Music suggestion: "1000 Ships of the Underworld" and "Velocitron" both by Two Steps From Hell
Chapter 146: Five
Twenty-eight… thirty… thirty-two…
Riku finished deflecting the last of that set of bullets and prepared himself for the next set.
Thirty-six… thirty-eight… forty…
I'm getting so sick of blocking bullets.
Fifty-two… fifty—wait. Ah man…
Riku sighed and dodged before the next set of bullets—one of the Xigbars had decided to send this set through a dark corridor—could take his head off. He brought up his blade to block the next set.
I was at… forty-four? I don't remember. Maybe I am at fifty now…
He gave up counting how many bullets he had blocked so far with another sigh, as he turned and blocked a few more bullets. He was really sick of blocking bullets. Really, really sick of it.
Maybe I should… he thought, frowning. I don't know, maybe I should… Could I attack one of them? Would it do me any good?
Figuring anything was better than blocking bullets, Riku dodged the next set and rushed at Xigbar (one of them, anyway) while he was reloading. He had to jump to even reach Xigbar (whichever one it was), but before he could land a blow, Xigbar warped out of the way. One, two, three bullets from the other Xigbar hit Riku before his feet touched the ground and he could block again. The bullets stung.
Okay… maybe blocking bullets isn't so bad…
I don't exactly feel like putting up the effort it would take to actually battle Xigbar—and there's two of them, to top it off! I'd probably get hurt; which I really don't want to deal with right now.
"Oi! When are you two going away?" he called.
"What's it matter to you?" one of the Xigbars replied.
"Just, y'know-" he grunted as he grounded himself against the force of the next stream of bullets. "—rather not be blocking bullets for the rest of my life."
"Oh, don't worry," the other Xigbar said. "You won't be."
"That's comforting…" Riku whispered, mainly to himself. He looked up at the Xigbars, then, ducking to the side before to avoid another barrage of bullets. "Oh, so you're stalling?" he asked, laughing slightly as he did so.
"Heh."
"As if."
What could they be stalling for, though? Riku wondered. He rolled forward to dodge the next set of bullets sent at him. He ended up relatively close to one of the Xigbars in doing so. He considered his next move for a second, and then went ahead and attempted to attack the Xigbar anyway. He jumped into the air and swung his blade at Xigbar. Had the attack hit, it would've landed on Xigbar's face, however, just like last time, Xigbar warped out of the way, and the other Xigbar sent off a round of bullets at him. Riku was able to avoid the bullets this time, though.
Like, seriously, what could they possibly be doing that requires keeping me distracted for so long? Riku thought as his feet touched the ground again. Terror clutched him as he finished thinking that thought through, and he almost lost his balance.
Namine.
No. No. No. Crap.
He ducked out of the way of more bullets, too distracted to block them properly. It was hard to think straight when there was terror coursing through him and his thoughts were churning at a mile a minute.
Crappity crap, crap, CRAP.
They're only really distracting me, after all. They probably went after Namine.
He swore at the thought. The Xigbars might've laughed, but he was hardly paying anything any attention. He was lucky to block the next few bullets that came at him.
They probably—
No.
He stopped his thoughts there, shook his head to clear it. He grounded his attention on the bullets he was blocking, counting; one, two, three, four, five, six. He let out a long breath, then turned to block the next bullets, counting them until the terror had faded from him.
They didn't go after her. They can't have. Axel was heading to the computer, and Xemnas went that way, too. They're probably just stalling so that Axel can do whatever it is he's doing.
And… Xemnas is involved… somehow…
He braced himself against the next set of bullets, grimacing slightly. He shook his head again in attempts to clear it.
Stop worrying about Namine!
She's fine.
She's not what they're after.
They're here for other reasons. They have to be here for other reasons.
Namine's safe. She's got to be safe.
He jumped out of the way to avoid the bullets that one of the Xigbars sent through a dark corridor. His thoughts were still churning as he tried to calm himself down.
Axel said that they wouldn't go after her anymore, didn't he? He wouldn't have lied about that. Yeah, he betrayed us right away, but… oh I don't know! He said the Organization had a change of plans. That's probably all they're here for.
Still…
Riku's eyes narrowed.
If Namine isn't safe, I am going to kill Axel. Slowly. Painfully. Make him wish he'd never been born.
And maybe while I'm at it, I'll get Xigbar, too. And Xemnas. Why not? Make them all suffer…
"Something on your mind, Hotshot?" one of the Xigbars called. "You're awfully quiet."
"Yeah," the other Xigbar laughed. "I was expecting some snarky comments or a few taunts by now. Not that you're… actually fighting or anything."
"Rather not waste my energy, thanks," Riku replied through clenched teeth. "Perfectly content with blocking everything you throw at me." He smirked then, just slightly. "Besides, I don't see either of you putting up much of an effort, either?"
"Too true."
"Why waste the energy?"
The Xigbars exchanged looks, then.
"You think we could-" the first one began, reloading his gun.
"Nah, he's not worth it," the second one interrupted, preparing to fire.
