Silver Linings

Chapter 19: "I Trust You."

A/N: I think this update went faster than last time, but that's not really saying much...

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Twilight Town: Tram Common...

Riku and Lambda emerged from the hole in Twilight Town's wall. Riku sighed in relief that the town was peaceful and active again. He led Lambda to a healing-item shop which doubled as the most popular Sea-Salt Ice Cream Shop in town. The old lady who ran the shop raised an eyebrow at the cloaked newcomers, but greeted them with a warm smile anyway...as soon as she finished serving the other customers in line. Sea-salt ice cream was the town's most popular treat, and many people were celebrating the disappearance of the monsters from the streets.

Ten minutes spent standing in line later, Riku received three bars of ice cream. "One for me, one for my girlfriend, and one to take to my other friend, who hasn't tried this stuff yet." He brought Lambda off to an enclosed space near the hole in the wall, and gave her two of the bars.

Lambda stuffed one bar into her pocket, then dismissed the Black Coat, leaving her clad in her bodysuit, from which she extended her white cape. "I hope this ice cream doesn't get reduced to mush by the time we need it. But the password is right on the wrapper anyway; that should be enough."

Riku nodded. "Right. For now, though, let's enjoy these other two bars, as a reward for waiting in line for ten minutes." He tore open his wrapper...and was immediately accosted by a swarm of bees. "Argh! Get your own ice cream, you pests!" He summoned Soul Eater and swatted the insects out of the air with his sword and the Power of Darkness. "Phew. That was probably the most unnecessary thing I've ever used the Darkness for."

Lambda couldn't answer; she was dealing with brain freeze. After a moment, she grumbled despite wearing a wide smile, "I don't think I'm ever going to get the hang of eating this stuff. It's too tasty to give up, though!"

Riku sighed heavily in an attempt to cover up a snort. How many times had Lambda gotten brain freeze now? "We should probably get going. It's no wonder this hangout wasn't taken; there are bees everywhere!"

Lambda huffed, "They're welcome to the brain freeze, in my opinion. Should we go looking for Sora?"

Riku nodded. "Yeah. Where should we start?"

"Probably in the place where Ragna showed up. I'll make a Corridor. We'd better move fast; Sora's already moved on from that spot." Lambda raised a hand and summoned a Dark Corridor, then offered her hand to Riku. They stepped through the portal hand in hand, like they always did.

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Underworld: Inner Chamber...

The instant Riku and Lambda stepped out of the Dark Corridor into a dingy cavern, they were greeted by a yelp. "Ah! I thought I was safe here!"

Lambda's gaze locked onto the person who'd spoken. Black Coat, blond hair in a heavily-gelled mullet, powerful Nobody aura; yep, this guy was an Organization XIII member. "Is this the part where you try to 'eliminate the impostors', or can we just act like we never saw you?"

"Wait, lemme check..." The unusual Nobody Master dug through his pockets and fished out a set of note cards. "Did that...failed that...X-Face can't verify that... Nope, there's nothing in my notes about impostors. So, since I've done more work today than I plan to for the next month, I'm just going to sit here and chill. If the boss wants you two eliminated, he should send someone who actually does that fighting thing."

Riku was quite surprised. "Wait, you don't fight at all?"

The Nobody shrugged. "Meh. I can, but fighting is like work. Which is like exercise. Which is like sweating. Which is gross. I'd rather just kick back and jam on my sitar, but apparently I have to do work." He emphasized the word work like it was the most vile of curses.

"Well, at least your logic is sound." Lambda sat down against the cavern wall, then immediately recoiled back to a standing position. "Ew, the walls are covered in some sort of slime! Anyway, which Organization member are you?"

The Nobody shuffled through his notecards again before responding. "OK, here we are... 'I am Demyx, Number IX in Organization XIII, the Melodious Nocturne, Master of Water, and leader of the Dancer Nobodies.' I can hardly believe all of those titles fit on my business card! Good thing they do, or I would never be able to rattle it all off by heart...seeing as I haven't got a heart."

