Unusual Things
Riku snapped awake, lingering visions of flames and bloodstained cobblestone dancing before him. Again, he made that quick look to the side to confirm that Cloud was still there, alive and well, as he controlled his panicked breath.
Willing his body to relax, he stared at the ceiling. It was that same damned dream… He had hoped that by working himself to exhaustion, he would simply be too tired to dream but that had not worked.
With a heavy sigh, Riku sat up and left the bed. He crossed the room, retrieving his discarded boxers and pulling them on. Slipping out the door, he padded silently down the hall.
Moonlight streamed through the large bay window on the far wall of the living room. His sketchbook lay on the flat cushion of the window seat, pencil stuffed into the wire binding. He eyed it for a moment before picking it up and moving it to the coffee table.
Climbing onto the seat, Riku pressed his head against the chilled glass. He wrapped his arms around his bent knees and studied the street outside. It was absolutely still on the other side of the window.
In his mind's eye, the quiet street slowly morphed into the one from the nightmare. He forced the vision back, closing his aqua eyes tightly. Something that almost felt like a caress brushed against his consciousness and he was strangely comforted despite the unsettled feeling that came with it.
He did not know what was causing the nightmare or these odd, almost loving, whispers of touch that had started grazing his awareness occasionally at nearly the same time as the dreams. He knew that it was not he himself carrying out the terrible actions in the dreams and that soothing female voice was not speaking to him. It was almost as if he had somehow been dropped within another's body and was simply along for the ride.
Who was this person?
Opening his eyes, he sighed and left the window seat. He got himself a bottle of water from the kitchen and returned to the bedroom. Setting the bottle on the nightstand, he looked down upon the bed.
Cloud lay in his usual position, sound asleep. It was troubling that the man seemed to be completely unaware of Riku's recent bout of nightmares. He had known of the ones prior, usually walking up along with Riku on the increasingly rare occasions he had them.
Riku slid back into bed, shifting close enough to his lover to feel the faint heat of his body. Careful not to disturb Cloud's slumber, he draped his arm across the older man's hip. He still was not entirely sure why he took so much comfort in skin-on-skin contact.
Cloud stirred a little, a faint smile tugging at his lips. He moved his own arm to rest it directly beside Riku's own. Peace settled within Riku's heart and he knew that for the rest of this night at least, he would be able to sleep. He would worry about the next night later.
--0—0—
Riku awoke alone and for a moment, an unreasonable panic seized him. He forced himself to calm down, telling himself that he would know if something happened to Cloud. Willing his mind to still, he thought about what the blonde's presence felt like.
He sighed and relaxed against the pillows when he felt Cloud approaching. The door slowly opened and the older man slipped in, a light smile on his face. Riku grinned back. "I can't believe you woke up before me."
Cloud shrugged. "Stranger things have happened."
"Very true…"
Cloud climbed onto the bed, sitting on his knees beside his younger lover. Blue eyes gazed down with a touch of concern. "Are you all right?"
Riku frowned a little, "Yeah, why?"
"Don't know." The blonde shrugged again. "I know you haven't been sleeping well."
Riku smiled reassuringly. He really did not want Cloud to worry. "The last couple of nights have been a bit restless but I'm fine. It's just the stress from dealing with that damned computer."
Cloud nodded, still a bit uncertain. Apparently he had noticed more than Riku originally thought. He at least recognized that something was off.
Riku reached out and took hold of Cloud's arm. He tugged on it, pulling the older man down. Cloud braced one hand on the mattress as his head dropped to meet with Riku's silvered one. The teen engaged him in a long, lingering kiss.
With obvious reluctance, Riku broke the contact. In a breathy voice, he commented, "We should get moving."
"I thought we were."
Riku smirked and gently shoved Cloud's shoulder. The blond grinned and climbed off the bed. Riku followed a moment later. Cloud was already dressed and headed for the kitchen to make fresh coffee, one of the few household things he could be trusted to accomplish without incident. Riku decided to forgo a shower, grabbing some clothes and doing a quick clean up in the bathroom.
