All the world was still and Sora loved it. Everything had slowed to an imperceptible crawl. It was as if he had captured one moment of temporality and could keep it in place. If only one could have but world enough and-

Someone was shaking him hard. He turned, dazed, he just wanted more time. Riku looked at him as if he had gone insane.

"What do we do?" Riku asked him and for the very first time Sora caught fear in his voice. Oh, how he loved it when it was someone else. The door was splintering behind them. There was another loud crash and Sora was dragged back to the land of the soon to be expired living.

"You have to go," he heard himself say and he wondered where it was all coming from. "There's a fire escape out the window in Roxas's room. Take it and run."

"What about you?" Riku demanded. "You can't stay here."

"I have to," Sora said. Yes, he had to. Had to. "I can't leave Kairi here."

Riku looked torn, his eyes flitting from the door to Roxas's room. "Getting yourself killed won't save Kairi if she finds us like this. She'll be one more witness."

"Riku, I can't leave her," he hissed. Xaldin's boot was making headway. It would all come crashing down in but a few moments. "You have to go."

Riku wanted to argue, he could see it. And why not? Riku had known Kairi far longer than he had. The possibility that she might find herself in danger here was the best motivator if there had ever been one. And now he was asking Riku to run. To leave it all and get out. By what right? It was all messed up, Sora knew. But there was no escaping the situation. And the situation was as dire as it could be.

Riku fled. Sora watched him take off down the hall, heard him struggle with the window latch, heard the window screech in protest as he lifted it and heard the clanging as he hurtled down the escape. Riku was gone. Sora was alone.

But not for long. With mere seconds to spare, Sora vaulted himself over the couch, squeezing himself within the tiny space between the couch and the wall. If he could just make it seem like they had escaped, then it would be fine. The Organization would leave. Riku would be fine. Kairi would be fine. Sora prayed that it would take her extra-long to get there. If not, he might just have to

(die)

fight for her. He wasn't sure he'd make it through that one.

The door came down with a tremendous crash. Sora winced, knew he'd have some explaining to do later, hoped he'd be around to explain later. He heard them storm his apartment; it was impossible to estimate their numbers. Many. That was the best he could come up with.

They searched everywhere. He listened as they ransacked their rooms. Heard the munny pouches he had meticulously gathered under his mattress tumble onto the floor and rattle their contents about. At one point the couch was pulled forward and he almost fell along with it, but nobody peered over the edge, nobody looked through the crevices that had opened up to the side. He heard glassware shatter in the kitchen, their table creaking as it was pushed to the side. They were demolishing his apartment. Sora began to suspect this was some kind of punishment. Hide what we want from us and we'll make your life impossible.

Someone was moving towards the couch again and Sora pushed himself closer to the floor. This was it. He could feel it. They were going to find him right here and put a bullet in his brain or toss him out a window or break every single bone in his body and leave him a writhing ruin.

Suddenly everything stopped. All movement came to a halt. Sora perked, listening, and he heard someone fiddling with something, a crackling sound, and then a voice.

"We got him. Get out of there."

Sora froze. Just as soon as they had kicked his door down, they were gone. He lay there, between his couch and the wall, and let his mind dovetail. He didn't want to think, tried to avoid the inevitable conclusion. They had failed. He had messed up. They had caught him.

They had Riku.

He heard a gasp and peeked his head over the couch. It was Kairi, taking in the destruction of his apartment before her. It was far worse than anything their mother had ever managed to do, that much Sora knew.

"Sora?" she looked at him, shock and disbelief evident on her face.

"Hi," he said, because what else was there to say? How could he ever even begin to explain all of this?

"What – What happened?" Kairi asked, her eyes still roaming the pieces of furniture and glass strewn about the room. She stepped inside. "I came to – I wanted to talk. What - ?" she paused, unable to finish her question.

"Um," Sora scratched his neck, "it's kind of hard to explain," he said. He felt his legs shaking and he sat down on the couch.

