Okay, whatever, this chapter will have to do as the last one. See the end of this chapter for details about possible sequels/additional chapters.

Worlds Collide

"Are we there yet?"

Midori shook her head, trying to hold back a laugh. "Sugu, honey, I can only drive so fast!"

They were currently driving through a suburb that had taken them about twenty minutes to reach. It had been less than an hour since both Suguha and her mother had seen Kirito die in SAO, plunging them into an abyss of sadness. Fortunately, a call from a government employee named Seijirou Kikuoka informing them that both Kirito and Asuna had, in fact, woke up from SAO unharmed was more than sufficient to save them from the inevitable period of depression that they were both headed for.

Kikuoka worked for the government's virtual division—more specifically, the task force that was created to handle the SAO incident. He had first made contact with the Kirigaya family a few days before the stream went live, informing them of his intentions to broadcast Kirito's gameplay. Since then, he had made every effort to accommodate any requests that Suguha or her mother might have. He even took it upon himself to move Kirito from a hospital into a safe house that the government typically used for people in witness protection. It had become a standard precaution for anyone that Kirito associated closely with—leaving the list pretty short—to prevent anyone who disliked Kirito from going after his friends as a means of getting to him.

As amazing as her brother was, Suguha was well aware that there was a group of people that disliked him. Some held a grudge because he didn't save their family members that were also in SAO, while others just hated his guts or thought he was a monster for killing people. Either way, there had been multiple death threats made for Kirito, Asuna, and a few others that he was friends with.

Suguha couldn't help but feel nervous as her mother pulled into a familiar driveway beside a government-issued SUV. What would Kirito think of her? Would he go through with his intention to reconnect and make up for past mistakes? Would he be angry that she had watched him for the last year and a half without him knowing?

"Come on, Sugu," her mother said as she turned the car off and stepped out. "Let's go see your brother!"

Taking a deep breath, she opened her door and stepped out, trying to think of what she'd say to him. Should she be casual or formal? Should she call him Kirito, Kazuto, or big brother? Would he want her to hug him?

She ran out of time to ponder her questions as the front door of the house opened and a man wearing a rather nice suit stepped out to greet them with a bow. "Hello, Mrs. Kirigaya, and Suguha, please come right this way. Kirito is awake and ready to accept visitors."

Midori thanked him, and mother and daughter followed the man into the house. "Has he been told about the stream yet?" her mother asked.

The man nodded. "He and Asuna both were told. They appeared to be upset by it, but not really angry, if I had to judge."

Before she quite knew it, they had walked through the entrance, the living room, the kitchen, the halls, and finally arrived at the master bedroom. The door was open, and she froze for a second as she saw Kirito—her brother—sitting up in the bed with his eyes open, having a conversation with someone a bit to the side that she couldn't quite see. Asuna was sitting beside him with her head resting on his shoulder as she listened to him and the person he was talking to.

In that moment, all of the questions Suguha had asked herself, all of her preparation, it all vanished from her mind. Without even really knowing what she was doing, she shouted, "Big brother!" as she ran past her mother into the room and leaped onto the bed to hug him, inadvertently pushing Asuna aside a bit.

She wasn't really sure why she had started crying, but she didn't care as she felt thin, frail arms wrap themselves around her back. "Hey, Sugu, it's been awhile, eh?"

Another hand rested on her back, but she wasn't sure whose. For now, she didn't care as she pulled back a bit in the hug to look into his eyes. "That's the best you've got?" she demanded, now laughing. "It's been awhile?"

He smiled at her. "I'm not sure what to say. Mr. Kikuoka told us that everyone has been able to watch what I've been doing in SAO for the last year and a half. So..." he glanced down.

It hit her like a brick wall. He was nervous! All of her miserable attempts at figuring out what he would think of her and she never once thought about what he might feel when they reconnected. What would it be like for someone that had fought a war for two years to suddenly come back to his family and know that they had been able to watch almost every moment of it? He had killed people, nearly died more times than she cared to remember, and had become a living legend. In hindsight, she found it ridiculous that she hadn't realized that he might be insecure about what he had become.

She didn't get to reassure him right away, though, as her mother approached and bent over to hug both of her children together. "Hey mom," he said simply, giving her a smile as well.

