Author's Note: Well good lord! The world is on quarantine, my Xbox keeps crapping its pants, and I'm settling under social distancing in my cozy apartment for 3 weeks. Life has sure gotten strange!

But I have had time to review some chapters for this story, so here's a new one for ya! The title is another triumphant song name from the film score of John Williams.

Also, I do not own Star Wars or Sword Art Online.


Chapter Thirty-Five - Battle of the Heroes


"Asuna...no...that can't be you."

Asuna Yuuki was wearing a full black robe around a modest red skirt hanging from her waist, similar to her outfit from Aincrad. Her legs were fully covered by slim grey trousers underneath, and her feet were matched with Sith styled boots of soft black leather.

Her upper body resembled her wardrobe from the Knights of the Blood Oath as well, albeit with a small change of flair more befitting to the universe of the galaxy far far away. Her shoulders were still slightly exposed, but her arms, torso, and chest were all lined with a thin Sith tunic that sat underneath a sturdy steel breathing apparatus. Her neck was covered by the metal pieces, and her mouth was hidden behind the evil contraption of the Sith as well. Only her hair, eyes, and the upper part of her face were visible. Eyes alight with the fire of the Dark Side, and a face pale with virtually white skin.

Somehow though, her hair remained auburn, and her curved lightsaber stayed hanging from the left side of her belt. She stood making no sounds, nothing even came from her new machinery that was responsible for taking care of her breathing now. She just stood waiting, and watched the boy Kirito with anger building up inside her veins.

"Asuna..." Kirito held up one of his hands, which still held the dead lightsaber as he tried to reach out with his true feelings. "What did he do to you...?"

"Me?!" Lusac shouted out, mocking the audacity held in Kirito's comment. "What did I do to her? You were the one who betrayed her trust! You were the one who injured her over the skies of Ilum! I had trained her to forget all attachments...and then out of the blue you show up through an invitation from my father, an stole her heart away once more."

"What happened with you in ALO? Your sister told me you were a developer!" Kirito realized Asuna was nether talking nor moving forward, so he decided to probe Lusac with questions while he still had the chance.

Lusac rolled his eyes, and leaned back into his large chair. "You do not need to know about my time in the game of the Fairies. That monster, Nobuyuki Sugo is locked up now. That world is out of our hands. We're both here now...you have your own battle to fight before me."

Kirito looked away from the Emperor, and noticed Asuna had taken a slight step forward. Her forehead had lowered just by a fraction, and a small shadow had taken her brow.

Kirito wanted to feel as fierce as he did when he first entered the throne room, but now, more and more confusion stirred within his mind as he became further and further unbalanced.

"Oh and by the way..." Lusac smirked, with a small bit of theater coming from his delivery. "I'm afraid the Shock Drum will remain quite dormant when your friends discover it."

Kirito left Lusac alone to cackle atop his high chair after that comment, and only left words for Asuna as she inched closer with anger.

"Asuna...please...just say something...anything."

She did not respond. Darth Rosario never even blinked.

"Asuna...I will not fight you."

Despite his own wishes, anger was starting to build up inside Kirito now, too. This figure, this menace before him was no longer the girl he fell in love with back in Sword Art Online.

If this was the creature that consumed Asuna Yuuki, then it needed to be destroyed here and now.

Asuna closed her eyes, and reached down to grab the curved handle from her beltloop. She pulled it to the right, and powered on the crimson red blade with a spinning salute aimed at her new enemy.

Kirito was furious now. Anger and hate were both through building, and even the corners of his own eyes were starting to turn a golden shade of yellow. He grabbed the red and green lightsabers in his hands, and turned them on to combat the titan to his front.

The two fallen heroes lunged forward, and met their blades in a horrifying song of battle.


Lisbeth, Silica and Yui had made it into the inner chambers of the underground Sith laboratories. After easily discovering the imposing Shock Drum that stood almost as large as two shuttles combined, it appeared the crew that had just worked on it was asked to dismantle the core pieces, and flee to the sky battle by order of Emperor Lusac.

