Author's Note: Well I always like to make a comment whenever one of my stories makes it to 20 chapters, so yay!
Side-note: The new season of SAO is very good, but can we just stop and talk about the Mandalorian?! Only 5 episodes in and it's becoming one of my all-time favorites.
Also, I do not own SAO or Star Wars.
Chapter Twenty - Facing the Mirror
Kirito performed several series of sprints through the dryer section of the swampland as he built up more and more of his internal power. His utility belt and shirt were lying on the ground next to Yui, while Kayaba stood next to them and observe the young Force wielder's training first hand. He would run back and forth, touching his half-exposed ship sticking out of the watery muck, and then sprint a certain distance to touch a tree, quickly running back to repeat the process. He tried to add five or so feet every time, not letting the dense fog or distance block him from going out further and further to different trees.
"Excellent, Kirigaya!" Kayaba's Heathcliff avatar had his arms crossed as he studied his protégée's work. "You're learning how to use the Force to find the ship even after you run out too far to see it. You're also learning to let the Force take over breathing for you while you focus on your endurance."
"It feels too weird, though." Kirito slowed up, and started to jog in his place as he looked to Kayaba. "I feel weightless, but my heart rate is still pounding like I've just run a marathon."
Kayaba smirked. "That's the Jedi's strength flowing through you from the Force. It's making things easier on your body, but it will take time to adapt to it. The power of the Force is a strange being."
He then turned to the shaded side of the canopy sky. "But beware of the darker side of that power. Anger, fear, aggression; the dark side of the Force can easily come to your aid in a fight. It's very similar to what happened to you on Coruscant. If you start down that dark path too often, it will dominate your mind, and consume your free will. This is Emperor's Lusac's plan to control you, as he did with your wife."
Kirito stopped jogging, and took time to wipe the sweat from his brow. He turned to his would-be coach. "Asuna...is the Dark Side actually stronger though?"
Kayaba was disappointed in Kirito's lack of knowledge regarding the Star Wars franchise and its core films. "Of course not. As Master Yoda would say, it can be very seductive, but not all powerful."
Kirito nodded. "But how will I know when I've used too much emotion? I'm still human, after all."
Kayaba replied. "You will know... when you are calm, at peace, and passive. A Jedi should only really use the Force for knowledge and defense, NEVER for attack."
"Yea yea...Sugu said the same thing." Kirito rolled his eyes, and carried on with his dead sprints. He let his mind clear away from everything except the forest path. Fog and warm air surrounded him further, and his lungs cleared out more and more with every step he took.
He noticed he was still running, quite a distance from his furthest point already, and he had no visual signal of his camp or friends from where he was. But he was still running, still sprinting through the dense thickness of Dagobah with the Force propelling his every movement. His breathes were almost silent now as he allowed the swelling energy to take control, and just as he reached a new peak speed, his legs stopped at a dead halt, and a great black tree with a voided hole took his view.
"What the hell is this?" Kirito's movements slowed down, and his legs moved slowly on their own as he reached out to move a series of dangling vines from the black void looming in front of him.
"That place... is strong with the dark side of the Force." Kayaba stood behind Kirito now, he too left Yui and the camp back in the distance. It was only the two of them now.
The leader of the once proud KoB guild looked on. "It's a domain of pure evil. It seems to be calling out for you, as well."
Kirito felt a chill over his exposed chest, and stepped back a bit as his eyes widened to pure white and black. "What's inside? A-am I supposed to fight a boss or something? What's in here?"
Kayaba closed his eyes, and alluded to a famous scene from the galaxy far far away. "Only what you take with you."
Kirito stopped walking backwards, and grew a new spine as he reached for his belt. His lightsaber was still in the camp, and now Kayaba was far behind too as it was just Kirito at the entrance to the cave.
The dark energy of the cavern called out to the Hero of Aincrad and pulled him into its lofty black energy with no hint or strategy to give, keeping the secrets that it held safe from Kirito's grasp.
Klein was perusing the shops and kiosks in a slummy district of the mechanized port planet of Corellia. One of the founding worlds of the Galactic Republic, the brass world Corellia actually prided itself on its economic independance, despite Imperial and Republic intervention politically. Some of the finest starships in the Star Wars universe were made on Corellia, and it was additionally home to daring pilots and smugglers looking to explore, to trade or just stay ahead of the law.
The cities, like the people, were distinct to a tee. The planet incorporated a natural landscape into its metallic design despite being a heavy manufacturing base for shipping. Before the all-out PvP war of the galaxy broke out, the NPC Corellian government agreed to turn over power to the Sith Empire. This resulted with riots in the streets and open revolution from other NPCs, and eventually player characters.
