"Tia, the other goddess, is up ahead," Kirito says to us as we come underneath a glowing blue sigil in the depths of Aincrad. "She hooked herself up to a module in order to push this world to the brink of collapse. Premiere and the other NPCs aren't the only ones for whom this world feels real. It's real to players like us, too. We've got to stop her from tearing this world apart! This is it. The battle that will end everything our meeting with Premiere set in motion. Is everyone ready to do this?"

"We have each other," Asuna answers. "And as long as we have each other, I know we can save the world."

Kirito nods. "You're right. Let's save it together."

"You've got it! We'll guarantee that this world lives to see another day!"

"Brace yourself, guys," I say as I walk forward. "We're going back to Aincrad. Asuna, Kirito, we'll be the forward team. Premiere, come with us. Klein, as soon as we're through, count five minutes then enter."

Klein gives me a thumbs up. "You got it!" Facing Kirito, the four of us step up to the sigil and touch it, teleporting to a different area. By different, I mean a place straight out of science fiction. It's a digitized platform with various pillars surrounding us. In the center is a capsule which drops down to our level and is surrounded by smaller "protectors" of sorts.

But it is what the capsule contains that interests us. "That's… That's Tia!"

"Is she okay? She might be unconscious!"

"Maybe the module did that to her, it could be some sort of protection against what's to come."

"So it's a hex? Then let's find a way to break it!"

I nod. "Yeah, we do that, we should be able to safely separate Tia from the module… We got three minutes before the others come in."

Kirito draws his swords. "We may not know what's gonna happen in here, but I know I can trust in each of you and everyone else. As a team, we've overcome much worse! We stand on the edge united, We will not fail. Trust in your blades, trust in your hearts, and trust in everyone who fights beside you! Every life down there is ours to save! This world is ours to save! Jaymes, Asuna, Premiere, are you ready?"

"Yes!"

"Mhm!"

"I am ready."

"Forward!" We dash forth into battle. Eyeing the first "Antimatter" enemy, I bash it out the way and Premiere's dispatches it. Asuna and Kirito eliminate one apiece, leaving only one between us and the "Prayer Conduit" surrounding Tia. Letting the smaller enemy get close, I realize that it's not a monster, but an explosive mine attack by the module, indicated by the glow it produces as I come into the vicinity and the red range circle on the ground. However, they're weak.

As I take out the last Antimatter for now, I glance at the rest of the group. Asuna, Kirito, and Premiere are attacking the Prayer Conduit. Tia's conduit fights back with beam attacks, but the four of us are literally running circles around the conduit. It continues to spawn more Antimatter mines, but Premiere and I continue to pick them off. And based on the time, the others so reinforce us in a minute or less. With the Prayer Conduit's health dropping rapidly (current bar at half health), this might be an easy fight for now.

"We're here!"

I drop back momentarily to the rest of the group and begin issuing orders. "Klein, Agil, Yuuki, Leafa, Rain, we're directly going to attack that module. Everyone else, follow Premiere and keep those mines it spawns busy. Got it?"

"Yes!"

Minutes later

"You guys, drop back!" The eight of us attacking the module fall back as the Prayer Conduit begins to transform nearly losing two-thirds of its health points. Tia's capsule becomes a golem-like being. With the transformation, new attack patterns are possible, finally shaking this mundane battle up.

"This castle will fall to the earth," Tia says from within the castle. "Your reign cast down from the throne… All the skies alight in a cataclysm of fire. At last the slate will be cleared. All will return to purity and nothing."

"We won't let you do that!"

"Why? You insist on standing in my way, thwarting my every effort… Why? There's no purpose here, this world, its people. All is empty and barren. Nothing of meaning!"

"We won't deny there's pain here," I say. "Sadness, agony, hatred. Some people will do horrible things. We get it, all of us here lived it one way or another. That's the way things are in every world. But the world is also vast Tia. The skies are endless, there's joy to end sorrow, beauty for ruin. You choose your own meaning. If you destroy this world, then that's it! The final curtain. You take away even the possibility of happiness! Don't do this!"

"I've seen what this world offers! Fury and despair and boundless tragedy! The path is chosen! I don't want other people… I don't need them! I HATE THEM! Just… Just put it all away… I wish they'd disappear! Go away… I want it to go away forever! I hate it. I HATE it. I hate it, I hate it, I HATE IT! I reject this world and everything it gives! I defy its peace! It will burn… IT MUST BURN TO NOTHING!"

I scoff. "She rejecting her humanity… This is good, this is where we need her mind to be. We beat her now, she'll lose her purpose."

Kirito points a blade forward. "Eyes open, read the attack patterns. Groups stay the same… Let's go!"

"Final health bar," Kirito shouts. "One final attack, this is it!"

