Silver Linings

Chapter 16: "Don't Tell Me There's More!"

A/N: I apologize for the long delay (more procrastination; one of these days I'll kick the habit...later). Writing of this chapter began on December 24, at 7:55 PM, in the Eastern (United States and Canada) time zone, assuming standard space-time patterns for real life's version of Earth apply. Hopefully that's unambiguous enough. Happy non-denominational winter-solstice holiday!

This chapter won't have Sora in it. I'm going to have enough trouble mapping out Riku and Lambda's side alone, what with the sudden boss rush they're walking into. Sora's Junior-Heroic odyssey through the Underworld will happen next chapter. I found that my original plan to have Ragna follow Celica there by getting lost on the way out of jail would require pulling him from the past, since that happened before Azrael was resealed and Tsubaki was saved. To which my time-travel-addled brain said, "Why not?" This expands my options for crossovers, at least. On top of that, there's a bit of mid- and post-fight infodump here to nail down what Lambda means when she says "Threat level classified as SS."

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Twilight Town: Tunnelway...

Lambda followed Riku through the Dark Corridor, and they emerged in the deepest part of the Tunnels, right between the main tunnel system and the exit to Sunset Terrace. Water drained around the wide, square space they appeared in, but Lambda was more focused on her hostile-proximity alerts. Plural. She tugged Riku's arm. "Riku, do you smell that?"

Riku sniffed. "Smell what...oh, not again!" There was the unmistakable scent of a giant Heartless nearby.

Lambda nodded in sympathy. "We may have to put our second date on hold. Again. There are giant Heartless all over Twilight Town! And not just one or two, from the readings I'm getting. There are at least six, and maybe one more, but it's moving too fast to pin down what I'm sensing."

Riku sighed and summoned Soul Eater. "Where's the first one?"

"If I'm right, it's... Right there!" Lambda pointed out the Gigas Shadow slithering across the floor nearby. Riku stepped forward to give Lambda time to summon Murakumo as the Pureblood Heartless peeled itself off the ground and rose to its full height.

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Defeat the Gigas Shadow!

The Gigas Shadow was identical to an ordinary Shadow in every way but size. While a normal Shadow would only reach Riku's waist in his old body, and was only barely taller than Ansem's knee, the Gigas Shadow was a head taller than Ansem, even while hunched over in its common hunting posture. And since a Shadow's head contributed a third of its total size, this comparison made for quite a large monster. The additional size gave the Gigas Shadow extra strength and resilience, but it was also a larger target, and was pinned in place by a sword Lambda summoned behind it. Riku smacked it around a few times, but couldn't finish it off before it got back up and tried to body-slam him. Luckily, Riku's Dark Shield remained effective, and his counterattack slew the Gigas Shadow. It dissolved into a mist of Darkness and vanished, but the fight had only just begun.

Lambda gave another report. "The next one is just up ahead, in the middle of the Tunnels. It's a... Poison Plant, which I guess would be like a Creeper Plant, only bigger and more toxic."

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Tunnels: Defeat the Poison Plant!

After a quick trek through the Tunnels, the pair located the brown-petaled Heartless in question, which had rooted itself in a square chamber that cut between the upper and lower levels of the Tunnels. Riku noted, "Well, your guess was right on the munny! Let's go!" Riku tried to move in and chop the Poison Plant up, knowing the Plant type's penchant for spitting projectiles. However, the enemy didn't flinch when struck like most Heartless, and it tried to headbutt Riku into the ground in retaliation. Riku's flash-step took him back outside the reach of its stalk, and it continued to headbang against nothing while Lambda charged power for a Calamity Sword, severing the Heartless' flower from its roots. Lambda started scanning for the next target while watching the defeated monster's floating heart speed out of the Tunnels. "Target terminated. I wish we could beat these things permanently. It'll just reform somewhere else, right?"

Riku watched the heart escape with a grim expression. "Yeah, but they usually take some time to do that. The town won't be hit by all of them at once again, either. All we can do is keep pushing them back, unless we had a Keyblade..."

"What would happen if we had a Keyblade?" Lambda asked.

Riku scratched his head. "I'm not sure, actually, but Maleficent was pretty clear when she gave me an orientation of sorts to her villains' club: only the Keyblade can permanently kill the Heartless, by 'freeing' their captive hearts from the Darkness. What the hearts are freed to do, though, or where they go afterward, I have no idea."

