Tron had their results ready the next morning after breakfast, appearing in the display with a wide yet disturbingly artificial smile once all interested parties had hiked up to the castle. "My computational abilities have not been utilized to their full potential since Ansem was my primary User. 'A good workout', I think you would call it?"

"Glad you enjoyed yourself," Cid chuckled. "You got what we need?"

"I most certainly do. From the blood sample I detected a .02 variance from acceptable human norms. To be entirely certain of the function of the anomalous sequences I would have to conduct additional simulations, but my preliminary results indicate that they are clustered in the neuro-muscular systems and provide the individual with an increased rate of ion channel depolarization, intramuscular lactic acid absorption, and endorphin production, among other things. The cheek sample contained a .009 variance in a similar pattern in the same areas, as well as radiation damage of a type the system was unable to identify. However, these genes seem at the moment to be mostly dormant, and their real-world expression will require further study."

The room was silent save for a few coughs and the creak of plastic chairs. Finally, Sora stood up and said: "None one else understood a word of that either, right?"

"Nope."

"No."

"Uh-uh."

"I remember something about endorphins from biology last year. Kind of…ish."

"My apologies, Users. I will attempt to explain in simpler terms. The human genome contains many strings of 'junk' DNA, evolutionary leftovers, that are never used in the day-to-day functioning of the body. The sequences I have isolated are highly unusual in that they seem to be vast improvements over the sequences currently in use, and if ever activated would probably grant the individual increased speed, muscle strength, endurance, pain tolerance, or even psychic abilities."

"That stuff's in me?" said Riku incredulously.

"It seems so," said Tifa.

"I gotta, say this is an…interesting way to start a morning. But I'm lost. Why does Cloud have it too?"

"When I was younger, I was put through years of forced genetic recombination experiments by the military of my world, after Sephiroth…" Cloud looked down at this gloved hands, the muscles of jaw his rippling as he tried to force down the excruciating memories. "Never mind. That part isn't important now. But they took soldiers like me and mixed them up with alien genetic matter, what they called Jenova, looking for an edge in the arms race. They wanted someone almost superhuman, with the power of the Ancient race that once called our planet home.

Except they made a mistake. Jenova wasn't an Ancient. It was something else, something evil. Sephiroth was what they created, and after he snapped their leash they went looking for a way to recreate his power. That was when I was taken as a test subject, me and a friend from my squad. He was killed breaking us out of the labs. The others taken weren't lucky enough to escape with their minds or bodies even mostly intact."

The others unaware of Cloud's past—the trio from the islands, as well as Leon—all looked aghast. Kairi pressed her fingers to her lips in a mixture of sympathy and horror. "That's awful," she whispered. "But I don't understand what it has to do with our Riku."

"Neither do I," said Cloud. "I was hoping he could tell us. The only way Jenova's DNA would be found in a human being is if they were connected to the Ancients revival project. If you weren't, your parents must have been."

Every pair of eyes in the room turned to him expectantly. Riku sighed and looked away. "How the hell would I know that? I…um…ok—my mom is a biochemistry professor teaching at the Big Island university. I've never heard her mention it. And not that it's any of your damn business, but…I don't know who my biological father is. My mom moved to Destiny Islands right before I was born and married one of the locals a little while after. She doesn't like talking about it."

"Weren't you curious? You must know something about him," Tifa prodded insistently.

"Oh, probably that he was an asshole, since Mom will never mention him?" Riku shot back, then continued in a less flippant tone. "I honestly don't know much else. I think they met at her old job, someplace she really hated, called, uh, Shinner Company?"

"Riku?" Aerith asked gently, "How old are you?"

"Seventeen. Why is this important?"

Aerith turned to Cloud with a blank expression on her face. "Sephiroth would have been in his mid to late teens seventeen years ago, and still at the facility inside Shinra headquarters. He would have been terribly lonely in the lab…at least I know I was. For him to look for companionship from the scientists working on the project isn't outside the realm of possibility."

"Your mother worked for Shinra? Oh no. No," Tifa said, shaking her head in horrified disbelief.

