AN/ Happy AkuRokuShi day! 8/13/14 - at least it's still 8/13/14 in my timezone... for another two hours...

Anyway, if you want some Days Trio feels, head over to the blog I guess? The chapter (and even most of the blog) actually has a lot of SoRiKai feels, funnily enough. I'd wait to post this chapter, but then again, when else am I gonna get a change to post on AkuRokuShi day? Never.

Chapter 239: Bond that Can't be Broken

Riku woke up quite suddenly, his brain snapping awake as if a light switch had been flipped. He wasn't in nearly as much pain as he thought he should be, but more importantly:

"Where's Namine!?" he demanded, sitting up straight. Terror washed over him in a flood. He hadn't seen her go down. He hadn't seen what'd happened. Had they needed to- to kill her? His heart clenched at the thought. Now that he was thinking a little more clearly…

"Relax," Sora called. When'd he gotten here? Oh well. "She's restrained right now while Alpha—or I think it's Alpha—is looking to see if he can fix her."

"It is Alpha," Vexen said.

Riku took a quick look at his surroundings. He was in 7's room, and Vexen was standing at the computer next to the cot he was in. Toby was in the cot next to him, seemingly asleep, and 7 by that computer. Kairi was leaning against the wall across from him, sipping a glass of water, and Sora was just standing there, shifting every few seconds so he was near constantly moving in some way or another.

"What happened?" Riku asked. "After I- after-" He squeezed his eyes shut. "Oh gosh I'm an idiot," he groaned, and he buried his face in his hands. "I am such an idiot."

"Y'think?" Kairi laughed. Her voice sounded really hoarse.

"In- In my defense," Riku said, looking up again. "That- that was really emotionally manipulative and. And I should've seen it coming…" He sighed and rubbed his head.

"Dare I ask?" Vexen said.

"It was like listening to Larxene's voice come out of Namine's mouth," Riku explained, and that's all he needed to say to Vexen. Vexen understood, at least, how horrible Larxene was. Kairi didn't.

And as much as Riku wanted to wrap his hands around Larxene's neck—to make her pay for all she'd put him through… It made him sick to think he'd actually considered doing anything like that to Namine.

He hung his head again, rubbing at his face. After a second he paused, noticing something. He wasn't wearing a shirt, for starters, but even more worrying, there was also a patch of… dark purple on his gut. It looked like… felt like the material that made up his dark suit.

"Uhm. Why- why is that…?" he began, but fumbled for the exact question he wanted to be asking.

"It melded with your skin to keep you from bleeding out," 7 explained.

"Okay. Cool. But… why the hell?"

Vexen coughed awkwardly.

Of course.

Of course this would be Vexen's doing.

"What did you do?" Riku asked, turning to glare at Vexen. "Also, I'd like my shirt back." Thankfully, it was on the floor next to his cot, so there was no problem finding it.

"It's too torn to do you any good," 7 warned.

"Also looks a little small for you," Sora added.

Riku said nothing. Both of them were right, of course, but what else was he supposed to do? Walk around without a shirt? He didn't like the idea much, especially not when there was a patch of his skin that was purple.

"Vexen," Riku said, sternly. "You haven't answered my question."

"Well- well, you see, you have to understand that—"

"Vexen! Stop stuttering and tell me what the hell you did to my data."

Vexen swallowed nervously. "I- I may have… not programmed you… with the normal darkness protection protocols," he said.

Riku blinked a few times. He knew what that meant, and knew he should probably be worried, but he couldn't find it in him to be so. Being able to use the darkness to this extent was a good thing. It was great. Or, he thought it was, anyway.

"Isn't darkness not supposed to affect Replicas at all?" Sora asked. "I thought Riku mentioned…"

"Normally," Vexen said. "But that's when they have the darkness protection protocols installed. I- I thought that those protocols might hamper Riku's ability to, you know, utilize the darkness so I. I didn't install them."

"I don't think I mind so much," Riku said.

Everyone turned to look at him, seeming quite surprised. Well, Vexen and 7 looked quite surprised. Sora and Kairi just looked vaguely confused.

"What do you mean you don't mind?" 7 demanded. He looked really tense. "Don't you know what those protocols are supposed to do, and what it means for you if you don't have them?"

Riku shrugged. "Well if they're going to hamper my ability to use darkness…"

"I said they might," Vexen corrected. "There's nothing definite about it. And, actually, it wasn't really smart of me in hindsight—"

"Wait, sorry," Sora interrupted. "But me 'n Kairi aren't on the same page as the rest of you. What's the darkness gonna do to him?"

"Kill him," 7 responded. There was a fierceness in his tone. Riku just rolled his eyes.

