Wings of Avalon: Nope, not at all suspicious, nothing weird and creepy going on here at all...

coolmegan123: It's definitely not all them and their naivety that's making them go along with this! Though there is a little of that mixed in, at least for our delightfully naive Sora and Kairi.

* chants * Riku whump, Riku whump, Riku whump!

Chapter 30

Perspective – Riku

Meli was freaking out. Even though she hadn't said anything, I could tell from the look in her eyes anytime she'd glance my way. When Xigbar had first brought us together, she had seemed fairly confident, but something had happened around the time the rest of the crew arrived that had changed that.

I couldn't blame her. I was freaking out, too. For the past couple of days I had held out hope that when the time came, we'd be able to somehow alert Sora and the others, but now that they were here there was never a chance. The masked doppelgangers were herding everyone around exactly where they wanted them to be, making sure that no one lingered around us or Ava for very long. Even when Kairi had come over to talk to us at the very beginning, I could feel eyes on me, watching, making sure that we didn't say anything we shouldn't.

And I wouldn't. Couldn't. Not with them watching, not when there was the chance that Xigbar would activate the band and Meli would have to see. I couldn't do that to her. She had been through enough, I couldn't make myself cause more suffering for her, even though we were talking about the fate of the multiverse here. There had to be another way. There had to. We had gotten out of every one of these terrible situations so far, so I just had to hope that this wouldn't be the one exception. I was just used to being able to get out my sword or Keyblade and beat the bad guys up, and this time that wasn't possible. Not yet, anyway.

The Master of Masters was admittedly charming, so I couldn't fault the others for falling for his act. He had an answer for everything, even questions that hadn't actually been asked yet, and a clever way of steering the conversation exactly like his apprentices had steered all of us. Even I could have gotten caught up in his presence, if it weren't for the eerie blackness under his hood, and the small hand that had a vice grip on mine.

I had to protect her. I had to protect the universe, like I had sworn as a Keyblade Master to do, like we had fought so hard to do so many other times. And not only our universe, but all the others, as well. All the other Rikus and Kajs and Melis and Kairis and Soras and Zephyrs that were out there, still trying to live their lives, trying to find their own happily ever after. They didn't deserve to suffer, either.

But I didn't know how. My mind was a swirl of thoughts, but none of them were useful, and I absolutely hated how helpless I felt at that moment.

As soon as the Master singled Meli out, I stiffened and gripped her hand just a little tighter. What he was saying about the power of doppelgangers was interesting, yes. But when he told her that her job was 'extra special' and would involve her ability as a Traveler, I was ready to throw all caution to the wind and summon my Keyblade, band or no band.

They weren't going to use her like that again. I wouldn't let them.

She must have been thinking the same thing, because the next thing out of her mouth was, "So what happens if I don't want your 'extra special job'?", and she sounded ticked. She sounded as if she would slay anyone who came near her with the intention of forcing her into such a job, and I knew she was perfectly capable. Except for the fact that she wouldn't dare, not with the band being held over her head.

That was the moment that it started to become clear, what kind of trouble she could be in. Saix had forced her into helping him by hurting her, and now Xigbar would force her into helping by hurting me. And she would do it. There's no way that Meli would put her own comfort and safety over mine. As much as I didn't want her to have to watch me get hurt, I had to let her know, somehow, that I would be fine. That I didn't want her to put herself in danger just for me.

Before those thoughts could fully finish processing, though, something else started edging into my brain. It didn't really consciously register. There was just a pressure of sorts, an unsettling feeling that rapidly increased until I was full blown angry. Angry...at Meli.

"Yeah, Meli. Don't be selfish." The words came without thought, without me planning to say them or really even wanting to say them, but they felt so right at the time. Her wide blue eyes stared up at me, shocked. Then as quickly as it had come, the anger eased, the pressure backing off enough that I could think straight again, shaking my head and wondering where the heck that had come from. The last time I had felt that kind of anger was...was when we were discussing this whole plan with the doppelgangers to start with. There had to be some sort of connection. It still lingered now, buzzing under my skin, making me want to snap again, but...

Snap. I snapped at Meli, didn't I? Oh, light, I hadn't meant to do that. Did she know? Did she think I was actually angry at her?

She was staring straight ahead when I looked down at her, listening to whatever the Master of Masters was droning on about now. I turned my head the same way, but tugged at her hand a little and whispered as quietly as possible, "Hey. I'm sorry. I don't know why I just said that."

