Chapter 8: Angels and Grievers

The journey back to Radiant Garden was even quieter than the trip to the Coliseum had been. The king was clearly preoccupied with something and Sora realized that even if he asked, he would not receive an answer. Kairi did her best to provide quiet strength but she knew it was not very effective.

As soon as the Gummi set down, Mickey leapt from his seat. He did not look at the two teenagers as he passed. "Find Leon; inform him to leave Sephiroth alone."

"He's going to love that," muttered Sora.

"Whelp, I'm not happy about it either but he is our only hope right now of saving Riku." The mouse explained. "He knows something…"

Trailing off, Mickey left the cockpit. The sound of the door opening drifted toward the two teenagers. A heavy feeling in the air accompanied it.

Sora stared at the deck floor. "You know, I wasn't really scared until now."

"It'll be okay, Sora." Kairi assured him.

"How can you say that, Kai?" The boy shook his head. "Even if we can wake Riku up, and that's looking more doubtful with every minute, what will we be waking him up to? This Jenova thing is what made Sephiroth the crazy guy he is. Look at the mess Cloud is! How's Riku supposed to be able to handle it?"

Kairi placed both hands on Sora's shoulders, looking him straight in the eyes. "He will. Come on, Riku is the strongest person we know. He overcame Xehanort's Heartless and the darkness. He'll conquer this too. Sephiroth just wants to freak you out and he has."

Sora visibly collected himself. "Yeah… Yeah, you're right. Sorry for spazzing."

Kairi ruffled his hair. "It wouldn't be you if you didn't. Now let's go find Leon."

Sora blew out a breath. "He is really gonna hate that we're working with Sephiroth."

"Wait until Cloud finds out."

The boy stopped and turned. "Oh, yeah… That is not going to help our cause any."

Kairi shrugged and continued exiting the ship, Sora close behind her. "Or it could prove to him just how important this is. I'm sure he knows that Sephiroth is not your friend."

They left the Gummi garage and decided to by-pass the Restoration headquarters. It was highly unlikely Leon would be there. The pair went straight for the castle, since that seemed to be were the man spent most of his time.

"Where do you think the king went?" Sora asked, simply trying to make conversation.

"My guess would be Merlin's." Kairi replied. "He's probably going to talk to him about those books."

"You know, this is where you're really gonna be important." Sora noted. "There's no way I'm gonna be able to handle going through all that."

Kairi grinned a bit but spoke with sarcasm. "Yes, I know what I'm good for."

Sora looked at her. "I don't mean…"

"Oh, I know. You've never been very book smart."

"Well that's what I always had Riku for."

"So now I'm a replacement for Riku, huh?" The girl teased.

Sora sighed, throwing up his hands. "I can't win."

Kairi giggled and the friends continued their journey to locate Leon. As expected, the sable-haired man was at the castle, standing with two other men in the center of the Great Hall. He had his arms crossed before him and when he glanced over his shoulder, there was a noticeable scowl on his face.

He dismissed the other two and turned. "What the hell makes you think Sephiroth is going to do anything but make a larger mess for you?"

"He's the only chance we have." Sora's voice was suddenly firm. "If he tries anything, I won't hesitate to take him down."

Leon studied the teen for a long moment before running a hand through his hair. "I don't like this; I want that made clear right now."

"Well, we don't either, but right now he's a necessary evil."

"Fine;" Leon turned away. "But I'm going to be watching him."

"Your mistrust is well deserved." Sephiroth's smooth voice came from behind Sora and Kairi…To their credit, neither flinched. "You have my absolute assurance no harm shall befall you or the people of this world."

The winged man calmly walked forward, stepping between the two teenagers and striding past Leon. "Now, I have some things to research. I believe the two of you would serve best by assisting me in the library."

He did not wait for an answer. He simply ascended the large staircase.

Leon glared at Sora but only left the Hall.

The boy sighed and with Kairi followed after Sephiroth. They caught up with him at the library entrance. They stopped just behind him and waited for instructions. Looking around, there were literally thousands of books.

"This is an impressive collection," Sephiroth murmured. He moved forward. "The king and Merlin are going through Merlin's books. You shall be searching through Xehanort's."

"I thought this was Ansem's castle." Sora frowned,

"It is," Sephiroth went up the wide stairs. On either side of the library there were three doors, each spaced evenly along the walls. Before them on the landing they now stood on, was a door slightly larger than the others were. "Each of these doors leads to each one of the apprentices' studies. Since Xehanort was the lead apprentice, he occupied the main one."

Sephiroth stepped closer to the door and spoke clearly. "The brightest light casts the darkest shadow."

There was a clicking sound and the door swung open.

"How did you know the password?" Sora asked in surprise.

"The king knew it." The silver-haired man entered the large study.

"But, how…?"

Kairi bit her lip. She followed Sephiroth in and stated, "Riku told him all the passwords, didn't he?"

Green eyes looked at her appraisingly. "You really are a bright girl. I do not believe they give you enough credit."

She smiled a bit at the praise before remembering that she was speaking with Sephiroth. She schooled her features into a more focused expression. That had been odd.

Sephiroth chuckled lowly. He went over to the far left bookcase. "He should not vow to walk in the dark, which has not seen the nightfall."

A pillar turned, revealing a descending staircase.

"Kairi, remain here and begin searching through the collection of history books in the case nearest to you. Sora, you come with me."

The teenagers exchanged looks, clearly hesitant.

Sephiroth sighed. "If I were going to harm you, I would have done so already."

"Maybe your bidding your time until you've learned all you can from us," Sora countered. "I know that you can tell we haven't told you everything."

That amused smirk appeared. "Then best be on your guard, Keybearer."

