Chapter 171: Caught

Vexen stepped out of the dark corridor and immediately went to the desk. He opened the… second drawer, was it? Ah, yes! There was the external. He pocketed it, and then shifted to the computer, sighing a little.

Well, that was easy, he thought to himself. Though since it was so easy, I don't see why anyone couldn't have just done it. What was the purpose of sending me, exactly? For a task so little? Ridiculous.

I know I'm supposed to look at the computer, too, but the original plan was just for me to grab the external. Anyone could've done that. It took me two seconds.

They probably just wanted to send me because I'm expendable…

He jiggled the computer mouse, waking the computer up. It demanded a password.

"Right," he said, making sure his headset was turned on. "Did you say you know what the password was, 7?"

"Mm…" 7 said, on the other end. "Caps lock."

"What?"

"Trust me. Caps lock."

"Okay…"

Vexen figured it was best not to question.

"H, Y, U, and the numbers: 8, 7, 6," 7 said, slowly.

"8… 7, 6…" Vexen repeated, typing them in. "And then?"

"Caps lock. It should be off."

"Got it."

"G, t, y, and the numbers: 6, 5. That's it."

Odd password, Vexen couldn't help but think. He hit the ENTER key. "Oh! It worked."

"That's a relief," 7 muttered. "I had a few other guesses, but there was no telling if any of them were right."

"Is she logged into the Program?" Alpha asked.

"Hold on…" Vexen muttered, figuring out how to navigate the computer. It wasn't at all like he was used to, surprisingly. Where did you even access… ah! "Yes! Yes, she is, thank goodness."

"Well, the last time she would've logged in would've been a week ago," 7 said. "And that should be recently enough that it didn't automatically log her off."

"Let's not question why she's logged on, and just be grateful she is," Alpha interrupted "All you need to do is change the passwords," he told Vexen. "If we have the external, we'll have the database."

"Alright, alright," Vexen said. "I'm working on it. Hold on."

This is almost too easy, though, he couldn't help but think. We got lucky, sure, but…

"Why hasn't anyone tried this before?" he asked "If changing the passwords was this easy…"

"No one's tried because R only… died recently," Alpha explained, a little hesitant. But with 7 listening in, too, of course he would be hesitant. "Besides, I wasn't even aware that she could access the Program from her computer until now! Though it is a little obvious now that I've thought about it…"

"But what about anyone else's computer?" Vexen asked. "Surely someone else could be careless and forget to log off—"

"We've tried," Alpha replied, impatiently. "What else do you think we send people to the World that Never Was for? The entire purpose for most of those missions is to change the passwords. We just have trouble getting to a computer. Or logging on. This is the first time someone's been careless and not logged off."

"Ah…" Vexen grimaced. That wasn't good. "I found where to change the passwords—but it requires the current password."

"Right." Alpha groaned. "This is why we've been hacking things. R didn't write it down somewhere, did she?"

"I don't see any papers on the desk," Vexen answered, but rifled through the drawers just in case. "Do you think she would've saved it on her computer somewhere?"

"Why would she do that?"

"For reference."

"Well, you're free to look."

Vexen turned his attention back to the computer, and pulled up R's folders, browsing through them. "The chances of the file being named 'passwords'?" he asked, with a chuckle.

"Well, I guess you can see if she happens to have one named that, though I doubt it," Alpha said. "If she was smart—which she was—she would've labeled it something random. Like anyone else would've done."

Vexen shrugged, figuring that was probably true, and clicked on a text file labeled "14". That seemed random enough. He was surprised when a window popped up. He frowned, squinting at it.

"NOTE:" it read, "The author suggests you read "14iURGENT" before you proceed."

It gave him three options: "Read 14iURGENT", "Proceed anyway", and "Cancel".

"What's this…?" he muttered, curious.

"Vexen! Don't get distracted," Alpha scolded. "If it's not the passwords, then you shouldn't mess with it. Besides, the longer you spend there, the higher the chances of you getting caught become."

"Fine, fine!" Vexen sighed. He was curious—the warning only made matters worse—but it could wait. He turned his attention back to the folders, leaving the warning box open. Maybe he'd come back to it later…

Alright, if I were the passwords, where would I—

"Oh," he said aloud, then laughed a little.

"What?" Alpha asked.

"Well, I just found a file labeled 'passwords'," Vexen replied, still snickering. What were the odds?

He could practically hear Alpha roll his eyes on the other end of the line.

"Anyway, there's two passwords in here," Vexen continued. "Do you have any idea which one is right?"

"One of them's probably the passwords for Deactivating," Alpha said, a tone of excitement creeping into his voice. "The other one's likely for the Program. It can't hurt to try both."

"I should change the Deactivating passwords, too, while I'm here?" Vexen asked.

"Of course!"

"Alright."

He copied the first password and put it into the box requesting the current password. He entered a password they'd already agreed on, and hit CHANGE.

"Ah! It worked!"

