Author's Note: Let's see where Kirito and Asuna left off. Enjoy!
Also, I do not own SAO or Star Wars.
Chapter Thirty-One - The Grand Design
Asuna's head was resting over the lap of Kirito as they relaxed alone inside the frigid wintry cave below the surface of Ilum. They were both down to their underwear now, and she was warmly curled up underneath her burgundy winter cloak.
Kirito leaned back shirtless against a rocky wall with his own coat over his lap, and Asuna's head sat just on top of it as he played with her hair using one of his free hands. The other was lying over a rock to his side, and both remained silent as they took in the quiet atmosphere of the cave before their eyes.
"I saw a vision. Just before I ran into you." Asuna trembled with her words, but they formed to be more fluid as they came out. "It was romantic...actually it felt similar to how I feel now."
Kirito nodded his head. "I suppose that makes sense down here. They say this is a pretty romantic place, after all."
Asuna had more to say. "My vision wasn't over this lake, thought. It was on a mountain. The two of us were alone star gazing somewhere in a field, with woods down below. It was night time, with stars just like these crystals. Some of them were shooting stars, and you and I were..."
"Our date. On Mount Doudaria." Kirito stopped her, and halted his right hand as it stopped curling up her locks. "You saw the real world."
"I-I guess." Asuna did not want to leave him upset, so she tried her best to remember the scenery. "We were talking about a place called 'Aincrad', and what we were going to do once we got out."
"Yea..." Kirito let his head rest behind him. "We did that a lot at our house back on Floor 22."
"We had a house together?" Asuna never moved her head, but a bit of red took over her face as she pulled up on her cloak to cover her bare body more.
"Yea we did." Kirito was happy to confirm a memory that Asuna was able to remember. "When did you see this?"
"Right before I woke up in the cave. I went off to find you as quickly as I could. I-I wanted to know more about that night. There was also a..."
"What?" Kirito was trying to remember their date on the mountain top as well. "What else?"
Asuna froze up, and laid back down. "Eh, never mind...my memory was all blurry. I-I'd hate to mention something that didn't actually happen."
"O-Oh." He awkwardly replied. "That makes sense..."
Kirito remembered that he had something to share with her, too, but was worried that now would not be the best time to share his concern. He was worried that Asuna would blame the Republic's invasion of Ilum on him, so he needed to wait for the right moment to let her hear what he had to say.
"Kirito..." Unlike the happy, peaceful Asuna she saw in her memory, the Sith Lord lying across Kirito's lap was trembling. She held fear in her eyes, and tightly gripped the hand of her friend that was playing with her hair. "I...I need saved...from the Dark Side of the Force."
Asuna started to sob while Kirito slowly sat up, and did his best to comfort her in her confusion. She tried to corral her emotions, but barely found enough strength to get her words out on their own.
"I... I'm being brain-washed by a psychopath for god's sake! Why in the hell would I let myself do that...you say...you say I'm some powerful commander in another world, or even just a regular teen girl back home in the real world...but...I'm just so lost and afraid in this world. My strength is all just an act...my greatest power is the fear that I've held onto the moment I set foot in this galaxy."
"Fear leads to anger...anger leads to hate...hate, leads to..." Kirito tried to remember the line, but found that now was not the time to complete it. He took a firm hold of Asuna's hand, and looked her in her big brown eyes.
"You have nothing to fear, now. We're almost out of the game. We need to find Amanda and Lucas, and get them in the same room. Maybe if we can get them to talk, they can do something against their father."
"Yea...yea, you're right." She wiped away her tears, and sat up as she wrapped the coat around her bosom.
Kirito continued. "They both hate their father more than anyone else. He trapped them in this game with us. They need to work together to end the war. The fighting just needs to stop."
"KIRITO! HEY!? WHERE ARE YA!?"
"KLEIN!?" Kirito nearly jumped up from his spot the moment he heard the loud pitched voice of his close friend from SAO. Asuna leaned up quickly, and wrapped herself further up in the cloth.
