Note: Updated 'Crimson Killing Intent' at the very end to match the LN a bit more. (Just the part between Asuna punching Kirito and the end)

I can almost guarantee that this chapter will get some sort of revision. You guys have no idea how hard it was to try to write a good reaction for the fight with Heathcliff. The sheer roller coaster of emotions that Suguha would have to go through in that short amount of time was really hard to try to piece together. I'm not thrilled with this chapter, but I'd rather post it and update it later than not post anything.

Also, this story will probably have two more chapters, and a few other flashback chapters like the Silica/Lisbeth storylines. I could continue it into ALO, but I have another idea that I'd like to go with for that part of the plot in a separate story.

I guess a bit of a teaser... The 'continuation' of this story would be a slight AU where Kayaba got a bit more involved with bringing the virtual world into the real world. He would end up doing that with Kirito at the end, and Kirito would essentially be his SAO avatar in real life. Seems like it could be fun to write about.

Q/A from reviews:

Q: What!? That was from 16.5! Hahaha LoL ( Was it? )

A: Yes.

The End of the World

It was just before one in the afternoon—five minutes 'till, to be precise. Suguha laid on her bed with her Amusphere in her hands, clenching it tightly. In five minutes the floor seventy five boss fight would happen.

She had already spoken with her mother and her friend Recon about it, and they promised they'd be logged in for the fight. In reality, this was possibly the most important boss fight so far. It would mark the three-quarters completion point for SAO.

The day before had marked the two year point since the SAO servers had launched and the players had been trapped. It had been a day of sadness, a memorial for the three thousand eight hundred and thirty nine people to die so far in the game.

If the game proceeded at the current rate, it would mean another eight months would need to go by for the game to be beaten. That number was thought to be inaccurate, though, as the floors got smaller in area as their numbers increased. It was popular opinion that the game could be beaten much faster and the trapped players could be back within six months.

Suguha didn't agree with that. The higher the players went, the more difficult the opponents. If the 'Fatal Scythe' boss that Kirito and Asuna had run into a week before was anything to judge by, the clearing players were going to need to do a lot of grinding to level up and be able to clear the bosses without a bunch of deaths. She had conservatively set her hope for the game's completion at the three year mark.

That weighed heavily on her as she clutched her Amusphere, trying to summon the courage to put the device on.

Another year...

If her estimate was right—even if she wasn't, and the game only took another six months—it would mean she had to watch her brother fight off death for another six months. She'd already been watching for a year and a half and she was beginning to seriously doubt whether or not she could keep it up for so much more time.

How do you do it? she wondered to herself. How did her brother find the strength to get out of bed each day knowing that most of that very day would involve him risking his life for some experience points. The mental fortitude that had to require simply astounded Suguha.

She sighed. It was a minute past one, which meant the boss fight might have already started. There wasn't any more time to question herself. With a swift motion, she brought the Amusphere over her head and said, "Link start!"

At least I didn't miss anything, she realized almost instantly as she loaded into the three-dimensional rendering of SAO. The group of players had entered the boss room, which appeared to be a gigantic circular floating platform, and were now looking around for the boss.

"Ah, you made it!" Recon exclaimed as he jogged over to her.

Suguha smiled slightly at her friend, noticing that her mother was also standing to the side watching. "Barely. I'm getting really burnt out of this," she admitted, silently questioning what made her even admit that to him.

"Above!" Asuna cried out, snapping her attention back to the players before her.

She followed Asuna's finger with her eyes and froze as she saw the boss clinging to the ceiling. It's name was "The Skull Reaper," and it lived up to the name, at least visually. It was a ten meter long skeletal centipede. The body widened as it stretched from back to skull—a skull with burning eyes. Perhaps most intimidating were the two several meter long scythe arms.

Suguha gasped as the boss released its grip on the ceiling, falling towards the group of players. Heathcliff shouted out a warning, causing the players to scatter out of the way. Three of the players didn't react fast enough and they were attacked by the boss. One of the scythe arms lashed through them at a terrifying speed, and Suguha watched in horror as their HP gauges dropped faster than she'd ever seen before.

