Sora had never feared for his life. There had been times when he'd feared for his safety, perhaps even his emotional well-being, but never for his life.

He was seated atop the stoop, watching with detached interest as Xion handed baggies filled with illicit substances to their customers and sent them on their way. Yuffie was on munny duty; there had not been another incident since his first day, and Sora had made sure to watch himself around her. They had entrusted him with a couple of baggies to hand out since that day, nothing big, nothing dangerous, not much in the way of responsibility. As far as Sora was concerned, this was an acceptable state of affairs, though it didn't net him much in the way of profits.

"You up for more?" Xion called to him. He nodded and accepted what she had for him; he began his trek a little ways down the street. More manpower, more ground to cover.

That's when he heard it, the revving of an engine and the squealing of tires. It happened in a flash, the three loud pops, the shouting, and before the sounds could register in his mind he was being tackled onto the cold hard sidewalk.

"What-?"

"Stay down!" Xion shouted in his ear. More pops.

Gunshots, he thought to himself. Someone was shooting at them.

Sora listened as the car sped off into the distance, leaving an excruciating silence in its wake. The seconds ticked by and they remained on the ground, he breathed a sigh of relief as he felt Xion's weight leave him.

"You alright?" she asked, holding out her hand.

"Yeah," he confirmed shakily. Yuffie came rushing over.

"Was anyone hit?!" she questioned, looking at the both of them frantically. Sora and Xion shook their heads.

"What was that?" Sora asked, looking off in the direction the speeding car had gone.

Xion shook her head slowly. "Thought we had this under control."

"Had what under control?" Sora asked.

"We should call Tidus," Xion ignored him, looking to Yuffie who nodded and pulled out her cell phone.

Completely baffled by their conversation and still feeling a bit shaky, Sora sat down on the stoop. The baggies Xion had given to him just minutes before were clenched tightly in his fist; he stuck them in his pocket. Sora let his eyes drift over the immediate area, nobody had been drawn by the gunfire, nobody was coming out to investigate. Perhaps this was a common occurrence.

Tidus arrived soon after, looking grim and exasperated, like he'd run a marathon. He approached the three of them on the stoop.

"Tell me exactly what happened," he demanded.

"Someone tried to take us out, got a couple of shots off, nobody was hit," Xion explained. Tidus looked out nervously at the street, as if expecting someone to pop out from behind a car. At this point, Sora couldn't blame him.

"Do we call it in?" Yuffie asked. Tidus shook his head.

"No…not yet, I'll talk to Riku. He'll know what to do," Tidus sighed.

"What happened? What was that?" Sora repeated, he was becoming increasingly frustrated with their cryptic chatter. The three of them turned to him as if just realizing he was present. Tidus leaned against the stoop and said nothing, his face scrunched up like he was debating with himself whether to say anything at all.

"Competitors," he said finally, "not a big deal."

"Considering I was almost just gunned down in the street, I'd say it's a big deal," Sora retorted.

"God, do you have to be so dramatic? We've dealt with this before, it's fine," Tidus argued.

"Fine? How many times has this happened before? Why don't you get Riku to deal with it, considering he's got us all down here selling his stuff," Sora replied angrily.

Tidus said nothing for a moment.

Then Xion laughed, "You don't really think we work for Riku, do you?"

Sora looked at her, stunned. "If you don't, then what are you doing here?" he asked.

She was about to answer when Tidus shot her a warning look. "Oh, he's been here for weeks, shouldn't he know?" she dismissed. Tidus got up and pulled out his phone.

"I'm calling Riku, don't say anything stupid," he warned, walking across the street to make his call.

Sora turned to Xion, "What does he mean?"

"He doesn't want me to tell you who you really work for," she smirked.

"Who I…? Will someone just tell me what's going on?!"

"The Organization," she said simply.

"Huh?" Sora asked, befuddled.

"Ever wonder where all the gangs have gone?" Xion inquired. When Sora said nothing, she continued, "couple years ago you couldn't move a mile without ending up in some gang's territory. The Latin Kings, MS-13, those weird clowns, you think it's bad now, you should have seen it then."

Sora remembered; there had been something akin to a moral panic, when people avoided the streets and ventured out of the safety of their homes solely for the necessities. There had been assemblies, classroom discussions on the dangers of backward caps, news reports; they were finding bodies every week. Then one day it just seemed to taper off, and it died away just as quickly as it had begun. In the end, the decline in violence was attributed to a stepped up police presence.

"Okay, what about it?" he asked, uncertain if he truly wanted to hear the answer.

"It was the Organization that took them out. I don't know where they came from, I don't think anybody really does. They just showed up one day and took everything, crushed every rival in the city and absorbed what was left."

Sora turned pale. "Are you saying…I don't know what you're saying."

Xion looked him square in the eyes, "I'm saying that we work for the Organization. All of us, including you."

"But Riku…"

She waved him off, "Mid-level at most, he just distributes the drugs to the dealers. There are plenty of people above him."

"Who?"

Xion shrugged. "Don't know, don't particularly care. I've never seen them, and considering we're at the bottom of the ladder I don't think we ever will."

"So then what was that just now?" Sora asked.

