ATUHOR'S NOSE: I don't have anything to put here, the document just looks wrong without a note at the top.

Tap tap tap. Click. Maybe it was just my imagination, but this computer seemed unusually noisy. I'd had about fifteen minutes of this and it was already almost more than I could take.

"Find anything interesting?" Riku asked as he arrived, Sora and Kairi trailing just behind.

"This system is an even mixture of fascinating and infuriating. I've figured out some of what's going on here, at least." I swiveled the chair around to face the others. "Obvious things first. That -" I pointed at the crackling space-time hole, "- is not supposed to be there. In fact, as far as the computer is concerned, it isn't - the only entrance it knows about is the proper one, and that's been closed for months.

"Now, computers can't 'figure out' things just by observing, the way people can. They need to be programmed in advance with an idea of what to look for. Which makes me wonder who knew to program this thing to look specifically for Dream Eaters - and how. But I don't have any clues on that, yet.

"As for what the computer found..." I turned back for a moment to tap a few keys, putting a line graph on the monitor. "It seems that Dream Eater activity in the virtual Twilight Town started about four months ago, shortly after the entrance was closed actually, but it was fairly low-key for a while. It was about two months afterward when activity massively increased, growing exponentially, until here, where it seems to hit a capacity limit. It's tapered off after that, but never gone back down."

The four of them nodded at this exposition. "All right," Kairi said, "but what does all that mean?"

I closed my eyes thoughtfully for a moment. "I have absolutely no idea."

Everyone facefaulted.

"Tempest, I was under the impression you had something important to tell us!" Riku said.

"What? I never claimed that. You asked me what I'd found - and I've been looking for like fifteen minutes, all I've seen is a few status readouts."

"So... I guess the virtual Twilight Town counts as a sleeping world, now?" Sora mused.

"That was my thought, yeah," I said. "Problem is... I again have no idea what that implies."

"Hey, can you use that computer to check for Heartless and Nobody activity?" Kairi asked.

"Probably! Let's find out." I turned back to the computer and clicked around in the graph's context menus, hoping to find something relevant. Thankfully, it didn't take long, and soon the graph had three more lines.

"It looks like Heartless and Nobody activity has been slowly decaying since the door closed. The ones that were there weren't driven out by that, I suppose, but they've been slowly dying, to each other and the Dream Eaters. But this 'other' line... it follows the Dream Eater trend, a few days behind, but what is an 'other'?" I clicked on it and after a few tries, I managed to find an option to show examples of "other" activity.

The screen display changed to a picture of what was unmistakably a Tank Toppler.

"What the hell?!" I exclaimed - and, unexpectedly, so did Sora.

I knew why I was having this reaction - I recognized it as an Unversed. But Sora shouldn't have ever seen one in his life... Riku and Axel also shouldn't have, and were reacting just as I'd expect - with mild concern and curiosity, but apparently under the impression it was just an unfamiliar type of Heartless.

Why would Sora...? On closer inspection, he seemed to be not just surprised, but scared. As he noticed my notice, he shook it off. "I don't actually know what that is," he said, "but I get a real nasty feeling from it."

If I recalled correctly, Kairi had seen Unversed, though she was a very young child at the time and might not remember very well. Certainly she hadn't had them explained to her in complete detail. But she did seem to remember enough to recognize the Tank Toppler as cut from the same cloth. "So, if that's not a Heartless, Nobody, or Dream Eater, what is it?"

I couldn't explain the real reason I knew, but I might be able to tell a convincing lie... "While I was studying, I read about monsters called 'Unversed', which supposedly derived from negative emotions. But they completely stopped appearing about a month after they started - if this is one of them, something has gone really strange."

The screen flicked through a slideshow of "other" activity, showing various Unversed in various places, from Floods, Scrappers, and Bruisers to those I recognized but couldn't recall the names to a few I was pretty sure I'd never even seen.

"If they're supposed to be gone, why are they back?" Sora asked, a distressed tone in his voice.

"... I don't have a good hypothesis," I admitted. A half truth - it seemed obvious that this was the result of Vanitas somehow returning. The thing I didn't have a good hypothesis for was how that had happened. "This was in Aqua's time, though. Maybe she knows something. Probably we shouldn't discuss this over the communicators, though. I'm starting to think they might not be secure."

"They're not at all," Kairi said. "I actually meant to tell you earlier, but it slipped my mind til just now - if someone knows how to tune them, they can just sweep the entire spectrum and listen in on whatever they hear."

"Oh. Oh. Oh jeez, did they know? They could totally have heard Naminé telling Yen Sid she was borrowing my Keyblade. ... Oh, double crap, they could have heard the entire attack plan from the beginning!"

"Relax, Tempest," Riku said. "These things are in common use. Finding ours would be a needle in a haystack, especially if we didn't happen to be speaking at the time. They might, however, have noticed the new frequency on Axel's. I had kinda assumed that was another part of your plan."

"They haven't acted on anything we've said over this line," Sora said. "So probably they aren't listening."