Kairi looked at him and her eyes narrowed in confusion. "Who were those people?" she asked and Sora's heart fell. "All those people coming out of your apartment?"

"I –" Sora wanted to lie, tell another fib, but he no longer had it in him to do so. He held his head in his hands and slumped forward. "I don't know," he murmured into his hands.

He felt her sit next to him, the cushions sinking under their combined weight. He felt her hand on his shoulder.

"Talk to me Sora," she said, her voice gentle. "What happened?"

"I messed up," he said, and to his immense embarrassment he felt his eyes begin to water. "I made a mistake."

"Okay," Kairi said and she rubbed a hand up and down his shoulder soothingly. "It's okay. Can you tell me what kind of mistake?"

Sora struggled to keep his emotions in check. "I don't know if I can," he said honestly and he turned to face her questioning stare. They looked at each other for a long time and to Sora their kiss felt like a million years ago. Everything that had ever happened before this day felt like a million years ago. It was funny, in a way, how truly momentous events had a way of making the rest of life seem so small.

Kairi let out a breath. "Okay," she said and looked around at the apartment. "We should get this cleaned up."

Sora looked at her in confusion. "You don't have to –"

"I want to," she said simply and stood. Sora said nothing and joined her. They grabbed plastic bags out of the kitchen and got to work, slaving over the damages and stepping carefully to avoid impaling their feet upon shards of glass. They worked in silence and to keep himself occupied felt like a blessing to Sora. He traveled over to his room. His munny pouches were left on the floor, but were otherwise untouched. They hadn't taken any of it. He supposed they were wealthy enough, but this very fact struck him as peculiar. What little else there was had been toppled, the mattress separated from its blanket, the tiny counter by his bed lying on its side. Roxas's room looked much the same. A savaged wasteland.

Everything but the rose.

The pink rose Kairi had given him that wonderful day in Central Park, the one he had hurried to place in a vase and place delicately upon his window when he had returned home remained in its glass vase, undamaged on the window sill. Sora stared at it. The scar on his chest flared painfully. He rubbed at it absently.

"Hey," he heard her call softly from behind, "I think we've got it all."

"Yeah," he said and turned to her. She had worked up a bit of a sweat, her hair matted down and her face flushed. She looked so beautiful. He had to look away.

"Are you going to talk to me?" she asked and she asked it so casually, as if she were asking about the weather, that he felt absolutely compelled to tell her everything.

So he did.

He told her about their initial foray into dealing with Riku, told her about Seifer and the gang, told her about the Organization, left out his mother, left out his own personal motivations, left out Tidus, informed her he suspected they were going to remove Riku and told her of his encounter with Larxene and Xaldin, of his proposition to hide Riku. He realized with an aching sense of disappointment that he was once again mixing truths and lies. Half-truths. That was what his life had become. The whole and full truth could never be told, he knew that now, knew it with certainty, for it would spell nothing short of disaster. Kairi listened to him speak, her eyes growing wider and wider until finally it seemed to fall short of phasing her and she sat with thin lips and a paling complexion and her hands clasped tightly together in her lap.

When he was through she got up and Sora was sure she was about to leave. Even the half-truth was too much, he thought with a dismal sense of self-deprecating irony. But she began to pace the room instead, lost deep in her own thoughts. He watched her move left to right and back again, her hands wrung out anxiously in front of her.

Finally, she stopped and turned to him. "You're sure that's what you heard? They got Riku?"

Sora nodded and looked down shamefully. "That's what they said. Then they just left."

Kairi pushed some loose hair out of her face and let out a shaky breath. "I knew it. I knew something like this was going to happen. God, why am I so stupid?"

Sora looked up at her, alarmed. "Kairi, this isn't your fault."

But she wasn't listening. She chewed hard on her lip and Sora was hard pressed to recall a time when she had ever looked deeper in despair. "I knew he was involved in all of this and I said nothing. Oh God, what if they kill him? What if – " she paused, unable to get the words out.

