AN/ Hey so there's a playlist for this chapter which you can find over on the blog. yay. kinda.

Chapter 236: All is Well (no it's not)

Sometime before Kairi and Riku returned to C.O. (exact time is hard to pinpoint in a place like Castle Oblivion)

Joseph stood with his back pressed against the wall just outside 7's room, which had been turned into a sort of infirmary a long time ago. His hands clenched into fists so tightly that his fingernails dug into his skin—not that he drew blood. His fingernails were neither long enough nor sharp enough for that.

He listened closely, as 7 and 29 fussed over Toby. Joseph couldn't make out many words. He just heard them mumbling and cursing under their breaths. Clearly, things were not going well.

Joseph swallowed and wiped his eyes again. He shouldn't be here, but what else was he supposed to do? It'd been ages. Long enough for Vexen to return, and then Roxas. Long enough for Roxas to have his data looked at and patched up. Joseph was more than happy for Roxas, of course, but…

But what was going on with Toby?

And why hadn't anyone told him anything yet?

Joseph didn't have much to distract himself, either. He had his video games, but he couldn't focus on them. In fact, they just made him more frustrated. His friend was hurt and he was just going to sit and play video games? No. No way.

So he'd come to see how Toby was doing.

And though there was a knot in his stomach and he was crying again, he didn't regret coming.

He hadn't been there when Raymond and Patrick had… well, died. It hadn't been his fault he wasn't there, no. But that didn't mean he had to sit around and not find out what was going on with Toby.

Besides, he'd always been horribly impatient.

Joseph edged closer to doorway and sent a quick glance in. He didn't want to be noticed. Not quite yet.

The first thing he saw was Toby, lying on one of the cots, as if asleep. The sight brought a pained smile to his face, and the smile soon became a contorted mess of quivering lips and trying not to cry.

He took a few minutes to calm the tears enough so he remained silent, at least, then poked his head in one more time.

29 was standing at the computer by Toby's cot, which was the only reason Joseph hadn't been noticed yet. If 29'd been at the computer right by the doorway and on the other side of the cots—the computer 7 was at—Joseph was sure he'd have been seen, careful or not.

Joseph watched 29 for a second, trying to guess what was going on by his body language. He saw 29 wipe his eyes. He'd been crying, too, and that realization made Joseph's tears fall even harder. Then he saw the look on 29's face…

Joseph's heart seized in his chest.

He'd seen that look, just once before. When 29 had told him about the other Experiments. About all his friends. About Raymond, and Patrick, and how they were all gone.

It was a look so distraught and horrified. A look that scared Joseph so much. Seeing someone you looked up you, someone who'd cared for you as long as you could remember, seeing them look so at a loss of what to do… it was terrifying.

Joseph ducked back into the hall. He clenched his hands into fists, ground his knuckled against his temples. He wasn't going to scream. He wasn't going to cry any harder than he already was. He'd expected this. He'd expected this the moment Toby'd hit the ground, what felt like hours ago.

He was going to go into that room, he was going to make absolute certain, and he wasn't going to be a sobbing mess when he did so. He wasn't.

So Joseph pulled his hands away from his head. Flexed his fingers. Put on a brief smile, hoping it'd calm the tears a little—it didn't—and then he took a deep breath. And another. And another.

Then he stepped into the room.

7 looked up first, but then quickly turned his attention back to the computer, wincing. 29 looked up second, and about jumped with surprise.

"J-Joseph!" he exclaimed, and hastily wiped his eyes again.

Joseph didn't hesitate. He was going to start crying if he stood here a second longer, and if he was going to cry, it might as well be for a reason.

"He's dead, isn't he?"

Joseph tried not to look at Toby as he said it, and soon found he couldn't look at 29, either. It was too painful. All of this was.

To Joseph's surprise, 29 burst into tears.

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice trembling. He wiped at his eyes again. "We did all we could but there wasn't much we could do. I'm sorry, Joseph. I tried."

Joseph sniffled. Wiped his own eyes. He didn't want to cry. His face was so sore from crying. But he couldn't hold back the tears any longer. And he didn't dare try. He hurt so much and if he didn't let it out somehow he might explode. He might…

Joseph pushed the thought away, then went and wrapped his arms around 29, crying into his cloak. He wanted to feel the comfort of 29's hug. He wanted to say it was okay, but it wasn't okay. It would never be okay. None of it. Not Toby… not Raymond… not Patrick… not anyone.

He'd been devastated when 29 had told him about all the other Experiments, all those months ago. But this was worse. So much worse. He wasn't sure if his tears would ever stop. Toby had been so sudden, so unexpected, and he'd seen it with his own eyes.

How could have one attack caused so much damage?

How could so bright a flame be snuffed so easily?

