~Exactly three weeks later...~

Well, I knew I wouldn't keep up a chapter a week forever. Shrug.

"You two... You look like you've forgotten something important."

We stopped in our tracks. The various merchants in the Bazaar always called out to passersby, hawking their wares, but something about this struck a chord.

"That's a fairly easy guess," I said. "I'll admit I'm rather more scatterbrained than most, but even average people are quite forgetful."

"True, of course," she said, leaning forward. "But on you two, I see traces of irrigo. Been to the Cave of the Nadir lately?"

"Never heard of it, actually," Riku said. "Sorry to bust your cold reading."

"What? But... are you sure you weren't there by accident, maybe?"

"Unlikely," I said. "My understanding is that the place is quite difficult to reach."

"Oh, it's a real place?"

"Yeah. I've never been, and haven't done much research on that particular section of the Neath, but given the amount of irrigo in the place, I suspect that even if one knows its location, retaining that knowledge poses a second conundrum."

"Hm. And you think we've been there, because we have traces of this irrigo?"

"Yes... but perhaps they came from elsewhere. It's only usually the Cave of the Nadir." The merchant shook her head. "Even if you don't remember where or how, the irrigo is there." She ducked under her booth and retrieved a small pot of ink.

The color was like nothing either of us had seen outside this world. One might be tempted to call it blue or violet, if not for the fact that it plainly wasn't either color.

"This is Violant. The color of troublesome connections. It's not rare, or hard to make, but the Masters don't like it to be too freely available, so it's heavily taxed. If you ever remember what you forgot, write it in this color, and you'll never forget it again."

"Thanks, but we're not interes-"

"Wait." I looked closer at the ink. "I don't remember what or how, but... there is something important that was forgotten. I'm sure of it. Something about... not Sora."

"Not Sora? That doesn't exactly narrow it down."

"Well, I've forgotten it, haven't I? That's the entire reason this interesting color is relevant."

Riku sighed. "It's your budget... and honestly, I have a similar feeling."

"How much, then?"

"For you? Twelve echoes, fifty pence."

I winced. Of course I had left space in the budget precisely for scenarios of this kind, but that was a substantial portion of it. "That's quite a pricetag."

The merchant nodded. "Most of it is the tax, unfortunately. Between that and the manufacturing costs - also quite affected by the tax - I haven't got much room to bargain."

"Hmmm..."

"Tell you what, I'll knock off the fifty pence. Can't go any lower than that. Just can't."

"Okay, we can call that a deal."

Riku nodded as I made the transaction. "Well, now that that's handled, let's get back to our main business here."

XXXXXXXXXX

"This is annoying."

The two of us had come to a conclusion. We had explored most of mainland London, from Wolfstack Docks to The Flit to the Shuttered Palace, and the radar had never deviated from nearly due north. Therefore...

"We're gonna have to go to zee for real."

"Well, we can modify the Gummi Ship for that without much trouble." While it currently looked like a zeefaring vessel, this was a rough facade, meant only to fool casual inspection, and not to actually serve in this capacity.

"Though," Riku continued, "doing that without cluing in the locals on Gummi technology might be a bit harder."

"We're gonna need a crew, I think. Gummi Ships aren't hard to fly - or zail, either - but against the various zee creatures, we're gonna want more than just our (admittedly quite competent) selves. Given this, it'll probably be easier to just have them help out with the refitting and buy their silence."

"And how much is that likely to cost?"

I hefted a small pouch of rostygold. "A few rounds, probably." Riku raised an eyebrow. "They're zailors, Riku, of course they hang around in the bars."

"Well, don't get too into it. You just know that if you come back smashed and I have to take care of you, that will be the moment Xehanort or someone picks to ambush us."

"No need to fret overmuch about that possibility; my body's tolerance for alcohol well exceeds my taste for the stuff." Regrettably so, I thought to myself. I'm not sure why I remember that so clearly. I guess I was feeling edgy that day?

XXXXXXXXXX

After some recruiting and some reconfiguration, the Gummi Ship was finally zeeworthy. Extremely zeeworthy, in fact.

"Y'know," I mused as creatures of the deep thrashed ineffectually below, "we could totally hover at this height all the time. It doesn't actually consume any extra fuel or anything."

"Sure, but we'd stick out like a sore thumb. Also, the crew isn't fond of it."

"Oi, Cap'n, the beasties have given up! Can we get down now, 'fore people start gettin' airsick?"

"Case in point."

I sighed. "I told you we should have made it a zubmarine, instead."

"Maybe next time."

"Oi! Cap'n!"

"Yes, mate, we're descending!"

"Not that! Your radars are startin' to veer!"

Riku and I exchanged a glance. "Well," I said, "it's not the Avid Horizon. We're not that far north yet."

"Wasn't it just a nondescript spot, back in Radiant Garden? Maybe there's nothing special about it here, either."

"Cap'n?"

"Keep following the radars," Riku called down. "Carefully."

A short while later, the radars had led the ship to a small island. The two of us debarked, leaving the crew behind. "You can relax a bit," I declared, "but don't break out the rum just yet."

Exploring it wasn't a lengthy task. It had apparently once been inhabited; in addition to a ruined cottage, there was a ruined farm plot and a disconcertingly intact well. But the radars didn't lead to any of these, only to a nondescript point in an empty field. Not far from the well, and further from the cottage, though it was still in sight.

"You work out a spell for locking it off?"

