Chapter 152: Eleven
"Riku, would it kill you to stand still?" Vexen asked.
Riku rolled his eyes, ignored him, and continued his pacing. It'd been, oh, two hours that they'd been sitting here and waiting. For… whatever reason. Riku couldn't remember what it was.
"Finally, 26 looks like he's nearly finished with Roxas," Alpha said.
Riku turned to him, eyes lighting up slightly. That was right. They were waiting until Roxas was finished.
"How can you tell?" Vexen asked.
"Because, look, you can see Roxas." Alpha pointed at the screen. "And 26 isn't typing anything, so Roxas is most likely processing. Which means he's almost done. It's a matter of minutes now."
"Alright, then, what exactly is our plan?" Amaryllis asked as he ducked back into the Computer Room. He'd left for… some reason. Some reason that had kept him out there for thirty minutes. Oh well. Riku didn't really care. "Just to make sure we all haven't forgotten it in the past, what, two hours we've been sitting here?"
"We're getting the Program back from them," Alpha said. "Which basically means we're going to get the external back."
Riku frowned. "We're just going after the external? Why didn't we just go get that sooner? Why'd we have to wait two hours?"
"Because if we took the external before Roxas was finished," Alpha explained, a touch of bitterness in his voice. "We'd essentially kill him; 26 couldn't finish Rebuilding him without the external." He shot a glare in Riku's direction. "Didn't we discuss this?"
"I believe we did," Vexen said.
Riku glared over at Vexen.
"You're not helping…" He muttered. He stopped his pacing and stretched slightly. His neck hurt. "And what happened to my rescuing Roxas plan?"
"It was bad one," Alpha said, simply.
"Was not." Riku crossed his arms. "It'd probably be better for Roxas."
"Your plan might have good intentions, Riku," Vexen said. "But I have to agree with Alpha; it has a high chance of failing."
"Like his 'grab the external plan' is any better! It has just as much of a chance at failing."
"But it's simple," Alpha argued. "And it if works, we'll be better off in the long run. Once we have the external, we can just dump all the data on it onto another external or three, and we won't be able to lose the data again—or, at least, it'll be harder to lose the data."
"And what's so wrong with my plan?"
"For starters, we'd have to get Roxas away from the Organization, which certainly won't be easy. I mean, do you honestly think Xemnas would let us have him? Do you honestly think Axel would let us have him?"
Riku scowled. "Well, what if we do what Amaryllis suggested?"
"What did I- oh. Convincing Axel to swap to our side?" Amaryllis shook his head. "I'm not sure that'd work. I mean, it's a thought, but to be honest, I'm not even sure why I suggested it to begin with."
"Exactly," Alpha said. "He has no reason to swap sides. He has what he wants."
"But if we give him a reason—"
"And what would that reason be?"
Riku thought about it for a second, but he honestly didn't have to think for long. "That… the Organization's going to treat Roxas like crap." Sure, maybe they wouldn't be too terrible to him. But… "That Xemnas is going to turn him into his own puppet."
"And how do you know that?" Alpha asked.
"Well, why wouldn't he?" Riku replied.
"Because he doesn't need to," Alpha said. "All he wants is his Keyblade wielder. I'm sure he couldn't care too much about it as long as Roxas completes Kingdom Hearts for him. There's no need for him to turn Roxas into a puppet."
"Yeah, but if he can control Roxas's every whim, then Roxas won't try and run away or rebel-" He paused, then continued, wryly: "Didn't he do that before? Isn't that why he got killed? They wouldn't want that to happen again. Of course Xemnas is going to turn Roxas into his puppet."
"You may be exaggerating things, Riku," Amaryllis said.
"You think I am?" Riku suppressed a bitter laugh. "Don't you know what I've been through?"
"Riku, Marluxia did not put you through that," Vexen said, sternly.
"Are you kidding me?" Riku did laugh now, bitterly, angrily, hurt. "I was everyone's puppet." He looked at Vexen straight on. Even yours. He didn't dare say that aloud, though. Instead, he tried to smooth it over, and said: "And let's not forget that Marluxia was perfectly intending to turn Sora into his puppet."
Vexen stared back at him. Riku almost wondered if he knew what he was thinking. Something about the way he was looking at him. It was… guilt? No, it couldn't be. Couldn't.
"Doesn't mean Xemnas is going to try it with Roxas," Alpha said.
"Actually…" Vexen began, slowly. "I… wouldn't be surprised if he considered it."
"So you're agreeing with Riku, now?" Alpha asked. "I thought you were arguing with him."
"I was just reminding him that, Marluxia didn't entirely—" He stopped, shook his head. "That doesn't matter. Marluxia planned on turning the Keyblade wielder into his puppet, and I don't see why Xehanort wouldn't, either. I doubt he'll want to have to go through this process again, so if he can keep his grip tight on Roxas—"
"You mean Xemnas, right?" Amaryllis asked. "Not Xehanort."
Vexen shook his head. "It makes no difference. I don't see why anyone would want to go through the trouble of having to Rebuild Roxas twice. If Xemnas can keep his grip on Roxas, through any means, he will do it. I'm almost certain."
"See? This is why we need to get Roxas away from him," Riku said.