Klein felt very comfortable roaming its busy streets and alley ways, however, and found time in a busy Republican schedule to come here and make deals for money outside his military career for the Light Side. He used to take Jedi Master Agil along with him, but the Jedi was too good at bartering that he would often steal deals from even Klein.
Silica trailed behind him, with a weary look posted to her face. She made sure to land the Pina in a fairly crowded hanger to not attract any attention to their arrival, and even tampered with the ship's mainframe to scan the skies of the once proud Republican system.
"Man, I can't believe that Pina thingy is actually the computer system on your ship! I thought it was your ride's name!" Klein picked up a set of golden twin blasters on a table, but kept his conversation turned towards Silica as he fondled the merchandise.
Silica sighed. "Yea, Pina is just the computer system I had attached to the ship. The ship was originally called the Cait-Sìth, but I changed its name to Pina to avoid confusing myself."
"Eh, sounds hard to do." Klein looked down the barrel of a mint silver sniper rifle, and worried the merchant as he smeared his finger prints all over its chrome finish. "Anyway, did this place really look like it was crawling with that many Sith ships?"
"Absolutely!" Silica silently yelled, while also making Klein lower the barrel of the new sniper rifle. "Which is why I wanted to land us on the other side of the planet! You come here more than anyone else in the group. You had to know it'd get busy once the Sith finished assembling their fleet!"
"Yea, I guess I should have seen it coming!" Klein shrugged and laughed as he tipped the merchant for letting him handle the gun. He carried on down the busy street and put his hands behind his head. "It doesn't matter though. You took Pina with you from the ship to track the Empire's movements. You can scan the streets before we go down them, right?"
"Not if we're walking too fast!" Silica tried holding up a small light blue device as she let the Pina computer system scan the busy curbs, but she grabbed Klein's shirt as she pulled him back to her side of the sidewalk. "You said we'd be there in ten minutes!"
"Yea, from the ship." Klein flipped a golden coin with one of his thumbs high in the air. "I wanted to spend a little more of my campaign money before meeting up with Argo."
"Klein!" Argo yelled out from behind the two other smugglers and gave them a wave once they noticed her arrival. "Long time no see!"
"No kidding!" Klein skipped the pleasantries and put a finger into her chest. "Where the hell did you run off to before the Battle of Alderaan? You helped us get our ship all souped up, then vanished from the assault squad."
Argo raised two defensive hands in the air and smiled faintly. "Hey, don't blame me! A girl had her own mission to head off on once all that got started. Anyway, I'm glad to see you made it all the way out here. The Sith is crawling around this side of the galaxy after the Republic lost Alderaan."
"Yea, we know." Silica sighed and held up her mini-map from the Pina device. "Looks like a lot of them are refueling before another attack on the core."
Argo looked at the map, and blinked her eyes a few times before rubbing them at the sight of the tiny smuggler standing next to Klein. "Hold on, I thought you said you were bringing that friend of yours from the Alderaan fight?"
"Yea?" Klein looked confused. "Silica was with me on that mission. We used her ship to land on the planet, remember?"
"Y-Yea..." Argo scratched her head. "Hehe, sorry. I thought you meant that weird Jedi friend."
"Agil? Hell no! I never take him out this far after he stole all my sweat deals last...oh wait, you mean Kirito? Hehe, sorry, he's on his own mission for Grand Master Amun-din right now."
"Ahh, really?" Argo scratched her chin as she walked between the two smugglers. "That's really interesting. Anyway, come on. My hanger is overrun with Sith right now. We'll have to go in with stealth if we want to get your part."
"You already have his part?" Silica tilted her head. "Why aren't you holding onto it in your regular inventory then?"
"Too big." Argo tried to get her to stop talking as the rounded an alley way corner into a polished steel walkway that led inside an elaborate hanger bay. "Just keep quiet while we find my ride. I had to use a smuggled Sith Fury starship to get myself onto the planet safely. They think I'm some Sith worker looking to upgrade my ride."
"A Sith Fury?" Silica slowed down as the other two tip-toed even faster away. "That's the ship Sith Warriors use. You don't use a lightsaber though. Wouldn't it have been easier if you used Mantis instead...?"
"Agh, damn it, Silica!" Klein was trying to be nice, but they had just come to a slightly busy section of the hanger as he tried to keep her quiet. "Just drop it until we get out of here."
"There it is." Argo led the team through a twist of railings and cargo as the slick Sith warship sat at the end of their path. It stood on its own island pillar inside the hanger, with just the single bridge they were currently on acting as the only way into the craft. It had to be posing as a higher officer's personal ride, because the guns and outfits stationed on the outer hull were all end-game level equipments.
"That's a pretty sweet ride you conned your way into getting!" Klein whispered with excitement as he followed Argo to the entry ramp. "Must have cost an arm and a leg!"
