Since I messed up uploading the last chapter, you get two today!

So DON'T READ THIS ONE FIRST!

GO BAcK TO cHAPTER 28!

Chapter 29

Perspective – Meli

Apparently all I could do upon learning my plan to warn the others had somehow epically failed was gape like a fish, so thank goodness for Riku having his wits about him. "Uh, yeah. Sorry about disappearing. We didn't really...know what we were getting into." Which, of course, was not a lie at all, and was the understatement of the century. I had a feeling he was going to be better at this than me, at least if I couldn't get my rampant emotions under control.

If Kairi noticed the extremely bland manner in which he was speaking, she didn't acknowledge it. "Well, was it successful? Did you find Ava?"

I gestured mutely to where the girl in question was surrounded by who I assumed were the other doppelgangers, though all of them had also donned the same style of robes and strange masks for the occasion. I hadn't spent enough time with them to memorize their body types, but a quick height comparison with their counterparts gave me a decent idea of who was who. They were all conversing in low voices.

"Ooh!" Kairi clasped her hands together. "I don't want to interrupt, since I know they haven't seen her in a while, but I do want to meet her. Do you like her? Is she nice?"

"Um. Yeah. Seems to be." This whole thing was completely ridiculous. It wasn't supposed to go this way, they were supposed to know that this was a trap and come to save the day. Suddenly I was having a hard time remembering why we were standing here pretending everything was perfectly okay, not shouting out an alarm that would rouse them out of whatever meaningless conversation they were having about the architecture and the view out the windows. Help! We need help, Xigbar is behind all of this and if we don't stop him everything we know will cease to exist, and Grim –

Grim. The reason for our silence was all too clear once again. If I spoke up, Xigbar would hurt him, and I'd never be able to forgive myself. What if he ended up like me? What if Xigbar punished him enough for my disobedience that he was scarred, or worse, that he had to deal with the trauma for the rest of his life, just like me? I couldn't. I can't. But if we didn't...

I met his eyes again, and all of the tenuous confidence that had been in my gaze before was gone. If I couldn't feel it myself, I could see it in the way that his brows furrowed in concern at the change. His hand squeezed mine even tighter than mine had squeezed his only a few moments before, and I tried to draw strength from the way his jaw tightened with determination. There has to be another way. I can't stop him if he decides he wants to speak up, but I can't do that to him. Maybe we'd be able to sabotage whatever was to come, or somehow subtly let the others know without anyone else noticing. But I wouldn't hurt him if I could help it.

Someone clapped their hands, and everyone's attention swiveled to the one who I had pegged as Ira, even though the fact that Riku and Kaj's doppelganger was wearing a unicorn costume was the one and only humorous thing about this situation. I was very tempted to refer to him as Brony from then on.

"It is nearly time to begin. Let's go into the sanctorium, where the ritual will take place."

I was really going to have to start rethinking who I called my friends if a bunch of near-strangers in freaky animal masks using words like 'sanctorium' and 'ritual' didn't scream 'something is wrong here' to them. Personally, it sent an unpleasant shiver up my spine. But no, everybody else readily agreed and was beginning to march cheerfully onward.

Idiots. I loved them, but really. Sometimes they were idiots.

I was momentarily distracted from my thoughts when a barely audible voice came from just over my shoulder. "These people...I think they were my friends." Glancing back surreptitiously, I caught a glimpse of the glowing yellow eyes on Ava's fox mask. "I tried to tell them what was really going to happen, but they don't believe me. Luxu has them all fooled."

Before I could come up with a response, with some sort of reassurance that we would figure this out, Leopard Mask swooped up next to her and latched onto her arm, though not harshly. "Ava. Come walk with us." The voice proved my assumption that he was Gula. His tone was not without warmth, but at the same time left no room for argument. An instant later, she was being swept away.

