Chapter 187: Fixing a Mistake

"I don't need the Repair Program!"

At the rate Roxas was screaming, Riku was a little surprised no one had come to see what was up. He hadn't stopped screaming. Or struggling, despite still being thrown over Axel's shoulder.

"Roxas, I thought I told you to shut up!" Axel said, not that he stopped walking. "And stop squirming!"

"But I—"

"A hi-potion isn't gonna fix this!"

Roxas stopped flailing and considered that for a moment.

"An elixir?" he asked, turning as well as he could so he could look at Axel.

"Do you have one of those on hand?" Axel replied.

"…no." Roxas frowned. "You?"

"Nope. Besides, there's no telling that would work either."

Roxas groaned and stopped holding himself up, so that he flopped over Axel's shoulder like a ragdoll. Axel seemed to sigh a little in relief. Riku tried not to chuckle.

Roxas lit up, suddenly, and pushed himself up so he could look Riku in the eye. "Have you got an elixir?"

Riku shook his head, laughing now. "No," he said.

"Drat."

Roxas flopped over again.

Though, now that Riku thought about it, he probably had enough munny to buy an elixir or three. Or thirty.

"Can you put me down, Axel?" Roxas asked. "I can walk!"

"With the rate you're bleeding?" Axel laughed. "You must be joking."

Roxas let out a long sigh. After a second he pushed himself up again, and Axel cursed.

"Ow!" he said, reaching up with his free hand to feel whatever hurt, Riku assumed. Axel's back was to him, though, so Riku couldn't actually see what he was reaching for.

Roxas cringed. "Was that your nose?"

"Oh my fu- mmg…" Axel muttered. "Roxas!"

"You gonna put me down?"

"It's gonna take more than a knee to my face to make me do that. But it'd be nice if you'd stop struggling so much."

"Sorry…"

"How much further, Vexen?" Axel called. "And if it's too much farther, why didn't we use a dark corridor?"

"Unfortunately, 7's office is in the sector that's corridor-proofed," Vexen said.

"Of course it is…"

"Hey, Riku?" Roxas asked, looking up at him. He didn't push himself up this far this time, though, probably to try and avoid kicking Axel a second time.

"Yeah?" Riku said, raising his eyebrows a little.

"That was a good 'duel', that's all," Roxas said, grinning.

"Are you kidding?" Riku chuckled. "You were trying to kill me!"

"Yeah, and look where it got me!" Roxas grinned wider. "How bad is it, anyway?"

Riku shook his head. "Don't know. Didn't see much more than the blood."

"I can feel the blood," Roxas said. "But it doesn't exactly hurt, y'know? I mean, I know I need to Cure it, but…"

Riku shrugged, then grimaced. His shoulder still hurt. And, unfortunately, it was the bad shoulder. He reached up to feel it, but, no. No blood. It just hurt. Though, if he'd managed to dislocate it again, Aerith was going to be upset…

"Hey, Axel, why are we bothering with the Repair Program, anyway?" Roxas asked. "I've got—dangit! I didn't restock after that last mission!"

"Exactly."

"You sure a hi-potion won't fix it?"

"If you've got one of those, I guess you're free to try, but it doesn't look like a hi-potion's gonna do much good," Axel said. "Besides, why waste the hi-potion when you're going to end up needing the Repair Program, anyway?"

Roxas made a face. "Good point…"

"Here we go!" Vexen said, pushing open a door. "7?"

"What?" 7 looked up from his computer, and his eyes widened when he saw Roxas. "Oh!" He pointed, and Axel set Roxas down on a cot in the corner.

"How bad is—oh!" 7 cringed. "Cloak. Off. I need to see the damage."

Roxas pushed himself up and started pulling his cloak off, wincing a little as he did so. Axel tried helping, but it only took one smack from Roxas for him to get the idea that his help wasn't wanted.

Riku cringed at the sight of the wound. It was about six inches, not to mention extremely bloody. Riku assumed it was pretty deep, but he wasn't close enough to examine it himself. Judging by 7's reaction, though, it had to be bad. Or, at least, not good.

"Eeugh…" Axel muttered, making a face.

Roxas looked down at himself, and his eyes went wide. "Ow!" he hissed. "Ow. Frikken… That is a big—mmg!"

7 pushed Roxas down so he was lying back on the cot.

"I still don't think I need the Repair Program!" Roxas protested, though he didn't try and sit up again. "Hey! You!" He waved his arm in 7's direction. "You got an elixir?"

"An elixir won't fix it," 7 told him, moving to the computer. "The Repair Program can, of course, but given the size of the injury, we're going to have to reset your data."

Roxas crinkled his nose. "That means I'm gonna black out, doesn't it?"

"Yes," 7 said. "But only for a minute while the computer does its job. And there's no sense griping about it, unless you want me to let you bleed to death."

Roxas just grumbled a response, making himself comfortable on the cot.

"How did you manage to do that?" Vexen asked, leaning over towards Riku.

Riku shrugged, flushing a little. "It was an accident?" he said. "I wasn't even… trying to hurt him…" He looked down at the ground, avoiding Vexen's gaze. "I was just trying to block…"

"How did you manage to blotch a block that badly?" Vexen asked.

Riku shrugged again.

"Not that- not that it's necessarily a bad thing," Vexen continued, very quickly. "Mistakes happen to everybody! I just…"

"I botched it really bad," Riku admitted, chuckling a little at himself, not that he looked up. "I just… wasn't focusing…"

"I…" Vexen began. Paused. Was quiet for a while. "Are you… still upset about… about the other universe?" he asked, quietly.

"What?" Riku looked up at him, then he laughed. "Oh!" And he kept laughing. "No I'm. No- completely. Thinking 'bout completely different things."