"Or they think they'll get more value by keeping their advantage quiet and acting on it later!" I retorted. "Or or, maybe they've just been subtle, so you would think they weren't listening!"

Riku frowned. "That's... possible. I suppose it couldn't hurt if our communications were secure."

"Yeah, but can we get secure communications?" Kairi asked. "Keeping in mind that it has to work across worlds, which narrows our options pretty heavily - because naturally, most worlds haven't invented any signal that can cross a barrier they didn't even know about."

The three of them pondered this for a moment.

"Ugh, I think this is exactly why we were using those," Sora griped.

I pinched the bridge of my nose in exasperation. "If I knew more... any cryptography, I might be able to invent a secure system... I guess, for now, let's just not say sensitive info over these things. Oh, and tell Aqua they're not secure - I have a feeling these were invented after her time."

"They're pretty new, yeah," Kairi said. "I think they were invented like, two months ago. That's another reason we aren't overly cautious about eavesdroppers - there's only been that long for people to come up with ideas like that."

I nodded. "That's fair... It must be very popular, to be in such wide use after only two months. And inexpensive, too."

"I don't know how expensive it is to make," Riku said, "but the manufacturers are giving them out for free for the first few months. A promotional thing."

"I see..." I vaguely remembered that things went bad back home, when the first big telephone company was the only telephone company, due to tactics like this. I couldn't recall the details, because it was before my time - but it could wait anyway. Breaking up a potential monopoly wasn't even in my top 10 most important tasks right now.

Our communicators all chimed suddenly. I picked mine up, but put a finger to my lips and pointed to Riku. The three of us listened in as he pretended to be the only one on the line.

"Riku here - what's up?"

"Naminé has a message for Tempest - she is safe and no longer needs to borrow her Keyblade."

I nodded, and carefully set down my communicator so it wouldn't pick up my speech. "Tell him to relay exactly this - 'Tempest receives your message, and as you can see, she has chosen not to retrieve her Keyblade. She trusts that you know why this is.' Oh, and if he asks why I'm relaying this through you instead of using my own communicator -" Actually, that did seem a completely unnecessary step, now that I said it out loud, but I was already doing it so I'd just roll with it. "- just tell him I'll explain later."

I counted the seconds on my fingers as Riku relayed my message, up until he reached 'as you can see'. Then, when Yen Sid acknowledged this and disconnected, I counted the seconds back down - and when I reached zero, I recalled my Keyblade.

At an eyebrow raise from Kairi, I explained - "Hopefully, Naminé should see my Keyblade vanish from her hands the moment Yen Sid says 'as you can see'. The finger-counting was my attempt to time it - a bit crude, but I'm hoping the multiverse's sense of drama will compensate."

"Okay, but what's the point of lying to her if she can immediately see the truth?"

"Well, I'm hoping that by calling my Keyblade back right then, she'll get the message that I'm bluffing specifically to trick eavesdroppers. Because I'm like 98% sure at this point that the Organization is listening in on that communication line, if not the main line as well. And the timing of retrieving my Keyblade was the only communication method I had with her that I was confident wasn't being listened in on."

I concluded my explanation while clipping Voice of the Well back onto its chain. "The upshot of all this, then, is that Naminé, as well as everyone in my presence or hers, knows full well that I'm armed once again. But the Organization believes I'm still helpless. So, as far as they know, now is the time to strike, while I'm weak - but because we're expecting that, now should be the perfect time for us to ambush them."

"Yeah, but they'll be expecting the four of us to be defending you," Sora said, "- or at least one person, if they're only listening on the extra line. So they'll send enough to handle a big fight."

"And they know you're hanging out with me," Axel added, "- I'm not sure if they know you can't leave on your own, but it doesn't matter because they know I could be sticking around, so they'll assume I probably did."

"I see. So having me in the fight when they were expecting only slightly less resistance won't be that big an advantage. If only we could convince them that I'd be entirely alone, too... We can't just ask Yen Sid to relay that to Naminé - it'll make it too obvious that we're feeding them. Hmm..."

XXXXXXXXXX

Roughly one hour had passed. The others had left, and I had remained in the computer lab. Our assumption that they wouldn't want to fight in here again had held, at least, and the time had come to spring the trap.

With no safe way of communicating, we had concluded that I would have to fight my attacker alone. So, warily, I exited the manor.

As expected, the moment I was in the open, I was ambushed. A flurry of cards filled my field of vision, and when the cloud cleared, I was on a platform hovering in a void, alone with Luxord.

"I knew it. You weren't running away at all. You were just making a brief strategic withdrawal."

"You were right - that lab was far too cramped for a proper challenge. Here, I can subdue you without trouble. But if you knew my intentions, then - placing yourself in the open, alone and unarmed? A reckless gamble on your part."

"Maybe. But I think it'll pay off." As he summoned cards, I thrust my hand forward to catch and redirect the tendrils of magic, warping his would-be weapons into a timing game.