"Horizontal boosters?"

Lisbeth had her head stuck underneath the large Shock Drum unit, and Silica was both trying to deliver her parts, and watch for Imperial soldiers. Yui sat alone off to the side with her canister tilted downward.

Lisbeth was done with that, and tossed some equipment back to her aid. "Alluvial dampers?"

Silica's head was starting to hurt as she tried to dig through the imperials' cluttered tool kit.

Lisbeth took that, but stuck her other hand out for something else. "Leeway wrench?"

Silica tossed it down to the Power Tech, but slowly wondered away from the make-shift works shop. "I'm starting to fall behind here...I'm going to go catch my breath."

"Fine by me..." Lisbeth scoffed and tossed the wrench given to her back into the kit. "Damn moof-milker...that was a Bosin wrench, anyway."

Silica made it over to the oddly dormant Yui, and tried to see what was the matter. "Yui? Are you still trying to find Kirito?"

It took a small while, but eventually the small purple hologram of Yui flew itself from the droid's projector, and continued looking down into the ground.

"I lost my connection with him. I'm worried he's in danger."

"Kirito...always seems to be in danger." Silica tried to smile through that statement. "But I've noticed, that in the end he always finds a way to get out of things alive. He's a pretty special player, even in this universe."

The holographic Yui was ready to shed a tear of sorrow, but a tiny smile began taking her face. "Silica...are you sure your memories of Daddy are still gone?"

The befuddled Smuggler had no way of answering that, and leaned back with a face full of red. "I don't know, w-why?"

Yui chuckled into her hand, and wiped away a set of tears forming under her eyes. "Because I could see the you from the real world saying something just like that in this situation."

Lisbeth shouted over to the two of them from her work station. Her head was still buried beneath the bottom of the war machine. "That Kirito kid may be noble, but he does have an eye for danger. The stupid guy flew right into Korriban after leaving Dagobah to take Asuna back on his own."

"Teehee!" Yui giggled softly as she tried remembering the scene before her over long hiatus. "When daddy is determined, he usually can't be stopped. Especially when it involves finding Mommy!"

Silica sighed, and Lisbeth growled from underneath the machine as her face changed colors. "Yea...gag me. That was also pretty stupid of him to run toward the Empire's hidden throne room to take down the Emperor alone."

"...WHAT!?"

Silica and Yui both shouted out at the working bounty hunter, who reluctantly banged her head on the metal slab over her body after hearing their ruckus from outside.

"What!? What!?" She yelled out to the screaming girls. "It's pretty obvious what he was doing the whole time. He tricked the entire Republic to smuggle himself down to Dromund Kaas. He was set on taking out the Emperor on his own this whole time...our assault was just an added bonus, I suppose."

Silica tried to gather everything she had just heard, but Yui took no time to waste as she turned on her power cell, and flew back down the hallway that led them down into the laboratory.

"I'm going after daddy! I have a feeling why he was trying to find Lusac!"

"Yui..." Silica held a hand to her heart, and watched the T7 unit leave for the corner, and into the darkness.

Lisbeth waved her hand from underneath the metal, and carried on in her work. "Let her go. She was dying to see him again anyway. If we're lucky, the Emperor will be there for Kirito to...wait, I think I got it!"

Silica turned around, and Lisbeth rolled out from under the Shock Drum to dust her hands off in pride. "Score one for the greatest Power Tech in the galaxy! Let's power on the controls and get this thing shaking!"

Silica jumped off her seat and cheered for the Power Tech. "Lis that's amazing! Now we can defeat Lusac and get out of the game!"

Lisbeth stood with great haste, but stopped, and turned to her pigtailed friend from the Republic. "Yikes, I almost forgot to do one last thing!

The Bounty Hunter quickly drew her favorite sidearm, and shot Silica right in the chest. The small Republic Smuggler felt her chin drop down more than usual, and her eyes grew wide as the whole in her upper abdominal flared with an orange glow.