They descended into the yellow, then the red...and then...

"No way..."

One attack. The scythe had killed three players in a single swipe, shattering their bodies into millions of translucent polygons as they flew through the air from the sheer impact of the blow.

The remaining players in the boss room shared her horror at the attack. She knew that they were all highly leveled players. Even the Gleam Eyes from the last floor would take a combo of several hits to kill one of the damage-oriented players, not to mention one of the tanks. A one hit kill was unheard of in SAO.

The Skull Reaper didn't give the players any time to ponder its power. It charged at another group of nervous players, swinging its deadly scythe. Some of them ran, others stood still, frozen in shock. But just before the scythe connected, the red and white paladin stepped in and blocked the blade with his crucifix shield.

However, Heathcliff could only block one of the scythes. The left one darted past the paladin towards a group of players. Suguha gasped as Kirito dashed through the room with one of his skills, putting himself in the path of the scythe. He crossed his swords and caught the enormous scythe, trying to hold it above his shoulder.

The fact that he could go toe-to-toe in strength with a monster as big as The Skull Reaper was a chilling sign of just how much higher of a level he was than the other players in the room. Even so, the scythe was overpowering him, as the blade began to dig into his shoulder and drain his HP slowly.

"Come on..."

As if she heard the words, Asuna finally darted forward and added combined her own strength with Kirito's, finally managing to push the scythe back. "If we block it together we have a chance. Come on, we can do this!"

The scythe that Heathcliff blocked came in for another blow, but the Paladin held strong. "Me and Asuna will deal with the scythes. Everyone else, flank it and attack!" her brother shouted to his comrades.

It took them a minute, but the other players started attacking at that point. The rest of the boss fight proceeded just as her brother had called for. He and Asuna blocked one of the scythes while Heathcliff blocked the other. The other players hit the boss with everything they had, while trying to avoid its tail, which seemed to claim a new life every few minutes.

Later, Suguha would realize that the boss fight lasted for over an hour. In that time, she, her mother, and Recon didn't utter a single word as they watched with open-mouth amazement as Kirito and Asuna fought off the monster. Heathcliff was impressive with his defensive skills, but the other duo was blocking the scythe while trying to output damage at the same time. Their movements were synchronized to the point that Suguha couldn't help but wonder if they were actually under the control of one person, not two—as silly as it sounded.

Their movements completely complemented each other. Any opening was covered by the other, and every strike they landed was perfectly chained into a full combo of sword skills. To make it more impressive, it was all done without a single word between the two.

Finally, the boss fight ended with the skeletal centipede being mercilessly battered apart by all of the surviving players. A sense of grim satisfaction manifested itself in a smirk on Suguha's face as she saw the monster sprawled out on the floor, no longer able to swing its scythes of doom.

Then, it glowed bright white and exploded, displaying the congratulatory message. However, none of the players cheered at all. She had lost count during the fight, but at least ten of them must have died fighting it. Not to mention that it had been an hour long fight and the players were sprawled out across the arena panting.

"How many did we lose?" Klein's apprehensive voice came out.

Kirito opened his map to count, and Suguha felt a tear fall down her cheek as he shakily managed to say, "Fourteen of us died."

Suguha was sure that the "Oh my God," from Agil was what most people were thinking at that moment, players and viewers alike.

"And we still got twenty five floors to go..." said Klein.

The others began whispering to each other as well, mostly about how hopeless the game seemed. However, her attention was caught by her brother looking curiously at Heathcliff, who was the only player still standing up.

She walked over and crouched next to him, looking into his eyes. "What are you thinking...big brother?"

His eyes widened with a faint gasp as he realized something. But what? She was worried as his face formed a frown and he reached for his sword. Asuna noticed as well, as she was sitting back-to-back with him. "What's wrong?" she asked softly.

He made no reply other than to launch himself towards Heathcliff. Suguha's reaction was pretty much the same as Asuna as they ran over with shock. "Kirito! What are you...?" Asuna asked, her voice trailing off.

