Ello people, and welcome to the first chapter of whatever I'm calling this crossover. Well if any you guys seen my profile, I put something of this description under 'in progress'. Well here it is!

So if you've seen any of my previous stories, I've done a lot of Code Geass FanFics, but this is my first time doing anything related to Sword Art Online, so if I get any elements wrong I apologize, point them out and I will fix them. You have my word on that.

There is going to be a good amount of filler from real life to SAO so bear with me until we get to Lelouch killing things with a sword.

I really have no clue why I'm even making this story, just felt like something I needed to do because well my mind wouldn't let me think of other things. So follow/favorite if you'd like and enjoy.

-Disclaimer-

I don't own either Code Geass or Sword Art Online.

Chapter 0: Complete Immersion

Lelouch grimaced as the huge blade in his chest was pulled out of him, the pain coming in a sharp sting. He staggered forward, his attacker moving out of his way, flinging his blood of his blade. Soon there was no more room for him to move forward and he fell onto the ramp in front of him.

He slid on his bleeding chest and tumbled onto my back, sliding onto the end of the ramp with a thud. The world around him had started fading away from his senses, replacing them with the memories of his life. They flashed by one after the other, every good memory and every bad one, each having their own significance to him.

"L-lelouch, are you?" he heard his little sister voice like it was nothing but a whisper in the darkness. "Yes...I," he began weakly, "I destroyed the world and created... anew."

With those words, all of his remaining energy ran out, making him close his eyes one more time. Forever sealing him in the darkness he created for himself.

"Lelouch vi Britannia, we finally meet in person," a booming voice asked, the intensity of the voice making it impossible to distinguish whether it was a boy or girl. 'Is that the collective unconscious?' he asked inwardly, 'Of course it is, I'm supposed to be dead right now.'

The former emperor forced his heavy eyes open to be met with the culmination of every human will in the universe, taking the form of the planet Jupiter, the Collective Unconscious. This would be his judgment day and he already know that hell was his destination, why even try to kid himself.

He was a demon and demons belong in hell, not in heaven, all he had to do was wait for his sentence.

"You deem yourself worth of punishment? Though it would make sense knowing that you were setting yourself up for death as the most hated man in the world," The Collective Unconscious, "Though it is not up to you to judge your actions in life Lelouch, it is mine, not a single will can change that."

Lelouch was confused on what it meant by that, what does she mean that she was the only one who could judge his actions. He did the most heinous actions thinkable, how the hell can it say that he didn't deserve to be punished?

"For every wrong deed you committed, you did a good ten times greater, and the Zero Requiem is far greater than every sin you committed these few months. Therefore you are not worthy of going to hell," the Collective Unconscious explained, "but I can not bring you to heaven either too many people believe you a demon to do so."

"So what now?" Lelouch asked, narrowing his eyes at the giant entity, wondering how fate could be so cruel to him. He didn't preform the Zero Requiem so that he wouldn't be punished, he had destroyed everything to be punished, not saved from torture. He could of done everything diplomatically when he was an Emperor, the Zero Requiem was to ensure that he would be punished.

"I would like to propose a contract between ourselves," the Collective Unconscious stated, shocking Lelouch so much that his eyes widened. 'So my I started on this path of destruction with a contract, and I'll end with one,' Lelouch thought, inwardly laughing at the cruel humor.

"So tell me, what is this contract you propose," Lelouch asked, his amusement in the situation leaking into his voice. "I take you to another universe," it answered, "A place where no one you know or knows you exists, there is no Britannia, and the future is bright for the world. Would you like me to take you there?"

Lelouch looked at the entity in the sky, for the first time in a long time being completely dumbfounded. Did he really have a choice in the matter, it just said that there was no soul in the world that could deny it, so how would he be able to say no to this?

"Do I really have a choice?" Lelouch asked begrudgingly. "No you don't have a choice in the matter," the Collective Unconscious, "but I am impressed with your conviction though, every other soul would jump at the opportunity, you are truly a better man than most."

With that Lelouch felt the overwhelming pressure on his eyelids, forcing him to close them as the world around him seemed to morph into something else. Though fear didn't seem to grow inside him, something deep inside of him believed what the Collective Unconscious had told him.

Now he only had to wait and see where he was going, though that in itself was the longest few seconds of his life. Because the world he was about to come into, was the one where he would make his new life, and hopefully it was a good one.

Finally the overwhelming pressure on his eyes suddenly lessened substantially, allowing him to pry them open. The amethyst orbs found themselves being bombarded by bright light, blinding him slightly.

Lelouch suddenly finding the energy to do so, he forced himself to sit up. He blinked frantically trying to get his eyes adjusted to the light, he twisted his head towards the source of the light, finding that sunlight was pouring in through an open blind.

It didn't take long to see that this was a bedroom, the fact that there was a bed in it was enough to make that point. Lelouch began listing off the objects in the room that were in plain sight.

'A pair of computers, a pair of alarm clocks,' he continued, noticing the amount of things that came in pairs, 'Another bed with some lying in it, a clos-'

Lelouch had just noticed the other bed in the room, someone was sleeping in it. With his/her head facing towards the wall, he couldn't tell what he/she looked like. The only thing that was visible was the back of his/her head, which revealed that he/she had was messy black hair.

'Wonder who that could be?' he thought curiously, wondering who his new room mate was, 'I could always ask, but that would look weird, so how do I do this?'

Lelouch gaze left his room mate and moved towards one of the alarm clocks that was in the room, which had told him that it was almost seven in the morning.

