Sassy's Note: I fail at being technical and computer-savvy, so if any of this doesn't make sense… just ignore it.
The World's Heart
Riku stayed with Leon and Cloud, taking up residence in their guestroom at the other end of the hall from their room. He was a bit grateful for that, because he really didn't want to hear anything that could potentially damage his brain coming from their room. He'd slept well that night, though. The rum in his drink had done its job and no sooner had his head hit the pillow than he was blissfully unaware of everything.
He sat in bed for a few minutes, wondering if the voice would offer anything else. When it did not, he scowled and pushed himself out of bed. He ripped the curtains on the window shut, but moved to his bag to get some clothes. He was going back up to the study after breakfast to continue working on cracking the information stored on the worlds. Last night, Tron had said he would work on it so maybe they would have something today.
Riku opened the door and poked his head out into the hallway. He didn't hear anything so he padded softly and quickly to the bathroom across from his room for a quick shower.
When he was finished and dressed, he toweled his hair off, threw his clothes in the hamper and quietly made his way down to the kitchen. He needed coffee now.
He managed to avoid the one spot on the stairs that creaked and walked into the kitchen - only to find that someone was up anyway. Cloud was standing in front of the coffee maker, stirring his coffee with a spoon. His hair was tousled more than ever, and he looked like he had just woken up.
"Uh, good morning," said Riku awkwardly. Cloud tilted his head toward the teen in acknowledgement and moved away from the coffee machine. He sat down at the small table and took a large gulp of the coffee in his mug. Riku noticed there were two mugs set out beside the maker, and one was the mug he always used when he visited Radiant Garden. This touched Riku. He hurriedly made his coffee and sat down at the table too.
It was awkward, but Riku visibly saw Cloud ease up a bit. So, Riku drank his coffee in silence, and Cloud did the same, and soon the silence had formed into something more comfortable.
"If you're hungry," said Cloud quite out of the blue, "I can make waffles. It's about the only thing I can make."
Riku grinned. "Sure."
Cloud gave him his patented little half-smile and rose from his seat. Riku watched as Cloud made the batter and poured it into the waffle iron. Riku was slightly surprised. He'd been expecting toaster waffles. Not that he was complaining or anything, but Cloud wasn't the best cook in the world. He was probably closer to the worst.
Cloud served them, and Riku took his first bite. They were delicious. Cloud must have seen it on his face, for the blond half-smiled again. "Syrup?" he offered the teen.
They ate in silence until most of the waffles were gone. Riku checked the time. It was almost nine o'clock. He'd never known Leon to stay in bed this late. "Hey, Cloud?"
"Hmm?"
"Is Leon still asleep?"
Cloud froze. "Yes," he said stiffly and busied himself with spreading the syrup across his waffled perfectly even. Riku watched him for a moment, then sighed.
"It's probably not my place to say, but…" Cloud looked up at him, mako eyes dark.
Riku chose his words carefully. "You never look happy anymore, Cloud." He watched Cloud's face carefully and saw a good range of emotions pass over it before the blond just hung his head a bit. He didn't say anything, and Riku started to regret saying anything at all.
"Look, I don't know what's up. It's none of my business, and I know you know people worry about you and a lot of us are worried now. If it has something to do with Leon, talk to him about it. You both look miserable all the time."
It was faint, but Riku heard a whispered, "Okay."
It was then that Riku had to leave. He couldn't stand watching Cloud, whom he really had always admired, break down.
He stood and quickly cleaned up before saying over his shoulder, "I'll be at the study," and exiting the house. Great. He got the feeling he had probably just made things worse.
---
He arrived at the study not long later, and immediately approached the terminal. "Tron? Have you managed to access anything yet?"
"Not yet, but take a look at this." The screen went from a horrible blue color to a grid-like system with boxes in rows. Riku's eyes scanned it. Underneath each box was a freaking million-digit hex code Riku didn't even want to try to understand.
"What is it?"
"This is the exact location of each of the files. Each of the boxes contains the notes on the worlds."
Riku's eyes widened. "So… this is it? We just have to open the files?"
"Correct."
"Okay…" Riku bit his lip in concentration. "How do we open the files?"
"Each file needs a password, and from what it looks like, they're all different." Riku groaned.
"Great… Any idea what the passwords could be?"
"I've tried a few, but Ansem the Wise was thorough with his coding. I can't get into any of them."
"Hmm." Riku stared hard at the little boxes on the screen. "Can you tell which file is for which world?"
"Certainly," said Tron cheerily. It was eerie for a computer to sound like that, in Riku's opinion. "It's all in the name."
"Uhm… how?"
"Here, it's simple." The screen zoomed in on a box the right and the name pulled up higher. "This is the file for Destiny Islands. Look at the file name." Riku did.
GS/Q7-W4/DES-ISL/PSF-A/C1/PJ-0
Okay, well that made little to no sense. "Can you bring up the file name for Radiant Garden so I can compare the two?"
"Certainly!" Another hex code zoomed from somewhere across the screen to flash under the first.
