AN/ Wondering what Joseph's up to? Check out ch43 of Can't Escape.

Chapter 91: Tired of Fighting

"Shouldn't we just go now?" Riku asked, fingering the hilt of his blade. He still wasn't quite used to holding it in his left hand, and figured that he probably wouldn't get used to it any time soon. He sighed. "I mean, it's not like anyone's guarding the Computer Room."

He, Alpha, 29 and Amaryllis all stood around the corner from the Computer Room. 29 had only insisted to come because Joseph had, though Riku didn't quite see the point of him being here when Joseph happened to be who-knows-where. But, whatever, it really didn't matter.

"There's probably an alarm," Alpha replied, not even glancing up from the book he was reading. "We'll wait for Joseph's signal, and then go while everyone's distracted, as planned. Hopefully, no one will notice the alarm go off."

"And Joseph's signal will be?"

"Knowing Joseph, a large crash and some screaming," 29 sighed.

"Right…" Riku muttered, leaning against the wall.

He was bored.

No, bored was an understatement.

He just flat out didn't want to be here.

I really am sick of all this. I'm sick of this stupid Rebellion, I'm sick of fighting, I'm sick of dealing with 37, I'm sick of having a Larxene Replica yell at me every other day. Sure, they aren't the real one, but they're just plain annoying!

Besides, I thought I wouldn't have to deal with Larxene anymore…

He sighed.

I almost want to go home.

I miss the Islands.

It's peaceful there…

He grimaced.

I couldn't though. The Rebellion still needs me. Besides…

I'd probably get bored, there, too.

He tightened his grip on his blade, so tight that his hand started to hurt. He relaxed his grip, and then sighed again. He threw a glance at Alpha, who was still reading his book. He raised his eyebrows at that, and then looked over at Amaryllis. Amaryllis looked like he was preparing himself for battle. He turned to 29. 29 was muttering something about regretting this later.

Riku returned to his thoughts.

I wonder what Namine's up to…

I wonder if she's as bored as I am.

He laughed slightly at that.

Nah, she probably just started drawing. She can't be bored when she's drawing.

I…

I hope she's okay…

Saix could've sent someone after her already, and I wouldn't be there to do anything about it. I mean, I'm sure someone over there would look after her, but…

It's not me…

He swallowed, and then shook his head.

What am I worrying about?

Just as long as she's safe-

Nothing else matters…

And she better be-

His thoughts of what he was going to do if he got back and Namine wasn't alright were quickly interrupted by the sound of a rather shrill shriek from some Larxene Replica. He quickly straightened and readied his blade.

"That's our cue!" he said.

Alpha sighed and pocketed his book. He grimaced, and then pulled his Lexicon out of another pocket and started flipping through the pages. "You have the key, don't you Riku?" he asked, pausing on a page and running a finger down it as he searched for something. He didn't find it, and turned to the next page.

Riku nodded and pulled the key out of his pocket. His fingers brushed across a piece of paper as he did so, and he paused for a split second. He had almost forgotten that he still had the picture with him. A small smile crossed his face.

He'd have to tell Namine.

He sighed and then went and unlocked the door.

"No alarm," he said as he pushed it open. "We'd have heard it by now, wouldn't we?"

"It might have gone off somewhere else; don't get too cocky," Amaryllis warned.

Riku rolled his eyes.

"Speaking of that alarm, shouldn't we have done something to disable it while we were waiting?" 29 asked.

"Couldn't have done it without seeing the system," Alpha replied with a wave of his hand, not even looking up. "And that would be on the inside of the room, not on the outside. Besides, maybe one isn't there at all. We did use a regular key to get in."

"Maybe there's one on the computer," Riku suggested.

"Fine, someone check!"

"29, you can do that," Amaryllis said. "Riku, keep look out." He turned to Alpha. "And what are you doing?"

"Setting up an illusion so that when the inevitable one or so people that come our way will worry about it and not us."

"Aren't you the one that needs to be trying to hack the computer?"

Alpha threw a glance over his shoulder. "Well, Riku doesn't want to fight, you couldn't handle more than a few people at a time and 29, no offense 29, wouldn't be much of an obstacle. This seemed most effective."

"Shouldn't you have been doing this sooner?" 29 called.

Alpha returned his attention to his Lexicon. "My book was getting good," he muttered. "Now stop asking me questions, I need to focus to get this done properly in a decent amount of time."

Riku scratched his cheek.

"Maybe I can do something about the computer…" he muttered. He went over to the computer, stared at it for a second, sighed. "It's going to need a password to even let me on, isn't it?" he asked.

"I said stop asking me questions!" Alpha called.

Riku rolled his eyes.

"Right…"

Let's see… Saix would've changed the password to the computer itself, so it wouldn't be one of Vexen's typical ones, which is a shame… I know most of those. Or, I know what they are in the other universe. I'm not sure how different Vexen was here with his passwords…

But what would Saix change the password to?

