Chapter 77: Memories Better Left Forgotten

"I still don't get why the Repair Program didn't work…" 7 muttered, pulling a pair of glasses out of his pocket and putting them on so he could examine Riku's hand closely. "Data's data, no matter where it's from. The Repair Program should have scanned him… come up with compatible data… and used it to fix him. And the data from his memories should be compatible, at least!"

Riku sighed and shook his head.

"Here's a thought," he said, pulling his hand away from 7. "Can we lock Saix's side out of the Repair Program? That would be a nice advantage…"

"No," 7 replied bitterly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "That's impossible. No one can be locked out of the Repair Program. Master Vexen designed it specifically that way so as not to be cruel."

Riku frowned and blew a strand of hair out of his eyes. "Anything else we can do to bother them?" he asked.

"Nothing that wouldn't harm us…" Alpha replied quietly.

Riku sighed. "We have control over the Database, though, right?" he asked. "And that's why Saix wants the Main Computer… isn't it?"

"I suppose…" Alpha said.

"What if we were to wipe the Main Computer?" Riku suggested.

"Smart…" Alpha admitted, throwing a wry look over at him. Then he rolled his eyes. "But no. Wiping the Main Computer would damage the functions of Castle Oblivion, too."

"Okay," Riku muttered. "Can we wipe the Database?" he asked. "That way next time they want to rebuild a Replica, they won't have anything to work with. They'll have to start from scratch. I mean, I suppose, that gives them more reason to come up with something even more cruel than usual, but… It would take a lot of time, right? And we could use that extra time to go rescue whoever they had kidnapped before it was too late."

"That isn't a bad idea…" Alpha said slowly, turning to look at Riku. He straightened his glasses.

"Yes it is!" 7 protested. "Do you realize how long it took us to gather all that data! YEARS! You can't just go and delete all of it!"

Riku made the face he always made when he was thinking hard. "Well…" he said slowly. "Do we have an external hard-drive anywhere? Just put all the data on that and wipe it from the main Database so that Saix can't use it, but we still have access to it. Ah!" His eyes lit up as he realized something. "Won't that render the Repair Program useless for them?"

7 frowned. "I suppose it might… It would make things more tedious for us, though…"

"Sounds like it's worth it," Alpha argued.

Riku grinned a cocky grin. Namine laughed.

"I think it's genius!" Vexen exclaimed, rather suddenly. Slowly, everyone turned to him. He seemed a bit flustered, as if he had missed a good part of the conversation and had just now realized what was happening. But, besides that, he was regarding Riku with a rather proud expression.

Riku slowly glared, though he shifted slightly uncomfortably as he did so.

Vexen coughed and hastily straightened his own glasses.

"The external's in the left-hand drawer, right Alpha?"

Alpha groaned. "I told you not to go looking through…" he sighed. It wasn't really worth it; Vexen had already pulled the external out of the drawer.

He started to plug it in, but Alpha quickly shoved him out of the way (pushing past 7 in the process). 7 quickly regained his balance and glared at Alpha, fixing his glasses as he did so. He made a face, but said nothing. Alpha was yelling at Vexen for touching the computer by now, so it wouldn't have mattered even if he had said anything.

"This is ridiculous," Namine whispered, laughing slightly.

Riku merely nodded. He appeared to be in pain again.

Vexen glanced over at him, and frowned, stopping mid-argument as he did so. "That's right…" he said. "Riku's hand still hasn't been fixed."

"Well since he's not compatible with the Repair Program…" 7 replied, bitterly. He shook his head.

"I suppose I could go back to the other universe and Repair him from there…" Vexen muttered.

"That would require me coming, too!" Riku objected. "And I am not going back there!"

Vexen frowned, as if not sure if he quite liked the fact that Riku was so openly disobeying him. After a moment, though, he just sighed. "That's alright," he said. "I'm not sure if I want to, either. Xehanort might still be around… I wouldn't want to drag you into that mess…"

"So that leaves us at resorting to basic first aid, doesn't it?" Alpha asked, amusement in his voice. He glanced away from the computer (which was in the middle of transferring files and being rather slow about it) and looked to 7. "7?" he asked.

7 balked. "Why are you looking at me! If I could have fixed it, I would have already," he said. "I may know some curative magic, and basic first aid, but all the bones in his hand? That's not basic at all! I wouldn't even know where to begin."

"Some medic you are," Riku grumbled.

7 raised his eyebrows at Riku, and then slowly drew himself to his full height. "I'll have you know, medic has a slightly different connotation in this context," he said. "First off, I know plenty to tide any Replica over until I can get them to the Repair Program, and that's what matters. Second, what I'm really good at is fixing inconsistencies and errors within a Replica's Code, something that no mere program could do." He started to look smug, here, and continued with a smirk: "I also happen to be rather skilled with finding, identifying, and getting rid of viruses."

"You don't seem to know anything about my meltdowns, though…" Namine said slowly.

He turned to her and frowned. "Admittedly, I haven't exactly had the chance to look at them," he said. "I'll get on that as soon as possible."

"Please," Namine said.

Then something occurred to her, and she looked uneasy.

"You don't… think they're some kind of virus, do you?" she asked.

"Oh, no!" 7 laughed. "Not at all. I already asked R about it, and she said she'd never dream of writing a virus like this. Besides, if it was a virus, you wouldn't be the only one having trouble with meltdowns, trust me."

R? That would be a Larxene Replica—but, Riku found he didn't have the energy to care. He was in too much pain. "Anyway," he said through clenched teeth. "Have we decided what we were going to about my hand? It's starting to hurt a lot!"

There was silence for a moment.

"We could go see Aerith," Namine suggested, finally.

"Why… Oh yeah," Riku said. He remembered how Aerith had healed him just recently—what had it been, a few hours? It felt like days. "You really think she'll be able to fix it?"

Namine nodded. "And if not, I'm sure that she'll at least be able to do something."

"So it's settled," Vexen exclaimed. "We'll go see—"

"You're not coming!" Riku interrupted, shooting a glare at him. "Me and Namine will return to Hollow Bastion and ask Aerith about what she can do. You can stay here and do something else. I don't care what, but I don't want you following us!"

And before Vexen could say anything, Riku had formed a dark corridor around himself and Namine and they were gone.