"It's okay," she whispered back. "I know you didn't mean it. I think...I think somehow they're control–"

"Something you'd like to share with the class, Meli?"

She froze, then slowly shook her head. "No."

The Master of Masters rocked up on his toes. "Well, we're discussing some pretty important things here, so I just wanna make sure everybody is listening."

"No worries," I responded. I let another minute pass before I tried again, scooting in a tiny bit closer to her and dropping my voice even lower. "We have to stop them."

"We can't." I could barely hear her, but I knew that wouldn't necessarily stop him from knowing what we were doing. "The band..."

"I'll be fine." The Master's gaze seemed to pass over us, and I made a point of nodding along to whatever he was saying before leaning back into her. "I don't want it to hurt you. But I'm not worth the rest of the universe."

Meli was quiet for a moment. "Neither am I."

She was to me. But even so, I couldn't in good conscience let so many other people suffer just to spare her.

I knew what we had to do. It was gonna hurt. Convincing myself to take that step was like the anticipation of ripping off a bandage as a kid, but worse because the person you loved most was going to hurt, too.

"So," the Master of Masters was saying. "Let's get this started, shall we? Everybody should be next to their doppelganger, so get paired up and get your Keyblades ready."

"I'm sorry," Meli whispered.

"Me, too."

I let go of her hand, not wanting to risk her getting any residual shock, and stepped forward. "No. Everybody stay where you are."

A buzz started up right away, causing my hands to clench into fists. I was gonna need to make this fast. "That's Xigbar!" I pointed straight at him. "This is all a tr–"

That was all I got out before the electricity was cranked up higher and I choked on my words. Meli must have seen me tense, though, because she immediately picked up where I had left off.

"It's a lie! They're lying to you!" Her voice wavered with emotion but stayed loud and strong.

The shock intensified as she spoke, crawling up my spine into the base of my skull, and I swayed, stumbling a bit to the side. Meli made a strangled noise behind me.

Stay up. Stay up. Don't fall. Stay standing.

Thankfully, the others were turning toward Xigbar, suspicion on their faces. Sora raised his Keyblade and pointed it at him. "Show yourself."

Xigbar chuckled, and I didn't know whether that should make me nervous or relieved. "Alright, alright, secret's out." Throwing the hood back, he spread his arms apart with a grin. "It's me. Your favorite former enemy."

"Former?" Meli spat, and I was a bit surprised when the band didn't surge.

"Yes, former. Old man Xehanort's not around anymore, is he? Now we're working on the same team, trying to right the universe."

"Yeah, but why are you here?" Kairi asked, eyes narrowed.

The Master of Masters cleared his throat. "The man that you call Xigbar, and that you two –" he motioned to Terra and Aqua –"knew as Braig is actually originally from our universe. His real name is Luxu, and he's one of my apprentices."

Since we were staying silent for now, waiting for our friends to draw their own conclusions, he had lowered the level of the band back to warning hum. It was uncomfortable, but tolerable for now. And much easier to keep Meli from worrying.

"We kept it a secret because we knew you'd be like this." Xigbar threw a smirk at Meli, and she growled. "Thought maybe we could get away without all the distrust and explanations and everything. But here we are. You want me to give the whole, 'I've changed, that wasn't really me, you can trust me now' speech?"

Sora lowered his Keyblade a bit, much to my chagrin. "I mean...maybe he has changed? All the rest of the Nobodies that we've seen have. Why would he be here helping with this if he was still bad?"

This was not going well. We should have known that they'd have explanations lined up. "Because this is bad!" The band reacted immediately, but I grit my teeth and kept going. "They've lied to you about what they're trying to do, they –"

I cut off with a gasp as an even stronger jolt shot through me. It felt like all of my organs were being boiled inside of me, and I kept almost expecting my skin to char where the electricity danced beneath it. Distantly, I heard someone asking, "What's wrong with Riku?" but it was nearly drowned out by Meli's sob.

"You have...to tell...them," I ground out through my teeth, hunched over with my hands on my knees.

I could hear the tears in Meli's voice when she shouted, "They're not bringing more light into the universe, they're stealing all the light out of it! And they're torturing Gr–!"

Pure agony erupted inside of my body. I lost control completely, hitting the floor with a force that I would probably feel later, once I wasn't being burned alive from the inside out. The last thing I heard before blacking out was Meli shrieking my name.

A/N: call me crazy, but I thoroughly enjoyed getting to whump Riku for once in these chapters. :)))