Chapter 178: The Revelation

"What do you want to—"

"Hold on. We need to get somewhere private."

Riku frowned, though he didn't argue, perfectly content to let Namine lead him through the halls of the Castle. They walked for a bit, before Namine finally stopped, letting go of his hand. Riku glanced around, wondering why they'd stopped here.

"Hey, this is… my corner."

"No security camera."

"Oh!"

Namine turned and smiled at him, though she looked a little distracted.

"So what'd you wanna say?" Riku asked.

"I- well…" she began, sighed. "Uhm…"

He frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"Not- not exact…" she let out a long breath. She was definitely bothered by something. "I… the meltdowns I had?"

"All n- nine of them?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

"What… what about them?"

She shifted from foot to foot, clearly uncomfortable about whatever it is she wanted to say. Her voice was quiet when she spoke. "Well, I, uh." She swallowed. "I… forced most of them, to be honest."

"You-" Riku blinked a few times, not sure if he heard her right. "What?"

He… can't have heard her right…

Right?

"I- I forced most of those meltdowns," she said, shrugging. "All except… maybe one or two?"

Okay. So he had heard her right.

But-

"You- you- n-n- forced them?" he finally choked out.

"Yeah."

He stared.

"Why!?"

Namine looked up at him, blinking a few times. "Because- because I didn't want to be separated from you," she said, voice trembling a little.

His heart was pounding, fists clenched, eyes fixed on her. Even though her voice trembled, she held herself confidently now, eyes meeting his, determination burning in them.

"I- I don't want to either," he stammered. He started to reach out to her, but then clenched his fists again. "But- but forcing n-nine? Forcing meltdowns? Wh- why? Why, Namine? Why would you…?"

He trailed off, hopelessly, not sure what to say, all his words spent. He should've expected this, really, now that he thought about it. She was so stubborn. Not that it made this any less absurd. Or stupid.

"I already told you why," Namine said.

"But-"

"I know you're not the cause! I know. And even if you were, it doesn't matter. I don't want to be separated from you."

"I don't either…" he muttered. "But… the meltdowns…"

"I don't care," she repeated. "I'd rather have a meltdown every five minutes than be away from you."

"But- but that doesn't mean you can force them!" he shouted, all his frustration bursting from him. Namine flinched. He turned away, cursing himself. Stupid. Stupid, stupid. Why couldn't he keep his emotions in check?

"Well…" Namine sounded like she was going to protest again.

"Namine!"

He felt bad for shouting, of course, but this was ridiculous!

"I won't have to!" Now she was shouting. "Because we aren't doing this test again."

Riku sighed. It wasn't that easy. Alpha—along with Vexen—was insistent that this test had to be repeated at least once. If not more than that. "But we have to-"

"Then you can bet I'll be forcing meltdowns again," Namine said.

"But you can't—"

"You can't stop me!"

Riku paused. Namine smirked a little. He frowned, then opened his mouth to argue—

Except he couldn't argue. There wasn't… wasn't exactly a way to stop her from forcing meltdowns. Not when he was supposed to be in another world. All ideas that came to him involved coming back and seeing her face to face, which would, in turn, still sabotage the experiment.

He sighed, took her hands in his.

"Fine," he said. "It's not like… it's not like we have time for another experiment like that anyway, with everything else that's going on. And… and-"

"And technically, I'm fairly certain at least one of those meltdowns wasn't forced," Namine said, smiling at him. "So regardless of me forcing meltdowns, those results weren't going to say you were the cause, anyway."

"Right."

Namine's voice got quiet. "We don't really have to run this experiment again, then?"

"No," he told her, smiling. "We shouldn't have to. Which I guess is a good thing." He chuckled, lowering his voice as he leaned closer to her. "I'm not sure if I like being away from you."

She blushed, giggling. "Heh, me too."

He grinned.

"Alpha's not gonna let this drop, though," she said, sighing a little.

"No…" he agreed. "I guess…"

"We just tell him no?" Namine suggested. "It's not like he can make us do anything, right?"

Riku slowly smiled.

"I have a better idea."

xxx

"—believe we were trying to keep it that way," Riku could hear Alpha say, as they got closer to his office. "We'll have to ask Riku."

Riku opened the door. "Ask me what?"

Alpha looked at him for a moment, probably a little surprised. "I might have found another—relatively simpler—way to test for what could be causing Namine's meltdowns," he said.

"Really!?" Namine exclaimed, clearly thrilled. She about leapt through the doorway and into Alpha's office, dragging Riku with her, seeing as they were holding hands.

"You have?" Riku asked, just as excited, but not quite as expressive with it.

"Yes," Alpha said. "We acquired the passwords—and thus the full Program—while you were gone-"

"Thanks to me," Vexen interrupted, a smug smile on his face.

Alpha shot him a look. "You're lucky you came out of that alive," he said. "Besides, I thought Xemnas was supposed to come after you any day now."