"A challenge, is it? You're betting that you can defeat me through this method alone, thereby not needing your weapon. Your margin for error is slim... Very well, I accept."

"Oh, good, I wasn't looking forward to plan B," I said, swiftly drawing the winning card, and a sizable chunk of Luxord's Time with it. While he was stunned, I followed up with two quick blasts of Stone, then jumped back to put some distance between us.

This turned out to be quite a good thing, because I only just barely dodged his card-flechettes - a little closer and I wouldn't have moved fast enough. (Suppressing the urge to block them was playing havoc with my reaction time, but I didn't want to tip my hand just yet.)

From the looks of it, I'd have to wait him out, until he expended his deck and I could hijack his summoning again. This only took a few volleys, but annoyingly, the very last card managed to graze my left arm again, slicing through my shirt and drawing blood.

"Ow! Damn it, Luxord, I like this shirt! If clothing-repair magic wasn't so easy, I'd be seriously pissed right now!"

He rolled his eyes. "You do know that if you only concede, I'll have no further reason to damage your clothing."

"Maybe if you explained why you guys are after me, I'd consider it."

"You make demands of me? I'm the one holding all the cards."

"I know, I'm audacious that way."

He rolled his eyes again. "Very well. We'll play out the game." He summoned more cards, and I duly hijacked the magic, beginning the dice game.

Unfortunately, this time my timing was off, and I picked a losing face, getting transformed into a die for my troubles. I bounced past Luxord, hoping to burn through the curse's magic and disorient him at the same time.

And the moment I landed, I heard a sound that could only be someone smashing through the arena's barrier. While the hole repaired itself swiftly, the interloper was already inside.

"Luke?!" I didn't exclaim, because I was still too cube-shaped to speak at all. But I thought it real loud.

"I'm not sure why you thought you could take him alone and unarmed, but that doesn't mean you should."

"Oh my, a new challenger approaches?" Luxord quickly summoned more cards. "I'll have to take the gloves off, then."

Meanwhile, I had finally managed to shake off the curse and return to my normal shape. "Uh, hey there Luke. Look, not that I don't appreciate the sentiment, but I was actually holding my own just fine, there..."

"Really? You looked like you were... in a bad shape."

"...? Oh, ha ha, a polymorph pun. Very clever."

"Thank you. But hey - if you were expecting to probably win, now we'll definitely win!"

"Fair enough. Especially considering this -" I said, and summoned Voice of the Well.

"My word - an ace up your sleeve."

"Two, really. Even I wasn't expecting Luke to show up. Though, in retrospect, probably I should have..."

"Am I to take it that Naminé is safely ensconced within the walls of Castle Oblivion, then?"

"Take what you like," Luke said, "but we won't give you anything but a beatdown."

Luxord looked between us, considering the situation. After but a moment, with a single motion, he tossed two handfuls of card-flechettes at us and took a Corridor of Darkness out. "I fold. Goodbye."

As the arena faded and we returned to the space in front of the manor, I blinked a few times. "Wh- why, always, with the running away?! Why do you - aaarrrggghhh!"

"Relax, Tempest," Luke said. "We won, right?"

"I guess? But we accomplished nothing and -"

"Don't forget, this was a whole mission, not just a fight with Luxord. We got Roxas and Naminé out, right?"

"Mmm... One of them. And we have it narrowed down as to where Roxas could be. But how does the Organization know about Points of Shadow?"

"Wait what."

"Yeah, they're holding him at one of the three Points we know about. ... Which is oddly convenient. Why are the three we know about the same three they know about?"

"I mean, there's only... five left? If they found three at random, the odds are..." Luke counted on his fingers. "One in ten. That's low, but not that low. One in ten coincidences happen all the time."

"Is that the right way to calculate the odds of this? If we assume they have a 50/50 chance of knowing each one, the odds of knowing exactly these three are one in -" I counted on my fingers, two four eight sixteen, "- thirty-two. That's way less. And how do they know there are five left to begin with?"

"Ooh. That's a good ques- hey, wait a minute! If Luxord reports that Naminé's at Castle Oblivion, they're gonna head straight there to recapture her!"

"Frick! You're right, we gotta move!" I immediately started summoning my Keyblade Glider, while Luke opened the path to the Lanes Between.

"Where are the others?"

"In Sora's Gummi Ship," I responded. "Can I get into the Gummi routes on this thing?"

"I think so, theoretically, but with Gummi Heartless to think about, I wouldn't -"

"I just need to intercept their ship and tell them what's going on. I'll meet you at the Castle!"

"Tempest, -!" But I didn't hear whatever he said, because I was already gone.

... Truth be told, I realized this about as abruptly as Luke did. So there's at least one more chapter I wasn't expecting between here and there. I'm just gonna stop trying to predict myself. I'll get there Soon™, Probably™. (edit from the future: NOPE LOL)

Anyway, obligatory reminder that all fanfic writers love reviews, and also obligatory encouragement of wild speculation. (I... don't know if all fanfic writers love wild speculation? But I know I do.)