"ASUNA! HEY, WHERE ARE YA, GIRL!?"
"Oh no, Lis!?" Why would a special agent Imperial Bounty Hunter be walking around with an exclusively hired Republic Smuggler? Both Kirito and Asuna rushed to get their cloaks and clothes back on, and just as the couple secured their sabers to their now latched belts, the grey swordsman yelled over the cliff.
"Hey buddy! We're up here!"
They both saw the hand of Klein reach up to grab a rock as he pulled himself to the lake side. Lisbeth followed, but let Klein introduce himself to his long-lost friend. "You, long time no see, Kiri-dude! We've been looking all over for ya!"
"Huh, you still call me that even in this galaxy." Kirito delivered a kind smile as Klein wrapped his arm around his friend. "U-m, so how did the two of you..."
"Long story, I don't wanna tell it." Lisbeth gave Kirito that much of her attention as she wrapped her arms around her long-lost commander. "I thought you died or something. Please answer my PMs when I send them, 'kay?"
"R-Right, sorry!" Asuna felt like the insubordinate one to her inferior as she tried to collect her thoughts. "I would have replied sooner, but I've been rather occupied as of late..."
"Hehe." Klein caught the gist and nudged Kirito in the side. "I'll say, did you happen to lead the boy wonder here down the path of the Dark Side?"
"Gross." Lisbeth yelled out at Klein's joke, and grabbed Asuna by the hand as she went back down the ledge. "Come on, we have a lot to catch you guys up on. There's a blood bath going on up there that's not stopping any time soon."
"So, the two of you were forced to join forces, and tricked the rest of the army into looking for us?" Kirito felt very entertained as Klein told them all the story of their mission aboard the warm safety of the smuggler ship Pina.
"You bet, my man!" Klein felt his arrogance ooze out as he tried to sound cool for the intimidating Sith Lord who was now aboard his companion's ship. "We wanted ta get our hands on you before the leaders did before things went all haywire."
"Yea, but look at all the good that did us." Lisbeth was begrudgingly gazing out her window as they looked at all the chaos unfold above Ilum.
"I'll say...I didn't think the Republic would follow us...and I never thought the Sith Army would be this large, even after Alderaan." Silica felt a rise of goosebumps take her skin as she cautiously observed Asuna sitting off to the side. She tried to keep the ship steady, but loud explosions and slight tension building in their cockpit made that skill very hard to achieve.
Kirito followed Silica's eyes and then noticed Asuna had been extremely silent since their rescue operation had made it to the Pina. He was starting to grow more worried with her interpretation of the situation, and tried to level things out.
"So let me get things straight, you all came here on your own, without the Republic knowing the exact location you'd be going? And...I had no way of telling you where I'd be, right?"
"Uh, yea?" Klein looked at Lisbeth and shrugged. "How the hell would you contact us?"
"You have no faction, Dummy." Lisbeth tried to measure Kirito's level of intelligence. "You can't PM people, or be tracked by the friends' lists."
"Good good..." He leaned back and kept his eyes on Asuna. "Just wanted to make that very clear."
Asuna Yuuki kept all her thoughts to herself, and felt the shuttle come to a slow roll over a landing pad as dust flew over all the cockpit windows. Silica took a very deep breath before turning around to address her crew.
"Okay, this might be a little awkward." Silica looked at Kirito with apologetic eyes. "I'm sorry, but I had strict orders to land here the moment we entered the battle radar."
The crew slowly emerged from the hull of the Pina, and oddly enough Kirito was the first person to voluntarily greet the Republic entourage as command shuttles joined them on the landing pad over the valley of Ilum.
Chrysheight gave the boy Kirito a round of applause that infectiously took the rest of the Republic guard by storm. All the men and women of the ground cheered and saluted Kirito, not knowing of all the horrors and atrocities that he committed after leaving Coruscant on his mission.
