Author's Note: Chapter nine! Thanks to everyone for their positive reviews, or else I might not have had the heart to continue. But that would make me a heartless... hmm.

Disclaimer: I do not own ANYTHING in this story aside from plot.


Chapter Nine: What Was Said by the Computer

Naminé awoke slowly the nest morning, wondering if it had all been a dream. When she found herself not in the White Room in the Twilight Town Mansion, it became painfully obvious: Sora was lost, and their only chance for defeating the Organization with him. With a great sigh she let herself fall back into bed. Things were only going to get harder from here, as if dealing with DiZ and Riku wasn't hard enough.

Riku…

She slid out of bed a few minutes later, and slipped on her simple white dress, only vaguely aware of the thin fabric over her skin, stepped into her sandals, and opened the doors that led onto the large balcony she shared with Riku. Riku was already awake and leaning over the edge, looking down at the small town. Only…

"Riku?"

Riku turned to face her, revealing his boyish face with a strip of cloth tied around his eyes. He smiled, Naminé did not.

"What?" he asked, the smile fading from his face.

"You're hiding again." Naminé closed the distance between them.

"What are youi talking about?"

"This." She tugged lightly on the blindfold. "I thought you were past this."

"I did, too," he admitted. "But when we do bring Sora back, I don't want him to see me like that." A breeze picked up, tossing his purple-gray hair to one side. Underneath the cloth Naminé could tell his eyes were glued to the floor. "But, it's more than that," he continued. "I can't bare to see myself that way. I just… can't."

"Riku," Naminé whispered sympathetically. Her hand reached out and stroked the side of his face. The contact brought his eyes up and he could see her through the blindfold. His own hand came up and pressed hers against his face. Naminé smiled.

"Ahem." Both quickly jerked their heads around to where the sound came from. Leon stood in the doorway to Riku's room, arms crossed, eyes closed. How long had he been standing there? Riku felt Naminé's hand slide out of his and off his face.

"Can I help you?" Riku asked, feeling his face turn red even as he fought it.

"Your friend sent me to get you two."

"Friend?

"Yeah, uh…DiZ. He said to wait until you were both up."

"How… thoughtful of him," Naminé remarked. Riku was thinking the same thing as her: that DiZ would sooner shove them both out of bed than wait for them to wake up. This was unlike him.

"Uh… yeah," Leon scratched his head. "He's up in the castle; he wants you two to meet him there." Something else was on his mind. "Hey, uh, listen.. You two, you were really friends of Sora's?"

"That's right." Naminé smiled warmly. "Oh, I don't think we introduced ourselves. My name is Naminé." Riku shifted uncomfortably on his feet.

"Naminé…" Leon put two fingers to his forehead as he contemplated in a way that was all his own. "No, sorry, I don't remember him saying anything about you. But you look familiar."

"Yeah, I get that a lot," she (falsely) admitted with a giggle. This seemed to put Leon at ease, at least until he shifted his focus to Riku.

"I don't think I got your name, either."

"…Riku." He said reluctantly.

"Riku… Riku… Riku!" Leon exclaimed. "You mean that Riku? The Riku Sora was so intent on finding?"

"Yeah."

"I guess he found you after all, huh? But there was someone else he was looking for, wasn't there? … Kairi! He brought her here to keep her safe, but she… shat happened to her?"

"Sora got her home safely," Naminé assured him,

"So, where's Sora?"

"We lost rack of him after he defeated Ansem, and so we -."

"He defeated Ansem? Sora?" Riku nodded. "Wow, that kid had more strength than I thought."

"Will you show us to the castle now, please?" Naminé inquired sweetly.

"Huh? Oh, uh… sure."

-

"…Infernal machine. You're more trouble than you're worth… There! I've overridden the MCP and assumed full control of the computer." DiZ straightened up after hunching over the keyboard and monitor for the last two hours, trying desperately to bypass his own security measures. It seems that during his absence the Master Controlr Program had assumed command of the machine itself and its data processes. No one else could have counter-hacked the device aside from him.

"Well now, that's something Mr. Disc. That computer is a heckuva lot more complex than the one I got back at Merlin's place," Cid admitted from off to one side.

"That's because this one was designed by a vastly superior intellect," DiZ muttered under his breath.

"You say som'in?"

"No, no."

"Well, alright."

DiZ turned back to the computer and folded over once more.

Minutes later the door slid open and Leon, Riku, and Naminé entered. Riku was sporting that ridiculous blindfold he had fashioned for himself after Castle Oblivion, and then cast off in order to retrieve Roxas. While he detested the idea of the blindfold (hiding from a part of yourself) he secretly was glad to see him in this form, rather than that of his former apprentice, Xehanort.

"Good, you're up," was all he managed in the way o a greeting. He stayed focused on the monitor as his fingers flew over the keyboard, accessing encrypted data and restricted files that had lain dormant for over ten years. At one point he came across a series of reports entitled the "Ansem Reports", all thirteen of them apparently written by his hand, though he only penned the first. Xehanort wrote the rest. He had already gone over them many times. Everything written in them was his research. But Xehanort stole it. Just like he stole his name.

