Talking

Thinking

So cool news in SAO. Dubbed SAO is coming to Toonami in July. Looking forward to seeing if it's any good. The VAs I've heard sound good, especially Asuna and Kirito (thankfully). Oh and lastly, there's a poll thingy on my profile involving this story. It'd be cool if you readers would check it out.

Obviously I own SAO. Don't doubt it. *gets taken away by the internet police*

Chapter XII: Unlikely Comrades

"W-what?" I stammered, still not believing the words out of PoH's mouth were the ones I had heard. If he was telling the truth, I would be able to maybe get to Kayaba before the 75th boss raid that was happening that day according to Klein. It had taken a little over two weeks to find the boss room surprisingly. I was scared for my friends. Every 25 floors was one hell of a boss after all.

"I'm getting you out of here. Didn't you understand me the first time?"

"Why?" I asked suspiciously

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." PoH shrugged, "I've moved on from killing people in this game. I was content to wait it out. People like you have made it too dangerous. But then I found out some interesting stuff about Heathcliff. Turns out you did too, judging by you being in prison."

"So you believe I'm guilty?"

"Pff..! A goody two-shoes like you trying to commit murder?" the man laughed uproariously, "I know you'd never do that. Your arrest just confirmed my suspicions about Heathcliff."

"That he's...?"

"Kayaba Akihiko yes."

"So... why do you care if Heathcliff is Kayaba?" I was surprised I could even discuss it. Maybe it was because PoH already knew. Kayaba might not have accounted for that.

"I want to kill him." PoH replied with a slight manic grin, "One last murder. To be honest, his whole trap really pissed me off. I'd like nothing more than to end his life."

I flinched at the blood thirst in his voice. I had almost forgotten how much of a nut he was. Now I remembered.

"Well then... go murder him." I was still confused at PoH's motivation, "What do you need me for?"

"As much as I'd hate to admit it," the man shrugged, "I probably couldn't take him even in an unfair fight. Plus you'll make a good decoy if he decides to pull GM privileges out. Which is what he probably did with you to lock you up in here."

"Makes sense I guess."

"Oh and if you don't let me break you out..." he grinned evily, "I'll make sure your girlfriend stays dead this time."

I flinched at that, and clenched my hands so tight they began to turn white. Lisbeth dieing was not a pleasant memory to remember, and PoH kept bringing it up.

"I wasn't going to say no anyways." I grumbled angrily, "You didn't have to threaten me."

"Oh good!" the man clapped his hand together.

"So. How exactly are you planning on getting me out of here?"

"I found an exploit well over a year ago..." PoH paced around the front of my cell, and seemed to be looking for something, "It should be right around... here!"

PoH began fiddling with something in mid-air. His forehead creased a few times in irritation, before the cell bars seemed to melt away. I gaped at the sight, and sat there frozen on my knees.

"You're going to catch flies." the man smirked, "Now come, I want to kill Kayaba as soon as possible. My blood burns for his."

"Er r-right." I pulled myself to my feet and followed after him, 'He is one sick puppy. I hope I'm right in trusting him. Definitely going to watch my back just in case.'

Luckily SAO's prisons didn't even have NPC guards. PoH and I were allowed to exit without incident. The sun felt weird on my face once we'd stepped outside. I told PoH that the boss raid was today, so Kayaba was probably there. He nodded, saying he already knew. I followed PoH to the nearby teleport gate, hood shove far over my head. I hoped that no one would come close enough to see my name, or recognize me.

We both stepped in the blue light and spoke the name of the main city on the 75th floor, Collinia. The blue light surrounded us, and we disappeared. The next thing I knew, we were stepping out into Collinia, a city that looked like something out of Rome or Renaissance Italy. I blinked in the bright sun, a bit different from the sun in the floor I had been jailed on. The only time I had actually been to this floor was for Kirito and Kayaba's duel.

"Do you know where they are?" I questioned PoH as we headed out into the dungeon

"No. We'll have to look until we find them." the man kept on walking without pause.

Okay I was definitely having bad thoughts about teaming up with him now. I felt my adrenaline spike at his words. The longer I followed him into the ruins the more my danger sense was going haywire. After all, what better time to kill me or betray than where no one could hear me scream?

I followed my new uncertain party member ever deeper into the ruins, both of us staying nearly completely silent. I began to question mentally PoH's tactics for finding the boss room. Why didn't we just use our tracking skills and find the biggest group of people. It made sense to me. I shrugged it off and kept following him, though I kept my detection skills on high alert. I did not need to be ambushed by Laughing Coffin. PoH wasn't a part of the guild anymore, but he still could have worked with them on the side. It was a common Pking tactic

Deeper and deeper we went, and the air began to grow musty and damp. I wrinkled my nose at some of the smells beginning to come out of the walls around us. This was one of the nastier floors for sure.

Suddenly, PoH began to chuckle grimly, and a chill ran up my spine. The next thing I knew, he had left the party, and was now grinning menacingly

"Well its been fun, but I'm afraid I've been mostly lieing to you. If you could lay over and die now; I would appreciate the gesture."