The little girl fell over after the shot, and Lisbeth twirled her blaster pistol around to give it a blow from her lips. She smiled smoothly and turned back for the computer. "Emperor Lusac told me to get it back to working, but never told me to switch on the power. I wonder if he wants the thing shipped off world or..."

"Lis..."

The Bounty Hunter raised an eyebrow, and turned to find Silica lying near-death on the ground. Then she laughed.

"Hey kid, I did my mission. I'm a BOUNTY HUNTER fighting for the EMPIRE! My leader told me to carry out a job, and I followed. End of story...don't use that BS that we're all friends IRL to try and change my mind..."

She turned back to the screen, and continued messing with the controls. She expected to hear a 'ding' sound to confirm that the battery cell had been attached, but never expected to hear a faint hissing noise instead.

Nor did she expect to see a large cloud of smoke coming from behind. She drew her wrist flamethrower, and shot a large ball of fire at the now empty spot where Silica was just lying.

"Ugh!" She stomped her foot down, and drew the night vision visor from her inventory. "Lousy nerfherder...she'll be wishing that I killed her with that shot once I find her after this."

Silica had rolled out of the way from her own smoke grenade, and managed to leap from Lisbeth's wrist fire. The crafty smuggler then threw herself into the dark hallway that Yui turned trough to leave for the surface, and buffed the small chest piece that she wore to block the bullet.

"This is not good...this is really really bad." Silica grabbed her hand gun, and hid around the corner to try and locate where the bounty hunter had gone next. "I have to stay hidden from my psycho best friend, who also specializes in hunting people down? ...I'm not going to survive this!"


Klein zipped through the space above Dromund Kaas as he tried clearing enemy fighters off the hull of the flagship Rath. Republic forces were holding their own very well in the overarching dogfight among the stars, but this one fighter pilot was evading every single thing that Klein through her way.

"This person is crazy fast! It's like they know where I'm coming from at every angle. I can't get a leg up on this freak!"

The Informant flew swiftly threw the details of the Republic flagship Valor-Class, and Klein stayed right on its tail as he preserved his fire for open space. His shields remained at his rear, and his targeting computer remained on during the entire pursuit across the hull.

"Red Leader! Gold group and Blue groups have begun their assault on the enemy's forward command. What are your orders?"

Klein was getting distracted by this rogue pilot, and had no care for what his squadron would do next. "Either stay defensive with the fleet, or engage the enemy's fighters. I'm staying on the leader!"

He kept his thumbs on the trigger of his controls as the bow of the Salamander aimed right for the end of the Informant.

"Don't worry..." He whispered brashly to himself as he waited for a clear shot. "I'll make this quick..."

Meanwhile, Master Agil was dueling a set of Sith Warriors down within the hallways of the Imperials' prized space station. The enemy was growing oddly large inside the limited spaceport, which meant Agil and his mean had to finish their task, and evacuate the ship immediately.

He slashed his way through one Sith Marauder, then twirled out of the way, and stuck the Sith Juggernaut with the end of his blue saber, slashing his body into the ground as his commandos followed up on his advancement.

"Come on! The General is leading us this way!"

Agil kept a determine expression glued to his face, but a sudden sense of shock fell over his body as he felt grave danger at the end of the exposed hallway.

"Look out!" He jumped over, and pushed his commanders out of the way. A large vaporizing ion shot came from the far end of the corridor, and nearly wiped the entire pursuit squad out in a single shot.

Agil held his Jedi's weapon firmly, but barely peaked out from the corner to see what danger lied beyond his point.

"Is that a...Manadalorian? They have impenetrable armor."

A second shot came for the group, but hit the other side of the corridor as the skilled sniper managed to trim the fat from a trooper sticking out in view. The person's body turned to dust with the impact of the bolt, and left Agil with an odd sense of wonder as he watched the scene unfold.

"That accuracy...this feeling...I know this enemy. It has to be her."