"I already told you that it's too risky," Alpha said. "Even if it would probably be better for Roxas, what are we supposed to do with him once we have him? Hide him here? Do you want to get everyone killed?"
Riku bit his lip. Alpha did have a point there. It didn't change how Riku felt about this, though.
"We'll go after the Program—the external," Alpha continued. "It's all we can do."
Riku sighed. He'd run out of arguments.
"How are we planning to get the external, anyway?" Vexen asked.
"Someone, likely Axel or 26, will have it on their person. We need to find it, and take it." Alpha said. "It's not that complicated in theory. It's only a matter of executing it." He turned to Amaryllis. "Amaryllis, go gather reinforcements, will you? We'll meet on Floor 13, just outside the computer room."
Amaryllis nodded and headed out.
"Can't they just corridor away, though?" Riku asked, slumping against the wall and folding his arms across his chest, dejected.
"I thought most of Floor 13 was corridor-proofed," Vexen said.
"Yeah, but can't 26 undo that with the computer? He set the corridor-proof up, didn't he?"
Vexen frowned, unsure of how to respond. Riku turned to Alpha.
"I'll put a password lock on the corridor-proof," Alpha said, as he turned to the computer. "So he can't undo it."
"But couldn't you have undone the corridor-proof?"
"I could've." Alpha shrugged. "But it's not like it does us any good, does it? Not now anyway. We need it to be corridor-proofed, or else we'll have no chance of getting the external."
Riku let out a long breath and closed his eyes.
I'm so not looking forward to this…
What happened to our doing nothing plan?
I mean, I know I was adamant about suggesting rescuing Roxas and all, but… I guess I was just trying to prove a point. Argue for the sake of arguing. Or something. I don't know. Now that I think about it, I don't even want to try. I'm clearly not any good at fighting.
It was one thing if we could talk to Axel about swapping sides—
That meant no more fighting.
But we aren't rescuing Roxas.
We're going after the dumb external.
And I'll have to fight.
He suppressed a groan, not wanting Vexen or Alpha to know what was going through his head.
We'll be against Axel and Xemnas, and 26, as if Axel and Xemnas weren't enough. I mean, Vexen Replicas are hit and miss on whether or not they can fight, but, my luck, 26 will be perfectly capable of doing so.
Oh, and there's also Roxas to worry about. I wonder if he'll be up and fighting. He probably will be…
My luck absolutely sucks today.
xxx
Things were going surprisingly smoothly. The Rebellion had only attempted to meddle once—and Axel had proven more than capable of keeping them away from the Computer Room. He made decent security, Axel did.
26 let out a long breath, rubbing his chin as he looked over the computer screen again. Everything… seemed to be in order. It wouldn't be certain until Roxas was out of the final processing stages, but, from what 26 could tell, Roxas hadn't failed. At worst—and this was an honestly worst-case feasible scenario—he'd have to go through the editing stages a time or two until whatever mistakes were ironed out. Otherwise, he would function just fine.
This is probably the fastest I have ever built a Replica, 26 mused. He glanced at the clock. It'd been 2 hours and 51 minutes since he had started. Yes, this was certainly the fastest he'd built a Replica.
Not that Roxas is… finished. He's still processing, and that could take another ten minutes, and I also have to go through his memories. Who knows how long that will take. It could be anywhere between twenty seconds to twenty minutes, depending on how fast the computer decides to copy his memories over. Thankfully, he doesn't have a lot of memories, but…
The doors opened, again. 26 didn't even glance up, knowing that it was Axel. That man was so impatient… Thankfully he'd started checking once about every twenty minutes, instead of twice every fifteen. But it was still ridiculous.
"Axel, I have told you a million times; I will come get you if something goes wrong," 26 said.
"I was just checking," Axel replied.
The doors shut.
26 rubbed his head and looked over the screen one more time. Roxas's stats looked fine. And, according to the computer, all his basic functions were working. Of course, that was something that the computer could easily get wrong; you couldn't entirely be positive on basic functions until a Replica was up and moving and using such functions. The computer only recognized whether or not the Code representing each function was scrambled. If the Code wasn't scrambled, then there was a high chance there'd be nothing wrong with the function.
"26, how much longer until Roxas is finished?" Xemnas asked.
26 glanced up. "Ah, not much longer sir. A half hour at most. He just needs to finish processing, and then I'll have to restore his memories."
"Don't bother with his memories; he can do without those."
26 swallowed a few times, dreading how Axel would react to such an idea. Of course, 26 really couldn't refuse an order from Xemnas, but that still didn't mean he was looking forward to dealing with Axel if Roxas did not have his memories.
"Are- are you sure?" he asked, trying to keep his voice steady. "Do you really want to have to teach him everything all over again?"
Xemnas was silent for a moment.
"Give him only what is necessary, then."
"And how exactly do I determine what is necessary?"
"Simple. Get rid of anything that has traces of the girl in it."
Xion. He wants me to delete all traces of Xion.
26 swallowed again.
Axel will have to understand. Roxas couldn't keep those memories. She was the reason he slipped out of our grasp in the first place.
"It will take me a bit longer to sort through the memories, sir," 26 said.
"Then perhaps you should get to work."