"That was what's left."

"Left?" he tilted his head curiously.

"The holdouts. The Organization took out the big players, but they couldn't stop the little crews from going into hiding. They come at us sometimes, usually it's not a real problem. We're in strict Organization territory right here."

Sora remained silent, shaken by what he was hearing, shaken by what he had just experienced. Gangs and attempted murder, he hadn't signed up for this.

You didn't sign up at all, a voice reminded him.

Tidus' voice pulled him from his thoughts. "Alright, you guys can pack it up here for the day. Riku said he'd handle it."

Sora looked up at him, "Where's Roxas right now?"

"Roxas? Left a while ago, they finished up early over there," Tidus said, checking his watch.

Sora grit his teeth, he could already feel the explosive anger building inside him. He had almost died. He had almost died selling drugs. Roxas was home.

He set off down the road towards home.

He threw open the door of their apartment to find Roxas lounging on the couch, watching television. Sora stormed across the room and before Roxas could utter a greeting he had seized the remote from his brother's hands and flung it across the room, where it smashed into the wall with a spectacular clatter.

Roxas looked at him in shock. "What the hell, Sora?"

"Did you know?! Do you even know what you've gotten us into?!" Sora shouted.

Roxas scrambled off the couch and backed away from him. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"The Organization," Sora hissed, "did you know about it?"

"I-" Roxas looked away, anywhere but at him. "I knew," he mumbled.

"And you didn't think to tell me?! You didn't think it was important?!"

"No! It's not, we're just in it with Riku-"

"You're in it with Riku," Sora furiously corrected, "and I almost died today trying to help you clean up your fucking mess!"

"Look, Sora, just relax-"

"What else aren't you telling me?!" he snapped.

"Nothing!" Roxas assured. "Sora, I swear. I would've told you about it if I thought it was important. What happened today?"

Sora said nothing, breathing heavily as his brother stood cautiously in front of him, watching him wearily.

The munny. This was all happening because of the munny. Ten thousand owed to Riku. Well, there was an easy way of rectifying that. He hadn't checked, but based on how it felt in his hands the munny stowed away under his mattress should have been able to cover at least half of that. Roxas may not approve of how he'd acquired it, but desperate times…

"How much have we made, in total?" Sora asked, struggling to keep his voice on an even level.

"Barely scraped a thousand…" Roxas said. "Why?"

Sora moved towards his room. "I'm done with this, you hear me? I want out."

"Wait!" Roxas grabbed his shoulder. "Sora, please, if you don't help me, we're done."

"Why?" Sora swiveled around to face his brother. "Why are we done? What is Riku going to do to us?"

"What do you think? You don't want to owe munny to someone like him," Roxas said, wide eyed and fearful.

"Did he actually threaten you? Did he specifically say what he would do?" Sora pressed, hands on the knob of his door.

"Were you not there with me at the party?" Roxas asked.

Oh, he was there alright. Surrounded by friends, Riku was powerful. But alone?

I know things.

Someone cleared their throat behind them. Sora and Roxas turned around in surprise and laid eyes upon Kairi and Naminé standing in their open doorway and watching them curiously.

"Is this a bad time?" Naminé asked timidly.

It took them a moment to break out of their surprise. Roxas dropped his hands from Sora's shoulder and walked up to them. "Not at all," he said, "come in."

Sora stood where he was, utterly confused.

"I uh…invited Naminé over," Roxas said to Sora's questioning glance, and threw Kairi one of his own.

"Oh, I just thought I'd come and see if Sora wanted to work on the project. Didn't you get my text?" Kairi asked. Sora pulled out his cell and saw that, indeed, he had missed her message.

"Great," Roxas clapped his hands together, clearly thankful for the distraction. "I do believe we have a movie to catch," he said to Naminé. He took her hand and whisked her out the door, hardly giving them a chance to work through the formalities. He gave Sora one last wink before shutting the door behind them. Kairi turned to him expectantly.

"You're okay with this, right?" she questioned hesitantly.

Sora nodded. "Yeah, fine…I mean, it's fine…great," he said awkwardly. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. One minute he was getting shot at, the next he was on the verge of wringing his brother's neck, and now Kairi was standing in his apartment. What he really wanted more than anything was to take a nap.

"You want something to drink?" he asked her. She shook her head and he remained in place, unsure of what to do.

"I actually wanted to talk to you…" she said, taking a seat on his couch.

"Oh yeah?" he asked, he hesitated for a few moments before taking a seat next to her.

"Yeah, um…that stuff we talked about last time…I just wanted to make sure that was…you know, confidential. Just between us, right?" Kairi faced him, wearing a worried frown.

Her question surprised Sora. She was worried he was going to talk, spill all of her, and by extension, Riku's secrets. Not that she had given him very much. It was all very barebones, but still, it was something.

An advantage

"Of course," he answered, and in that moment he was sure he meant it. Kairi gave him that smile that he had come to know quite well.

Sora didn't know why he was suddenly so nervous, didn't know why he was suddenly having such a hard time facing her for extended periods of time. Get a grip, he told himself. Get a grip.