"You're pretty skilled with that computer there," Leon observed coldly, crossing his arms.

"I've come across one or two machines like this in my travels," DiZ replied, either not hearing or ignoring the accusation in Leon's voice. He stayed focused on the computer, so he did not see Leon move next to him.

"No, I don't think you have." DiZ stopped typing and glanced sideways at Leon. "This computer was designed by a man named Ansem a long time ago. He's dead now; you're friend Sora killed him." DiZ straightened up again and flicked his eyes over to Naminé and Riku. They avoided eye contact. "So, you're going to tell me who you are." Leon's Gunblade seemed to materialize in his hands. He was apparently undaunted by the fact that DiZ was at least a foot taller.

DiZ grinned darkly. He studied Leon for a moment before, "I have told you already: I am a friend of Sora."

"Then how did you know about the passwords for this computer?"

"Sora recovered fragments of the man you call Ansem's research. One such paper was entirely on this computer: passcodes, encryption keys, hidden files. Even a schematic of the actual machine was included." He produced a series of papers from within the folds of his robes and presented them to Leon for reviewing. He took them gruffly and looked them over. Riku and Naminé exchanged worried glances. Leon handed the papers back to DiZ a few minutes later without another word. Cid appeared and clapped him on the back.

"There, see? They seem like genuine folks, eh?" He grinned at DiZ and shook Leon gently until he received a reluctant grunt.

"Yeah, I guess you're alright."

"Good. C'mon then, let's go grab the girls. We gotta go over the town defense grid anyways, and we can only do that from Merlin's house."

Leon hesitated. "Yeah. We'll be back in a bit. Try not to break anything."

"I'll do my best," DiZ grinned mockingly as Cid led Leon away.

"He doesn't trust you, that much is obvious," Riku said once they were gone.

"I wouldn't trust me either." DiZ turned back to the computer again and resumed typing with his earlier vigor. "That's why he'll be a good ally. Trust won't come naturally; it will have to be earned."

"And the town defense grid is part of that trust…how?" Riku asked over DiZ's shoulder as he accessed Cid's computer remotely.

"This defensive grid is meant to help in ridding the town of any Heartless that may show up. But, as you can see, it is woefully inefficient, weak, slow, and easily hacked. If I happen to upgrade their programs, so that it responds faster and harder, they might appreciate the results."

"Wouldn't hacking their systems make them more suspicious of us?" asked Naminé as she joined the other two.

"Perhaps," DiZ admitted.

"But using it to benefit them…" Riku muttered. "Aside from Leon, they seemed like a nice bunch. And even he can't be too bad if Sora was able to put up with him." Naminé nudged him from behind. "At the very least they would be grateful."

"And then they would be more willing to help us search for Roxas, since he is probably being sent around on missions to prove his loyalty to the Organization. With those four, the chance of spotting him increases. They seem capable enough."

"So, what do we do? Riku and I?" Naminé asked.

"You wait until I give you orders." With that, they were through talking. He would hear no more from them, he had work to do. Riku sighed and gestured at the door. Naminé nodded. "Tron?" He spoke into the microphone he hooked into a terminal. "It is I, Ansem. And I have returned."

"It has been a long time, sir." A static voice said back.

"Too long. I have a job for you."

-

"Move, Paine!"

"Stop shoving, Rikku!"

"Well then move!"

"Shut up, both of you!" Yuna silenced her cohorts. "They'll hear us." Paine shifted her position so Rikku could got closer to the grating separating them from the computer room below. Down there, DiZ, Riku, and Naminé were talking.

"No! He can't be!" Rikku covered her mouth in shock."

"He's… Ansem?" Paine looked at Yuna.

"That's what he said… and the computer is listening to him."

"So, what now? Yuna?" Rikku asked the leader of the Gullwings.

"This could be valuable information. Someone will want it. So we wait, and gather as much as we can, then sell it to the highest bidder." Their earlier treasure hunting forgotten the three tiny Gullwing thieves settled in to hear what Ansem had to say to Tron.

An unseen door opened and shut as Riku and Naminé left.

-

Diablo cawed softly as he circled the former Hollow Bastion. It was no longer empty, Leon and his gang had cleared it out and moved in once the town came back. It would never be his master's again.

Not discouraged, Diablo banked away and followed a path out of town through a break in the wall to a range of crystalline mountains. The path was narrow and serpentine, an exhaustive effort to traverse on foot, but no problem from the air. The path widened to a great maw in the crystal that ended at a cliff that dropped off suddenly into the dark depths below. A crooked, rundown castle occupied the valley below. Four or five unstable towers reached up to the sky. Diablo circled the derelict construct once before flying back to the cliff.

A tall, dark robed figure awaited his perch.

"Thank you, Diablo. This will suffice for now. Pete!"

"Yes Maleficent?"

"Gather everything from that old wizard's tower and bring back here to this castle."

"Right away, Maleficent. Don't go nowhere." A Dark Cooridor opened up and swallowed Pete.


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