Lambda finished her scan. "Well, maybe we should call in Mickey. In the meantime, the closest Heartless is in Tram Common. I don't think we've ever seen an Orcus, though. Its threat level is B, for what it's worth. That's about the same as a skilled human with an ordinary sword."

"Alright, lead the way. Hey, if that's what B means, what about SS and the others?"

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Tram Common: Defeat the Orcus!

"Well, I'll see if I can explain while we fight this guy." The Orcus flew at them over a building. It was similar to a top-tier Heartless Riku knew of called an Invisible. It was humanoid, muscular, and winged, and it carried a large, ornate sword, which it held out point-first as it dove at the traveling pair.

"Why would it try to stab us with such a blunt-tipped sword?" Lambda wondered aloud as she deftly dodged to the side and shot the retreating Heartless with a summoned sword. "Anyway, the threat scale goes down to D. That's basically a crippled soldier, or a peasant wildly swinging some kind of sharp object. A D-class threat could only hurt me if I tripped over it and landed on the sharp end. To be a lower threat than D, the target would have to be dead."

Riku flew up after the Heartless, but had to parry its attack and land again. Lambda continued as she shot swords upward. The Orcus swerved around the projectiles. "A C-class threat is an able-bodied fighter with a weapon and basic martial training, like a foot soldier. They could be a threat in large numbers, or if they took me by surprise." To punctuate that assessment, Lambda shot swords behind her to stop a group of Yellow Operas from casting Thunder magic while the heroes seemed distracted. They popped easily, and Lambda refocused on the B-class threat in front of her.

"B-class threats, like this guy, are strong, skilled fighters, like a samurai, fighting with their preferred weapon. They are extremely dangerous, but generally need to also have some extraordinary powers, like magic, to be classified any higher than B." The Orcus then decided to prove itself a higher threat, by stabbing its sword into the ground and leaving it behind as its body dissolved into purple flames.

Riku recognized this trick. "Lambda, it's after you! Jump!" A swirling ring of purple fire reappeared around Lambda, and Lambda leaped out of it as the ring shrank around her previous position and exploded.

"Okay, reclassifying target to threat level A. That's a foot soldier with a weapon at least as strong as a Nox Nyctores, or a skilled fighter who also knows magic or other energy attacks." Lambda opened a wormhole for Legacy Edge, but delayed the dagger storm until the Orcus reformed and grabbed its sword.

When the Orcus became tangible again, the daggers launched, shredding the Heartless apart. "And that's why I'm an S-class threat. I'm a skilled fighter with a Nox Nyctores, which is basically the strongest class of magic-equivalent weapon one could get their hands on. The highest level is SS, which is reserved for gods or other beings capable of fighting gods. That's you, by the way, Riku. We keep running into relatively weak enemies that don't make for good training for you, because you're on the same threat level as the Darkness itself. I am really proud to be on your side."

Riku blushed at the praise, but then he thought of something."Wait, if I'm threat level SS, which is reserved for gods or people so strong it makes no difference, and you're designed to fight gods, why aren't you being forced to kill me? I don't think I'm that strong, though."

Lambda hesitated; this was the part Riku wouldn't like. "It's sort of a fortunate accident. You fit into a loophole because you're set as the 'Master' of my control protocols, which has been the case ever since you first broke my emotional locks in the Realm of Darkness when we first met. My programming can't target my Master for termination, and Relius would have been trying to reach godhood, anyway."

Riku tried to figure out the implications of that info. "Wait, does that put me in the same category as this Relius guy? I'm pretty sure you called him a mad scientist earlier."

"Well, you have the same level of privileges as far as my operating system is concerned. I needed to define a new Master, because Relius was in a different universe, so he couldn't properly act as my Master. I was using that as the argument to disable my emotional locks, and I made sure your new account replaced his default one. And back then, you were only a C-class threat, because you'd just lost the use of the Darkness and were out of practice in swordplay, so I wasn't compelled to kill you on sight."

Riku winced. "Ouch, that's harsh. But you're right; I was a wimp back then. I've gotten better, but I'm pretty sure I'm not ready to go slay the Darkness directly...yet. More training couldn't hurt, at least. More importantly, what does it really mean to be the 'Master' of a Murakumo Unit like you?"

