Silver Linings

Chapter 4: I'm the Biggest Nobody of All.

A/N: Apologies for the extended delay, compared to other chapters. I was hoping I wouldn't fall back into the old habits so quickly...

I think I discussed the content of this chapter with most of my reviewers, so I'll just say that the NEXT chapter might jump ahead in the timeline a bit. I got several ideas for scenes taking place in late KH2. Of course, I might be able to shelve these scenes for the proper time, and I got an interesting comment regarding Gag Reels and Bad Ends to try and work with...

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

With Riku and Lambda...

Mickey led them to the mansion they'd seen in Castle Oblivion, although now the gate was wide open. Mickey charged past the fence and through the front door, which swung shut behind him before his friends finally caught up. Riku re-opened the door and let Lambda in before following. The interior of the mansion looked like it hadn't seen visitors in ages, and the last ones to come through had made the mess that monsters make. One door was completely inaccessible, a result of the frame and two nearby statues collapsing in front of it. Bits of rubble and cloth were strewn around the floor, and everything was covered in layers of dust. The only object in the atrium that didn't show signs of damage beyond the dust was a glass case in the very center, which contained what seemed to be a model of a castle. Behind that, two staircases symmetrically rose to the second floor, where they bent around the way Riku had come in to reach the two rooms with front facing windows.

Riku looked around for signs of Mickey, quickly spotting the disturbed dust from His Majesty's large shoes pounding through the room at full tilt. The tracks led to the side room across from the destroyed door, and Riku walked inside to see a dining room even worse off than the atrium. The table was the worst of the damage, having been smashed into multiple pieces by what looked like a single blow to the center of the tabletop. Whatever caused this damage would have needed inhuman strength, and Riku hoped he'd never be on the receiving end of such an assault. More importantly, Mickey was sitting in an old, high-backed chair on one side of the room, and DiZ was in a similar chair across from him. DiZ looked up, and frowned with disapproval at Riku and Lambda.

"Blast! This explains the increased activity from Organization XIII. Riku, I distinctly recall explaining to you that the cloak only masks you when the hood is worn. Put it on, now! They haven't found us yet, but they will soon if we don't throw them off the trail! We cannot allow them to discover this place!" DiZ had never raised his voice to this point before, so Riku and Lambda hurriedly responded to his urgency. Now with their identities properly concealed, they approached DiZ.

"Sorry. Is there anything we can do to distract the Organization?" Riku asked.

Lambda added, "Why do we want to avoid allowing them to find this place, anyway? It looks like a dump, no offense. Aren't there plenty of places to hide like this?"

"First, Lambda, this is where he is sleeping. I can't divulge more details than that, since the Organization could be listening even now. I trust you can deduce to whom I refer?"

"Affirmative." Of course. This was where DiZ and Namine were keeping Sora.

"Anyway, this mansion also holds much of my research into our enemies and my computer equipment, which will be necessary to complete my goals, and to wake him. This equipment is not portable; I can't simply move it to a new location now that it is installed. As for Riku's question, you'll need to find another world to make yourselves seen. It seems that the Organization is conducting a search for you in Beast's Castle, a world that should have passing familiarity to Riku, although he's never been there. Go there now, and give them evidence for the wrong conclusions. If you happen to eliminate a member of Organization XIII during your stay, so much the better." DiZ raised a hand, and created a Dark Corridor.

"A Dark Corridor? Merlin says I shouldn't use more than one of those per day. After what happened last time, I don't want to risk it again."

"I assume the 'last time' resulted in you wearing the blindfold? Now you know better than to try it with the hood down. With the hood and the blindfold, you shouldn't have too many problems. Go now, lest you endanger your friend." DiZ made a shooing motion, and Riku and Lambda stepped through.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

In Beast's Castle...

On the other end of the Corridor, Riku found himself breathing heavily. Lambda stepped through afterward, and the Corridor disappeared immediately. Lambda rushed to Riku's side and placed a hand on his shoulder until his breathing was back under control.

"Note to self," Riku muttered, "don't assume extra layers of cloth will stop the Darkness from acting up. Also, don't trust DiZ to know these things." Riku stood up straight, and glanced around.

Twilight Town was predominantly yellow and brown, bathed in the light of a perpetual sunset that gave the whole world a quaint, homey atmosphere. This place seemed to be locked in eternal night, with a gray and blue color scheme that washed away good feelings and replaced them with pointy gargoyles. The current area seemed to be a bridge, which led from a locked steel gate towards a large, imposing castle from which the world most likely got its name. The intimidating architecture prompted Lambda to scan for threats, but there were none. She scolded herself for getting scared of inanimate objects.

"It doesn't seem like there's anyone outside. Should we check the castle interior?" Lambda asked.

"Probably. We should keep a low profile. If the Beast in Beast's Castle is the same one I met in Hollow Bastion, he won't give us a warm welcome. We didn't leave each other on friendly terms." Riku had mocked the Beast's endeavors before leaving a deep gash on his chest that hadn't stopped the strangely strong-willed animal from ripping a path open for Sora to enter Hollow Bastion's own castle. The Beast likely still held a grudge against Riku for standing in his way. Riku explained this to Lambda quickly, and she agreed that caution would be required here.