GS/Q5-W2/RAD-GAR(HOL-BAS)/KA-D/C12/PJ-6
"Okay, I can understand the middle of the file names, but what does all the other stuff mean?" Riku asked Tron. The file name for Radiant Garden returned to its former place while Destiny Islands' enlarged on the screen.
"The first part is simple." Tron highlighted GS. "This stands for Gummi Space, meaning that the world is not connected to any other and can only be reached by gummi ships. This next part," Q7-W4 was highlighted, "stands for Quadrant 7, World 4. Ansem the Wise apparently divided all the worlds into quadrants and numbered them."
Riku nodded. "And the next is an abbreviation for the actual name of the world."
"Correct."
"Okay, so what's the last part mean?"
"I'm not sure about the next part." PSF-A/C1 was highlighted on the screen. "I'm not sure what Ansem the Wise was coding here."
"That's okay. And that PJ-0?"
"That means that no projects are or were taking place on Destiny Islands. Which brings me to my next point. I think these files are automatically updated without the manual instruction of a User."
"How do you figure?"
"The coding of all the files leaves room for the right program to access the files without the passwords."
Riku frowned. "What program is this?"
"One of Ansem's. It's the one he worked on for the longest."
"So there's no way it can be hacked?"
"Probably not without more coding than it takes to break these files open."
"Okay… can you tell when the last time a file was accessed?"
"Not without first opening the files, but Ansem's program has been self-activated within the past week."
"And there's no way to tell what world was accessed?"
"I'm afraid not."
"Okay… so now our next step is to figure out the passwords."
"Indeed."
"Where should we start?"
"You're most familiar with Destiny Islands." The block representing Destiny Islands blew up on the screen. "Just say a password and I'll try it."
"Uhh…" Riku puzzled a bit, then said, "Destiny." There was a moment's pause then…
ACCESS DENIED.
"Uhm, okay. Island."
ACCESS DENIED.
"Tropics."
ACCESS DENIED.
"Ocean."
ACCESS DENIED.
"I don't know… Sora."
ACCESS DENIED.
"Damn it…" He thought that one might have worked.
---
Over fifty failed passwords later, Riku was getting seriously pissed off. There had to be somewhere in Ansem's notes that he had stored the passwords, or at least given a hint to what they may have been.
"Tron," he finally said wearily. "I'm taking a break. See if Ansem may have left any other notes stored in there as to what the passwords may be."
"Yes, User Riku!"
Riku pushed himself away from the terminal and stumbled back into Ansem's study. There, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed Kairi's number.
"Hello?" came her voice after a few rings.
"Hey, Kai. It's me."
"Riku? Where are you?"
"I'm in Ansem's study. Tron found all the files. The only problem is getting into them now."
"Why can't you access them?"
"They all need a password, and we have no idea what they could possibly be." Riku rubbed his temples. "I tried guessing the one to Destiny Islands, but got nothing."
"Oh, well… what are you going to do now?"
"Tell Aerith to round up the others. We're about to go through all of Ansem's handwritten notes," he said as he glared at all the books.
"All of them?"
"Do we have any other choice?"
"Well… not really… Okay, then. I'll tell her."
"Hey, Kai…"
"Yes?"
Riku sighed.
"This morning… I talked to Cloud." She said nothing. "I tried not to upset him, but…"
"What did you say?"
"I just said that we were worried about him and Leon. Was that… bad?"
Kairi sighed. "No, I don't think so, but how did he react?"
"Honestly? I thought the man was going to start bawling."
"Well… maybe you helped him out."
"I sure hope so."
"We'll see. I'll get Aerith to call over there and see how they are."
"Okay."
"We'll see you in a bit."
"See you." Riku closed his phone and looked around at the shelves and shelves of books.
This was not going to be fun.
---
It wasn't too long later that Kairi arrived in the study, but by that time Riku had selected a tome that looked promising and had it half-way perused. She walked in, hand on a hip as she examined him hunched over the book like a demented silver bunny rabbit. She laughed a bit, and he looked up.
"What?"
"Nothing," she giggled and slid down on the floor next to him. "Aerith has got the others coming. And she called Cloud." The change in Kairi's voice was evident, and Riku felt a pang of regret again.
"And?"
"He and Leon are coming soon. They talked a bit, but I don't know what about. She left the room."
"Ah." Now Riku felt really guilty.
"Don't worry, Riku. She said they were coming too." He nodded. Well, maybe Cloud had talked to Leon. He really hoped so.
"Well, shall I help or just sit here and look pretty?" asked Kairi. Riku snorted handed another large tome.
"Get started, sweetheart."
---
The next to arrive were Kioshi and Demyx. Riku was relieved when he saw Demyx; the Nocturne was smiling brightly.
"We came to join the study party," he declared happily and snatched up a book. He plopped down on the floor facing Riku.
"I can't believe you're excited about studying," said Kioshi with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey! Be glad Tron did all the work for you on the computer. You kinda fail when it comes to technology, Kio."