"W-why!?" I asked, "Why do this now? Why not just let me rot in prison?"

"I need your claws." PoH replied, "With those I will be unstoppable to kill Kayaba."

"H-hey." I slowly backed away from PoH, "You can't be serious about this."

"Oh I am, believe me." PoH took a few steps closer, his cleaver materializing in his hands

I had been wary of PoH's offer to work together, but I never expected him to turn on me just for the sake of killing me and taking my claws. I expected him to use me as a scapegoat for Kayaba while he got the kill. I took several more steps back and equipped the very same claws that PoH wanted to pry out of my dead hands. There was no way I was going to die here. Not after two years of survival. Not when so many people would be distraught over my death. I clenched my fists tighter and got into a crouch.

"Good... .good." the man laughed, "Let us fight to the death!"

He lunged forward with a maniacal laugh, his cleaver in hand. I ducked under it and shoved my shoulder into his chest, surprised at the ease at which I did it. The hit sent PoH stumbling back, my own surprise reflected on his face. We then began circling each other, daring the other to make the next move. PoH was the first to act, lunging forward at me again.

'Right I didn't use my claws last time we fought, and even then we were on the same level.' I blocked his sword skill and kicked him in the chest to knock him back again, 'It makes sense that I would have an advantage. Time to finish this then. I've got no time to waste. Every second I waste could mean one of my friends dieing.'

I dodged another swing, and flash stepped behind him before sliding over into a reave skill. The blow sent him flying back into a tree, groaning in pain. I blinked, still surprised at how easy it had been. I slowly walked up to the downed killer, his health bar slowly sliding down into the red zone. He almost looked like someone I should be pitying. I held up one claw, ready to finish him with another sword skill.

'What the hell am I doing.' I let my arm drop to my side, 'I'm no murderer. Even after all he's done, I still can't end his life. Why? WHY? He deserves it. I know he does. Even if I send him to prison, he'll just escape again. He has been off of pking though. I haven't heard of him killing anyone in the past few weeks. Maybe if I leave him be, it'll be fine? Geez I hope I'm making the right decision.'

"What are you doing." PoH screamed at me, "Finish me!"

I looked down at him, trying my hardest not to do just that. With a grimace, I pulled out a prison crystal and activated it. PoH let out one last tortured scream before vanishing in a veil of blue light.

"Hopefully he'll have the sense to stay there." I rubbed my temples wearily, "If he comes after me again, I'm gonna have to just finish it. Please let him have some sense."

I pulled my cloak tighter and began searching the 75th floor again. Unfortunately, as before, I didn't have any map data, so I was riding blind. All I knew was that people had already headed to the boss room, so I tried to using my tracking skill to detect where previous players had gone. To my relief, a massive group of human footprints appeared to my right, heading deeper into the ruins.

'Gotta be them.' I sighed in relief, and followed the glowing tracks.

The 75th floor looked like something out of a history book. The dungeon was made up of sprawling ruins, akin to something from ancient Rome or Greece. I forced myself to ignore my inner history nerd, and ran as fast as I could down the corridors.

The sounds of fighting filled my ears the further I advanced into the ruins. For some strange reason, I hadn't encountered any monsters, but I wasn't complaining. I continued running down hallway after hallway, praying that my friends were all still alive. At long last the hallways widened out into a massive room, with an equally massive closed door. The fighting noises all ceased as I entered, and the door slowly creeped open. To my relief, I could see the massive congratulations banner on the other side.

'Crap! I need to hide!" I activated all my stealth related skills and dived into a corner of the shadowy room. I then crept along the wall until I reached the door. I peered inside. No one was looking, so I snuck into the room and hid in the shadows. If I was lucky, no one would have their skills on that would allow them to see me, and even if they did, my stealth related skills were so high that they would be unable to detect me anyway. I snuck up behind Heathcliff, and prepared to try and attack him. If I was right, he was currently an immortal object, and hitting him would reveal his status to the entire group of players here. One of the things I had always noticed was that his health never dropped into the yellow zone, and it was currently on the verge of getting there.

'Alright...' I lunged forward, shifting into a flash step, my claws blazing with the purple light of my skill, 'Time to reveal your true colors!'

As far as I could tell, the 75th floor is a lot like ancient Italy, so I based it off that. I know the town looks like Rome. Also no Skull Reaper fight. Aurain HAD to come in after it. The only way this was going to work. Cliffhanger and such. I'm sure most people are wondering how exactly the big reveal is going to work out with Aurain forcibly shoving himself into the equation, whether Kayaba likes it or not. Also I'm announcing something that's going to be out in a few weeks. Going to start up a separate fic of all side stories from this universe. It'll be stuff that didn't really fit in with the story, or things I thought of that couldn't be stuck in at the point I'm at in the story. Eventually it'll probably be stuff from ALO if I decide to continue into ALO. Still not 100% on that.

-Forscythe