Agil looked over at the commandos hiding on the other side of the doorway, and signaled for them to retreat around back. They nodded, and the entire squad followed the leaders out the back hallway and returned to the hanger for a new pathway into the command bridge.

Agil then stepped out, and held his blue lightsaber high as he delivered a calm Jedi's smile to his distant opponent. "You're the sniper from the raid on Coruscant! Sinon, is it? I've heard a lot about you!"

Sinon tried to gather her emotions, but let out a gasp the moment the Jedi Master recognized her. His deep, booming voice pierced her eardrums, and also seemed to be distantly familiar as she tried to remember where else she heard it before.

"Did he speak to me on Coruscant? No... we never even met each other in the eyes...he must know me from the real world. Just another friend I'll be forced to kill in the name of this lousy War. Can't this fight be done with already!?"

She turned around the wall again, and noticed her mind slipped and allowed the daunting Jedi Master to advance up the hallway, and close in on her location. He tossed his lightsaber like a boomerang, and hit her right in the arm, but her sturdy beskar gauntlet was enough to protect her body, and allowed her to bash the blade away into the wall.

Agil retrieved it, and lunged up into the air for a second attack, but Sinon rolled around, and placed a thermal mine on the ground in her place. Agil held a hand over the device, and shrouded it with the Force to keep the explosion down to its smallest size. He turned to find the Mandalorian sniper fleeing down the rest of the hallway, and instantly pursued her.

Sinon would turn around to deliver occasional warning shots, but Agil would easily deflect them into the wall or back her way. The sniper wound up taking some of the hits without fear, and other times she shot out a grappling hook to the wall, and pulled herself further out of danger.

"Are you sure you're just a sniper. Sinon?" Agil sounded very impressed as he kept up his chase. "You really seem like a powerful Sith player right now!"

"Stop talking to me..." She mumbled to herself, and tossed out a small droid that spilt into four sections, creating a medium-height ray shield to protect her while she pulled back on her rifle's chamber handle.

"You're not my friend here, Agil! You're just a DEAD MAN!"

She shot a large blaster bolt out from her sniper rifle, and as the shot came at an impressive speed, Agil rolled out from underneath its trajectory, and tossed his saber to take out the corners of her hovering forcefield.

He rolled in front of the fallen sniper rifle after the recoil knocked her to her feet, and retrieved his spinning laser sword as he placed the tip just underneath her chin.

"You're not my enemy..." Agil spoke calmly as he looked Sinon deep in her eyes. "You are my ally from another world..."

"Agh!" Sinon's brain was starting to hurt slightly, and her hand immediately went up to her forehead. "I'm not you...ugh...ally!"

"You will stop fighting me, Sinon! And you will tell me where Asuna is!"

Agil knew that if the Republic was unable to defeat the Sith here, they should at least try to save their IRL friends from the grip of the Empire. Thus, in order to break the mental hold of the Dark Side, he would have to act with a Force user's trick of his own.

"I will...I will...AGH...!"

She let out a large cry, then went silent as her eyes grew large and pale. Slowly, Sinon stood up, and slung her large sniper rifle onto her shoulder.

"I will tell you were Asuna is...please, this way." Sinon turned around, and started walking back toward the forward command bridge. Meanwhile, Agil sighed, and put away his lightsaber.

"That would have been close. I'm not sure I'd be able to kill another player in this game, let alone someone who is supposed to be my..."

He stopped thinking, and looked up, Sinon's right hand was raised, and a metal sphere topped with a blinking red light sat loosely in her palm. She lightly tossed it back his way, then shot her grapple hook through a set of blast doors. Agil drew his lightsaber, and barely blocked the explosion with his weapon and knowledge of the Force.

Sinon simply pulled out a blaster pistol, and shot the controls to the blast door behind her, sealing them shut.

"Dumb Jedi...according to you all, I'm already under the mind trick of a far more powerful player..."