Lambda blinked incredulously. "The Organization has business cards?" The revelation even distracted her from objecting to the no-hearts falsehood.

Demyx grinned, showing off teeth so bright they should have come with a warning. "Nope, I write my notes myself. I dunno why I don't get a bonus for all the extra work of making these cards."

Lambda forced herself not to roll her eyes. "It will forever be a mystery."

Riku jumped in, "So what were you here for?"

Demyx paused for a second. "Well, it's probably classified, but I already failed, so it doesn't matter who knows... I was here stealing this weird stone thingy that keeps this place from cursing heroes. It was supposed to lure Roxas to me, and it worked, but I couldn't get him to come back with me."

Riku's jaw dropped out of his hood. "Wait, did you just say Roxas?!"

Lambda made a quick guess. "He probably means Sora."

"Yeah, Roxas said something like that." Demyx started chewing his nails in residual worry. "He tore through my water clones way faster than I thought he would. I really don't wanna be the first guy they send to actually fight him..." He suddenly perked up and switched to an overly-chipper tone. "Well, I've gotta go; Sai'x will already want to punish me for my 'sub-optimal performance'. I really don't want to be punished, but... Eh, arguing about it would be boring, too. Thanks for the chat, you two; you're, like, the first complete people I've ever talked to who didn't pull out nasty weapons the instant I showed up. Have fun doing...whatever you're doing!" Demyx vanished in a swirl of Darkness.

Riku spent another moment just standing there. "Did any of that just happen?"

Lambda giggled. "Yes, dear, it all happened. Let's just count ourselves lucky we didn't run into someone more like Lexaeus."

Riku shook his head to change gears. "Right. Now, where is Sora? Can you track him from here?"

Lambda went still and let her protocols take over. "Scanning... Scan failed. Local interference detected. Maybe it's part of the curse Demyx mentioned?"

Riku tried to sniff Sora out as well, with a little more success. "Well, we don't need to stick around; he already left this world. Let's pop over to Hollow Bastion or something and try again." He formed a Dark Corridor and pulled Lambda through.

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Hollow Bastion: Borough...

The pair appeared at the entrance to the Bailey. "Okay, Lambda, try scanning again."

"Scanning... Target located. Searching for location name... Disney Castle. Addendum: interference from the Power of Light prevents ingress via Dark Corridor."

"Oh, yeah, Mickey talked about that. The Cornerstone...of Light, I think he called it?" Riku then noticed that Lambda was speaking through the control protocol again. "Oops! Sorry, Lambda! Speak freely."

Lambda smiled. "Acknowledged, but I was already done with the last order. It's sweet that you're worried, though. Should we count that as a point for you?"

Riku shook his head. "No, that would give me an unfair advantage, since I do that so often. I was just correcting my own mistake. Wait, are we keeping score again?"

Lambda shrugged. "I can if you want. I can even set up counters to keep track of both of our scores accurately."

Well, if they were both going to end up getting points anyway... "Yeah, do that. If nothing else, it'll be something to look forward to at the end of the day... Aw, man, I gave you another order."

"Seriously, Riku, it's no big deal! Okay, the scoreboard's set up. Are there any points you'd like to add to my score? I'm giving you one for buying me an ice cream bar in addition to the one we're using as a clue."

Riku thought for a second, then said, "You get one for handling Demyx without letting a fight start, and one more for making sure I got some rest."

Lambda nodded. "Okay, the current score is Riku: 1, Lambda: 2. You know, I could just add more points to your score whenever..."

Riku blinked; why would Lambda give him free points? "That's okay. I trust you not to cheat in my favor."

Lambda suddenly bounced forward and gave Riku a kiss on the cheek. "That's another point for you!"

Riku blinked away that warm, fuzzy, Lambda-kissed-me feeling, but he was still confused. "Huh? What did I do?"

Lambda smiled up at him. "You said 'I trust you.' What could be more romantic than that?"

