Gunland

~ Disclaimers: I do NOT own Sword Art Online or anything associated with it.

"Sir…Sir?"

Kirito opened his eyes.

Standing over him were several men in black berets with the official insignia of GGO embellished on the front with the word 'ADMIN' done in golden stitching underneath.

"Sir, are you alright? We tried for half an hour to have you disconnected from the BoB tournament but an unusual glitch was interfering with our server command overlay."

"The BoB…"

"Don't worry – we've gotten you out. You're safe, now."

"Sinon. Where is she?"

"That girl gamer? Still in the BoB."

Kirito seized the closest admin by the collar.

"You need to connect me back into the BoB, right now!"

"Are you insane?!"

"You don't understand. Sinon's life is in danger!"

"Calm down, sir. You've just gone through something very traumatic. We're going to take you for a full medical evaluation."

"No! I need to go back! You have to let me back in!"

"He's not in his right mind," one of the admins observed sadly to another, shaking his head. "We should get him to medical as soon as possible."

"No!" Kirito shouted in frustration. "Please! You have to listen to me!"

But he knew that they wouldn't. They wouldn't understand the situation. How was he supposed to convince them that one of the players in the BoB was in fact a crazed serial killer who was planning to kill the only other remaining finalist in both the virtual and real world?

"Come on. Let's go." Two of the admins placed their hands solicitously upon Kirito's shoulders to gently guide him away.

At that exact moment, the world around him dissolved, fading into swirling colour.

Kirito sat bolt upright in his hospital bed, with nodes and wires attached all over his body. He had been disconnected from GGO.

The very first thing he saw, by the side of his bed, was a head of elegant auburn hair and a beautiful, wide-eyed face that was wrought with worry.

"Kirito!"

The girl flung herself at him, wrapping him up tightly in her arms.

"A – Asuna? How?"

"Chrysheight – He told me everything. Why didn't you tell me…Why?"

"I didn't want to involve you if there was even the slightest chance that it could put you in danger," Kirito confessed, reluctantly.

Placing his hands gently over hers, Kirito eased himself from her embrace so that he could look at her properly. "Asuna. Were you…watching?"

Although Asuna lowered her face to avoid answering, Kirito noticed the flat screen television monitor mounted on the wall at the end of his bed. A broadcast featuring live feeds of the BoB was playing on it. And right there on the screen was a replay of Kirito's graphic torture at the hands of Death Gun.

Kirito leveled his own gaze at his thin white bed sheets. She had seen it all, everything.

"…I see."

Kirito sought for something to say but failed. Asuna deserved to be given an account of his actions or more specifically, his reactions and how terribly inappropriate they had been.

They both sat in uncomfortable silence, each unsure of the right words to say to the other.

"I'm sorry, Asuna." Kirito finally managed, unable to find the courage to look up from the sheets.

"I refuse to accept your apology," Asuna calmly declared, "because you have nothing to apologise for. Nothing! You didn't ask for what happened to you. Did you really believe that I'd think less of you because of what you went through? I thought that there wasn't even a shadow of a doubt in your mind that I believed in the best of you! I hoped you knew that already…"

Her trembling voice faded away.

Kirito was shocked by Asuna's refute. After everything they had been through together in Sword Art Online, how could he still question the place he held in the heart of someone he had trusted with his life on countless occasions and had done the same with, in return? He inwardly cursed himself for selling Asuna's feelings short.

His hands found hers again, which were clenched together in the sheets and this time, it was he that issued the hug.

"Asuna, I'm sorry. And, thank you."

Over her shoulder, Kirito saw the broadcast switch to a live feed of a solitary aqua-haired figure sitting huddled in a ball.

Sinon sat, alone, with her chin resting on her drawn up knees, staring blankly ahead.

She had been scanning the satellite map, keeping an eye on the player marker labeled with Kirito's name and had watched it fade out of existence. Piecing that together with the chilling scream that had caught her attention earlier, it hadn't been exactly hard for her to guess the gist of what had gone down in the abandoned city.

No matter how hard she had tried to run from her past, it had still caught up with her, in the end. Sinon couldn't help but nearly laugh out loud at the nihilistic futility of it.

She, who had taken the precious life of another human being fifteen years ago with a gun would soon have hers taken in the same way by the killer known as Death Gun. It was a perfect, fitting end for a sinner like her. Here, in this barren wasteland she would die, alone as she had always been her entire life.

Sinon tilted her head back to give the last smile of her life at the camera above her for the one person left that mattered to her.

"Sorry, Kirito. I thought that if I stayed by your side and watched you, I could become strong like you but I guess that isn't gonna happen."

On the screen, Kirito witnessed in anguish a small single tear that Sinon couldn't prevent from trickling down her cheek.

"What are you doing, Sinon? Whatever you're thinking of doing, stop!"

It wasn't the fact that Sinon had got up off the ground and begun to walk quite calmly toward the main road that made Kirito scream. It was the fact that her beloved Hecate II was still sitting against the wall exactly where she had left it when she sat down.

"Sinon, go back! Please!" Kirito begged desperately but he knew that she was somewhere where his words would never reach her.

As she walked, Sinon felt strangely at peace. This was how it was always meant to be. This was how she was supposed to leave this world.

