I do not own Sword Art Online or any of the characters.
Way Out
"Anything?" Michael asked as he and Strea sat in a small virtual space he had created for their research.
"Kayaba's attempt seems to have been a success, though I cannot seem to locate his consciousness," Strea said. "I believe it may have only been a temporary success, and it disappeared after meeting with Kirito in Yggdrasil."
"Alright," Michael nodded. "I'll keep looking. You keep looking into perfecting the method."
Strea nodded and returned to her work as Michael did the same.
"I found him," Michael grinned. "That sneaky bastard. Alright Kayaba, get in here."
A moment later, Heathcliff was standing in front of him and Strea, rubbing the back of his head.
"Looks like I've been found out," Kayaba said. "Does this mean I can't play?"
"No, you can play," Michael smirked. "But you do realize the danger of you being there, right?"
"Oh I know," Heathcliff nodded. "So, any progress?"
"A little," Strea nodded. "I'm just having trouble getting the configuration right. The process is too slow. That's why it was such a risk for you."
"I see," Heathcliff nodded. "Well, I'll help you solve that, if I can."
Michael nodded and Heathcliff was covering in light, returning to his real life appearance and opening up a screen, getting to work right away.
"I think we've got it," Kayaba stated. "The problem is output and power. For mine, it simply wasn't high enough. The NerveGear certainly isn't high enough."
"But I know what is," Michael stated. "Right, Strea?"
"Yes Master," Strea nodded. "It should work, with a bit of tampering."
"Tampering?" Michael asked.
"It's not much," Strea said. "I can walk you through it there."
Michael nodded and sent the data, and Strea, to his laptop. Kayaba returned to being Heathcliff and left, and Michael logged out. Then, he got up and got dressed quickly. He called Asuna and she answered on the second ring.
"Hello?" Asuna asked.
"It's Michael," Michael said.
"I got a message saying her condition changed," Asuna said. "I'm going to see her. Can you let Kazuto know?"
"Sure," Michael nodded. "But Asuna, I did it."
"You did?" Asuna asked. "You're sure?"
"Ninety percent," Michael said. "We'll be cutting it close though."
"It's good enough for her to decide," Asuna said. "Let Kazuto know and meet me there."
"Already on my way," Michael said then hung up, sending Kazuto a short message explaining that his research had finally payed off and about what was going on.
Then, he put his phone away. A few minutes later, he reached the hospital at the same time as Asuna, both running in, Asuna leading Michael to Yuuki's room. There was a doctor and two assistants in the room already and they walked in, looking around at them.
"About forty minutes ago, Yuuki's heart stopped momentarily," the doctor said. "We were able to restart it but, she doesn't have long."
"Is she awake?" Michael asked.
Just as he did, Yuuki's eyes slowly opened and she looked at him and Asuna, who knelt, taking her hand.
"Yuuki," Michael said. "I might have a way to save you, but I'm leaving it up to you since if I fail, it will kill you."
Yuuki blinked and simply stared at him.
"I may be able to transfer your consciousness into your ALfheim Online Avatar permanently," Michael said. "Your body would die, but you could live in the virtual world. As I said, it's not a hundred percent guaranteed that you will survive, though. If I fail, you die, probably very painfully."
Yuuki managed to smile and squeezed Asuna's hand slightly.
"Do it," Asuna nodded.
Michael set his computer on the bed beside Yuuki and opened it. Strea appeared on the screen with a simplified version of the data that he could read without having to think about it.
"Your job is easy," Strea said. "Plug the computer in so I can remove the safeties then rewrite the output programming as I tell you."
Michael nodded, plugging his computer into the medicuboid and a box of binary code appeared, shifting rapidly. After a couple of minutes, Strea began to speak and Michael typed rapidly, too fast for Asuna to keep up with and she barely understood a work that Strea was speaking. After what seemed like forever, Strea finished and Michael unplugged the laptop.
"That should do it," Michael said.
"One last thing," Strea said. "You need to remove the inhibitor lens. Otherwise, it'll slow the process too much."
Michael nodded, opening a panel on the medicuboid and carefully pulling out circuit boards before pulling out a tiny piece of glass and putting everything else back. He closed the panel and looked at Strea.
"That's it," Strea said. "Now she just needs to log on one last time."
Michael nodded and Asuna stood.
"Sir, may I use the AmuSphere?" Asuna asked.
"Of course," the doctor nodded and Asuna hurried out of the room while they got the medicuboid in place and began to start it up.
Michael knelt beside Yuuki's bed and took her hand in place of Asuna. She was clearly scared but she managed a weak smile.
"You should come out at the tree and Asuna's going to be waiting for you," Michael said.
"It's ready," the doctor said.
"Ready?" Michael asked.
Yuuki blinked and squeezed his hand, barely able to do even that, and the doctor turned the Medicuboid on, loading ALfheim Online.
"There's a second AmuSphere in the room through the door on the left," the doctor said. "You should hurry. She'll want to thank you in person when it works."
Michael nodded, standing and hurrying through the door, putting the second AmuSphere on and sitting against the bed where Asuna was laying. He logged into his profile and a moment later he was standing on the island with the tree. There were hundreds of fairies present, from all races. It seemed as though he was the last one to show up. There wasn't even room to stand on the island, it looked like. However, as soon as someone noticed him, the crowd parted and the island cleared of everyone who wasn't either in the Sleeping Knights or one of Kirito's friends. Michael landed and saw the others standing in front of him, Asuna watching him with tears running down her face. Then, she smiled and stepped aside, allowing Yuuki to literally tackle Michael, laughing happily and hugging him.
"It worked!" Yuuki shouted happily. "I get to live here now!"
Michael grinned, standing with Yuuki and gave her a brief hug before she stepped back, smiling up at him.
"Thank you so much," Yuuki bowed.
"Well, I couldn't let you die before I beat you, could I?" Michael smirked. "I'm glad it worked. However, you should know, if you die again, you won't respawn. If you die, you're gone."
"It's alright," Yuuki said. "You still gave me more time than I had. And now I can get stronger. But, does that mean I won't have a remain light?"
"Not sure," Michael said just as Strea appeared on his shoulder.
"You will," Strea said. "But your revival chance will be much shorter than normal, so if you aren't revived right away, you'll die."
"That's better than the Sword Art Online deal," Kirito smirked. "But we'll have to be careful now."
"We'd have to be careful anyway," Michael said. "So, where we having the celebration?"
Yuuki grinned and looked to Kirito and Asuna who both nodded. Then, everyone on the island cheered.
Read and review.