The 'sanctorium' was pretty much exactly what I would have expected it to be. A round room, smaller than the one we had come from but with plenty of space to move around, dimly lit with what light there was coming from an unknown source. The ceiling was still high, but now was made up of stained glass, all reds and blues and golds with thick black borders and symbols that meant nothing to me. I had the distinct feeling that they did mean something, though. Probably something that I didn't really want to know.

In the center of the space sat a large black box that had the misfortune of looking a lot like a coffin. That was, in fact, my immediate thought upon walking into the room, and my heart dropped into my stomach for probably the fiftieth time since I had gotten it back. I didn't even realize that I was murdering Riku's hand with my own until he used his other one to gently stroke my arm. I loosened my hold a bit without tearing my eyes away from the ominous box. Surely the others were starting to feel at least apprehensive now that there was a freakin' coffin in front of us.

"So...what's this?" Sora piped up, finally. He didn't sound afraid, exactly, more just curious, but a quick glance around at the other faces in the room showed a few dubious looks.

"The contents of this box are of grave importance to our cause." Ira positioned himself at the far side of the room, facing us all, obviously taking on the role of leader in the absence of Xigbar. "It was entrusted to the sixth apprentice, Luxu, to watch over through the years until the proper time came."

"And why is now 'the proper time'?" I spoke up, challenging, not daring to say more but not bothering to hide the anger in my voice.

Invi's identity had mostly been made clear by her ever-present white scarf, though she now wore it up over her mouth to conceal even more of her face than the others. "The Master of Masters –" the who? She had to be talking about their Keyblade master, though that was the first time I had ever heard him referred to by such a pompous title –"created the box with thirteen locks –" of course he did. It couldn't be any other number, could it? –"and made it clear to Luxu that those locks could only be opened by thirteen very specific people."

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that we're some of those people?" Terra offered.

"But there's not thirteen of us." Sora stuck out his lip as he looked around the room. "Who's missing?"

"And why us?" Kairi piped in.

"The Master of Masters will be arriving soon." Even Ira's stoic voice had a note of excitement in it with that statement. "He will be able to answer your questions."

Yeah, sure. I crossed my free arm over my chest, blowing out a harsh breath through my nose. Somehow I doubt he'd answer the questions that really need to be asked.

"The Master...your Master?" Aqua furrowed her brow in confusion. "I thought you said that he disappeared."

"He did," Invi nodded. "But it has been foretold that he would come back at the appointed time, when everyone was gathered together in this place."

The door that we had come through opened once again, and a black hooded figure strolled in. "Ah, Luxu. Our twelfth member." Ira gave a nod in his direction. "Now we are truly gathered."

"Wait a minute," Sora protested, his hand twitching as if he really wanted to call his Keyblade. "Who is this guy? I don't like the looks of what he's wearing."

Kairi nodded, looking equally suspicious, and for a moment I thought, yes, yes! Be suspicious, do it! Call them out! "Yeah, how do we know you're not one of the Organization XIII members?"

Gula was the one to answer this time. "The design of the coat that Luxu wears has been around for centuries. If this 'Organization XIII', whoever they are, was wearing it, then they must have learned of it from the ancient times."

"It was Xehanort's doing, most likely," Aqua chipped in. "He was obsessed with the time of the original Keyblade War, after all."

And of course, Sora, Kairi, and the others just shrugged and accepted this, loosening their stances once again. I shot daggers with my eyes at Xigbar, who of course remained silent, not giving himself away with his voice. It is a member of Organization XIII, it's Xigbar! every inch of me wanted to shout. This is all his doing, we have to stop them! But Riku's hand remained an anchor in mine, keeping me pinned in place whether he meant to or not. Just wait. Wait for the right opportunity. Surely there will be one.

We were standing in a loose circle around the foreboding box, everyone looking around awkwardly at one another in the sudden quiet. Sora, of course, was the one to break it.

"So...now what?"