"Yeah, about that - that book you gave me, how did you find it?"

"Just asked Yen Sid about fortification spells, he had one of the brooms grab it for me. Why?"

"It has a spell in it that seems explicitly designed for this purpose. Not only does it never need reinforcement, it actually emanates a subtle mental compulsion to leave calmly. Like, specifically, calmly and without a fight."

"Huh. I didn't actually read it. That's lucky, though."

"Maybe." I summoned my Kingdom Key and began tracing the appropriate magic sigils, while Riku kept watch.

"So it's here," said a dark voice, suddenly. Riku whirled to face the source, instantly summoning Way to the Dawn. "...You're not surprised," Lexaeus said, looking disappointed.

"We had advance warning," Riku retorted.

"Interesting. We were careless. Still. You won't be claiming it."

"You don't even know what 'it' is!"

"Do I need to?"

Riku shrugged. "I suppose if you could just pummel us into the ground, that would sort of inherently stop us." He raised his Keyblade. "Wanna give it a go?"

Lexaeus grinned and hefted his axe sword.

"Uh, whatever you two do, don't disrupt this," I said. "Messing with this magic would be a major disaster."

"Oh? I'll be careful, then." Lexaeus rushed at Riku, who parried his swings without trouble for a few moments, until he charged straight past -

at which point I nimbly dodged, and with a wave of my Keyblade, the sigils became magical ropes and bound Lexaeus on the spot.

"Did you actually think that I would just announce that I'm this huge weak point right in front of you, like some kind of... announcey-girl?"

"I was wondering why you hadn't just told me about that while we were zailing here."

"Yeah, the spell isn't unstable at all. It's actually really carefully designed so that right up to the last moment, it's always possible to siphon the magic back out and do something else. Like tie up someone attacking you."

"And the magical ropes?"

"I kinda improvised those, actually. They're probably super inefficient. So I guess we should do something about Lexaeus before he snaps them." I raised my Keyblade and pointed it straight up.

"Wait, is this why - did you plan all of this?"

"I actually didn't plan any of it, I just set up some measures in case I spotted a use for them. I'm not Light Yagami."

"Oh, so she's clever and modest," Lexaeus spat. "Get it over with. Your prattle is tiring."

... Weirdly, that stung a bit. Why I even cared what he had to say is still beyond me to this day. But I shook it off quickly. "You're right, actually. I shouldn't be prattling." I launched a sparkling orb of red magic toward the false-stars. "I should be getting out of the blast zone."

I swiftly retreated, as the Gummi Ship unleashed every weapon it had on the spot directly below my signal.

"The zailors we hired are farther away from the Point, which makes a difference, and I imagine that they're probably not as light as the two of us." Riku raised an eyebrow at this. "Hey, they're randomly selected denizens, and you're a Keyblade Master. It's a safe bet."

After a few moments, the barrage ended.

"You think they got him?" Riku asked lightly.

I peered curiously into the clearing smoke. I didn't feel anything strange perpendicular to reality, so I had at least been right about the sensitivity of the Point.

Suddenly, Lexaeus charged, and with a single swipe of his axe sword, knocked me clear out of the empty field, where I collided with the well.

I was in pretty bad shape - I could only barely see Riku holding off the enemy. He didn't even have room to Cure me. And something else was wrong that I couldn't put my finger on... though that could have been because I couldn't move my fingers.

Riku blocked one earth-shattering blow, the force of which sent him skidding all the way to where I lay. "Heal," he intoned, and I quickly returned to my feet as my wounds closed and my vision cleared.

Lexaeus wasn't going to let us catch our breath, though. He was already charging to deliver a follow-up strike, which we barely dodged.

While Riku parried his attacks head-on, I slipped behind Lexaeus and waited for an opening.

There! I leaped in to hit Lexaeus with one decisive blow, as heavy as I could make it. And then I felt it.

Damn it, that's what was wrong!

Lexaeus staggered, and Riku took this chance to deliver a series of quick strikes. I, meanwhile, was still distracted and barely got in a single strike.

Riku was holding back to avoid setting off the Point! And I have it worse, because I'm apparently lighter and have to hold back even more - on top of being weaker to begin with!

But Lexaeus is fighting at full strength, because he either doesn't know or doesn't care! So even though Riku is the stronger one, Lexaeus is still wildly overpowering him!

How are we supposed to handle this? Either he ends us here, or we set off the Point, and...

... huh.

"Riku! Forget the Point! Just pummel him!"

"What?" they both said simultaneously. Riku recovered first, and unleashed his full power in a single mighty blow - presumably trusting that I knew what I was talking about.

Lexaeus dropped his axe sword and fell to his knees. "What...? But... you were..."

"Holding back." The island rumbled ominously. "Specifically to prevent that, actually... Tempest, I hope you know what you're doing."

"Ship. Get to the ship!"

This chapter, and parts of the one before, were originally written in a slightly different style. For funsies, and stuff. But I hated it, so I rewrote them in my normal style. For posterity, the original version is backed up on Google docs; find the link if you're interested at listography dot com slash wingedcatgirl slash notes slash ADSIP and wow I just realized that that's kind of an annoying URL. I guess that's what happens when I archive my stuff on a web site that insists posts have to have both a category and a title.

Mind you, it is mostly the same. You're not missing out on hot deleted scenes, here.

Anyway. Obligatory reminder that all fanfic writers love reviews.