Funny that, really, only an hour ago he'd been sitting on the shores of Destiny Islands in the other universe. Talking to the other Namine. And now here he was, an hour later, and he and Namine had just— Well…

He could feel his cheeks turn redder at the thought.

Vexen was silent for another long moment.

"About Namine?" he asked. "This Namine?"

Damn, he was perceptive.

Not that Riku couldn't help but smile. He turned further away from Vexen. "What's it matter to you?" he said, trying to sound terse about it. Vexen didn't say anything more on the matter, though Riku wasn't exactly confident as to the reasons why.

"7?" Vexen asked, moving over to the computer. "Can I look at Roxas's file?"

"Let me just finish here," 7 said.

"What are you doing?"

"I…" 7 cast a glance over at Axel.

"I asked him to delete the last fifteen minutes from Roxas's memory," Axel said. He was leaning against the wall, arms across his chest, refusing to look at anyone. "I'm not so sure how well I'd have convinced him not to tell the boss about this… and even then, they have access to his memories. It wouldn't mattered if he told or not. Xemnas would've still found out."

"Couldn't you have told Xemnas you mistook me for a Replica?" Vexen asked. "Or. Sorry. Mistook a Replica for me? Oh. You know what I mean!"

"Not sure if he'd buy it," Axel replied. "And even then, I doubt he'd to be happy about Roxas getting injured. By the way, you might want to delete all this from the security cams."

"Can do," Vexen said.

Axel turned to Riku. "Speaking of… can I ask how you managed this?" He nodded over at Roxas. By this point, Roxas was unconscious, the Repair Program working on healing the wound.

Riku flushed again. "Botched a block," he muttered.

Axel raised his eyebrows. "That badly?"

"I don't know. 'Guess he was closer than I thought he was, or something." Riku just shrugged. It was a pity Axel hadn't been listening when he explained this to Vexen. "Maybe I reacted too slow… tried to block a blow he'd already landed. Hit him instead."

Vexen looked up. "Are you hurt?"

Riku frowned. "No. Don't think so, anyway. My shoulder hurts, but… it's not bleeding."

"Well, I'm done with Roxas," 7 said, stepping away from the computer. "Vexen, you can look at whatever it was you wanted to, and I'll take a look at your shoulder, Riku?"

Riku couldn't see what that'd hurt, so he nodded.

"Wait a minute. The Code's a little different…" Vexen said, a little suddenly.

"It's probably different across universes," 7 told him.

"That's obnoxious…"

"What's Code?" Axel asked.

"The language with which Replicas are built," Vexen explained. He continued on about it, but Riku tuned him out. He knew all of that, anyway.

"Uhm," he said, casting a glance at 7. "Do you think you could… see if it's out of place? My shoulder."

7 frowned at him.

"You think you dislocated it?"

"I. Uhm."

Riku didn't have to say anything, though, because 7 was already feeling his shoulder. His eyes narrowed with concentration after a moment.

"Have you dislocated it before?" he asked.

"Yeah…" Riku said, slowly.

"Ah…" 7 took another minute, then shook his head. "Nope. You're fine. It's a little loose, but it's nothing I can fix. A hi-potion might help…"

Riku just shrugged, but took the hi-potion he was given anyway. It was easier not to argue.

"This copy ability of Roxas's is simply amazing," Vexen was saying. Obviously he'd figured out how to read Code, despite the differences. "It's. Wow. It's a little like Zexion's but… the attacks get stored in his memory and he can use them however many times he wants. There is no limit. He never forgets them. That is one stroke of genius!"

"You should tell 26 that," Axel said. "He's the one who did a lot of the extra programming for Roxas."

"I might have to…" Vexen muttered. "Editing a copy ability so it's not pure copying—but copying and adapting so that he can perform the attack with his own weapon? It's simply… How did he think of such a thing?"

"You know 26 is with the Organization, right?" 7 asked.

Vexen shot a glare at him. "Well, obviously, and I won't actually go talk to him. But this is still…"

"Looks like Roxas has finished healing," Axel interrupted.

Both 7 and Vexen looked up. Roxas slowly shifted, stretched, and then sat up. He looked around, a little bit of a clouded look in his eyes. He frowned.

"Um…."

Axel paled. He turned away, his face very tight.

Riku's eyes slowly widened. If 7'd deleted the last few minutes from Roxas's memory, he wouldn't remember how he'd gotten here. And that… was never a pleasant feeling. He felt sorry for Roxas. And a little sorry for Axel, having to figure out how to explain this, but Axel had asked for it.

"Here," 7 said, handing Roxas a new cloak. His old one was obviously soiled. Roxas took it and immediately slipped it on.

"And don't worry too much, Axel," 7 added. "These next few minutes will be a little foggy to him. But you best get out him out of here."

"Got it." Axel looked a little relieved, but only a little. "Come on, Roxas. Let's go." He opened a dark corridor.

Roxas nodded and stepped through. Axel followed, and the dark corridor closed.

"Why'd they need to use our Repair Program, anyway?" 7 asked. "I mean, I get that Roxas was injured seriously and all, but why didn't Axel just take him back to the World that Never Was?"

"We have the external," Vexen said. "Which means we have the database. And the Repair Program doesn't work without the database."

7 shook his head. "Roxas's data isn't on the external, though. It's on—"

"Oh, it's on the database?" Vexen asked. Then he frowned. "But we…"

"The database is still connected to the computer," 7 explained. He laughed a little. "It's just empty of data. It's not the database we have, it's the data."

"So they… didn't need to use our Repair Program…" Vexen grimaced. "…it's a good thing Axel's gone."

Riku chuckled a little. But, anyway. If they were done here…

"I'm gonna go," he said. He raised his hand in a partial wave, and left. He wanted to… well… spend more time with Namine.