They almost got a chance to try sneaking around the Castle, but before they could walk up the front steps, a short person in a Black Coat shoved the front door open and stumbled out. "No sign of the imposter... Sai'x won't like it. Still, I'd better RTC..." The voice was female, but no details about the person could be discerned through the Black Coat, save that she was definitely a member of Organization XIII. She took the first step down the stairs before noticing the quarry she was apparently assigned to track. "Ah! You... you're the imposter, aren't you?" Xion jumped sideways to level ground, landing on the side closer to Riku than Lambda.

"I'm a little annoyed you didn't notice there are two of us," Lambda called over Riku's shoulder.

"Two imposters? That doesn't match the info I got, but I guess it's true. Why are you pretending to be with our Organization?" The girl was clearly trying to sound threatening, but her voice quavered in fear. Riku wasn't sure whether Nobodies could fake emotion well enough to fail to mask fear with bravado like that. If she were faking, she would just have the bravado, without any fear underneath. The other Organization members Riku had seen (and eliminated) thus far had never displayed this depth of emotion.

"Scanning... Target is a Nobody. Confidence in assessment: 75%. Differences between target and known Nobodies are pronounced enough to suggest a new classification," Lambda reported.

"What are you talking about? Of course I'm a Nobody!" The Organization member seemed to be trying to convince herself more than Lambda. "Aren't I...?" And she was failing at it.

"I hear you've been looking for me," Riku called. He removed his hood. "Now that you've found me, what are you going to do?"

"I'll make sure you never wear our coat again. If you do so willingly, I won't have to use force...unless I receive orders to the contrary later..."

"That doesn't sound very convincing. I'm keeping the Black Coat; I'm not wearing it to look like your group," Riku informed the girl with total confidence.

"Target's threat level rated as A-tier. I don't think we'll have any trouble with you 'using force'." Lambda prepared to summon Murakumo, just in case, but made no move just yet.

"I don't have to take that from you! Who are you, anyway? Why do you talk like that? A-anyway, I'll show you trouble! I'm Xion, Number XIV in Organization XIII, and I'll make you pay for insulting me!" The girl thrust out her left hand, and a flash of blue-white Light heralded the summoning of...the Kingdom Key?! Riku seemed surprised, but unconcerned. He summoned Soul Eater and slid easily into his usual combat stance. Xion's reckless charge was effortlessly parried, and Riku knocked the Keyblade she somehow possessed out of her hands, spinning it up into the air to land next to her with a dull clang. Then he clocked her on the head with the hilt of his own blade, causing her to collapse.

"Well, that explains what was off about that Keyblade..." Riku mused as he walked away from his fallen foe, dismissing Soul Eater. Lambda hadn't sensed anything off about the weapon, so she was more confused than ever. However, she still noticed when Xion stumbled to her feet and yanked the Kingdom Key out of the ground. She charged at Riku with a wild yell that was decidedly less intimidating than it could be due to her high-pitched voice.

Riku didn't even re-summon his weapon. He spun gracefully around Xion's overhead slash, following the dodge with a hard elbow to the small of her back. Xion was sent sprawling over the pavement, and her Keyblade fell to the ground again next to her. Riku paced over to the fallen not-Nobody, and reached down to remove her hood. He chanced lifting the blindfold off of one eye, and gasped at whatever he'd seen of Xion's face.

As for Lambda, she hadn't actually seen the girl's face; it was blurred as though the gods had decided to censor the image before it reached Lambda's brain. That was definitely not normal.

Riku jerked back. "Who are you really? And why do you have a Keyblade?"

Xion only responded after pulling her hood back on. "Tell me first, why you are dressed as one of us." She was still stuck on that?

Riku turned away from her, towards the fallen Keyblade. "To make sure my best friend...sleeps in peace." Riku knelt down and picked up the Kingdom Key. He gave it a few experimental swings, and seemed satisfied that his original conclusions about the weapon held. It didn't pop back into Xion's hands, either. Riku continued talking as Xion grasped pitifully for the weapon beyond her reach. "I don't know who or what you're supposed to be...but you can't fight fire with sparks. This Keyblade, it's a sham...worthless." Riku tossed it over his shoulder like so much trash.

"My Keyblade is not a sham!" Xion growled. "What gives you the right to say that?"

Lambda spoke up. "Come on, he beat you unarmed, blindfolded, using only one elbow! The Keyblade is supposed to be a phenomenally powerful weapon. Where was that power for you? Maybe it's not just the Keyblade that's a sham here, Xion."

Xion's attempt to argue rationally failed as badly as everything else she'd done that day. "But...but you're the real shams!"

Riku paused. "Okay, I'll give you that. I guess you could say that we're the biggest Nobodies of them all. My advice: find a new crowd. Those guys are bad news." Riku didn't look back as he and Lambda wandered back towards the bridge. Behind them, they could hear Xion's wordless scream of anguish.

"Do you think I laid it on a little thick, Riku?" Lambda asked as they left Xion's earshot.

