AN: I'm going to warn everyone now, I'm going to do my best to stick to the schedule, but I've been having problems finding the motivation to write lately. With luck, I'll be able to push through it enough to keep to the schedule, but the next chapter could end up being late.

Review Responses:

Doctor Psychosis- I'm sorry that there were parts you didn't like and had to push through, but I totally understand. Hell, there were parts I had to push through when writing this that were necessary in their own ways. I'm glad you enjoy it enough to push through those segments though!

By the time they arrive home after stopping by the restaurant for lunch and Sugu's promised raspberry cream parfait, it's already three twenty in the afternoon. Heading up to their rooms to log on, his sister pauses in front of her door, "H-Hey, Onii-chan?" He turns to her in question, but she isn't looking at him and is quiet for a minute before she hesitantly continues, "I... There are a few character things I gotta do when I log in so… I- it's gonna be a little bit before I can join you… So just- just give me a few minutes…"

His brow furrows, his worry growing the more his sister acts weird, "... Alright then. I'll meet you downstairs at the inn."

She nods, then hurries into her room without another word. He stares at her door in concern for a minute, then sighs, shakes his head, and enters his own room. With everything already set up, it's only a minute, maybe two before he finds himself in the inn room he'd stayed in the night before. For a moment he simply lays there, staring up at the ceiling without really seeing it, trying to figure out what had been bothering his sister lately.

He doesn't know what's wrong, but he's pretty sure her wanting to be alone has absolutely nothing to do with her character. In fact, it was only for the briefest of seconds as she closed her bedroom but he's pretty sure he had seen tears in his sister's eyes.

Five minutes later he climbs out of bed, dissatisfied and confused. Five minutes of thought and the only conclusion he'd reached was that whatever was wrong with his sister had something to do with Marzanna. It was the only thing in common with all of her little episodes of weirdness, but it didn't make any sense. Sugu had never met Marzanna, considering today didn't really count due to his mate's current condition.

Heading downstairs slowly, he waits for his sister. It was hard not to go up to her room, seeing that he was fairly certain she'd just wanted to be left alone so she could cry without him knowing, but he holds himself in place, respecting the boundary she'd set. It's almost five more minutes before his sister finally comes down, and she looks much more like her usual upbeat energetic self, giving no indication if his suspicion of what she'd actually been doing was right.

She smiles widely at him, "Sorry about that, Onii-chan. Ready to go?" Then she seems to realize something, "Wait, where's Yui?"

Just as she finishes her sentence, blue light converges above his shoulder into Yui, who promptly gives a large yawn as she stretches before settling onto his shoulder, "Right here Aunty Leafa. Good morning, papa, aunty Leafa."

His sister smiles warmly at her, "Morning, Yui." Then she tilts her head in curiosity, "Do you actually sleep at night?"

Yui shakes her head, "Of course not. Well, not as you humans do, but I suppose what I do is a bit similar to sleep. When Papa isn't here, I shut down my input signal and process accumulated data, much like the human brain does while you sleep."

That only seems to confuse Leafa more, "But you yawned just now…"

Now it's Yui's turn to tilt her head in question, "That's what you humans do during your start-up sequence, right?" Then she smiles before adding, "On average, Papa's last eight seconds, but Mama rarely yawns in the morning."

Leafa gives Yui a strange look, and Kirito shrugs, "She may be fully sentient, but she's still an AI. She mostly learns by observing and gathering data on how she should act or talk from those observations." Then he shakes his head and smiles at them, "Well anyway, let's just get going already!"

As they exit the inn, he's a bit surprised to find the city even busier than he'd expected, "I know it's the center of Alfheim and all, but this is… I mean, I heard that it was currently the most popular VRMMO, but it's something else entirely to see it…"

As they make their way through town, he looks around in curiosity. The night before he'd been too tired to do more than give it a cursory look, but now that it wasn't nearly four in the morning he takes in everything around him as they make their way through the town towards the World Tree.

After about fifteen minutes they made their way through an archway that his sister told him separated the central district of Alne from everything else. They'd just barely passed through it when Yui suddenly shoved her head out of his pocket with a surprised expression that quickly became unusually serious.

He immediately halts in concern, "Yui? What's wrong?"

She doesn't answer him immediately, just stares up at the World Tree with utter seriousness, then she quietly mutters, "Mama… Mama is there…"

For a minute, he feels like he can't breathe, it was one thing to suspect, but to have confirmation… He gives his daughter a desperate look, "You're sure?"

Yui nods firmly, "That's no doubt about it, the player ID I'm detecting above belongs to Mama. She's directly above us!"

His gaze snaps upwards and he clutches his teeth tightly as desperation and rage tear through him at the confirmation that Sugou had dared to kidnap his mate. Without thought, he takes off at top speed, barely noticing the fact he creates a sonic boom.(1) Of course, he ends up slamming into the altitude barrier that he'd completely forgotten about in his frantic rush. His sister calls out to him in worry, but he barely registers it as he stabilizes his flight and tries to force his way through.

Again, the barrier repels him, but he just grits his teeth harder as he rights himself again. Before he can rush the barrier a third time, his sister grabs his arm, "Onii-chan, stop! It's impossible to go beyond this point!"

He glares with furious desperation at the barrier, "I've got to go! Can't you see? I've got to get to her, no matter what!"

Above them, Yui drifts up to the barrier and presses her hands against it, forcibly restricted from reaching Marzanna just as he was, and she was just as desperate as well, calling out to her despite the fact it was way too far for Marzanna to hear her, "Mama, it's me." As the barrier continues to hold her back, she lets out a sob before screaming in a heartbreaking tone, "Mama!"

Marzanna's eyes snap open to gaze at the branches and leaves above her as confusion and hope well up within her. She thought she'd heard Yui's voice calling out to her, she might've just pushed the thought away as a figment of her imagination, but there was a bright orange triangle with an exclamation point inside of it flashing in the upper right of her vision.

Tears well up in her eyes, and she knows in that instant that her mate and child are nearby, "Yui, Kirito…"

The man in front of her pauses and gives her a harsh questioning look, "What was that?"