Riku thought about it for a moment, but couldn't come up with an example. Wait, there was one thing. "That smile. You smile a lot when I accidentally do romantic things, and I really love your smile."

Lambda's smile briefly became a smirk. "Point: Riku."

Riku spluttered. This wasn't how competitions worked! But if that was how Lambda wanted to play... "Hey, you should count one for yourself! That smile was definitely worth a point."

"Sure. You're the best judge of that. Point: Lambda. What should we do while we wait for Sora to get out of Disney Castle, though? ...Wait, he's right here! He just went into Merlin's house!" Lambda rechecked the scan data, and found that the barrier keeping Riku and herself out of Mickey's homeworld was weaker than it had been when she last scanned it - which was barely a minute ago. "Something's wrong with Disney Castle's barrier, so Sora might be here to ask Merlin for help."

Riku was already about to jump off the ledge they were standing to reach the houses. "Quick, let's spy on him!"

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Outside Merlin's house...

Lambda caught up with Riku right as he pressed an ear to Merlin's door.

From inside the house, they heard Merlin wheeze, "What is all that racket? O-oh, it's you three! It seems you've learned a bit since I last saw you."

"Really?"

"Hey, let's talk about the problem! It's Maleficent! She's back! She..." The rest was unintelligible - Donald's unique speech impediments made his fast-paced explanation sound like gibberish.

Merlin evidently thought so, too, since the babble was suddenly cut off with a distinctly magical poof sound.

Lambda reported, "Teleportation detected. All targets lost. Merlin must have teleported them back to Disney Castle to see the problem for himself. He's clearly got quite the reputation - the first solution Sora's group thought of when they ran into a magical problem that's never happened before was to ask Merlin about it."

Riku was more worried about what he managed to decipher from Donald's explanation. "Did Donald just say Maleficent is back?"

Lambda replayed the memory with several audio filters, trying to make more than two of those words intelligible. "I...think he did. Maleficent was revived somehow? That can't be good!"

Riku grimaced at his memories of Maleficent. "Definitely not good. That witch's name says it all. Pete must be pleased about this. I'm sure Sora's got this problem covered, though. While they're fighting over control of Disney Castle, can we predict where Sora will go next?"

Lambda considered that option. "Maybe. I would need to study the paths he's using, which could take some time." She suddenly stood up with protocol-perfect posture. "Temporal anomaly detected. Analyzing... Whoa! Speaking of time, Sora just time-traveled to the past! I knew Merlin was a powerful wizard, but that's just crazy!"

A gruff voice startled both of them. "Of course he's crazy! If he's not turning my hair orange, he's setting fire to my Gummi Garage! That old loon's had it out for me ever since I had to install a computer in his house."

Lambda whipped around to face, "Cid? When did you get here?"

Cid grumped, "I can stand wherever I want! What, did you think you two were the only ones on the street? Nice to see you're doing fine, by the way."

Riku spoke in Ansem's voice. "I wouldn't say we've been 'fine', exactly..."

Cid jumped in surprise. "Great Gummi Blocks! You scared the wheat out of my mouth!" Indeed, Cid's ever-present, half-chewed stalk of wheat had fallen on the ground, prompting the master Gummi Ship designer to pull a new stalk out of one of his pockets. "For a second there, I thought you were Ansem! That impersonation sure is spot on. When did you learn to imitate voices?"

Riku pulled up his hood slightly while explaining his new look with his original voice. "It's more like I reverse-body-snatched Ansem himself, actually. I had to release enough of the Power of Darkness to beat someone and help Sora wake up, but now I look like this permanently."

Cid grinned. "Well, I'm proud of ya, son! You must have really stuck it to Ansem, and you're gonna put up with looking like him to help Sora? I recall you being some whiny kid who Sora wouldn't shut up about saving, but now I've gotta agree with him. That's some top-grade heroic resolve!"

Riku breathed a sigh of relief. "I guess I really have made some progress. And if you're okay with me looking like this, Cid, then I can probably convince Sora."