"What!" Kairi gasped.

"Really?" Sora frowned.

"There's a reason why the protocols are installed to begin with," 7 said.

"That's a worst case scenario, 7, and you know it." Vexen sounded a little miffed, but not nearly as annoyed as 7 sounded. "Honestly, if his darkness levels weren't as high as they are now, I wouldn't be worried about it."

"Can you fix it?" Sora asked. "I mean, just install the darkness protection whatevers?"

Riku shook his head. "I'm not compatible with the program here," he said. "So no they can't." He shifted his weight so he was leaning back a little more, his arms supporting him from behind. "Not that I'm in any immediate danger, right?" He sent a casual look up at Vexen.

"No…" Vexen admitted, shifting a little, as if uncomfortable. "But eventually…"

"We'll worry about it when it becomes a problem, yeah?"

And it shouldn't be a problem for a month or so. He'd better use the power while he had it, then. He'd like to keep it, but he supposed he'd really rather not die, either.

"We'll worry about it when I've finished translating your data into their code and can fix the problem," Vexen corrected, sternly.

Riku couldn't help himself. He laughed.

"And how long's that gonna take?"

"…a few months."

Even better.

"What about the other universe?" Sora asked.

Riku's smile fell. His heart seemed to pound in his ears. Just the thought of going to the Other Castle Oblivion. The thought of stepping into one of the memory pods or nearing one of those computers… His breaths came in gasps. He dug his fingernails into his palms.

He saw Vexen throw a worried glance at him, and feared he'd say something. Riku ground his teeth together. That's the last thing he wanted.

But instead Vexen just said:

"While that would work, yes, I'm not too keen on the idea unless it's an absolute necessity. I personally would rather not return to that Castle Oblivion. Besides, it's not a permanent solution—we may not be able to simply hop over to that universe when something's wrong forever. Better be prepared."

Riku felt his breathing calm. His heart didn't seem to be pounding as loud. He didn't have to go back. No one was going to make him.

"Sorry to interrupt," Kairi said. "But is Toby okay?"

She'd moved closer to his cot, and was currently kneeling down next to it.

Vexen shifted uncomfortably at the question. 7 looked like his heart had stopped. Their silence weighed in the room for quite some time, until 7 finally found it in him to speak.

"No," he said. "He's- he's… dead."

The glass fell from Kairi's hands. It wasn't a far enough fall to break, but what water was left in it spilled. Sora sat rather abruptly on the ground. Riku's stomach clenched a little. He hadn't necessarily been fond of the boy, but…

"I don't know if any of you were there when he let loose that attack…" 7 began.

"I was," Kairi answered. Her voice was small, and her eyes fixed on a spot on the ground in front of her.

"It was too much for his data to handle," 7 continued, his voice much softer now. "It fried him completely. And if something isn't done about the darkness in Riku's data eventually, there's a high chance he could suffer the same fate."

Riku opened his mouth to reply with something snarky, but his throat was too dry to articulate any sounds.

"I'll get started on translating his code as soon as possible," Vexen said, evenly. "Here." He handed Kairi a towel. She took it with shaking hands, but Sora grabbed it from her and pushed her gently aside before she could do anything with it.

"Does- does Joseph know?" Riku asked, finally. Just thinking about how devastated Joseph was—or would be—made his stomach clench even harder.

"He does." Even 7's voice seemed tighter as he spoke. "We- we best not tell him about Namine, actually. Not right now. We don't need to upset him further."

Everyone mumbled a unanimous agreement in response to that.

7 sighed deeply. "Anyway, there's nothing more I can do here. I'll go see how Namine's doing."

He left.

Sora and Kairi started speaking in hushed tones. Riku considered them for a second, then decided not to interrupt. He turned his attention to Vexen.

"So, out of curiosity… have you got any plans to go back to the other universe, eventually?" he asked. He tried to sound casual, but his voice cracked at least once, and his eyes kept flickering over to Sora and Kairi, or to Toby.

Vexen tensed.

"Why do you ask?" he replied, slowly. His eyes narrowed at Riku.

Riku shrugged. "Like I said, just curious."

"Well I have to get your data sorted first, and then…" Vexen trailed off.

"And then?"

"I don't know," Vexen admitted.

Riku raised his eyebrows. "You don't know?"

"Well… I'm not exactly sure if I'm wanted back over there—"

"You're not exactly wanted over here," Riku interrupted.

Vexen shut his mouth, but that was all he did. He didn't protest.

"That was a little rude!" Sora called.

"And?"

"I think I'd be a little kinder to someone who was fixing my data," Kairi said.

"It's alright," Vexen sighed. "You don't have to defend me. Besides, it's not like I'm not used to Riku being…"

"Honest?" Riku finished.

