~from Reader's POV 2nd person~
You watched him, his face outlined in disappointment and confusion, before he left, going back to wherever he'd come from. You half-emerged from the tree, watching him disappear, and you wished that you didn't already feel so attached. It was just that...you'd already been waiting by yourself for over two years. Loneliness was second nature - no, first nature - to you, but why did it always hurt so badly?
Then a stranger came along, shy at first - no, wait, not shy. It was something else...You had a hard time reading expressions since you'd been alone for so long, but maybe it was fear? Caution? You couldn't be sure. But then he'd talked to you - the first time you'd heard another voice in two years, or at least, a real voice. The fairies were NPCs, so they didn't really count. When he'd spoken, you knew that you were conversing with a real person - a player of SAO. Yet while you were overjoyed to hear someone's voice, he seemed very curt and businesslike.
Is it only I that wishes to pursue a relationship? you wondered. You didn't necessarily mean romantically; you just sought any human contact.
But that which you crave will kill you, a whisper reminded you, and with a sad smile, you melted back into the tree.
"I know that, Akihiko. But..."
You will die by the very hands that you wish to be touched by, he reminded gently, and you recalled the moment when Kirito instinctively reached for his swords. Those blades could slice me in two, you thought.
"I know, Akihiro. I won't play anymore. I don't want to die..." With that final thought, you melted back into the tree and resigned yourself to the endless solitude that you'd always existed within.

~from Author's POV 3rd person~
Kirito was shaken awake a few nights later.
"What is it?" he asked, hands already going for his swords as his eyes snapped open. A sleep PKer? When he saw his attacker, he glared. "Klein, if you wanted to delete my existence, at least do it when I'm awake."
"I'm not trying to kill you, man. Get a grip," Klein said, dropping Kirito and watching him with a frantic energy. "We don't have time to screw around right now. I'm serious."
"What is it?" Kirito asked, flopping back down on the bed and draping an arm over his eyes. "Do have any idea what time it is?"
"That doesn't matter right now. The other players...The assault team..."
"Calm down, Klein. What's up?" Kirito asked, sighing a he sat up and stretched.
Klein took a deep breath. "Remember how I told you that we'd located the boss room?"
"Yeah," Kirito replied. "Amazing, to find it so soon. How are preparations coming, by the way?"
"I don't know anymore."
"What do you mean, you don't know anymore?" Kirito asked, eyeing Klein warily.
"Because those damn idiots," Klein muttered, clearly in grief as he stared down at his clasped hands with narrowed eyes and a stern jaw. "My faction of the Assault Team tried to hold them back, but..." He shook his head. "Somebody from the Knights of the Blood Oath convinced their guild to enter the room."
"What?" you asked, fully awake now as you watched Klein with rapt eyes. "You're kidding, right? Just themselves? That's suicide! We don't even have any information about what's inside!"
"That's just what it was," Klein confirmed. "Total suicide. Every member, wiped out."
Your face paled. "No way..."
Klein turned to you beseechingly. "That's like half the Assault Team! How are we going to make it out of here now?"
Seeing Klein so discouraged made you angry at whoever had called such a rash attack, but you forced yourself to breathe in and out. Be logical. "Who ordered the attack?"
Klein swallowed. "Heathcliff."
"Heathcliff?" you repeated, astonished. "That idiot..." Kirito looked at your his hands, feeling helpless. Heathcliff was as strong as you were, but one man's strength would never be enough to defeat the final boss. "Are all their deaths his fault, then? For acting so arrogantly? Or is it their own fault, for following?" Kirito put his head in his hands. "Why'd this have to happen? There's only three weeks left..."
"Three weeks left until what?" Klein asked, and Kirito brought his head up and met Klein's eyes.
I can't hide it forever. "When I first appeared in Level 100, I got a message that there was a time limit for this level. If we don't win, then we start all the way over from level one."
"So we only have three weeks to find the boss room and beat the boss?" Klein asked, looking horrified and helpless.
"What do you mean, find the boss room? You guys found it, right? Isn't that what got Heathcliff and the others...what killed them?" Kirito asked cautiously, hoping that he'd just slipped up and that there wasn't yet another obstacle in his path.
Klein put a hand on his forehead. "That's just it. The room Heathcliff took his troops into - that wasn't the boos room. It was a trap, disguised as a boss room. It looked the same as all the others, but this is the final level. We should have...we should have seen it coming. Why would the GM make anything easy?" Klein looked like he was on the verge of breaking down.
"What kind of a trap was it?" Kirito asked softly, recalling the trap he'd stumbled on with the only guild he'd ever joined, Moonlit Black Cats, and how they'd been overwhelmed and slaughtered.
"That's just it," Klein whispered. "SAO has always been fair, if not cruel. Safe zones were safe, the dead couldn't be brought back...everything was set up to make it all seem as real as possible, as close to IRL as possible. And yet, as soon as they stepped into that room and the doors began to shut, every one of them just instantly died. All their HPs just drained instantly."
"What about Heathcliff?" Kirito asked. Heathcliff's actions were bugging him, but he couldn't figure out why.
"I don't know," Klein responded. "I lost track of him after they entered. I didn't even know what had happened until it was too late. The best I could do was prevent anyone else from entering and trying to save them." Klein's eyes looked so sad, but Kirito didn't know what to do.
Kirito paused for a moment as he considered all of the facts and obstacles in his path. "If we don't locate the boss within three weeks, we'll descend back down to level one. I don't know what happens to our stats, or if they reset as well, but either way, without the Knights of the Blood Oath, beating all the levels all over again..." Kirito shook his head. "But that's not all we have to worry about. Even as we walk and breathe in SAO, our real bodies are lowly dying. We don't have the option of failing here."

A/N: To clarify in case there are some confused souls right now ~ this is written as if Kirito's confrontation of Heathcliff being Akihiko never happened. Asuna's death may or may not be explained, but it's not related to that incident (because in this fan fiction, it never happened). So don't be too confused. Of course, if that's accounted for, the Kirito also never dueled Heathcliff, nor did he ever join the guild "Knights of the Blood Oath."