Author's Note: Hello again! Disney+ has been a great way for me to rewatch the Star Wars movies. I highly recommend it if you're a fan of Disney, Star Wars, or Marvel!

Also, I do not own SAO or Star Wars.

Chapter Twenty-Seven - Where True Loyalties Lie

"It's good to find the two of you unharmed. I'm sorry to hear what happened to our agent, Alicia. She served the cause for the Republic very well. Now she's safely in the hands of the Force until this war is over."

General Amun-din spoke to her allies Klein and Silica as they emerged from the salvaged Pina in the hanger of a Republic Flagship. Two guards held Lisbeth at gunpoint with her arms shackled forward, and Master Agil and Chrysheight stood behind the Jedi General as they conducted an informal debriefing for the two smugglers.

"What happened to Alicia is sad, but she was able to serve a great purpose." Agil gave Klein and Silica a nod. "The two of you have returned to us with vital information."

"I'll say." Chrysheight kept his arms crossed as he looked at the captive bounty hunter standing next to the smugglers. "I hear that's the same criminal who failed to take Amun-din's technology back on Coruscant. Odd how tiny our great galaxy truly is."

"Aye, that's her alright." Klein turned to awkwardly look at Lisbeth, who kept her head down in defeat and eyes to the floor. The smuggler carried on. "She's one of our friends in IRL too. I take you recognize her?"

Silica supported Klein with a nod, and spoke before Chrysheight. "I wish I could remember all my friends in the real world. I suppose having other people with their memories in-tact is good enough, though..."

Chrysheight walked forward, and stopped right in front of the enemy Imperial. "Yea, we know each other. She's a good friend of Asuna's. I guess that's the case here and in the real world too. She's also a close friend of yours, Silica."

That seemed to surprise both Lisbeth and Silica, and both girls locked eyes for a brief moment before the Japanese Ministry agent walked forward. "I wonder...what can you tell us about our fair Empire's Wrath?"

"Hey, she's had a pretty rough voyage." Klein held his hands behind his head, and started walking off from the conversation. "I say ya let her speak when she decides to."

"Are you trying to keep the Republic from acquiring valuable information, Smuggler?" Amun-din looked at the retreating Klein with a fierce expression. "If she serves the Sith Lord, Darth Rosario, then we can use her knowledge to locate the Emperor's extra garrison and cripple their army."

Klein never turned around. "I'm not doing anything. You're all Jedi, do the Jedi thing here. I'm not going to take part in extracting information from someone who considers me as a friend in the real world, even if she can't remember my name."

Lisbeth let her head rise a bit, and her eyes managed to follow Klein as he walked away from the discussion and off to a private chamber. Silica stepped forward, and addressed her final concern with Master Crysheight.

"What's going to happen with Lisbeth? Will you take her to a conference room?"

Chrysheight was still in the process of admiring Klein's philosophy that he barely noticed Silica's question. He did manage to capture the gist of it, though. "I believe we allow our captive bounty hunter here a time to rest her weary head. Lusac's master garrison hasn't been seen since Alderaan. It's probably not fit enough to fight just yet."

Amun-din turned away from the group, and silently ordered two guards to follow close after her. "I had no plans to perform any inhumane form of interrogation on the girl, but now you've made up your own minds. Let her rest. If you think it to be wise..."

Chrysheight laughed to himself as Amun-din made her exit, and in the other direction Lisbeth was being directed to the holding block to wait in a cell. Silica watched the distressed bounty hunter walking with her head low in confusion, and Master Agil turned to seek more advice from Kykuoka.

"Do you think she knows anything about Kirito? We need to find him in order to win this war."

Chrysheight held a solid grin as his eyes zoomed in on a retreating Lisbeth. "I'm sure she does. We'll get what we can from her, and hope that our boy Kazuto is doing just fine on his own."

It was mid-day on the sand planet of Tatooine, and the twin suns of the sandy planet were blistering over head. Asuna Yuuki directed several task forces along the valley of the Republic's campground. She wanted all survivors corralled for interrogation, and expected to send a further assault for their primary planetary base.