"I told you so, Riku." Lambda admonished him. "There really isn't much point in hiding from him like we have."

Riku groaned good-naturedly. "Yeah, I should have known better. But we should still let Sora handle as much as he can; he's supposed to save all the worlds someday, right? He'll need the practice."

Lambda nodded. "True. Plus, we haven't even caught up to him to try the hide-and-seek strategy, which still sounds like fun. Oh, there's an idea! Cid, do you have any way to chart out which world Sora might visit next?"

Cid scoffed. "Obviously! Who would be dumb enough to fly a Gummi Ship without finding their destination on the World Map? Here! I started handing out complimentary World Maps to people who fly with Cid's Gummi Biz, and you two were my first customers, so here you go!" He pulled a small metal box out of another pocket (how many pockets did Cid have?) and handed it to Lambda. "Just press the button to turn on the display, then swipe around the hologram. Easy peasy! Now scram, ya punks. I have to make sure the old loon hasn't busted any more sensitive equipment. My Claymore Defense Grid project is far enough behind schedule without him misinterpreting what a 'CD burner'is."

Lambda shook Cid's hand and waved him toward Merlin's door. "Okay, good luck! Thanks a bunch for the map!" She walked back toward the Bailey, and Riku followed her as she activated the map.

"Whoa, cool!" The cube projected a 3-D hologram of all the nearby worlds, with Hollow Bastion in the center. Each world was represented by a rock with a few landmarks sticking out of it, like Riku remembered seeing from the window of Cid's Gummi Ship when he brought them to Twilight Town. "So if I..." touching the hologram made the worlds shift, allowing Riku to drag the view around and locate the next path Sora could take. "Port Royal, huh? Looks like he'll have to open this gate first. It seems pretty straightforward."

Lambda was equally impressed with Cid's technology, but... "How come Cid has something like this, but he still uses CDs for storage? Anyway, we should let Sora open the next of these World Gates before we follow him. Meanwhile, let's find a good place other than DiZ's mansion to rest when we need to. I wonder if we could sneak into Beast's Castle again?"

Riku tore his gaze off of the map as Lambda shut it down. "Good idea; we could see if Namine made one of her Colored Rooms there."

"I'll save you the trouble." A Dark Corridor formed under the pair's feet, and Lambda barely had time to cling to Riku's waist before it sucked them both in.

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Beast's Castle: The Colored Room...

Riku and Lambda landed in a tangled heap, having fallen from the colorful ceiling of Namine's second safe room. The memory witch stood nearby, with a hand clapped over her mouth in embarrassment. "I'm sorry. I'm still practicing with Dark Corridors."

Lambda disentangled herself from being wrapped around Riku. "The fall was no problem, but could you give us some warning before you grab us again? The last time we went through a Dark Corridor without holding hands, we got separated from each other, so I rushed and grabbed Riku too tightly this time." Riku rubbed his sore sides in agreement.

"I must have scared you. I'll try to form the Corridor in front of you next time." Namine clutched a binder in one hand, which she passed to Lambda. "Here, I wanted to give you these. They're reports written by the Organization that I found in Roxas' memories. I'm not sure how he got his hands on the other members' diaries, but they should have some useful information."

Lambda hummed in thought as she glanced over the hand-copied diary entries. "I guess you've been busy! Nice handwriting, too. But why would Roxas have stolen diaries? Xion strikes me as more likely to take things from the other members out of curiosity - it's not like the Organization would have taught concepts like respect for people's personal belongings to someone they thought of as a tool. Maybe you found these entries in Xion's memory, but mistook her for Roxas?"

Namine nodded. "That's probably it. I thought you'd like to read them; you're even more of the curious type than Xion. Right, Lambda?"

Lambda nodded with a giggle. "So you noticed! Here, Riku, could you read through this stack? I think this one on top is Demyx's." There was no name listed, but the casual writing style gave it away.