Kirito and Asuna were locked in their violent duel before the throne of Emperor Lusac. Asuna was on the offensive, a tactic different from her usual style of fighting. This caught Kirito by surprise as he found the first moments of the fight were nothing but blocking her attacks and parrying them back her way.

The Force was strong with her, and the Dark Lady of the Sith was trying to cut down every inch of the boy Kirito as he stood with his defenses. She would deliver occasional hacks to the side to draw his lightsabers away from his core, then twist her right hand up as she always did in Aincrad to jab at her opponent's chest.

Kirito was quick enough to deflect these first attacks, but always had to Force leap backwards to avoid the risk of her execute. The Lightning Flash from the Knights of the Blood Oath was quite the master fencer in SAO, but this level of speed and passion was on a far different level.

He slashed his sabers downward, then cut into the ground at her feet to flip over to her left side. Quickly, he brought his hands up, and pushed her with Force energy to set her off balance. Asuna took the hit, and flew backwards, but as she met the wall of the throneroom, her feet caught her landing, and propelled her back his way.

She came in like a dart, and tried hacking off his head, but Kirito rolled out of the way, and missed removing her legs as they flew by his head.

She landed, and he stood up, which brought them both back together. Kirito could hear the Emperor enjoying the fight, and loathed the idea of him being able to see their confrontation like this.

"I can't do this here...Asuna..." Kirito held his sabers as long as he could, while Asuna brought her blade down with more and more strength. He broke his shield, and ran over to the platform that she emerged from for the fight.

As expected, the platform started to carry him below the floor, and just as Asuna jumped high in the air to take him out, he pushed her away with his Jedi abilities, and safely made it into the room down below. Asuna, now snarling with anger behind her mask, jumped through the air again, and chased him down into the basement.

Asuna landed, but quickly heard Kirito's valiant war cry as she turned to find him leaping through the air with both lightsabers raised. The green one missed her head as she ducked, but she caught the red with her own blade, and stood tall to look him in the eyes.

"Asuna...just say something! I'll know you're still in there if you just say something...I'll stop fighting, and let you win, if you just talk to me..."

Her eyes were trimmed with fire, and her off hand was starting to glow purple as small electrical charges built over her knuckles. Kirito narrowed his vision in anger as well, and raised his off-hand green lightsaber.

"IF YOU WON'T TALK, THEN I'LL JUST HAVE TO KILL YOU!"

He brought his green saber over her head, but Asuna shifted her stance, and brought her own left hand to meet it. A large streak of Sith lightning met his blade, and kept him still while she backed away to regain her energy.

Kirito's sabers were crossed together to keep the Sith energy away from his body, and his legs were starting to walk backwards to remove stress from his now tired arms. He yelled through the attack, and finally cut it down, but only as Asuna leapt back towards him, and stabbed forward to try and meet his chest for a second time.

Kirito brought his swords together, and went to combine is attack into an overly powerful smash, but Asuna held both of them down to the side with just one hand and one lightsaber. Her free hand grabbed Kirito by the neck with the Force, and raised him high in the air.

Kirito grasped at his neck, but held on to the handles of his weapons. She threw her arm to the far left, and tossed Kirito into the wall, nearly smashing a hole in the side of the room.

Kirito looked up from his confusion, and noticed Asuna throw her light saber like a boomerang, which stuck its point right beside Kirito's right temple inside the wall. She then waved her right hand across her body, which caused Kirito to duck as he knew the red blade was meant to cut his head from his shoulders. The blade glided through steel over his head as it ripped through the metal wall, and withdrew through the air back to its owner.

Asuna marched forward and drew her weapon back to her side, bringing it above her head for a completing strike, but Kirito grabbed his fallen sabers, and blocked her attack while still sitting on the ground.

He slowly gained power in his feet, and pushed her away for a short second, but then Darth Rosario slashed to the side, and grabbed him by the collar of his tunic. Using the power of her mind alone, she pinned his left hand away from his body, and moved his right hand slowly up to try and have Kirito take off his own head. Kirito gasped for air, then screamed into her menacing face as he shot both of them into the ceiling with a boost from the Force.

