Music suggestion: "Fight the Darkness" and "Chariots of Blood" by Two Steps from Hell. (I'll have music suggestions for most of these chapters.)

Update Feb 2014: If you wanna know what Joseph's talking about, check Can't Escape ch54-60. (I'd highly recommend you check those chapters anyway because Vexen feels and Joseph feels and it's one of my favorite sequences. If you only read one Can't Escape sequence let it be that one. Please.)

Chapter 142: One

"Are you… mopping?" Riku asked, slowly, as Joseph came over.

Joseph was indeed mopping. He paused and leaned against his mop, trying to look casual about it (even though the mop was about the size of him and it actually looked rather difficult for him to lean against it).

"I got in trouble," Joseph explained. "29 decided that, as punishment, I could clean nearly every inch of this Castle." He sighed.

Riku couldn't help but laugh. "How'd you manage to get yourself in that much trouble?"

"Went to the parallel universe without permission," Joseph said. "It's all Vexen's fault, really."

"Really?" Riku asked, dubious.

Joseph nodded. "Really! We were in Twilight Town, and there was a Heartless, and he was all like 'Ienzo! Move!' and I was like 'My name's Joseph, but okay!' I mean, I wasn't going to argue. I didn't want to die! That Heartless was huge! But, once the Heartless was dead, I asked him about it, and he was like 'What!? I didn't call you Ienzo!' and I was like 'uh, yeah. You totally called me Ienzo.' And then-" Joseph paused for a second, probably to take a breath. "Out of nowhere he was all like 'oh my gosh! Xehanort killed Ienzo! I'm such a terrible—'"

"Joseph!" 29 called. "I don't see you working!"

Joseph grimaced and started mopping again. Riku suppressed his laughter.

"Anyway," Joseph continued, a few seconds later, in a much quieter voice. "Of course had to go track down Ienzo for him, and prove to him everything was alright. He was moping! Vexen is not a fun person to watch mope…"

"You aren't going to get in trouble for talking to me?" Riku said, raising his eyebrows.

"Oh, I probably will," Joseph replied, grinning slightly. "But 29 shouldn't notice as long as I'm quiet and don't stop mopping."

"Right." Riku frowned, then, noticing something. "Where's Toby?"

Joseph frowned, too. "I actually don't know," he said. "I haven't talked to him since yesterday. Been cleaning." He stared at Riku for a second. "Where's Namine?"

"In her room." Riku said with a shrug. "She's working on something… said it was some surprise."

Joseph's eyes widened, and he smiled mischievously. "I bet being away from her is just—"

"29!" Riku called, raising his voice.

"Ack!" Joseph exclaimed. "Don't listen to him! I'm working!" He glared at Riku. "You're evil…"

Riku just chuckled. Joseph's mopping had taken him—most likely purposefully—away from Riku, so they couldn't talk to each other anymore. Not that Riku minded. He was perfectly content with his thoughts.

Like… what exactly was Namine doing, anyway? She'd said it was a surprise, whatever it was. A surprise for him? That seemed very likely, since she'd practically shoved him out of her room when he last tried to talk to her. But why was she making something for him…? She'd never done anything like that before… certainly not to this extent, anyway.

A dark corridor opened all of a sudden. Riku glanced up, tensing slightly, but it was only Axel who stepped out. He relaxed.

"Yo!" Axel said.

Riku raised his hand in a partial wave. Axel nodded at him and then surveyed the room. Riku followed his gaze, trying to decide what he was looking for. Axel seemed to take note of Alpha, who was reading; Amaryllis, who was in one of the corners talking to… Snapdragon; and his eyes lingered on Joseph for a brief second before he turned back to Riku.

"I've got some good news," Axel continued. "Saix will, most likely, not be attempting to kidnap Namine anymore."

"That seems like a godsend," Alpha mused, glancing up from his book. "What's the bad news?"

"None, that I'm aware of," Axel replied. "The Organization's just had a change of plans, that's all, and… if things go well… they might not even need the Program anymore."

"Seriously, Axel, what's the bad news?" Riku asked.

"There is none."

Alpha frowned. "What has the Organization changed their plans to?"

Axel shook his head. "Now, that I can't give you details on," he said. "But… that reminds me… I'll have to apologize…"

Riku's eyes narrowed. "For what?"

"Hey! I just mopped there!" Joseph cried, as the sound of lesser Nobodies appearing filled the room.

"That," Axel said.