"Kazuto Kirigaya...the Chosen One returns."
"Kikuoka." Kirito was reluctant to see the minister's face again. "I'm not sure if I'm glad to see you again."
"Kid, it's good ta see ya." Agil gave Kirito a bow, and nodded as the others joined the group from the Pina. "We thought we lost you to the Dark Side."
"Thanks, Agil. I'm fine." Kirito felt sad that his good friend from Aincrad had to say those specific words. "And well, my hands haven't totally been clean on my journey."
"That's okay." Chrysheight nodded his head. "You're still alive, and out of the hands of Peter Mathis. I say that's Mission Accomplished."
"Yea." Kirito's vision narrowed. "Out of the grip of one Mathis, and into the hands of another."
Jedi Master Amun-din finally joined them from the back of the crowd, and gave Kirito a look filled with stern contemplation. "My father's Hero. I see you've traded your grey trappings for black ones."
"You have to admit, the outfit does suit him better."
Everyone on the pad gasped, and while Klein, Silica, and even Lisbeth had followed Kirito out to the group, Asuna Yuki stayed on board until the noble Jedi Master showed her face.
Agil's smile vanished, but Chrysheight's lit up with even more excitement. "Asuna Yuuki. I see you've finally stepped into the light."
"I've done no such thing." She ignored the rude man's comments, and slowly walked forward to step between her apprentice and his former leader. Agil kept a hand on his lightsaber, and now everyone with the exception of Kirito, Asuna, Amun-din, and the quirky Chrysheight had their hand located to some form of weapon or firearm.
"Lady Rose." Amun-din showed her usual soft smile of the Jedi Order. "My brother's servant has finally shown her face."
"At least your brother's apprentice is still alive. I hope you were able to send your regards to Jedi Master Leafa after I took her life on Alderaan."
Kirito was blown away as Asuna admitted that fact. He remembered Suguha and Amanda had some former confrontation, but had no idea that she was once the Jedi padawan of the leader of the Republic.
Amun-din never moved a muscle. "My padawan was a capable fighter. But she had no business being in that fight. She should have known her place, and stayed put on Tython like I asked."
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Kirito finally snapped, and joined the others as he grabbed his lightsaber hilts. The blades never powered on, but his eyes held the same sort of fire that his laser swords usually put off as he stared down the leader of the Jedi Order.
"Ya know, I've spent a pretty good amount of time on both factions, and I'm starting to lose sight on which one houses the good guys. The Jedi were always the arrogant ones in the movies, after all."
"How boldly correct, Master Kirigaya. How boldly correct you are."
The platform this confrontation took place on was standing at the top of a frigid peak high above Ilum, which made room for a royal Imperial shuttle to zoom slowly up from the horizon and into the view of the broken congregation. Standing on an open entrance ramp looking down on the other players like a lion to sheep, was the most powerful player offered by the Sith Empire ranks.
"Master Lusac." Asuna felt her blood quake with fear, and just then Amun-din's expression matched her Sith enemy's as her own brother join the conversation
"Little brother...you of all people..."
"You're Emperor Lusac." Kirito spat out with anger as he noticed Asuna's frail reaction to the reveal of her Sith Lord liege. His stance was turned to the Emperor, and his eyes were now turning a shade of yellow similar to Asuna's once before. "You finally decided to join the rest of your galaxy."
"My galaxy indeed." Lusac stood tall above the others, and had no weapon attached to his belt while he lorded over the rest of them from the sir. "My apprentice, my sweet sister, my father's prized possession, and the rest of the Republic high-command, all on one platform...all my eggs have suddenly fallen into the same basket."
"There's no damned way you'd be able to do something about it!" Klein pulled out his blaster pistol, and shot off a laser as Lisbeth ran over and grabbed his arm to pull it down.
"STOP IT, YOU IDIOT!" She was not doing so to protect her Emperor, but instead to protect her former friend. "Don't you know what you're...!"