Sora stood and grabbed her shoulders. "Listen to me. This is not your fault. If anything, it's mine. We can still fix this. I can still fix this."

"How?" she looked up at him, fear in her heart. "How can we save him?"

"I'm going to talk to them."

He stood shivering in the cold. A thick mist had descended over the East River and the world took on a ghostly appearance. Long abandoned warehouses groaned and creaked and Sora looked up at the thick sliding metal door he had entered not too long ago. Whence he had been initiated. Now he was risking everything.

Sora knew Larxene must be out here in the fog. Watching to see what he would do. He stood, making no moves. If they wanted him dead, now was the time to do it. He felt the cool blade press against the back of his neck and this time he felt no fear. He knew this world far better now.

"Poor idea," he could practically hear her grin. "Should have stayed at home like a good little boy."

"I want to speak to Demyx…or Axel," Sora kept his voice steady. "I want to talk to them now and I'm not leaving until I do."

He felt the knife push deeper into his skin. "You really think you're in a position to be making demands?" Larxene wondered.

"Now, now," he heard someone call out confidently in the winter haze, "I don't think we need to spill any more blood today, do we?"

"Axel?" Sora called out. "Where's Riku?"

Axel materialized into view. He strolled over and planted himself in front of Sora, eyes flickering between Sora and Larxene almost as if he were immensely bored by the sight before him.

"You can put the knife down, Larxene," he said. Larxene growled but did as she was told.

"Where's Riku?" Sora asked again.

"Riku's on vacation," Axel said and Sora went cold at his words. "He's going to be staying with us for a while."

Axel gave the boy a once over. "Why don't you go on home?"

Sora hated it, the flippant look, the condescending voice. He so badly wanted to strangle the man in this moment. But there he was, held at knife point. He had only one question.

"Did you kill him?"

Axel's eyes gleamed in the winter air and the teardrop markings under his eyes seemed to shine.

"Go home, Sora."

He turned and retreated.

School was different. Without Riku, the ecosystem was left suspended in space. He had never been absent, Sora realized at once, and the seemingly innocuous epiphany floored him. He had carefully cultivated his stupendous persona over many years of carefully calibrated principles. One of those principles was his own constant presence. It was a deductive demonstration of his own prowess, designed to force those who resisted him into accepting him as a brute atomic fact. In that way, Sora supposed, Riku and Kairi were very similar.

He was everything. Now he was nothing.

Kairi sat next to him in History before class began, she appeared exhausted, with bloodshot eyes and bags drooping low beneath them.

"Did you get any sleep?" Sora asked, concern ratcheting up at the sight.

"I'm fine," she waved him off. "Did you talk to them?"

"I did," Sora said and he faced away, unable to meet her eyes.

"And?"

He shook his head. Kairi said nothing, preferring to weather her disappointment in silence.

"What do we do now?" she finally asked.

Sora was quiet. In a way, this was the decisive question. The fork in the road was laid out before them and he knew there was no turning back, whatever the choice. Do nothing. Forget about it. But was it not already too late? Had he not already gone too far? Regardless of Riku's current status, there was little doubt as to what would soon follow.

"There's someone we can go to."

Tidus ushered them into his ramshackle home, all too pleased with their presence. He lived in a dusty apartment just underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. Sora glanced at the sparkling East River before heading up the stairs. He wondered how many lonely souls, in their sadness and desperation, had followed his same path and ended up in that river. Gone and forgotten. He thought of Riku floating face down in that river and shivered.

They gathered in the tiny living room, a single window filtering in the gray light of that overcast day. They fell into chairs and Sora leaned forward, hands on his knees, unsure of where to begin. Tidus looked at him expectantly. He was awaiting the good news. Sora figured he'd give it to him.

"Riku is gone." Tidus could hardly contain his excitement, his eyes lit up and a smile broke out over his face. "Okay," he said, licking his lips. "The Organization got him?"

Before Sora could say anything, Kairi spoke up. "He was your friend."

Tidus turned to her, thrown off balance by her comment.