No.

Her own firm voice in her head surprised her.

Was this all she had amounted to in the years she had practiced in GGO? She had played to become a stronger person. This wasn't what she had struggled for. She had not fought and defeated powerful players like Behemoth only to meekly walk into death's waiting arms.

Everything that Kirito had done today had been to protect her from Death Gun, fighting for her life all the way down to his very last health point. He had done his part as best he could. The very least that she owed him was to do hers.

And then it sprung on her like an icy wind – a malicious, murderous intent so cold and potent that she could sense it.

She threw herself out of the way at the same time she heard the bullet whiz through the air, rolling behind a jeep for cover.

Sinon mentally kicked herself. Because she had let her emotions get the better of her she was now caught in a fight without her indispensable rifle. Her opponent already had an immense advantage over her.

Drawing her backup weapon, an MP7 submachine gun, she adjusted the jeep's side mirror to try and ascertain her opponent's position but it was swiftly shattered into flying fragments by second bullet. A third loudly punctured the tire behind her feet.

Sinon readied herself to duck out and take a shot, but her legs were cemented in place.

What's happening to me?

She was terrified – terrified that Death Gun was about to kill her and that fear was crippling her, overriding all motor responses.

At least that was what she thought. And then her eyes caught a tiny familiar looking dart sticking out of her upper thigh.

When–?

She felt the MP7 begin to slide from her stiff fingers. No matter how hard she tried to hold on to her last hope for defending herself, it tipped clumsily from her grasp.

Her balance was the next thing to shut down and she keeled over, sinking back against the side of the jeep.

Lying there, Sinon struggled against her own body, trying to get any part of it to move as the sound of gravel crunching under heavy footsteps grew steadily louder.

And then he walked into her line of sight, with his tattered mantle whipping in the wind and piercing laser red eyes like a demon's.

Death Gun!

He stood over her and his looming shadow draped across her body.

"Ku, ku, ku. I'm honestly surprised you could still move for that long even after being hit by my first shot. You truly are one of GGO's top players, Sinon."

First shot?!

Now it all made sense. She had thought she had dodged the initial attack but simply hadn't felt it because of the numbing effect of the stun bullet.

"You're the only one left. I've eliminated every other player in the Bullet of Bullets. Even Kirito."

"You–! I'll put a bullet through your balls for that!" Sinon hatefully avowed.

"I see you both have the same fiery spirit. I will relish finding out if yours will break as easily and prettily as his did."

"Kirito…what did you do to him?!"

"I'd like to tell you 'you'll see' but unfortunately for you, you won't get that chance," Death Gun said. "So, instead, how about I show you exactly what I did to him?" His voice was oozing with lecherous intent. The barrel of his rifle nuzzled between her frozen thighs.

Sinon gave a snarl that made her look remarkably like a menacing jaguar.

The frosty reception to his advances did nothing to discourage the other sniper, who ran the tip of his rifle over the subtle oyster ridges that dented the malleable spandex of the leggings.

Although Sinon held her silence, she shot Death Gun the most damning of glares.

Death Gun leaned in close to Sinon. Very close. So close that she could feel his breath wafting across her neck, violating the boundaries of her personal space.

Worse still, a hand took advantage of her open muddy-green jacket by slipping through it to reach for the chest of her scant bodice armour underneath.

"Don't you even dare!..." Sinon growled.

When Death Gun's hand shrunk away, she was surprised that he had actually listened to her until she saw him begin to slowly undress the bandages raveled around it.

"No. This is something I want to feel…with my own hand."

Once the last final strip had been peeled off his arm extended again and cupped her low-set bust in a scarred bare palm. She cringed as his unwelcome fingers tested her shape quite thoroughly through the armour.

Death Gun watched closely for the blue-headed player's reaction and she finally faltered, turning aside her face which had turned just a little rosy.

"Go to hell, you sick creep!"

Sinon did her utmost to exert any and every movement command she could think of to get her avatar to budge. The MP7 was just there, only inches from her.

Perhaps it was through the sheer force of her will or maybe even her imagination but it looked like her fingers were beginning to edge toward the weapon. She pushed herself to reach a little further, driving herself harder than she had ever done before.

And then, Death Gun slid the MP7 out of Sinon's range with a casual flick of his boot.

"NO!"

Sinon's heartbreaking shriek of denial tasted sweeter than honey to him. She might not have broken as easily as Kirito had but she had certainly been prettier.

He took sadistic pleasure in dragging down the back zipper of the unresisting female's bodice, who appeared to have reduced to a catatonic state of depression.

"Last words?" Death Gun's leering mask was like the laughing face of the grim reaper itself.

"Just two."

Death gun was briefly taken aback and his scarlet eyes narrowed at the surprisingly lively retort.

Sinon's fingers relaxed and something spherical rolled from them toward Death Gun.

At the sight of the object, which was beeping urgently, his eyes widened and he stared down at Sinon in fury. "You– !"

A live plasma grenade.

Sinon failed to suppress a smirk as she offered Death Gun a parting courtesy, "gg."

A wave of erupting light swallowed them up, roaring fiercely up into the dusky, arid sky like a rearing tiger.

A/N: Reviews and comments are always appreciated. Thanks for reading!