She ignores him though, lowering her head to look past him at Asuna. Her friend was clutching the bars of her cage and had been shouting at the man she called Sugou furiously with tears in her eyes, but now she was also giving her a confused look. Marzanna merely locks eyes with her and smiles with warm reassurance as Yui's voice echoes around her a second time. Asuna's eyes immediately widen with hopeful understanding. Then her gaze flickers to Sugou before she quietly lets go of the bars and slowly begins to back away to her bed.

Sugou sneers at her, "What? You think that little cockroach can save you? Think again. There's nothing that powerless little brat can do to help you."

Marzanna has no idea what her friend is trying to do, as she reaches under the pillows and pulls something out before quickly hiding it in her hands, but it's really not important. She's clearly got something in mind, so Marzanna's only job is to keep Sugou distracted. With that in mind, she opens her mouth to do what she does best. Piss him off, "Funny, hearing something like that from a man who's so pathetic he has to rely on other people's work to get what he wants. This world is basically just a cheap knockoff of SAO, isn't it?"

Sugou's face twists with fury, "Cheap knockoff?! Alfheim is superior to SAO in every way! This is my world, and I will not stand for you insulting it!"

With that proclamation, he reaches up and twists one of the many blades already stabbed into her body. She grunts in pain but doesn't regret it in the slightest. Not when Asuna had already reached her hand through the bars and dropped whatever she'd been holding while Sugou threw his little tantrum.

Her mate was coming for them, of that she was sure. Sugou was totally fucked.

Kirito punches the barrier furiously, "Damn it all! She's so close but this stupid barrier-!"

He's so angry he can't even finish the sentence, and after a moment Yui pipes up quietly from where she's hovering near him, "I tried to use the warning mode to contact her, but I have no way of knowing if I reached her…"

His hands fly up to his swords, but before he can draw them, he sees a small speck of light as something reflects the sun at it falls down, "... What is that?" Moving to be beneath it, he releases his swords to catch it and realizes it's a keycard, which only serves to confuse him as you normally didn't see things like it in games like this, as developers didn't want to risk breaking a player's immersion, "A card?" His sister drifts over to him in curiosity, so he holds it out for her to see, "Leafa, do you have any idea what this is?"

She shakes her head, looking just as confused as he felt, "No, I've never seen an item like that." She shrugs lightly, "Try clicking on it?"

With an unsure look, he does as she suggests and tries to click on it. Normally, this would cause an item pop-up window to appear, but nothing happens. His daughter flies over and grips the edge of the card before letting out a gasp, "This… This is a system admin access code!"

His breath catches at that before he desperately asks his daughter, "Then, can we use it to access the GM controls?"

However, Yui slumps sadly at his question, "No… You need the appropriate console to access it from within the game. Even I can't bring up the system menu. I'm sorry, Papa."

He sighs, "It's alright Yui, it's not your fault. However, something like this wouldn't just fall from the sky for no reason. This is probably…"

Yui nods firmly, "Yes! Mama must've heard us and dropped it."

His eyes slip closed as he realizes they're daughter's cries had reached his mate, that she was telling them that she knew they were on their way. He purses his lips with impatience, "Yui, lead the way to the World Tree's entrance. It's about time we saved Marzanna."

Leafa suddenly speaks up, "Onii-chan, are you really going to try to fight your way through? The entrance is protected by incredibly strong guardians. Sakuya and Alicia Rue will likely be bringing their raid party in the next few days, we should just wait."

He gently places the card within his pocket, "I can't. I can't wait for that. I have to get to her. There are things I haven't told you Sugu, things that make this far more important than you understand… I understand though, if you don't want to come with. I can go the rest of the way on my own."

His sister stares at him with slightly widened eyes for a moment, then sighs, "No, I'll go with. I can't let you do this on your own, and I can't just stand by now that we know without a shadow of a doubt that those players are here. Though admittedly, I probably won't be all that useful in this particular fight, so I'll just stay back as support and heal you."

He nods with a smile, "That's alright, having you healing me will be helpful. Well then, let's go." Without another word he drops into a dive, soon landing with a heavy boom, his sister touching down a bit gentler only a few seconds later. He straightens up, then turns his gaze to Yui, "Lead the way."

She nods with a determined expression, then quickly begins to fly through the streets, both he and his sister flying right behind her. They slow to a stop and land at the bottom of a large staircase leading up to two large doors flanked by stone statues of fairy knights. Yui lands on his shoulder with an uncertain expression, "Are you certain about this, Papa? The information available indicates that breaking through the gate will be very difficult."

He nods without hesitation, "Our only choice is to try. Even if we fail, it won't cost us our lives."

Yui still seems unsure, "That's true, but…"

He sighs, "If I have to waste even one more second just standing around doing nothing, I'm going to go insane." Yui frowns at that, so he reaches up and gently rubs at the top of her head with one finger, "And you want to see your mama soon, right?"

That seems to bring back her resolve, "Yes. Let's go save mama."

He smiles briefly at her, then finally begins to make his way up the stairs, the weirdly quiet Leafa behind him.

As they approached the doors, the statutes suddenly move, turning towards each other and lifting their blades to cross them over the door and bar their entrance. A moment later the eyes of the statute on the right began to glow red as it speaks in a deep booming voice, "You who know not the heights of heaven… Do you desire passage to the king's castle?"

At those words, a window pops up in front of him reading: Will you attempt the grand quest «Guardians of the World Tree»?

Without hesitation, he clicks the little blue circle indicating acceptance. Immediately the statutes begin to retract their swords, lifting them into formal looking vertical stances as the one on the left speaks, "Then show that you are worthy of letting your wings take flight. You will be granted unlimited use of your wings during your trial."

The doors begin to slowly open, and he tenses up on reflex at the familiar noise of grinding stone. Apparently, they'd recycled the audio clip from SAO for when boss doors opened. He then reaches up for his swords and slowly draws them, "We're going in, Yui. Keep your head down."

Without hesitation, she dives into his pocket, then pokes her head back out, "Good luck, Papa, Aunty Leafa."

With that said, she ducks down into his pocket. He pauses to refocus himself after the jarring reminder of some of the worst times he had in Aincrad. Taking a deep breath, he lifts his determined gaze up to the room. It was completely dark inside at first, but a few moments after they enter the room brightens with blinding white light.