There were a few tears streaking down her mother's cheeks as well when the woman pulled back from the embrace and glanced from Kirito to Asuna. "I'm so relieved that you're okay..." she wiped her sleeve. "When we saw you fight against Heathcliff...we thought..."

"That we died?" Kirito asked softly.

"I'll give you guys a bit of time," a male voice said from the side. Sugu turned her head in time to see Mr. Kikuoka bow and leave the room.

Midori nodded at Kirito's question, and turned her attention solely to Asuna, who dipped her head in a respectful greeting. "It's also a great pleasure to meet the one girl my son has ever taken an interest in. Thank you for being there for him in the game, Asuna."

Asuna's cheeks were red as she bowed her head further, shaking it from side to side. "It was my pleasure, but really he is the one that I'm grateful too. Without Kirito...I don't think I'd have survived the game."

"You-" her mother began to reply, but was cut off as Suguha's cell phone rang loudly.

"Oh!" Sugu exclaimed, grabbing the phone from her pocket. She instinctively hovered her thumb over the ignore button, but hesitated when she realized it was Recon. He must have been worried about her...

"Sorry...it's a friend who was watching the last fight with us. He must be worried sick about me and mom..."

Everyone gave her a nod of approval, so she answered the call.

"LEAFA!" came his screeching voice through the speaker, causing her to wince and move the phone a bit back from her ear. She flicked on the speakerphone setting to avoid damaging her eardrums.

"Jeez, Recon! Don't shout!"

"Sorry! Where are you? I came over to make sure you were okay when the stream went down, but you don't seem to be home...are you okay?"

"Ehh...yeah I'm fine." An idea struck her, causing her to break into a wide grin. She clicked the little button that turned on the phone's camera. It took a quick moment to initialize, but when it had she blinked once. "See? I'm fine."

"But-" he began, but froze as Suguha tilted her phone so that Kirito and Asuna both came into view.

"And so are they," she added.

"Uhm...hello?" Kirito replied uncertainly.

It took Recon a minute to comprehend what he was seeing. "W-Wait...is that...really them? Kirito and-"

"Yeah, I'll call you later." She abruptly hung the call up, but she heard a whining sound before she could click the button.

With a shake of her head, Suguha apologized to the other three people. "He's a friend from school," she explained.

"It's really weird to be recognized by someone I've never seen..." her brother muttered.

"Yeah..." Asuna's acknowledgment was a bit drawn out as she yawned and returned her head to his shoulder. "Sorry...I'm going to use your shoulder as a pillow for awhile longer." Kirito only smiled and snaked an arm around her waist.

"Uh, not for nothing...but how are you alive anyway?" Suguha couldn't help but ask as she could tell neither Kirito or Asuna seemed inclined to make the next move in the conversation.

Kirito grimaced. "We don't exactly know..."

"It doesn't matter," her mother said simply. "You're both here now, and the game is over. We're so proud of you, Kirito."

"Eh? Shouldn't you call me Kazuto?"

Suguha chuckled at that. "Probably, yeah. But...we have seen you as Kirito for the last year and a half, and so has the rest of the world. I doubt you'll be able to avoid the name."

"Besides, I like Kirito better," Asuna said, tilting her head up to be able to see his response.

He rolled his eyes, causing Asuna to giggle. "Whatever. I don't mind...I guess."

"Asuna?" came a voice from the doorway. A quick glance was all it took for Suguha to recognize Shouzou, Kyouko, and Kouichirou Yuuki. She recognized the voice as Asuna's father, Shouzou.

"Huh..." Asuna blinked as she sat back up. "Mom! Dad! Brother..." tears built up in her eyes as she recognized her family.

It was then that the formal appearance of her family vanished as the three of them hurried forward to hug her one by one, causing the other family in the room to smile at the scene. Kouichirou was last, and after he pulled back from his hug he bowed his head deeply. "I'm so sorry...Asuna. It's all my fault that you were trapped there...it was supposed to be me."

Asuna appeared genuinely shocked at her brother's apology. She took a moment to react, but when she did it was only to shake her head with a smile. "No, no...don't blame yourself. I'm glad that it happened..."

"Because I met Kirito there," she explained with a smile, leaning back onto his shoulder, causing him to chuckle a little.