"Great! Now, for the Deactivating passwords—"

"In one second," Vexen said, pulling up the warning box he'd gotten earlier, and telling it to open the "14iURGENT" document. "I just want to look at something."

"Fine! You're the one putting yourself at risk, though, the longer you stay there."

"Mmhmm…" Vexen replied, skimming through the document. This was a lot of information to take in. "Xion virus, huh?" he muttered, scrolling back to the top and beginning his read through the document. He got about three sentences read before he decided it was going to take too long. "Ahha… this is a lot to absorb," he muttered, mainly to himself. "I guess I'll stick it on the external, and—"

"Don't you dare!" 7 shouted, startling him. "You have no idea if those files are infected or not, and while the virus is harmless to you, it is not to the rest of us, and I cannot deal with another outbreak right now. Do not. Copy. Any files. From. Her. Computer. Got it? Don't even plug the external in. Take no chances."

"Okay…" Vexen muttered, a little disappointed. But, maybe he'd just go back later. Clearly no one came down here frequently, and at the very least, he could always—

Wait.

Were those footsteps?

Yes, those were footsteps, and that was the—

"Yeah, it was right down— Who are you?!"

Vexen cringed, glancing up. To his dismay and slight horror, none other than Larxene Replica L was standing in the doorway. Oh and 37. Those two were a set, it seemed. Vexen didn't entirely want to think about it too much.

He hastily started closing out of the windows, figuring it'd probably be best if they didn't know what he'd been up to. "I'm, uh-" he began, but had a little trouble getting any more out. "Just looking at something, that's all. Don't mind me."

"Get out of there!" Alpha hissed.

Just a second, I need to log off the computer! Vexen thought in reply, seeing as saying it aloud would give him away. His hands were shaking, though. Oh, he needed to get out of there soon.

"Uhuh, yeah, I don't believe you," L retorted, glaring at him. "There's something… off about you. Off and… familiar?" She grimaced, then shrugged and turned to 37. "37, sweetie, do you have any thoughts?"

Vexen tried not to gag. He didn't even want to—

Stupid computer. It needed to hurry up.

"I don't think he's even a Replica…" 37 says, slowly. He raised his eyebrows, turning to L. She mimicked his facial expression for a moment, though she was grinning slightly.

"Ah, well," Vexen began. He immediately formed a dark corridor—

—except he somehow didn't have time. L launched herself at him, pinning him to the wall before the dark corridor appeared. He didn't like the grin on her face, or the glint in her eyes. He'd seen those often enough, and knew they meant nothing but trouble for him.

"I was just looking," he stammered. "I swear. I wasn't—"

"Mmmhmm," L said, clearly not believing him. She snatched his headset off of him, chucked it across the room. Vexen flinched.

His heart was pounding. This was not supposed to have happened. And he was scared. Terrified, really. Not to mention that Larxene didn't quite seem to understand the concept of personal space, and apparently her Replicas weren't much better.

"You know what I think?" L asked, giggling a little. "I think… you're from a parallel universe."

The air left his lungs.

"What? How did you—"

How could she possibly know? How could she possibly know? Axel? Knew. Xemnas? Probably wouldn't take long to figure it out. But L? A Larxene? He knew Larxene could be perceptive, but to this extent?

It was unthinkable!

Except here he was.

"What should we do with him, hmm?" L turned to 37, her grip on Vexen only tightening.

"I'm sure Xemnas will be pleased to see him," 37 responded, smirking.

L grinned.

Vexen nearly screamed.

xxx

"I think you'll be okay," Aerith told Riku, gently. "You didn't suffer anything worse than a few scratches, and those healed up just fine. Your shirt, though…"

"It's fine," he interrupted, before she could say anything. His shirt still stayed on him, despite being torn in a million places. So there was nothing wrong with it.

"Alright…"

"I just figured I'd tail him," Yuffie was explaining to Cid and Leon. "Make sure he didn't do anything stupid. Or leave. And he was just wandering around, muttering angrily to himself and stuff—I didn't catch anything he said, though!" she added, a little hastily. "I was giving him as much space as possible while still keeping track of him."

Riku wondered if she'd added that last bit just to keep him from getting angry or something. Not that he cared. Really. His head was hurting too much. Not to mention he was feeling a little sick, too…

"Then he stumbled on a group of Heartless," Yuffie continued. "And I know he probably shouldn't have been fighting, Aerith! But it was only a few of 'em."

"Mm," Aerith said.

"My shoulder's fine," Riku muttered, as she started fussing over it again.

"I figured he could get it handled alright, though, knowing how he is with Heartless," Yuffie said. "And I was gonna jump in and help him as soon as it looked bad! Totally planning on it. Except he was doing just fine. Well, until…"

She paused.

"Until?" Leon prompted.

"Well… y'know the yellow flying Heartless?"

"Yellow Operas?" Cid asked.

Yuffie nodded. "Yeah. Them. Well. Riku got hit by a blast of Thunder… and then he… collapsed. I jumped in right away and killed off the Heartless, but… I dunno." She cast a hesitant glance over at Riku. "I dunno if he's okay or not."