He narrows his eyes reflexively, then looks up. The walls were covered in smaller roots and ivy which hold thousands of hexagons of what looked like stained glass to the walls but were glowing a light blue. Directly above was a pure white structure that almost looked like a flower of some sort, from which the bright light came from. The very bottom layer was just a circle divided into four sections, and he'd bet money that it was the door. He tightens his grip on his swords, then pushes his wings out and kicks off hard.

Only seconds later one of the hexagons begins glowing brighter for a moment before a sphere of light comes off of it and expands, then the light dispels, revealing what must be a guardian. It looked a lot like the statutes outside, though more mechanical in design. It's waist, neck, and limbs disproportionately thin compared to its chest and head, though not in a comical way, looking more like an armor clad robot than anything.

Without hesitation, it tries to meet his charge, but he simply deflects its weapon with one sword before easily taking its head off with the other. For a few seconds, the encounter bolsters his confidence, as the guardians weren't even as strong as the regular mobs in the labyrinth of the 74th floor of Aincrad had been, and he'd gotten used to fighting them at night. His booming confidence only lasts a few seconds though, as before his very eyes what had to have been at least two hundred of the mechanical knights suddenly spawn from the hexagons in his path to the top.

He falters for a moment at the sight, then grits his teeth, angry that they're barring him from his mate. He takes off again with a vengeance, quickly cutting the first that approaches him in half before twisting to deflect the blade of another with one sword and kill it with the other. Another comes at him from the side, but it's killed with the same immense prejudice as the others, only to have to immediately turn around and cut another in half before it can hit him.

Lifting his head again, he sees a dozen more knights ready their weapons and descend towards him, and a grim smile pulls itself across his face. He doesn't have time to defeat them all, but he will if he has to. They're trying to keep him from his mate, but he wouldn't allow anything to get in his way. He'd destroy everything if he had to. That said, he'd prefer to get to Marzanna sooner rather than later, and as such, rather than engaging them, he rushes past them towards the top.

Of course, two of them get directly in his way. Deflecting the blow of the first, he goes right past it to thrust his blade into the other that hadn't had a chance to bring up its weapon yet, then whirls around, leading with his sword and decapitating the first. He just barely notices the one diving at him in time to bring his swords up in a block, getting pushed down with the force behind the sword grinding against his own. Shifting to the right, he lets his left sword fall away to his side as he shifts the guard of his right from diagonally pointing upwards, to diagonally down, letting the guardian's weapon slide down it uselessly as he smashes its face with the hilt of his right sword, then swings his left sword up, cleaving it in half while it's staggered.

Two more rush him from either side, and he's forced to block with his swords. He struggles under the force for a moment before managing to push them back. Spinning, he grabs the arm of one and throws it into the other before skewering them both, barely sticking around long enough for them to die before he takes off again, twisting around or cleaving any guardians that get in his way.

Another manages to force him down about fifteen meters before he manages to kill it and continue his mad rush to the top, which was surprisingly close. He reaches out for it, only for an arrow of light to pierce his hand. Looking down, he sees a few hundred of the mechanical knights had spawned near the bottom with bows and arrows of light, all of which are pointed at him. They release almost at the same time, and what seems like a wave of arrows comes rushing towards him.

Whirling back around he flies up, attempting to push through to the door which is so god damned close. An arrow goes through his leg, followed by one impacting his back and two digging into his arm, but he keeps going undeterred. A moment later, a sword tearing into his chest forces him to focus just in time to hear the whistling of more rushing towards him. Gritting his teeth in frustration, he drops into a rapid dive, losing far too much ground for his liking.

He glares at the guardians that put themselves between him and his goal, then reaches up and pushes the sword out of his chest. A moment later he hears his sister quickly chant a healing spell and his health jumps up from just touching the red to being completely full. Not even a second after she finishes though, he hears her let out an instinct shout.

Glancing down at her, his eyes widen when he sees her being attacked by the guardians, "The hell did you do to aggro them?! I thought you were just going to heal!"

She barely dodges a rush from one of the guardians, and deflects the blow of another, "I was! I was wanting to conserve as much as my magic as possible, so I waited until you fell into the red, but as soon as I cast, these ones focused on me! I guess they're programmed to actively take out healers!"

Frustration spikes through him at her words and grows even more when he looks up to see the guardians are beginning to become numerous enough to form a wall. He grits his teeth at the choice being presented to him. He can try and force his way through the wall of guardians now before the 'wall' becomes thicker, without his sister to heal him... or he can help his sister, freeing her up to heal him again, but give the guardians more time to gather.

Even as he wastes precious seconds debating the issue, the number of guardians before him grows. Gritting his teeth harder, he turns to help his sister, only to see a stream of fire incinerate the guardians beginning to surround her. It's immediately followed by Recon rushing over to her with a concerned expression. Turning towards the source of the attack in shock, he sees Sakuya and Alicia grinning at him, surrounded by their raid party, of about fifty Sylph and thirty Cait Sith mounted on western type dragons.

Sakuya's smile widens, "Sorry we're late! We've got your sister covered Kirito, you just focus on getting to the top!"

Alicia grins, "Yea, sorry. Even with the abundance of money, it still took us a bit to get everything together, but with the excess, we were able to speed some things up!"(2)

Sakuya turns her gaze towards their forces, "We owe that Spriggan a lot! Cover him at all costs!"

He nods at them, "Thank you! I just need someone to cover Leafa and you guys to draw some of their attention!"

Sakuya nods, "Alicia and I will cover Leafa, everyone else, commence the attack!"

He turns back to the wall of guardians, now considerably larger than when he'd initially looked away. He's more confident now though, knowing that his sister is protected and that the Sylph and Cait Sith will do their best to keep him from getting to overwhelmed. Bringing his swords up, he rushes the guardians, killing any that get in his way much easier now that he's grown accustomed to their attack patterns and stats.

Seeing four rushing him from his sides, he takes a page out of his mate's book and drops at the last possible moment, letting them stab each other with a slight smirk. Most of their stats, including their health, were surprisingly low, their highest one seeming to be strength, so they easily kill each other. That was the problem with simply reusing SAOs programming. He doubted the ALO developers were aware of the little fact that mobs could hurt each other. It had been a favored tactic of Hanna's when they faced numerous mobs, to all but dance through them, occasionally attacking, but mostly just baiting them into hitting each other. It meant that the more the guardians grouped together, the more likely it was they'd take each other out, and the more things were in his favor.