"So, the project," he cleared his throat, hoping to alleviate the crushing weight that was descending on them in that moment. Kairi perked up at his words, as if she were pulling herself from the very same morass.

"Yeah, we never got around to talking about our disappointments last time," she recalled.

"If I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure I said that life was a big disappointment," he attempted to jest, remembering a bit too late just how miserable that made him sound.

"Yeah," she nodded slowly. Sora felt the heat burning his cheeks as Kairi examined him closely, searching his face for something. He prayed he wasn't blushing.

"Why do you think that?" she asked.

Sora considered the question. Why did he think that? Why was life a disappointment? He hadn't expected the possibility of this conversation occurring, here, now. Depth, not breadth, was the key.

"I..." What was the answer? What was the problem?

He found that he could no longer speak; it was as if his tongue was tied to the roof of his mouth. Sora willed the words to flow forth, but none would oblige.

"Sora?" Kairi questioned, her expression morphing into one of genuine inquisitiveness.

"I don't know," he said finally, and he was wholeheartedly disappointed that out of everything he thought he had to say, out of every observation made that he had believed to be so keen regarding the state of the world, the most he had to contribute was that three word answer, of all answers.

"Oh," was all Kairi had to say. He felt embarrassed, challenged, threatened.

"What about you?" he asked quickly. Only a proper deflection could salvage this nightmare.

Kairi sunk back into the couch and reflected on his prompt. Sora waited patiently, willing the malaise to dissolve.

"Time," she said decisively. "Sometimes I wish I could just turn back the clocks and change everything. I wish I could stop it from moving because it moves so quickly, you know? Whenever you want to just…savor things, it speeds up. When you want things to just end, it slows down. It's the one constant."

"The constant," Sora echoed. This girl was just full of surprises.

"Yes," Kairi said, "and we're the variables. We're arrogant and we think we can change things when we fail, but we can't. So we wish we could have a do over, but we can't get that either."

He knew she was speaking from her own experience, from her heart. He wondered how it was so easy for her to say these things, to put them into such precise words and to do so in such a succinct manner. Did she always go around talking like this, or was this something special, reserved just for a moment like this? One moment in time.

"Well," he spoke, and he could do nothing else but surrender to the anxious feelings that were tearing away at him, "that's something, but we're only supposed to do this on a particular something. Like a specific time."

Kairi gave him a strange look, and he wished he'd said nothing at all.

"Then I guess neither of ours counts."

It was over. Sora felt it in his bones; their one chance, passing him right by. He wanted to leave, needed to escape. The malaise was spreading, threatening to overtake the apartment.

"Let's go somewhere," he suggested. Kairi furrowed her brow in confusion.

"Where?" she inquired. Stop fighting me, he thought. Just stop fighting.

"Anywhere."

They took refuge on the swings of the decrepit old park a little ways from the apartment. Years ago he and Roxas would frequent it, back when it was full of life and received regular visitors; back then the swings and the slides and the tiny little garden over by the fence were neat and new. Now it was old and abandoned, the plants long since having died, the concrete sprouting weeds through the cracks in the ground. Even here, the malaise followed.

The rickety old swing set creaked as he pushed himself forward and let himself fall back as gracefully as he could. "What was Destiny Islands like?"

Kairi seemed pleasantly surprised by his question. He couldn't pass up the opportunity to have her reminisce, but he was also curious, curious about what lay beyond these broken swing sets and dank alleys.

"Great," she replied happily. "Really great…and green. There were palm trees and the beach was always there and the water was always warm."

Sora nodded, waiting for her to continue.

"We would always have campfires on the beach during the summer. The stars were out every night, like I said. My friends and I…we would talk about building a raft so we could sail out into the ocean and see what was out there," her smile turned sad and Sora caught the longing in her voice.

"Did you ever?" he asked.

Kairi shook her head. "We started building one, but a storm came and wrecked it."

"If it hadn't…what do you think you'd find?"

"Honestly?" she traced a jagged crack in the ground with her foot. "We probably would've drowned."

It was getting late and he insisted on walking her home. Kairi resisted, insisting that she would be fine, but eventually acquiesced when she realized her appeals may as well have been falling on deaf ears. Sora wasn't quite sure himself why he was so determined on seeing her home, perhaps it was the knowledge that had he been a little quicker on the job, or even a little slower, he would not be walking anywhere with Kairi.

They said their goodbyes when they arrived at her doorstep, but neither moved. Their friendship, strange thing it was and prior hiccups notwithstanding, had been established on solid ground, but the reality of their situation was not lost on Sora. In many ways they were similar, but in more they were different. It was the status that trumped the symbol.

"Goodnight," she said once more, giving him her last smile of the day and slowly closing the door behind her.

"Goodnight," he whispered.

He began the tiresome walk back, feeling more drained than he had in a very long while. This time he didn't hear the tires, nor the car door opening, he turned when he heard the footsteps striking the pavement and felt the blinding pain when something hard connected with his head.

He remembered his blurred vision and the faceless apparitions that stood before him, laughing and stomping their feet. He felt something warm trickling down his head and clung to consciousness just long enough to feel himself lifted from the ground and shoved into darkness.

That was the first time Sora feared for his life.