"That's disgusting," Cid threw in.

"I told you he was dangerous, Aerith. If this is true it has to be…dealt with," Cloud said, with ice in his voice.

"Wait, wait, wait, WAIT," Riku yelled and shot out of the chair. "You all think my mother got knocked up by some kind of evil mutant alien? I…augh. You know what I think? I think you're all full of SHIT. And I'm not listening to it any more."

Riku strode for the door, almost knocking Aerith over as she stepped in front of him, pleading for him to calm down and listen. Once the door had clicked shut behind him, she straightened and massaged the elbow that had banged hard against the side of a terminal when Riku shoved her out of the way. "You three handled that splendidly," she said, affixing Cid, Tifa, and Cloud each with a withering glare. "Sora, Kairi, come on. He'd be more likely to listen to reason from you two than from me at this point."

-----

Riku was lying on the bed turning what Cloud had said around in his head over and over again. If not for the events of the last two years he would have dismissed it out of hand, but his train of thought kept winding its way back to that fateful night on the Islands when he'd first let the Darkness into his heart. It has been so easy, and at the time had felt so perfectly right. What if this Sephiroth really had passed some kind of taint on to him? What if that little crack in his soul had let the darkness slip in when Sora and Kairi seemed to resist it so effortlessly? From there, another truly awful thought occurred to him: stress a cracked glass often enough and hard enough, even if the imperfection is tiny, and eventually it will shatter. What if, some day, he shattered?

Suddenly, his uncomfortable musings were broken by the rattle of the doorknob, followed by a loud thump and a curse from Sora. "Riku! Why'd you go and lock the door? That hurt my nose!"

"Please open the door, Riku. I want to talk to you," said Aerith.

"Not interested," he replied tersely.

Sora thumped on the door again, this time intentionally. "You know, I'm going to keep on being annoying 'til you open up," he said, and kicked it a few times to emphasize the point.

Riku knew from long experience that once Sora fixed himself on something, he got it, so before the younger boy could kick the hinges out Riku swung himself over the of the bed and flipped the lock open. He was rewarded for his conciliatory gesture by narrowly missing a kick in the shin from Sora. "Oops," he said. "Thought it would take longer to wear you down. Sorry."

"I'm sorry I shoved you, Aerith." Riku said sheepishly.

"You were angry. It's understandable," she said. "Can we come in?"

He nodded and sat down on the bed again. Sora flopped down on his right side and Kairi on his left. Aerith didn't sit, but looked out the window and fingered the gently glowing white stone she wore around her neck, pondering how to phrase her words.

"When I first met you, back in Traverse Town two years ago, I did sense a twinge of…something in you. I didn't recognize it at first, and after Xehanort's shade took over your body I lost it completely. It would have been like listening for a whisper in a hurricane, so until now I'd almost forgotten it was there."

"But there is a something? A Jenova something? How do you even know this?" Riku asked.

"I'm not…well, it's a long story, but I'm not entirely human either. There's old, old blood in me, Cetra blood, that's sensitive to things ordinary humans can't see, hear, taste, smell, or touch. The life force of a thing, let's say. Every person has it, every mouse, every bug, every blade of grass—even the planet we're standing on. Jenova is…different. Its life force is actively malevolent, and conscious. It was the great enemy of my people, who Cloud calls the Ancients. And I'm sorry, Riku, but yes, I sense a tiny, tiny black spark of it inside you."

Riku just stared. It made sense. A horrible, horrible amount of sense. "I've had that in me all my life?" he asked.

"I would guess," she replied.

"Riku," Kairi said softly as she put a comforting arm around his shoulders. "I don't have Aerith's mystical senses, but I do have perfectly good eyes and ears, and what they've told me is that you're a good person who once made a very bad decision. You've spent your whole life since then trying as hard as you possibly could to fix it. No one could ask more of you than that."

"In a sense, she's exactly right," Aerith said. "What I was going to tell you before you stormed out of the lab was that Jenova's influence, if it's weak enough, can be resisted. Which is precisely what you have been doing, and quite well, too."