Lusac redirected the shot with his hand, and went to hit Klein in the chest. Instead he hit Lisbeth's arm, but paid no mind as he continued to address the more important people to his grand scheme.
"I don't have time to discuss my intentions with you, sweet sister. I'm merely here to get back what I lost not too long ago." He ignored Amanda's trembling expression, and looked down at Kirito.
"If you would be so kind as to return your wife to my side, boy. I'll be taking my apprentice back now."
"Like hell I'd ever do that." Kirito stepped forward, but Asuna grabbed him by the arm, and as he turned to look at her approach, his eyes matched Amanda's level of fright when he saw the smoke and clouds forming under her vision.
Asuna was looking right at Lusac now. "I'm not your puppet, anymore. I will not fight this war for you as long as you use that mind trick on me and my allies. I'm through fighting for the Sith Empire."
Lusac let a dissatisfied breath flow from his mouth. "How idealistic...everything in this rotten game is my puppet! THIS IS MY GAME!"
He raised a single hand, and took out almost every person standing on the platform, bringing them all to their knees, and even taking the lives of others as they fell to their deaths from the violent swell of Sith lightning pulsing from his single shock wave.
Even Kirito and Asuna fell down to catch themselves. The only person left standing on the grid was Master Amun-din. She stood with her same hand straight out in front of her chest, and carried on addressing her brother.
"This broken apprentice of yours has seen the light. Whether she accepts the path of a Jedi is beyond me, but she will no longer be fighting for you."
"Hah." Lusac was almost entertained by that thought. "The day she stops fighting for me is the day she dies. That'll be the only way to break my hold on her, and the others in my faction."
Lisbeth raised her head up at that announcement, and felt her own heart ache like Asuna's as her Emperor stood largely over the rest of the Republic.
"I'm through here. I think it's time for you to share the news with father's former prize. Tell Kirito what you've been doing this whole time." Lusac looked at his sister's broken face, and tried to hold in his laugh to hear the reaction of all others down below.
"What does he mean?" Kirito was waiting for some kind of bad news to be spilled over the floor, and turned to stare daggers right at Amun-din. "Amanda...what does he mean?"
The Lady of Light wanted to keep all of her next words to herself, but reluctantly revealed them anyway. "When you left to bring Asuna over to the Light Side, I used a unique device to target your player ID. I've been tracking your every move since leaving Coruscant."
"You did what!?" Kirito turned his anger away from the Sith Emperor, and now felt his wrath swelling for the Jedi Master. "You betrayed my trust!? How the hell did you think to get me to fight for your side if you felt the need to track me like some sort of prisoner!?"
"I needed to see what you would do!" She pleaded out, now locating the single-bladed lightsaber handle hanging from her side. " You promised us at the meeting. I wanted to see what you would do to try and bring Lady Rose to our side."
"And there it is." Lusac cracked a smile as that news flew through the air, and kept his eyes on Kirito and Asuna the moment the black-haired boy turned with alert eyes.
"No." Kirito tried keeping his emotions back. "No, I...Asuna...I never..."
Once Kirito finally turned to see Asuna, he waited for her to say something back. Anything would have made him feel better. He did not, however, wish to see what was about to come.
She was silent. Asuna had all the power of a mighty Sith Lord, but the strength she collected over the course of this campaign had settled into nothing the moment that news hit her ears. She barely noticed Kirito rush in front of her to plead for his case, but dark energy had started tuning him inside-out as faint words left her lips.
"You tried to turn me to your side...but I was supposed to be the one trying to turn you...I-I was being played by you and Lusac at the same time...?"
"No, Asuna! ASUNA!" Kirito grabbed her arms to keep her on her feet. "I got captured. I lost my own mind to you. I let the Dark Side get the better of me and cloud my training with the Force! I had no way of persuading you! I even killed Thinker to save you!"
