THERE! HERE! IT'S HERE! Most of you guys are creepy!

Ahem...Thank you to DemonFoxBK201, CrystalHeart950, Are all the names used, Elia950, Kanrei, AlexaTheWingedCat, Impstar, SpringStars, Leonard Church814, Riku Uzumaki, Death Update (now thanks to you this chapter went up two days early), LizIsCola, Special Guest, and AW27 for reviewing last chapter! Even though most of you were scary...*shiver*

Chapter 12: The Glimpse of Real and Fake Reality

Kirito flinched at the sudden flash of pain in his head and nearly stumbled to a stop when his vision became black.

"No! Please don't let this happen now!"

As if on cue, his vision was somewhat restored. Thousands of yellow numbers and letters zipped across and quickly faded into a scene. The forest around him was no longer a lively green color, but a gray toned world. Everything that once had color had turned into a huge black and white picture. Even his game screen was inverted black.

Kirito bit the back of his lip as he felt a bit of fear crawl into him.

"This can't be happening!"

Suddenly remembering what he was doing, he quickly caught himself and pushed forward as he shot at Heathcliff with amazing speed. He pulled his sword back and slashed at him, but was blocked by the huge shield. Heathcliff took a swing at Kirito with his own blade only to slice air as the teen jumped back. Heathcliff wasn't given a second to recover as Kirito rushed in again for another attack.

Smack!

Kirito's attack was blocked again by the big shield. Instead of jumping back, he pushed himself forward in attempt to get Heathcliff off-balance. But Heathcliff stood firm and efficiently shoved Kirito back, making him fly a couple of feet. Kirito quickly twisted his body upside down and pushed off the grass with his free hand.

He bit back a curse as he felt like a million knives stabbed his left leg when he landed on it. His vision fizzed to the original color, but was quickly replaced with black and white. Kirito's eyes widened slightly as he tried to focus on his duel, but realized that something is really wrong. He barely had the chance to cry out when a black and white Heathcliff was suddenly in front of him, ready to gut him. Without thinking, he brought his sword down on the blade and sidestepped, only to run into Heathcliff's shield.

The paladin made no expression as he swiped his shield to the left. Kirito sailed through the air and stabbed his sword deep into the grayish grass to stop his momentum. Both of his hands wrapped around the handle to stay rooted.

"Oh crap!" he partially yelled as the same stabbing feeling rushed through his leg as he landed on it again. The flash of pain in his head quickly became overbearing. He swallowed and gave Heathcliff a wary look.

"I can see why they call you the Paladin. Your stupid shield is always in the way." Kirito assessed as his grip on his sword tightened. Heathcliff smirked.

"And you're just like the rumors," he said as he raised his sword. "Dressed in black, fast, angular, quick to think...when you're flying."

Kirito huffed as he forced himself to get up and pull his sword out of the ground with a bit of difficulty. "I'm guessing that's a compliment."

"It was." Heathcliff said as Kirito got into a fighting stance once more. Without another word, Kirito charged in again, ignoring all the pain dulling his senses and knowing that he shouldn't use any sword skills. Well, Heathcliff is the creator of SAO. Heathcliff swung his sword at his chest, but Kirito was swift to duck and take a swipe at Heathcliff's legs.

But Heathcliff jumped back and avoided it with ease. "You seem to be a little slow there, Kazuto-kun."

Kirito stood up and struggled not to show his pain in front of him. "Why did you think I said not to call me the Black Swordsman, Aki-nii-chan?"

He didn't wait for an answer and brandished his sword. Kirito dashed forward. He knew he probably didn't have enough strength to do this little plan that formed in his head, but he had to try. He could already feel himself slipping away as his vision fuzzed again. Vaguely, he felt his sword hit Heathcliff's shield for the third time and fly out of his weak hands. His vision finally gave out into darkness as Kirito fell to the ground, unmoving.

._._._._._.

Heathcliff cursed in shock. He couldn't believe this was happening! He meant to fight Kazuto and nothing more, but not this. Something was seriously interfering with Kazuto's avatar. But what? What was it? What went wrong? He calculated everything before he started SAO and made sure nothing would affect him!

