child. I know it's your thing to kill players, but please… just once… walk away."

Ryun didn't know what to do. He looked between the two of them, and shook his head. "Once…" he muttered before turning and running. Kirito heard him once he got outside and met up with his buddied. "They're not here," he said. And that was the end of it.

March 4th, 2031

"Ryun!" a man shouted. A small group of players who were members of the Order of the Red Hand were in the desert after the shattering. "Ryun, are you okay?"

Ryun stood up slowly, and shook his head. He looked up from a small outlook halfway down a huge cliff. At the bottom of the cliff there was a canyon filled with lava, and at the top, in the ashen sky, sand flew over the ridge, and a man shouted down at him from it. "I'm okay," he said. He wiped his nose, bloody, and noted his health bar was slowly recovering from what appeared to be a terrible fall. He was thrown a rope, and climbed up to the sands above.

The group there was moderate in size, consisting of ten Red Hand and six other players—slaves. "What the hell happened?" Ryun asked.

"The end of the world, it looks like."

Ryun pointed at the slave players. "The whole virtual world is coming to an end and you worry about rallying up slaves?"

"Should I not have?"

"No…" Ryun said. "Have you contacted headquarters?"

"Yes. They took a pretty big hit. They're still trying to figure out how many we lost, but they haven't been able to contact a single member of the fleet, and only a handful of the army have responded. We lost a lot of people last night."

"And our whole town," Ryun looked around. There was one half of a building standing at the very edge of the cliff, the other half having apparently fallen down into the gorge. "We need to get to the ocean and return to base…"

"Whatever you say, sir," the man said. "But uhh, hey, listen. One of our scouts reported some high value targets west of here. They're on their way to Newberg. Should we plan on getting them first?"

"Yeah," Ryun said. He then turned to the six players who were not in their guild. "You…" He approached them, and drew a special, ritual dagger from his inventory. "We don't have the time or energy to waste on you anymore. You've got two choices: join us… or die." Of the six, only one got up, and approached Ryun. It was a woman, and she held out her hands to him, which were bound by rope. Ryun handed the dagger to her. "Do you know any of them?" he asked.

She nodded, pointing the knife towards one of the male slaves.

"What's the story," Ryun asked her.

To which she responded, "He raped my friend when he got drunk one night. They were together, and she killed herself afterwards."

"Revenge," Ryun said. "…they say, is a dish best served cold." Ryun looked over to the canyon. "Of course… I don't have any issue with incredibly hot, personally. Will he suffer?"

She nodded, and approached the man slowly, still unsure of herself. The man she approached looked up, and then back down. After what he had just been through, he accepted death. The woman stabbed him in the gut, and when she did, his blood seemed to crawl from the dagger to her hand, dying it red. Once that was done, and he was groaning in pain, she pulled him to the edge of the cliff, and threw him down. He didn't even resist.

March 5th, 2031

Kirito's group traveled by foot now, and headed from where they were in the desert towards the Ring Forest. It was not very far away. As they walked, Kirito stood behind and off to the side of the false Asuna, who had her hands bound by rope, and was being led on by a horse. "So," he said. "After you married Sugou, I took out my anger and frustration on Laughing Coffin, and actually helped Seijiro learn that they were planning another death game."

"Yes," she said, looking around, and at the ropes. "Are you sure this is safe?"

Kirito shook his head. "Honestly, I'm not sure at all. You're the same class and level as Asuna in our timeline, and after I saw her fight the fake Kirito, I'm convinced she could easily kill me if she wanted to. How long did I last in your timeline, with you hunting me down?"

"A long time," the fake Asuna said. "You're pretty resourceful. I had only just finished my mission when I found myself in your timeline. Plus, I can keep myself from looking for you, just not from attacking you."

"You're not attacking me now, though."

"Let's just say… the reach of my spear with my hands bound is about four or five feet. And based on how far your footsteps are from me, you're at least seven feet away. Any attack I could try now wouldn't work. I could throw my spear, but then I'd lose it."

"Asuna," Kirito said, looking to the real Asuna. "You left her armed?"

"Something weird happened when we tried to trade weapons," Asuna said. "It flat out couldn't be done. An error came up that read 'Paradox: weapon cannot be traded because of an object ID corruption."

"Interesting. Can't she delete them?"

"No," the fake Asuna said. "I can't force myself to delete them because I know that doing so would hinder my ability to kill you."