Suguha saw why. Kirito had managed to strike Heathcliff fast enough that the paladin had been unable to block. The sword should have pierced his left shoulder, but the blade had been stopped by an invisible barrier. A small purple window had popped up.

Immortal Object.

"Whoa...what the...?" Recon asked, running over as well.

Suguha felt like the temperature in the room had dropped by a good twenty degrees as a chill crawled down her spine. Asuna asked Heathcliff to explain himself, but the older man didn't seem to have an inclination to repsond.

Her brother, of course, had all of the answers. "This is the truth behind the legend. The system is designed to prevent his HP from ever falling into the yellow zone. The only things that can be labeled immortal objects are the environment, NPCs, and system managers, not players. But there aren't any more GMs in the game—except for one."

His words hit Suguha like bricks. The conclusion was self-evident, yet she couldn't bring herself to believe it.

Gaze cast upwards, Kirito continued, "There's something that has stuck in the back of my mind ever since I came here. I figured he had to be watching us from somewhere, managing and fine-tuning the world. But I forgot a basic psychological fact, something that even a kid knows." He paused a long moment for effect, looking directly at Heathcliff. "There's nothing more boring than watching someone else play an RPG. Isn't that right, Akihiko Kayaba?"

Heathcliff maintained his passive expression for a bit longer as the other players stared in shock. Asuna asked him if it was true, and finally Heathcliff tilted his head. "...Will you at least tell me how you figured it out?" Suguha wanted to know that as well, though not as much as she wanted her brother to shove a sword through the man then and there.

"I first noticed something was off during our duel. You moved too fast in that final moment."

So he did notice it, she realized. Odd that he never brought it up before now...

"I should have known. That was a painful failure for me. I was so overwhelmed by your attack, I had no choice but to use the system's assistance." Finally, a grimace appeared on the man's face. "My plan was to not reveal myself until the ninety-fifth floor had been reached. But alas..."

The paladin—no, the scientist—turned his head to look at the others in the room, surveying them like a king would look at his subjects. "Yes, I am Akihiko Kayaba. And I am this game's final boss, the one who should have awaited you on the top floor."

Asuna looked like she was going to faint, but Kirito held her steady. Suguha found herself agreeing wholeheartedly with her brother as he said, "I don't think much of your taste. The greatest player in the game turns hell and becomes the final boss?" It was so cliché.

"But it's a compelling scenario, is it not? We had fun, but I wasn't expecting to be exposed just three-quarters of the way through. I had you pegged as the biggest wild-card element in the game, but even my estimates were off."

He shrugged simply. "I'd always expected that you would be the one to confront me in the end. Out of the ten unique skills in the game, Dual Blades is the one given to the player with the quickest response time. That player should have been the one to stand before the final villian, whether triumphant or beaten. But you exhibited power beyond my expectations. Both in the speed of your attacks and the sharpness of your observation. But..I suppose having one's expectations betrayed is one of the best features of an online RPG."

"Hey," her mother called out, tapping her shoulder. "If he's the game's final boss, doesn't that mean if he dies, the game is over? Couldn't they all just gang up on him and kill him now?"

Suguha hadn't thought of that, but even it were true...she shook her head. "No, it wouldn't work. He's a GM, and he's invulnerable." As if to prove her point, Heathcliff opened a system window and paralyzed all of the players in the room, except for Kirito, who was now holding Asuna in his arms.

"What are you doing? Killing everyone here to cover up your evil deeds?"

"Hardly. I would not be that cruel," Kayaba said with a smile.

Cruel? Suguha screamed internally. You trapped ten thousand people in a death game for your own amusement, you sick bastard!

Oblivious to her hatred, Kayaba continued, "But I am left with no other choice. I must accelerate my plans and await your visit at the Ruby Palace on the top floor. I have been building the Knights of Blood to handle the powerful foes of the ninetieth floor and above. It is not my first choice to abandon you partway like this, but I think you've shown that you have the strength to make it on your own. However, before then..."