"Flattered…" Riku muttered, to himself, as he blocked this set of bullets. I guess… Eh, whatever. "How much longer are you going to keep this up?" he called.
"What do you think?"
"I don't know. Actually, you know what I-"
"Besides that!"
"Ah… " He took a second to scan the room. "Let's see, we're down two Larxenes and maybe a Marluxia…" He turned back to the other Xigbar. "How many did we bring with us?"
The other Xigbar shrugged.
The first Xigbar considered it a moment more, and then said: "Eh, yeah, we've probably bought him enough time." He paused for a second. "Well…" He shot another round of bullets at Riku. "Yeah. Now we've bought him enough time, I'd say."
"Right." This Xigbar shot one bullet up into the air, and then shouted. "Oi! Pack up your bags and head home! We're done here!"
The Xigbars then formed dark corridors around themselves and were gone. Not seconds later, about three more dark corridors opened and closed. The rest of the raid—if you could call them a raid—had left, too. Riku hardly noticed, though; he was already on his way to Namine's room.
xxx
Earlier…
7 hadn't been paying attention to how long they'd been fighting—he was too busy making sure Snapdragon didn't get injured any further.
"You really shouldn't be fighting," he told Snapdragon again, as he put himself between one of Ivy's attacks and Snapdragon. He was able to block the attack with his shield just fine, but Snapdragon didn't seem too happy about being saved.
"I could've blocked that…" Snapdragon muttered, turning to swing his scythe at Bloodroot. He missed, and Bloodroot swung his scythe in return, nearly taking off Snapdragon's head.
"You're injured," 7 argued, throwing a blast of ice at Bloodroot to keep him from swinging his scythe at Snapdragon again while he was recovering.
"And fighting just fine," Snapdragon retorted, now swinging at Ivy. Ivy blocked the attack with his own scythe. "I could go after that Lexaeus again if I wanted."
"Don't," 7 warned. "Or I will freeze you solid to keep you in place."
"You would not."
"7's right, Snapdragon," 29 called, as he cleared through what little amount of Assassins were left in the room to get closer to them. "You really shouldn't be fighting if you're injured. You'll make things worse for yourself."
"I'll be fine!"
Regardless of Snapdragon's protests, 29 put himself between Bloodroot and Snapdragon. "We have it handled, Snapdragon," he said. "Sit down and keep yourself out of harm's way. Or if you're desperate to fight something, I'm sure there are still a few Dragoons left in the room."
"Why don't you help Amaryllis, 29?" Snapdragon asked. "He's got more on his plate than we do. Bloodroot's too much of a coward to put up a decent fight. I can handle him."
"Take that back!" Bloodroot shouted, lunging at Snapdragon.
29 was there to block him before he even got close.
"Oh that's no fun," Snapdragon groaned.
But before either 29 or 7 could argue about him being injured, one of the Xigbar's shouted: "Pack up your bags and head home! We're done here!"
Almost immediately, Bloodroot formed a dark corridor around himself and was gone.
"See? I said he was a coward," Snapdragon chuckled.
Ivy and the Lexaeus Replica left shortly after that.
"Great." Amaryllis sighed with relief, now that he was no longer dealing with the Lexaeus. "I should go see what Axel's been up to; there are still a few lesser Nobodies in the room, though, so if one of you wouldn't mind taking care of them…" Amaryllis headed off to the Computer Room before he could get an answer.
"Don't even offer to take care of it," 7 said, before Snapdragon could speak. "You are injured, and we should see about getting you healed the rest of the way. Come!" And he led Snapdragon off.
"I guess that leaves me to deal with the Nobodies…" 29 sighed.
xxx
"Namine?" Riku called, knocking on her door. He'd almost opened the door without knocking, only to remember that she was working on a surprise that was probably for him, and wouldn't be happy if he saw it before she was done. She'd already kicked him out of her room once. "It's me…"
"Yep?" she replied. He breathed a sigh of relief. "And, no, you can't come in."
"Just checking on you," Riku said. "Since there was a raid and all…"
"I'm fine! The only person who's bothered me is Joseph."
"What about Toby?" he could hear Joseph say, from the other side of the door.
"Toby hasn't been a bother."
"Hey!"
Riku laughed. "Glad to know you're safe," he said. He found that he couldn't stop smiling for some reason. Then again, Namine was safe; why should he not smile? "I'm- I'm going to go see what Axel's up to, now." He paused, then added: "He betrayed us! Can you believe that?"
Namine sounded a bit distracted when she replied: "I don't know… I haven't thought about it much."
Riku sighed, the smile that seemed stuck on his face now faltered slightly.
"Am I bothering you?"
"Mmmm…"
It was neither agreement nor denial. Riku figured that he probably was bothering her, but she just didn't want to tell him that.
"Alright, I need to get going," he said. "See you later!"
"See you."
"Bye Riku!" Toby called.
"Give Axel a good kick in the shins for me, will you?" Joseph called. "Can't believe he betrayed us! And after all that about helping me with the—"
Riku started off before Joseph could finish ranting.