"Gather what information we can from the survivors. We'll prepare a secondary raid for the Republic's base at Anchorhead. Lord Trentyn's men should already be there, so we'll come in from behind and secure our victory together. We'll force the Republic forces from the Outer Rim for good in one single stroke."

Kirito sat by with an idol expression as he let the commanding Asuna shove her soldiers around into their next location. She turned from her lieutenants to see a very gloomy Kirito sitting on a rock with his head turned toward the shadow. His eyes were scraping the ground, but they were locked on a fixed spot as she tried to read his demeanor.

Asuna wanted to see him react to any form of her commands, but nothing happened as soldier after solider followed her orders swiftly, and let the Imperial cogs turn on a seamless roll. Once the troopers cleared, however, the Imperial commander addressed her forced underling.

"You're conflicted. Still trying to figure out how you managed to end the life of a close friend?"

Kirito never gave her the attention with his eyes, but turned just as the voice left his mouth.

"We need to talk."

Asuna raised an eyebrow, and noticed as the other Imperials around her were starting to fall into their respected roles. She knew now was an okay time to pull the dream apprentice aside for a confrontation, and decided to lead him into the lobby of her own Blood Oath landed at the center of the valley floor.

"So." She opened up with a hint of excitement in her voice. "You wish to tell me something?"

Kirito never gave away his eyes, and kept his stare toward the dark ground of the ship. "You're being tricked."

Asuna was brought back by that bold accusation. She had never had an underling talk so direct to her in a time of war. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Kirito turned away to raise his voice. "You were only allowed to come attack the Republic camp because Trentyn let you. He wanted to take out the leaders on his own, until I showed up."

"What does that even mean?" Asuna was very quick to challenge the boy's thought. "Trentyn was looking to defeat the Republic holdouts on Tatooine, simple as that."

Kirito finally turned to look his beloved in the eye. "How can you be so sure? His mission was to defend Tatooine, so he calls his number one rival to take out his major problem for him? And why tell us the commanders of the Republic forces were probably Jedi, only to retract that fact and act unsure when we ask him about it. He's hiding something from you, and the rest of the Empire."

Asuna stood for a little while in the silence, only being echoed by the roar of ships and wind outside her own shuttle's entrance, but she kept her eyes locked on her beloved apprentice. "Darth Trentyn is the best friend of Emperor Lusac. He is literally the only other figure I trust in my army besides Lusac himself. There is no evidence for him to turn on his best friend's cause."

Kirito gave her no time in answering the question. He loved Asuna Yuuki, not this hellbent monstrosity that she had become.

"What makes you think Trentyn can be trusted?"

"Excuse me?" Asuna raised her voice. "He may be a fool sometimes, but Lord Trentyn is a loyal soldier of the Empire. I have no reason to believe anything otherwise."

"He sent you to fight the battles he wanted you to, Asuna." Kirito retorted. "Trentyn called us here for a reason. He knew the leaders of the Republic side would have some connection to us, and he also wanted to lure your army here to Tatooine."

"Why would he do that?" Asuna questioned his logic. "Even if my army was his target, why would he call us out here?"

*This is an alert from the Great Sith Empire*

A universal comms link announcement fed itself over the entire plane to Tatooine as Asuna and Kirito both stopped their argument, and the former pulled out her communicator to address the live news.

*This system will fall to the all-mighty Shock Drum in less than two hours. Failure to receive this message will result in your own untimely doom to the hands of the Galactic Empire. Long Live Emperor Lusac!*

Asuna and Kirito looked at one another, and as the note spread across the Imperial camp, men and AI scattered everywhere at the horror released from the newly addressed message.

"A Shock Drum?" Kirito asked with certain confusion. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It's a super weapon, made by the Galactic Republic." Asuna sorely replied. "The main mission for the Jedi Knight's faction uses it in the story mode. Whoever completed those missions for the Republic first must have decided to let the device live after its completion."

Both figures froze for a moment to contemplate the realization of that thought, but Sith Lord Asuna spoke first. "It was your friend from Alderaan. She held the title Hero of Tython."

"Suguha?" Kirito grew more and more defensive. "Why would you bring her into this?"