"He was your friend," Kairi repeated. "How could you be happy about this?"

Was. The word rang in Sora's mind. Were they really referring to him in the past tense now? Was there nothing left but to presume him dead? For the first time since they had met, Sora could see that Tidus was uncomfortable. He squirmed in his seat, trying to find the right words.

"Go ahead, say something," Kairi spoke angrily. "I wanna hear this. What do you get out of this?"

"It's nothing personal," Tidus said, suddenly finding the wall very interesting. "He's a means to an end, you know?"

"No. I don't know," Kairi grit her teeth and her eyes flashed dangerously. "Go ahead and explain."

Tidus sighed and looked at Sora, as if expecting some kind of assistance. When he saw it was not forthcoming, he launched into his story.

"I needed him gone so they would put me in instead," he said and looked at Sora. "I was going to ask you to give up the job and give it to me once they got rid of Riku so I could get into the Organization."

"You son of a bitch," Kairi growled and stood. Tidus leaned back nervously and Sora placed a hand on her arm. She swiveled her head to look at him and Sora mouthed 'Sit down'. She pursed her lips angrily but nevertheless sat. Sora prayed that he wouldn't mention their talk at the party.

"Listen, it's not like I want to join them. I have to," Tidus said defensively.

"Why?" Sora leaned forward.

Tidus seemed to deliberate with himself and then finally continued. "Do you see where I'm living?" he gestured widely. "This is all because of them. Because of what they've done to this neighborhood."

"What have they done to this neighborhood?" Sora asked.

Tidus shook his head, as if all the words in the world could not do it justice. "Looted it, I guess you could say. They run a massive protection racket, drive everyone so far up into debt that they have no choice but to stay dependent on them. They get the kids around here when they're young. It's a total fucking mess. My dad, he – " Tidus stopped and Sora saw his eyes grow misty.

"They did the same to him and he couldn't take it and he killed himself," he said it all in a rush. Perhaps there was no other way; the past was too painful, Sora had come to discover. For everyone, the past was like a ghost, haunting the edges of life and following you unto death. All of these popular kids, he now knew, were popular because they were haunted.

"Why didn't you ever tell us?" Kairi questioned and Sora could hear the genuine confusion in her voice. Secrets. Secrets. Secrets.

Tidus shrugged. "Who would have listened?" Maybe he meant it as a joke, but Sora could tell it was a half

(truth)

joke at best.

Kairi pressed on, perhaps it was less painful that way. "What does getting rid of Riku have to do with this?" she asked.

"I wanted to hurt them from the inside," Tidus said simply. "I did some good messing with their supply routes. The routes they use to import their drugs into Brooklyn. It's all coming from Manhattan," he looked at Sora, "maybe you remember some of their shortages."

"You don't have to hurt Riku to do that," Kairi protested.

Tidus raised an eyebrow. "I didn't want to hurt him. I'm just saying…he's been doing their dirty work for what…years?" he held his hands up, "he knew what was going on here and he never said a thing. Am I glad he's not their boy anymore? Yeah. Am I glad he's gone?" he shrugged. "Can't say that I am, but it is what it is."

Silence filled the air. They sat, each considering the other's words, perhaps even contemplating the disparate paths that had led them to this discussion.

"Can you help us?" Kairi all but whispered.

Tidus looked at her sadly. "You know he's probably – "

"Don't," Kairi interrupted. "I asked if you'll help us."

"Help you go to war with the Organization? Sure. It's what I've been doing all along, anyway."

Sora had been staring anxiously at the floor, tracing the cracks in the boards with his eyes, but when he heard their exchange he looked up in surprise.

"Hold on," he said and they both turned to him, "I thought we were just talking about getting Riku back."

"That's what we're doing," Kairi asserted.

"It's a part of it," Tidus said and Sora knew he was throwing Kairi a bone. "But if everything you've told me is true, then you're in danger too. You pissed them off, you're a liability now. It won't be long until they decide you're next. Probably just waiting to find someone to cover your job."