"I guess this doesn't really change anything, then, does it?" asked Sora. "Riku knows what Darkness is like, probably better than anyone alive. He can use it without letting it use him."

Aerith smiled and nodded in approval. "Precisely, so I don't think—"

She was interrupted by a very loud musical chiming emanating from one of Sora's many pockets. He stood up and began to pat them down frantically before Riku leaned over and pulled a small silver phone out of the one over his left knee and held it up to him.

Sora blushed and put it to his ear. "Hi, Leon. I guess this means you and Cid finally got the radio tower working, huh? Aw, I wasn't trying to be mean, I know you're not an engineer," Sora said, smiling. A moment after, the corners of his mouth slid downward into an expression of alarm. "He did? When? Wait…what do you mean don't even know if they're still alive? Yes, of course we'll get down there right away."

"Sora, what was that?" asked Aerith, her face tight with concern.

"Leon just got an emergency message from King Mickey. He said he was on the line with Yuffie in Midgar, monitoring Heartless activity, when the channel totally cut out and he couldn't reestablish the signal. Leon's been trying too but couldn't connect either. That was a few hours ago, and no one's been able to get anything in or out since."

-----

"Me, Cloud, and Sora. Who else is coming?" Tifa asked, as she stood in the large docking bay, ticking off each name on her fingers.

"I am, 'cause I'm driving," yelled Cid from the hallway. "After that Pride Rock joyriding incident with the Highwind, Sora ain't getting anywhere near a gummi ship unless it's under my direct supervision." Sora mumbled another apology about it, the latest of at least a dozen, but didn't argue the point.

"Me too," said Aerith. "If the situation with Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo is as nasty as you say, you're going to need a good healer."

"So am I," said Riku. "I want to know who these guys are."

"I guess that leaves me, Merlin, and Kairi to hold down the fort and relay any messages to the King," Leon said.

"Actually, that would be just you and Merlin," said Kairi from the back of the room. "I'm coming."

"Kairi, no!" Sora exclaimed automatically. "It's way too dangerous."

"Riku, Sora, come'mere. Exclusive Destiny Islands delegation conference," she said, and grabbed them both by the wrists and yanked them away as the rest of the group looked on in amusement. In a hushed yet rather fierce tone, she continued: "I'm not a fainting damsel in distress anymore that needs one of you to pluck me out of every unpleasant situation I find myself in."

"Of course you don't. Kairi, don't be ridiculous," Riku countered. Your being a 'damsel' has nothing to do with it. Yuffie can pound Heartless into the dirt like nobody's business. That's not our problem. But both us thought we had lost you for so long…"

"Yeah. What Riku said. I don't know what I'd do if something…permanent happened to you," Sora added, looking uncomfortable.

Kairi smiled wryly and put a hand on each of their shoulders, drawing them all into a tighter circle. "Guys…you think that doesn't work both ways? How do you think I would feel if one of you didn't come back? And why do you think I've been spending all those hours sweating away down in Merlin's workroom? It hasn't been to drink tea and braid his beard, I can tell you that. I want to be able to help you like you've helped me so many times. Besides, he says I've been picking up spells twice as fast that slacker," she said, winking in Sora's direction "and this expedition needs someone who can handle serious offensive magic."

"Kairi, I don't know about this…" Sora started.

"We'll watch each others' backs. You two keep those keyblades whirling and I can rain down some delicious destruction from the Heavens. We'll be unstoppable."

"I hate to admit this, Sora, but she's got a really good point."

Kairi nodded with satisfaction and gestured to the ship. "Shall we? I've already loaded my gear and wand."

"You mean you had this all planned, whether we agreed or not?" Riku said. "You sneaky little…"

She laughed and skipped up the extensible stairway of the gummi ship, pausing to blow the boys a sardonic kiss before disappearing into the hatchway.

Note to FF7 Purists:

I'm aware that Aerith is usually shown wearing the Holy materia in her hair, but this is an Important Plot Point. I will excuse myself by saying that in my version of the Kingdom Hearts universe, people are allowed to change clothes and do their hair differently every day. Kind of like you do.

Like I hope you do, anyway.