He cuts through any that get in his path ferociously, often twisting out of the way to let them hit each other, slowly forcing his way through unflinching at the vast numbers or the occasional explosion of fire from the Cait Sith dragons hitting clusters near him, occasionally being healed by his sister.

Realizing he's getting close to the top, he gives one final rush, leading with one sword extended and skewering any guardians in his path. Nevertheless, he'd expected more of a fight so it takes him by surprise when he abruptly breaks through, his sword biting into the stone of the gateway to the top of the World Tree. Exhilaration rushes through him as he realizes he's finally made it to the top.

He distantly hears Sakuya and Alicia order a retreat, though he's more concerned with the fact the 'door' isn't opening, "Yui!"

She flies out of his pocket immediately, "Yes, Papa!" she flies down and presses her hand against the door, frowning after a moment, "Papa, this door isn't locked by a quest flag. It's locked by the system administrators."

Fear cuts through him at those words. It couldn't be, there was no way he'd made it this far only stopped in his tracks! He gazes at Yui desperately, "What exactly do you mean?!"

She turns to him, "Players were never intended to be able to open this door! They only open to an admit access code."

His attention is caught as he realizes that more knights are beginning to spawn near him. For a moment, he just watches them make their way over in a strangely leisurely manner. Though perhaps it wasn't so strange, considering they didn't actually need to guard the gate. Yui flies back up to his shoulder with a nervous expression, but he honestly doesn't know what to do, and hopeless despair begins to seize him. There isn't really a point in fighting them if he can't get to Marzanna. It's not like he had the admin-

He jolts as he realizes that he does have the admin code. Shoving his hand into his pocket, he yanks out the card that had been inside and holds it out to Yui, "No, wait! Wasn't this-? Yui! Can you use this?!"

His daughter quickly flies over and touches it before smiling widely, "Yes! This will work! Just let me download the code to myself."

Both Yui's hands and the card glow briefly, then Yui flies back to the door and presses her hands against it. Immediately the door begins to open, spilling harsh white light out as Yui flies up to be level with him and extends her hand, "I'm about to be teleported! Papa, give me your hand!"

He extends his hand to her quickly, and she grabs onto it, lighting up with a blue glow that quickly extends to him. Seconds later the light spilling out of the gate becomes painfully bright and he squeezes his eyes shut to try and block out the light, a tingling feeling rushing through him almost instantly. A moment later both the harsh light and the sensation of teleporting fade and Kirito hesitantly opens his eyes to find himself in a long hallway.

He glances around briefly, looking for his daughter, and is slightly surprised to see her back in her full sized form, "Yui? Where are we?"

She shakes her head slightly, "I don't know. There's no map data for this place."

He purses his lips briefly, "You said earlier that you could detect Hanna's player ID though, so do you at least know which direction to go?"

Yui nods firmly at that, "Yes! She's really close by actually."

He nods, "Then we don't really need the map data, we just need to go to her."

Yui nods in understanding and quickly stands up, "Then we need to go this way, papa!"

She moves around him and takes off in the direction his back had been to, and he quickly gets up and follows her, sheathing his swords as he goes. They run down the corridor for maybe ten seconds before Yui stumbles to a stop and places her hands on what looks like a blank section of wall. However, a second or two later an opening appears as Yui seems to outright delete the door with the use of the admin code she now had.

She jumps over the lip and runs to the door at the end of the small corridor before repeating the process, and they both stumble out onto a large tree branch. He stops and looks around, "We're really at the top of the World Tree…" Glancing up, he snorts lightly, "There isn't any Floating City… It really was all a lie…" Then he shakes his head to clear the wayward thought then turns his gaze back to his daughter, "Hanna is out here?"

Yui nods firmly, "Yes." She points down the pathway the massive branch makes, "Mama is that way, but… I'm also detecting another player and an admin, plus… the pain absorption system appears to have been turned off here…"

He purses his lips as fury spikes through him again, knowing that doing something like turning off the pain absorption system could only be Bad, then pushes the thought and his fury down for a moment, "An admin?" His mind flashes to Sugou again and he grits his teeth, "Then… Does he know we're here?"

Yui shakes her head, "No, he'd have to either be actively watching player data or set up a player detection code into the system, and he doesn't seem to have done that."

He nods slowly, then turns to his daughter, "Yui… I need you to turn back into your Pixie form and hide. You absolutely can't come out or make any noise until I say so, alright? I've got a vague plan that requires you using that admin code, but I don't want anything to happen to you."

Yui hesitates, clearly unhappy with the idea, but nods anyway. She throws her arms around him in a tight hug, "Be careful, Papa. I love you. Just call for me when it's time."

He returns the hug, "I will, and I love you too. Don't worry, you'll get to see Mama soon enough, I promise."

Yui nods, then gives him a watery but hopeful smile before turning back into a Pixie and diving into his pocket. Taking a deep breath, he turns towards the direction his mate was in. He stares down the path for a moment, but he can see neither his mate nor the cage their friend was being held in due to the way the path slowly curved slowly being obscured by more branches and leaves.

The path seemed like it had been cut into the branch, leaving behind waist high wooden 'walls' of sorts on either side. Moving over to the wall that's on the inside when it curves he hurries along near it. The admin was likely Sugou, but if he was an admin there really wasn't much Kirito would be able to do against him, so the longer he didn't know Kirito was here the better. Once he got close he could use the wall as cover, or at least, that's the idea, he won't know how well it will actually work until he gets there.

After a solid five minutes of running along the path, he sees the golden glint of Asuna's cage begin to peek out from behind the thick wall of branches and leaves. Quickly dropping into a crouch, he follows the wall at a much slower pace.

As he moves, Asuna's voice, desperate and sounding like she was on the verge of crying, cuts through the air, "Stop it, Sugou! Just leave her alone already!"

He tenses up. There was only one other player up there with Asuna, which meant the 'her' Asuna was talking about was likely Marzanna, and that in and of itself meant that the admin, likely Sugou, was doing something to her. Likely something Very Bad if it was making Asuna cry.