A few minutes later, the pair had read all the reports. It became a sort of game to try and guess who had penned each document. Riku nailed one in particular that had to be from Xemnas' own diary; the grandiose word choices and focus on the topic of Kingdom Hearts certainly sounded like they came from an aspect of Xehanort. It mentioned that the efforts of the Organization's Keyblade wielders, Roxas and [a smudge of ink where the second name should be], had paid off, causing Kingdom Hearts to appear. The phrase Xemnas actually used was more complicated, of course: "Kingdom Hearts waxes large in the sky." Maybe this Kingdom Hearts was like a moon?

Namine glanced up from where she sat in deep thought. "Were the reports helpful at all?"

Riku replied, "I think so. It says the Organization made Kingdom Hearts appear by having Roxas and...I'm guessing this smudge here is Xion...they did something with their Keyblades. Did they ever finish what they were doing?"

Namine shook her head. "No. Roxas and Xion both left the Organization before they gathered enough hearts to complete Kingdom Hearts. When you fought Roxas, he wanted to split Kingdom Hearts back into individual hearts, but I'm not sure how he would have done that. Affecting Kingdom Hearts is supposed to be beyond the power of a Keyblade."

Riku smirked. "Ansem...er, Xehanort's Heartless, said something along those lines when Sora beat him. 'The Keyblade alone cannot seal the Door to Darkness!' So we used two Keyblades. I'm just glad it worked...but the Kingdom Hearts we're dealing with now is probably different. DiZ, who was apparently Ansem the Wise, left us a message about how he wants to use some sort of machine on Kingdom Hearts to keep it away from the Organization, possibly by blowing up both Kingdom Hearts and DiZ's machine."

"It wouldn't be the craziest thing that's happened in the short time I've existed," Namine pointed out. "But what will you do when that time comes?"

Riku thought for a moment before replying. "I'll support Ansem...Ansem the Wise, as well as I can, but Sora's more important. Lambda and I were planning on sneaking around behind Sora and guiding him to the Organization's stronghold. We've already set up a way to let him reach their homeworld and put together a few clues to give him."

"But why not just tell him directly?" Namine wondered.

Riku flinched. "People keep asking me that. Remember, I look like Ansem - the Heartless Ansem - right now. I don't want Sora to try to slice me up the instant I show my face. If that happened...I might seem calm and composed right now, but if Sora hated me, it would probably undo all the progress I've made at dealing with my Darkness."

Lambda put a comforting hand on Riku's shoulder. "Don't take that risk if there's any doubt, dear. I certainly don't want you to fall back into being as mopey and depressed as you were when we met!"

Riku flinched again. "I can't really deny I was like that..."

"You were. But you're doing better now, and I want to make sure you keep getting better! Besides, Namine," Lambda shot the Nobody a pointed look, "If there's no reason for Riku to stay away from Sora, why would you need to wait to go back to Kairi?"

"You know it's not the same thing," Namine protested childishly, but then calmed down and gave a better explanation. "When I return to Kairi, I won't be a separate being anymore. It'll make Kairi more stable in a lot of ways, but I'm not sure whether I would still have my own identity within Kairi's heart somehow, if my new and incomplete emotions would change Kairi's personality, or if I'd simply vanish. No matter how necessary it is, and no matter if I deserve it or not, just the thought of becoming a part of someone else scares me to death."

Lambda had to agree; that was also part of the purpose of the Murakumo Units, and Lambda couldn't begin to figure out how she felt about becoming part of Ragna, the person she would have been fused with. And the product of the fusion would be the Black Beast... Namine wouldn't become a monster from this, but she would lose everything she had right now. "That's a heavy decision. Take as much time as you need to think about it, Namine. And make sure you have no regrets if you go through with it."

Riku asked, "Did Roxas disappear when he returned to Sora?"

Namine shrugged. "I'm not sure what happened, but his body definitely vanished. That was the whole point; Roxas was Sora's body, while Sora was just his heart. Roxas' personality might have affected Sora's, and who knows what goes on inside Sora's heart? There's already at least one other boy's heart inside Sora, so Roxas may still be in there."

