Though it was early yet, Riku was troubled, looking from the window of his room into Dark City. Not by eliminating Ansem and the resulting dramatic reduction in the darkness he held – he decided it was worth having to work a little harder to achieve the same ends if it meant Ansem was out of the picture.
It was more because he'd lost his excuse to see using the darkness. Somewhere in Dark City there was a newly active portal, and without that dark sight he would be unable to see it when he and Roxas returned.
There was no point in trying to find it anyway, he concluded. He'd already looked over the city beneath and found no repetition in it at all. The ruins of the first portal, though they had been cleaned up, were still clearly visible – but nowhere else in the city was there a ring of skyscrapers, or for that matter any structure at all. No doubt he was responsible for that too. Xemnas would have altered any disguises on the remaining ones to try to hide them from their phantom saboteur.
It was too early to rouse Roxas by far, but he had no intentions of going back to sleep. His body had always rebelled against the idea, even back into the original Riku's lifetime. Sora's memories were still unavailable, but he had a few of Riku's memories that suggested it was the same thing there. Now he had a double dose of it.
A flicker of light below caught his attention, though it turned out only to be Xaldin passing over a reflection on a shallow puddle, temporarily blocking it from view. Xaldin was clearly a workaholic too. As Xaldin paused, an idea occurred.
His body clearly had the ability to change – he'd seen that in Castle Oblivion, and when Maleficent had used the other side of him everyone had seen Sora instead. Maybe he could learn to command that – the ability to have people know him as two different people could be useful.
Out of sight of the window he thought for a moment, then decided perhaps it was time Xaldin got to meet the saboteur – but not him. Riku concentrated, having no idea how this could possibly work, then felt... different. Definitely different.
The coat still covered most of any change he might have effected, but glancing up at the mirror opposite told the true story. Looking back out of blue eyes at him was Sora. It was just the appearance of it though, there was no separate awareness.
He shrugged off the coat to find he even bore Sora's outfit beneath, his own clothes changing to match – not that he could see why they should change also. Then again, maybe it had something to do with his heart.
It wouldn't do for Xaldin to see any tie to the Organization's Riku, so he quickly divested himself of any such sign, glancing back into Dark City to find Xaldin. He'd moved on now, but would no doubt recognise the sound of a corridor, if not the scent of someone else's darkness on the scene. The corridors were still not as easy to form as they once had been, but he managed, opening one. Strangely, it still left him unaffected – perhaps because he was now using Sora and as Sora's heart wasn't with him he was safe. Perhaps.
Riku looked about at the fountain, spotting Xaldin pause at a junction several streets down. Riku watched, ostensibly looking about as if uncertain of where to go. After a time, Xaldin finally glanced back and spotted him – but didn't move to intercept him.
He felt the reason why more than heard or saw it. Xaldin was marshalling some of the local Heartless. Xaldin, however, did not know what his Keyblade looked like as only Xemnas and Roxas had seen him with it, so he took the chance and as one Neoshadow drew close he called the Keyblade to his hand and almost casually obliterated it with a string of blows. Once it was down he looked about again, then picked another route at random.
"Take the bait, Xaldin," Riku said under his breath, not hurrying. He didn't want to lose him. Not yet, anyway.
Disappointingly, he didn't react. He just stood and watched. Riku continued on, occasionally destroying another Heartless that got nearby. He could have commanded them, but that too was more difficult without Ansem, and anyway Xaldin would probably notice.
After rounding a second corner he discovered Xaldin had, in fact, reacted. He'd waited until his target was out of sight and then planted himself right in his path.
"Strange place to be taking a night-time stroll," he said as if this was normal, though the expertly held lances in either hand suggested otherwise. "Particularly for someone like you."
"Someone like me?" Riku asked, trying to hide how odd it felt to hear Sora's voice again. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You aren't of the Organization. You aren't even a Heartless."
"But I am a Nobody," he said. Which was technically true. He appeared to be Sora, and Sora did not have a heart. At least not with him.
"Impossible," Xaldin asserted. "We would know immediately if you were."
"Would you? Or would you be so distracted by finding the guy claiming to be my Nobody?"
"And who would that be?"
"Roxas, of course. Oh, and you were also busy with Riku too. He showed up not long after. So you missed me."
"So you are Sora. How interesting. Perhaps you'd tell me what happened when you left Castle Oblivion?"
"I came here, of course," he lied smoothly. "Heard about what was going on after a bit, now I'm... looking for something."
Xaldin caught the deliberate pause and reference, as he was meant to. Still he was curious though.
"And just how did you hear about this? Did the Heartless tell you?" he suggested scornfully.
"Don't be absurd. It was-" he paused as if about to reveal something. "Oops. Can't tell you that. You'd have to terminate him if I did, and that'd mean I lose my contact."
