It took several excruciatingly slow hours to locate and assemble every member of team, two of whom, Vincent and Red XIII, had no means of being tracked down save a methodical search of their favorite haunts. In a small stroke of luck in the midst of several disasters, they were together, and eventually Yuffie found them at the edge of the Wall Market hunting Heartless. They made their way back to the bar as quickly as they could, where an emergency war council had been called.

"I tried a dozen times to reach anyone with any power inside Shinra and warn them," said Cloud as he leaned against a table, a cup of very strong coffee in his hand. "Nobody picked up. Not even Reeve."

"The clones of them based themselves in the Forgotten City, but it's too late to head them off, now," said Vincent. "If Shinra won't listen to us, this situation will be almost impossible to contain. Their security measures were designed against human terrorists, not Heartless."

"And Rufus was too stupid to listen to the kid," said Barret in disgust. "I hope he wakes up to a big kiss this morning from one of those little fuckers."

"Why try to get at it at all? Let Kadaj get it out of Shinra's hands, and once he does we grab it and destroy it. Let him do the work for us," suggested Yuffie.

"But Riku could be killed!" said Kairi. "They have soldiers inside, lots of them, what if—'

"Even Shinra's elite squads aren't a match for the four of them and however many Heartless they're inviting to the party. That's our whole problem in the first place," said Cid.

"Yuffie's idea may be our only choice," said Tifa. "Kairi…you know that he may not even be in there anymore, don't you?"

"That can't be true," she said, but couldn't keep her a hairline crack of doubt from her tone. What Riku had endured had changed him from the boy she'd known for so long—smiles were more difficult to pry from him now, and his trust of anyone outside their circle had become a rare and hard-won gift. It had also made him one of the strongest people she knew, someone who could fight the demons inside and out, and someone who could win. But when he'd attacked her…she hadn't seen anything of him inside at all, had she?

"Sephiroth used to be my commanding officer," added Cloud. "I fought under him and trusted him. Whatever he knew about duty or loyalty or compassion died when Jenova took him, and it nevercame back."

"Riku's different! He is! He…has to be," said Sora, shoulders drooping, as the horrible possibility shook even his usually unbreachable optimism. "Aerith?" Sora asked, pleading for any scrap of hope.

"I don't know, Sora. I'm sorry. I just don't know," she said.

"If Kadaj succeeds, he and his Heartless could kill thousands…tens of thousands…hundreds of thousands. I know he's your friend, but no one life is worth that many," said Cloud.

"I KNOW THAT!" exploded Sora. After the outburst he seemed to deflate into his chair as the anger seeped away as quickly as it had come, making him look less like a powerful Champion of the Light and more like a deeply hurt and frightened boy. "It's just not fair. The Darkness took him away from me once already. I can't fight him again, not like this."

"We're wasting time!" said Cid. "I'm with Yuffie. We take it from Kadaj and torch the thing."

"We have to go. Now," said Cloud. "We'll do what we can to help Riku, but I can't give you any guarantees."

Sora was about to object again, but looked around at each tense face, one by one, and his fists slowly unclenched. This was their world, their home. His loyalty to Riku was anchored fast and deep, but the duties of the Keybearer came first. He couldn't let all these people die if it was in his power to stop it, even if it meant the unthinkable. It wasn't fair, but Cloud was right. "We go," said, defeated.

Kairi lingered in the room as the others bustled about organizing their weaponry and prepping the ship. "I'm scared for him, Sora," she said.

"So am I," he said, and looped his arm around her waist. She accepted the embrace gratefully and lay her head against his shoulder, her eyes stinging. They stood toe to toe without words, letting fear and hope mingle over someone who, for all they knew, was already lost.

-----

Their transport to Midgar, one of the last and largest stragglers through the Keyhole, was an unlikely amalgam of falcon, bat, and snake, but it was fast, sleek, vicious, and perfectly suited to such a mission. The air this high was thin and bitterly cold but preferable to the gateways of Darkness the Heartless had slyly offered to guide them through. Riku had traveled them before in Maleficent's company without coming to any harm, but she had been a powerful sorceress, one of the best. None of the Brotherhood save himself had any magical talents to speak of, and half of his were drawn from the Darkness itself and worse than ineffective against any creatures born of it. They would have been easy prey on the black paths, and so they flew.

Riku fingered the blade he'd laid out across his knees as the wind played through his long hair. He'd found he could no longer call the Keyblade at all, but Cloud's truly impressive bike had furnished a selection of swords of various weights and lengths to use as a replacement. Most were longer and clumsier than he liked, or had strange grips, but eventually he found one that fit well into his hand. He ached to use it against the ones who tried to hurt Mother.

Dawn was breaking. The sickly green glow of the reactors could be seen in a break in the cloud cover, surrounded by the network of pinprick city lights they powered. By his side Loz craned his neck, trying to catch site of their target, while Yazoo inspected his elegant twin guns for the third time and then slid them back in their holsters. A solitary Heartless popped into existence in front of Kadaj's perch on the neck of the beast and gazed up at him expectantly, hungry for the order to release their bloody chaos.

"The box is on one of the top ten floors," he instructed it. "Don't show yourselves until you've found it. Afterwards you may feed as much as you wish, but if you find the one called Cloud, leave him to me. Understand?" It bowed low and dove off, somersaulting neatly into the portal it opened for itself below them. Kadaj looked back at them and smiled. "She's calling us. Are you ready?"

"Do you even have to ask?" said Riku.