'Wow I'm never up this early,' the former emperor thought letting his mind get off-topic for the first time in a while. He had always had to keep his mind focused that very few things distracted him like any more, so it felt good to allow his mind some reprieve.

Then it occurred to the strategical genius that he didn't have to scheme any longer, which meant that his brain was allowed to think about things a normal teenager would think about. Though there was only one problem with that, he didn't know what a normal teenager thought about, because he wasn't normal.

He let out a sigh at his predicament and slipped himself out of the bed he was lying on. As he pushed himself out of the bed, he felt odd. He strangely felt shorter for some reason, he physically shorter. How was that even possible?

He looked down at his legs as they fell limply out of bed, his feet touching the soft carpet that made up the floor around his bed, noticing that they were shorter than usual.

Narrowing his eyes, he picked himself up out of the bed. Even when he stood up straight, he felt shorter. It took him a moment to get used to the feeling of having shorter legs, which he doubted many people had to go through very often.

Luckily he had always adjusted to things quickly. He made his was towards the door in the middle of the bedroom and pushed his way out into the hallway.

Looking around the sunlight lit hallway, he found that there wasn't much to it, it was very simple.

'Now where would a bathroom be in this place?' he thought curiously. A door next to his room had a wooden sign reading something in Japanese that read: Suguha's room. The name sounded it belonged to a female and the wooden cat also told him that it belonged to one of a younger age than himself.

The Japanese markings also told him that he was somewhere in Japan, which proved useful to him. He didn't want to be landed in some place where he didn't know their language.

The former emperor wandered around the upstairs hallway looking for the bathroom, the first attempt he made lead him to the room of an older woman who was sleeping soundly in her bed. She was probably the owner of the house.

His second attempt was much more fruitful, the door had led to bathroom as he hoped. It had the things that were available in a standard bathroom: a toilet, a bath, and a sink with a mirror hanging over it.

The former emperor made his way towards the sink and looked in the mirror, not bothering to close the door behind him. When he reached the mirror, his reflection had made his eyes widen in shock.

Lelouch now knew why he had felt shorter, the person in his reflection had looked exactly what he looked like when he was fourteen. Though there was one thing that didn't seem to change an ounce, it was his eyes, still having their heavy feel to them.

'Guess that's a trait you can't change so easily,' he thought, knowing that the weight that your eyes came with only came with experience. It took seeing the best and the worst of humanity, that was the only way to make your eyes like this.

'So the Collective Unconscious took me to a world where I'm still fourteen, what does that do for me exactly?' Lelouch thought, extremely confused by the situation, though there was still one thing on his mind, 'Do I still have my Geass?'

He reached his hand up to his eyes, noting that they didn't seem to be as bony as they used to be, but continued reaching up to his eyes. As his index and middle finger grew close to where he placed his Geass-Resistant contact lenses, his fingers slightly grazed his corneas.

Lelouch let out a relieved sigh, he was finally free of the curse of Geass. The damned power had taken so much away from him, that to be able to be free from it took made him feel so much better.

He turned the cold water nob on the sink, letting water flow from the faucet. He took some in his hand and splashed it on his face, making sure that this wasn't just some dream.

This only accomplished to gain get his face soaking wet. Letting out a frustrated sigh, he reached for the nearby face towel, using it to dry his face.

Returning his gaze back at the mirror, he could only wonder where exactly he fit inside of this new world of his. He could just ask them there names as if he didn't know them, that would be the definition of a stupid idea.

'Maybe there's something around here that'll tell me who I'm living with,' he thought, looking back towards the hallway, 'Guess it couldn't hurt, I do live here after all.'

Lelouch made his way down the stairs he saw earlier and into what looked like a living room. It was rather small with not too many pieces of furniture. As he scanned the area, a picture frame sitting on a table caught his attention.

The former emperor walked over to the table and picked the picture off the table, the picture displayed a family of five in what seemed to be a park of some kind. He blinked at it, recognizing a younger version of himself from the group of five strangers around him.

He got a strange feeling from the photo, making his eyes linger onto the photo for a good while. Then he realized with every face on the photo, a name popped into his mind. Almost if he was remembering a past event without the nostalgia, and was given just unfamiliarity. He was remembering a memory that he had, but didn't belong to him.

The middle-aged man standing next to the woman from earlier was his father, and nothing else. Which made sense since he knew him as a father only, already being on a first name basis so early in his life would have meant they had some type of problem with each other.

Next came the woman he had saw lying in bed earlier, recognizing her as his mother. The feelings of emptiness and caring trickled inside of him, making him wonder what their relationship had been like to make him feel this way.

Lelouch's eyes drifted onto a young girl, maybe two years younger than his current self, the name Suguha popping into his mind. His memories told him that she was his little sister, but something did strike him as odd. The feelings of unconditional love and emptiness he had felt towards his 'parents' continued to linger inside of him.

The last member of the family was a black-haired boy looking to be around the same age as him, sharing the same grayish-black eyes of the rest of the family. The dark-haired boy was Lelouch's brother, named Kazuto and unlike the other members of his new 'family', the empty feeling he felt had disappeared completely.

He could feel a connection between himself and Kazuto, but it wasn't one of close siblings. It was one best friends had, much like the one he had with Suzaku. It definitely wasn't a normal family dynamic by any sense of the word.

The former emperor set the picture frame back down onto the carefully, trying to place it back into its original location. Though it had left him with more questions than answers.

-Sugu P.O.V-

Suguha had awoken to the sound of her alarm clock blaring into her ears. Hitting the snooze button, she pulled herself from her bed and let out a quiet yawn.