He chances a peek over the top of the 'wall' and immediately his blood feels like it's boiling with fury. Asuna was in the cage, as he'd expected, clutching the bars with a look of desperation and teary eyes. Across from the door to her cage, Marzanna was strung up by her wrist with what looked like vines, and kept from moving too much by even more vines that snaked all over her body. It was also easy to see why he hadn't seen her in the picture of Asuna in the cage. The vines holding her seemed to be growing out of a single branch that wrapped around her in a loose spiral about a foot from her body. Up close like now, it was easy to see Marzanna inside, but between the branch and the vines and from the distance the photo had been taken from, she'd have been basically impossible to spot.

That, however, wasn't what made him freeze up even as fury began to burn through him. No, what did that was the dozens of daggers buried in various spots on his mate's body and what looked like a circlet of broken glass cutting into her head. He now knew what nefarious reason Sugou had for turning off the pain absorption system. That motherfucker was torturing his mate. He was a dead man walking. It was as simple as that. No one got away with hurting his mate like that.

It's only due to the way he focuses on Sugou with sudden murderous rage that he notices him turn to Asuna with a creepy grin, "Oh come now, Asuna. Do you really want me to stop playing with her so badly? I'll just play with you instead."

Asuna's grip on the bars tightens and she glares at him, but before she can say anything, Marzanna speaks up despite sounding out of breath, "D… Don't you touch her, you fucking-"

He waves a finger and 'tsks' in an admonishing manner before cutting her off, "Now, Now. Don't be like that." Pushing a button on the menu Kirito only just realized he had open, Sugou materializes another of the serrated daggers before continuing, "A young lady shouldn't speak so crudely. It's uncivilized."

He punctuates the last word by stabbing the dagger into her stomach, and Marzanna grunts slightly in pain before snorting, "Uncivilized? That's rich, coming from a hypocritical asshole like you, mind you being hypocritical is so common in humans-"

Sugou suddenly slaps her, his avatar's face twisted in fury, "Don't you dare talk down to me like that, you filthy whore. I'm-" He cuts himself off and takes a deep breath to compose himself, "I'm nothing like any of you pathetic cockroaches that crawl at my feet. I'm better than all of you!" Marzanna starts laughing at that, enraging Sugou again, "Are you laughing at me?!"

Finally getting a hold of himself, Kirito slowly pulls his swords then begins to move closer again with equal care, though he carefully keeps an eye on things. Marzanna's head had tilted back with her laughter, but she lowers it to stare Sugou down in clear amusement, "Yes, I am. That's one of the funniest things I've ever heard. You? Better than me? Than Kirito? You're nothing but a pathetic little man who desperately seeks power because you have none."

Sugou stares at her furiously for a moment, then angrily materializes another dagger. Without hesitation, he stabs it into her chest, then starts pulling and twisting the blade, "Just try and laugh at me again, you little bitch. I dare you."

Marzanna had let out another grunt at the pain before tilting her head back with her eyes squeezed shut when he started moving the dagger but hadn't given any other sort of reaction. Kirito grits his teeth in furious frustration at the fact he's still too far away to chance anything and that if he moves too much faster he'll likely draw attention.

A moment later he's pulled from those thoughts as Marzanna suddenly mutters something unintelligible, causing Sugou to frown, "What was that?" Marzanna mutters it again, and Sugou leans in close, "I can't hear you. Speak up!"

Marzanna lifts her head enough to look at Sugou then without warning, lurches her head forward sharply, head butting Sugou hard. Sugou cries out in pain, not only from the impact itself, but also from the glass cutting into him. Marzanna grins lightly, "I said, you're a pansy ass bitch."

Sugou glares furiously, "You little fucking whore!" Just as he's reaching to create another blade, he pauses then smirks. Worrying calm, he materializes his dagger and begins to idly toy with it as he casually speaks, "You know, other than the fact people wouldn't want to play VRMMOs if you could actually feel the pain from your injuries, there is another reason for the existence of a pain absorption system. The mind is a powerful thing really. Do a good enough job of convincing it that your body is injured, and it has adverse side effects. Oh, that isn't to say the injury suddenly becomes real, not at all, but it isn't something you want your body to experience. However, as you should know by now, I have the pain absorption system turned completely off. What do you suppose is happening to your body, hmm? What do you suppose would happen if I stabbed you in the heart? I doubt it'd kill you, unless you have a heart problem, but I still wonder. I know! How about we find out!"

As he said the last word, Sugou stabs the dagger straight into her heart. Marzanna lurches with a ragged breath, then groans as Sugou twists and pulls at the dagger like he had the previous one, only noticeably slower.

Sugou smiles sadistically, "Aww. You didn't scream. You haven't screamed or cried out once this entire time, but I was sure that of all things that would get you to. Oh well, I have nowhere to be anytime soon, so we have all day. I'll get you to scream eventually."

Kirito grits his teeth furiously at those words, but he's finally close enough. Quickly straightening and moving out from behind the 'wall' in one smooth motion, he throws one of his swords at Sugou as he rushes towards him and immediately draws one of his throwing picks as soon as his sword leaves his hand. The older man shrieks like a banshee when Kirito sword buries itself into his side, very nearly drowning out his mate and friend's happy shouts of his real and screen name respectively. Much as he'd like to stop and check on his mate, the only plan he'd been able to come up with to deal with an admin under the present circumstances was to use the lack of the pain absorption system against Sugou, so he can't let up for a moment.

It's with that in mind that he tackles Sugou, who seems in too much pain to do much of anything. Pinning the sword still skewered into Sugou's side with one of his knees to make sure it doesn't move, then stabs his throwing pick into the bastard's eye for good measure.

Satisfied that the sobbing mess of a man, and he used that term loosely, wouldn't try anything, he calls for his daughter, "Yui, go! Asuna first, she can help get your mama down safely."

Sugou makes a sound that's half pain half fury and tries to shove Kirito off, so he viciously stabs his other sword straight through his head. Sugou makes a choked noise and spasms momentarily like he's having a seizure, then seems to pass out. An observation backed up by the fact he's automatically logged out a few seconds later.