Asuna's back slammed into the ceiling, and she fell hard back down to the floor while also dropping her weapon. Kirito flipped away from the scene, and used the Force again to knock the curved-hilt lightsaber away from his lover's side. He jumped in the air with both blades raised, but now Asuna had two free hands to send a very powerful cloud of electrical Sith energy right at his chest, and stalled him there as he tried to defend his life.

Asuna called off her attack, and rolled to the right as Kirito struck the ground with a swift blow where she was standing. She telepathically collected her weapon, and turned the red blade back on to stand at the far side of the field.

Both warriors were still armed, but they stopped to collect their breaths and thoughts at opposite ends of the luxurious basement floor.

"Ahhaaahhh..." Kirito was panting heavily, and held both lightsabers down at his sides as he tried to stand tall. "I'm out of energy...and you are too...just take that ridiculous mask off, and let's talk like we did before."

Asuna was breathing, but no other movement came from the Sith Lord. She kept her eyes sharply on Kirito and allowed him to carry on talking.

"You planned it, yourself. Let me join you, and we can beat the Emperor together! All from the Sith faction if it makes a difference. He's from ALO, Asuna, and he worked for your father"s company...You and I are two of the best players in that game, along with all our friends! We can take him down, and find Peter Mathis together!"

Asuna ignored him, and chose to remain silent by the will of her current Lord.

Kirito had enough, and lowered his head as his eyes closed for concentration. "If you won't talk, and if I can't kill you...fine...then I'll have to take out the guy that's KEEPING YOU QUIET!"

He raised both hands forward, and shoved Asuna back into the wall behind her perch. Then, Kirito jumped on the platform leading back up through the ceiling, and let the elevator lift his body slowly through the floor. He propelled himself through the whole and shot up into the throne room like a rocket in mid-launch.

Kirito raised his arms, and cried at the top of his lungs as he tried to jump towards the throne of Emperor Lusac. The Dark Lord of the Sith paid him no mind, however, as the boy suddenly froze in air, and was immediately pulled back the way he came, and slammed into the main doorway of the vast throne room.

Asuna came up from the platform once again, only this time, she cut the center of the standing plate, hoping that would keep it locked in place. She then walked forward slowly, and drew her blade high to finish what she had set out to do.

"Asuna...If I can't snap you out it...I have no idea what will..."

Kirito regained his stance, and held his lightsabers up as well as he prepared for what was possibly the final fight he would have in the Old Republic Online. He closed his eyes, then felt a disturbing presence shooting through the hallway to his back.

Then, the golden doors open, and her voice shot through the air.

"DADDY!"

"Yui..." Kirito's eyes were closed, and a smile crossed over his face as he spoke her name inside his mind. He then nodded slightly forward, never turning around to greet his virtual daughter.

Kirito instead simply lowered his weapons, and allowed Asuna to make her advance. The mighty Sith Lord, Darth Rosario, took no quarter when dealing with the foolish enemy, and quickly cut his right hand off from his arm. She then swayed behind him, spun her lightsaber behind her back, and stuck it into his heart without turning to face him.

Lady Rose had completed her goal, and held her face low as her eyes remained closed to collect her victory. She was waiting to hear the congratulatory cheer from her ruling Emperor, but instead met a far different voice coming from right in front of her face.

A T7 droid unit had just projected a little purple hologram to see the finale of the duel, and as Asuna's eye opened, they met the virtual eyes of a crying little girl. Lost and confused by the sights that she just witnessed.

"Mommy...what did you...?"

"Yui?"

Asuna's voice was finally heard through her sinister mask, and her evil eyes grew wide as the breath in her lungs froze in its place.


So Asuna was totally broken, until...she heard Yui's voice for the first time. I wonder what will happen in the next installment.

I'm also working on a draft for a Kirito x Asuna story set in the work of Dark Souls. Hoping this time off will give me time to expand it. Util next time!