Lambda mused, "Maybe Xion's in there with Roxas... Wait, Roxas had Sora's body? But he looked nothing like Sora!"

"That's...complicated," Namine began. "Nobodies like Roxas are formed from the body of a person when their heart is removed, which would normally vanish when they turn into a Heartless. The person's willpower can keep them from fading away, but they often change in appearance. The lesser Nobody Servants, like Dusks, don't look anything like the humans they used to be. Organization XIII's members also look slightly different from their complete selves, but Roxas is definitely the most removed from his Other's appearance. It has to do with the other boy in Sora's heart, but I'm not sure how they're connected...

Namine took a deep breath and indicated herself before continuing to explain. "As for me, I'm not the same kind of Nobody as the others. I don't have a body at all. Yes, I know that sounds like nonsense. I'm sitting in the room, right? But Heartless don't have bodies, either. They're made of pure Darkness, so you can't break their arms, for example. I think I'm made of willpower, but I don't think I'm very strong-willed. DiZ never did figure out what I really am, and neither have I."

Lambda pointed a finger in the air. "I think I get what you're talking about!"

"What?" Riku gaped at his girlfriend. "Can you break it down for me? I'm totally lost."

Lambda put a hand on her chin, thinking of how to explain it. "Well, in the Azure Timeline, they have this stuff called seithr. It's usually a gas that's heavier than air, but if it's Observed by someone with the power of the Azure - in overly simple terms, the Azure is the energy used to Observe - seithr can be shaped into any kind of matter or energy. The world of the Azure Timeline is actually made of shaped seithr. It has the potential to be anything, but once its form is set, it can't be changed except by Phenomenon Intervention from another Observer who's at least as strong as the first. They would need the power of the Azure, and that would would basically make them a god."

"Anyway, I think Light and Darkness are similar to seithr. They're components of everything we see, and like how Sora's body turned into Roxas, the things they make up can be changed. I bet Xemnas wants Kingdom Hearts for the same reason Terumi wants the Azure; if Xemnas could control Kingdom Hearts, he could mold the Light and Darkness of the worlds any way he wants. If that's his plan, we've got to stop him!"

"Stop him? As if!" A new, drawling voice echoed from nowhere. A Black-Coated member of Organization XIII appeared in the corner of the Colored Room, but not through a Dark Corridor. A split-second distortion made the air seem to bulge outward, and then a Nobody Master stood in the previously empty space. "Yo, the name's Xigbar. I'm Xemnas' Number II, and I've had the job since way before Organization XIII was even formed. But that's a story for another time. I just thought I'd drop in and let you kids know that you can't hide from me." Xigbar removed his hood, revealing a battle-scarred face. One piercing, familiar yellow eye was visible, but an eyepatch covered the other. His black hair was streaked with gray and pulled into a long ponytail, which was somehow hidden by his hood before. A smirk curled his lips up toward his unusually pointy ears.

Riku thought Xigbar bore an uncanny resemblance to Xehanort's Heartless. Was it significant? He'd have to figure it out later. "So now that you've let us know, what else are you here for?"

"I brought some good news for you twerps! Xemnas has called off the hunt for the impostors, as long as you stay out of The World That Never Was. In case you were wondering, that's the city you snagged Roxas in. We got pretty much all we could out of the li'l Tiger, anyway, so it's no skin off my back. You just make sure Sora stays in one piece, now that you've gone to so much trouble to put him back together again!"

"Do you get anything out of keeping Sora safe?" Lambda wondered.

Xigbar made some dramatic gestures of sorrow. "Oh, you wound me with your implied accusations!" The Nobody suddenly straightened up. "Ha, as if! You just read Xemnas' diary, right? Shame on you, by the way. We need a Keyblade Wielder to complete Kingdom Hearts, and it doesn't have to be one of our own members. Someone just has to beat the Heartless with the Keyblade, and Sora was gonna do that anyway. Especially since we've cooked up a bunch of Heartless he'll have to fight!"