A lance was levelled toward him.
"If you have any intentions of leaving in the same shape you came, you'll tell me exactly who it is."
Riku touched the Keyblade to the side of the lance and pushed it aside.
"I don't think so. But there is something I can tell you. That Kingdom Hearts Xemnas is creating? He doesn't plan to share it. It's made of many hearts, true enough, but you'll see when it appears it's only one heart in the whole. One heart per person."
"He would still command its power. We will still benefit from it."
"Oh, the Xemnas of today could, maybe," Sora agreed. "But the Xemnas of today hasn't handled a heart for a long time, has he? He'll be almost completely unprepared for it, and he'll also have every heart that makes it up to square with. Thousands of conflicting emotions and wishes. Can you be sure that the Xemnas who claims the heart will not end up being loyal to it? That whatever consciousness results from it will let him use it and not keep it for himself?"
"You're just trying to make me turn traitor. You could be making this up."
"Could, but I'm not. Anyway, you'll probably be able to verify it yourself if you look in the right places. I'll leave that to you – I'm looking for something else, and it isn't in this part of the city. Think about it Xaldin," he said, dismissing the Keyblade and opening a corridor. "I'm sure you'll figure out what the right thing to do is."
Later, Riku forced his form back to normal – well, what had become normal since becoming the Organization's double-agent – and went looking for Roxas's room. Roxas, unlike him, had a habit of rising later than most others, so the chances were he was still in his room.
After knocking his door, a bleary-eyed and tousle-haired apparation regarded him for a few moments, then opened the door further to let him in. Unsurprisingly, the room was a chaotic mess. Not that it appeared to bother Roxas, who even in his barely awake state he navigated it easily, finding what he wanted with only minimal searching.
"Not a morning kinda person, huh?" Riku remarked after a moment.
Roxas grunted, then eventually replied, "I'm allergic to mornings. Stupid time to be up. Guess you don't have a choice though."
"Well, someone has to know what they're doing around here, and that means getting up before the lot of you. I won't have to in a few days though, or so Saïx says. He's on the mend at last."
"Oh, joy," he said with a profound lack of enthusiasm. "Just what I want. Seeing scar-face again every morning. Why's he sent you to bother me this morning?"
"Actually, it's my own idea. You're the only one without a mission, and last night Saïx told me he trusts me to take you somewhere and handle our quota. I thought you might like an early start," he added with a sly grin.
Roxas snorted derisively, fending off a yawn, then glanced in a mirror and shrugged. "Good enough I guess. It's not like I'm trying to win a beauty contest here."
"Not that any of the others would know what one is," Riku chuckled. Rather than try to find a clear spot to open their departure corridor, he led the way back outside instead.
"Where to then? And can I grab something to eat first?"
"You might as well, I haven't figured out where I'm taking you yet. Might go check up on Xigbar, find out why I didn't see him yesterday and see if Beast is back at his castle."
"Um," Roxas murmured vaguely, wandering off to find breakfast.
"Just drop in on the Grey Area when you're done," Riku called after him. Roxas didn't reply, but he was hardly surprised.
When he arrived at the Grey Area, he found Xaldin pacing around.
"About time," he muttered when he spotted Riku enter.
"You're up early," he noted.
"Late, actually," he said dismissively. "I think I've found your saboteur, but he got away before I could confirm it."
"Oh?" Riku asked, feigning interest. "Who?"
"Sora, that's who. He's somewhere in Dark City. I happened across him by chance in the early hours of this morning. As soon as he noticed me he ran though."
Interesting, Riku noted to himself. Why was Xaldin concealing the truth?
He pretended to think it over, then said, "It's not concrete, but track him down. I'd like to have a word with him, and so would Saïx when he takes up his usual job again. For now though, get some rest – you're no use to us too tired to work. Leave it to Demyx today."
"If he finds Sora, we could lose him," Xaldin said. "He had no problem destroying Heartless."
"He can handle himself. Heartless are one thing, a member of the Organization, even one such as Demyx, is quite another."
"Riku, he terminated at least two members of the Castle Oblivion operation!" Xaldin exclaimed.
"He terminated Marluxia and Larxene, who were the lowest ranked members," Riku replied calmly. "I hardly think the rest of us have reason to be concerned. Now, Roxas and I will be leaving as soon as he gets here, so I'll leave it in your hands to inform Demyx of his task, and if either of you have any further problems with it you can take them up with me later."
Xaldin glowered at him, then stalked off muttering to himself animatedly. Roxas stepped aside as he entered, watching the tall Nobody leave, then joined him.
"Amazing," Roxas remarked, sounding more awake now. "He does know how to pretend to feel. I thought I'd have to stamp on his foot to get any kind of reaction out of him."