Kirito stares at the empty space beneath him for a moment in shock, then collects his pick and sword, "Well… If I'd known all I had to do was stab him in the head while the pain absorption system was off to knock him out, I'd have done that from the get go…"

Then again, maybe not. Stabbing him in the eye after seeing what he'd done to Kirito's god damned mate was immensely satisfying. So, probably not. Shaking his head at the pathetic bastard that had in fact been little more than all talk, Kirito sheaths his swords as he stands up, then turns to his girls in time to see Asuna helping Marzanna down while Yui changes back into her regular form.

Their daughter barely waits for Marzanna to regain her footing before flinging herself at her for a hug, accidentally hitting some of the knives but missing Marzanna's tiny wince, "Mama!"

She noticeably forces herself to ignore the pain to properly pick up their daughter and clutch her to her chest, "Yui! Oh, I've missed you so much!"

Yui sniffles, "Missed you more. Me and Papa both."

That causes Marzanna to look up at him, and seeing that warm loving smile after so long nearly makes him break down crying, but he holds himself together and moves over to her. He wants to sweep her into his arms and not let go, but he doesn't want to hurt her. With that in mind, he starts pulling out the various knives as gently as he can. She winces more than once as she helps him after she gently sets Yui down.

It's only once all thirty-three of those damnable daggers and the glass circlet, are on the ground and she's scooped their teary eyed daughter back up that he wraps his arms around her waist and cradles his girls to him, though he's shaking with rage and can't bring himself to meet Marzanna's eyes just yet. Thirty-three daggers. Thirty-three. He was late and she was tortured. Sugou was going to pay. He didn't know how exactly just yet, at least not without getting arrested, but he'd be damned if he didn't figure out some way to get back at that bastard for what he did to his mate.

Marzanna lifts his head with one of her hands, then gives him that warm loving smile again, "I guess Asuna, Liz, and I were wrong. I did need my valiant knight to save the day, huh?"

That draws a watery smile from him, "I told you, didn't I? I'd save you if you actually needed it."

She tilts her head slightly as her smile widens, "That you did, and here you are."

He leans forward to rest his forehead against hers, and Yui let's out a happy content sigh from between them. The moment is broken a few seconds later by a pointed cough, drawing their gazes to Asuna, who gives them a tense smile, "I hate to break up the reunion, I really do, but we need to get going. We have no idea how long it will take for Sugou to come to and log back on, and we should really log ourselves and the other players out before he comes back."

He nods, then reluctantly pulls away from his mate, "Right. First things first, we need to find an admin system console to log you guys out."

Asuna nods, "I know where one is. It's where I got the card from, it's in the… Well, the labs."

He nods, "Then lead the way. Yui, you should probably turn back into your Pixie form. You'll be able to keep up better."

She nods reluctantly, then does as asked. Sharing one last glance they take off, Asuna leading the way. He shoots a glance at Asuna's back as they run, "What exactly did you mean by 'lab' anyway? What sort of research could they possibly be doing here?"

Asuna glances back with a grave expression, then faces forward again. She's silent for a minute before she slowly explains, "He told me he was researching mind control. Influencing thoughts, emotions, and memories using signals to the brain. That's what he took the other players for. They're his test subjects. He took me because he wanted me out of the way so he could 'marry' me and take over my family and business, and he said that he took Marzanna because if her family found out who his 'business partners' in this twisted experiment were that he'd be in deep shit. She was his hostage to keep them off his back, just in case."

Marzanna scowls furiously at the last bit then gives a jerky nod of her own, "It's also what that glass circlet was apparently. A representation of where the signals he was generating bombarding my brain with were coming from."

He stiffens, "What?!"

Marzanna glances at him, then shrugs, "He was forcibly inducing me to feel basically any negative emotion you could think of, but he mostly focused on terror, despair, grief, and pain. Originally I forced myself to put up with it to make sure he wouldn't try anything with Asuna, but after I realized he wouldn't and was tormenting me partially to get to Asuna, I just sorta retreated into my mind and stopped responding to stimulus. Honestly, I've only been aware for a few hours because he stopped bombarding my brain with negative emotions and simply focused on forcing me to wake up. Not that he hadn't tried to forcibly wake me before, but being continuously bombarded with all those negative emotions was a hell of a good incentive to shore up my mental defenses and resist. When he turned that thing off though, I became concerned that he might try and do something to Asuna, so I let him wake me…"

He furrows his brow in slight confusion, "Retreated into your mind? Mental defenses? What…"

She glances over at her mate, "Magic stuff. I'm an Occlumens, the term used for someone who practices the art of Occlumency, the magical method of protecting one's mind from the opposing art Legilimency, the ability to read minds. Occlumency is useful for other things as well, but in this case it worked to seal myself off from what Sugou was doing to me."

Asuna glances back at her, "Kirito knows about magic now? Since when? Does he know about…"

Marzanna grimaces, "No, wasn't really sure how to explain it and it wasn't a good time anyway. Kinda had to tell him about magic when I did because it was right after the whole Heathcliff is actually Kayaba indecent, I told you about Kayaba wanting to talk to us. Couldn't just leave him wondering what the hell was going on, considering I'd been bleeding all over the place…"

Asuna nods in understanding, and he can't help but glance between the two, wondering what it was that he still doesn't know. Seeing his glances, Marzanna gives him a look halfway between a grimace and an apologetic 'later', which he accepts with a nod.

Arriving at their destination, they slow down as he and Marzanna look around in horror, while Asuna gazes around with a mixture of sorrow and fury. The scene itself might not seem particularly horrifying to someone who didn't know what it was, but they could both make an educated guess as to what the tubes with holographic displays of brains were. It was one thing to hear that three hundred people were being inhumanly experimented on, but it was another thing entirely to see these 'pods' and realize exactly what was happening to their fellow SAO survivors, people who'd already been through enough and deserved to just go home.

Recollecting herself, Asuna marches over to what looks like a floating cube with a keyboard attached, "It's about time we send everyone back home and log out of this nightmare."

He bites his lip unsurely, "... I'm not sure we should. Log everyone else out that is."

Asuna whirls around to stare him down with horrified fury, "Kirito! Why the fuck shouldn't we?!"