Kouichirou chuckled as well and bowed lightly to Kirito before shaking his hand gently, clearly aware of the weak state that he and Asuna were in. "Mr. Kirigaya, I speak for all three of us when I thank you for taking care of Asuna."

Kirito's glance passed over each of the Yuuki family members briefly before he dipped his head. "It's a pleasure to meet you, and I believe that Asuna and I were there for each other. She helped me just as many times as I helped her, probably more, actually."

"We are still grateful," Shouzou added, shaking Kirito's hand as well.

Kyouko was last to meet Kirito. She shook his hand briefly, and then paused for a long moment. "I will admit, my first impression of you was not overly positive. I thought someone of your standing would not be an appropriate match for my daughter." Suguha noticed Asuna's fists clench. "But...you have grown on me greatly. Your character and work ethic is beyond impressive, along with your skill. I'm told that you are quite the programmer for you age."

"Thank you, Mrs. Yuuki," Kirito said sincerely, bowing his head low.

Her mother nodded, and turned to Asuna. "I have tried to watch as much of your time together as I could, to build an understanding of why you fell for this boy. It's clear that you are happy with him, and he has other impressive qualities besides those that I mentioned. We see a bright future for him, and because of that we have agreed to support your decision to marry him."

"Huh? Really?" Asuna was dumbfounded. She only bowed her head low and said shakily, "Thank you! Thank you...I was so scared that I'd come back to this world...only to lose him."

Shouzou stepped forward again then, and spoke directly to Kirito, a dead serious expression on his face. "Do you intend to continue your relationship with Asuna in this world?"

"Of course I do." A chill ran down Suguha's spine at the sheer conviction that he spoke with. There was no doubting his commitment to his words.

That brought a smile to the older man's face. "I am glad to hear that. It seems we should formally introduce ourselves. My name is Shouzou Yuuki. This is Kyouko, my wife, and our son, Kouichirou."

Kirito dipped his head. "Kazuto Kirigaya."

There was a bit of an awkward pause, and then Shouzou asked, "Do the two of you have any idea what you intend to do now?"

Suguha paid close attention as her brother and Asuna exchanged glances, somehow managing to convey thoughts silently. A moment later he sighed and said, "I think for now we just want to recover. We're going to have some pretty serious physical therapy to go through judging by our conditions."

"I mean after that," Asuna's father clarified patiently. "Do you intend to return home, Asuna?"

"You would let me leave before I finished school?" she asked, surprised.

"We spoke with Kirito's mother on the topic of your relationship, and we have agreed to support whatever decisions the two of you make together. You've lived on your own for years now, so if you want to continue with that path we wouldn't stop you." Asuna again seemed surprised by her mother's words.

"Can I ask why?" the frail girl asked nervously. "I mean...before SAO you never would have approved of Kirito or let me make my own choices, right?"

Kyouko reached a hand out to cup Asuna's cheek. "It might have been hard for you to understand at the time, but everything I ever did was because I love you and I wanted you to be successful. The work ethic that both you and Kirito displayed in SAO, along with how much the game has matured the both of you, has more than convinced me that you are ready to make your own decisions and that you will be just fine."

Asuna sighed in relief, looking quite content with the answer. She glanced up at Kirito, who was watching her curiously. "I think...I want to stay with Kirito, no matter what he decides to do."

Shouzou nodded at that, as if it was expected. "So that leaves the question, what do you intend to do, Kirito?"

"I intend to catch up with school as quickly as possible. There's a project I need to work on."

"Are you referring to restoring Yui?" Kouichirou asked, earning a solemn nod from her brother. "We...may be able to help you with that a bit, if you want."

"Huh?"

"You can help Yui?" Asuna almost begged.

Kouichirou held his hands up. "W-wait, don't get too excited, Asuna. We don't know exactly what state the files Kirito saved are in. We might have no chance of rebuilding her program, but there's something significant that we possess that could help Kirito a lot."

"Well then tell him," she demanded.

With a chuckle, Asuna's brother said, "My father is the CEO of RECT Progress, and I work closely with him at the company. We took over control of the SAO servers from Argus after it went bankrupt. We also cloned the SAO operating system, Cardinal, and we use a stripped down version of it to run our own VRMMO, Alfheim Online. It's possible that Yui's program cannot function without Cardinal, and if that's the case we could somewhat replicate the environment of SAO."

