Chapter 20: Something Not Good

About an hour previously

The sound of a dark corridor startled Namine out of her thoughts and her drawing. It had been a while since she had heard a dark corridor. She turned, almost expecting to see Riku. However, it was only a Vexen Replica. She let out a small sigh of disappointment.

"Ah, Namine!" the Vexen Replica laughed, as the dark corridor closed behind him. "You weren't nearly as hard to find as I thought you would be!"

Namine slowly got to her feet. "What number are you?" she asked.

"17," the Vexen Replica replied.

"Do you… know Riku…?" Namine asked slowly.

17 nodded. "Yes… I, uh, do know him."

"Did he send you?"

17 was silent for a moment, as if he was thinking about something. "Ah, yes!" he replied finally. "He did, in fact, send me."

"He did?" Namine asked, excitement ringing in her voice. Maybe he'd found Sora! And, if not, any news from him was good news.

17's smile faltered for a moment, but then it was back. "Come, I'll take you to him," he said.

Namine smiled. "Uh, wow, really?" she asked, gathering up her sketchbook and things. "Oh! I've gotta go get Kairi, though. Can't leave her behind."

17 seemed to grimace. "Actually… I'm… I'm afraid of it's a matter of urgency," he said. "If we are going, we need to go now. You can come back for your friend later, if you'd like."

Namine's smile fell now, too. Worry bubbled in her. "Urgent? Is he okay?"

"It would be best if you would just come with me."

A little skeptical, but mostly just worried, Namine nodded. 17 seemed to relax, and he reached out to open a dark corridor.

"Too easy…" he muttered to himself, as he began to step through.

Namine stopped dead. She took two steps back.

That hadn't gone unheard.

Realizing she wasn't following, 17 poked his head back out of the dark corridor.

"Are you coming?" he asked. His voice still seemed completely kind, but, his smile—his smile did not.

"You tricked me!" Namine shouted. She wasn't sure if she was angrier at him for doing so, or at herself for nearly falling for it.

17 frowned. "I need to learn to stop thinking out loud…" he muttered. "But fine, we'll do this the hard way…" He summoned his shield, and stepped towards Namine. Ice solidified around his fingertips.

Namine took another two steps back, heart pounding. "Stay away from me!" she shouted.

She didn't understand who he was or why he wanted her to go with him, but, she definitely wasn't going now. She looked around, hoping to find a way out—

"Namine!"

Kairi's voice.

"Kairi!" Namine called, relieved. She turned to find Kairi, and found her on top of the hill that lead down to this portion of the beach.

Namine looked back to 17 just in time to see him throw the icicle at her. She yelped and ducked out of the way, throwing arms up to defend herself. It missed, thankfully, but Namine's heart felt like it was in her throat.

"Run!" Kairi's voice again. "Run!"

Of course. Running would be smart. She was sure Kairi had a plan, but the safest thing to do was…

She opened a dark corridor and darted through.

She didn't recognize the world it had taken her to. She hadn't been trying to go anywhere specific, so it had just spat her out somewhere at random. Namine heaved a sigh of relief, and started to get her bearings, but then 17 arrived through his own dark corridor.

"Now, listen," he began.

Namine didn't. She opened another corridor.

About five worlds later, 17 following her to each one, she was starting to get annoyed. And tired. She just wanted to outrun him, and then head back home once it was safe. Kairi had to be worried! She'd go home now, but didn't want to lead him there.

Why won't he leave me alone? she thought angrily. And more importantly, why does he want to kidnap me?

She quickly formed another dark corridor and left this world, hoping to lose him. 17 had begun to take longer to find her, anyway. She paused, though, when this corridor opened, and groaned. She had ended up in an in-between world (known as Betwixt and Between).

Almost immediately a dark corridor opened next to her and 17 walked out.

"I didn't want it to come down to this," 17 muttered, his shield already drawn, ice building at his fingertips. His eyes were cold. "But… if it must, then, so be it."

Namine quickly took a couple of steps back to put distance between them. However, it appeared she didn't need to, as a flaming chakram almost literally came out of nowhere and whacked 17 in the gut, sending him flying.

"Yo! Namine!" a voice called.

She turned, a bit shocked. A man with flaming red hair was standing before her.

"Name's Axel, got it memorized?" he said.

"Do I know you?" she asked.

He seemed familiar…

Axel shrugged. "You might."

17 had regained his strength and was rising to his feet. Namine unconsciously took another step back.

Axel formed a dark corridor next to her. "Go!" he told her.

She raised her eyebrows, unsure.

"You'll just have to trust me," Axel said. "Now go!"