Asuna nods. "Come on, Premiere!" The rapier users charge forward and attack with double Quadruple Pain. In the midst of their attack, I turn to Yuuki and smirk. She catches the hidden message and leads the rest of us except the dual wielders in a charge, allowing us to unleash powerful skills of our own. Once we clear out, Rain and Kirito swings their blades for a double Starburst Stream.

The module disappears in a flash of green and blue light. Tia, surviving the destruction of her surroundings, drops on the ground, defeated. As for us, we barely stand ourselves, exhausted from the battle. But in the end, we won.

"We did it," Kirito says between breaths. "She's broken free of the module."

"Ainground is safe," Asuna manages to comment.

"No way Aincrad will fall. Not anymore. We saved it...hehe! We saved the world!"

"Oh yeah," Lisbeth shouts while squeezing the hell out of my front side. "Take that, Destruction Module!"

Strea, to not be beaten, claims my back. "It's safe! Yaaaaaaaay! We did it! We did it!"

"Yeah, yeah," I say while breaking out of their powerful grips. "We did it. We 'saved the world' from doom and gloom. Two times for me...and you, huh?"

Sinon smiles as we bump fists. "Heh. 'Saved the world'--Check! Sounds like something straight out of a video game."

"Are we not in one?"

She rolls her eyes and playfully hits me on the forehead. "This world is more than any game. The virtual world, as a whole, is our second home. Just another reality for all of us… Speaking of which, we have a gun world to get back to, don't we?"

I sigh. "Poor Crimson Squad. M is probably driven crazy by all those personalities. We may as well go back soon."

"This world… Ainground. It won't end."

Kirito shakes his head. "No, Tia. Not today."

She bows hers. "It's...over. I lost...like the weak ones. Like the ones he hated. 'The weak deserve to die.'" Tia then takes her rapier and holds the blade against her left wrist.

"Tia!"

Sinon reaches out. "No… NO! This isn't the end for you! Don't even think about hurting yourself!"

"No! Don't!" Premiere steps towards her sister, hoping her plea is enough. "It's wrong to take your own life, to close your future."

"Why do you stop me? I am weak. The weak do not have the right to live."

"Everyone has the right to live. The living itself is a reason to persist. You are not weak, Tia."

"There...can be no reason. Losses make weakness. Weakness is useless."

"No. There is value in life. There is joy to be found in growing and friends. I have learned just how wide the world can be. Inside every mind and every heart is the potential to grow. Perhaps on to forever. Tomorrow you may make a new discovery that changes who you are today. You can become something you never imagined you could be. And tomorrow, you may find yourself standing beside new friends that you never thought you could know. These people taught me this. They stand here before you. They will welcome you too."

"Potential can fail and fall just as easily as lift us up. Tomorrow may bring an unknown pain or fear."

"Tia, there's no way to know until you have seen it. And I have seen many things with these people. Trust in my honesty, there is more potential for joy and bliss and friends."

"I… I cannot believe blindly. I do not know how. I do not… Still, I do not understand. If he, or I had lived in a world like you do, perhaps things would be very different. Perhaps they still can be." Tia sheathes her rapier and turns away. Without another word, she teleports away.

As we try to come to terms with Tia's disappearance, Sinon elbows me. "You need a tissue?"

"I'm not crying," I respond while wiping my eyes. "It's just that...she's grown so much as an AI. From null to...opposite of null."

Sinon giggles. "A passionately honest speech about a world filled with possibility. I wonder where she learned that from."

"Definitely not me. If I ever say anything like that, shoot me please."

She nods. "Got you. Now come on, we have a party to plan." She walks on ahead with everyone else besides Kirito and Asuna. Smiling, I walk over to them, hands in my pocket.

"I guess we can't retire from the hero business, huh?"

"Oh, you stopped crying," Kirito says with a smirk. "I didn't know you were such a baby."

"Say it to my face!"

"I would, but I don't wanna see you weep anymore."

"Boys," Asuna says awfully calm yet with a frightening undertone. Kirito and I cease our discord and turn our backs on each other, much to Asuna's amusement. "Goodness, you two are such idiots. Why do I stick with both of you?"

"The same reason I enjoy watching the three of you work." We blink and face each other, wondering if we heard the same voice. A second later, the sound of clinking armor resonates behind us, and as we face it, our jaws drop. For Asuna and Kirito, the last meeting varies, but for me, I haven't heard that voice since December.

"The commander…"

"Heathcliff?"

"Kayaba… You're alive?"

He shrugs at my question. "Insofar as this existence constitutes 'living', yes, I suppose it is acceptable. I guess last you heard from me, it was just my voice, so I'll explain it to you and Asuna. The 'me' that stands before you now is a digital shadow...the consciousness of Akihiko Kayaba scattered across the spectrum."