Kairi seemed perturbed by the very prospect. Sora looked pointedly away from them. The words sounding off in his mind.

You're next. You're next.

"How do we stop them?" he asked.

"You're going to have to go underground, basically. No more pickups or drop-offs from Demyx, you can't go back home, can't go to school…" Tidus rattled off as if reading from a list. Sora found himself being driven deeper down into another layer of despair the more Tidus spoke.

"You can't be serious," Sora said. "I have a life…I can't just throw it all away. What am I gonna tell Roxas? What if they come for him?"

"It's a possibility," Tidus nodded. "But hopefully we can do something about this before it gets to that point."

"Like what?" Sora asked, and the weight of what they were entertaining suddenly bore down on him as if by divine revelation. "These people have been here for years. You can't seriously expect to drive them out? We're kids, you realize that? Kids. We don't have numbers, we don't have weapons, we don't have anything. Can't go to the police without blowing up our lives. We can't fight."

"But we can," Tidus spoke. "But we have to act fast. We can't let up. You're already in it now, both of you," he looked between them. "We can beat them."

"How?"

"Well…" Tidus looked at Sora thoughtfully, "They took one of ours. So we'll just have to take one of theirs."

Sora and Kairi walked the streets, quiet amongst themselves. He hadn't looked at her since they had left Tidus's apartment, didn't even know what to say to her. He couldn't begin to imagine what she was thinking, feeling. He wasn't quite sure how he himself was feeling.

"Do you think it'll work?" she spoke up; he could hear how nervous she was. He didn't blame her. He felt it himself.

Sora resisted the urge to face her. "I don't know," he admitted honestly.

Kairi looked out at the East River, roiling in the late afternoon breeze. "Do you think he's…?"

Sora said nothing. What was there to say? Riku was gone. That was all there was to it.

Kairi took his hand in her own and he closed his eyes briefly, knew that this was going somewhere else. She tugged him to a halt and reluctantly he looked at her.

"I won't let it happen to you too," she said with such heartfelt conviction, her eyes blazing, that he felt his chest constricting in not altogether painful ways.

"We're in this together," she offered a gentle smile and he returned it, but inside he felt remorse at how it had all panned out, at how she had been dragged into it too.

"Kairi…" he wasn't sure what he was trying to say, but he went on anyway, "if things get bad…can you promise me that you'll…" he trailed off. He didn't know.

"It's already bad, Sora," she reminded him softly, as if he was a leaf that would blow away in the winter weather. "I think it's always been bad. But we can do something now. We can change things."

Sora nodded and hand in hand they continued on towards Carroll Gardens. This was nice, he thought. A little slice of paradise.

"Listen…" she spoke up and he realized how much he hated the word, "About what happened at the party…"

Sora shook his head fiercely. "Forget it."

"No – listen," she insisted and Sora fell quiet. She too seemed unsure of how to continue and he let her take her time.

"I'm not sorry it happened," she finally whispered. Sora looked at her in surprise. Kairi kept her gaze straight forward.

He squeezed her hand and she reciprocated.

Roxas was home when he arrived. Sora stepped cautiously into the apartment, as if expecting a bomb to go off at his next move. Roxas was digging through one of their cabinets, he looked up when he heard Sora enter.

"Hey," he nodded at Sora, "you seen my glass with the ears?"

Sora shook his head. Roxas let out an exasperated grunt and stepped back. "We're missing a bunch of stuff. Was someone else here?" he asked.

Sora plopped down on the couch. "Haven't been here all day. I don't think so."

"The door's all messed up. Did you see it? Like it's been knocked off its hinges."

Sora looked at the door, trying not to remember how it had happened.

"Strange," Sora remarked and Roxas started to gather kitchenware. "I think someone broke in," Roxas noted.

"We'll tell Yen about it," Sora suggested. Roxas nodded.

"I'm gonna try my hand at some pot roast. Want some?"

"Sure," Sora agreed. "Naminé teach you that too?"

