Chapter 93: Running from Fury

"That?" Toby asked, eyeing the chandelier uncertainly.

"Yes 'that'," Joseph replied, a touch of anger in his voice. The anger seemed to only be in good humor, though, so Toby didn't say anything about it. "I've been wanting to pull that thing down for ages! And what better excuse am I going to get than needing to cause a distraction?"

Toby only shrugged, not quite sure if Joseph actually wanted an answer to that or not. He glanced around the Grey Area. No one seemed to have noticed them yet, even though they were only standing slightly out of sight. Well… Luxord might have noticed them, but he didn't look like he cared or planned to do anything about them. He merely continued his game of what appeared to be solitaire. Besides Luxord, there were a few Vexen Replicas in the room, one of which Toby thought he remembered to be 5, but wasn't entirely sure about, three Larxene Replicas, none of which he knew nor particularly cared to know, and one Marluxia Replica. And from the way said Marluxia Replica and one of the Larxene Replicas were talking to each other, Toby had the feeling that he and Joseph wouldn't have to worry about them.

However…

He turned back to Joseph.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Define 'good'," was Joseph's response.

He made a face.

"Are we going to get in trouble for this?"

"Define 'trouble'."

He scowled.

"Are… we gonna get yelled at or anything?" he said, slowly, as if he were trying to be absolutely sure that Joseph would understand him and not give him such cryptic answers.

"I'm sure the Larxene Replicas are going to yell death threats at us," Joseph replied, but he was grinning. "But the worst they can honestly do to us is actually kill us, which none of them want to get close enough to do so long as you don't really tick them off, so we should be fine. The most we'll have to worry about is the lightning."

"I won't," Toby said. "I'm immune to lightning."

"Well aren't you lucky," Joseph told him.

Toby frowned slightly. He couldn't decipher the tone with which Joseph had spoken to him in as bitter or sarcastic or completely honest. Before he had time to really consider it, though, Joseph threw open a dark corridor and literally dove through it. He emerged next to the chandelier, barely managing to come out of his dive in time and grab onto it.

"Hurry up!" he called. "It's hard to hold on when I'm not swinging!"

Toby stared at him.

"He's back!" one of the Larxenes groaned, glaring up at Joseph.

"What did I tell you about being up there!" the Vexen Replica that Toby thought might be 5 yelled at Joseph.

Joseph ignored him, eyes firmly fixed on Toby.

"C'mon!" he urged, his hand slipping. He quickly regained his grip. "You too scared or something?" he called, almost taunting and yet concerned at the same time.

Toby swallowed.

"Scared" might just have been an understatement. He was already completely nervous at the fact he was wandering the halls, when he wasn't supposed to be. That, and Joseph happened to be his only way out of this blasted place.

And now Joseph thought it would be fun to swing from a chandelier until it fell from the ceiling.

I almost wonder if there's something off in his Data… Toby found himself thinking, as he watched Joseph slip again.

"Come on!" Joseph shouted, frantic now. "What better way is there to spend your first day of freedom? Be a little rebellious! Who's going to stop you?"

Freedom.

The word almost sounded odd to Toby's ears.

After spending so long in that room that Joseph had rightfully called a closet, he had almost forgotten that there was such a thing. He had almost forgotten that there was more to life than just that closet, more to life than the fear of being yelled at again, fear of sneaking out for fear of being punished-

Freedom.

He didn't realize just how much he wanted it until just now. And, heck, if a chandelier was the only thing standing in his way-

He grinned slightly, and cast a glance at the dark corridor. Sure that merely stepping through might not be entirely beneficial to him once on the other side, and yet not confident enough to actually dive through as Joseph had, he ran through.

He almost missed the chandelier.

Somehow, though, he did manage to grab onto it. He shifted his weight slightly, unsure of what to do now. Joseph turned around and grinned at him.

"Ready for the fun part?" he asked.