He was completely ready to brace himself for Kirito's attack, but he never expected the teen to only tap his shield, slip to the ground, and not get up! Heathcliff quickly cancelled the challenge and knelt at the teen's side.

"Oi! Ka-I mean-Kirito!" Heathcliff called as he shook the teen's shoulder. "Kirito! Wake up!"

He turned Kirito over and lightly slapped his face. "Come on, Kirito, wake up!"

Kirito didn't budge and had a look of stress as he 'slept'. Heathcliff cursed again and opened his admin screen. "What did I do wrong?"

He quickly picked out Kirito's avatar and scanned it to see if there were any bugs or glitches, but came up empty-handed. Heathcliff's face darkened when he saw a long red box underneath Kirito's picture on his menu.

"SYSTEM COLLABORATION AT FORTY-TWO POINT THIRTY-SIX PERCENT AND COUNTING."

"...I could've sworn I disabled and uninstalled that from Kazuto-kun's NerveGear after the 15th Floor...so, who reinstalled that software?" Heathcliff growled. His eyes narrowed as he tried to find out who did it.

Suddenly, Asuna and Klein stumbled into the clearing in front of him. He quickly dismissed his menu.

"Kirito?!" Asuna cried when her eyes landed on Kirito. She quickly rushed to his side and shook his shoulder. She looked up at Heathcliff. "What happened to him?! What did you do?!"

Klein didn't miss the flash of guilt on Heathcliff before it was replaced by confusion.

"I don't know, Asuna. I just challenged him in a quick battle, but right in the middle of it all, he just suddenly collapsed." Heathcliff admitted. Asuna lightly shook Kirito in attempt to get him up. He paused for a second and looked at Klein. The guild leader was frowning.

"Is it just me or is he fading slightly...?" he asked reluctantly. Heathcliff looked down and felt his eyes widen in fear. He could barely see the thin blades of grass through Kirito's pale hands.

Klein, unfortunately, was right. Kirito was slowly fading.

._._._._._.

The only thing that actually registered in Kazuto's head was the pain he felt. It was so hard to breath, like the air was so dry. His chest was sore and his head was pounding as if it was running a marathon. His hip-joint to his left leg was burning uncontrollably.

He knew he was laying down on his back, but where? He faintly heard voices but couldn't make them out. They were merged together with all these annoying beeping sounds. Kazuto tried to lift a hand, but he couldn't feel it move.

"What in the world is going on?!" he thought to himself. He focused on the voices to distract himself from the pain. And he sort of regretted doing so.

"-Dropping! His heart-rate-!"

"-ressure! Quick, call-"

"He's not gonna make it…"

"Shut up! He will! Now just help me!"

Kazuto felt dread and guilt when he recognized the last voice.

"Rinko-nee-chan…"

He struggled to open his eyes and was only able to see through a tiny crack. He could faintly see Rinko's silhouette above him.

"Come on, Kazuto-kun," he heard her say, "Stay with me. You want to see Suguha-chan, right? Just hang on a little longer. I will be here to take care of you. I am not going to let you die here, so you better not die in Kayaba-san's stupid game! Don't you dare give up!"

Kazuto wanted to tell her that it would be okay. That he wouldn't give up. There was no way that he would lose to this game. He has too much to live for. For Suguha-chan, his "mother", Rinko, and even for Asuna and Klein who were complete strangers that actually cared.

His eyes slipped closed and thousands of colors flashed past him. His consciousness was dragged back into the virtual world. Silently, he vowed to himself that he would never give up as his world blacked out again.

._._._._._.

The sunlight streamed from the window and landed gently on the sleeping teen who was curled up into a ball under the white sheets. He rolled over to get away from the sunlight, but couldn't. He stayed there for a couple more seconds before groaning in defeat. The teen threw the blanket off himself and sat up as he glared at the window.

"Can't you let me sleep a little longer?!" he asked the window. Kirito sighed and rubbed his eyes to wake himself up. He stretched and dropped his arms as he took a look around.

A digital clock hung on the opposite side of the wall and read 8:27 am. Next to the clock was a dresser and a mirror that Kirito looked at suspiciously. A desk was placed against a wall with a computer on top.