"It would have." Argo grinned, "but let's just say I'm borrowing it for now. I had to make quite the deal for a mission recently that will make sure to keep my face off some wanted posters on both sides of the galaxy."
"But I don't get it..." Silica's skin began to shiver as her hand located a small blaster pistol strapped to her side. "Why would your face be on a wanted poster in the Republic?"
"Hmm..." Argo pondered that thought as the door to the vessel slip open, and a thick coat of steam rolled down the on-ramp. "Well, you're right. It might not be now, but give it time."
Kein and Silica both looked away from a smiling Argo, and just as the smoke cleared, a powerful Sith Lord dawned in crimson armor stood with two Imperial guards at the back end of the ship's entry way. Her eyes no longer fully matched the auburn color of her hair, and were fading into a deep yellow at this point while anger filled her pupils.
Klein pulled out his blaster, and fired several shots off to hit Asuna square between her eyes, but the mighty Empire's Wrath raised her curved lightsaber, and blocked all the shots at once. She sent two bolts back to hit Silica and Klein in their legs, then ran forward with the speed of light as she slashed the barrel of his long pistol clean off.
"Two smugglers, but no Jedi. Tell me...where is Kirito?"
Kirito climbed through several crevices of vines and foliage as he maneuvered his way through the dark cavern of Dagobah. He expected his eyes to fail him eventually, but the powers of the Force System gave him just enough light and focus to carry on through the dense blackness.
"I've lost my feeling of Kayaba and Yui, and I can no longer hear Suguha's voice inside my mind. This path just keeps going on forever, with no end anywhere in sight. It really reminds me of Luke in the Star Wars movie, but I just can't imagine how he..."
Kirito wanted to keep his mind going, but he suddenly felt that the cave he was in had grown very humid and hot since he entered. He reached up and grabbed the front of his cloak to air out his outfit, then realized that his outfit had changed entirely since entering.
"Woah, wait a minute!? I'm in my SAO armor! How in the hell did I...?" He reached back to find the Elucidator and Dark Repulser strapped to his back. He took the long-lost swords from his back, and studied them briefly before moving on through the overgrowth at his own pace.
Kirito slashed through more vines to come across a clean grey floor in an empty room filled with a tall, vaulted ceiling. Several bodies lied motionless on the ground, and his mind warped to a horrible reality as he now stood in a once repressed memory.
"This is the Boss's chamber on Floor 75. I'm in Aincrad right now."
"No Kirito, that's not fair! You can't do that, it's not fair! NO!"
"Asuna!?" Kirito's voice was trapped inside his mind, but he heard a paralyzed Asuna yelling at him from behind as he tried to remember the scene in its entirety.
"Hmph. As you wish."
That was Kayaba's voice. Kirito turned back to find the fully decorated Commander Heathcliff from Sword Art Online issuing a command to remove his personal barrier before their faithful duel at the end of SAO. Kirito gripped up on his swords, and let the commander draw his divine blade before moving in for a repeated strike.
"Not this again. I'm not losing Asuna twice in a row like this! I'M NOT GOING DOWN TWICE LIKE THAT!"
Kirito charged forward in an impossibly powerful momentum as he bombarded Kayaba with an unstoppable flurry of slashes and strikes. The sound of their totally normal swords bashing against one another was replaced by the sound of lightsabers clashing to an empty void. Kayaba, Asuna, the other bodies made no other sound. Kirito could only hear the sabers and his own breath pounding as he beat Kayaba's sword and shield into an oblivion with every strike he made.
Anger and fear from before boiled up, and cut the great shield of Heathcliff in half, and the sword once called the Divine Blade was broken in two as well as Kirito used his over-powered duel-wielding skills to strike a final blow to Heathcliff's heart, and shoved him into the ground to claim a victory.
Kirito took several heavy breaths as the shield of his enemy collapsed over Kayaba's face, and the black swordsman almost toppled over as he used the two swords to prop himself to his feet. Kirito then tossed the two swords aside, and fell to his knees right beside Akihiko Kayaba's fallen body.
The black-haired Hero of Aincrad took several moments to collect the scene, then removed the fallen, broken shield from Kayaba's face to reveal a spitting image of himself dawned in Heathcliff's armor lying cold and dead on the floor. The corpse of the faux Kirito then exploded into millions of blue diamonds to signify a death inside SAO, and while Asuna and the rest of the faded memory exploded in the same sequence, Kirito leaned back, and fell backwards into an empty void.
He truly hoped to return to his real-life body back in Tokyo, Japan, or at least to the dingy black cavern alone on the planet Dagobah.
Ah, Kirito experiencing the Dark Side tree cave on Dagobah has him revert to memories of the floor 75 fight vs Kayaba. Also Klein and Silica just got Lando'ed by Argo. Asuna cool as always. Chapter 21 probably Monday or Tuesday!
Until then!