She began her usual routine of getting ready for early morning kendo practice, breakfast, kendo club, and then repeat the next day. It wasn't like she had much to do here at home in the first place, especially with both her brothers acting like complete jerks to her.

It wasn't that they were being mean to her and it wasn't even recent, they had just stopped being with her entirely about four years ago. It made her wonder if she had done something to drive them away, but she wouldn't give up on them.

She wanted to be a part of their lives again, but every time she attempted they were always playing around on their computers, playing their beloved online games. It infuriated her though she pretended to keep her cheerful outlook on life, not wanting to see the effect their actions had on her.

She shed the long t-shirt she wore as her pajamas and dressed into her kendo training uniform, making her way out of the room. As she walked over to the stairs she peered into the open door of her brothers' room, seeing that Lelouch's bed was completely empty.

'Is Lelouch already awake?' she thought curiously, wondering what Lelouch was doing up at this hour. It was about seven o'clock, but Lelouch never woke up before ten o'clock. When he did, he was usually on his computer doing whatever he did on their.

Suguha made her way down the stairs, where the voice of her older brother Lelouch, called out to her, "Good morning Sugu."

His voice had completely taken her off-guard, making her foot miss the next step down. Her foot twisted under her as it touched to foot underneath the target step, making a sharp pain go through her ankle as she fell forward. She expected to be in more pain once she hit the ground, but suddenly her fall suddenly came to a stop.

"Are you alright?" the worried voice of Lelouch, making her realize that he had caught her. Opening her eyes, she was currently being held bridal style by her older brother, who had a relieved smile plastered onto her face. She shook her head as pain continued to shoot from her ankle, making Lelouch reply worriedly, "Where are you hurt?"

Suguha pointed towards her ankle, Lelouch carried her to the couch and placed her down gently. He touched her ankle lightly, causing a slight sting to go through the painful ankle.

"Don't worry, it doesn't seem to be broken, a sprain at worst," Lelouch diagnosed expertly, surprising Suguha greatly, "I'll go find something that will stop the swelling."

With that Lelouch left her side and moved to the kitchen, leaving her there in her thoughts.

'When did Lelouch learn how to diagnose a sprained ankle from such a light touch?' she questioned inwardly before her aching ankle stopped her from thinking, 'Man that hurts!'

Thankfully her raven-haired brother came back holding a plastic bag holding fulled of ice. Her brother placed the bag onto her ankle, numbing the pain in her ankle greatly, allowing Suguha to let out a sigh in relief.

"Thanks," she thanked in relief. "Don't mention it," Lelouch reassured kindly, "You're my sister right?"

Suguha's eyes widen at the rhetorical question, not expecting such kindness from her estranged older brother. She inwardly berated herself at thinking that way about her brother, believing that it was wrong to think that her brother of all people wouldn't help her if she was hurt.

Yet something seemed off about the whole situation. The kindness in Lelouch's voice didn't sound anything like the Lelouch she knew, even before he began pushing her out of his life. The tone felt like it was said by someone older than him, decades older, when they had mastered the art of sounding kind.

It wasn't like she minded that it was happening, the tone in his voice able to sooth her into immediate relaxation. She stared at Lelouch as he held the bag of ice on her aching ankle, staring into the pools of violet that were his eyes, which some how seemed aged in a way. Much like the way her grandfather's eyes in the few moments she could remember him, holding so much experience and knowledge that it was impossible to ignore. So how was it possible that Lelouch had the exact same look in his eyes?

"What happened to us?" Lelouch asked, the sudden question snapping her out of her thoughts. The look on her brother's face was one of regret, allowing his eyes to be shadowed by his long raven bangs. Once again his voice snapped her out of her thoughts, her older brother now looking over towards the family photo that they had taken five years ago, "We looked so happy back then, what happened to us?"

That was the question she wanted to ask her brothers for so long and as it turns out, Lelouch didn't know either. These past four years he and Kazuto had been driving her out of their lives for reasons unknown to her. She was left speechless by the question, until finally all the pent-up emotion about the subject finally boiled over to the surface. Tears began welling up in her eyes something that Lelouch noticed immediately, but didn't say anything, allowing her to process her emotions.

"I really don't know," she answered, her tone of a person who was about to break out in tears and that's what she did. Hot tears began flowing down her cheeks as she let out every ounce of sadness she had accumulated from the past four years.

Lelouch didn't say anything at first, he just wra7th pped his arms around her and whispered softly to her, "It's okay to cry, it always is."

At this the dam that held back the rest of her teals broke, losing herself in the pouring out of emotion. She began weeping into the chest of her older brother, but with the showing of all the sadness she had, she felt happy. One of her brothers had finally acknowledged the situation between them made her so happy Giving her hope that she wasn't going to be shut out from their lives for any longer.

-Lelouch P.O.V-

When Suguha had stopped crying, an hour had passed by, and Lelouch never once thought of disengaging the embrace that he held her in. Not really expecting such an outpouring of emotion, as it was just to figure out why he felt so empty when he looked at her. It really compelled him to ask the question and he believed it to be the right move.

He didn't enjoy making girls cry, though this one seemed to be more positive than the other times he had. It felt as if he had unknowingly mended a strained relationship between this world's Lelouch and herself. Though he didn't get an answer to his prior question, he felt like that this was something more important.

He scoffed mentally, wondering what C.C would think if she saw this. The infamous demon emperor comforting an almost complete stranger in his arms as she cried. He thanked the collective unconscious that he was in a different universe.

