Chapter 219: of Dead Inside?

The Replica Program was outstanding, there was no doubt about it. Not that Vexen had ever doubted—he knew how outstanding it was from the moment he'd laid eyes on it and what it'd created. But he'd never had a chance to appreciate it in full, largely because he'd never had access to it in full. Not until now, anyway.

Vexen had been moved to a room with a computer, which he was quite grateful for. Of course, there was only so much he could do with the computer when it only had access to the Program and nothing more, but it at least gave him something to do. Eventually, he figured, Alpha would find a way to contact him. Until then, he might as well familiarize himself with the Program.

"Outstanding," Vexen murmured. "Simply outstanding."

"Even's pride and joy," Xemnas said.

Vexen jumped about three feet in the air in pure terror. He hadn't heard—or he hadn't registered—the dark corridor that should've signaled Xemnas's arrival. But maybe he hadn't used a dark corridor… That was an even scarier thought.

"He spent over ten years on it," Xemnas continued, without hesitation. "Was absolutely furious when it was lost."

"I can imagine!" Vexen scoffed, despite who he happened to be talking to. "Ten years of research? All tossed—"

"Down the drain, I know," Xemnas finished. "Even never let me hear the end of it. I don't need the same lecture from you."

Vexen flinched. Xemnas said nothing more after that. Just stood there.

"What- what do you need me for?" Vexen dared ask, after a moment.

Xemnas chuckled. "To be honest, it has been so long since we've had a full Program—let alone someone who could use it—that I'm not sure where to start."

"I'm not replicating you!" Vexen blurted, and then he cringed. He was an idiot. He was an absolute idiot.

Xemnas raised his eyebrows.

"That… is an interesting idea…" he mused.

Vexen cursed himself under his breath. He was a complete and utter idiot. He really was.

"Not a bad idea, either!" that was Xigbar's voice, coming from nowhere—no. From Xigbar, obviously, who'd just appeared in the room. He didn't appear to have used a dark corridor, either, but given his element to control was space, Vexen was a little less surprised.

"Especially considering we're short," Xigbar finished, sending a look at Xemnas.

"Short?" Vexen squinted his eyes. "Short on… what?"

He didn't get a response.

"Speaking of," Xigbar added, completely ignoring Vexen. "We lost two. Axel's dead. Roxas ran off. Unfortunate, really. They were both good…. members."

Vexen's squint deepened as he studied Xigar's face. Unfortunately, per usual, Xigbar gave nothing away. His half smirk remained on his face, and his one eye glinted with some sort of knowledge. And none of his expression betrayed what he was thinking. It never had.

"What made Roxas run?" Vexen asked. Partly he was curious, but he also hoped that if he got Xigbar talking about something slightly off-the-subject, he would reveal something on-the-subject.

"Axel got himself killed, duh," Xigbar replied with an eye roll. "Plus Roxas remembered that Xion girl."

"No surprise," Vexen said to himself, under his breath. He didn't doubt he was heard, though. The room was only so large and sound carried well in this castle. "Memories are fickle things—and incredibly hard to contain."

He knew that all too well. The results of Castle Oblivion in the other universe, oh so long ago, had only proved it. Memories could be tampered with, wiped, but true memories would always, always remain. No matter how many times you wiped them, they'd come back. They'd always come back.

"How did Axel die?" Vexen asked. He was feeling particularly brave, but he also wanted information. And, so far, Xemnas hadn't spoken out against his and Xigbar's conversation. Nothing bad could happen until Xemnas did.

"None of your business," Xigbar laughed.

Vexen scowled.

"It was Riku, wasn't it?"

He couldn't think of many other reasons why Axel would've died. And the few he could think of seemed rather unlikely given the circumstances.

"Perceptive," Xemnas said. He sounded pleased. Proud, even, and it made Vexen's blood boil. He didn't need—didn't want—Xemnas's praise. He wasn't property. Not to Xehanort. Definitely not here, in this universe.

"Why is Riku here?" Vexen demanded. "Obviously you angered him, but how—" He broke off, and closed his eyes. It was obvious, and it was terrible. "Namine's here. You have Namine."

"It wasn't hard getting her," Xigbar said with an all-too-satisfied smirk.

The smirk almost made Vexen want to punch Xigbar in the face—maybe in the good eye—but he knew better. Violence would get him absolutely nowhere, except maybe dead. He'd best stick to what he was good at, and that's why he swiveled around in his chair immediately and went back to the main page of the Progam, where all the Replicas were listed. Due to the database being wiped, there were only two Replicas.

Roxas.

Namine.

Before Vexen could click to open Namine's file, Xigbar pressed a gun to his head.

"Touch her file or mess up any of the edits being made to it, and this bullet goes through your brain," Xigbar said.

Vexen took his hands away from the keyboard and put them in his lap, clasping them together. There was no point arguing. He was valuable to them, yes, but he wasn't more valuable than a Rewritten Namine. Xigbar would kill him.