Riku sat up straighter, quickly scanning the room, taking in exactly what they were facing. There were plenty of Dusks. No Berserkers. He could count five Assassins. Six Dragoons. At least two Snipers. None of them had started attacking, yet, though the Snipers were already taking aim.

"Joseph!" he called. Joseph quickly made his way over, using the mop to push a few Dusks out of his way.

"Yeah?"

"Go make sure Namine's safe, will you?"

Before he could get an answer, about a dozen dark corridors opened, and immediately the lesser Nobodies started attacking.

"And that," Axel called, over the slight chaos.

Riku was on his feet now, surveying the room very quickly, before he could get attacked. He spotted quite a few Marluxia Replicas. One Lexaeus Replica. And… was that a pair of Larxene Replicas on the other side of the room? He couldn't tell, though, because it was then that something hit him in the shoulder. A bullet.

One of Xigbar's.

Before he could even turn to locate Xigbar, another bullet hit him. Furious, blade drawn, Riku turned around, and was faced with two Xigbars.

"Hey, Hotshot!" they called in perfect unison.

"Oh, and that, too," Axel said, just loud enough for Riku to hear. Riku ignored him and quickly brought up his blade to block the torrent of bullets that Xigbar and his clone were now shooting at him.

"You traitor!" one of the Vexen Replicas called. Was that… 19? It was hard for Riku to tell while he was avoiding bullets. Between the two Xigbars, one of them was always shooting, making deflecting and dodging bullets much harder than usual.

"Sorry," Axel replied. "But the war between you and Saix had come to a stalemate. I found other ways to fill my agenda. Bringing a friend back sounded like a better idea than revenge on Saix. Besides," he laughed slightly, "I couldn't say no to the boss, now I could I?"

"Well, he could've," Xigbar laughed. (At least, Riku decided to call him Xigbar. He actually had no clue which was the real Xigbar and which was the clone.) "It just wouldn't have been a smart idea, is all I'm saying." He threw a glance at his clone as he reloaded his guns.

Xigbar's clone smirked. "Exactly."

Out of the corner of his eye, Riku saw Axel start walking. "External's in the left-hand drawer, right Alpha?" Axel called over his shoulder. Riku turned for a split second, and noticed with a sinking feeling that Axel had a relatively clear path to the Computer Room.

Alpha swore. Had Riku's attention not been demanded by the bullets Xigbar and his clone were still sending at him, he would've noticed that Alpha was noticeably paler than usual. "How did he—someone stop him!" Alpha shouted.

"If you hadn't noticed-" Ah, that was 7, not 19. "None of us are really strong enough to take him!"

"I could… possibly stall him," Amaryllis said, slowly. "But there's a high chance I'd get killed."

Xigbar laughed, then. "Looks like they want you to go after him, Hotshot!" he called, pausing to reload his guns.

The clone followed suite, allowing Riku enough time to turn and see what he was talking about. Sure enough, Alpha, Amaryllis, and 7 were all looking at him expectantly. He glared, and hearing another round of bullets being fired, turned to block them. "I'm busy!" he said, tersely.

Alpha sighed. "I'll at least go see what he's doing…"

"Where's Joseph?" 29 demanded, rushing over.

"Hopefully, out of-" Riku grunted, blocking a few more bullets, "—harm's way." He finished reflecting the last of those bullets, and then shouted: "Are the bullets really necessary?"

"Well, we wouldn't want you ruining anything, now would we?" Xigbar replied, firing off another round of bullets.

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

"Heh. Wouldn't you like to know."

xxx

Vexen hadn't paid Axel much attention when he first arrived. In fact, he hadn't even noticed that Axel had arrived, being on the exact opposite side of the room and all. It wasn't until five Dusks and a Dragoon appeared in front of him that he realized something was going on. He quickly destroyed the nearest three Dusks by simply throwing a few icicles at them.

He was about to attack the other two Dusks when the Dragoon threw a lance at him. He quickly summoned his shield to block it, now distracted by the two dark corridors that had opened not ten feet from him. From each stepped a Larxene. He groaned internally and scanned the room before the Larxene's decided he was worth bothering.

It was just like any raid, really, minus the addition of all these lesser Nobodies. Snapdragon was currently locked in combat. Thistle and 29 were being confronted by a Lexaeus Replica, though 29 appeared to be worried about something—most likely Joseph. Vexen finished scanning the room, finding nothing else out of the usual—

Wait a minute. Was that Xigbar? The sound of the bullets certainly sounded the same, though they were doubled. Xigbar's clone was here, also. They were both shooting at Riku. However, Riku seemed to be doing a decent job of protecting himself, so there was no need to worry about that… for now…

But what was going on?