Asuna rolled her eyes. "She was the me for the Republic. She was the first player of the Light Side faction to beat the Jedi Knight's story missions, which means she chose to keep that device alive...she'll be the reason I die if we don't do something."

"How poetic." Kirito rolled his eyes to mock Asuna, and grabbed his belt as he stood from his seat. "We're taking the fight to the Shock Drum, and Trentyn. I'm not losing two friends to one video game."

"I'll agree to that." Asuna never wavered as she stood by the boy on the entrance of her own ship. "I'd hate to see my entire army fall to such a trivial weapon."

"Hold on." Kirito tried to collect her train of thought. "You're actually showing sympathy for other lifeforms in this galaxy?"

Asuna hated it when he chose to use terminology from this universe. "If I have no army, then I lose my war. Nothing more to it that that."

Kirito finally showed his first smile after defeating his friends on the cliffs above the camp. "I dunno, Darth Asuna may finally show that she has a heart after all."

"Ass." Asuna stormed of her vessel, and reached for an open speeder bike sitting in the foreground. "Are you coming, or what?"

"What?" Kirito acted surprised as his better half made the first move for heroism. "How do you even know where to look first?"

Asuna kept a face of determination as she mounted her bike. "If you say Trentyn is behind this farce, then we need to check Anchorhead first. From there he's probably hiding in the Dune Sea somewhere. Let's get moving before you and I end up as B-rated characters to Trentyn's own story. I didn't make it this far in the game for him to end up as the grand hero of the Empire."

Both rode together on two Imperial speeder bikes. Asuna let Kirito fly several inches in front of her as they rode through the flying rock and dust of Tatooine to their next destination.

Asuna shouted out to her apprentice. "So, are you saying Trentyn is trying to blow up the planet to kill me and my army?"

Kirito did not nod, but he did address her as they zoomed through the expansive desert together. "I think so. He wants to see you and your army dead so he has no more threats standing between him and Lusac's throne. He probably wants to take me out because I'm seen as a threat to the Empire, itself."

"Ridiculous." Asuna scoffed as she followed Kirito over a rolling sand dune and around a towering orange rock sprawling from the desert floor. "Why did he not just detonate the device when we all landed on Tatooine?"

Kirito replied. "He probably needed assurance for defeating the Republic camp, and only decide to use the Shock Drum when the time was right. Think of it like his last-ditch attempt to rid himself of all his problems."

Asuna had no idea what to feel more embarrassed about. The fact that her underling, an Imperial rival was plotting to blow her up on a dreary sand planet, or that her newly acquired apprentice and supposed real-life acquaintance saw it coming first.

Either way, Kirito was proving to be quite the Sith acolyte. "What have you been training all this time for? If you view all members of the Republic as lesser fighters, then your greatest enemy on your own side is the reason for you to draw your blade now."

"..." Asuna let Kirito lead the two through the sandy deserts of Tatooine, and made no remark for her reply as they passed through rocks, dirt, and eventually bone when a giant creature-laden graveyard took its shape at the foot of a great rocky cliff. A small cave was exposed in the underpass of the decayed valley, and Kirito and Asuna stopped her to check out the small but slightly active seismic activity growling beneath the center of the planet.

Both Sith familiars stepped off their bikes, and entered the cave while also trying to dodge rubble and rock in their entrance. They rolled away from falling debris in their passage to the center of the cave, slaying several horrible spider-like creatures as they passed into the depths of Tatooine. As Asuna and Kirito made it to the core of the cavern, however, a large hall filled with bones and rock stood open with a great beast waiting in the middle for them.

"A Sand Demon." Asuna drew her weapon, and let Kirito follow her lead as the large arthropod took notice of the new ground, and turned to deliver a foul-stenched yell in their direction. Kirito drew his red sabers as well, and ran a circle around the legs of the monster in the opposite direction Asuna as they both surrounded the creature with a quick-timed attack.

The force-sensitive users took time scrapping up the beast's legs, and as Kirito took out its front two appendages, Asuna propelled herself into the air, and stabbed the monster through the back and into the dirt for a sounding defeat.

