AN/ The cover art for this was drawn by the wonderful ssceles on deviantart - there's a link to the picture source on my profile!

PLEASE NOTE that this is a sequel (book 4 in a 5-part series actually) but the Truth Hurts and Falling to Pieces are both pretty short and can both be read in one sitting, probably, or if you really don't want to read them you can skip them. You won't miss much. You can't really skip Nothing's Fair, but, whether or not you read it before or after Dead Inside doesn't matter much.

You can check out the most important details at the bottom of my profile, or there's a FtPverse FAQ I link to. Just note both of these have spoilers for Falling to Pieces, obviously, and minor spoilers for these first hundred or so chapters of Dead Inside.

Part 0

Interlude

Chapter 1: Prologue

A hand shot out and grabbed Sora by the collar of his shirt. From the darkness below him, Ansem's voice called out:

"You are MINE! You are mine, and you will fade into darkness with me!"

Riku reached out for Sora, staring in horror, but it was too late. He couldn't reach, and he couldn't risk getting any closer, or else he'd risk slipping into the darkness himself.

"No, Sora!" Riku shouted.

Sora gave him a weak smile. "Tell Kairi I'm sorry, will you…?"

He was gone.

The images beat in Riku's mind. He felt like he could hardly breathe.

Him, on his hands and knees on the shores of Destiny Islands. Namine and Kairi, studying him worriedly, Kairi's voice:

"Riku, where's Sora? Riku! Riku, what happened to him?"

"I- I'm sorry. I- He- I'm sorry!"

He couldn't bear the look on her face then, and he could hardly stand the memory of it now.

"Listen, I'll find him. I'll find him and I'll bring him home safely. I promise, okay? I'll find Sora, and I'll be back. It won't take me long. I'll find him. I'll find him!"

xxx

Riku stumbled out into Castle Oblivion, landing on his knees. He took a few gasping breaths of air, trying to steady himself again. "Of all places to- end up-" he wheezed through gasps. "This is- this is ridiculous!"

"Heavens help me! Is that the great Riku?"

The voice made Riku jump to his feet, almost summoning his blade. It was Vexen—no, a Vexen Replica, standing and staring at him, mouth wide open in shock. Before Riku could say anything or demand any answers, another Vexen Replica walked in and quickly escorted the gaping Replica out. And then, yet another Vexen Replica walked in after them. This one gave Riku a slight bow.

"We apologize for Number 6," he said. "He's never been quite… all there…" He tapped his head with a finger, indicating that was what he meant.

Riku just nodded, not quite sure what he had just witnessed. He took a few more breaths of air, then decided at least he hadn't ended up anywhere worse. Maybe he was here for a reason, too.

That decided, he opened the door to the next room. As soon as he entered, he stopped dead in his tracks. The room that lay before him was not at all like the Castle Oblivion he was used to. The room was huge, and filled with tables and chairs and couches, all white, of course. Many Replicas sat about, talking an generally enjoying themselves, from the looks of it. Most of the Replicas were of Vexen, but there was at least one Zexion, and a handful of Marluxias as well.

"Welcome to the Replica Headquarters," a Vexen Replica greeted him, before continuing on his way.

Riku stood there for a minute, just gaping at the room. Eventually, he stopped gaping, and then started making his way around, hoping to find Vexen Replica 19 or 23. Those were the two he'd talked to last time he was here, in Castle Oblivion. The only ones he was sure he could trust.

Few Replicas took notice of him, although those who did started staring. That made Riku a little uncomfortable, but he tried to ignore it. He'd have to ask someone how to find 19 or 23 sooner or later, and… wait a minute!

"Don't I know you?" he asked, stopping a young presumably-Replica. The kid had to be at least four years younger than him, and, Riku swore he recognized him!

The boy turned to look at him, and broke into a grin. "Well, I'd say it's because I'm a Replica, and that's why you recognize me, but that's silly, because I'm not a true Replica! I'm one of many experiments that Master Vexen made—which you look like you don't know anything about—and, well, the basics are I'm like, a mashup of a bunch of different data." He mashed his hands together to further the point.

Riku stared at him, trying to follow this long-winded explanation. This kid was a Replica, but not of anyone specific, and…? Whatever. That was beside the point.

The kid seemed to think so, too. "Well, anyway, I'm Joseph!" he said, grinning. He stuck out a hand for Riku to shake, and Riku did. "It's nice to meet you for, like, real. Everyone talks about you, Riku."

Riku blinked, taken aback. "Um, really?"

"Yeah! 'Cuz you killed a bunch of Organization members in a day or something? Super cool." Joseph sent an excited grin at Riku. Then he seemed to remember something, and hastily dug into his pockets. "Oh, yeah! Take one of these—on the house!" He handed over a popsicle stick to Riku.

"Thanks?" Riku said.