"Riku…?" Aerith asked him, tentatively.

He just shrugged, tiredly. "I just don't like lightning," he muttered. The sick feeling in his stomach was getting worse. His head was pounding…

"I don' see why tha—" Cid began.

"Shush!" Aerith scolded. "Now is not the time to…" She shook her head, turned her attention back to Riku. "Are you okay? You look a little pale…"

He just shrugged again. How was he supposed to know if he was okay or not? He hadn't felt okay since this morning. He hadn't felt okay since he'd left Castle Oblivion.

"Maybe you should go lie down…" she suggested.

"I guess."

He got up and headed to his room, slowly. Each step he took was wobbly, and it only got worse when he started up the stairs. He had to take the stairs slowly, lest he fall.

"But I've never known anyone to jus' collapse jus' 'cause they got hit," Cid hissed, after a few moments, trying to continue his conversation. Riku gritted his teeth and his best to ignore them.

"Maybe he's not used to it?" Yuffie suggested.

"Just being able to shake it off is an acquired skill," Leon added.

"But I don' think he shoulda collapsed," Cid said.

"Why don't you try getting electrocuted as some sick form of punishment for a while and then tell me what I should and shouldn't have done," Riku muttered, bitterly.

At least, he thought he muttered that. But the conversation stopped. And they were good and quiet for a while. He froze, every muscle shaking. They'd heard him. He grabbed onto the railing of the staircase for support. Should he wait? Let them continue? Or should he—

"Wait a minute!" Yuffie shouted. "What?" She sounded horrified.

No. He should go. He shouldn't make himself deal with this.

Except now he had to drag himself up the stairs. He felt so heavy. His vision was blurring. What was going on? Why were his legs so shaky? Why did he feel so sick…?

"Riku!" Aerith called, sharply.

He didn't respond. He didn't want to talk about this. He just wanted to—

His foot caught on one of the steps and he stumbled forward, just barely managing to catch himself before he fell flat on his face. He swore, squeezing his eyes shut, trying to hold back tears.

What was wrong with him?

"Here." Aerith was suddenly helping him up, and forced him to sit down on the steps. She shoved a bottle into his hands. "Drink it."

Her voice was stern, and he couldn't work up the energy to argue with her. He took a drink, and was immediately glad he did. The wobbly feeling he had was fading, though his head didn't feel any better.

"What was…?" he began.

"Cures all negative status effects," Aerith explained. "Are you okay?"

He nodded. "I'm fine."

That wasn't technically a lie. He certainly felt better.

"Riku…" Aerith stared at him long and hard. "You don't have to talk about anything. I won't make you. But are you… really okay? Lightning isn't any fun to begin with, and I can't imagine—" She broke off, covering her mouth with her hands.

He turned away, not sure what he was supposed to say. This was why he never brought this up if he could avoid it. He didn't want to burden anyone. He didn't want to worry anyone. He didn't deserve it.

"I'm sorry," Aerith said. "I said I wouldn't make you talk about it." She took a deep breath, and—

Were those… tears in her eyes?

Riku's stomach plummeted. No. He wanted to scream at her. No. He did not deserve this. She did not have to cry for him. He wasn't worth her tears. He wasn't worth anyone's.

"Do you- do you want anything?" Aerith asked. "I don't know. Hot chocolate? Tea? Or…?"

"I'm okay," he told her.

"Really okay?"

He sighed. "…tea won't help."

"Okay." She squeezed his shoulder, gently. "Just let me know. Are you going to need help getting up the stairs the rest of the way?"

"I think I can manage."

She nodded and headed back down the stairs. He sighed, rubbed his head, and pushed himself up again. At least he was more than halfway up the stairs at this point. And whatever Aerith had given him seemed to have cured the wobbliness.

"Did any of you…" He could hear Aerith say, down the stairs. She broke off, though. No surprise, but it only made him feel worse.

"O'course we didn't," Cid replied. "He never…"

Cid couldn't finish his sentence, either.

"Oh goodness, I… I'm never using Thunder magic again!" Aerith said. There was a scrape of a chair that followed. She'd probably sat down.

"That's extreme," Leon countered.

"Well I'm definitely not going to use it around him!" Aerith replied. "That'd be cruel. Oh… I almost wish he'd mentioned something. Then I would've known…"

"I don' think you ever hit him," Cid said. "I know you didn't. And I can't remember you usin' any Thunder while he was around, either."

"Still… I feel awful."

"You feel awful?" Yuffie asked. "I should've jumped in the moment those Heartless had shown up! Then he couldn't have gotten hurt at all!"

"Well, in the future, we should definitely avoid using any Thunder magic around him," Aerith said, sternly. "And that goes for all of us."

"Protection spells on him when fighting Thunder-based enemies couldn't hurt, either," Leon added.

Riku paused, at the top of the stairs. He didn't know what to do. How to feel. He didn't want to be a burden… but he'd hardly even said anything, and they were deciding all this of their own free will.

Because they… cared about him.

…right?