"Bravo." Said an ominous voice from a large, natural corridor to the east end of the cave. "You took out that pitiful sand demon like it was just a simple Bantha."

"Trentyn." Asuna turned to address her inferior as she swirled her blade around to show off her prowess. "What are you doing here? What's going on?"

Trentyn walked slowly into the chamber as four of his elite guardsmen followed, but stationed themselves firmly to his front flanks to protect from the invading heroes. "I must congratulate you on your punctuality. It took me quite a while to realize the Shock Drum was here in the ruins of Tatooine, so knowing you lot found it in the blink of an eye is truly astounding."

"Stop wasting our time." Kirito spoke for Asuna now as he tried cutting to the chase. "Why are you trying to challenge your own commander? Asuna is your superior, and trying to fight her must go against some sort of Imperial Code."

"Hmm." Trentyn continued to look intrigued by the boy Kazuto Kirigaya. "Perhaps it does, but so does defying your own Emperor."

Trentyn sent out an unintentional shock wave from his feet, filled with slight accents of force lightning as he looked Asuna down with fiery red eyes. "Lady Rose, you were the one who tried to bring in a new apprentice to overthrow the Emperor. You wish to see an end to his reign more than I do. You offer more of a threat than you realize."

"Asuna?" Kirito would have felt glad to hear that reality anywhere else, but not quite in this moment. The thought that she wanted to hunt down Kirito on her own was great, but the idea that she only wanted him to take command of the Sith Empire. "Is that true?"

The proud Sith Lord stepped forward slightly, and addressed her underling again. "Lord Trentyn. Are you admitting to trying to assassinate a member of the Sith hierarchy above your rank? And are you trying to sabotage your own brethren with the threat of the Shock Drum as your weapon?"

Trentyn snapped his fingers, and set loose his guards on the rabid enemies before his vision. "I might be, yes. Do you not approve?"

Asuna Yuuki paid no attention to the four approaching guardsmen of Trentyn's entourage, and kept her honor high as she drew her own blade, and swung it to a point right toward Trentyn. "Then by order of the Sith Empire, I hereby sentence you to death by the hand of the Empire's Wrath."

Kirito ignored their eye-play, and drew his two blades to take on the front two guards of Trentyn's Sith guard. He managed to take out the first man swiftly with a shot through the heart, and blocked an incoming strike from the second with his off hand as he bashed the shoulder of the next defender with his powerful red lightsaber. Kirito continued to duel the remaining two body guards as Asuna and Trentyn stared at each other with furious anger swelling in both of their eyes. Kirito finally ended the life of the two enemies, and stood between his beloved wife and her supposed enemy.

"Then why don't you and I handle this. A true duel-wielding fight to the end."

"You and I?" Trentyn sounded half insulted. "I have no quarrel with you just yet, boy, apart from you being a danger to my own Emperor. It's the Wrath that I wish to see die by my blade first."

"Not going to happen." Kirito kept his lightsabers firmly in his grip as he stepped up to face Trentyn head on. "Asuna's been brain-washed by Lusac's technology. You and I, though...we're still ourselves in this world. We're fighting with full might, and full brain power."

Kirito then took control of a hearty Sith grin as he tried getting in the head of his opponent. "Better yet, if I win, I'll keep you alive. You can tell me more about Lusac's plans and the rest of the Sith Empire."

Asuna stepped back with a face taken back by insult, but realized what Kirito was doing for her. She studied the confrontation, and allowed for a moment of silence as the mighty Darth Trentyn responded in his own, natural way. He stood with intrigue in his eyes, and turned on the two blood-orange lightsabers strapped to his side.

"You wish to defend your pathetic wife from her inevitable fate. So be it, Kirigaya. Allow me to show you why Emperor Lusac put me in-charge of this game's combat mechanics."

Kirito charged forward with two lightsabers ignited, and Trentyn did the same as they met near the edge of the large room of the cavern. Asuna kept her lightsaber on, but watched as the two swordsman locked blades with one another, and danced about the outer ring of the room in an everlasting frenzy.

Kirito, unlike usual, used his right hand for defense, and his left for offense. Trentyn let the boy make his own moves, and played fully to his own defenses as they clashed red sabers back and forth through the dimly lit cavern of Tatooine.