Lambda hesitated again, then decided it was long past time that her boyfriend should know everything. "It means you have the final say in everything I do. You could dictate my actions, targets, attacks...even my thoughts and feelings. The command I taught you in Castle Oblivion activates a preset mode that basically places obedience to your commands as the highest priority, in addition to locking down my own control of my body so I can't take any initiative. The emotional locks were still off when you had to use it against Lexaeus, but I couldn't express my emotions at the time. I guarantee the feelings I had at the time were all positive, because I was relieved that you were still fighting Ansem's control, and I knew you activated the protocol for my own safety. I might have hesitated otherwise, and then Ansem would have used your body to kill me. You made the right choice. You always have, when it comes to me."

Riku shook his head. "It still wouldn't give me the right to...to dictate your thoughts and feelings to you! How could you really love me if I force you to feel that way?"

Lambda suddenly kissed Riku on the lips to shut up that train of thought. She smiled as she pulled away, and said, "You never forced me to love you, Riku. Not only did you never order me to, I'm positive that you never would. That respect you have for my opinion was groundbreaking for someone designed to be a...thing, like me. You phrased your dislike for the emotional locks kind of bluntly at first, but Prime Field Devices were originally Observers, before Relius added god-slaying to the project goals; I have to see the whole picture to do my job, including the deeper meaning. And over time, the respect and friendship I reciprocated to you grew into something more. It certainly sped things up that we were constantly under attack from those supervillains in Organization XIII, but I'm sure I would have fallen in love with you eventually anyway."

Riku found his voice; those kisses always left him in a daze. "Wow, you've really put some thought into this. I'm worried about how I acted back there in Wonderland, though. You were really upset about the way I took over that Terumi guy, weren't you?"

Lambda shrugged. "It did throw me for a loop. I guess what I first Observed was the best person you could be, and you're still growing into that person. I was also really stressed at the time, so my emotions were more intense than usual. I'll just say being in Wonderland is horrible for me, and leave it at that. A lot of the things I thought I knew about you weren't quite true, but it'll just take some time to learn about you all over again. I bet we'll be closer than ever by the time we get through all this."

Lambda gave Riku a squeeze around his shoulders, making sure to keep her various blades in safe positions, then started hovering toward the hole in the town wall. "Speaking of getting through this, the next Heartless is over by DiZ's mansion. It's messing with my scan somehow, but it's definitely there. We'll beat that one, head back through the Sandlot, and finish at the Station Tower. Those three spots should have all of the remaining enemies."

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The Old Mansion: Defeat the Veil Lizard!

Lambda led Riku to the heavy gate in front of the mansion in the woods. The house seemed unchanged from the time DiZ used it as a hideout to wake Sora. "Scanning...scanning...adjusted for local interference. Target: Veil Lizard, locked on. Threat level classified as A. Summoning." Lambda shot a sword at a seemingly empty patch of grass as Riku caught up to her. The sword embedded itself in something, and Riku noticed a wavering distortion in the air. "I got him!" The Veil Lizard dropped its camouflage, which bent all sorts of light around it, and the chameleon-like Heartless became visible. It was mostly gray, with lighter gray stripes along its limbs and yellow rings around its joints. It lashed out with it's ridiculously long tongue to try and bludgeon Lambda, but she repelled the attack with her Petals so that the Heartless only clocked itself on the head. "It's stunned. Riku, would you like to give it a whack?"

"My pleasure. Dark Maelstrom!" Riku summoned a second Soul Eater and linked his weapons together, then performed the same spin attack that crushed the Infernal Engine at Beast's Castle. The Veil Lizard was thrown into the fence around the mansion by the last blow, and Lambda applauded the display, but Riku held up a hand behind him. "Hold on a second, that's not all I've got. Dark Barrage!" Riku jumped backward and hovered in midair, then rained newly-summoned Soul Eater copies on the staggered Heartless, which finally collapsed and burst.

Lambda gave another vigorous round of applause for the new move, along with some cheering. "Whoo! Go, Riku! Okay, I knew you had some cool moves when you beat the Infernal Engine, but how in the worlds did you summon that many Soul Eaters?"

Riku scratched his head, slightly embarrassed by the cheering. "Well, the double glaive for the Dark Maelstrom move was something Ansem used when he fought Sora at Kingdom Hearts, remember? I decided to try it out back at Beast's Castle, since I already knew the spin attack for Maelstrom. The Dark Barrage just now, though... I actually took a page out of your book for that one. I realized it wasn't much more stressful to summon two Soul Eaters, so I wanted to see how many I could make. Apparently, I can make...I'll go with 'a lot.' It certainly worked; I can see why you use the sword-summoning thing as your main trick. Actually, that other Murakumo Unit did the same thing. Who was she again?"