Thankfully, Xigbar lowered the gun once his hands were away from the computer. That was a relief, at least.

"What are we gonna do about him?" Xigbar asked, turning to Xemnas. "About Roxas? Do we need to catch him? Kill him?"

"That does not matter," Xemnas said, calmly. "He's no harm to us."

"We still need a Keyblade," Xigbar argued.

"I think our guest here can handle that."

Vexen scoffed. Guest? Xemnas was calling him a guest? What an absolutely absurd thing to do. He was a prisoner, not a guest.

Vexen said nothing to correct Xemnas, though. The gun to his head had jostled his nerves too much.

"How?" he asked, instead. His voice cracked a little, but after a deep breath, Vexen continued. "With this copy of data you have of Sora? Hmph." He rolled his eyes and scoffed. "It's no wonder both Replicas of him failed so drastically—or should I say all three? Though, granted, the current Roxas is remarkable. I'd reuse the Template, if I wasn't afraid of it backfiring."

Not all of these words were true, but Vexen was just trying to buy time. Even if he couldn't necessarily buy time for Namine, he could for Riku. Hopefully. It all depended on how desperate Xemnas—how desperate Xehanort was for a Keyblade.

"What's so wrong with our copy of Sora's data?" Xemnas asked. There was kindness in his voice—concern. It was obviously faked, seeing as he didn't have a heart, but it still made Vexen angry.

"It's full of holes and incredibly unstable!" he spat.

That, actually, was true. So much of Sora's data had been deleted to try and remove the darkness that there was hardly enough left to build a Replica from. Granted, they'd made at least one successful Replica from it, Vexen couldn't deny that. But he was trying to buy time.

He swiveled around in his chair to look at Xemnas and Xigbar, and said quite seriously:

"I'll need a fresh scan of his data."

Sending Xigbar—or even just any member of the Organization—after Sora would make them no longer Riku's problem. And if Vexen was lucky, Sora'd manage to kill Xigbar—or whoever they sent—and then someone else would have to be sent.

"Understood," Xemnas said, and he smiled.

Vexen tried not to glare.

"I'll get someone on it," Xigbar said, and then he was gone.

xxx

Admittedly, Sora was probably lost. He was fairly confident with the fact he could get back to where he started (probably), but he didn't see much point in going back. Going forward would be more productive. Right? Not that he'd necessarily started in the beginning of the Castle…

Was there a door he'd missed? A path he didn't take? Apparently Riku was nearby, but Sora hadn't seen him yet. He hadn't seen anything but Heartless and what he assumed were Nobodies.

For the most part, he tried to avoid the Heartless. He killed what was necessary to move on, and then moved on. He also tended to avoid the Nobodies, but not because he didn't want to kill them. The Nobodies—specifically the larger ones—were incredibly powerful and he only had so many potions with him. He only had so many ethers, too. And it had taken way too much effort to finally finish some of the larger ones off. He didn't have time, or, again, the energy.

After a while, Sora came out on a large open area—a balcony of sorts, overlooking pathways of the Castle below. He started to move forward and check out the view, when a dark corridor opened right in front of him. It vanished seconds later, leaving a man in a black cloak with short almost-white hair standing in front of him.

Sora pulled out his Keyblade and dropped into his fighting stance.

"You! You're with Organization 13!" he called.

The man just smiled.

"I think I'd rather skip the pleasantries," he said, then there was a flash of light.

When the light cleared, Sora found he couldn't move. Not his limbs, anyway, though he could breathe and blink and move his mouth just fine. He struggled to move for a bit, just in case this was something he could break out of, and quite suddenly found he could move again.

The freedom didn't last long, however. He soon froze again, head turned in the direction of his fingers, which had frozen mid-wiggle.

"I suppose I should explain the rules, shouldn't I?" the man—Luxord, not that Sora knew his name—said.

"Rules?" Sora wished he could move his head to glare at Luxord. "I didn't agree to any sort of game!"

"I know."

And then Sora could move again. He immediately raised his blade to attack and started forward, but froze before he could do much more than that.

"It's based on time," Luxord explained. From the looks of things, he hadn't moved much from his initial spot. "Ten seconds frozen—ten seconds to move."

"That doesn't seem very fair!" Sora protested.

"Are you accusing me of cheating? Because I only play fair." Luxord chuckled, but there was an edge to his voice and his laugh. "You assume I'm free to move. But, like you, I can only move when you're frozen—and when you can move, I cannot. Do you understand?"

Sora narrowed his eyes, mulling it over. Ten seconds would be about enough to get in an attack or two. Or just one attack, if he wanted to get out of Luxord's range before he was frozen again. And then… frozen for ten seconds while Luxord could do whatever he wanted.

He understood the rules just fine.

"Yes," he said. "I understand."

"Good."

"When is it over?" Sora asked.

Luxord just smiled again, clearly enjoying the idea of this game. "When one of us wins."