Toby didn't have a chance to respond. Joseph had already begun to swing. Toby held on for dear life, his hands threatening to slip. Thankfully it wasn't too far of a distance down, but far enough to be dizzying. He decided he wasn't going to focus on the height and instead mimicked what Joseph was doing, helping the swinging chandelier along.

Joseph was right about what he said before. It was easier to hold on while you were swinging.

However, after about a minute, it became rather obvious that the swinging wasn't doing them any good. The chandelier didn't look like it was any closer to falling from the ceiling than it did before. Joseph glared up at the fixtures holding it there, and then muttered something about a screwdriver.

Toby slowly followed his gaze. The chandelier was hanging from the ceiling by a chain. A chain that, maybe, he'd be able to do something about. He hoisted himself up and clambered into a better position to reach it, becoming suddenly aware how dangerous this probably was.

But, he was determined now, and he didn't want to ruin Joseph's excitement.

"Climb higher up," he instructed. "Don't want this thing crushing you when it falls."

Joseph cast a curious glance at him.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

Toby didn't respond. He only stared at Joseph until he had finally climbed up. Then he reached for the chain that was holding the chandelier to the ceiling, closing a hand around it.

Now, focus! he told himself, firmly. Maybe we can manage to get something to melt this time!

He focused his energy to his fingertips. The lightning came first, it always did, the fire came to him much slower for some reason. He had a bit of a fight with the lightning to keep it away from the metal, but it behaved once the fire was there and it had something else to latch onto. He tried to pull the lightning back into him, but to no avail. It refused to go anywhere unless he pulled the fire with it, and it was the fire that he wanted.

He frowned.

This wasn't going to work.

The chain was beginning to glow red from the heat, but the lightning was getting out of control. A few loose lightning bolts started working their way through the metal of the chandelier, but he quickly caught them and absorbed them before they could cause any damage.

Deciding rather quickly, he threw a chunk of fire and lightning at the fixture holding the chandelier to the ceiling. He had just enough time to shout "Brace yourself!" to Joseph before it exploded and the chandelier went crashing to the ground.

One of the Larxenes screamed.

Apparently, she hadn't bothered to get out of the way.

Toby winced slightly. She looked like she might not be getting up any time soon.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"That was effective!" Joseph laughed, scrambling away from the chandelier (being careful to avoid the Larxene Replica as he did so). He glanced over at Toby. "You need to tell me how you do that!"

"Well, it's kinda just-"

"Not now!" Joseph said, quickly. He threw a glance around the room, looking slightly miffed, but not worried in the slightest. Toby followed his gaze, and swallowed, instantly wondering how in the Worlds Joseph wasn't worried.

They were currently being confronted with many glares from everyone who was in the room previously (except Luxord, who had disappeared) and quite a few new people, all of which appeared to be Replicas. Some of them complained about the mess and nothing more, but most of them were gaping at Toby and demanding to know why he was there.

Why he wasn't dead.

Why no one had noticed him before.

"What now?" he asked Joseph quietly, not liking this one bit.

Joseph shrugged. "I didn't plan much after the chandelier," he admitted. "I suppose we can stay here for a bit. I'm not sure how long I needed to be a distraction. I never asked. I was too shocked that 29 actually agreed. Which reminds me, I need to…"

Toby stopped listening. A terrible feeling was forming in his gut. He strained to listen for something else, the fear inside him growing as each second passed, as he became more and more certain that he was hearing what he thought he was hearing:

Footsteps.

Footsteps that he had trained himself to listen for and recognize over these months, so that he could brace himself for what would come as soon as the owner of those footsteps reached him-

"Joseph," he said, quietly, quickly. "I really think we should-"

"What happened?" The voice belonged to Saix. The question started off in a rather bored tone, though it ended in a growl as, Toby assumed, Saix caught sight of the scene before him.

Almost everyone winced.

"H-Hello there," Joseph stuttered, his own confidence faltering. "Having a good day, are we, sir?"

Toby noted that he said "sir" like it was a mocking name, and not a sign of respect. He slowly turned to look at Saix. Saix did not look happy. Toby swallowed, feeling suddenly very scared when confronted with the look Saix was giving him right now.