If he changed it at all…

37 could've easily done THAT.

He started to give it his best shot, anyway, when the sound of a couple Nobodies appearing distracted him. He turned, seeing two Berserkers out in the hall. One of them started to attack, but was quickly stopped by Amaryllis. Amaryllis sent a glare at Riku.

"Let me guess, you'd be opposed to taking out a Berserker, wouldn't you?" he asked, tersely.

"You can't handle a Berserker?" Riku replied, just as 29 chucked an icicle at the other one.

"Thought so," Amaryllis sighed. "Alpha?" he called.

"Can't help you, in the middle of something!" Alpha replied. "Keep them off my back, will you?"

"Riku!"

"Okay, okay," he said, shifting into Dark Mode and throwing a Dark Firaga at the closest Berserker. He rushed out of the computer room and started attacking.

The Berserkers were finished off in short order, which was probably a good thing, all things considered. Still though, he wished they'd put a little more thought in this plan… At least it was only Beserkers.

Riku sighed and shifted out of Dark glanced over at Alpha, who was still working on his illusion, and rolled his eyes.

"You're going to waste all the time Joseph is buying us by working on that."

"If there weren't so many distractions, I'd be done already," Alpha replied, voice bitter. "Now stop distracting me!"

"Riku, you said you might be able to figure the computer out," Amaryllis sighed.

Riku shrugged.

"I suppose I can-"

He stopped, hearing the door to the Computer Room swing shut. They all (except Alpha) turned, finding 37 with his hand on the doorknob and a glare on his face.

"Which one of you has my key," he asked, voice like steel. "And how did you manage to get it?"

"No one said anything about a key, 37," 29 replied.

37's eyes narrowed. "29, you sure have some guts to be showing your treacherous face around here," he said.

"Treacherous?" 29 raised his eyebrows. "You might want to watch who you direct that word at."

37 laughed slightly. "Are you saying I'm the traitor? I merely stayed where I belong; with the Program."

"By that logic, I am not a traitor, either," 29 replied. "I stayed where I belong; with Joseph and, more importantly, where he is safe. It is not my fault Saix decided he wanted to destroy every experiment and that I had to go against him to keep Joseph out of harm's way."

"Not every experiment," 37 muttered, voice bitter.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing."

And before the matter could be pressed farther, he summoned a couple more Berserkers.

Riku groaned.

"Really?" he muttered, starting to attack the Berserker that was going after Alpha.

He didn't need to, however, for a bullet shot the Berserker in the back of the head, killing it stone dead.

"Idiot!" Xigbar (or, well, it could be his clone. Riku couldn't quite tell the two of them apart) scolded. "Don't go after the man who's too busy focusing on an illusion to attack anything! Go after someone more important!"

Riku threw a glance over at Xigbar, took a second to see if he could decide whether or not he was a Replica, and found that he couldn't. He then, after deciding that the other two Berserkers were taken care of, went to attack 37 out of sheer annoyance. He didn't get that far, though. Something stung him in the shoulder, painful enough that it caused him to stagger.

"Hey, Hotshot!" Xigbar called. "You going to bother to thank me for that or not?

Riku flexed his shoulder, trying to shrug the pain away.

"Didn't think you'd care," he muttered, going after 37 again. And, again, he was stopped by a bullet. He grimaced and turned to Xigbar.

"Really?"

Xigbar just shrugged and reloaded his guns.

Riku brought up his blade to block the next bullet that was shot at him. Before he could do anything else, another batch of bullets was sent his way. He quickly blocked them.

"I just saw the Squirt running through the Castle," Xigbar said in the pause where he had to reload. "Tried to take down the Chandelier in the Grey Area."

"Joseph would…" 29 sighed, clonking the Berserker he was fighting over the head, killing it. He turned to Amaryllis, nodded towards 37. Amaryllis turned away from the Berserker he was fighting and brought his scythe down on 37. 37 blocked. 29 went after the Berserker that Amaryllis had previously been fighting.

Riku dodged out of the way of the next few bullets that were sent at him and attacked 37. However, 37 dodged out of the way of his blade and Amaryllis's scythe.

"L?" 37 hissed into his headset, holding up his shield to block another attack. "I could use a little backup here!"

He immediately winced and turned the volume on his headset down.

Riku took that moment to attack, and managed to start to land a combo. The combo was, however, interrupted. Not by a bullet, but by the sound of lightning and Alpha screaming. Riku stopped what he was doing and turned, just in time to see Alpha been thrown across the hall. He hit a wall and fell to the ground. He didn't move.

"Well that was effective!" L laughed, charging up another lightning bolt.

Amaryllis threw a glance at Alpha, then turned to Riku.

"Next time, we're talking him out of the illusion idea."

Riku nodded and quickly avoided the lightning that L threw at him.

I SO don't want to be doing this… he thought with a groan, but readied his blade and rushed forward anyway.