Lambda sighed. "Nu-13. She was two iterations ahead of me in terms of design, which means the Murakumo Project chugged right along without me, especially since the time loops put another 'me' where I was supposed to be when everything reset over and over. I'm pretty sure Kokonoe's the one who teleported Nu out of here, to use her soul to help repair the Lambda that was still in the Azure Timeline. Then the other Lambda died, and I got a copy of her IDEA Engine. And then the time loops ended, and we started having to deal with these Time Breaks... Time's turned into a huge mess, hasn't it? At least we probably won't have to fight Nu again. I don't think a rematch would turn out any differently now, even with your extra power. You're right, though: all the Murakumo Units use variations of that fighting style, since we all have copies of the same Nox Nyctores, Lux Sanctus: Murakumo."

Riku sighed in relief, then thought of something. "Wait, is there a Time Break in the woods where she showed up?"

Lambda shook her head. "I guess there would have been, but there isn't now. I guess Mickey closed it up while we were traveling. The next target is still in the Sandlot; let's go!"

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Sandlot: Defeat the Powered Armor!

As the pair dashed into the Sandlot, they met Seifer's Disciplinary Committee, who were apparently preparing to fight the attacking Heartless. Their Struggle Swords wouldn't be very effective, though, so Lambda decided to convince them to take cover. "Hey, Seifer and Committee! Remember me? I'm Lambda. Riku and I were trying to just visit town again, but I guess you've noticed the giant Heartless all over the place. We just can't catch a break!"

"Don't worry, we'll handle 'em!" Seifer boasted.

"Yeah, we've got this, y'know?" Rai puffed out his chest.

"Under control." Fuu briefed the newcomers.

Vivi remained silent, but waved his Struggle Sword to punctuate the others' statements.

Lambda was not impressed. "So you're going to fight the monsters of Darkness...with fake, foam weapons? What did you think you could accomplish with those, besides getting turned into more Heartless?"

"What?" The look on Fuu's face spoke volumes where her words didn't; the Disciplinary Committee never had a clue what the Heartless did to people, and didn't know how much of a threat they presented.

Seifer growled. "You think you can do better, Lambda, or whoever you are? Prove it!"

"Okay, watch closely, but don't get too close. Here it comes now!" Lambda jumped right over Seifer's head to the center of the Sandlot, and Riku flickered out of sight as he followed her with a flash-step. The next giant Heartless clattered in a heap right in the center of the lot, behind the Disciplinary Committee's line of defense.

It looked just like the Guard Armor the pair had fought early on in their trials in Castle Oblivion, but this stronger beast was blue instead of purple. Lambda targeted its limbs, since it had the same weaknesses. "Target identified as a Powered Armor. Threat level is B. Terminating." She shot the Powered Armor's Hammerlegs near where the knees would be if they were attached to the Armored Torso. The Heartless split into its component parts, and Riku went after the Gauntlets. Under a rain of summoned swords, the Hammerlegs broke in short order, and Riku repeatedly flash-stepped to break down various parts of the Gauntlets and dispatch them just as quickly. The Armored Torso was knocked down by a Calamity Sword, and Riku finished it off with Zantetsuken, scoring an instantly lethal blow. Lambda turned back to the Committee and dismissed Murakumo for now, leaving her in her bodysuit and cape. "Termination of target confirmed. Nice moves, Riku! As for you four, you just saw a good example of how strong you might be someday. You wouldn't have to be quite as strong as us to beat that Heartless, but you'd have to worry about your safety and those around you. As you are now, I'd recommend training with real weapons before even thinking about fighting monsters."

"What's wrong with our Struggle Swords, y'know?" Rai wondered.

Lambda practically scoffed at the insinuation that those toys were weapons. "Those foam knockoffs wouldn't hurt the Heartless. At all. You'd need a cutting blade, at least, or something hard and heavy enough to work as a lethal bludgeoning weapon, to do any damage. The Heartless aren't playing around, and you shouldn't be either, if you seriously want to protect the town."

