The Eleventh Hour

By Lynx (of Organization VI)

Rating: Uh, T for Teen, I guess.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. No money's being made, le cry.

Summary: For Riku, his future was the same as his past.

Notes: Basically, a much more lengthy expansion on a drabble I wrote a month or so back. A lot of the ideas, theories and reasoning I need to credit Rebmakash for, because she's the smart one and thinks up all the cool stuff. I just add a lot of words onto it.

There will be KH2 SPOILERS APLENTY in this fic, so be warned.

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Chapter Four – THE FOURTH HOUR

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TICK

Inside, Castle Oblivion was chaos. Even as the six stepped into the main hallway, they saw that someone had left a huge mess. Most of the crystal vases and sculptures had been smashed, and shards of glass cluttered the entire floor. Strewn among them were books and papers, some of them ripped to shreds. A scorch mark adorned one of the white walls.

"I don't like the way this place feels," Kairi said quietly.

Sora hesitated, but threw his shoulders back with resolution and stepped inside. "The sooner we find what we're looking for, the less time we'll have to spend here."

He walked inside, and the others followed. Riku glanced around at the trashed hallways with unease. He almost wished that some Heartless had been there to greet the. At least they knew how to deal with such enemies.

Goofy joined Sora at his side, while Donald, lacking shoes, tiptoed around the glass. "Which way do you think we should go?"

Sora looked towards the ceiling. "Supposedly, we fought Marluxia on the top floor, and he was the one trying to control our memories. I say we go up."

Riku glanced at Kairi, who faced the floor with an expression of shame. It made him feel awkward to be the only one who really remembered what Sora, Donald and Goofy did in Castle Oblivion, and even then, he'd only heard the story secondhand from Naminé. He'd explained all he could to Sora, but his memory was only so accurate. And if Kairi could even communicate with Naminé, she didn't share it.

Sora marched to the front door at the end of the hall; the passage that led to the upper floors. Riku knew the route to the basements was nearby, and the thought made him shiver. He watched as Sora tugged on the door handle, then tugged harder. The door gave back a groan of protest.

"It's unlocked, but it's not opening..."

He set his foot against the wall and pulled harder, straining now. But as he struggled, Riku noticed the groan becoming louder and more pronounced—

"Look out!"

Sora barely jumped out of the way as the door burst open, releasing a flood of vegetation. Twisting vines spilled into the hallway like a waterfall until they got jammed in the doorway and stopped.

"What was that?" Donald proclaimed once he recovered himself.

Goofy clambered closer to the vines and the door. "Gawrsh, it looks like some kinda jungle just grew down the stairs!"

Kairi examined one of the bright pink flowers growing from the branches, and brushed the petals as if to see if they were real. She withdrew with a hiss of pain when the petals drew blood. "These things are sharp!"

"And they're completely blocking the upstairs..." Riku observed.

"Maybe Marluxia had some kind of garden on the top floor, and it grew outta control over the years with no one takin' care of it," King Mickey said. He summoned his Keyblade. "I'll put an enchantment on it so that it won't grow anymore."

"So much for checking the upper floors," Sora groaned.

Riku couldn't help but feel that somehow he should have seen this coming. "I guess the only place we can go is down."

They cleared the way to the other entrance; the one that led to the castle basements. It wasn't blocked, but even before they entered Riku could smell something dank and foul from within.

The walk down seemingly endless stairs had them all on guard, but left Riku with a particular sense of déjà vu. Like the entrance above, the stairs and floors beneath were littered with broken glass, machinery and papers.

Goofy was the first to speak in a long time. "Is it just me, or is it gettin' colder?"

It was. Riku could see the moss sprouting from the walls covered in frost, and he pulled his coat tighter around himself. Kairi started shivering, prompting Sora to wrap one arm around her.

They reached another floor –Riku had no idea if this was the lowest level or not- and discovered the lights were still on. The hallway before them branched off into several adjoining rooms. King Mickey said, "Let's split up and see what we can find."