There was… one way to find out.

Vexen turned back to the Larxenes.

"I thought the Larxene Replicas were forbidden from coming to Castle Oblivion," he said, slowly. Asking his initial question up front would've gotten him nowhere, but hopefully he could squeeze the information he wanted out of the Larxenes indirectly.

"Well, usually, yeah," one of the Larxene's said.

"But this is a special occasion!" The other Larxene was practically brimming with excitement. And it wasn't the typical cruel enjoyment kind of excitement that one usually saw on Larxene. It was cheerful. Cheerfulness did not suit Larxene, Vexen decided, rather quickly.

"Shut up, T," the first Larxene said.

"You shut up, V," the second replied, a sense of wounded dignity about her.

Vexen blinked a few times. This could be harder than he thought.

"How is this a special occasion?" he asked, hoping for a straight response.

"I don't know!" the all-too-cheerful Larxene replied—T, had she been called? "We weren't given very many details, but this is most certainly a special occasion. What, with the boss in-"

"Shut up!" V snapped.

Boss?

Vexen's eyes widened slightly.

Xemnas?

What in the name of all that was good in the Worlds was Xemnas planning? And was he coming here? Vexen wasn't sure, but it wasn't past him to jump to such conclusions. He swallowed. He should probably tell someone… but he'd have to get away from the Larxenes first.

Actually, first, he'd have to dispose of that Dragoon. It'd thrown another lance at him, and it wouldn't be long before it decided it really wanted to start attacking. The Dusks had gone elsewhere.

Thankfully, it didn't take more than a blast or so of ice to get rid of the Dragoon.

"Awh, does the ickle little Vexen Replica not like having things thrown at him?" T—the all-too-cheerful Larxene—asked. Her tone was mainly mocking, though, which made her sound more like the typical Larxene. Vexen frowned slightly at being called a Replica, but… why get into complications?

"Don't call me that," he said, flatly. Even if he didn't mind much at being called a Replica, he certainly did not enjoy being called "ickle" or "little". The Larxenes were beginning to push his tolerance.

"Why not?" V taunted, smiling for once this whole time. It was a cruel smile—something he was definitely used to seeing on Larxene.

That reminded him…

Vexen turned and scanned the room again. Sure enough, a certain pair of people was indeed lacking.

"37 and L aren't here," he mused, quietly. He wasn't sure if he should be worried or relieved. On the bright side, they weren't here. However… why weren't they? The likeliness of this being any sort of a regular raid was quickly dwindling.

V gagged. She looked about ready to lose her lunch. "Ugck! Just mentioning them makes me feel sick…"

"Of course they aren't here!" T said, her cheerfulness returning. "What use would they be? Besides, Saix isn't very happy with them. And, rumor has it, Xemnas isn't very happy with Saix." She giggled at the thought. "Anyway even if those two were here, they wouldn't be doing anything different than what we're doing."

"And what is that?"

Surprisingly, T replied to his very direct question with a straight answer. "Being a distraction. To make sure Riku doesn't screw anything up."

"Don't see why we're needed…" V sighed. "Xigbar and his clone seem to be doing a fine job of keeping Riku occupied."

Vexen spared a glance in that direction. Sure enough, Riku was still deflecting bullets, and appeared incapable of doing much else, lest he get hit. That was… good. Provided Xigbar and his clone didn't decide to do anything besides shoot bullets. Provided no one else came up and attacked Riku while he was distracted. Provided the two Larxenes standing here didn't get bored and decide that they were going to bother Riku anyway, despite it being unnecessary.

Of course, if they did go bother Riku, there wasn't a likely chance they'd live very long.

However… two Larxenes and two Xigbars. Even for Riku, those odds did not look very good.

And—

Vexen froze.

"I'd do anything to make sure she does not touch him, does not harm him, does not go anywhere near him again!"

His heart thudded a time or two in his chest. Blasted thing. Blasted emotions. One would think that he would've gotten used to such things over the past year. (Had it been a year for him? Less?) But regardless of how used to emotions he may or may not have gotten, this feeling of hasty protectiveness was one emotion Vexen didn't entirely like.

Still, though…

His eyes narrowed.

They were going to get themselves killed anyway.