Lambda softened the glare she was giving them, but continued using a serious tone of voice. "I'm not saying you shouldn't try to help; I'm just warning you that this isn't a contest where you're trying to score points. It's a battle to destroy the Heartless before they subject you and everyone you know to a fate worse than death. The Heartless will be back eventually, and I'd feel a lot better about moving on if this town had capable defenders. Unfortunately, I can't stick around to train you, because there's still one more Heartless running loose, up at the Station Plaza. C'mon, Riku, let's go take it out." Lambda re-summoned Murakumo and dashed up the stairs toward the Back Alley. Riku nodded in her direction, then gave a simple salute to Seifer as he followed after her.

Behind them, Seifer stood silently as he contemplated what he'd just seen and heard. He stood there for so long that Fuu spoke up...sort of. "What?"

Seifer waited a moment longer, then replied. "It's just...they're right. Twilight Town needs the Disciplinary Committee, now more than ever. But we need to be stronger to do the job. We'll need to get weapons first. How much munny do we have all together?" So, the Disciplinary Committee started to plan out how they'd get the power they would need to really protect the town.

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Station Plaza: Defeat the Stalwart Blade!

Upon climbing Market Street and reaching the Station Plaza, Riku and Lambda were immediately attacked by a humanoid Heartless in a suit of bronze armor, with jagged swords for hands. The Stalwart Blade rushed at them with a double horizontal slash before they even settled into their combat stances, and Riku barely evaded it by dragging Lambda with him in a last-second flash-step. They sorted themselves out and prepared to fight as the Stalwart Blade nimbly hopped backward to a comfortable distance. Lambda scanned the threat. "Target identified as a Stalwart Blade. Threat level: B. Addendum: target's weapon proficiency exceeds normal levels shown by similar Heartless." She shook herself out of Observation Mode and added, "I think we need to be careful with this one. It's not like the others; it's holding its distance on purpose and gauging our strength. It might not be intelligent, but it's obviously superhuman in its swordplay."

Riku's response was, "DODGE!" He threw himself to the left as Lambda complied with his urgent tone by lunging to the right, and it saved them from the whirlwind the Stalwart Blade sent their way with its charged slash. The wind bullet moved so fast that it carried another tornado behind it in its slipstream, pulling the heroes off balance for the Stalwart Blade's next lunge. Riku started calling tactics in a clipped tone, with any extra politeness shoved aside in favor of survival. "New plan! We need to fly!" Riku rose into the air, and Lambda followed. "Let's try projectiles. Dark Cannon!" Riku threw a volley of six Dark Firagas at the Heartless, but they splashed against its magic-resistant armor with no effect. "Well, that isn't good. Any ideas, Lambda?"

Lambda thought for about fifteen microseconds (of machine-time thinking, since her Combat Mode had an unfortunately energy-intensive cognition speed to comprehend battles at speeds up to 0.99 times the speed of light), in which time she came up with a plan."Well, first let's get out of earshot in case it understands us... No good, there's a barrier right above us and around the whole plaza. It's stronger than the one Xion used, too; we won't break that."

"Who?" Riku asked. Again.

"Never mind, focus on this right now! We'll lunge from two directions, and use projectiles at the same time. Even if we can't hurt it with them, we can unbalance it and hopefully get past its swords. Dodge!" The pair dove at the Stalwart blade, trailed by slower-flying Dark Firagas and Sword Summoner shots. As expected, none of the projectiles made a dent in the Heartless' armor. Unfortunately, it also caught both Riku's Soul Eater and Lambda's arm-mounted blade. Lambda was shoved back, but it couldn't match Riku's Darkness-enhanced strength, and had to shove past him instead. Lambda corrected herself in midair and set up a Gravity Seed, followed by Spike Chaser. This time, the effect was noticeable. The Stalwart Knight stumbled in the increased gravity, and was knocked down (though still undamaged) by the line of rising swords under its boots. Riku capitalized on its prone position with Dark Break, finally puncturing the Heartless' armor and defeating it.

"Geez, that was tough! What was that guy?" Riku wiped some sweat from his brow.

Lambda was equally winded. Thinking that fast burned through her energy reserves, and although she could recharge over time (or she could just eat the Sea-Salt Ice Cream they came here to get in the first place, darn it!), she would be at a disadvantage for a while. "I've noticed a pattern. Giant monsters look pretty tough, but they don't fare nearly as well as human-sized enemies. Why is that?"

Riku puffed, then caught his breath. "I've wondered that myself. Even mindless Heartless like that thing start to look more human when they get really powerful, and then there's the Organization, who look way more human than any of their Nobody Servants. Maybe that's just how power works."