He holds up his hands in a placating gesture, "If we log everyone else out, we won't have any evidence. A good lawyer could claim that I'm a misguided teenager with paranoid delusions after what happened in SAO. It's already known that waking up after long term use of the NerveGear of the like we suffered from can leave people dazed and confused, so all they'd have to say is that I convinced you two of Sugou's nefarious plot while you were confused and disoriented. Sugou and whoever's been helping him would get off without so much as a slap on the wrist and I'd likely be carted off to a mental institution and then where would we be?"

Asuna falters and looks around with a torn expression, but Marzanna just shakes her head, "Though those are valid points, it's not an issue. If Sugou was worried about my family coming after him should they learn who his 'business partners' are, then I know exactly who he's been making deals with and that alone will force the issue to be dealt with in the magic courts rather than the non-magical ones. It will be a simple matter for my family to force the issue and make him confess his crimes under the effects of a truth potion."

Asuna relaxes and he turns to his mate with wide eyes, "Wait, that's actually a real thing?! Fucking hell! If I'd known that I could've just told Lily when he threatened you and this whole mess likely could've been cleaned up days ago! I'm so sorry, I-"

Marzanna just shakes her head and gives him a small smile, "It's not your fault. You're new to this whole magic thing, you couldn't have known. It's in the past anyway, and nothing good ever comes from trying to change it. Paradoxes and all."

He nods, reluctantly accepting her words, then freezes, "Wait, you can actually go back in time with magic?!"

Marzanna laughs, "Yes. With the use of a Time Turner. Nifty things, but heavily regulated considering the damage one could do if not careful."

He stares at her, then grumbles, "And here I've spent the past two and a half months constantly reminding myself that magic probably isn't capable of all that stuff you see in media…"

His mate laughs brightly. He can't help but smile widely, just taking in her laughing face and letting the sound of her laughter wash over him. She returns his smile with a warm loving one of her own. God, he'd missed his mate so much. It was like there had been a heavy weight in his chest slowly suffocating him that abruptly disappeared allowing him to freely breathe in crisp clean air. Like his eyes had been gouged out, leaving him stumbling in the dark and they'd suddenly been restored to see the beauty of the world once more. Like a limb had been ripped off leaving-

"God, you two are sickeningly in love." Yanked rather rudely from their 'moment', he and his mate turn to find Asuna staring them down with a deadpan expression while Yui smiles happily from where she hovered over their friend's shoulder. Asuna shakes her head at them, "Honestly, I'm glad you two are reunited and all, really I am, but having a full blown 'silently stare deeply into each other's eyes with wide dopey loving smiles as you realize how good it is to be back together' moment? We're supposed to be doing something, in case you forgot, and for the life of me I can't figure out how to log the other players out!"

She gestures to the cube and keyboard, which has gained a holographic display since he'd last looked, with frustrated anger at the last bit. Kirito blushes, then clears his throat and gets a hold of himself. Striding over to the cube and keyboard, and rapidly begins typing. After a moment, he huffs, "Password protected of course."

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Asuna slump slightly, then Marzanna pokes her head over his shoulder, "Can you get past it?"

He turns to look at his mate, "Can I get past it? Can I get past it? Really?"

She shrugs lightly, "You managed to save Yui. I thought it was a fair question."

He huffs again, "So little faith in me. Of course I can get past it. I'm already past it. Really, they have rather terrible security. Though to be fair, considering where I'm doing this from, I'm likely already past the bulk of their security just by doing this from an admin system console." Upon getting a prompt, he pulls the card from his pocket and slots it back in place, then finishes logging all the kidnapped players out. He nods with a satisfied smile, "There, done. You two just need to come over here and log yourselves out now, and all of this will nearly be over."

Asuna glances at Marzanna, but she just smiles at their friend, "Go on, I'll be right behind you, I just..."

Asuna nods in understanding, then quickly moves forward and happily logs herself out. He turns to his mate, only for her to grab his coat harshly and yank him into a desperate kiss that he eagerly returns as he wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her close. When they finally separate, she rests her forehead against his with a content sigh, "I missed you so much. The only thing that's been stopping me from doing that was worry for Asuna and the other players…"

He smiles lovingly at her, then pulls away slightly to press a kiss to her forehead, "Go on. The sooner I know you're out of this place and safe, the sooner I can relax and the happier I'll be."

With a sigh she reluctantly pulls away from him her hand dropping to hold his before she reluctantly let's go and mimics Asuna, but she hesitates on the log out confirmation screen, and turns her gaze to him again as she gives him a longing look, "I'll see you on the other side."

He nods quickly, "I'll log out right after you. Past visiting hours or not, I'll come see you. I promise."

She nods, then with one last moment of hesitation, she clicks the confirmation button and disappears in a rush of bluish white light. It's only after the light dispels and reveals that she's truly gone that the knot in his chest unravels and he lets out a shaky breath. He glances at Yui, "I'm logging out now, but don't worry, I'll come back and see you soon. I promise."

His daughter nods, still smiling happily now that she knows for sure that Marzanna is safe. Opening his menu, it's only seconds before he's looking at the log out confirmation screen. Just before he can click the confirmation button, an exceedingly familiar voice speaks up, "Still vicious as a rabid dog when it comes to her I see."

Whirling around, he silently stares at the man in front of him with wide eyes for a few moments. He'd heard that Kayaba was found dead. Yet the man was standing just a few feet in front of him. Recollecting himself, he scowls, "I won't ever let anyone get away with hurting her."

His words had come out as a hostile growl, but Kayaba doesn't seem bothered as he holds up his hands in a placating manner, "Down boy. I've no intention to hurt her, and you already got me back for that last time. In case you've forgotten, I wasn't even intending to hurt her last time, she put herself between us."

He narrows his eyes suspiciously, then decides he's telling the truth. His mate is now out of his reach for the moment, so if he'd intended her harm he likely would've shown himself before she logged out. A moment later he feels Yui grab onto his coat as tightly as her tiny Pixie hands allow. Glancing over he finds her almost entirely hiding behind his shoulder, but peeking out enough to stare at Kayaba fearfully. It's only then that he remembers that Kayaba was the one that created her, only to cruelly ban her from doing exactly what she'd been created for. She was likely terrified he was going to try to delete her.

A moment later his gaze snaps back to Kayaba when he speaks up in an interested tone, "Yui? What are you doing here? You should've been deleted with Aincrad…"

Yui ducks down and whimpers, "Papa…"

He glances over his shoulder and gives her a reassuring smile, "Don't worry. I won't let him delete you."