"Actually, I was going to say rude."

Kairi snorted. Sora looked like he wanted to laugh but was also trying to be polite and not laugh. Riku just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Well, if you do stay, it's up to you," he told Vexen. "I wouldn't miss you if you left, but I can't exactly make you leave, either. Well…" He paused, reconsidering. "I suppose I could shove you through a dark corridor…" he mused.

"That's comforting," Vexen said, dryly.

Riku shrugged in a sort of what-are-you-gonna-do? manner.

"Well," Vexen logged off his computer and stepped away from it. "I could start working on translating your code now, but I think seeing about Namine is a slightly more pressing issue. And, anyway, you three look like you have a lot of, uh, catching up to do."

"Good riddance to you t—hey!" Riku's casual amusement fell into a glare as he watched Vexen go. "Hey! Wipe that smirk off your face!" he called, but it was no use. Vexen was gone. He growled with annoyance, and turned to Sora and Kairi. "What was he smirking about?"

"Probably just happy you have some friends or something," Kairi said, plopping herself down on the end of Riku's cot. Sora sat down on the floor at the end of it, but considering the cot was basically on the ground, it hardly made it awkward to see him.

"Why would he care?" Riku scoffed.

"I dunno," Kairi shrugged. She still sounded pretty hoarse, but she was smirking something awful. "But I wanna know who he is."

"What do you mean?" Riku narrowed his eyes at her, not quite following. "He's just Vexen!"

Kairi raised her eyebrows and sent a look at Sora, who mimicked her expression. Riku's glare returned.

"Why are you two smirking? Stop giving me that look, Kairi!"

"Just sayin' he seems to care a lot about you."

"And?"

"So who is he?" Kairi demanded.

Riku threw his hands out in the air next to him, still not quite understanding why she seemed to think there was something more than he was telling her. "He's just the guy who created me. Nothing more."

"Uhh huuuuh," Kairi said, but she didn't sound quite convinced.

"Stop giving me that look! I mean it!"

"I mean, I guess that explains him worrying about you," Sora added, but he sounded as unconvinced as Kairi did. "But… I dunno, Kairi… that didn't seem all sinister-heartless-'I'm worried about my creation' sorta thing you'd expect, y'know?"

"No, it didn't seem like that at all," Kairi agreed.

"What? Are you two insinuating he's, like, my father or something? Because he is not—"

"It's not like you have to be biologically related to him or anything," Kairi said.

"He's not my father!"

Sora and Kairi just grinned at each other and high-fived. Riku fumed.

"What do you two care about my personal life?" he asked.

"I dunno if I'd call this your personal life," Sora said, snorting a little.

"We're your best friends, Reeks," Kairi explained. She looked like she was holding back a smile. "It's our jobs to be in your—"

"Pff!" Sora's laughter cut her off. "I'm sorry I tried to wait but… Reeks?"

"Roxas called him it."

"I didn't agree to that nickname!" Riku protested.

Kairi and Sora just kept laughing.

Riku folded his arms across his chest.

"Well I see you two made up just fine," he mumbled. Part of it was to get back at them, somehow, but largely it was just out of bitterness for his current situation.

"Like we wouldn't?" Kairi asked. Her voice cracked a little, but Riku couldn't quite tell if it was due to her sore throat or some other reason.

"Sora seemed kind of worried," Riku replied.

"Yeah and I was really dumb for it I get that!" Sora snapped, and there was definitely an edge in his voice.

"Well, gee, no need to be so offended," Riku said, fighting to keep a straight face. "I mean it's not like it's a secret you have a huge crush on Kairi or anything." Riku and Kairi locked eyes, and Kairi broke into a small grin.

"I do not!" Sora protested.

"Gosh, Sora, that is literally like the worst thing to say, y'know," Kairi said, continuing with the ploy. "Especially if I secretly had a crush on you or something and was just waiting to tell you…"

Sora's eyes instantly went wide with horror, and it was much harder for Riku to keep the grin off his face.

"I- I mean," Sora stammered. "I mean it's not that I don't like you Kairi I'm just not sure if—Hey!"

Kairi hadn't been able to keep herself from giggling. The jig was up.

Sora's face darkened drastically. "Well it doesn't matter if I have a crush on her or not because she's dating Roxas," he told Riku.

That stopped Kairi's giggling.

"I am not!"

Riku laughed, now. "Roxas, huh? I think you could do better."

"We're not dating!"

"Yeah so what's that beach date about, then?" Sora asked.

"ONE DATE DOES NOT MEAN WE'RE TOGETHER!"

"Aha! So it is a date!"

Kairi buried her face in her hands.