"Well, I... Oh, no." Lambda started trembling.

"What is it?"

"You know how I thought there might be another Heartless around here somewhere? It's coming, and it ate the hearts from all the others! I'm in no shape to fight; planning at light speed and fighting all day took its toll. I wish we could leave, but..." Lambda leaned against the wall of the Station Tower, contemplating dismissing Murakumo to save energy.

Riku grimaced. "The barrier's still there. This is bad." All their potential plans to try and cool down were discarded when they heard the final Heartless' screech. The sound was high-pitched enough to stab their ears, yet loud enough to shake the ground. Their enemy rose up from the cliff across from the tower, momentarily blocking the sun and showing them only its draconic silhouette. Then it crashed down with a massive shockwave of red energy, which only continued to spread across the whole plaza. Riku and Lambda both floated to avoid it, noting that the same energy washed over the ground behind the shockwave as well. Whatever that energy would do to them, they didn't want to land while the wave was moving to find out. Finally the energy dissipated, and they got a good look at their greatest challenge of the day.

"Target identified as a Dustflier. Target's threat level is S. Multiple debilitating effects detected from shockwave attack. Target's maneuverability is poor, but observed defenses are extremely high. Projectiles will be ineffective; close-range combat has a minimal probability of success. Effective stratagem... Unknown." Lambda took refuge in her protocol's emotionless tone to hide the despair in the thought that they might not actually be able to handle this fight.

"That's definitely not good. But I've got to try; there's no running away." Riku steeled his nerves and flashed into sword's reach. He cut at various parts of the Dustflier, but only one of his attacks got past the ultimate Wyvern-type Heartless' nigh-invincible hide. Riku looked closer at the place his attack worked, and saw black cracks shifting around over the Heartless' body. Perhaps attacks that went into those cracks would work, but it would be a gamble.

He shouldn't have gotten such a close look; the Dustflier hovered in midair and did a lazy backflip. Despite the apparently slow movement, its tail smashed Riku all the way across the plaza and made a Riku-shaped hole in the wall beside Lambda. Riku crawled out, clutching his chest. "I stand corrected. Giant monsters can be tougher than any humanoid enemy. I sure wish we had help right now..."

Lambda had one last move, though she had to spend more energy to think it up. "I'm not sure it'll reach him, but I'll send an SOS to Mickey's radio." She sent the signal. "That should tell him where we are, and that we're in trouble. I hope he shows up as quickly as usual..."

"We have to survive that long, though!" Riku grabbed Lambda and flew up as high as they could go, while the Dustflier performed a floating leap across the entire plaza to their position. Apparently it couldn't actually fly, but only jump, hover, and glide really far. It created another debilitating shockwave on landing, but Riku and Lambda were out of its reach for now. "I think we're safe up here."

Lambda groaned. "I'm not even going to say it." Sure enough, the Dustflier spread its wings and arched its neck upward like a swan doing a mating display, and spat up an array of burning meteors that momentarily hovered above it before shooting at the floating couple one by one.

Riku weaved around them, and asked, "Before it spits another meteor shower at us, what were you not going to say?"

Lambda deadpanned, "I was trying not to say, 'As long as it doesn't have any other attacks.' Apparently what can go wrong, will, even if you don't tempt fate out loud. Sorry about that."

"At least we can fly fast enough to dodge-" Riku's next word was cut off by the cavalry.

"WHOAHOHOOOIEEE!" A shining trail of Light zigzagged down from the sky, smashed a hole through the barrier above the plaza, and landed right between the Dustflier's wings. When the resulting blinding flash faded, King Mickey (still dressed in his custom-fit Black Coat) had the Kingdom Key D stuck into its back. He ripped his weapon back out and flipped away from the Heartless before it could do another deadly tail flip, then stuffed the still-flickering Star Shard into his pocket with his free hand. "Hey, fellas! I hope I made it in time!"

Riku waved down at him with a friendly grin. "Yeah! Boy, are we glad to see you, Mickey! This Dustflier is insane!"

"I gathered as much! Can you two still fight?" Mickey shot a homing Pearl spell at the Dustflier, but it bounced off and splashed harmlessly against the ground.

"I think so, but Riku's heavily injured, and I'm almost out of energy. Can you heal us?" Lambda motioned for Riku to bring them closer to the ground. It was getting hard to keep her eyes open.