Going two each, they delved into the rooms. Riku and Sora took the right-hand one, only to discover it had once been part of a laboratory. Abandoned test tubes and machinery occupied one side of the room, while a desk covered in files and notes took up the other. Riku almost held his nose...whatever smelled rank seemed to be around here.

"Jackpot!" Sora declared, holding up one of the faded pages. "This looks like a whole bunch of notes on memory experiments."

Intrigued, Riku joined him. He picked up some of the random papers off the desk, trying to remember which one of the Organization could have written them. It's all so fuzzy now...

Sora began to read aloud. "'A heart, as has been concluded through number eleven's studies, is supported by memory. Therefore, it could be possible to make an artificial heart for an artificial being, as long as the heart is supported by authentic memories.'" He squinted, and tried another. "If constructed properly, an artificial replica could not only maintain the same functions as the original, but even supersede the original in certain desired qualities.'" He sighed, and threw down the papers. "I can't make any sense outta these!"

"It'll take us days to find any information we can use out of these notes..." Riku said with similar disappointment.

Kairi's frightened voice interrupted their search. "Sora! Riku! There's someone down here!"

The two immediately dropped the papers and sprinted out into the hall, where they were joined by Donald and Goofy. The sound of her voice led them to a room in the back; the entryway coated over with oil and frost—

Riku stopped cold. At the back of the laboratory was a massive ice pillar that seemed to sprout and grow all over the walls and ceiling as the flowered vines had done. But frozen in the center of the ice was a man. He was dressed in a long black coat, and had long, dirty blond hair.

The name finally came to him. "It's Vexen!"

Sora automatically drew the Keyblade, although there was no real need. "I thought you said all of the Organization members were gone!"

"I did. I don't know how..." Riku's voice fell. "He must've made a replica of himself. Like he did with me."

When Kairi walked closer to the ice prison, Sora put the Keyblade away. "Is he still alive?" she asked, circling him cautiously.

"I don't know." Riku moved closer to the pillar as well. The Vexen inside had his eyes closed, and could have been dead or sleeping for all he knew. But considering neither the Organization nor his replica had left bodies behind, he doubted it was the former.

"What should we do about him?" Goofy asked.

Donald quacked back, "Not let him out, that's for sure!"

"Yeah, the last thing we need is the Organization coming back," Sora said lowly.

Kairi and Riku backed off from the pillar. "I don't suppose you guys found anything better?" she asked.

"We found a lot of notes in the other room. They must be Vexen's records," Riku replied.

Sora added, "But they're all jumbled up! It's gonna take us a long time to sort through it and find anything useful."

"Well, that's what we came here for," King Mickey said with a nod. "So let's gather up all we can and get outta here. We can sort out his notes later."

"A-hyuck, not like he's gonna stop us," Goofy said with a nervous chuckle at the ice block.

"Right," Sora finished, and headed back towards the hallway. It looked like he was all too eager to get out of this place, and Riku couldn't blame him. He stole one last glance at the frozen form behind them...it looked like some unfinished museum display.

Why would he leave these pieces of himself behind?

TOCK

A heart, as Xehanort has so easily proven, is fragile and easily susceptible to darkness. Test subjects one through sixteen have all exhibited the same reaction when exposed to natural Heartless. Our tests with the emblems have thusfar revealed—

"Even, could you come help me with this?"

Even sighed at being interrupted in his note-taking. He put down the notebook and walked over to grab the other end of the large glass crate that Elaeus carried. Inside, something made flapping and squeaking noises. The two apprentices walked the crate over to a much larger holding pen, also glass. Clambering up the makeshift scaffolding, they hoisted the crate over a sliding trap door. Lining up the crate's opening with the larger pen's trap door, Elaeus first opened the crate, and then slid the trap door open—

"OH GOD PLEASE, NO, PLEASE DON'T—"

--The flapping, squeaking object from within the crate flew from its smaller confinement into the pen on purple bat-like wings, and then the door was shut again. The soundproof casings had been a good investment.

