Author's Note: Thank you rarmaster, for your excellent betaing, and telling me how meltdowns are supposed to be written. That sure was interesting lol.

Author's Note (from rarmaster): i have to admit, forevermagik13 did an EXCELLENT job at writing this meltdown. =D


"All right," 19 said, looking at the captive Vexen Replica. "Tell us what you know."

"Is it necessary that he's here?" the other Vexen Replica said, jerking his head to Thistle. "He could at least banish the scythe. I'm bound to a chair here, it's not like I'm going to do any harm."

"You're lucky I'm not Riku," Thistle said, getting rid of the scythe. He could just summon it again if he needed it anyway.

"You going to talk now?" 19 asked.

"It's Namine, we know she's here."

"Tell us something we don't know," 19 said, sounding rather bored. He hadn't even started writing on his notepad yet.

"How do you know that?"

19 and Thistle exchanged glances. Neither one of them wanted to admit that it was Axel who had told them originally.

"Well, it's rather obvious, don't you think?" Thistle asked.

19 made a mental note to compliment Thistle on that save.

"Besides," Thistle continued. "Do you know how much your Larxene Replicas give away without even realizing that they do it?"

19 snorted. "They give more away when Riku's fighting them then they do when we have them bound to a chair."

The Vexen Replica frowned. "You've taken prisoners before?"

"After the first couple of raids," 19 said with a nonchalant shrug. "Do you have anything else to tell us?"

The Vexen Replica frowned. "Wait, are you confirming that Namine is actually here?"

"You just said that you knew she was!"

"Well, we have reason to believe it, but we haven't actually seen her…"

Thistle snorted. "Then you really don't know that she's here at all."

"Are you confirming it?"

"We're not going to tell you!" 19 exclaimed.

"Even if we were going to admit she was here, you'd have to know that she'd be under the best of protection at all times," Thistle said.

19 refrained from laughing. Currently, the 'best of protection' was Joseph.

"But I'm not saying she's here, and I'm not saying that's she's not. Carry on with information that we don't know," Thistle said. Now he sounded bored.

"Well, assuming that she's here, Saix wants her captured…"

"So he can catalog her, we know," 19 said.

The Vexen Replica frowned, trying to work out in his head how they knew all this stuff. Perhaps the Larxene Replicas should stop being told things…

"Ideally," he continued. "She would be captured in a raid, when there is so much going on that no one would notice her missing until too late. However, if that proves to not be effective, Saix will start sending in individual people to capture her because stealth would be best."

19 actually wrote this down. "And you fear your destruction so much that you'd tell us all of this?" he asked.

The Vexen Replica shrugged.

"What number are you, anyway?" 19 asked. "Usually, I'm pretty good at distinguishing us, but I have got nothing on you."

"I was Number 5," the Vexen Replica said.

"But 5 was Dis…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Saix reinstated a whole bunch of us after Rewriting us."

"He has that much access to the Program?" 19 wondered. Though, Saix did have all the passwords… he was really just lacking the ability to create an entirely new replica. Rewriting was probably within his abilities.

"Great," he muttered. "Well, thanks for that bit of info, it was more helpful than the stuff on Namine."

"Riku would think otherwise," Thistle muttered.

19 shrugged.

"Is that all?" he asked the Replica formerly known as 5.

5 nodded.

"What are we going to do with him?" Thistle asked.

19 frowned. "We don't typically keep prisoners… I suppose we could take a vote."

"Everyone?"

19 shrugged. "Sure, why not."

"Even Joseph?"

19 thought about this one. "Well, I would say yes, out of fairness to everyone here, but 29 might have other thoughts about letting Joseph vote whether or not someone gets to live."

"Well, we all know Joseph wants Saix to die," Thistle said.

"Who doesn't?" 19 asked rhetorically.

"Well, do we have a prison?" Thistle asked.

"We can make one," 19 said. "At least temporarily."

"Sounds good to me."

"So you're just going to leave me here?" 5 asked.

"Uh, yeah, what were you expecting?"

"I'd keep your mouth shut about Namine," 19 said. "Rumor has it that if Riku hears you talking bad about her, he'll appear out of thin air and kill you where you stand."

xx

Joseph had already finished his ice cream, Namine was down to the last few bites. They had spent the majority of the time talking about the Rebellion, Sora, and things that Namine didn't know about Castle Oblivion yet because she merely hadn't asked Riku.

"I suppose we should probably head back soon," Joseph said. "No doubt everyone's been taken care of by now."

Namine smiled a little. She wondered how exactly these things went. She knew a little, from what Riku told her, and from what spilled out onto the page in front of her—but a small part of her wished she could watch, just once.