Vexen's smug attitude immediately evaporated, quickly replaced by a glare. He leaned forward in his chair a little. "Just because he hasn't yet doesn't mean he won't," he said. "They're probably still tracking me down…"

Riku laughed a little. "You ran into Xemnas?"

"I got caught," Vexen replied. He leaned back in his chair again, refusing to look at Riku. "I got away, but they do know about me. Give it another week and they'll be dragging me off to restart the Program for them."

"Well, I won't stop them," Riku said. To be honest, he'd almost be glad if they did. Almost. Pity it'd require a lot of nasty repercussions, like Xemnas being able to make more Replicas…

"What were you saying about my meltdowns?" Namine asked Alpha. Riku rolled his eyes a little. She didn't need to change the subject…

"Well, we should be able to use the Program to test for what might be causing your meltdowns," Alpha explained. "Provided, of course, the cause is something recorded in your data."

"Why didn't you mention this sooner?" Riku asked, tersely. If he wasn't holding Namine's hand, he'd fold his arms across his chest. Except… he was holding her hand…

"We only just got the Program back," Alpha said. "Also, it requires putting her data where the Organization can reach it."

"Not that they can do much with it when they have no Program," Vexen muttered.

"Ah…" Riku frowned. He turned to glance at Namine. The excitement had vanished from her, too. He sighed, shrugged. "Well, I guess it's a good thing we've come up with a way to test them, then."

Alpha raised his eyebrows. "Have you…?"

"Yeah!" Riku couldn't help but grin a little. "I was thinking we'd both go to Hollow Bastion?"

"He figured since I had nine meltdowns, it might be Castle Oblivion that's the problem," Namine added. She leaned up against him, resting her head against his shoulder.

"You did say that you hadn't exactly ruled that out yet, didn't you?" Riku asked, turning back to Alpha, trying not to smirk.

Alpha sighed. "No," he admitted. "We haven't."

"So then getting her out of Castle Oblivion is a good idea, then?"

Actually, it wasn't hard to keep from smirking, with how much he wanted to grin right now. He bounced a little on his heels. He couldn't help it. He was excited to go back to Hollow Bastion, even if he'd only left a few hours ago. But he wanted to go with Namine. Show her those books he was reading. Sit at the dinner table and talk and… do other family things. He wasn't sure what—family was a new concept to him—but he knew one thing for certain.

His family wasn't complete without her in it.

Namine giggled a little, squeezing his hand. "Technically, I wouldn't mind taking a vacation in general," she said, smiling up at him. "It's not like it has to be to test anything."

He looked down at her, meeting her eyes. "Y'know. I wouldn't exactly mind either…" he said. His free hand slinked around her waist, turning as she pressed her body against his. She traced her fingers over his chest, giggling some more.

"And it's not like anyone can keep us here," she whispered.

Riku grinned, chuckling a little. That was true. If they wanted to go, they could go now, and no one could stop them.

"Well." Alpha cleared his throat. "We might as well kill two birds with one stone. Make it both a- uh- vacation… along with a test."

"Okay," Riku replied, eyes not leaving Namine's face.

"But you should wait a few days before going," Alpha added, sternly.

Riku hardly heard him. "Sure thing," he muttered.

Namine just giggled, eyes not leaving his. "You got it."

"Why Hollow Bastion?" Vexen asked, suddenly.

"Oh, just…" Riku shrugged. "'Cause."

"Why do you want to go to Hollow Bastion?" Vexen said, slowly, rephrasing his question to be more specific. "Why not Destiny Islands?"

Riku blinked a few times. Namine smiled at him, but slowly pulled away to give him some space.

"Because…" he began, but trailed off again. It wasn't that he was having trouble processing what Vexen wanted to know or anything. He just… wasn't sure how to put it into words. To explain—to Vexen—that Destiny Islands didn't feel like home? Had never felt like home? That Hollow Bastion was the first place he felt like he belonged?

Maybe Vexen'd understand it.

But that didn't mean Riku wanted to tell him.

"Ah, to be honest," he said. "I think I'd die of boredom on Destiny Islands." He chuckled a little. "Hollow Bastion has that Heartless problem, remember? It… keeps me occupied."

"He has trouble sitting still," Namine teased, elbowing him.

"I do not!" he argued.

"Ah," Vexen said. He seemed a little distracted. Riku almost wondered why, except—

"Hey Riku?" Namine asked.

He turned to look at her—not that he could turn very far, seeing that her face was suddenly very close to his. She was standing on tiptoe, one hand on his shoulder to help support herself.

"Mm?"

"I've got some pictures I wanna show you," she said, with a little giggle. "Do you wanna—"

"Yeah."

It wasn't even a question. Yes, this was a little random, but of course he did. Of course he wanted to spend more time with her. Next to her.

So he let her lead him off. If Alpha or Vexen minded—he doubted they did and honestly didn't much care regardless—they said nothing.