Kayaba tilts his head with a fascinated expression, "Papa? Since when did she call you Papa? How'd that happen?"

He glares at Kayaba, "It's a surprisingly long story involving her bugging out after you banned her from following her purpose, gaining true sentience, appearing in front of me and Hanna, collapsing from all the bugs, waking with amnesia, somehow getting adopted by us, regaining her memory when we ended up unknowingly visiting a system console, deleting a sub-boss, almost getting deleted because Cardinal flagged her as a foreign entity for disobeying, and me using the tiny window of access from her accessing the console to move her program to my NerveGear before she could be deleted. All in the span of two days."

Kayaba stares at him blankly for a moment, then blinks and tilts his head, now gazing at the two of them like they're fascinating creatures he's never laid eyes on before, "Never a dull day with you and Hanna, is there?"

Still glaring at Kayaba, he replies flatly, "We don't handle boring very well."

Seeming to finally notice Kirito's hostility, he holds up his hands again, "Relax. I'm not going to delete her, nor am I going to take her from you. If she truly is sentient, she's free to do as she wishes. If that's staying with you and Hanna, so be it."

He narrows his eyes at the older man, "Then get to the point. You wouldn't have just shown up for no reason."

Kayaba nods, and quite abruptly a golden glowing egg appears before Kirito, hovering in midair. Kirito frowns at it in confusion, "... What is it?"

Kayaba smiles slightly, "A program. It's downloading to your NerveGear now. What I want is for you to open it." Seeing his suspicious look, Kayaba chuckles lightly, "You really are starting to get paranoid, you know that? Don't worry, it's not a virus or anything of the sort. Yui can tell you that much." He glances at his daughter, and she hesitantly flies out to lay a hand on it before nodding in confirmation. Kayaba nods, "See? Nothing harmful."

Kirito gives him a confused look, "What exactly am I supposed to do with it once I open it? Why are you giving it to me anyway?"

Kayaba tilts his head, "Because you were one of the few people who appreciated that world and could see past being trapped with death looming over you to see its beauty. As for what you do with it…" He shrugs lightly, "That's up to you. I just want you to open it, to see what it is. From there on? It's entirely your choice. Delete it, sell it, distribute it for free. It's yours to do with as you see fit." Without another word, he turns and begins walking away, giving a lazy wave over his shoulder, "Until next time, Kirito."

Just like that, he's gone. He stares at where the older man had been mere seconds ago, then turns his baffled gaze onto the golden egg, "... Yui. Has it finished downloading?"

His daughter shakes herself from whatever path her thoughts had been taking, "Yes. It's been successfully downloaded to your NerveGear. I can't tell you what it actually is though. I honestly can't tell, other than it's nothing malicious or harmful…"

He nods slowly, "Ok…" Then he shakes off the weird encounter, "I'll look at it later. I'm going to go see Hanna now."

Yui pulls her gaze from the egg, then smiles widely at him, "Ok. I'll see you later, Papa!"

He smiles at her one last time before finally clicking the log out confirmation button. As the world begins to disappear in its usual rush of color eager anticipation to finally meet up with his mate on the other side fills him. It was about god damned time they got to start the rest of their lives together.

(1): You cannot convince me he didn't create a sonic boom here, because the altitude barrier is above the clouds. I'll admit that we obviously aren't given things like the altitude of Alne or the clouds, but we can probably assume that with the scale of ALO, they would probably fall into the high altitude category for clouds, which ranges from 5,000 meters to 13700 meters. Now, the middle ground for this would be 9,350 meters, but for simplicity's sake, let's say the developers rounded it off to 10,000 meters (which is why I'm using meters despite being American, because the developers would be Japanese and use the metric system), and we already know that the altitude limit is right above that. So, that gives us the end altitude, but what about the starting point? Again, we obviously don't get an altitude for Alne, but Alne doesn't seem to be particularly cold or particularly hot, so we can probably assume that it's got a rather average altitude. Sadly the internet doesn't have an average city altitude anywhere online, but what I could find was the averages for the top ten highest and top ten lowest altitude countries, and the average altitude from those is 1260 meters. Let's be a bit generous and say that Alne has an altitude of 1300 meters, which by the way would give Alne a yearly average temperature of 59 degrees Fahrenheit or 15 degrees Celsius, which is right what we're looking for. I actually rewatched that part of the episode and stared at the time stamp and it takes Kirito approximately 24 seconds to reach the altitude barrier. That means that Kirito traveled roughly 8,700 meters in 24 seconds, or 362.5 meters per second, or 8,10 miles per hour, or 1,305 kilometers an hour, or 71,458 feet per minute, however you want to slice it, but no matter how you'd like his speed given to you, it's just above Mach 1. Mach 1.057 actually. So no, if any of you are dubious about this, you cannot convince me that Kirito wouldn't have made a sonic boom. Especially since that's actually programmed into the game. In the light novel version of the scene where Kirito saves Leafa from the three Salamanders, she expressly says he moves so fast that he creates a sonic boom, but I chose to drop that because it seemed like overkill to me, seeing as one of the key factors for damage in ALO is speed.

(2): I made a bit of a mistake a few chapters ago. Short version, Kirito should've had more money to give to Sakuya and Alicia Rue. Long version, canonically, Kirito had enough to almost cover the costs for the raid, but that was with him being a solo player for the majority of the game. Fic wise though, he had Hanna the entire game, which would've allowed him to take higher risks. There's also the fact married couples share inventory and money in game, so the funds he handed off would've been both his and his spouse's, whether Asuna in canon or Marzanna in fic. While Asuna has the advantage of being able to make larger parties with guild members, with how focused she was on just winning the game, I feel like she wouldn't have gone out of her way for anything not necessary for that goal, whereas Hanna would not only be more likely to do such things, but also grinds with Kirito at night in the labyrinths, so she'd definitely have more money. As for how I forgot to add that in despite having already planned that? I tend to watch the episodes as I'm writing to make sure I don't accidentally miss anything, pausing to write every so often. While I was writing the part where Kirito is talking to the Lords I got too focused on the show and forgot to edit that bit. My apologies. I'll go back and fix it soon.