"But you let yourself be tied up with rope?" Kirito asked, confused.

"You gave me an extra weapon actually," she said. "I can think of at least fifty strategies for executing you with this. Most of which would be a surprise attack. It's also not difficult to cut through the rope, and if you take your eyes off of me, I'll probably pull a knife from my inventory to do so. The element of surprise was always an essential factor of my strategies in killing you."

"How come you're able to tell us all of this?"

"The Laughing Coffin weren't exactly experts in the field of mind control. My speech was an issue they neglected. If I couldn't control what I said, I would have killed you when I first arrived here."

"But you gave me a warning… If I didn't hear you coming, I'd be dead…"

"Where do I come in in your timeline, Asuna?" Leafa asked.

Asuna shook her head. "You don't. I never saw you once, but the Kirito in my world mentioned something once about a close relative who passed away in a car crash not long before SAO."

Leafa blinked, and took a deep breath. "The Kirito in your timeline suffered quite a bit…" she said. "I suppose if Kirito hadn't met me in Alfheim, he would have continued to try and fight without help. He might not have even made it to the world tree."

"This is helpful," Sampson said. "The more I think about this alternate timeline stuff, the more I'm realizing how it all works."

"Huh?" Kirito looked over to Sampson.

"It's quite a marvelous prediction engine," Sampson said. "I've heard rumors about AI's being made in the real world which could make nearly one-hundred-percent accurate predictions of major events in the future. If you take that same AI and use it to generate a 'what-if' scenario, where you alter a past event, it could map out an entire timeline of events and how they would most likely be changed."

"Like a butterfly effect?" Sinon asked.

"Exactly," Sampson said.

"With that in mind, we might be able to muse about what has changed in the timelines of the rest of our alternate reality clones." Sampson rubbed his chin. "It could be important in discerning their motivation. The key event that changed in alternate Asuna's timeline seems to be Leafa's death before SAO."

"The alternate Kirito seemed obsessed with me," Asuna said. "Obsessed with killing me, but it wasn't something like the other Asuna's timeline. He seemed to actually want me dead for some reason."

"He also wielded swords made from the bones of Wrath and Ruin," Kirito said. "And his level was extraordinarily high. And there was something vaguely familiar about that red glow he had."

Lisbeth blinked, and pulled Kirito to a stop before activating her Paladin mode, glowing bright red. "Like this, right?" she asked.

Kirito nodded, and Lisbeth deactivated her super state. "I didn't make that connection. He must have ascended to a boss class… a… Dragon Swordsman."

"I got a message!" the alternate Asuna said. The group stopped, and Asuna, hands still bound, opened it up and read it aloud. "It's from GothGod… 'Glad to see you're still alive, Asuna. Since you are, I have a proposition to you, to all of the alternate reality players I summoned in. At the moment, the cursor above your heads appears gray, but I have programmed you to have this ability. If you successfully kill your counterpart from this timeline, you will take their place. Your player cursor will turn green after fifteen days, and if I decide to end this game, you will wake up in their bodies and gain a real life. Good luck!"

"This… complicates things," Kirito said. "Now those other… us's will be gunning for us."

"Asuna," Asuna said to her fake. "Do you want to kill me now, knowing that?"

She shook her head. "No… my mission to kill Kirito isn't based on any in-game effects. If I wake up in the real world, in your body, I will still want to kill him. There's no escaping this fate, sadly, not until my mission is complete. If I believe Kirito is alive, then I will try to kill him. There'd be no point in me waking up in the real world… You don't have to worry about me killing you."

Kirito had resumed walking forward without thinking, and the next moment, the fake Asuna had turned and wrapped his neck in the rope, and was trying to choke him to death. "I'm so sorry!" she shouted as it happened. The rest of his friends went immediately to pull her off of him so he could go free. She fought, but after a while, he was too far away once more, and she stopped fighting. "I'm so so sorry!"

"It's okay," Kirito said, feeling his neck and recovering his breath. "I know you can't control it…"

"You're just like my Kirito," the false Asuna said. "Always forgiving no matter the circumstances. 'We'll figure this out,' he always used to tell me. You lack the same conviction he had though…"

"What do you mean?" Kirito asked.