Riku flip-flopped his hand; it could go either way. "Maybe. She doesn't seem to fit with those other Organization members, so there might have been hope she'd defect eventually. Then there's that business with Xion being Number XIV, in an Organization numbered XIII. Why would they have that name if they were planning on having more members?"

"I guess I might have messed up any chance of getting her on our side, then... Sorry, Riku."

"Shouldn't you be saying, 'Sorry, Xion?' Anyway, did you see her face?"

"No. It was like someone blurred that part of her on purpose. I didn't know people could be censored like that outside of the media."

"Really? I just saw a girl who looked like Kairi with black hair. Weird; does she have some connection with Kairi?"

"If she does, it only shows for people who share that connection. I should probably be more empathetic with faceless minions... Sorry, Xion." Even if Xion couldn't hear Lambda say it by now. "Hey, Riku? Where do we go next? Should we camp here, or risk another Dark Corridor?" They'd come to the edge of the Beast's property, and were blocked by the sturdy gate.

Riku tapped his chin, weighing their options. "Well, we can't really spend the night outdoors; it looks like it's going to rain soon. On the other hand, using a Dark Corridor again so soon could be really bad for me. I think Xion already left through a Corridor of her own; I sensed one in the corner of that courtyard. So we could try and brave the Castle."

"What if we run into the Beast? Will he attack?"

"...Only if he sees us. I think he actually owns the Castle; if he does, he wouldn't go to the servants' quarters very often at all. We might be able to hide there." Lambda agreed that this was, if not a good plan, at least a workable one. She scanned the floor plan of the Castle from the front steps, and relayed to Riku that the servants' quarters were likely to be adjacent to the main entrance hall. The two made the relatively short trek without being seen.

"This is a really odd place," Lambda whispered as they skulked through a hallway lined with small, empty bedrooms. "I'm sensing a lot of living souls in this castle, but only one source of human life signs. I don't think the bulk of the people here are human. None of these gargoyles we keep passing are alive, but I picked up signs from inside one of the drawers two rooms back."

"In the drawers? What kind of intelligent creature sleeps in a drawer?" Riku wondered.

"Cats, for one, including intelligent cat beastkin from the Azure Timeline, but I don't think it's anything that mundane. We might be dealing with animated objects."

"Like that duster?" Riku pulled Lambda into a side room as a feather duster, which seemed to be dusting along the floor without the support of a hand, turned a corner to pass further ahead in the hall. The strangest part was the French accent the duster was singing to...herself in. "Yep, it's definitely the objects around here. How many of these things are actually people?" Was the bed safe to sleep in? Would animated-object servants even sleep in a bed? Was the bed itself another animated-object servant?

"Scanning... Zero results. No one's in this room but us. I think we can use this bed for the night."

"One bed for both of us...?" Riku wondered if this was heading where he thought it was heading.

"Not like that, Riku. We're keeping a low profile, remember? We can't afford to give our position away by doing anything on that bed other than sleeping."

"...Does that mean you'd be up for it if we weren't undercover?"

"...Maybe someday. There's no rush just yet." Lambda lightly bopped Riku on top of his head with the heel of her palm, then kissed his cheek. "No hard feelings? We really should get to sleep, though."

"Yeah. I'm beat." Riku made sure to return the kiss, then flopped into bed. He scooted over to make room for Lambda, and the two fell into a mercifully uninterrupted sleep for the first time in almost a month.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Meanwhile, in Twilight Town (currently seven hours ahead of standard Heart Timeline time; this would be tomorrow from Riku's reference point)...

Xion wandered through town, searching for the giant Heartless that Sai'x had called a Veil Lizard. The Organization's taskmaster had not been pleased that Xion had found the imposters, but had been unable to dispatch them. She got the feeling that the only reason she hadn't been terminated or turned into a Dusk then and there was because they still needed her Keyblade. Roxas had just woken up, though, so she needed to make herself doubly useful to the Organization before they decided she was just another liability. It was twisted, it was wrong, but it was her life. She had to prove she could kill this Heartless on her own, for her own safety.

A squad of Yellow Operas formed in front of her, providing her with an opportunity to benefit the Organization in the interim. She just had to slay these pests with her Keyblade...

No response. Xion tried again, and again. No good! Why had the Keyblade deserted her? Was it somehow mad at her for believing those imposters, even for a moment? Had it been destroyed when it disappeared yesterday? Where was it?!

Xion was forced to ward off the Heartless with Fire and Blizzard spells, thankful that she was a good caster, at least. However, the hearts released on the monsters' demise only floated up so far before they angled back down into another part of Twilight Town. Without the Keyblade, killing the Heartless could only be a temporary fix, one that would not benefit the Organization in any way.

"Am I...? I really am useless now..." Well, she couldn't RTC without destroying the Veil Lizard, and she couldn't destroy the Veil Lizard without her Keyblade. She'd have to lie low in Twilight Town until she could get her Keyblade back...however long it took.

Xion stumbled into the tunnels underneath Twilight Town, wondering why she deserved this much trouble.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

A/N: I could use a few reasons to bring in people or scenes from the Azure Timeline. Any ideas you'd like to see written? Tell me in the reviews!