Chapter 215: What if

"How'd he—they even know where Namine was?" 29 asked, banishing his shield. "And, more importantly, how did they know Riku wasn't here?"

Alpha was silent for a long moment. Then he cleared his throat, nervously.

"The, ah, surveillance cameras between here and the World that Never Was are, ah, linked," he said, closing his eyes for a moment. "And even then, it's not like we have someone sitting in our surveillance room 24/7. Someone could've easily stopped by and checked and…." he trailed off, knowing that everyone would understand the implied meaning of the unfinished sentence.

"Are you tellin' me anyone could've waltzed in at any time and just watched everything we did?" Joseph asked. His voice was raised with frustration, and he shook an angry fist at Alpha's direction. Alpha flinched away from it. "It's no wonder they got Vexen!"

"I… I know," Alpha said, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground. "I knew the surveillance cameras were something of an issue, but I never bothered to deal with it. Though I doubt they used it to their advantage before now, anyway…"

"Maybe they weren't desperate enough too," 29 said. "They can't have been, or they would've sent Xigbar sooner."

"There is that," Alpha admitted.

"Well we should stop worrying about that!" Joseph blurted, a little suddenly. "I'm sorry I asked—we need to tell Riku. Right now. Give him a—there isn't time to explain." He ran off. "Toby! Toby? We're goin' somewhere!"

"Joseph!" 29 called after him. "Joseph! You are not going after Namine!"

"Wasn't planning on it!" Joseph called back—or he called something like that back. He was far enough away it was hard to hear him properly. "Just gonna tell Riku! Toby? Toby c'mon!"

29 groaned.

"Maybe you should go after him…" Alpha said, chuckling a little.

"Maybe…"

xxx

"You seriously have never read this?" Riku asked Kairi, appalled.

He'd come to return Aerith's book, which shouldn't have taken long, but Kairi was here, so he'd gotten distracted easily. It was nice to see Kairi again. They spent some time catching up, and now they were sitting on the floor in front of Aerith's bookshelf as Kairi tried to help him pick out a new book. It was only him and Kairi and Aerith in the front room—Aerith busily doing some research (for what, Riku hadn't asked). Tifa and Cloud were in the dining room, speaking in hushed tones. Leon and Cid were on rounds. Yuffie was taking a nap.

"Apparently not?" Kairi replied, turning the book over in her hands. It was one of the dragon books Riku'd enjoyed so much a week ago. "Which is super weird, because this seems right up Sora's alley. And also right up mine."

"That's what I thought!" Riku laughed.

"Hey Aerith, can I borrow this?" Kairi called over her shoulder.

"So long as you're careful, yes," Aerith replied, distracted.

Kairi grinned and set the book down next to her, then returned to scanning Aerith's shelves for something she recognized and could recommend to Riku.

"Why didn't Namine come with you, again?" she asked Riku, as she did so.

"She was in the middle of a drawing, and didn't want to be interrupted," Riku said. "Plus like, I was only supposed to be here ten minutes. If I'd known you were here, it would've been different." He turned to look at Kairi, though her attention remained on the shelves. "You sure you don't want me to just go get her?"

"Nah, I'll head back with you to Castle Oblivion for a bit," Kairi answered. "I mean, it's not like we have any leads on Sora right now, so I don't have anywhere else to be." Now she turned to him, considering him with a no-nonsense look. "And yeah, here is more fun, but I'd at least like to visit the place you 'n Namine have been staying for the past like six months."

Riku didn't argue. He supposed he would like to show Kairi that sky Namine had painted for him.

"Ooh!" Kairi exclaimed suddenly, reaching for a book on the shelf. She nearly elbowed Riku in the nose in the process. "Ooohh, I love this book! You should definitely read it!" She thrust it into Riku's hands.

Riku turned the book over, skimming the back cover. It sounded… fairly interesting, he supposed. But…

"It's… about a girl…?" he said, slowly.

Kairi rolled her eyes. "Aaand? That dragon book you showed me was about a girl!"

She had him there.

"Alright, yeah."

"Just look at it, at least."

"I said I wou—"

A dark corridor opened. Joseph burst through, screaming as he did so:

"RIKU NAMINE'S BEEN KIDNAPPED!"

The room stopped. Riku's heart stopped. The book dropped from his hands and he jumped to his feet. He nearly stepped on Kairi, but he didn't notice. His attention was only on Joseph. With how tight his throat was, it was a surprise he could get out his question at all.

"What?"

"Xigbar was just in C.O. and he just left we tried to stop him but Namine insisted I dunno there's a lot to explain and not enough time you should probably just go after her—" Joseph explained it all in one breath, but Riku had no trouble understanding him.

He had to go after Namine.

His heart started again, in a fury, pounding blood and anger and darkness through his veins. The darkness pulsed across his skin, steadily cloaking him in dark mode.