He met Cloud in the kitchen, taking the mug of coffee offered to him gratefully. They each ate a muffin and once they finished with breakfast, the couple headed out to Ansem's study. The few people milling about the marketplace greeted them cheerfully.
Riku felt an odd stirring within his chest in reaction. He nodded and waved back automatically; for some reason, the townspeople were irritating to him. He just wanted them to leave him alone-
Filthy humans.
The silver-haired teen's steps faltered. He quickly glanced around but the only person near him was Cloud. The words had been a bare whisper, something he was not even sure he actually heard. There was something achingly familiar about the voice.
"Riku?" asked Cloud in a soft tone.
"I'm fine." Even Riku realized how reflexive the statement was. He began walking again, Cloud quickly falling into place beside him. Both remained quiet for the rest of the journey to the castle.
Zack was already in the computer room, both arms tangled up in wires. He glanced over and, upon seeing the smirk on Cloud's face, scowled. "Don't even start, Spike."
"Sometimes I'm glad I'm incompetent." The blond grinned. He just managed to jump away from the kick Zack launched at him. "I've got to get over to the courtyard before Leon gets too pissed at me."
Riku nodded and the couple exchanged a brief kiss. Cloud touched his cheek for a moment before heading back out. Zack watched this quietly and once Cloud left, he quirked a black eyebrow at Riku. "What's going on?"
The teen gave him a look feigning incomprehension. Before Zack could call him on it, Riku turned toward the computer. Now that he was here, he wanted to get back to that strange program he had found yesterday.
He stopped before the unit and noticed it was already up and running. "Was Leon or Cid in here this morning?"
"Nope, why?"
"The computer's on."
Zack looked up. "Did you forget to shut it off?"
"It should have shut down on its own." Riku slid into the chair and tapped a few keys. The system snapped out of sleep mode and Riku narrowed his eyes. It was still trying to decode the mystery program. Frowning, he stopped his program and stared at the strangely coded file.
Whatever the program that he had found was, it clearly did not belong here.
Riku began trying various other things to get the program to respond but it reacted to nothing. He was beginning to think it was some kind of sleeper program, but he could not discern how it was triggered. In addition, it did not seem to be connected to any other program in the network.
A hand touched his shoulder and just by the touch, he knew who it was. "Is it lunch already?"
"Yeah," Cloud massaged where Riku's shoulder and neck met. "Something must really have your attention for you to lose track of time like that."
Riku let his head fall to the side, enjoying Cloud's light contact. "One of the programs I found is being difficult. It isn't anything that you would understand."
"Oh," The blond was clearly disinterested. "So do you want to stay here and keep at it or go out for lunch?"
Riku angled his head back and looked up. He studied the older man from his upside-down vantage. "You want to go out?"
"Yeah; we haven't been out alone together in a while." Cloud smiled gently, bending down to place a kiss on the teen's forehead. "We're always going out with Zack and Aerith."
Riku lifted his head and turned in his chair. He stood up, set the computer on stand-by and stepped over to his lover. He wrapped his arms around Cloud's waist. "So where are we going?"
--0—0—
An hour later, Riku was resting his head on Cloud's leg in the park. Cloud was sitting against a tree looking over the small stream that ran through the area. Riku's eyes were closed as the blond idly ran his fingers through Riku's lengthy silver hair.
Riku suddenly sighed. "Do we have to go back already?"
"Man, how do you do that?" Zell shook his head as he and Leon approached. "We're still like ten feet away."
A gust of wind tugged at their clothes and flitted through their hair. Leon and Zell finished their approach and Leon folded his arms. "If it makes you feel better, you both can have tomorrow off."
An aqua colored eye cracked open. "What are you making us do?"
The sable-haired man smirked. "Now why do you automatically assume I'm going to make you do something?"
"You came all the way out here to find us and you're giving us tomorrow off." Riku frowned. "You're making us help Zack, aren't you?"