Upon second thought, as flickers of Riku's memory were brought to the front of her mind, maybe she didn't.

Joseph saw her grimace. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Then the pain started, Namine reached up to clutch her head. The last few bites of her ice cream fell out of her hands, dropping to the front of the station far, far below.

"That's a stupid question," she heard a voice, that sounded oddly like herself, say. "Of course you're not okay. I just… I'm sorry… I'm so, so, so sorry. I didn't want to do this, but…"

She gasped at the image that became clear with those words:

Riku, lying cold and still, his head and arms facing weird directions. He looked as if he had just been thrown there… herself sitting beside him, unable to do anything.

"Namine!" she heard Joseph call out to her, but she was past the point of responding. She felt Joseph's hands on her arms and she registered him pulling her back away from the edge of the Clock Tower, but after that, she was lost to the memories.

"If Namine uses her power to erase your memory, you'll be nothing but an empty shell. Your heart will no longer be able to feel, or to care. Just like Vexen's pathetic imitation of your Riku."

"Take another guess!"

Riku came barreling out of a dark corridor, sword already drawn against Marluxia…

The memory fuzzed a bit, before it became clear again, but it was still the same memory.

"You're a shell! A shell who has had everything taken…everything!"

"What can you possibly think I ever had? Both my body and my heart are fake. But, there is one memory that I will keep—even if it is just a lie! Whether it was a phantom promise or not: I will, protect Namine!"

The memory blurred entirely, then it changed.

All she could see was a giant, white, door. Then, from behind her, she heard Sora speak:

"Riku, protect Namine."

"You don't…mind?"

"Should I?"

The memory shifted again.

She could see Riku's back, staring upwards at a large Mansion.

"Hold it!" Riku said. Except, it was not the Riku in front of her, but rather, a second Riku.

"You've changed," he continued. "Your own darkness, it doesn't frighten you anymore."

"How can you tell?"

"Because I'm you."

The memory changed.

"Are you alright?" Kairi asked.

"Yeah, I'm alright," Riku responded.

"Are you sure about that? What happened to you?"

"I don't… know…"

Shift.

"You ready, Sora?" Riku asked.

"Yeah!" Sora replied.

The two began to fight.

Namine wished she could hang onto that memory, it was peaceful and reminded her of a time when things were almost normal… before Sora had gone…

Her thought didn't get much farther than that, the memory changed.

"Riku…" Kairi said quietly.

"Go away! You don't want to talk to me!"

"What?" Sora asked. "Of course we want to talk to you, Riku. What would make you think that we wouldn't?"

"I'm not Riku!"

Change.

"Do you know of anyone named Namine?"

"Why yes, we do…"

Change again.

"I died here…"

That last memory she recognized, those were the words that Riku had spoken to her.

"Namine," Riku said.

"Namine!"

Namine felt familiar hands around her and she relaxed into Riku's grasp.

"It'll be okay, I'm here. I'm here…"

xx

"Vexen!" Alpha said, kicking the door. "Open this door right now!"

"How do I know you're not being forced by 37 to say that?" Vexen asked.

Alpha smacked himself in the forehead. "Seriously? If you were listening, you'd know that both 37 and his Marluxia helper were gone."

"Where's 26?"

"He took an icicle to the leg…"

"Vexen!" Riku shouted. "Open the door or I will kill you."

They could almost hear Vexen sigh.

The door clicked open.

Riku had barely begun to bend down to help Alpha with 26 when he was blinded by a splitting headache.

"Not another one!" he growled, starting to form a dark corridor.

"How will you even know where she is?" Alpha asked.

"Easy," Riku said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Namine!"

As he said her name, he formed the dark corridor and rushed through.

Alpha turned to look at Vexen. "Help me with 26," he said flatly.

Riku was not surprised to appear in Twilight Town. He was slightly surprised to appear on top of the Clock Tower, but at the particular moment, he didn't really care. The headache had lessened: he was close.

He walked around the corner, to see Joseph attempting to support Namine.

"Namine!" Riku exclaimed.

She didn't respond.

He winced and bent down to pick her up.

"It'll be okay," he whispered to her. "I'm here, I'm here…"

She seemed to calm a little, but still did not respond.

"I'm sorry," Joseph said, looking scared. "I'm sorry! I don't know what I said or if I triggered it…"

"I doubt it was your fault," he said, his voice coming out strained. "I doubt you triggered it."

Joseph swallowed, unsure of what to say.

"I'm not going to kill you," Riku said. "Now let's get back."

Joseph breathed a sigh of relief. He wanted to ask Riku if half of the death threats he made he actually planned on going through with, but now wasn't the time.