NOT SO LATE GAME Ch.0

A PRELUDE TO HEIGHTS

The death game has been over for quite a while, a month and a half to be exact. Who would've known something so small, something as crazy as a VRMMORPG, something as little as a GAME could do so much?

I lost two people; my brother, and the one who took me in and made me alive again. I'm all alone now. I'm standing on the edge of a cliff I'm close to falling into, holding on to a promise that may never come true.

"I'll be back… sister."

Grey… He wasn't my real brother, and he wasn't anyone I was remotely related to. Heck, he wasn't even from the same universe as I am! He was just someone who I met as I ran for my life in the valley of death, where all nightmares went to sleep in a dream somewhere in a metal castle in the sky promising us with dreams and leaving us to die!

He was someone who gave my life meaning again…

After my twin brother died, after hell seemed to fall into me as the last of a duo, the last of a companionship meant for decades to come, he was there to guide me. He did everything he could to hide his own feelings of living through a world not his own, a world where accomplishing anything would lead to nothing for him.

He was somewhere the world could forget about him, somewhere he could've died and no one would give a crap. He was worse than an alien, and he still pursued the dream of others to see the light of a real day once more.

He died for that dream, he died for the daylight his eyes never saw, he died for the breeze his skin never felt, he died for the billions of people he never truly met.

He died for a sister he never truly had.

In a few moments, I realized I was crying again. I never did let go of the feelings that churned my stomach every single second; as though my existence was constantly wavering on a plane with no walls, no grass, nothing to keep me from stumbling from the harsh winds that blew me over.

I was a mess; dressed up as myself and living in the shadow of who I'm supposed to be.

I pity my parents who lost their son and half of their daughter to a never ending nightmare. They try so hard to make me feel like I'm part of the world, but I can't face the reality yet. I haven't truly left the game yet; not until he's back.

Not until Grey fulfills the promise that can never be kept, a promise that cannot be accomplished from beyond that grave where he was laid.

"I'll be back."

Once again, I was washed by my own tears, never letting go of a past that can never be brought back.

Rheas… No, Say'ri Chan may never be able to leave the reality within the lie known as Sword Art Online.

Hours Later…

I was at a construction site for a building with a name I'll never know. My father, an engineer, decided to bring me along as the walls of my room were, in his eyes, "suffocating" me.

I walked idly by his side, taking in the sights of a grand building that I never could seem to have an interest to. Even before the game, I never really grasped what people say about the beauty of architecture within a building. My brother used to berate my seemingly lack of interest in construction, something he was really fond of as a sort of inheritance from my father.

The afternoon was going slowly, every second made it more painful for me to walk on. Perhaps it was the lack of muscle tissue to carry me? Or was it the lack of Calcium in my bones that gave me a hard time of supporting my own body?

Seeing how thin I've become, I'd say I've become too weak to do anything. I still remember my glory days as a purple-clad swordswoman, cutting through waves of monsters like they were butter.

No… they weren't my glory days, they were Rheas's. Rheas was gone now, say hello to her empty shell.

Absently, I didn't notice when one of my father's men, a tall man whom I recognized as one of my father's most trusted, was shouting about finding a boy's body from near the construction sight. I only realized it when my father sprinted towards where the body lied, and I had to snap back into reality to realize that I was supposed to follow him.

Inside a makeshift infirmary, five grown men were studying the said body, mumbling among themselves where it came from.

"I heard it fell from the sky." One man said. "It must be a miracle to find this boy still breathing like this, though falling into the soft mud must've helped his case."

My father stared at the body for quite a while until he asked me if I wanted to take a look. Quietly, I nodded, walking towards the bed where the body lay.

What I found was something I would have never believed could happen in a thousand years, what I saw with my eyes couldn't believe the sight that lay before me.

Though rough around the edges and covered in muck, I recognized this person.

"Tell me, Say'ri, do you know him?" My father asked.

"This is…" I managed to squeak. "This is..!"

I began sobbing terribly, and my father had to take me in his arms and rub my back like whenever I used to cry when I was still a little girl.

"It's a friend of mine. A friend I thought I'd never see again. He's from there…"

Whether the tears that fell were from sadness, happiness, relief, or even anger, there was something I knew from that day forward.

Grey was alive, he didn't break his promise after all…

AN.

So that's the gist of what I'm planning, in case you were wondering. Thank you to all the people who made it this far, I appreciate what you're doing, and I can't help but thank you enough.

If you look at it, you'll see a reference to Fire Emblem Awakening, but it goes deeper than that. Rearrange Say'ri's name, and you can get Rheas. That's what I'm going for, and I hope you're comfortable with that.

Lastly, the words Say'ri remembers as Grey's last words were purposely wrong, as she was in a state of shock, and misremembering things just to convince herself that he was really coming back. Just sayin'.

Again, thank you for finishing the fanfic, and I hope you're up for another batch of Grey in your life. Stay tuned.

Peace out.