The apprentices stepped down the scaffolding as Xehanort observed their latest experiment: an emblem; a bat-like Heartless with a hook for a tail. Even grabbed back up the notebook to write down observations.

The Hookbat flapped around the pen's other occupant: a young man strapped down to a metal table. Although they couldn't hear him, the look on his face and the strain in his limbs indicated he was screaming. The Hookbat circled a few more times before driving its hook tail into its victim's chest. The man twitched for a few moments before something bright and pink floated free from his chest. The Heartless snatched up the freed heart in its flapping wings before it warped back into darkness. The discarded body soon followed, disappearing into nothing with what might have been a defeated sigh. With nothing for them to hold, the straps clanked loose onto the empty metal table.

Xehanort watched the scene before him with only mild interest. He had seen it before many times, to the point where it was almost tedious. And yet, every time there was a strange familiarity to it...one that didn't belong to these experiments.

"Subject reacted the same as all of the others," Even stated, scribbling something down in shorthand for later. "The subject was infused with a great amount of darkness, even more so than such a weak Heartless. But the Heartless was still able to overcome him."

"I thought we had already established that strength in darkness has little to do with strength in heart," Ienzo sighed, sounding impatient. "This randomized selection isn't working. We need to hand pick our subjects."

Xehanort answered him without turning around. "Master Ansem is already suspicious. The townsfolk are restless with so many missing. A pattern among the ones we take will only arouse them further."

"Then we'll have to be more prudent with who we choose next," Dilan said.

Mulling it over, Xehanort treaded away from the empty holding pen and back to the nearby hallway. The others kept pace aways behind him, waiting for some kind of confirmation. Along this hallway stood several makeshift pods; tubes and wires sprouting from the tops and joining together in a massive tangle in the ceiling. Within the pods stood more test subjects, all in various stages of "darkness infusion," as he called it. Most didn't move, but a few scratched at the glass with broken nails.

He hardly noticed. It had been difficult at first, when they first started collecting subjects. (Don't worry, this will be for everyone's benefit! For the good of the world! It's just a little prick. You'll be done before you know it.) But now his heart has grown used to it, and he could barely remember caring for such stock in the first place.

But others still complained; particularly Braig, in the back. "I'm starting to think we should just stick with what we have. Not get any more subjects for now."

Xehanort knew he shouldn't blame the man. Not after a week ago, when one of these very test subjects had escaped and scratched out his eye. But he did so anyway.

"And let all of this research go to waste?" he declared, turning to face them. "And let months' worth of work amount to nothing? Have us never truly know how the heart works?"

The apprentices backed off as his eyes seemed to glow brighter. Above, the lights flickered and died.

"No," Braig said with a dull swallow. "We'll find more."

The lights returned. Xehanort's face softened back into his closest thing to a smile. It was nice to give them a little reminder every now and then. "Of course we will. We'll just be more prudent."

He strode back into the main laboratory. Apparently still not satisfied, Ienzo caught up to him with more queries. "I still say that we would get better results if we were to try a different approach. With a heart greatly steeped in light instead of darkness."

"Perhaps..." he mused.

"Who would fulfill such a requirement?" Elaeus asked.

"That one young girl...even Master Ansem's heard reports about her, and is interested," Ienzo explained. "Dilan's been keeping an eye on her for awhile. If we brought her back here, we could—"

"NO."

Xehanort's voice echoed off the metal of the laboratory a few times, freezing the apprentices. The abruptness of it even startled him. He didn't know why, but for some reason, being reminded of that girl always made his heart ache. While he could watch men, women and children succumb to darkness made manifest, something about her ocean-blue eyes stirred a feeling in him that felt long forgotten. Perhaps a feeling never had to begin with. She's special, I know it. She's above this common rabble.

His voice soothed back over his previous outburst. "No. I have something else in mind for her."

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