Everything had been going so well until that moment. Kayaba appeared to be willing to just leave, and the game would continue. But, as Kayaba jammed his sword into the floor, Suguha felt that chill crawl down her spine again, the unshakeable feeling that something was going to go very, very wrong.

"I believe you deserve a reward for exposing my true identity, Kirito. I will grant you the opportunity to fight me in a one-on-one duel, right here and now. No immortality, of course. If you beat me, the game will be over, and all the players will be able to log out of this world. What do you choose?"

Suguha's mind had frozen at the challenge. Would Kirito accept it? Should he? A million scenarios ran through her mind, but the most consistent thing was the idea that Kayaba would have never given Kirito that challenge if he had even the slightest hint that he would lose. Don't. Fucking. Do. It.

Asuna verbalized her thoughts, telling Kirito that Kayaba was trying to get rid of him, that they should fall back and regroup. It was the obvious logical step. When your enemy throws a surprise at you, it is better to try to come up with an answer than to play right into his plans.

"He's going to do it..." Midori said sadly, a tear running down her cheek.

"Huh? You can't be sure," Suguha practically begged.

Midori gave her a sad smile. "It's who he is, Sugu. He's going to take the challenge, even if his chances aren't good. He'll probably lose...but running away might be a worse fate than death for him."

"...?"

Her mother hugged her tightly as Suguha could no longer hold back her tears. "Think of it, honey. He's the best player, so he has the best chance. If he runs away and more people die, he is going to blame himself for all of their deaths. Besides, there's no guarantee that he'd have a better chance if he waited anyway..."

It spoke volumes that minutes had passed before Kirito replied though, as mother and daughter remained locked in an embrace with another young man watching from the side with a sad expression.

"All right. Let's settle this."

"Kirito!" Asuna cried out desperately, unable to move in his arms.

"I'm sorry, but I can't run away if it means ending this..."

Tears trailed down Asuna's cheeks as she forced a smile. "You aren't going...to die, are you...?"

"Nope...I'm going to win. I'm going to win, and I'm going to bring an end to this world."

"All right. I believe in you."

Suguha wasn't as convinced by his words as Asuna, though. They seemed hollow, empty, as if he didn't believe them himself. It was Recon that snapped her out of her sadness, though. "How can you have so little faith in your own brother?" he demanded angrily. "The time for tears is after, but right now your brother is still here, fighting to bring an end to the game! How can you sit there and act as if he is already dead, when there's every chance he can win?"

She had to hold herself back from slapping him at the start, but as he kept talking, she realized how very right he was. Kirito wasn't dead, not yet. He was going to fight now, and he could win. And if he won...then maybe they could see each other again.

"Thank you, Shinichi," Midori said with a small smile, wiping her eyes. "You're right..."

Suguha wiped her own eyes. That's it, she told herself. If she could just be strong for one more fight, one more, then she might be able to see her brother again.

It was no normal fight though.

By then, Kirito and Kayaba stood opposite each other, swords drawn. Kayaba had deactivated his immortality and equalized their HP bars near the edge of the red zone. A single good hit would result in death for one of them.

"...I have just one request."

"And that is?"

"I don't intend to go down easily, but if I do die, ensure that Asuna can't commit suicide."

Kayaba raised and eyebrow, along with Suguha and Midori as Asuna cried out about how unfair that was. "Very well. I'll see to it that she cannot leave Selmburg."

With that final condition agreed upon, the two men settled into fighting stances. There was a painfully long moment as Kirito seemed to be searching within himself for the strength he needed to fight, and then he charged.

It didn't take a sword-fighting expert to understand that Kirito had decided to go all-out from the very beginning of the fight. His swords moved faster than Suguha could track with her eyes. She had seen him move fast before, but it seemed like every time the stakes increased, his skill rose to match. He used no sword skills as he danced around Kayaba, nearly obstructing any observers view with the gusts of wind his swords created.