The room was silent for a moment. Not even Joseph dared to speak up.

Then one of the Larxene Replicas sighed.

"Would someone like to explain why there-"

She didn't get to finish her sentence. Saix snapped his fingers, and she collapsed immediately. Everyone else in the room winced, a few even staggering slightly. Toby gasped as his vision blurred for a second, and Joseph shook his head as if trying to clear it.

"What are you doing here!" Saix roared.

"Well, you see," Joseph began. "I wanted to swing on this chandelier, now that I really couldn't get in-"

"I wanted out," Toby interrupted, his voice shaking. He forced himself to look Saix in the eye, though he wanted more than anything right now to be somewhere else. "I-I'm tired of- of just sitting there. It- it's not-"

Not fair, he wanted to say, but he couldn't bring himself to actually say the words.

He didn't have a chance to say them, anyway. Saix grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him to his feet, despite his struggles.

"What did I tell you?" hissed.

Toby flinched away.

"That- that I wasn't supposed to leave my room-" he stammered, trying to pull Saix's hands away from his throat. "That- that I-" He swallowed, with some difficulty. "That if you caught me out again you'd- you-"

"Let him go!" Joseph shouted.

Toby turned to him, shocked, watching as he pulled a wooden sword out of his belt (Toby was surprised he hadn't seen it sooner) and started hitting Saix with it. It didn't look like it was doing any damage, but it did seem to be distracting him.

"Let him go, do you hear me!" Joseph continued, impacting each of his words by hitting Saix with the sword.

Saix dropped Toby.

Toby hit the ground, hard, and grimaced. It hurt to move.

"This is all your fault!" Saix shouted.

Toby tried pushed himself back up, managing to just barely raise his head from the ground. He couldn't manage much more, but at least this was enough to see what was going on.

Joseph was standing defiantly in front of Saix, sword bared. Saix was glaring at him about ten times deadlier than he had been glaring at Toby previously.

"It's not fair!" Joseph said, voice not faltering once. "It's not fair what you did to Toby! You could've at least found somewhere nicer to put him if you were so insistent on keeping him around!"

"You have no right to speak on this matter," Saix replied, coldly, raising his hand. Toby gasped, noticing that Saix was not preparing to merely snap his fingers and Deactivate Joseph, but rather starting to summon his weapon. Joseph either didn't notice or didn't care, because he refused to move out of the way.

"It's not fair what you did to anybody!" Joseph continued. "It's not fair what you did to Raymond, or Patrick, or, heck, even Jill! You didn't have to destroy them! Any of them! And- and you didn't have to Rewrite Tulip, you didn't even have to Deactivate that Larxene Replica just now!"

"What do you care?"

Joseph made a face.

"I care a lot more than you think I do, obviously," he said, firmly. "I may not be able to change what you've already done, but I can stop you from ruining Toby's life. Toby has the right to live! To truly freely live! And he's not going to live if you force him to sit in that closet!"

Toby's ears perked up at that.

It had been so long since a single nice word had brushed past his ears.

So long, that the moment Joseph first spoke any to him, he had cringed away, scared to face any person that had the capacity to be kind to him. After all that time, he had begun to believe that he really just as worthless as Saix said he was, only alive because of an odd moment of compassion, which had really caused him more harm than it had saved him from-

He swallowed.

Saix prepared to strike.

Joseph hardly flinched away.

"No!" he cried, and before he really knew what he was doing he was throwing himself in front of Joseph, shielding him from the blow. The blow didn't come. Saix had paused.

"I will not hesitate to destroy you, too," he told Toby plainly.

Toby glared right back at him, and laughed.

"Sure you will," he said. "You did last time. And the time before that. And… the time before that."

Saix glared.

Toby smirked.

"Hey, I think now might be a good time to run," Joseph whispered. "I'm not sure how much longer you'll be able to make Saix hesitate. He's really not happy with me."

Toby nodded.

"Brace yourself," Joseph warned, grabbing Toby's hand. He activated his star shard, and they were gone.