The false Asuna looked between the real one and Kirito. "Once Sugou died, my mind started fixing itself. And despite everything, which is to say, despite me always trying to kill Kirito, we stayed in love. But I can sense something has gone terribly wrong between you two. It's just in the way you walk and talk… you don't treat each other any more special than the rest of your friends… From the outside looking in, one could confuse this for the alternate timeline… some horror story where you never fell in love." Kirito and Asuna both looked at her as she spoke, and felt a slight shiver fill their hearts.

Kirito moved on to the head of the party without saying anything further, and just before he walked into the official boundary of the Ring Forest, a huge wall of dark, purple energy shot up from it, right in front of his nose. The sweat dripped from his brow, and he took two steps backwards before collapsing and breathing heavily. The whole forest seemed to be covered, and after a few moments, the blast vanished.

"What… was that?" Lisbeth asked. Suddenly, everyone got a message from Eulsam, sent as a distress call. The message was extremely vague however, saying only that the players were needed in Newberg.

The next message came from Pegasus, and it was sent as an urgent alert to all players. "Stay out of the Kingdom of Newberg! Something has happened to the players there, and any calls for help to go to the city should be considered a trap! Again, DO NOT GO TO NEWBERG."

Kirito and the others decided that they would have to go to Newberg anyways. The only way they knew how to end this was by slaying the Black Prophet. As they traveled through the Ring Forest, Ryun and his crew caught up to their targets, and when they were in their sights, they circled around the group to meet them at their front side.

Sinon was the first to notice them, and as she drew an arrow, the rest of the players prepared to fight. Ryun approached the group, and had a pair of Black Steel Daggers drawn. "After all that's happened," Kirito said. "You player killers still have it out for us?"

"Of course we do," Ryun's second in command said. "We still owe you one for… everything."

Ryun saw Kirito and Asuna, and then another Asuna. That had him guessing but as he looked at them, he remembered seeing them before in the inn in Eastown over a year ago. He felt a strange feeling in his gut coming back. He remembered the situation, and that he let them go. "Wait," he said to his ally. "I remember these two…"

Kirito and Asuna didn't recognize him back. They looked at each other, and then back to Ryun. "I was in a group sent to kill them… over a year ago."

"Then let's finished what you started," the other man said as he charged. Ryun acted quickly, and slashed the attacker's throat before he got close. The man fell to the ground, and choked as his health drained from the bleed out effect.

"I said… wait!" Ryun shouted. The rest of his group looked at him. He seemed to be lost in thought.

"I do remember you," Kirito suddenly said. "You were the one who approached us when Asuna was giving birth… I convinced you not to kill us then. Do you think I could convince you again?"

"You let Kirito and Asuna live?" another member of the guild asked. "You… you're a traitor!"

"Shut up!" Ryun said. "I'm thinking…"

"I have to report you to the commander," that player said as she opened her inventory. Ryun turned and charged on her, attacking her and stopping the message. Kirito and the others figured that that was their queue, and all attacked the Red Hand. It was a quick battle, and once it was finished, only Ryun and the former slave girl were left alive.

"So," Kirito said as he looked down at Ryun, who had taken a seat on the ground. "What are you thinking about?"

"Kirito," Klein said. "He's still a player killer. He doesn't deserve to live…"

Ryun stood up, and shook his head. "I guess… you're right. I've killed many, and suffered more. You have the right to kill me if you want to, that would be justified. But, something happened when I met you two in that room. I began to doubt myself, and I forced myself to forget for the longest time. Seeing you again, here, all I could think was that you two would never see your child. Your child would never see you. It's the same reason I couldn't carry out my plan when I met you the first time…"

"Well, good for you," Leafa said. "How many other people did you kill? Were any of them mothers or fathers? Children? Brothers, sisters? You never once thought about that before?"

Ryun shook his head. "Red-Handed has a way of making players ignore these types of things."

"What's her story?" Sinon asked, looking to the other surviving member of Ryun's party, who refused to fight in the battle.

"She was converted hours ago," Ryun explained. "We had only six slaves left, and couldn't take them with us, so we made them the offer to join us or die. She killed a rapist among the other slaves to join our guild."

"I thought you had your prospective members kill innocent people when they joined," Kirito said.

"Or torture them, at least," Asuna added.

Ryun shook his head. "We employ a variety of entry methods. What's important to us is that the entering player is able to commit these things upon someone they know. Their exact relationship doesn't matter much to us, but the closer the better."

