.
Part 3
Respect
Chapter 38: In which Riku has a bad dream
Braig cracked his neck before plopping down on one of the couches in the Grey Area. The World that Never Was was in pristine condition, so long as you ignored the dust, and the Replicas still wandering about. There weren't a lot of them, and Braig didn't care enough to scare them off—if the Vexen from the other universe hadn't already told everyone that he and Xehanort were coming back, then Even certainly would. Besides, the Replicas all left him alone, so why should he bother them?
"You sure we shouldn't just try and get the Replica Program again?" he asked, as a dark corridor opened in front of him. He knew that Xehanort would step out. One of the "perks" to having a piece of Xehanort in his own chest.
"Are you still caught up on that, Braig?" Xehanort laughed. The dark corridor closed, and Xehanort sat down in the couch across from Braig, looking quite comfortable. He was still flaunting Terra's body, but, there was no reason he shouldn't be. Braig tried not to envy him as he draped his own arm over the back of the couch, the mere action making his old bones creak. What he wouldn't give for a young new body himself. Too bad that wasn't part of the deal.
Braig shrugged, lazily. "Creating a Replica and shoving your heart into them before they're fully conscious seems a lot easier than any other methods of getting a vessel, is all I'm saying."
"You just want another Replica of yourself, don't you?" Xehanort asked, kicking his feet onto the coffee table between them.
Braig put his hands up in defeat, seeing as he couldn't really defend himself there. "It was nice having two of me," he admitted. "Plus, I mean, we could have anyone we wanted, with that technology."
"Except neither of us know how to use it, and Even's changed the passwords," Xehanort said. His eyes glinted, and there was a slight smile on his lips. "Though, I suppose that would bring us up to three, wouldn't it?"
"Exactly!" Braig said, grinning.
"But," Xehanort argued. "We'd have to take the Program by force, since Even cannot be convinced nor threatened into handing it over." For the most part, he sounded casual, but there was a sting in his voice. The grin slipped from Braig's face, just for a moment.
"Don't you think we're enough to take it by ourselves?" Braig asked, scratching absentmindedly at the scar on his cheek—an old habit more than anything else. "Riku's long gone from there, and he was really the only thing close to a threat defending that Program."
"We could take it by ourselves," Xehanort said. "Except, there's no point if we don't have someone to work it for us, is there?"
"I guess not," Braig agreed, with only a second of hesitation. "Maybe I should start harassing the Replicas still wandering around here… What do you think, boss?"
Xehanort nodded. "That sounds like a fine idea."
Braig racked his mind to recall all the Replicas he'd seen. He'd need a Vexen, for sure. It was a good thing there'd been a handful of them around—he just had to hope they were still around, and that one of them knew how to work the Program. Not all of them did.
"Anyway," Braig said. "How many vessels did you say we needed, again?"
"Thirteen."
Braig laughed. "Thirteen! Right. Why did I ask? I knew that. And Sora's first on the list, isn't he?" He didn't need to ask that, either, because he knew Sora was their first target. "You sure about him, though?"
"I almost had him once," Xehanort replied. "I don't think he'll be so hard to claim again."
"If you say so, boss." Braig did a quick count in his head. "That'd bring us up to four. We'll still need nine."
At this, Xehanort smiled. If Braig had not had a piece of Xehanort inside him, if he had not gotten used to this smile over the years, it would've sent chills down his spine.
"Don't worry about that, Braig. I have someone else in mind."
xxx
Riku sat up, stifling his gasp so that he would not wake Namine—he sent a glance across the room at her, in her bed, to check, and let out a sigh of relief. He hadn't woken her. That was good. She could use all the sleep she could get, lately. Even if her nightmares about him and Larxene had stopped, she still seemed to get nightmares, and he wasn't sure how he was supposed to help her. She hadn't suggested sleeping in the same bed again, and he didn't dare bring it up.
Riku wiped the sweat from his brow, then raked his fingers through his hair. He was still a little surprised when his fingers came out of it much sooner than they normally did, since it was short now. What had it been about that dream that'd unsettled him so much? There wasn't much to remember, but…
He reached over to scratch at his arm, to pick at the patches of skin where his dark suit had tried to… heal him? No one was sure why it'd started attempting to repair him like it would repair itself, but Riku knew it was annoying. The spots drove him nuts.
But, anyway… the dream.
It'd been dark, and he'd been standing on something he couldn't see. Or, had he been floating? He couldn't remember. There'd been… someone else there, though. Someone Riku thought reminded him of Xemnas, except, he'd been much too young.
And that was all Riku could remember, outside of words that still rang in his ears.
"Funny how one little mistake could cause so much pain. Look at all the damage you've done—but, then again, should you really expect anything else from yourself?"
Riku shuddered, taking deep breaths.
Those words were followed by more. Xion's slurred voice and the feel of her fist in his eye. "You're not a hero. You're the cause of all of this." Alpha's tone that fell just short of accusing. "The least you could do is help us to make up for it." One mistake had caused an entire rebellion. His mistake had caused over a hundred people a lot of pain, if not cost them their lives.
Riku took even deeper breaths, picking at his skin until it hurt. He'd break the skin around the patches of dark suit before he broke it—he knew that well enough by now—but he couldn't make himself stop. Heart throbbing in his ears, he got to his feet and formed an unsteady dark corridor, despite knowing he shouldn't, despite how the slight amount of darkness it took to form a corridor simultaneously filled him with adrenaline and made him so dizzy he could hardly stand.
It was not, exactly, a surprise when the corridor opened to Destiny Islands.
Or, he did not register any surprise, anyway.
He only stumbled barefoot into the sand, not noticing how cold it was between his toes, either. It was later morning than it had been back in Hollow Bastion, based on his internal clock and the faint glimmer of light on the horizon signaling the sun would be up soon, but the sand was still cold from the hours of darkness.
"Funny how one little mistake…"
Riku trudged into the ocean, attempting to block out the words as best as he could.
"…could cause so much pain."
He grit his teeth and closed his eyes. Focused on how the waves sounded beating against the shore, not on a list of people he'd harmed, even indirectly, through one hasty action. Focused on how the waves felt pounding against his skin. It was calming. It was grounding.
And it was so easy to let the waves drown out all other thought.