Kirito let out a relieved sigh at that. "Yeah, that would be great. Thank you so much. I was worried that she might not work in an isolated environment, so it's great to know that an alternative exists."

Asuna's father stepped back into the conversation then and put a hand on Kirito's shoulder. "You let us know if you need anything at all. We'll let you take the first crack at it, but don't be ashamed to ask us for help."

"You're extremely generous," Kirito replied, bowing his head in gratitude. "Thank you so much."

"Nonsense. We owe you a debt that can never be repaid."

There was a slight knock at the door, and everyone turned to see Mr. Kikuoka walk in. Everyone already knew who he was, of course, as he personally communicated with each family that had a SAO player relocated because of the stream.

"Hello, everyone. I'm sorry to intrude, but the doctor wants to do his examinations of the two of them now if that's okay."

Suguha groaned at that, causing Kirito to chuckle and pat her on the head. "Go on, Sugu, it'll be fine. I promise we'll catch up later, okay?"

"Fine, on one condition." She built up her strength and looked him straight in the eyes. "I don't care what your reason is, or what happens. No, almost dying! We've had to watch you come close to death so many damn times in the last couple weeks. It better be over now."

She almost felt bad at the guilty expression he suddenly had, but she felt like he deserved it for all the misery he caused her. "I'm sorry, Sugu. I promise we won't get into any trouble, okay?"

"Deal."

She and the others said their brief goodbyes to Kirito and Asuna, even though Suguha herself didn't plan on actually leaving the house, as she could wait around for awhile until the doctor finished with them.

The Yuuki family left after speaking with Kikuoka briefly, and Suguha was forced to convince her mother to let her stay, as Midori really needed to get back to work. In the end, the argument that it would take her an extra half hour to drive back to the house to drop off Suguha won, and Midori left her there.

A little time passed as she relaxed in a thoroughly cushioned reclining chair. She reflected that it seemed strange that her reaction to Kirito beating SAO was more of a relief than something that made her happy. Maybe that was because she had formed an expectation that he would win, rather than hoping that he would come out on top. That could definitely be the cause of her current feelings of relief, and the happiness she had thought she'd feel.

The relief she felt wasn't even uplifting. Rather, it was an exhausting feeling. Again, maybe that was because she had been through an emotional roller coaster for the last month and it was just her own bodies' stress building up, but she couldn't be bothered to care as she fell asleep in the comfy chair.

"Where's the doctor at?"

"He'll be here in a minute, but I wanted to talk to you about something first."

"Huh?"

"Exactly three hundred players have yet to wake up..."

"..."

"Are you sure they aren't just slower...?"

"Everyone else woke up within 20 minutes of the game ending. It's been an hour and a half now, and there's been no change..."

"No..."

"So, what do you need from us?"

Added the end teaser mostly just to show that the story would kind of progress through the Fairy Dance arc if it were to continue. Now, there's a couple options for a sequel:

1) This story would continue. I'd rewrite this chapter and have it work a little differently, but the story would basically just continue from where we're at. Would shift to Kirito/Asuna POV's mostly.

2) Separate 'sequel'. This sequel would use the concept of Kirito being under surveillance and people being able to watch him, but it would also have something else unique to it. Basically the story would start with the encounter Kirito and Asuna had with Kayaba. I'd change a lot of Kayaba's reasoning behind SAO (won't reveal the stuff I thought up so people can't copy it if I choose to not write the story for awhile), but the end of that meeting would result in Kirito waking up in the real world as Kirito. Meaning, he would have his SAO avatar as his real life body, with all the goodies that would entail.

Obviously this would venture off a bit more from the canon, though the fairy dance arc would probably still be the next logical step in the story.

As for more chapters in Worlds Apart, I'm not committing to anything, but I'd like to do the Silica & Lisbeth chapters at some point. No interest in doing the safe zone murder section. Interestingly, the Moonlit Black Cats segment happened two days after the game was six months old. It could be interesting to write, as it would basically be Suguha's first experience seeing her brother in the game.

PS: I'm also going to write a oneshot about Zekken trying to convince Kirito to fight her at 100% (like two swords, fully trying, etc.). Will be more interesting than it sounds, and it will follow canon only.