Namine nodded, and stepped through.

xxx

Axel watched her go, and then turned to 17, who had crossed most of the distance between them in that time. "Hey!" he called. "How's it going?"

"It was going fine until you showed up," 17 replied gruffly.

"It was?" Axel asked, pretending to sound surprised. "I am terribly sorry. But… you know… I'm not quite sure if I agree with you. I mean, you remember the orders, don't you?"

17 glared.

"'You mustn't harm her,' I believe they were," Axel said.

"I wasn't going to hurt her," 17 replied.

"Oh really?"

"I was simply going to knock her unconscious so I could drag her back to HQ without any more problems," 17 explained. "I was getting tired of chasing her."

"What were you going to do to cover that up?" Axel asked. "Blame it on a memory meltdown?"

"Ooh! That's not a bad idea!" 17 exclaimed.

Axel faltered for a moment, suddenly disgusted. If he had liked 17 before, he certainly didn't now.

I wonder if he'll get punished for this. Though, knowing Saix, he probably will be.

I wonder if he'll be killed…

Usually, Axel never liked it when Saix just killed a Replica because they messed up. However, based on the behavior 17 was showing, he wasn't sure if he minded.

And, even if Saix didn't kill him, Riku certainly would.

Axel dragged himself back into reality and clucked his tongue. "What a shame," he sighed, pretending as if it actually was one. "It seems she's gotten away, and you won't be able to catch up to her now. I'm sure Saix won't be happy."

"It's your fault," 17 replied. "I had everything under control!"

"As I've already said, I'm sorry," Axel laughed calmly. "However, I couldn't have you hurting her, could I? Things would have turned out terribly for all of us."

"What? Do you think Riku would have found out or something?"

"Riku has a nasty habit of finding out these sorts of things," Axel replied. "And I'm sure if Namine had been harmed, he would have found out a lot sooner."

"Yes… he does… doesn't he?" 17 muttered. "And why is that?" He looked at Axel with eyebrows raised. "Do you know anything, Axel?"

The way he asked that… is he catching on to me? Axel wondered.

Though, it's not like it matters. No one would believe him anyways if he started going off about me being a traitor.

I think…

Maybe it would be better if I just destroyed him…

He was going to get himself killed anyways, at the rate he's going.

Axel summoned his chakrams casually.

"Aha!" 17 exclaimed. "You're a double-agent, aren't—"

His sentence wasn't finished. Axel ended it by throwing a chakram at him, and it hit him in the face.

xxx

"Stay away from me!"

Namine's voice.

Namine's voice.

Kairi dropped her things and ran in the direction. Down on the beach. Of course Namine was down there by herself, because Kairi had afterschool things and Namine did not. Why was she yelling? Who was she yelling at?

Kairi hoped it was just Tidus or Wakka trying to be funny, but somehow, she doubted it.

Being proven wrong wasn't a relief.

"Namine!" she cried, skidding down the sandy hill and onto the beach itself.

Namine was standing across from some… guy. Kairi didn't know who we was, just that he looked about ready to attack Namine, and, uh, no thanks? Kairi wasn't sure what she'd do, but—

"Kairi!" Namine looked up, and, she sounded relieved.

It didn't last.

The guy shot a block of ice at Namine—solid ice. From his hand. Kairi blinked a few times, but didn't let it slow her down. Namine yelped and ducked to the side. It missed her, but—

"Run!" Kairi shouted. "Run!"

Namine turned, one of those dark corridors bursting out from her fingertips. As she went through, Kairi's stomach bottomed out.

Of course. It made sense. It was fastest.

Yelling, Kairi threw herself at the guy, because she had to do something. A square punch to his eye was what she was going for, but he got that giant shield of his in her way. Thankfully, she hit it at an angle which caused her hand to glance off it, rather than break her knuckles.

Something cold hit her in the side, and she tumbled into the sand.

"I'm not here for you," the guy sneered.

He, too, vanished through one of those dark corridors.

Kairi stared at the now empty beach. Trembling, she pounded her fists into the sand beneath her, screaming at the top of her lungs. She'd failed. She'd failed, and they were both gone, and there was no way of following, or knowing if Namine was safe, or—

She'd come back. Namine would come back. Of course she would. Kairi nodded to herself, forcing herself to believe that, because what else she could do? She couldn't go get her dad or anything, because, what was he supposed to do? This was all magic and monsters and over their heads.

All she could do was sit and wait and hope Namine was okay.

And, Namine was okay. Kairi refused to believe anything else. Namine was okay, and, she'd come back. She would!

(She didn't.)