When his 'sister' finally pulled her face away from his chest, the violet t-shirt he was wearing was now completely soaked with tears. Though he wasn't in any position to complain, considering he didn't have to hug to comfort her, so this where it got him. Yet as he watched her pull away from him, a set of memories had came to mind. Explaining everything in great detail.

He wasn't a blood member of the Kirigaya family, his birth family was Charles and Marianne Lamperouge, a happy couple who had moved to the Saitama, area a year prior. They learned of his eventual birth some time in January. Lelouch Lamperouge was born October 7th, 2008, coincidentally being the same day that Kazuto had been born.

A few days after their respective births, Kazuto and his parents were killed in the same accident, the two being the only two people who had survived the accident. Both were sent to the same orphanage, where Kazuto's aunt and uncle had came to adopt their nephew.

Then their carer had told them how lucky Kazuto was to have family. As Lelouch, who was in the next crib, didn't have any family who were able to take him in. Prompting them to ask her how Lelouch had gotten in the orphanage, finding out about Lelouch's parents being in the same accident.

Feeling bad for Lelouch, they had decided to adopt Kazuto believing that they could take another child in.

Fast forwarding a few years in the future, both began to follow in their mother's footsteps and dive into computers. Finding it a much better past time than the kendo lessons they were almost being forced to take by their grandfather.

They began rebuilding beat-up computers and turned them better than brand new, allowing them to process programs that most of the really expensive computers couldn't handle. This made them outcast in their schools often times showing more interest in technology than making friends.

This had also strengthened their relationship, sharing a trait most found unappealing, growing closer than most brothers would hope over the the fact that they had stopped taking kendo did not sit well with their grandfather, who started to beat them once he learned they quit. Even when this happening, the two still found time to have fun with Suguha who had begun taking kendo lessons to cover for all of them. Having such a relationship between all siblings being really rare.

Then one day Kazuto had found a document while sifting through the forgotten data banks of the National Registry, one detailing their respective adoptions by the Kirigaya family. This had served to drive a wedge between the pair and Suguha, as they felt like they weren't a real part of the family.

Though their relationship didn't suffer, but improve, as they shared the feeling.

As the memories had concluded, Lelouch was shocked. The pure circumstance of the situation hitting him. All the circumstances that needed to happen was astounding, all the things that should of happened to get to this point had happened.

Though the memories of younger Lelouch ignoring Suguha just because he didn't feel like a part of the family had sickened, especially when his sisters in his past life were so important to him, but what could he do about someone else's actions?

'Why did the Collective Unconscious bring me here of all places? Is this some test?' he questioned angrily, as he was never one who liked to be toyed with.

"Are you alright Lelouch?" Suguha asked, snapping him out of his thoughts as she waved her hand in front of him. Lelouch blinked as he realized that he had spaced out.

"Yeah I'm fine," Lelouch reassured, letting out a tired sigh, "I should get you back up to your room. I don't think you're going anywhere with that sprained ankle of yours."

"But what about kendo practice?" his 'sister' protested, something that upset him greatly, "My ankle doesn't hurt as much as it did earlier, I can still go!"

The girl was injured and she still wanted to go and practice? 'She must really care about, then again its has been such an important part of her life so I can't blame her,' he noted mentally.

"I think they'll understand if you miss one practice because of injury," Lelouch countered, taking on a brotherly tone before running a hand through his raven-black hair, "Now come on, lets get you to bed."

Lelouch slipped his arms under Suguha and heaved her up into the air. He began the rather tolling task of carrying the girl up the stairs and into her room. He laid her down onto her bed and told her in the same brotherly tone from earlier, "Rest."

Suguha begrudgingly nodded in resignation and laid her head back onto her pillow. Prompting Lelouch to exit her bedroom, closing the door behind him. When he turned around, he found his adoptive mother standing outside. She seemed extremely worried, obviously noticing something wrong.

"I heard crying earlier, was it your sister?" his 'mother' asked worriedly. Lelouch didn't reply, only nodding in response. In which the worried mother continued with, "Why was she crying?"

"She sprained her ankle," Lelouch began, his tone completely without emotion, making his adoptive mother flinch, "Can you tell her club she won't be making it today?"

His 'mother' nodded, left completely speechless. Lelouch didn't want to speak with his adoptive mother, he felt like nothing really could be said about the whole situation. It was his responsibility to repair now and he was going to do it his way, for now all he needed to do was talk to his 'brother'.

He walked over to the door to his room and walked in, leaving his mother in the hall completely speechless.

Lelouch watched over the sleeping form of his 'brother', Kazuto, and turned back to the computer screen. His eyebrow twitched in annoyance as another minute ticked by.

'How the hell can someone sleep so much?' he asked impatiently as it was now ten-thirty, three hours since he had decided to wait for him to wake up. He continued to read the text on the page about world history, now getting a section about a war between several major countries of the world, simply called World War II. He had already read all of the major events leading up to the present date, now he was just re-reading information that he thought interesting.

Lelouch let out a tired sigh and leaned back in his seat and wondered what to do next until his adoptive brother would wake up. Though when he was searching his mind for something to do, a thought came to mind. He felt almost compelled to go and look under his bed.

Lelouch did as his mind commanded and went over to his bed. He knelt down and looked underneath the bed frame and looked into the space. What he found surprised him, it was a helmet of some kind. It looked extremely bulky and had a small piece of glass where the eyes should go. On top of the helmet was a word inscribed in Japanese characters, NerveGear.