"What in the world…?" Kirito muttered to himself as he got up from the bed and took a closer look at the computer. "This is the computer I built with the parts Aki-nii gave me…"

His hand suddenly froze over the computer screen. He took another look around the room with wide eyes. Realization dawned on him. "This is my room!"

Without a second thought, he ran out his door and stopped at his sister's door. "If this is my house then this should be-" He opened the door and saw an empty room with a single window. "Sugu's room?"

Kirito walked into the room and looked out the window. Outside was the familiar streets of his hometown. He gasped in disbelief. "What in the world?!"

Scared, Kirito looked over his outfit. He was only wearing a simple white t-shirt, a pair of gray shorts, and was barefooted. He shook his head and slowly backed out of the room.

"This can't be happening!" he cried as he shot down the hall and hurried down the stairs. Kirito stumbled to a stop in the living room.

"Sugu? Okaa-san?" he called out. There was no answer. Almost hysterical, he ran out the front door and stopped in the middle of the empty street. Placing his hands by his mouth, he yelled. "Suguha!? Okaa-san!?"

His voice echoed into the emptiness, escalating his fear. He called out once more.

"IS ANYBODY HERE?!"

No answer.

Kirito dropped his hands in defeat and fell to his knees. He looked up to see the sky, but only saw white.

"Where am I?" he asked with a shaky breath.

"REGISTERED CODE#7356 FOUND."

"W-wha?" Kirito stood up and looked around. The world around him was suddenly bathed in red. His clothes were suddenly changed back into his black attire in Sword Art Online. He looked over himself in shock. "What's going on?!"

The whole area began to fizzed and fade away as if it was no longer able to hold itself up.

"INITIATING LOG IN TO SWORD ART ONLINE."

"Log in?!" Kirito exclaimed as his sword materialized on his back.

"USERNAME: KIRITO. PASSWORD: ********."

Kirito felt the ground disappear under him.

"LOG IN COMPLETE."

"Waaaaah!" he cried as he fell into a white pit of colors. He turned around and saw Aincrad from outside yet again. The sky around was bright and blue with several white clouds scattered everywhere. Kirito braced himself as he fazed through the building all over again.

._._._._._.

Kirito snapped open his eyes and shot up to his feet, scaring the living daylights out of the unsuspecting Asuna and Klein. He did a quick 360 degree spin on his heel and recognized the forest around him. How long was he out?

"Whoa! Easy there, Kirito!" Kein exclaimed as Kirito swayed on his feet. Asuna quickly recovered from her shock and held Kirito steady. The teen had his eyes wide and he was shaking uncontrollably.

"Kirito, calm down! What's wrong?" she asked. She slowly lowered Kirito and made him sit back down in the grass. She ran a hand through his hair to calm him down. It helped calm his nerves down a bit.

Clearing his throat, Kirito finally spoke. "W-where's Heathcliff?"

Asuna and Klein shared a look of confusion. Both of them were worried when Heathcliff suddenly ran off saying that there was an emergency back at KoB.

"He went back to his guild because he had to do something. Why?" Asuna asked. Kirito just shook his head as if to clear it. He took one deep breath and let it out slowly. After a couple seconds, he finally calmed down and gave the two a tired look.

"Honestly? I have no idea what in the world just happened." Kirito admitted. He sighed and began his rant. "First, I black out and I end up seeing Rinko-nee-chan trying to keep me alive, then I woke up to find myself in some weird world only to be thrown back into SAO! Is this even possible?"

He looked up and felt his shoulders fall when he saw Asuna and Klein giving him the "Are you crazy?" look.

Kirito sighed. "I have a lot of explaining to do, don't I?"

Klein gave him his best parent-like serious face. "Yup."

Please don't kill meeeeee! I mean, yeah, the chapter is short again and I don't want to force it. Plus, you guys are scaaaaaaaary. This isn't much of a cliffhanger now is it? I hope... This chapter, like all the others, wasn't really edited so sorry for the mistakes! Well, tell me what you guys thought of this chapter and stuffy! Have fun in whatever you got planned for summer!

-CloudyLightning