As if on cue, a portal opened up right next to Ira. Not a corridor, but a portal, the same kind that I had made many times, the kind that came from another universe. Another figure in another black coat stepped through, face obscured by the hood. All of the doppelgangers minus Ava had automatically swiveled to face him, stances alert and excited.

"Master! You have returned!" Aced exclaimed.

"Well, yeah. I said I would, didn't I?" And if I didn't know any better, if there wasn't that difference in the depth of their voices, that lack of sounding like he had been gargling gravel, I would have said that it was Xigbar under the hood. He had the same cadence, the same flippant attitude behind his words.

"It's good to have you back, Master." Ira gave a reverent half-bow, and the Master clapped him on the shoulder.

"Good to be back. You all did your jobs fantastically to get us here, and now we have all of these...well, I was gonna say fresh new faces, but..." He chuckled at his own joke. "Anyway. You got everyone here, and now we can remake the universe like I've always planned."

"We keep hearing that, but we've yet to actually hear how you're gonna make that happen."

I glanced over at Riku, surprised he had spoken up. His mouth was set in a firm line. He didn't seem like he was trying too hard to act natural, either, so he must have been trying to see if he could get someone to slip up and reveal too much.

"Ah, yes. I'm glad you asked." Clasping his hands behind his back, the Master strolled closer to the box. "It starts, of course, with all of you, and with this box." He spun around suddenly and pointed straight at Sora, who had his lips parted slightly as if to speak. "What's in the box? Yep, that's what everyone wants to know. It's special, I'll tell ya that. And it's the only way to reset the universe back to the way it used to be in the olden days, full of light." He sighed wistfully. "It was such a marvelous time.

"But!" Bending forward, he rested his crossed arms on the lid of the box, tapping it with one finger to emphasize his words. It almost seemed sacrilegious, and I didn't even know what was in the stupid box. "More interesting than that is, how do we get it open? And that's where all of you come in. Keyblade-wielding doppelgangers. Not an easy feat to find even one set, much less five. Oh, there are versions of each of you in almost every universe, sure. But in many of them, you two –" he wiggled his finger at Aqua and Terra –"aren't around at the same time as the rest of them. And there are plenty where some or all of you never become wielders. Universes where some of you fall when your worlds are taken over by darkness, and universes where you live completely ordinary lives and let someone else do the world-saving. It's no wonder it took Luxu so long to find all of you, living and wielding at the same time."

"But why does it need to be us?" Aqua asked.

The Master straightened up, though he kept his hands splayed on the lid. "Because...extraordinary things are possible when two doppelgangers who are versed in magic come together. As much as I know, I can't even quite explain it. But it's a proven fact. Kairi and Meli can tell you all about it."

My eyebrows pulled together just as Kairi choked out, "What?"

"Ah, your little summoning powwow on the beach, don't you remember?" He clapped his hands together just under his chin. "Oh, or perhaps...you thought it was just a coincidence? I'll tell ya now, I don't believe in coincidences. So when you two doppelgangers sat together on that beach and pooled your magic together to reach out to your boyfriends, lost in the Realm of Darkness, and then..." The snap of his fingers was muffled by his leather gloves, but he didn't seem to mind. "Suddenly, there they are, right in front of you! That was certainly no coincidence. That, my dears, is the power that I am referring to."

Kairi's cheeks were dusted pink, probably from the referral to Sora as her boyfriend. "We...did that?"

"More importantly, how did you know about that?" I demanded.

"My Gazing Eye has seen many, many things. A complicated story for perhaps another time." I somehow got the feeling that he was winking and grinning at me, despite the void underneath his hood. I wanted to strangle him.

"So." Clapping again, the Master began to walk around to the front of the box, eventually leaning his back against it. "Thirteen locks for the thirteen people here today. Specifically made so that only you can open it, because you are the ones with the power to deal with what is inside. But wait!" He turned and pointed directly at me. "What about me, I feel like I'm an extra here! I'm the only third doppelganger!" It was true, that thought had crossed my mind, though at the moment I was more focused on the fact that he had somehow completely derailed the conversation from what was inside the box and how the multiverse was getting 'saved', and no one else seemed to have noticed because he was so charismatic.