'NerveGear?' he repeated inwardly, studying the helmet curiously, 'Wonder why I would have this.'

Lelouch immediately placed the NerveGear down onto his bed and returned to his computer. He typed 'NerveGear' into the search box in the top right corner of the screen. After a few seconds the screen went to a list of pages on the helmet.

Seeing as Wikipedia was continually at the top of every search list, Lelouch clicked on it and waited for the page to load once again as he really didn't want to spend any more time on the subject than necessary.

He began reading what the people had posted on the site and was greatly intrigued by the bulky helmet that sat on his bed.

The NerveGear is a new piece of virtual reality or FullDive technology, a system that sent microwaves to your brain to simulate real life. It was created by a man named, Kayaba Akihiko, and was recently released to the public in May.

The piece of technology had been proclaimed as the greatest thing to hit the face of gaming in the last decade. Though it did not sell initially because there were no major games that supported the system, so last month a thousand beta testers were allowed access to the first major game for the VR system.

It was a MMO called Sword Art Online or SAO by the players. As fortune had it, he was one of the thousand beta testers. Kazuto had also received a copy of the beta, if these foreign memories of his were correct. They had spent a good amount of last month exploring ten of the hundred floors in which the game's world, Aincard, was made out of. The two of them had gotten the farthest together than any other players in the beta, who were relatively inexperienced in MMO games.

The beta didn't last forever, it had only lasted a month before being released to the public yesterday at midnight. The beta testers were offered the full game before the other people who have to wait through the lines and buy them at retail stores. So it was no surprise that they both bought the game immediately.

The online servers would go online today at eleven-thirty in the morning, seeing it was already eleven twenty-five, he should probably wake Kazuto so that he could get online too. He walked over to his sleeping 'brother' and gently nudged the messy-haired teen on the shoulder lightly. The nudge was, of course, wasn't enough to wake him up from his deep slumber.

Lelouch clasped his hands together next to Kazuto's exposed ear quietly and brought them apart, a small smirk crept onto his face as he prepared for the next few moments. He quickly brought his hands together next to his adoptive brother's ear with the most force he could possibly muster, startling his adoptive brother out of his skin.

Kazuto let out a loud yelp as he jumped out from under his blanket, making Lelouch snicker softly at the display. This drew his adoptive brother's attention towards him, he bore an angry scowl something that Lelouch has faced several times before.

"Get up sleepy head or we're going to miss the server opening for SAO," Lelouch explained in a sing-song voice, a coy smile that would make C.C proud gracing his face. Kazuto blinked at him disbelievingly before his head snapped over to his alarm clock. It took him two minutes to get his brother awake, a bit longer than he expected or wanted, but how could he argue with someone he didn't know.

"Oh crap, we better long on!" Kazuto replied hurriedly. He rushed out of his bed and pulled his NerveGear from under his bed. Lelouch took this time to waltz over to his bed casually and plugged the wire connecting the headset to the internet, into the computer's tower.

Kazuto was still in the middle of turning on his computer when Lelouch placed his copy of SAO into the disk drive. The former emperor placed the bulky headset onto his head and began laying himself flat on his bed slowly, his adoptive brother rushing to do the same.

Lelouch turned his head over to Kazuto's side of the room, seeing that he had put himself in the same position as himself, Lelouch muttered the words that would start the FullDive procedure and take him to Aincard, "Link start."

Lelouch was astounded as the interfaces in front of him quickly selected the settings previously set by this world's Lelouch. It had set his preferred language to Japanese, calibrated his limbs, and selected a character named Lerouge.

'Lerouge, unique name,' he noted as his vision was soon enveloped by flashes of light, making it look as if I was going through a portal. When the lights had faded, he didn't feel as if he were in some game or as if he had just been looking at a picture on the screen. No, he felt as if his physical body had been moved.

Lelouch noticed that he could see the elements of a HUD in his vision, telling him his player's name, health, and level. A name popped up in the center of his screen reading: Starter City. He took a look at the city around him, everything looked and felt like real life. He could smell the clean air around him, hear the voices of other players talk around him taking in every detail as he was. Hell he could even feel the sun's rays on his face as he stood there.

Lelouch didn't feel any different physically though. Though looking down, he saw that his choice of clothing had changed.

He now wore a long-sleeved violet shirt, being covered by a light leather chest piece which he doubted would protect him from much. A pair of black pants and combat boots made up the bottom piece of his avatar's outfit. Which was really nothing special, as everyone else seemed to have the same clothes as he did, the only real difference were the colors so it wasn't saying much.

'This is...' Lerouge began in complete amazement, being impressed by something for the first time in awhile, 'This is amazing!'

After collecting himself from his earlier amazement, he began noting that all the players around him had green cursors on top of them. This had meant that they were friendly players, a different color would either mean they're a NPC, a criminal, or a hostile enemy.

"Lerouge!" his ears perking at the sound of someone calling his name behind him, pronouncing his name as Le Rouge. Lelouch turned on a heel to see an absurdly handsome man running in his direction. Though the strange thing was that he could see the character's name, unlike the other players who just had the green cursor on top of their heads. The man's name graphic read Kirito, the name unfamiliar to Lerouge at first before he realized that it was the name Kazuto had chosen for his avatar.

Kazuto ended up running directly past him, but not without gesturing that he wanted Lelouch to follow him. Lelouch did as instructed and ran after his adoptive brother, though in his usual fit of paranoia, he asked himself, 'Wonder where he's taking me?'