Kayaba never faltered, though. He blocked each of Kirito's blows with absolute ease. The chill running down Suguha's spine increased as Kayba landed a glancing blow on Kirito's cheek, dropping his HP a little more. Even with his immortality disabled...something seemed profoundly wrong about how easily Kayaba was able to deflect Kirito's swords. She had doubts that even some of the greatest swordsmen in history would have been able to fight with such a calm ease against such a ferocious opponent.

A rage built up within her as she realized that even if he wasn't immortal, the system might have still been helping him. There was no way to tell for sure. Maybe it was just blind rage because he was fighting her brother, but in her mind she couldn't believe that he could block so effectively.

Kirito had apparently had enough as well, as he began Eclipse. It was the most powerful Dual Blades skill that she had ever seen him practice. Twenty seven lightning quick strikes from seemingly every angle. His swords again moved faster than should have been possible, but none of his blows went through.

The last strike from Eclipse was a stab with his left sword, and as she shoved Dark Repulser forward with all of his strength, it shattered into fragments upon the crucifix shield.

Suguha fell to her knees, feeling as if it was her heart that had shattered, not Dark Repulser. She couldn't watch what happened next, as she knew her brother was immobilized for a full second because of Eclipse's cool down. Even before Kayaba said, "Farewell, Kirito." she had known the fight was over.

But the gasps from Recon and her mother forced her to look again. She had to blink twice to clear enough tears for her to see that Asuna was in her brother's arms with a massive red streak across her chest. Her HP bar was at zero.

She had taken the hit for him.

How was it possible to feel even more sad than she had a moment before, thinking her brother was dead? She didn't understand...but she wanted those feelings back as she felt her heart weighing her down like a brick. Asuna began to glow, the indication that she was going to disappear soon. "Asuna...why...? Why did you...?"

"I'm sorry. Goodbye..."

If Asuna shattering into millions of polygons wasn't enough to render Suguha incoherent, the sight of her brother trying to collect the glowing lights in a pathetic attempt to keep Asuna with him surely was. She crumpled to the ground, no longer even trying to hold back as she sobbed. She felt someone's arm wrap around her, but she didn't know who it was. She didn't care.

There was something very wrong with the world. And it wasn't even that Asuna was dead, and her brother would be soon to follow. How could it be that every time Suguha thought that it couldn't get any worse, it somehow always did?

That was the case with this situation as well. She heard Kayaba casually say, "Well, that was a surprise. I'm sure I never programmed a way for players to neutralize their own paralysis. I guess sometimes these things just happen."

How could he be so cold? How was that even possible? Kirito was on the ground in front of him on his hands and knees, tears cascading down his cheeks, and this man was able to casually ponder the workings of his own game? Suguha had half a mind to find a Nerve Gear and try to dive into SAO herself to kill the bastard.

The sound of a sword being drawn got her attention, though. Kirito had found Asuna's rapier on the ground and drew it, silently trying to strike at his opponent. A little bit of hope returned to her, but it was quickly extinguished. His motions were slow though, as if someone had turned the stream to a hundredth of its normal speed. The attacks were so pathetic, so empty of life, that Suguha couldn't help but scream, "Just end it!"

It was so much worse than him just dying, to see him so broken and hopeless...

As if Kayaba had heard her, he shoved his blade through Kirito's chest. She didn't understand the relief she felt as his HP bar dropped to zero finally. Why was she so relieved? Was she that selfish?

He began to glow white, his body slowly disintegrating, but then...

"..!"

His arm began to move. His body was falling apart, but somehow he found the strength to defy the death sequence. With a horrible cry, he pushed Asuna's rapier forward and through Kayaba's chest.

The paladin's HP hit zero as well, and Suguha thought she saw a smile on her brother's face as he and Heathcliff both shattered in unison.

Her tears returned in full as the reality of the situation was no longer debatable. Kirito—her brother, was dead. Unbidden, memories of their past began to assault her mind, leaving her in an incoherent mess of tears.

She was only faintly aware of an artificial female voice saying, "On November 7th at 2:55 PM, the game has been cleared. Repeat: the game has been cleared."

But the words brought her no comfort.