"The whole damn thing is a bigger nightmare than any of us ever believed." Leon pinched the bridge of his nose. "I just want it done."
Riku blew out an angry breath as he quickly sat up. "…And so now I have to fix the damn problem."
The other three looked at him oddly. This just bothered him further. "What?'
Leon frowned. "You can say no. I'm not forcing anyone to do anything."
"Its fine," Riku waved casually, all sign of his prior anger gone. "Come on, Cloud."
He took his lover's hand and pulled him up. He gave him a light smile and nodded at the other two. They walked down the hill and Riku pretended he did not feel Leon's eyes on his back.
Cloud was glancing at him also. He ignored that as well, simply holding on to the man's hand. Why had he gotten so angry just now? That was not like him at all. He enjoyed working on the restoration. It made him happy to know that he was doing something to repair some of the damage he had helped create.
They returned to the Heartless Manufactory where Zack and Cid were already planning a new strategy. Riku finally released Cloud and joined them at the railing. Cloud hung back a bit, knowing that at this stage of things he would just be in the way.
After fifteen minutes of discussion, Riku moved away. He went over to Cloud and caressed his cheek. "Go downstairs with Zack and Cid. They'll tell you what to do."
"Got it."
Riku grinned at him and headed for the computer room. He hunched down to begin messing with the pulled apart secondary power grid and paused. Glancing over his shoulder, he straightened back out and went to the computer.
He switched it out of stand-by and stared at that strange program. It was really beginning to bother him that he could not figure it out. He bit his lip in thought. There had to be some way to open the thing.
"Hey, Tron...?" Riku almost never interacted with the computer's artificial intelligence. He was not sure why, but he did not like working with Tron. After the first few attempts, they had both come to the conclusion that Riku was more than capable of working the system on his own and Tron would only step in when asked.
An electronic male voice replied. "Yes, User Riku?"
"You know anything about this program that I've got in ISO?"
There was a moment of silence. "It is not one of the original system files. It appears to exist outside the grid."
Riku sighed. He had already concluded that. "Can you compile everything you can find on when the program was added? Who was it added under, what else was done around that time?"
"Of course, User Riku; it will take some time."
"That's fine. It's going to be a while before I can get back to it," Riku assured him. He turned back to torn up panel and paused. "Hey, Tron...?"
"Yes?"
"Thanks."
"You're welcome, User Riku."
It took an hour for Riku to get the motherboard re-routed and stripped down to the basic requirements. He adjusted the settings and waited. A minute later, a single light blinked and the teen grinned.
They had concluded that the main network had a failsafe in which if the secondary system went down, it would lock out the main. Now that the secondary was back up, Cid should be able to deactivate the main system. Once that was complete, they could tackle re-deactivating the secondary.
He headed for the entrance to see what he could do down there but stopped and turned. "Tron…? Find anything yet?"
"The program is completely independent of the DTD or the rest of the system. It was added five years ago and was the only thing added within five cycles before or after. The User's name was erased."
Riku lifted an eyebrow and returned to the computer terminal. "Do you have any idea what that person could have been trying to do?"
"No, though after examining the program I am of the belief that it is a copy, not the original."
"So someone was storing a back-up copy." Riku frowned. That did not feel right.
"The program has not been accessed in three years but in the two before that, it was opened almost daily. Again the User's name was deleted."
Now that was interesting. Whoever was using this program had stopped coming here about the time the Heartless took over Radiant Garden. His first thought was that it had belonged to, or was made by, one of Ansem's apprentices but if that were the case, wouldn't Organization XIII have tried to get it?
This was getting strange.
"One other thing I was able to ascertain: There is a code embedded beneath the locks and access codes."
"What is it?"
"Project J/S-1."
"Hey, Riku!" Zack's voice drifted from the Manufactory. "You joining us or what? Spike's getting lonely!"
Riku pursed his lips. He was going to have to come back to this later. He thanked Tron and asked him to file the information. Standing, he kept his eyes fixed on the innocent looking program icon on the screen.
After a minute, he pulled his gaze away and headed out of the room.