Lambda glared at Xigbar as she realized something. "You 'cooked up' more Heartless? Then you've been helping the Heartless steal people's hearts!"

Xigbar pointed both of his index fingers at Lambda and wiggled them upward like finger guns. "Bingo! I guess I can't fool the eyes of an Observer! You two probably didn't notice, but the Heartless are getting stronger again, too. So if Sora doesn't beat them, they'll overrun the worlds just like they almost did last year! Except this time, they'll need a more direct approach. The worlds will end up more like Hollow Bastion. And if Sora does beat the Heartless, Xemnas completes Kingdom Hearts for us! Man, I love being on the winning team!"

Lambda asked, "Do you really think Xemnas will use Kingdom Hearts to restore the Organization's hearts?"

Xigbar shrugged. "Maybe he will, maybe he won't! It'll be more fun if I don't spoil the surprise."

"Don't you care about this?" Riku asked.

Xigbar waved his hands in front of him, as though warding off an unwanted hug. "Nope! I'm a Nobody, remember? Caring is above my pay grade! Oops, would you look at my wrist! I've gotta cut story time short. Oh, and if you run into Axel, gimme a holler so I can terminate him. He's probably going to be traitor number three. Roxas was the first, and you're the second, Namine. Marluxia doesn't count; he couldn't even get started. Feel free to join back up with Kairi, by the way. You'd be taking yourself out of the picture, which works for me. You be good kids, now!" With an exaggerated farewell wave, Xigbar disappeared in a swirl of Darkness.

Silence fell over the Colored Room for a long while. Finally, Riku stood up from his chair, since he'd been too shocked to stand when Xigbar appeared. "Let's go, Lambda. Xigbar was right about one thing; we still have to keep Sora safe." Riku formed a Dark Corridor to Port Royal.

Lambda stood up to follow him. "What will we do about Kingdom Hearts?"

"We have plenty of time before it's done, and it may not be a problem at all. Xehanort's Heartless actually completed a Kingdom Hearts from the hearts of worlds, but it didn't give him any godly powers. It just blew him up with the Light he claimed it didn't have. So, Xigbar, since I know you're listening, you can relay to your boss that his plan is doomed to fail! Lambda, are you ready to go? We're late for the first round of hide-and-seek."

Lambda turned to Namine first. "Namine, are you staying here? We kind of blew your cover again."

Namine hesitated. "I'd like to come with you, if it's okay. I want to help stop Xemnas. I'm not sure what I can do, but I still want to try. I think I'd be good at hide and seek, too. I had to hide from the Organization in Castle Oblivion, and keep from being noticed at all by Larxene while I was their captive."

Riku extended his hand. "Well, Namine, welcome aboard. We'd be happy to have you along!"

Namine shook Riku's hand, smiling wider than she had in months. "Thank you so much! I hope I can make it up to you someday!"

Lambda laughed. "Would you like to keep score? Riku and I are already in the middle of a niceness competition, but you can probably catch up; we're tied at three points each right now."

Namine giggled into her hand. "No, thanks. I'm not much for competition."

Riku stared at Namine for a moment. That gesture was something Kairi did all the time, and Kairi had said those exact words on multiple occasions when she was invited to spar with the other kids on the Islands. "Maybe you're more like Kairi than I thought...but that's enough standing around. Let's check out Port Royal!" Riku took Lambda's hand. Lambda took Namine's hand in turn, as she walked slightly ahead of the newest member of their group through the Dark Corridor.

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A/N: I take it back; this took way too long again.

The score for Lambda and Riku's niceness competition is actually being kept as a text file on my computer (alongside the finished parts of Silver Linings), by the way.

I think I've finally come up with a portmanteau shipping name for these two: "Riku-11". Do you like it? Do you hate it? Do you want to claw out your own eyes when you read weird names for pairings like that? Tell me in a review!