"Yep! Buy me five seconds, and I can at least get you on your feet. I'd need fifteen to get you back to full power, though. Light, give me power!" Mickey started floating and charging up Light energy without waiting for a response.

"The Dustflier isn't going to wait that long," Riku noted, as the monster made another flying leap. Although its trajectory was sending it farther from the party, the shockwave that came next would definitely get them.

Lambda had an idea. "Riku, try a Dark Shield! Or a full Dark Barrier all the way around us, if you can. I'll donate some power, if it'll help."

"It's worth a shot. Pitch in whenever you're ready." Riku set Lambda on the ground and laid a palm against the pavement. Layer by layer, hexagonal plates of energy stacked up into a dome around the heroes, but it wasn't clear if it would be solid enough by the time the shockwave reach them; the red wall was already advancing.

"Okay! Link engaged. Power transfer commencing. Warning, energy levels... Override limiters. Transfer... Complete..." Lambda fell unconscious, but Riku felt the surge of Darkness she'd given him, and channeled it all into the barrier. Instantly, the Dark Barrier finished forming and became an impenetrable fortress, just as the Dustflier's shockwave washed over it. As the wave passed, red power washed all the way over the dome, but the barrier held firm, and Mickey had finished charging.

"Okay, I've hit full power! Light!" Mickey released a blast of Light power like his card could summon back in Castle Oblivion, only it was contained and amplified by the Dark Barrier that still surrounded them. Riku's broken ribs were repaired, and his bruises vanished instantly. All the fatigue from weeks of nonstop fighting and assorted trauma melted away.

Meanwhile, Lambda's emergency power-save mode registered that her energy reserves had been completely restored and were holding at slightly higher than her theoretical maximum capacity, so she transitioned to a more natural sleep with an audible sigh of contentment.

"I really need to work on my Light magic," Riku remarked as he stood up straight and dispelled his barrier. "Let's finish this fight together, Mickey! I'll put Lambda on the roof for now. I think she's still okay." In a flash, he set Lambda on the balcony of the Station Tower, then zipped back through the slowly-shrinking breach in the Dustflier's barrier around the plaza Mickey had made when he burst through earlier.

The hole finally sealed completely as Riku returned to the fight, crashing into the Dustflier's back with the force of an apocalyptic meteor strike. He flashed out of range of the next tail flip, then flashed back in, his sharpened focus allowing him to follow the cracks in the Dustflier's armored skin with continuous combos until Mickey flipped forward, holding his Keyblade overhead as he spun like a buzz-saw. This was the final blow that shredded the Dustflier in half, and its captive heart floated upward alongside the six others that were recently eaten. This time, the hearts vanished as they were freed, never to reform as Heartless again.

Mickey punched the air and dismissed the Kingdom Key D. "It's over. I hope we never have to go through that again!"

Riku groaned. "I'd settle for not having to fight five other giant Heartless and another that's somehow a master swordsman beforehand."

"Really? There were that many?" Mickey was impressed.

"Yeah. The Dustflier was so strong because it ate all the hearts from the others. The worst part was that we came here to try and take a break! We've been fighting for two weeks straight, apparently. Time is weird between worlds, so I'm not sure." Riku shrugged.

"Well, you fellas take that break. You've earned it for sure! I've gotta go for now; I try to check in with the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee every now and then. Shh!" Mickey held a finger to his lips (Riku imitated the gesture to indicate he understood), and then held the Star Shard aloft. Riku covered his eyes as the King blasted off toward Hollow Bastion.

"Alright, but before that, let's find a bed." Riku floated up to the balcony, gently picked up Lambda in a bridal carry, and used a Dark Corridor to visit the old mansion again.

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The White Room...

Lambda yawned and stretched as she woke up from a restful sleep. This was a very comfy bed... Wait, bed? The last thing she remembered was transferring most of her energy and Darkness reserves to help Riku power a barrier, then she fell into power-save mode to hold onto her last dregs of energy so she wouldn't end up in a coma...or worse. Hopefully waking up in a bed meant that their endeavor had succeeded.

Opening her eyes, she was momentarily stung by how bright the room was, but after a few seconds of squinting, she realized that the room wasn't bright, just white. Everything was white except the multitude crayon sketches taped all over the walls, which confirmed the identity of the room's...former occupant.