"I'm sorry," 29 said. "Joseph I'm so sorry."

Joseph shook his head, but when he tried to say "it's not your fault" the words bubbled into sobs and were lost in his mouth.

29 dropped to his knees and pulled Joseph into a tighter hug. 29 was trembling, but Joseph couldn't blame him. They'd both lost so much.

So they cried. And cried. And then Joseph needed to blow his nose. And 29 needed to blow his. So then they sat there trying to calm their tears and blowing their noses on tissues 29 kept producing from his pocket.

And once Joseph could breathe out of his nose again, and was sure he wasn't going to burst into sobs before finishing his sentence, he turned around to look at 7:

"Was there really nothing you could do?" he asked.

7 nodded, sadly. He'd taken a seat in the chair behind the computer he was at.

"I am really sorry…" 7 said. "But short of finding his original file… and we couldn't even find that…"

"What was so bad that resetting him was the only thing you could do?" Joseph demanded, horrified.

"I… it's hard to explain." 7 grimaced. "It… it's like his Data's been burned. Fried. From the inside out. He's- he's not much more than a shell, now. All of the… all of the Programming and Data needed to make him, well, alive… it's been burnt up. And I'm sorry." 7 hung his head. "The Weapons were always a very… volatile set of experiments. The energy always seemed to be too much for them to handle."

"Yeah?"

"Power—energy in its rawest form is very, very dangerous," 7 explained. "No being alive can take too much of it without being consumed."

"I thought that was only darkness…"

"No. Darkness is the strongest, most deadly, and the one you'll hear about the most, but all forms of power could do it in large enough amounts…" 7 trailed off, sending a look at Toby.

Joseph nodded. Sniffled. He understood. He did. It just didn't make it any less painful.

He wiped at his nose. "Oh, yeah…" Joseph turned back to 29. "Sorry… I'll- I'll try 'n smile, like- like we promise—whoa!"

29 pulled him into another hug, and held him even tighter than before.

"It's okay. For right now, it's okay. You're allowed to cry, too."

That's all it took for Joseph to start crying again.

xxx

Present time

The King, or… Mickey, had he said his name was? Kairi thought he'd said Mickey. Regardless. He'd left mere seconds after dropping her and Riku off in Castle Oblivion. Well, she assumed this was Castle Oblivion. It had been their destination, after all, and based on Riku's and Namine's descriptions of the place, it looked right.

Kairi shifted uncomfortably, not sure what to do now. Waiting for Mickey to return with Sora and Namine was probably the best course of action, of course. She wasn't sure where to go to get help, and didn't trust her voice to yell.

Not that Riku was in desperate need of medical attention or anything, but certainly when Namine got here—

"Ah, who are you?" someone called. Kairi turned to locate the owner of the voice, and found a kid who can't have been more than five years older than her, whose hair covered half his face.

She waited for him to get closer, so she wouldn't have to yell.

"Kairi," she answered. Her voice still cracked as she spoke, and she grimaced.

"Right," the kid said. "Right. Ah, introductions. Yes. I'm Alpha."

Kairi raised her eyebrows.

"Zexion Alpha, specifically," he corrected. "But just Alpha is fine."

Kairi started to ask whether or not he was a Replica, but decided against it. The chance of him not being one, especially with a name like that, seemed slim. She shouldn't strain her voice asking needless questions. Plus… hadn't Namine mentioned him once?

Alpha's eyes—well, Kairi assumed it was both of them, considering she could only see one—darted down to Riku, and he paled further, if that was possible. "What happened?" His voice almost squeaked when he spoke.

"Namine—" was all Kairi could say.

Alpha literally had to sit down on the nearest couch. It was like all the energy had been drained out of him.

"I knew it," he said. His voice was filled with dread. "I knew it was going to happen and I warned her."

Kairi wanted to ask a lot of questions right now. She didn't ask any of them, though. Her throat hurt, and Sora'd be pretty mad once if he found out she'd been straining her voice too much.

"So where is Namine?" Alpha asked.

Kairi started to say 'Mickey went to get her and Sora' only to second guess herself. Could she call him Mickey to a guy she didn't really know? Would Alpha know who she was referring to if she said 'the King'? Kairi wasn't sure and didn't want to risk it, so she settled on:

"Sora has her—they should be here soon."

"Is Namine conscious?—just nod or shake your head."

Obviously he'd noticed how horrible her voice sounded.

Kairi nodded.

"Right." Alpha let out a long breath. "Then we'll have to figure out where to put her—an ability proof room, definitely, but…" he trailed off.