"We used to be friends," the woman said. "Until he raped a mutual friend of ours, and drove her to suicide. I wanted to forgive him for a long time, especially after we were both captured and tortured by the Red Hand. But finally, I decided to take my revenge on him."

"The Red Hand eventually breaks or kills everyone…" Ryun said. "I cannot hope to be redeemed for the blood I have shed, and the lives I have destroyed. I have nothing I can do to atone for my sins, but I ask that you accept my peace offering anyways."

"Not a chance," Klein said.

Kirito put his swords away. "Okay." The group looked at him, a little surprised. He looked back at the rest of his group. "I think enough players have died in the last twenty-four hours. We're dragging around someone with us who wants to kill me, and we're desperate. I don't have a problem with getting help from someone who isn't trying to kill us."

"Thank you," Ryun said. "I owe you my life…"

"You spared Asuna's," Kirito said. "You don't owe us anything, I owed you. But now know this. I don't like you. When we get out of this world, I'll hope you get locked away for the rest of your life."

"That's reasonable," Ryun said.

Kirito started moving forward again. "Now, let's keep moving. We need to find out what exactly happened to Newberg."

"We have our own horses," Ryun said. "We can ride, but… I heard you had flying mounts?"

Kirito pointed to the Asuna with her hands bound. "If we untie her, she's going to try and kill me."

"Kirito-kun," the false Asuna said. He looked over to her, and listened. "I'm dead weight… you should kill me now, before I get free and kill you first."

Ryun looked between the two, and nodded slowly. "I know I'm probably in no position to say this but… isn't she right?"

"Shut up," Kirito said. Ryun nodded, and turned away from the conversation. "We're not going to kill her. That's final."

"Hang on," the real Asuna said. "I think… I have an idea that just might work. Asuna." She turned to her double. "Do you have a pegasus?" The fake Asuna nodded. "Good… Kirito will go on ahead of us. Once he is out of sight, we'll send you off on your own way, and send you a message about when and where to meet up. Like you said… you'll only jump the chance to kill Kirito if you can actually see or hear him, simply knowing where he is isn't enough."

"Hai," Asuna said. Still, she had her doubts, and thought it over in her head. After a few moments, she nodded. "It's a sound plan, and it should work."

"I get it," Sampson said. "She's still just as much of an ally, and just as capable as the real Asuna… just so long as she and Kirito stay away from one-another."

"Precisely," Asuna said. "So the rest of you… go on ahead. I'll stay here with myself and once you're out of sight, I'll cut her free, and fly out to meet you."

March 7th, 2031

As the players entered the city of Newberg, things were very odd. Players stood around talking endlessly with each other, and those weren't talking were walking in circles around city blocks. Everyone was in a single, otherwise normal routine, on an endless loop. Kirito and the others tried not to look too closely at any of the players, not wanting to alarm them to their presence, hoping that they hadn't been noticed yet.

As they made their way to the central keep, one of the few buildings standing at a proper angle, they stopped. When they stopped, every player around them looked at them funny. At that, they shuddered and kept walking forward. When they did, those players went back to whatever it they were pretending to do.

When they arrived in the keep, they saw Eulsam standing next to what appeared to be a newly constructed throne, made from bones. On the throne sat their target, GothGod. "Come in, come in!" he said, getting up to greet the players. "I'm so glad you could all join us here…"

"What have you done with them?" Asuna asked. "With the players?"

"Oh, don't worry about that," GothGod said. I won't be able to cast that spell again, it was kind of a one-time deal. Although with administrator privileges, I could force it to work once more if I so desired. I don't think I'll be needing it again…"

"What spell?" Kirito asked.

"Mass mind control," GothGod said. "You need the brain of a god to cast it, and those are not easy to come by, let me tell you."

"What are you doing?" Asuna asked. "What's the point of all of this?"

"Well," the Black Prophet said as he took a seat on the arm of the throne. "Imagine what would happen, if I ended the game right now. Forced everyone to log out?" The players weren't following him. "The effects of the spell would linger on. Whatever command I give them here… will be followed in the real world."

"You'd have an army…" Lisbeth said. "But still… why?"

"I, like many people in this world, desire power above all else. And the power of my knowledge has been… well, maxed out. Now, I need people. I'm going to start a new age, my age, where everyone in both the real world and the virtual one, bows down to me."

"And then what?" Kirito asked. "You're insane. Where does it end?"