"Don't worry, you have an extra special job to do once the box is open. You're not here as Ava's double, you're here as the counterpart for Luxu and myself." When I simply stared at him in confusion – and a bit of disgust – he threw his arms open wide. "We're Travelers! We've gotta stick together. It's not every day you get three Travelers in the same room together...you hardly ever get them in the same universe together!"

Not for the first time, I hated the fact that I had been 'gifted' with this ability. The feeling wouldn't last long, because I knew that if I couldn't universe-travel then I never would have met Riku and the others. I might even still be stuck with Aiden. But I also never would have been used by Saix, and maybe this new psycho wouldn't be able to enact his plans, either.

Shuttig my eyes for a moment, I tried to imagine it – what my life would be like if I had never left. I couldn't follow that train of thought for long without feeling like I would throw up right then and there. I wouldn't have left Aiden. At least, I couldn't see myself doing it, not without the encouragement from Riku, and the incident caused by me leaving that had been the final straw. Would I have ever even gotten a job, pushed myself out from under his thumb even just that tiny bit? Somehow I had the feeling that he would have made sure I never did. But I was so wrapped up in the way he had treated me at the start, in how I felt like I owed him, in being afraid that I would be back on the streets, struggling to survive, without him. Or worse, picked back up by the foster system.

I wouldn't have been traumatized from Saix. But Aiden came with plenty of trauma of his own, and had proved that he would have only gotten worse with time.

But still...as much as Riku liked to wax poetic about how I had 'saved' him and made his life so much better, I couldn't help but think that they would have all been okay, more than okay, without me. This situation right here was a prime example. Obviously they needed me as a Traveler, not just a Keyblade wielder. The short of it was, maybe it would have been better for everyone else if I had just stayed put in my own universe. Maybe this was my punishment for traveling places I didn't belong. I just wished my friends and all the innocent worlds could be kept out of it.

"So what happens if I don't want your 'extra special job'?" I snapped, too caught up in my turbulent thoughts to curb my anger for a moment.

The Master of Masters let his arms drop, folding his hands in front of him, and I got the distinct impression of a disappointed parent. "Well, then we won't be able to remake the universe like everyone is so eager to do. Right, guys?"

Something about that phrase, 'remake the universe', really bugged me, but before I could put a finger on what it was, every eye in the room was turning on me. Worse, that oppressive feeling in the air was back, almost the same feeling that had choked me in the room with Xigbar, but milder this time, and...and not coming from him. It wasn't needling its way into my mind, making me feel things I didn't want to. It was just there, hanging like a fog, automatically making me nervous even if I hadn't been being stared at in a rather creepy way.

Kairi was the first one to speak. "Don't you want this?"

"Do you really want to keep fighting the darkness forever?" Terra asked.

"This is something that none of us have ever been able to experience before," Aqua practically whined, a startling sound from her.

Sora sighed. "I've been to some places that had a lot of light, and honestly I just want more."

It was just like at the bistro, when I could tell something was off with Terra and Sora, but couldn't pinpoint what it was. I wasn't able to feel the heaviness then, but now I was growing more confident that they were having their emotions manipulated, just like Xigbar had done to me.

"Yeah, Meli." My attention snapped up to Riku, hoping that he was just playing along to avoid suspicion. He wasn't. Not unless he had become a really good actor somewhere along the way, because the anger on his face looked very real. He narrowed his eyes at me. "Don't be selfish."

I wanted to be hurt, but I knew it wasn't him. That was all the information I needed. My friends were being controlled, and so was I. My eyes involuntarily found Xigbar's dark hood, and it was trained straight on me.

Backup plans, indeed.

A/N: So we have a few answers now...and also probably a few more questions. ;) All of which will be answered in due time, but feel free to ask them now if you'd like!