Kairi frowned at him, trying to decide just how old this kid really was. He can't have been much more than five years older than her, he can't have been. That made him around twenty (at oldest), and that hardly seemed old enough to be in charge of decisions like this…

Alpha looked up from his thoughts. "Oh, and something will need to be done about Riku, too…" he said. He reached up to activate his comset. "7? Yes I know you're still—okay fine. I'll call Vexen." He pulled his hand away from his ear, and sighed very deeply. For a second Kairi was sure he wasn't actually going to call someone else, but then he reached for his comset again. "Riku's been hurt," was all he said.

Kairi could hear the man she assumed was Vexen yell on the other end.

Alpha flinched, and then turned the comset off.

That's when Mickey returned with Sora and Namine.

Kairi didn't dare ask what took them so long. Sora gave her a reassuring smile and a thumbs up, while Mickey pocketed his star shard. Namine was still grumbling and straining against the chains. Kairi took a second to put herself between Namine and Riku again.

Alpha hastily got to his feet. "Sora, if you would—"

"Where's Riku?!"

Alpha face darkened very quickly. Everyone else turned to see who the source of the voice was—Kairi figured it was Vexen. Had Riku mentioned Vexen before? Maybe Namine had…

"He's not gonna die!" Kairi called at him.

Sora sent her a glare.

She held her hands out in front of her and shrugged angrily, silently asking what else was I supposed to do?

Sora groaned and shook his head.

He didn't have a chance to say it, but she knew he wanted to say you didn't need to do anything.

Alpha directed Vexen's attention to Riku. Vexen knelt down next to Riku, examining and otherwise fussing over him. Kairi pursed her lips to hold back a smile. Whoever this Vexen was, he was providing her great material to tease Riku with later.

"Even!?" Mickey asked, with surprise, his eyes fixed on Vexen.

Vexen looked up, first in annoyance, then in surprise. He quickly got to his feet, and bowed. Kairi thought she saw Mickey roll his eyes a little, but she hadn't been looking quite at him and wasn't certain.

"Your Majesty!" Vexen exclaimed. "I- it's- well…" He grimaced and held out his hands in front of him, signaling for them to give him a moment to gather his words. "Let me start with the most crucial bit. I am from a parallel universe and therefore do not actually know you. I know who you are, yes, but I've only spoken with a parallel version of you before. Also, less importantly, I go by Vexen."

"Why?" Mickey asked, with an urgency that surprised Kairi.

"I- it… it hasn't exactly been a personal choice," Vexen admitted. He looked down at Riku again. "So… he's been hurt, how exactly?"

"I did it."

Kairi cringed at Namine's voice. She sounded way too smug.

Vexen looked up in horror. He stared at Namine for a good twenty seconds, his mouth working as he tried to find words, but couldn't. Finally he turned to Alpha. "Alpha—?"

"I'm. I'm working on it." Alpha seemed quite uncomfortable, and Kairi wondered what it was Vexen was meaning to ask. "Sora," Alpha said. "If you wouldn't mind bringing Namine and following me."

"Sure thing," Sora said. "But, uh, shouldn't something be done about Riku first? The least we could do is get him up off the floor, anyway. Maybe onto one of those couches? Surprised you didn't say anything about it, Kai—wait I told you not to use your voice never mind. Never mind."

Kairi shook her head in exasperation.

"Well, how's he been hurt?" Vexen asked, his attention back on Riku. "Or, how bad is it? I don't need to know how it happened." His attention darted to Namine for a brief moment, but then away, as if looking at her was too painful to bear.

"I've healed him up just fine," Mickey replied. "But. Well… it'll be best if ya see it for yourself…" He knelt down and pushed Riku's shirt aside—any easy task, considering how much it was torn.

Kairi strained to look. There was a patch of dark purple on Riku's abdomen, where his dark suit had attempted—and succeeded—to mend his skin so he couldn't bleed out. Namine growled audibly, and the jangling of chains suggested she'd strained against them again. All the color drained from Vexen's face when he saw Riku's chest.

"Uhm—" he stammered.

"Exactly," Mickey said.

Alpha sent a look at Vexen, eyebrow(s?) raised. "Is it supposed to do that?"

"Well…" Vexen just trailed off again. After a moment's consideration he decided: "I'll take him to 7—I at least want a scan of his data so I can see… why… it's… uh…" He shook his head and then waved his arm to flag someone down. "Amaryllis! I could use a hand over here."

Alpha rolled his eyes. "Right, like I said. Sora? Can you follow me with Namine? Kairi and, uh, Your Majesty—you are both free to come as well, if you wish."

Kairi nodded, and after shrugging Mickey did too. Sora tightened his grip on Namine and dragged her forward, following after Alpha. Kairi flanked in right behind Namine, just in case she started any trouble. Mickey walked slightly behind, slightly next to her.

And like that, Alpha led them off.