"I don't know," GothGod said. "I imagine it will be good for humanity in the long run. Once I have absolute control over Earth, I'll go out into the stars… To other universes. I'll have eternity to work out the details!"

"Eternity?" Asuna asked. "You really are insane. You won't be around long enough to see anything good come of this."

"Oh but I will. I have already done it. I am no longer attached to my mortal body in the real world. Here… in the virtual one, I have become God."

"More like the devil," Lisbeth said.

"We will stop you," Kirito said. "We won't give up until you're dead."

"Or until you're dead. I already showed you that you couldn't take me on. So what exactly was your plan, here, Kirito? You see, I'm not the one who isn't thinking straight. It's you who isn't thinking properly. Eulsam… order the VPG to kill our guests."

Eulsam opened his player menu, and sent out an order to all members of his guild. Guardsmen entered what had become the throne room, and they all drew weapons.

Kirito and the others drew their weapons, and looked around. "Kirito," Asuna said. "Are we going to kill them? They can't control their actions. They're our friends…"

"Well what are you waiting for?" GothGod asked. "Go on. Get them!" All of the guards charged in at once, and as Kirito and his group prepared to fight, they all found themselves suddenly outside of the city. Leafa had teleported them to safety.

"We need to get out of here," Leafa said. "Like… yesterday."

"I knew someone in Red Hand who knew how to break mind control spells," Ryun said as he started running south. "He's in our guild headquarters, and I trust him. He will help us!"

"Wait a minute!" Kirito shouted. "We can't go to your guild headquarters, are you crazy?"

Ryun stopped and turned back to them. "I know I don't have any reasons for you to, but I need you to trust me. You'll need allies, and I know where we can find them. I have a plan!"

The rest of the group mounted their horses, and Lisbeth unfurled her wings. Ryun hopped onto the back of Silica's pegasus, and the other Red Hand joined Sampson's.

"Where are we going?" Kirito shouted back as they started to fly.

"South," Ryun said. "We'll find a ship somewhere on the coast, and take it to Paradise City, our guild headquarters. Once we're on the ship… you won't like this part, but I'll invite you to join the Order of the Red Hand. It will raise questions, but it should keep people there from attacking you outright."

"We're joining a murder guild?" Asuna asked, looking over to Kirito.

"I guess so," Kirito said. "Desperate times…" He shook his head and they rode onward. While they rode out, Kirito sent a message to the false Asuna to meet them on the southern shore. "It will take the other Asuna longer to get there. Once we arrive, someone should go get her, and make sure she's tied up real good before she sees me again."

March 16th, 2031

When the group hit the shore, which was now much closer than it previously was, they landed near what looked to be an intact ship. It was a trireme that had been washed up onto the shore. The newest member of the Red Hand went to inspect the vessel. "What's her name?" Kirito asked Ryun. "I can see yours on your gamer tag, but hers is blank."

"She is what we call nameless," Ryun said. "The Order changed how we raise slaves into guild members. When they're slaves, they have no names, but when they join our guild, they choose a new name for themselves, accessing the player console to put in their new name."

"You can do that?" Asuna asked.

Ryun nodded. "The announcement never went out, but someone in the leading membership of the Order discovered it about the time they started the guild. You can still see a player's old names by looking them up in the player index, and if that player was on your friend or guild list, you'll get a message informing you of the change. You can only change once per month… she's still waiting to change hers."

"So she's just blank for now?" Kirito asked.

"For now," Ryun said. "I haven't asked yet what her new name will be."

"The ship is good to go," she said as she returned to the group. "We just need to push it back into the water somehow."

Sampson nodded, and so did Lisbeth. He went into his bull rage, and started to physically push the vessel towards the waters. At the same time, Lisbeth flew up, and grabbed hold of the front of the ship, flying with all of her strength towards the water. It took a good thirty seconds, but they managed it, and afterwards they were both exhausted.

"Those two are strong," Ryun said. "I never saw the Dragon Queen in person before, but I'd heard rumors about the player boss. Who is the other?"

"Sampson," Asuna said, pointing to him. "That's just a regular player ability."

"Incredible," Ryun said. "I've never seen that one before. What class is he?"

"Berserker," Asuna said. "Silica, you should probably go grab the other me before she gets too close."

Silica nodded, and mounted up again to fly northward. The group set up a small camp as they waited, and Asuna cooked a meal for everyone. As they sat around the fire, Silica approached, holding a rope, and at the other end was the false Asuna. The Asuna double sat down at the camp, and looked around. "Alright, so… how is everyone today?"

