Chapter 94: Escaping Fury

Between the lightning, the bullets, and the discomfort of fighting left-handed, Riku was having trouble fighting. He was trying to focus on attacking L, just because he wouldn't mind killing her and now seemed just as good a time as any, but Xigbar's bullets made it ridiculously hard.

He deflected a few of the bullets, then quickly took a swipe at L while Xigbar was reloading. She easily dodged, but then staggered slightly. She grimaced and rubbed her head, looking rather much like she didn't want to be showing her discomfort. Riku paused and made a face, realizing that the sounds of battle around him had all stopped. He glanced around.

L wasn't the only one who had staggered. 37 was currently shaking his head as if to clear it. Amaryllis was clutching his head, and his grip on his scythe looked like it was faltering. 29 was rubbing his head, too, and even Xigbar looked rather disgruntled.

Riku frowned.

"You really need to talk to him about this!" L groaned, shooting a glare at 37.

"And tell him what, exactly?" 37 replied through clenched teeth. "He's not going to listen to me!"

Amaryllis shook his head, still looking rather disoriented.

"What- what was that?" he asked.

"Saix Deactivated another Replica without focusing properly," L replied bitterly.

37 sighed. "I wonder who it was this time…"

"It better not have been Joseph…" 29 muttered.

"We wouldn't have felt it if it was Joseph," Xigbar (though, Riku was pretty sure that it was his clone now) said. "I'm sure Saix would've been focusing on him if he did Deactivate him."

Riku raised his eyebrows. He had no idea what anyone was talking about. He felt absolutely fine, while everyone else still seemed a little out of it. He wondered if this was another one of those things that didn't affect him because he wasn't a part of this Program.

It probably was.

And he was definitely going to take advantage of it.

He grabbed L by the hood of her cloak and dragged her into a position in which he could easily kill her. It was a tad difficult, due to the lack of proper mobility in his right hand, and he was sure that his grip on her wouldn't last long if she really struggled. But he had his blade at her throat within seconds, and he was fairly confident she wouldn't try anything.

Well, he hoped so, at least.

"How many times are you going to do this!" she gasped.

He merely brought his blade closer to her throat but otherwise ignored her.

"May I emphasize the fact of how much I really don't want to be here, right now?" he said, eyes fixed firmly on 37, who was glaring back at him. "I'm really irritable, actually, which probably isn't good for you."

"What do you want, then?" 37 asked.

"To finish up here so I can go back to Namine."

"Of course," L muttered. "It's always Namine!"

Riku smiled.

"Always," he whispered, then said, much louder: "Just let me into the Computer Room, and I'll let her go."

37 glared for a second, but then made his way over to the door to the Computer Room.

"This is low," L muttered, shooting a glare over at Riku.

"It's effective," he replied, not even bothering to look back at her. "Besides, you would've done the same."

L didn't bother to respond to that.

37 reached for the doorknob to the Computer Room, but was stopped by a bullet. He quickly snatched his hand away, only barely in time. Xigbar's Clone casually reloaded his gun.

"Don't let him in," he ordered, aiming the gun at 37 again.

37 frowned.

"You're aiming the gun at me?"

"Please, like I care if Hotshot kills her!" Xigbar's Clone laughed. "And if you think I'm just going to let you hand over the Program…" He tsked and shook his head. "So… you can go ahead and step away from that door."

37 didn't move.

Xigbar's Clone raised his eyebrows.

Riku scowled. He quickly made eye contact with Amaryllis then nodded over at Xigbar's Clone. Amaryllis nodded and hefted his scythe.

"Riiikuuu!"

Riku turned, slightly annoyed, to find, not surprisingly, Joseph running this direction. Surprisingly, though, there was another boy with Joseph; a redheaded boy who couldn't have been much older than 9 or so. Said boy grimaced slightly upon seeing 37 and L, but didn't say anything.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"My name's Toby, sir," the boy replied. "And—"

"Tobywedon'thavetimeforthat!" Joseph said, frantically. "We kinda sorta need to get out of here," he explained. "Like, uh, right now! We've got Saix on our tails!"

"Saix!" 29 exclaimed, eyes widening in shock. "Joseph! What did you do!"

"Caused a distraction!"

29 groaned and rubbed his head. "I knew this was a bad idea…"

"Well, it wasn't entirely—"

The sound of shattering ice interrupted him. 37 had decided to take advantage of everyone's momentary distraction to shoot an icicle at Riku. Toby had quickly sent a blast of what looked like fire to intercept it, and it had shattered the ice on contact. Toby then sent another blast at 37, knocking him off his feet.

L let out a small shriek and sent a jolt of lightning through Riku. He dropped her, too busy focusing on staying standing. Something familiar and unpleasant boiled in the back of his head, but he pushed the feeling—the memories—off by tugging at one of his still-healing fingers. That hurt maybe worse than the lightning did, but it did the trick and grounded him in the present.

Meanwhile, L rushed to 37's side.

"Been wanting to do that for a while…" Toby muttered, smirking slightly.

"37!" L said, shaking him frantically. "Sweetie! Are you okay? You have to be okay!"

Xigbar's Clone snorted.

Riku grimaced.

Toby made a big show of pretending to puke, at which both Joseph and Xigbar's Clone laughed.

"Hey, I like you kid!" he said. "How long have you been around?"

Toby shrugged, but said nothing more. Riku couldn't help but notice the slight glare on his face.

L turned to Toby, suddenly, a furious glare in her eyes.

"You!" she cried. "You stupid little mistake!"

She shot a rather large lightning bolt in his direction. Riku winced in sympathy for the boy, but then was surprised when Toby merely caught the lightning bolt and absorbed it. Riku's jaw nearly dropped in shock. Toby pointed over at Xigbar's Clone and let loose the excess energy in that direction.

"What was that about needing to leave?" Toby asked, glancing at Joseph.

Joseph turned to Riku.

Riku made a face and turned to Amaryllis.

"If Saix is on his way, then we should've left a good while ago," Amaryllis said.

"Right," 29 said and formed a dark corridor. He grabbed Joseph by the ear and dragged him through. "You owe me an explanation, young man!"

"Why!" Joseph whined, squirming. "I didn't do anything! And it wasn't nearly as bad as the Berserkers!"

"What Berserkers!"

"Aw crap! I- I meant to tell you- I swear! I just-" The rest of Joseph's frantic excuse was cut off as he passed through the corridor.

Toby laughed slightly and then started through the corridor, too.

"Hey!" Xigbar's Clone shouted, stopping him. Toby paused and turned. Xigbar's Clone was staggering back to his feet.

"What was that!"

Toby shrugged again. "Saix is pretty angry about me leaving; I guess I thought I'd be doing you a favor by making it look a little less like you had let me leave. Sorry." And, that said, he stepped through the corridor.

Riku raised his eyebrows. Toby hadn't sounded the slightest bit serious while he said all that. He wondered what the kid had against Xigbar's Clone, and then figured it was probably just the connection to Saix.

Because, from the sounds of it, Toby didn't really like Saix.

Riku turned to Amaryllis, who was currently picking up the still-unconscious Alpha.

"Need any help?"

Amaryllis shook his head and slung Alpha over his shoulder. "He's not as heavy as you think," he said.

"Oh, so you're just letting them leave!" L asked, throwing a glare at Xigbar's Clone.

"Like that's a bad thing?" he replied, laughing. "They leave, they don't get the Program! I say we won this one."

"But—"

"Isn't 37 severely injured or something?"

L fumed.

Amaryllis quickly went through the corridor.

Riku cast a glance back at Xigbar's Clone, and then followed.