Roxas shrugged. "I've been practicing. It's pretty therapeutic."

"Right," Sora lay back along the length of the couch and stared at the ceiling, letting the day's events pass through his mind.

"How's your job at the…uh…" Sora was embarrassed to realize how much of his brother's current day-to-day activities were unknown to him.

Suppose that makes two of us.

"Pete's," Roxas filled it in for him. "Pete gave me a job; I stock up in the back. It's pretty good."

"Oh, good," Sora felt himself begin to doze. He was tired. So tired.

"He said you could come by anytime and work too…I think that'd be good, y'know. We could use the munny."

The world was fading. Things coming to their natural halt once again. Roxas was yapping somewhere off in the distance, but here it was just him. Sleep comes for all. The big sleep never too far off. Sora supposed he would risk that big sleep, just this once, so he may take comfort in the little one just one last time.

Someone knocks on Kairi's door and she starts, looking up at it with bated breath. She's seated against her bed facing the door,

"Yeah?" she calls out.

"Can I come in?" comes Naminé's soft voice. Kairi breathes out a sigh of relief.

"Come in," she says and Naminé peers into the room, as if expecting something scandalous to present itself. She takes a seat on Kairi's bed and the two girls wait for the other to say something. The room is dark and a candle flickers atop a desk along the far wall. Yellow shapes dance and Kairi shivers.

"What is it?" Kairi prompts. She waits.

"Do you miss it?" Naminé finally asks.

"Do I miss what?"

"Home."

Kairi knows what she means. She looks down and flexes her toes.

"Of course I do."

Kairi hears her sister sniffling and looks up at her. A tear runs down her cheek and Kairi resists the urge to wipe it away. She looks at her sister with sympathetic eyes. Inside. Outside. The feelings are all the same.

"What's wrong, Nams?" she asks and her own voice begins to choke up.

"I can't remember it," Naminé says. "I woke up this morning and I couldn't remember what the Islands looked like."

"Naminé…" Kairi sighs.

"All our friends…Ventus, Wakka, Selphie…they're fading too. I miss them."

Kairi looks at her, face scrunched in confusion. "We go to school with them, Naminé."

Naminé looks at her for a long while and Kairi stares back. She watched the different emotions playing out along her sister's face. Sadness. Confusion. Recognition.

"I – I know," she says, but her voice wavers. "I know that."

She gets up and leaves. Kairi watches her go and her own tears begin to flow.

A buzzing awakened him in the dead of night. The apartment was dark, blue moonlight shone through the windows. He stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out his phone. A text from Tidus.

Outside.

Sora looked at it, his head still heavy with sleep. He listened for Roxas, sleeping soundly in his room. It was time to go. So soon. Too soon. He steals away down the steps and out into open air. It's much colder at night. He wondered how long it'd be until Christmas. He should have checked the date.

Tidus was parked a little way down the street. Sora spied the tiny white van and moved up to it. Tidus rolled down the passenger window and flashed Sora an almost strained smile.

"You ready for this?"

Sora said nothing and entered the van. They drove off down the street. Sora looked into the back of the vehicle, saw the cords, the stool, the stacked cases of water. He turned forward in his seat.

"I'd prefer nobody got hurt," he said.

Tidus glanced at him. "I think we'd all prefer that."

They rode in silence the rest of the way. When they had arrived in Red Hook Tidus parked the van along the sidewalk and together they waited, watching the docks.

"Who's it going to be?" Sora asked.

"You'll see," Tidus replied.

Minutes passed. Then an hour. Sora was beginning to doze again when Tidus shook him back to awareness.

"What?"

"Look," Tidus pointed forward. Sora peered into the darkness and saw, against the backdrop of the still night river, a figure draped in black crossing the sidewalk.

"Who is it?"

"Axel."

Tidus revved the engine and the van roared to life, headlights illuminating Axel's cloaked frame. The man with flaming hair turned, a look of surprise crossing his face. The van streamed forward and something else flit across his expression. Fear.

Smiling came easy to Sora.