Joseph didn't appear to recognize his hesitance. "You're welcome! I should probably get going now, though." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, and started to turn to leave. "29's gonna—uh, 29's the Vexen who takes care of me, by the way! In case you didn't know that either! You probably didn't. And, uh, what was I saying? Oh, right, 29'll get mad if I wander around too much on my own, so, uh. Yeah. I should go!"

"Wait, hang on," Riku said. He might as well ask Joseph, since Joseph was here. "Do you have any idea where I can find 23, or, uh, 19?"

"Oh, sure!" Joseph turned and pointed to a door off to his right. "Try in there. 23's usually in there, working on the computer. If not, someone important's gonna be in there, so that should take care of it, huh? Great! See ya for real, now." He ran off.

Riku started to call thanks after him, but decided against it. He headed for the door Joseph had pointed out.

The room behind the door was lined wall-to-wall with computers. It was also completely silent, minus the sound of some frantic typing and a few computer bleeps. He glanced around, but couldn't locate exactly which computer the typing was coming from.

"Riku," someone said. "You've returned!"

Riku turned, noting a Vexen Replica. He cocked his head to the side.

"23," the Vexen Replica answered, before Riku could even ask.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Riku let out a sigh of relief. "Could… could you help me?" Now that he'd found 23, and had started getting used to this side of Castle Oblivion he'd never seen before, he had time to think about everything that happened before he came here. The fight with Ansem. Sora's terrified face as Ansem dragged him into darkness. Riku swallowed around a lump in his throat. "I need to find someone."

He explained the situation. 23 suggested that Sora could eventually end up in another world. However, when or where was a complete mystery.

"Do you think Sora's here?" Riku asked, just to make sure.

"I don't know. But, hang on…" 23 turned to the other Vexen in the room. "Sora isn't here, is he?"

"I already checked," the Vexen replied. "He's not, currently."

"If you would like our help searching other worlds for him, we would be happy to provide it," 23 said. Riku thanked him for that. It would be a lot of help.

So, the search began.

xxx

As time wore on, Riku started to worry. For Sora, largely, because they still hadn't found him, but also: surely the Organization would notice if a few of its Replicas were missing, right? There were at least ten helping him now, and none of them appeared to be doing anything else.

"Won't someone notice that you guys aren't doing your usual duties or whatever?" Riku asked.

19 quickly assured him that: "There are about a hundred Replicas. No one will notice if a few of us shirk our duties. Besides, Saix doesn't care for us much, anyway."

A few Replicas before long turned into a lot, though.

It took Riku a bit to fully understand what was happening, but before long he learned about the Restart, and that few Replicas agreed with Saix, who had been put in charge of the Program after Vexen's death. And, more than that, a Rebellion was forming.

A Rebellion was forming, and growing, and before long, somehow, the sides stopped being those for Sai and those against him, and started becoming those for Saix, and those for Riku. Riku was extremely apprehensive about this—he'd only stayed because everyone here had the resources to look for Sora. He didn't want to be the leader of a Rebellion!

"Why is it that you're choosing to help me over Saix, even though I'm the one who started this whole mess?" he asked, once. "I killed Vexen, remember?"

It was Alpha, one of the Zexions, and leader of the Rebellion (besides Riku) who answered.

"Honestly, Riku?" he answered, with a bitter smile. "We don't stand a chance without you on our side. You took down a third of the Organization in a little less than a week. If we have any chance against the rest of the Organization, it's with you."

That didn't, exactly, make Riku feel any better, but he didn't argue.

It was hard to argue with that.

Besides, it'd be nice, to have all these Replicas on his side if he ever needed to fight the rest of the Organization, Riku supposed. And he was still getting help in his search for Sora. That's all that really mattered.

Outside of all that, there was just one more thing…

Axel.

"Look, I don't know why you're so worried about me," Axel said, one day—probably after Riku'd been giving him a funny look without realizing it. "You know what Saix did to Roxas, to… to Xion…"

"Yeah," Riku agreed, because, he did know. Saix had killed both of them.

"I'm just real tired of him being in charge. Clearly, he's awful at it." Axel laughed a little hollowly, shook his head. "Besides… It's what Roxas would've wanted, you know?"

Riku said nothing, because, he didn't know. He'd met Roxas only once, and that had been after—well, it hadn't been under the best circumstances, anyway.

"Whatever," Axel said, pushing off from the wall he was leaning on and waving his hand. "I should get goin'. Good luck finding Sora!"

"Uh, thanks."

xxx

- Three months later: Present time

In the sense of getting Saix away from the Program, the Rebellion had had… limited success. All they'd managed to do over the past three months was make themselves known, cut off communications between the World that Never Was and Castle Oblivion, and lose a good portion of its numbers and other non-Rebellion Replicas besides.

Riku went along with it, because he had to, and he owed it to them as return payment for helping him look for Sora, plus since he'd started this whole mess to begin with.

Finding Sora was similarly unsuccessful. Riku was starting to get really worried, because this long in the Realm of Darkness probably wasn't good for anyone. He hoped Sora was just avoiding him. He hoped.

Sora… he thought, desperately. Where ARE you?