"Riku, wait," Aerith said, before he could open a dark corridor. "Before you rush after her. What do you need? Do you need- Is it going to be better if we all go? Do we need the numbers?"

"He needs the speed," Joseph answered, before Riku could. "We're kind of on a time limit and bad things could happen if she's there too long which we tried to warn her but she wouldn't listen and—"

"I'll be faster on my own," Riku said, raising his voice over Joseph's.

"Okay, then go, go!" Aerith waved her hand, telling him to get a move on.

"I wanna go, too!" Joseph said.

"But we can't—" That was Toby. Where'd he come from? "29 said we couldn't!"

"Well plffff."

"Can I go?" Kairi said.

"Do you know where Namine is?" Tifa asked. Apparently she suddenly felt the need to be a part of this conversation.

"FINE!" Riku screamed, covering his ears. There was too much talking—too much noise—and none of it was actually helpful. "Yes, Kairi. You can come. I guess. Joseph. No. You can't. Tifa—" He paused, grimaced, squeezed his eyes shut. "No. I don't know but it doesn't matter because I will find her."

"You should stop by C.O.," Joseph said. "Alpha will know where Namine is."

Riku groaned. Just what he didn't want to do.

"Let's get a move on!" Kairi said. "The more time we sit here the more time we—"

"You should take ethers!" Aerith interrupted. "The only thing worse than arriving late is arriving unprepared."

"Here." Tifa was already shoving bottles into a bag, and thrust it at Kairi the moment she was close enough to take it. "Go!"

Kairi slung the bag over her shoulder and waved for Riku to get moving. He opened a dark corridor around them.

xxx

Since everything with Maleficent was taken care of, Sora asked Mickey for a ride to Hollow Bastion. Well, after a good night's sleep. It wasn't like he was in a rush.

"This the right place?" Mickey asked, when they landed via his star shard.

Sora nodded. They weren't right on Aerith's doorstep or anything, but they weren't far either.

"Um," Sora said, clearing his throat. "If you wanna go, you can? I mean, this is definitely where I was heading, and I wouldn't want to keep you—"

Mickey shook his head in protest. "The least I could do is walk you to the door."

Sora flushed a little with embarrassment, but said nothing. There wasn't exactly a polite way to refuse. So he let Mickey walk with him to the door.

They paused outside it, and Sora hesitated. There seemed to be a commotion going on inside.

"Okay so, you said there was a time limit?" That sounded like Aerith.

"Yeah well, unfortunately." And that was Joseph? "Pretty much the only reason the Organization would have kidnapped Namine is to—"

Sora didn't even knock. He just threw the door open.

Aerith, Tifa, Joseph, and some other boy were standing around the couches, all looking very distraught. They all stared at him a moment, Aerith's eyes widening a little when she noticed Mickey. Tifa spoke before anyone else could.

"Well look who finally showed up!" Tifa threw her hands up in the air, an unkind smile on her lips. "If you'd just gotten here two minutes ago…!" She shook her head and stopped there.

"Would it have helped Namine?" Sora asked, having a lot of questions but deciding to start here, because if he just heard that Namine had been kidnapped, it was kind of top priority.

Tifa sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "No," she said. "But you wouldn't have missed Kairi."

"Or Riku," Joseph put in helpfully. "They did leave together."

Sora groaned and buried his face in his hands. Just his luck. Not only did he miss one friend, but two, because of some bad timing.

(He still had to apologize to Riku for that whole stabbing-him-in-the-chest business…)

"Sorry," Mickey coughed. "I guess we coulda left sooner…"

"Well it's not like Namine was scheduled to get kidnapped!" Joseph argued.

Sora lifted his head up rapidly. Right. There were more important things to worry about.

"Okay so I did hear that bit right," he said.

Joseph nodded.

"Is Namine going to be okay?" Aerith asked, sounding very worried and wringing her hands together like she was very nervous.

"I mean if Riku gets there before anything bad happens, she should be," Joseph said. "And, I trust Riku to be pretty fast when he needs to be. Especially since it involves saving Namine."

Aerith didn't seem wholly relieved.

"I should go after them," Sora said, looking to Joseph, since he seemed to have the most answers about everything. "Where'd Riku and Kairi go?"

"The World that Never Was," Joseph answered. "It's where Organization 13 lives—they're the ones that took Namine."

Mickey let out a short sigh from beside Sora. "I'll help too," he said.

"It's not too late for us to go after them, either," Tifa said, putting a hand on Aerith's shoulder. "So if you want to help them out…"

"I just—" Aerith began.

"We'll handle it," Mickey assured her. "Between me, Sora, 'n Riku, the Organization shouldn't be a problem. Also, it sounds like we need to hurry?" He looked to Joseph.

Joseph nodded.

"Then let's go," Mickey said, grabbing Sora's hand and activating his star shard.