Lelouch knew all too well that he had no reason to not trust Kirito, as he only knew Lelouch as his brother and nothing more. Not the masked vigilante Zero, not the demon emperor Lelouch vi Britannia, just plain old Lelouch Kirigaya. Though the point that could be made that Lelouch didn't know Kazuto whatsoever, he had foreign memories of him, but no real experiences.

Lelouch realized that thinking that way wouldn't help either, so he shook away his paranoia for the moment as he continued running through the streets of Starter City.

Then out of nowhere, someone screamed on the top of their lungs to stop. Taken completely off-guard, Kazuto did as commanded and skidded to a stop. Lelouch, who was several feet behind him, had time to gradually come to a walking stop.

"Hey! Bros wait up!" yelled the same voice, a crimson-haired male emerging from the blur of the crowd, "You two are beta testers right?!"

The two adoptive siblings blinked in perfect unison at the question the man had asked and then nodded hesitantly.

"Good, my name is Klien," Klien greeted bowing slightly. "Ah, my name is Lerouge," Lelouch introduced himself and then gestured to Kazuto, "and this is my close associate Kirito."

"Nice to meet you," Kazuto greeted, sounding slightly uncomfortable. "So back to business," Klien began sternly, "Can either of you two show me the ropes?"

Lelouch wasn't sure that he could trust Klien, who indeed told him his name, but he wouldn't be sure unless he had saw his name graphic. There was also the fact that he had came out of completely nowhere, but that was essentially the only way to make friends in MMO's. The former emperor wondered why he was caring so much, this was a game, why would any one need to betray someone else so early into the release?

"Sure, I'll do it," Kazuto stated hesitantly, shaking Lelouch from the clutches of his thoughts, "Lerouge go ahead to the plains, I'll go and show Klien the basics."

Lelouch blinked and then nodded tentatively, and then in a whisper loud enough for only Kazuto to hear he reminded him, "Careful."

Though the same thing more likely could have been said about him, considering that he had no clue how the game worked. Then again the foreign memories may just explain it to him like it has been. Just when he thought that, the memories of him playing in the beta came back to him.

Everyone who is starting out would get a choice between a variety of one-handed weapon skills, that would allow them to use a certain category of weapons, but Lelouch had chosen the simplest one of the bunch, the one-handed straight-sword skill.

In combat, you would fight with a sword just like in real life, dodging and attacking when you would have an opportunity. Then there were the sword skills, which pretty much said everything. A set of moves that one wouldn't be able to do by themselves which guaranteed a hit on your opponent. Though it would cause a point of overall complete weakness called the 'cool down' stage which rendered the player completely immobile, implemented so that players wouldn't spam the skills constantly.

The goal in SAO was to clear all hundred levels in Aincard, which seemed like an impossible thing to do, in a month of non-stop playing the farthest any one got was floor ten.

Still Lelouch really had no clue where he was going, his legs were really turning on their own now, the only thing he was doing was just the actual running without tackling a random bystander. Which was easy enough considering people were too busy being amazed by the world around them to really move around.

Eventually he found himself running past the gate of Starter City and into the open plains outside of the safe zone. He looked for any enemy to fight, wanting to see how difficult the game was this early in the game.

As he ran, he eventually ran into a giant boar creature standing proud at around his waste region. The name of the monster simply being named Frenzy Boar. Lelouch already knew that the boar was the weakest enemy of the game and decided to fight the giant pig.

Skimming his index finger downwards in front of him, the player's personal menu opened. Quickly tapping the inventory box and equipped the starter sword. He reached behind his right shoulder where his sheathe lay and gripped the handle.

Pulling it from the sheathe, the blade made a loud noise as he unsheathed it. Lelouch quickly advanced on the boar's position and placed the flat part of his blade onto his right shoulder, the blade glowing a dim violet as he did so. The boar turned towards him and got in a defensive stance, signifying that he had provoked the monster. Thought the action of getting prepared for an attack on the boar's part was for naught.

With a single horizontal slash that caught the boar's mid-section with the sword skill horizontal, the weak monster's health depleted rapidly on the moment it reached zero, the boar exploded in a spray of blue pixels. Lelouch's body slumped over for a second as the cool down took effect.

The former emperor smirked darkly at the feeling of killing the virtual boar, there being a certain satisfaction of slicing straight through something. The best part was that there was tug on the blade or a resistance that made him pull the sword with him as he flew forward.

Wanting to feel the sensation once again, he took off looking for a monster that was roaming the grasslands. Following the path that he took to get outside of Starter City so that he wouldn't get lost killing random mobs, as they were called in MMO's.

As he ran, Lelouch noticed another monster off in the distance, this time being more than just one. A pack of literal wolves to be exact. He counted at least six in the pack. Probably too much for him to fight with this level, but he couldn't die in this world and he wanted a challenge.

Lelouch charged the pack of wolves with uncharacteristic recklessness, quickly gaining the attention of all of the wolves. Making the former emperor stop and go into a defensive stance, which he was taught during his early years as a prince during his mandatory swordsmanship classes.

The raven-haired teen watched as the wolves began to encircle him from all sides, briefly remembering that he was just lucky to see a pack of wolves this early considering most in the general region would only spawn if someone wanted to advance to the next towns one-by-one.

The red-eyed canines let out menacing growls, not affecting Lelouch to the slightest, finding that having to stare down the barrels of guns much more terrifying, which in all actuality was reasonable.

A pair of wolves on both of his sides began converging onto him slowly, waiting to pounce onto him at the same time. Lelouch knew that the goal was to make him dodge forward and into the eager teeth of their comrades, so when they pounced Lelouch rolled to the right, the wolf just barely flying overhead.