He turned and descended the stairs. After a moment as well as a quick, reassuring smile, Sora followed. It was dark and cramped in the stone spiral passage. Sora bumped into Sephiroth twice before the man ordered him to take hold of his wing and use it as a guide.

They emerged into a large laboratory, a bank of globular glass against the far wall. Inside of each floated a small, pink heart. The outsides of each of these hearts were blackened, some more than others.

Sora stared in shock. This was… "This is where it all started."

"Likely." Sephiroth appeared to be unaffected by any of it. He had proceeded to an alcove beyond the lab table in the center of the room. He pulled several journals from one of the shelves that lined the wall.

When he returned to the main chamber, Sora was still staring at the contained hearts. There were tears in his eyes and his face was twisted in horror. "How can you not be affected by this?"

Sephiroth set the notes down on the lab table. He stepped over to stand beside the boy. "At what point was it ever said that I was unmoved by the inhuman experiments done here?"

Sora looked up. Sephiroth's expression was as impassive as always. "Are you?"

The man abruptly turned, shoulder wing twitching once. "There is less here than I had hoped for."

The teen watched the former general for a moment before going to the table himself. He looked over the stack of journals. "What exactly are we looking for?"

"Anything pertaining to artificial replication of an organic substance; I am almost certain Xehanort was creating his own beings to perform his experiments on." Sephiroth picked up the top journal. "If he was using actual citizens, it would have been quickly noticed. He had to have created his own vessels to carry the hearts."

"Wait. You mean he was making people?"

"Correct."

Sora looked disgusted.

Sephiroth flicked his long bangs from his face. "It was a twisted scientist that created your best friend."

The brunette froze. He really had not given much thought to the actual story of Riku's birth. Riku has been someone's creation. He was an experiment. How was Riku going to handle that when he found out?

Sora bit his lip, blue eyes glancing up to regard Sephiroth. "Riku's in for a really rough time, isn't he?"

The man studied him for a long moment. Something that looked very close to sadness flitted through his green eyes. He broke off the consideration and returned to the journal in his gloved hands.

After a pause, Sora began reading as well.

--0—0—

Sora seriously believed his head was going to explode. They had gone through nearly every journal and he at least had found nothing. He could not even begin to understand most of what he had read.

Sephiroth had remained completely silent as he read, making a slow circuit around the room. There was no way to tell if anything the man read made sense to him or if there was anything of use in it. For some strange reason, Sora had the feeling this was the first time Sephiroth had to search through lab notes.

Light footsteps echoed from the stairwell, and both Sora and Sephiroth glanced over. Kairi appeared in the opening and was only startled for a moment before stating, "The king is in the study. We believe we've found something,"

"So have I." Sephiroth closed the record in his hands, returning it to the table and taking up one of the one's he had read earlier.

He left the lab, trailing after the girl.

Sora closed the journal he had, tossing it on the table. As he passed the glass containers along the wall, he had a sudden urge to take the Keyblade and hack the things to pieces. However, he did not know what would happen to the hearts within them.

Instead, he whispered an apology that even he did not understand the reasoning for and jogged up the stairs.

In the study, Mickey was standing on the large desk. The journal Sephiroth had brought lay open before him. Kairi sat behind the desk, reading over an ancient looking text. Sephiroth stood near the mantel with a clearly newer book.

Sora felt horribly left out and quite useless. He quietly slipped out of the room and wandered along the balcony. He found himself pausing before each door he came across, wondering which apprentice had used each one. Every one of these small rooms had belonged to the Other of several members of Organization XIII.

There was something familiar feeling about all of this…

"Sora?" called Kairi from the doorway of the main study. "We need you."

He jogged over and with a smile, re-entered Xehanort's study. He clapped his hands once. "All right! What do we have to do?"

Mickey gave him a bemused smile. "Whelp, we found the replication spell and I'm pretty sure that using the information Sephiroth found, I can create a new spell that will negate the current one."

"You think?" Sora echoed unhappily.

"It is an extremely complicated spell." Sephiroth put in calmly. "And Mother will not simply allow it to take. She wants to grow."

Sora's face fell. Somehow, he knew this was going to be the hard part but he had so desperately hoped…

"It's not impossible, Sora." Kairi placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "It's just going to be very difficult. We'll make it work."

He nodded.

"Now, the spell is going to take time to fully take hold and that is something we are rapidly running out of," Mickey continued. "By Seph's estimates, Jenova will by now be adapting herself to the changes I made and working around them."

"You mean she's gonna try to counter the counter spell?"

"Of course;" Sephiroth explained. "Mother wants to expand; she wants to be whole again, no longer dependant on her children. When the witch placed the original curse, Mother would have been overjoyed."

"Great." Sora muttered. "So she's going to fight the counter-counter curse."

"That's why Kairi and I will be leaving now for Destiny Islands. The sooner we can get started, the less time she'll have to manifest her control." The mouse clarified, "Which leaves the search for Cloud to you and Sephiroth."

"Ah, no offence to Seph here," The man's shoulder wing twitched at the nickname, "But how the heck am I supposed to convince Cloud to listen to me with Sephiroth there? He's likely to think Sephiroth somehow made me his puppet and outright attack us."

"That is a legitimate concern," Sephiroth noted. "Strife does tend to react rather than act."

Mickey smiled. "That's why he's going with you."

Sora tilted his head and turned. Leon leaned in the doorway, arms crossed, with a deep scowl on his scared face. The teen glanced back at Sephiroth who, while his expression was still neutral, had narrowed his green eyes.

Oh, this was going to be fun.

--0—0—0—0—

Note: The two quotes come from a Tibetan adage, and JRR Tolkien, respectively.