"Are you hungry?" Kirito asked her.

"Kirito!" they heard a voice shouted from the distance. Sinon pointed to the sky, where a pegasus was flying down towards them. On its back was Xaela, and then another horse landed, with Michiko. "Kirito, look out! Michiko's gone crazy!"

Michiko leapt from her horse, and started attacking Xaela without hesitation. Xaela quickly drew her weapons to defend herself but in a mere two strikes, both her spear and sword were knocked from her hands.

The rest of the group, with the exception of Ryun, Blank and the false Asuna, leapt into action, and all together, they were able to hold her down and take Michiko's weapons off of her. "Michiko!" Asuna shouted at her. "What's gotten into you?"

Michiko struggled, and shouted back. "Don't listen to her!" she shouted. "She attacked me!"

Kirito looked back, and Xaela had picked up her weapons, and was charging to attack. Kirito and Asuna jumped from Michiko to Xaela, and disarmed her before holding her down. "Don't listen to her!" Xaela shouted. "She's the evil one here!"

Silica sighed, and pulled out more rope. A few moments later, both of the girls were tied up, sitting on the ground with arms behind their back. "Okay," Asuna said. "One of you is lying and the other telling the truth."

"Oh, I know this one!" Sampson jumped in, and took the lead. "What would the other one say if we asked that person who was under the effects of the mind control?"

They both stared blankly at Sampson. "I don't know!" Michiko said back. "That's not how this works!"

"Neither of them have a buff for the mind control," Kirito said. "So maybe they're both lying and they're both under the effects of mind control?"

"Then why are they fighting each other?" Asuna asked.

"I have adjusted my plan to account for this," Ryun said, suddenly. Everyone looked at him. "Regardless of their condition, we were all planning on infiltrating Paradise City anyways. Just make it out like these are our prisoners, same with the… the other Asuna."

"Works for me," Kirito said. "Let's get on the ship and go…"

"P-paradise city?" Michiko said. "What the hell did I miss out on? Why is there two Asuna's? What's going on here?"

"It's a long story," the false Asuna said. "I'll explain on the way!"

The group started to load up onto the ship, taking the 'prisoners' first and sitting them on the deck of the ship. Once everyone was on board, they set sail for the south.

March 9h, 2031

On the bow of the ship, Asuna sat alone, looking out on the horizon. All around them now was nothing but water. She opened up her player menu, and accessed her saved message drafts. She read that message once more, and looked back to the others as they shared stories with one another.

March 2nd, 2031

Eulsam and Asuna were together in bed, and were cuddled up with one another. "How was it?" Eulsam asked softly.

Asuna nodded to him, and kissed his cheek. "It was good," she said.

"Do you know when you'll go back to Kirito?" he asked.

"I don't…"

Eulsam took a few moments before speaking again. "Ever?" Asuna didn't respond, and just sat there next to Eulsam, thinking about it. "Do you see a future where it's just us?" Eulsam finally asked.

Asuna thought about it for a few moments, and then nodded slowly. "Yes…" After saying that, she smiled at him, and leaned in to give him a kiss. "Yeah, I do…"

March 9th, 2031

Asuna saw Kirito approaching her, and she looked at the message one last time. She mouthed the words she had written down, and then stood up and turned to face Kirito. "Kirito," she said after closing her player menu. She was nervous, and Kirito could see that something was bugging her.

"What is it?"

But as she started to speaking, she stopped, and shook her head. "No," she said. "It's nothing."

Kirito had Ryun's dagger in his right hand. He took it, and cut the palm of his left hand, only slightly. It hurt. The pain absorbers were still set to a mere twenty percent, and he flinched. After he did it, his right hand turned red. "We have to look the part," he said before handing Asuna the dagger.

After taking it, she looked at him, and gazed into his eyes for a moment. She was still uncertain about everything. But now, she thought, she was making her decision.

"What is it, Asuna?" Kirito said after a few seconds.

Her stare turned into a smile, and she hugged him close. "I love you," she whispered into his ear before breaking away from him. He smiled, and said those words back before turning and going back to the group, where they were discussing their plans. After Asuna cut her palm, and turned her right hand red, she opened that draft up again, and hit a button to delete it. A confirmation bubble popped up, and she hit again to delete it. After the message was erased, she followed Kirito back to the others.