"Music is my thing, not machines." He too grabbed a book and sat down beside Demyx.
The former Nobody grinned. "Yah, that's why I love you," he said, winking at his boyfriend. Kioshi just brushed it off, but his cheeks colored a bit.
Only a few minutes later, the next pair arrived. Riku heard heavy footsteps and looked up. In walked Reno and Rude. The redhead glared down at the blond spiked head in front of him for a moment, then calmly reached down and whapped Demyx fairly hard with his EMR.
The Nocturne yelped and twisted around. "What was that for!"
"For not even botherin' to come say hey to me last night." Reno took a pull on his cigarette. "Brat," he added fondly, lips quirking upward.
Kioshi was shaking with silent laughter beside Demyx, who glared at him and rubbed his head where Reno had hit him.
"What? I don't even get an apology?" Reno demanded of him.
"Not after that!" Demyx pouted.
"Oh, get over it. Have your Kio kiss it and make it better." Reno glanced at Riku and Kairi. He sighed. "Gotta do some work, huh?"
"It would be greatly appreciated," said Riku, offering Reno a book.
Reno took it with a great sigh and sat down cross-legged on Demyx's other side, despite the Nocturne's indignant squawk. Rude, too, picked one up, but he chose to sit at the desk rather than on the floor with the others.
It was awhile before the others showed up. Riku had managed to skim through two more huge tomes before he heard Yuffie's cheerful voice filtering through the halls. They all looked toward the doorway, and in walked Aerith, Yuffie, Leon, and Cloud. Riku tried to hide his wince when he saw the blond. He hoped he wasn't going to get his ass kicked. Cloud looked normal enough, though, and so did Leon.
"Great. This is going to take forever," Yuffie sighed.
"It'll go much faster if you hurry up and get busy, yo."
"Shut up, Turk, or I will kick your ass," she huffed at Reno. Riku handed her a book and she fell back on the floor, dully opening it. Aerith, Leon, and Cloud grabbed a stack as well.
Riku was surprised when Cloud sat down beside him. When he cut his eyes over at the blond, he found Cloud's crystal-blue gaze upon him.
"Thanks," Cloud mouthed at him, and he gave his half-smile again.
Riku blinked, then grinned and bent over his book again. Maybe now things would start going better for the blond.
Oh, how wrong he was.
---
Get up, eat breakfast, go to the study, break for lunch around noon, return to the study, have dinner at the bar, go home and sleep. Wake up the next morning, return to the study, and do it all over again.
This was the daily schedule for them for three days running now. They had managed to knock out a fairly large chunk of the books in the study, and still they had nothing. All the notes Tron found gave them no indication either. Everyone was annoyed and tempers were running rather high, so looking back, Riku wasn't surprised when all hell broke loose on that third day.
He remembered that it started the night before. He didn't know what had sparked it, but harsh words between Leon and Reno had resulted in the redhead storming out of Tifa's bar. He had shown up at the library the next morning with Rude, same as always, but he didn't sit beside Demyx and Kioshi. He sat at the desk with Rude, and didn't look up from his books until lunch.
Riku didn't even know what had been said, but he didn't puzzle over it long before going to work. He was sure they were getting close. They had to be.
Riku was the first one back at the study after lunch. He seized the book he had been browsing and flipped through it again. Ansem had made some notes on the neighboring worlds – nothing too involved but it was something. Kairi joined him not too long after that, and without a word she took up her place and started on another book.
It was only a few minutes later when they both heard it.
"YOU FUCKIN' KNOW WHAT, LEONHART! I CAN'T FUCKIN' TAKE THIS ANY MORE!!"
Both of them jumped, and Kairi's eyes flew toward the doorway of the study.
"Riku… was that… Reno?"
Riku stood up. "I think so."
They ran out into the hallway together, and the scene that met them wasn't pretty at all.
Reno had his back to them, but even from their viewpoint, he was livid. Leon stood a good six feet in front of him, and he was almost as angry as Reno was. Aerith, Yuffie, Demyx, and Kioshi were huddled together behind Leon, all of them looking utterly horrified. Cloud was pressed against the span of wall between Leon and Reno and his eyes, too, were horror-struck.
"You're not the only one who can't put up with this anymore, Turk!!" Leon yelled at the redhead, his voice reverberating off the tiled walls.
"You don't even know what the fuck you're talking about" Reno screeched, chest heaving. "Take your goddamned insecurity and fuckin' go somewhere else!! I'm NOT trying to steal your goddamned boyfriend!!"
"What am I SUPPOSED to think, Reno, with the way you've been acting around him!?"
This seemed to do it for Reno, for he snarled and drew himself up. Pointing a shaking hand at the mortified blond, he screamed, "AT LEAST I DON'T TREAT HIM LIKE FUCKIN' DIRT!!"
And, quite suddenly, Riku understood.
To be continued…
Sassy: Wow, those boys can scream, can't they?
Leave a review or you'll never know what they're hollering about.