"And in the cave?" Lusac did not need a bit of tracking technology to see a vision of the two lovers down in the crystal caverns below Ilum. He was after all, the all-knowing Dark Lord of the Sith. "When she asked to be saved from the Empire? Are you telling me the thought of 'saving' her from me never crossed your mind?"
"Asuna." Kirito felt a tear fall from his eyes as Lusac was getting inside her head. "Please..."
"I..." Asuna fell back from Kirito's hands, and stumbled off to her own section of the platform. Her hands hung down from her body, and her eyes were now pale white orbs trying to grasp onto any form of the truth. Her fear was growing, and due to her extensive training with the Dark Side of the Force, and her manipulation at the hands of the ruthless Darth Lusac, Asuna Yuuki, the Dark Lord Rosario, finally felt her fear turn into anger.
"AGHHHHHHHHHH!"
A violent storm of black energy and blue flairs of electrical power came up from Asun's person. Those who were barely clutching the ground kept their heads low, and even powerful beings like Agil and Chrysheight were trying to spare their eyes from the certain death before them. Amun-din raised her hands to block the attack with a Force shield, but this direct attack was far greater than Lusac's first assault, and even she was starting to lose her grip.
Kirito powered on his sabers, and held them up in a cross to block the attack from damaging him. He tried to get a hold of his fallen Sith friend, but the Dark Side was ever encompassing her heart with more and more rage filling her mind.
"ASUNA!" Kirito slowly stepped forward as whirls of energy shot below his feet. "THINK BACK TO THE CAVE! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF THIS GAME TOGETHER!"
"AGHH!" She cried out more and more as her voice was amplified by the Dark Side. "GET AWAY FROM ME!"
The energy stopped coming, and soon the fiery-skinned Asuna shot forward, and attacked Kirito where he stood. The poor boy used his red sabers to deflect her attacks, and sent them back at her as a second round of slashes came from the Dark Lady Rose.
Asuna beat Kirito mercilessly, and tried to disarm him from his twin blades, but Kirito's training was just good enough, and the two beings seemed to be evenly match. Amun-din finally intervened, and powered on a brilliant mint-colored green saber to try and take the life of Asuna Yuuki on her own, but just then Kirito shouted back at her.
"NO!" He swung out to keep Amun-din away, which left him open as Asuna slashed him on the hip, and nearly cut into his virtual bones as he fell to his side in a fit of pain.
Kirito still held his left hand high, but Asuna stood over him as she slung her saber down like a hammer over and over again. Kirito would have certainly met his end there, if he did not swallow his courage, and step in to save himself from her cruelly powerful hands.
"GYAH!" Kirito had no choice but to shove her saber out of the way with his left sword. He used his Force powers to call back his right weapon, then took the right arm from his beloved wife in a single chop, and sent her flying backwards as she screamed out in pain.
"ASUNA!" Kirito instantly stood as he also managed to scrape her chest and neck with the upswing from his attack, as a violent yell of agony took the air. Soon after, the wound led her into a silent state of shock. He ran to save her from tumbling off the edge, but just then the world froze around them, and Kirito stopped running forward like a statue stopped in time.
"Kirito." Emperor Lusac pulled the now defeated Asuna aboard his ship with the might of the Force, and casually let his shuttle fly over the scene while the rest of the platform stood idly by as frozen husks, including his powerful sister.
"Darth Rosario will be waiting for you... I look forward to our next meeting."
"Grr...Lucas!" Kirito's lips could barely move, but the extensive Force power inside his body kept him slightly in control of the spell, unlike the others. "You planned this all along!"
"I actually did, yes." Emperor Lusac gave Kirito one final regard as he took his mighty Sith apprentice with him in his ascent to the Mother's Rosario. "Father will be proud. All a part of my Grand Design."
The Sith Emperor has finally revealed himself to Kirito. Asuna felt betrayed, and now Kirito must find away to win her back all over again, while also dealing with the Mathis siblings. Lusac seems pretty straight forward, but this Amanda appears to have a different personality than her brother...
Until next time!