Trentyn was the first to speak the moment their locked blade stood still. "Kazuto Kirigaya. Peter Mathis holds you in such high esteem."

"I never asked him to track me, or anything." Kirito was sharp in his reply. "It's not my fault the man is a total creep!"

Trentyn laughed loudly. "Give me more arrogance than that! I want to see your face change it's emotion the moment I take you and that wife of yours down!"

"I've done nothing to hurt you!" Kirito shouted back as they smashed lightsabers against one another. "You just said it yourself. Asuna is your rival, so why bring me into this now!?"

"You're her protégée." He retorted. "You will be the one to bring down our Emperor and bring peace to this broken galaxy. You threaten Lucas's vision of taking over Immortal Gaming as his own! You must die!"

Kirito shoved off the attack, and jumped backwards to collect those words. "Wait, Lucas wanted me dead? Then why go through all the trouble to hunt me down and capture me?"

"That was your dear wife, I'm afraid." Trentyn gestured to the now frozen Asuna. "She insisted that you'd be the perfect weapon against Lucas's sister, and he fell for it. She promised you to him as a new student of the Dark Side, but she has yet to contact him on the whereabouts of your location or training."

Trentyn swirled his sabers in a vortex-shaped attack, and tried to disarm Kirito with the strength of his moves. "Now, you stand in the way as the only one who has the power to defeat him."

Both warriors stood far apart now, and Asuna simply took her time to study the assault as Kirito and Trentyn studied each other at the same time. A swell of air fell through the room as the power of the Shock Drum moved more and more throughout the cavern, which left time as a valuable commodity in this precious moment.

"Yo would kill thousands of your own soldiers, and take out an ally named by your best friend as his second-in-command, just to bring me in?" Kirito let the rage and anger swell through his body as he tried to collect Darth Trentyn's motives. "Asuna was simply doing her job, and somehow you still found jealousy in her actions."

Trentyn smiled, and shrugged his shoulders. "A traitor is a traitor. Asuna may be all for the Empire, but she's far too annoying to keep around. And you...you pose a great threat to our glorious Emperor. It's only natural that the one who made you who you are should go down with you."

"I love Asuna, don't think that's a lie." Kirito was shaking with rage and hatred as his hands vibrated with building power of his own. "But she had nothing to do with my upbringing in this world. She served as my motivation to beat this game, but my training was a combination of many people that I love. Too many people that all care about me, including Asuna, put their trust into my abilities to end this game. I won't end it all like this to some wannabe hero playing second-string to his best friend and his rich dad."

Kirito raised his hands, and took control of the ceiling rocks hanging over head as a dark cloud emulated from his stance. "I'm taking down anyone who threatens me, or Asuna! We're going to end this game together, no matter if anyone tries to stop us along the way!"

Kirito shot forward toward the menacing Darth Trentyn, but just as he tried to draw his blade up for a powerful strike, the experienced Sith Marauder stepped sideways, and stuck the poor boy in the side with his left blade.

"All too easy." Trentyn watch Kirito roll away down the rocky steps into the deeper cavern, and laughed as the enemy before his feet stood no chance of standing back up. "You're a bigger fool than I realized! This game's fate was decided the moment my master took control of the Sith faction! THE DARK SIDE IS FAR TOO POWERFUL TO BE OVERTAKEN!"

"If you touch Kirito one more time with your pathetic weapons, I'll cut you down with no final words to your name."

Kirito went to cry out in pain, and Trentyn tried to continue in his gloating to get the best of his defeated enemy, but Asuna Yuuki, or Darth Rosario, stepped up with her curved lightsaber handle firmly in her hand. As her steps drew closer to her now established enemy, the yellow in her eyes matched the red of her crimson blade to mark the sinister look of a true Dark Lord of the Sith.

"I'm through with your games, Trentyn. This ends here and now. You die, tonight, and you die by my blade."

Whew boy! Darth Rosario is going to show off some of her master sword play yet again in the next chapter. I wonder what's behind the true nature of their rivalry...

Until Next Time!