AN/ Cookie goes to... Xianit! *hands cookie* of course, all of you were right by guessing "toy" but only Xianit caught the "does it hurt because it's the truth?"

Chapter 76: Words Better Left Unspoken

"I still think you should've killed her," Namine muttered, eyes darting towards Riku's hand. "37 really wouldn't have hurt me, and even if he did…" she trailed off.

Riku turned to her. "I don't care," he said. "I don't want to risk you getting hurt."

She sighed. Then, very gently, as not to hurt him, she reached out and took his hand. He gasped in shock, though, and pulled his hand away. She made a face.

"Riku," she said calmly. "Let me see your hand."

"I'm fine," he insisted.

"Riku," she said, firmly this time. "You're not fine! Just let me look at it!"

He made a face, but then sighed and held his hand out to her. She took it, gently, and carefully pulled his glove off. He let out a small gasp of pain, but quickly bit his lip to stifle it. She grimaced at the torn and completely blood stained glove, though his hand was much worse.

There was a hole straight through the palm of his hand, where Larxene L had driven her knife through it; the wound was still bleeding. That, and his fingers were all bent at odd angles. The bone of his ring finger had actually broken through his skin; it was bleeding, too.

"Doesn't it hurt?" Namine whispered, looking up at him.

He turned away, his face tight, as if he didn't want to admit it. Then he nodded, only slightly. He started to say something, but never got the chance. Vexen opened the door then, causing them both to look up.

"That went smoother than it usually does," Vexen remarked. "There's usually a lot more fi—" He stopped rather suddenly, eyes widening in shock as he noticed Riku's hand. "What did you do!" he demanded, and then groaned. "Never mind that!" He grabbed Riku by the collar of his shirt and dragged him into the computer room.

"Hey!" Riku protested. "Hey! What did I say about not liking it when you do that!"

"Nothing," Vexen replied, forcing Riku into a chair. He moved over to the intercom on the wall, pressing the button for it. "Alpha?" he said. "Send someone up here who can operate the Repair Program, will you? Thanks."

Namine wanted to ask how long there'd been an intercom here, but her attention was caught on Riku. He was breathing heavily, trembling where he sat, eyes unfocused.

Namine peered at him. She'd never seen him like this before. "Vexen- Vexen what did you do to him?" she asked.

Vexen turned and slowly peered at Riku, too. "I… didn't do anything," he said.

"You- you did just grab me and drag me into this room against my will," Riku answered, voice sharp. "You of- of all people should know—" He broke off there, seeming to have difficulty with the words, as well as speaking in general. Namine moved a little closer to him, wanting to help but not sure how.

Understanding started to blossom in Vexen's eyes. "What?" He sounded surprised, as well as a little angry. "Riku, don't tell me this is about—"

"Listen, I'm just! I'm just really shaken up after everything L said, alright?" Riku snapped, cutting Vexen off before he could finish.

"What did L—?"

But Vexen didn't get a chance to finish that question, either.

"Alright, Vexen," Alpha sighed, stopping in the doorway. 7 was standing next to him. "What was it you needed— oh…" He trailed off, noticing Riku's hand.

7 hastily shoved past Alpha and into the room, kneeling near Riku so he could better examine Riku's hand. Riku didn't seem to appreciate being touched, but 7 was gentle about it, even with his initial sharp intake of air at the sight of the damage.

"It's a good thing we're right by the Repair Program," he sighed with relief, reaching behind him for the computer. He entered a few commands, barely looking at the screen.

"Not really, since it's not gonna work," Riku muttered.

7 slowed, opening his mouth as if to question Riku. He must have decided it wasn't worth it, though. He was already running his fingers over Riku's hand, specifying what he wanted the Repair Program to fix. Once he'd done that, 7 turned back to the computer and hit enter. Riku's hand glowed blue for a second before flashing a red color and losing the glow completely.

7 frowned.

"That… can't be right…" he whispered, and then entered a few different commands into the computer. Again, Riku's hand glowed blue and then flashed red before returning to normal.

"I told you it wasn't going to work," Riku said, a touch of cockiness in his voice.

"And why isn't it?" 7 asked, before typing away frantically at the computer.

"My data's not from this universe," Riku replied simply.

"He has a point," Alpha muttered. "None of the other parts of the Program here affect him, so why should the Repair portion?"

"Data can't be that different across universes," 7 pointed out.

"Let me see," Vexen sighed. "Maybe I can get it to recognize his Coding…"

"How long have you known that it wouldn't work?" Namine asked Riku quietly.

"I guessed," he replied with a shrug. "I mean… it might have been a tad stupid to not test the theory out sooner… but…"

"I think that's genius," Namine whispered. "I mean, you were pretty sure about this, obviously. You haven't used the Repair Program for how long?"

He laughed. "This wasn't my only reason for not using it," he told her, smiling. "I have others. But I was pretty sure about it not going to work."

She smiled, too. Her smile soon fell, though, as she remembered something. "What was L talking about?" she whispered. "What did she mean when she called you a- a…" she paused and then very quietly finished: "A toy."

She said this almost as if she was afraid to.

Riku winced.

Vexen (who had been pushed away from the computer again) stopped his arguing with Alpha and 7 and turned to them, shock clearly written on his face. "She called you what?"

"A toy," Riku whispered. He was shaking slightly now, possibly from anger, or maybe it was something else. Namine reached out and grabbed his uninjured hand, squeezing it.

"How did she know about that!" Vexen demanded, anger clearly present in his voice now.

"All my memories are in the Database," Riku replied. "They have been since shortly after I arrived here. She's probably just been going through them in her spare time... trying to find things just like that that she can use to get to me. But I won't let her!" His voice was shaking, slowly rising to a shout. "She can call me a toy all she wants," he continued, bitterness working its way into his voice now. "But I'm not going to let it bother me! I don't care! I don't even care that she knows about-" he stopped and turned away, squeezing his eyes shut.

"That she knows about her," he finished, voice quiet.

Namine swallowed, noticing the tears that were running down his cheeks. Slowly, Vexen place a hand on his shoulder. He made a face, but didn't say anything about it.

Namine glanced up at Vexen. "Who's-" she began.

Vexen shook his head.

I'll ask Riku, later, then, she thought.

Though… maybe I shouldn't…

Whoever this is, there's something about her that hurts Riku, and he probably doesn't want to talk about it.

She frowned, confused, as anger surged through her for a moment. Anger towards this person that she didn't even know. Anger merely because it was Riku who was hurting. Anger because she couldn't imagine anyone actually hurting Riku.

He was crying.

He had never cried before.

Not that she had ever seen, anyways.

"Are you alright?" she asked quietly.

He nodded. "I-I'm fine," he said, and then looked up. "Can we… delete my memories from the database, please?" he asked. "I really don't want L looking through anything else, even if there's no telling what she hasn't seen already."

"Sure thing," Alpha said, pulling up the Database to do so.