The action didn't come smoothly, finding himself lying on his back instead on his feet, but it served the purpose. Lelouch remembered that more wolves were closing in on him due to his supine position.

The raven-haired teen heaved himself to his feet with a grunt, just in time to the lead wolf of the pack. Having an amazing reaction time by nature, Lelouch side-stepped the lunge attempted by the beast and slashed downwards. Getting a critical hit as he lobbed the wolf's head clean off, ending up much like the frenzy boar from earlier.

Immediately after, the other wolves wasted no time to pounce at him. Thinking quickly, Lelouch activated the vertical sword skill and slashed through the nearest wolf, ending up with him on the other side of the wave of wolves.

The wolf he had hit with vertical had exploded like the other monsters he had slain today, exploding into a million blue pixels.

'Come on, hurry up!' Lelouch thought, beginning to panic as the cool down set in. He could hear the wolves beginning to close back onto him. Then finally the cool down ended, allowing him to turn around, just to see the lead wolf leaping onto him.

Finding no better option, Lelouch slashed at the leaping wolf with the novice sword, hoping to at least block the attack. Everything felt like it was in complete slow motion, the virtual beast in front of him bearing its teeth. Until the tip of his sword met the neck of the wolf, impaling it right through. The hit had scored a crit, draining the wolf's health to zero.

Another wolf came at Lelouch right after the dead wolf turned into pixels, catching him completely off-guard. Instinctively he raised his free arm to block the attack. No pain coursed through him as the monster chomped down on his arm, but he did notice his health depleting by maybe a quarter.

Lelouch slammed the tip of his blade into the wolf's body, successfully shoving the wolf off of his arm, depleting half of the wolf's total health. Before any more wolves could pounce on him, Lelouch backed up several feet from the pack of wolves, chuckling softly at the encounter.

'Damn that was close,' Lelouch thought, watching the movements of the encroaching wolves, watching for any openings, 'Maybe I should get out of here while I can, then again maybe not.'

A wide grin spread across Lelouch's face as he realized something intriguing, he was having fun. He was having fun, but the strange part was that he didn't immediately recognize it as fun. He found it incredibly funny that he had completely forgotten what having genuine fun was like.

'I guess having fun just isn't possible when conquering the world,' he thought, realizing that the wolves had closed in on him while he was lost in his thoughts, 'I really need to stop doing that.'

Lelouch decided with the amount of health, 200/250, classifying the mauling the last dog had done to his arm as its most powerful attack. He could take a few grazes from the wolves, but a few direct hits would end up with him dead. Seeing as there was no clear opening for him to hit in the wolves' formation, having putting the wolf with the least health in the back, making it impossible to pick it off.

Lelouch let out a dark chuckle as he realized that there were absolutely no openings for him to hit at this level. It would take a miracle to take down all of the wolves. Then again, he was Zero, the Man of Miracles.

Lelouch sat on a bench in Starter City, eating a piece of bread that he had bought from a vendor earlier with the money or Col, that he had gotten from killing the pack of wolves. He had some how been able to kill the rest of the wolves and with all the experience he had received from the wolves, he easily reached level 2 and now was half-way to reaching level 3.

'Even when I'm dead, I still make miracles, even if this is just in a game,' he thought, a wryly smirk gracing his face. He silently watched the other players exploring Starter City in curiosity, as he expected them to. All of this was just so amazing that even he felt like going out into this new world, that he felt like thanking the creator of SAO, Kayaba Akihiko, in person. Though that was probably a long shot if any.

'There isn't much for me to do here,' he thought idly, getting more and more bored as the seconds flew by, 'I should probably log off.'

Lelouch opened his personal menu and began navigating to the 'log out' button and then his finger stopped suddenly. The reason being was because there was no 'log out' button and he knew for a fact that it was supposed to be there.

'Is this some kind of glitch or something?' he asked mentally, looking back up at the other players wandering around, the seemed to be having the same problems. Many reacted the same way he did, others more drastically than others. Some kept a cool head and tried to reassure the ones that were completely blowing it out of proportion. Before he could say anything, he was suddenly consumed by a sudden bloom of blue pixels.

When the pixels had dissipated around him, he found himself to be surrounded by other players. His avatar's dark brown eyes dashed around the surrounding area, finding that he had been teleported to the stadium in Starter City.

Many people reacted as expected, questioning what was going on and why were they here. Though the answer was clear enough, someone had forced a mass teleport.

"Look up there!" another player called out, making everyone in the stadium look up simultaneously. In the sky was a red message screen, simply saying warning. Then the one sign soon multiplied to hundreds, soon blanketing the sky, masking the orange hue of the setting virtual sun.

Then out of the thin cracks of the warning signs, something poured out of them. The masses of whatever that was soon began to clump together and massed into a giant floating crimson cloak. There was a body in the cloak, but the cloaked man didn't have a face. Other players began to question what was happening. Lelouch remained silent, also wondering what exactly was happening. Then a loud booming voice said to them, "Attention, players. I welcome you to my world."

'My world?' Lelouch repeated, curious about what he had meant by that. "My name is Akihiko Kayaba," Kayaba greeted, making everyone around him relax, but himself of course, "And of this moment, I am in control of this world."

Lelouch's eyes widened at the statement, knowing that something was going to go wrong. The other players didn't know that, trusting the man that had created the game to not do anything. Though Lelouch knew better, he knew the evil what even good men can do.