Asuna sighs. "Your shadow hasn't changed much, then. You could never give a straight answer."

"Heh, my apologies. Though, I would like to note that none of you have changed either. Still you refuse to do the sensible thing when every odd is stacked against you. It reminds me of all our time together, minus one girl."

Kirito folds his arms. "If you weren't so busy being a voyeur, you could've helped."

"I hope you'll forgive my inaction. I was able to witness events, but only a moment ago I was able to manifest as...this. Strangely enough, I guess I owe my awakening here from beyond the Seed to Sword Art: Origin's Cardinal System. Well, technicalities and such, it was really SAO's backup. The Cardinal Copy."

"Which is?"

"The destruction module wished to reconstitute Aincrad. Being an integral part of Aincrad, I was recreated to what you see before you. It wasn't easy, of course. Truly, a massive effort to scour all corners of data and rebuild myself from fragments as a whole. To do so, Cardinal Copy had to split the processing duty amongst thousands of AmuSpheres, both playing Origins and games in the Seed. An intriguing path…"

"So it wasn't just AmuSpheres running SA:O, but Seed games too."

"That's why the AmuSpheres were slowing down. Cardinal Copy had them working to collect your scattered consciousness into form. The system must truly be a fan to go through so much just to give you form again."

"Heh! Not necessarily. I am merely another piece of the puzzle. Though a crucial one. All of this done to again recreate the world where my death game unfolded, albeit maybe a clone of said world rather than a simple recreation."

"Aincrad… Sword Art…"

"Oh! What about that message? 'I'm back to Aincrad' and all that. Was I right? Was you the sender?"

"Ah, yes. Fascinating, that little enigma. An artful, if confusing, start. Alas, no, I was not the sender."

I sigh. "Then I was right. Cardinal did it."

"It sought for players most suited for reviving Aincrad. For a second time, it chose you. The mysterious tempting message ignited all this, did it not? Began your strange quest, pushed you all to see it through."

Asuna raises her eyebrow. "Those are the actions of a conscious mind… Is the Cardinal Copy sentient?"

"My word, Lightning Flash. You have quite the imagination. If we assume, for just a moment, that it does possess consciousness, there must be some reason it chose you. Because this game was developed during the SAO incident, more or less copied from it, it knows of the Crimson Warrior, Black Swordsman, and Lightning Flash. It knows who lead the frontlines, who gave their lives for freedom, who beat the game. The first version of ALO, when we last met, Kirito, it knows who made it to the top of the Yggdrasil Tree and why. Because it tapped into the Seed, it knows of your exploits in both the later version of ALO and in GGO, where I last encountered Jaymes. Hearing said hypothesis, is it unbelievable that after three and a half years of collecting data, it finds you three and your friends on that day and chooses you all to initiate its plan?"

"Uhh…"

"Makes some sense…"

"I'll stick with that it doesn't like me."

"Or perhaps it came to the same decision it did once before. You, Kirito, and by extension, Jaymes and Asuna, are integral parts of Aincrad. At various points, all three of you were vital to the progression of the game those two years."

"I rather not know," Asuna exclaims.

"So what happened to the module," I inquire. "We severed the connection to Tia, but didn't destroy it. I don't even know if it can be destroyed."

Heathcliff smiles. "No need to fret. The module has ceased all operations. It was a trifling matter."

"I guess we should thank you."

"While it is an odd thing to hear, don't misunderstand. I did not do it for you. I could not allow it to continue functioning. Cardinal Copy's primary task was to recreate Aincrad. I was nothing more than the boss it summoned for the 100th Floor. Not exactly the second life I had envisioned." Heathcliff takes a breath and looks above us. "I think we've run our course for now. I really should be going. But there's some words I'd like to give you, Jaymes. Words I failed to deliver all those times."

I look at Heathcliff in confusion. "Deliver? From who?"

"Not who. What. Why both Trojan unique skills were given to you back then. It's quite simple, actually. A wall protects those within from the outside world. The Trojan Walls were impenetrable. But the Trojan Horse made it through said walls and crushed it from within. You and your resolve to protect others was impenetrable, even at your worse, but your actions, your deeds, it broke through the walls of others and gave them hope. It even inspired me at one point… Do you remember the day when you first received them?"

"Sometime around the first anniversary I noticed Trojan Wall."

"Indeed. I tried recruiting Koharu once more, for the final time, that is. She denied me as usual, but this time, it wasn't because she was conflicted about leaving you behind or joining Asuna. It was because she knew her every reason to be alive was because of you. You broke down her wall of fear and built up a wall of courage and realization. A wall that continues to be built, wherever you go."

With that, Heathcliff turns around and waves. "For now, this is farewell. I do not doubt that we'll see each other again…"