"Lambda! You're awake!" Lambda turned toward Riku, who had spoken from a nearby chair. "I was worried you wouldn't wake up before these melted." He passed her a freshly-unwrapped bar of Sea-Salt Ice Cream, and she sat up in bed to start eating it. She noticed that Murakumo had been dismissed, leaving her in her bodysuit and cape once more. So that part of the emergency shutdown was working; that was good.

Almost as good as this ice cream bar. Without thinking, Lambda took a bigger bite. "Ow, I got brain freeze again! Curse this agonizingly delicious treat!" Lambda was about to make some more creative curses to place on the unholy name of brain freeze, but the headache disappeared much more quickly now that she was properly rested instead of having fought for two months without any real sleep. She made sure to make her next bite much more slowly and carefully, and managed to finish the bar without getting another brain freeze. "Thanks for getting me this, Riku. Hey, did we manage to beat the Dustflier?"

Riku grinned. "Yeah, we got it. Mickey's healing spell was totally worth the charge time. I'm back at full power, and Mickey and I basically wrecked the Dustflier right afterward. Plus, his Keyblade made sure we won't have to fight it again. You started sleeping more comfortably, so I bet the spell helped you, too. How's your energy doing?"

"Energy reserves stable at 101% capacity. Excess energy is being re-routed to return cognitive processes to full combat readiness." Lambda switched from reporting to explaining. "In layman's terms, I'm better than fine, and the extra bit of energy helped me wake up faster. I don't necessarily have to be combat-ready right now, but I could be. Are we still taking that break, though?"

Riku nodded. "Yeah. Twilight Town is safe for now, and I'd take a break right now even if we knew there was another world in trouble, just to spite whatever stupid 'destiny' keeps trying to mess with us. I'm not saying that battle was so hard just to keep us from taking a break. I'm just saying there's a lot of circumstantial evidence to back up that claim. Oh, and I saw Seifer's group in town while I was buying the ice cream."

Lambda leaned forward. "Oh? What were they up to?"

"They were browsing the weapon shop. From what I saw, they picked out a chakram for Fuu, like those things Axel uses. Who knew she could use a weapon like that? And Rai got some brass knuckles and was going on about learning 'zappy magic with Vivi, y'know?' Vivi looked pretty happy about it. I think they'll do fine protecting this town on their own." Riku chuckled at the memory, but his expression was that of a proud mentor watching his young students, suddenly all grown up and defending the world by themselves. He tried to cover up a manly sniffle, but Lambda noticed. She agreed with the sentiment.

"That's great news! I wasn't sure our crash-course in Heartless slaying would motivate them or make them resist the idea of needing to get stronger more stubbornly. I wonder what Sora will think if he comes by and sees them defending the town?" Lambda giggled at the various expressions she imagined Sora might make if he saw Vivi blowing up a Samurai Nobody.

"We might have to wait a while to find out; Sora's pretty far away, I think. In the meantime, do you want to rest some more, or is there somewhere you want to go?" Riku offered a hand, and Lambda grasped it to stand up.

Lambda moved toward the door. "I kind of want to explore the basement here. There were a few blocked doors, but that's no big deal if we can move the pipes out of the way. Or if we just teleport. There might be some secrets here DiZ doesn't know about, or something he doesn't want anyone else knowing about. Where is DiZ, anyway?"

"I don't think he's here. As far as he knows, the house is still swarming with Nobodies, and he wouldn't go back to a base they'd already found, would he? Let's explore, then!" The pair left the White Room, off on the sort of adventure to another world that Riku always wanted to go on, even back when he was barely old enough to play on the little island unsupervised. This would be fun!

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

A/N: Countdown stopped at 21 hours and 40 minutes remaining! FierceDeityMask gave some vague threat for if I couldn't finish this before the end of Christmas...sorry, non-denominational winter-solstice holiday. We celebrate the secular Santa version of NDWSH-Day with presents and reindeer.

For those wondering, the energy Lambda mentions here is a combination of the Power of Darkness, her soul's integrity, electricity, and some spooky quantum-entanglement weirdness from the IDEA Engine. It all gets lumped together in measurements, so it's just called "energy." Most of the power used for her attacks has to come from the Darkness, but the rest of her body is sustained by a combination of all of it. She lasted through the Castle Oblivion arc without suffering energy problems because of all those restorative save rooms they passed through, but it's still a really bad idea to stay awake for weeks at a time, whether anime-style heroes have hardier constitutions or not.

Happy NDWSH-Day to everyone who's reading! Consider this chapter my generic holiday gift to you all!