"I'm sure you've all noticed that an item is missing from your main menus, the log out button," Kayaba began, getting a few murmurs from the crowd around Lelouch, "Let me assure you that this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be."

Lelouch clenched his fists at the statement, knowing what was going to happen before Kayaba had even spoke, "You cannot log yourself out of SAO, and no from the outside will be able to shut down or take off the 'NerveGear' from your head. If anyone would attempt to do so, a transmitter inside the NerveGear will discharge a microwave into your skull, destroying your brain, thus ending your life."

Many angry players began cursing at the cloaked figure, all in vain. Unlike Lelouch who knew that the NerveGear would be able to do such a thing, so if the safety were turned off, it would do as Kayaba had said. Luckily the NerveGear had an internal battery so even if the power would be cut, they would still live.

"Despite my warning, the families and friends of some of the players have attempted removing the NerveGear, an unfortunate decision, to say the least," Kayaba continued, his voice completely indifferent, "As a result, the game now has two-hundred thirteen less players than when it began. They've both been erased from Aincard and the real world."

Lelouch didn't flinch, being the formal emperor that killed millions of people, a few hundred innocent people dead didn't affect him whatsoever. Then several screens popped in front of Kayaba, all playing news reports of the event.

"As you can see, international media outlets have round-the-clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it's safe to assume that the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you a little comfort as you attempt to clear the game," Kayaba began sounding a little proud of himself as he continued, "It's important to remember the following: There is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system... forever. And the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain.

There is only one way for a player to escape now, you must clear the game. Right now, you're gathered on Floor One, the lowest level of Aincrad.

If you can get through the dungeon and defeat the boss, you may advance to the next floor.
Defeat the boss on Floor 100, and you will clear the game."

The other players began to question everything the cloaked man was saying, a few realized that it was no use questioning the man who was currently in control of all of them and kept silent. Though there were a few who began doubting that the goal of reaching level 100 was even attainable, which bugged Lelouch greatly.

"Last but not least, I've placed a little gift for every player in there inventory," Kayaba began, "Please have a look."

Curious, Lelouch opened his inventory and found an item that wasn't there before, a mirror. Equipping the item, it appeared in his hand showing his avatar's face. Then in a flash of pixels spreading across his face, instead of the avatar's face in the mirror, he found his own amethyst eyes staring back at him. That wasn't it, he felt as if he had returned to his real life body. Every contour had felt perfectly correct.

'How did...' he trailed off, wondering how his actual face and body had been able to be put into the game before the memories told him, 'The high-density signal device! It can see my face! Not just that, when he had first gotten into the NerveGear, there was a calibration stage that made him feel all across his body. So Kayaba had taken the data and replaced them with our avatars.'

Recovering faster than most, Lelouch's gaze returned on Kayaba, who began to speak once again, "Right now, you are probably wondering why. Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do this? Ultimately, my goal is a simple one. The reason I had created Sword Art Online was to control the fate of a world of my design."

'So he's doing this to quench his god complex?' he thought, completely outraged at the notion. Since the only other people he knew to have a god complex were in the Royal Family, he didn't have too many good experiences with people of the kind.

"Bastard..." the raven-haired teen growled aloud. "As you can see, I've achieved my goal. This marks an end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online," he continued, "Players, I wish you the best of luck."

With that, the cloak began disappearing past the red warning signs. Leaving the players to their thoughts, not one person saying a single word. The other players didn't move, completely shocked by what had just occurred. Though it was already stated that Lelouch wasn't just another player.

'So this game isn't a game anymore. If I die here, I die in real life. He's telling the truth, he wouldn't pull a move like this if he wasn't,' he thought, hanging his head so that his raven-black bangs covered his face with shadows, 'Well then...'

With that thought, Lelouch began making his way towards the exits as he noticed the red warning signs had began to disappear.

Lelouch needed to get out of Starter City and to one of the outside villages. He needed to level up, to become stronger so that he could get himself and the other players out of SAO. So he needed to get to the quests and monsters that gave him the most experience. He wasn't going to allow anyone else to die if he had any say in it.

In his old life, he could care less if he killed a random innocent in his endeavors, selfishly shedding blood left-to-right for his own purposes. Lelouch refused to think that way once again, redemption being his drive, he ran as fast as his virtual legs would carry him.

The man who was once known as demon emperor had known that saving his fellow players wouldn't come close to redeeming what he had done as Zero and Emperor of Britannia. Though if anything it would serve to calm all the guilt he felt, giving himself the knowledge he had some kind of conscience inside his black heart. Then his thoughts fell onto his 'brother' as he ran.

Knowing how his new adoptive brother thought, Lelouch knew that Kazuto would do the same and head to the next town. So he planned to meet him at the nearest village to Starter City. Weaving his way past all buildings of Starter City.

When he ran past the gates of Starter City, he followed the path that he knew would end up leading him to his next destination. Suddenly a wolf spawned directly in front of him. The sight of the red-eyed monster caused determination to spread inside him.

'I will get these people out of here, I will beat this game, because I am Zero!' he began, determination deep in his thoughts, unsheathing his sword and placed it onto his shoulder. The same violet glow appeared around Lelouch's sword as the sword skill vertical activated, sending him forward, slashing through the wolf. One thought running through his mind, 'The man who will destroy the world of Aincard!'

Well that's it folks. I hoped you enjoyed and I hope you will point out anything I may of got wrong. I also already know that people will question why the Collective Unconscious had chosen the world of Sword Art Online, well because I made it that way, deal with it.

Anyways review/follow/favorite and other stuff like that. PEACE OUT!