This update has been a long time coming. As always I try to work on this whenever possible, but sometimes Life is just a bit of a dick and doesn't let you. Boo, Life, you suck sometimes. But who knows! Anyone with a knack for optimism should apply it here and we'll see what happens. Things are going down in this fic.

As usual we should all parade our thanks in the direction of Doomshuriken, who is a wonderful fantastic person and is quite possibly an editing god. All the internet awards go to her. Also a brief salute to terracannon876, who left a super exciting review but I can't reply to it for some reason. So, thanks. :D

Chapter Fifteen

Sora woke up. For a moment he panicked. He didn't remember where he was or how he got there. His leg hurt as he sat up. So did his head. His breathing came short and sharp as he looked around himself and saw only white in all directions.

After a moment he realised he wasn't going blind – the walls and floor were white, that was all. The room was small, bare and cube-like but with no windows or doors. The walls weren't spongy like he imagined they would be in a mental hospital. No, they were cold and hard. Nothing in his recent memory gave any hint as to why he'd be in a room like this, and it didn't exactly bode well. How had he gotten inside? How was this room even physically possible? For a while he just sat there waiting for whichever hideous doom fate had planned for him. Which must have been coming slowly. Very, very slowly.

His fear ebbed away when long minutes had passed it was clear that he was in no immediate danger. He was even a little bored, so he decided to lie back down. His head throbbed and his eyes stung, so he closed the latter and tried to think. What did he remember?

Too much, he realized. Destiny islands. The Gummi Ship. Exploring Crazy World. Fighting Heartless. Nobodies. And, of course, Riku and Kairi. But he also remembered the Riku and Kairi from his current life. They were so similar and yet completely different; they had the same personality and, rather oddly, the same names, but their lives and experiences were completely unalike. Come to think of it, the same thing applied to himself. Luckily for him the sheer amount of ridiculous things that had happened in his past life cushioned the weirdness of this new experience. He had wielded giant keys, used magic and fought alongside an anthropomorphic mouse. Why not have two sets of memories as well?

Next he did what seemed to be the best thing to do in the situation; he summoned the keyblade. It came to him easily; suddenly flashing into existence in a burst of white light, just like it had a few nights ago. He dismissed it and tried summoning it again, paying close attention to whichever parts of his mind were in control of the others. His experiment... well, if he was being honest with himself, it didn't accomplish anything. He didn't feel any different. He was the same person he had been before he'd ended up in the room, but that didn't make sense; memories tended to define a person's personality, but if he had two sets of memories now where did that leave him? Was he past-Sora, present-Sora, or some weird hybrid of them both? Was there even a difference?

He pushed himself into a cross-legged position. Thinking wasn't getting him anywhere and – no offense to the room or anything, but he'd rather figure this stuff out in a place that actually made sense to him. Rooms without entrances or exits just didn't make the cut. So, following on from that, the next thing to do would be to escape. Which was all very well and good in theory, but just how did one go about it in a room like... well, this?

He got to his feet and, with a small flash of white light, summoned his keyblade. Its weight was familiar in his hand, as if nothing had changed at all. But... well, he wasn't going to think about what that might imply. One way or another it was time to get out of here.

His first plan consisted of pointing the keyblade at the wall and seeing if it would... unlock, or something. It didn't work – which was fair enough. It wasn't a very well thought out plan. His next plan had him putting his ear to different parts of the wall and tapping them to see if the sound changed. He gave up after a while, mainly because he wasn't entirely sure of what he was listening for or even what a change in sound would mean. They did it in movies, so he felt obliged to try it out, but it was going nowhere fast. His third and final plan constituted wildly hitting the wall with the keyblade to try smash his way to freedom. Needless to say this worked just about as well as the previous plans, with the added benefit of making his wrists hurt from the impact.

When Sora realised he was running out of ideas he started to panic again. Ditching the keyblade, he tried hitting the walls with his fists, then kicked them, then resorted to screaming for help. Nothing worked.

As frustration and hysteria battled for supremacy he found himself wondering if he would run out of air faster by trying to escape. But then, that didn't make sense. Why would anyone go through all the effort of putting someone in a box if they were just going to suffocate? That's what strangling was for – and it took far more effort to create a room that defied physics if that's all they were going for. No, there had to be a way that air was getting into the room. Unless it was magic. Then he was basically s–

All thought was lost when an explosion jarred the world and Sora hit the floor. Consciousness returned slowly. Eventually, when he managed to force his eyes open, his ears were ringing and he hurt all over. If his head had hurt before now it throbbed. He struggled to his feet using his keyblade as a crutch, squinting through the pain. There was now a hole in the wall, half as big as a person, and scorch marks covered the floor where it wasn't covered in debris. He stared. He most definitely had not done that.

After a while the ringing in his ears lessened to the point where he could hear voices, hushed female voices. He couldn't make out what they were saying but, well, anything trumped being trapped in an impossible room. When he felt like he could safely take a step forward without collapsing from dizziness he made his way slowly towards the hole. It was small enough that he had to crawl through it in the end, which hurt, but all things considered it was definitely still the best option.

The first thing that assaulted his vision was the bright lights glaring down at him from the ceiling. The bleached white corridor he had crawled into had plastic vinyl flooring that chilled his hands on contact. He had all of three seconds to have some serious flashbacks to the decor of Castle Oblivion before he realised he wasn't alone in the hallway.

Three women stood in a cluster half a dozen meters down the hall to his left. They were arguing with each other right up until Sora caught the eye of one of them, who proceeded to point at him and address the other two triumphantly.

"Look! See? He's fine. You had nothing to worry about."

"Rikku, you used explosives on a stealth mission to rescue someone," one of them replied, tone heavy with disapproval. "Are you telling me that makes perfect sense to you?"

"I'm telling you that he's fine and you should stop doubting me!"

Sora lost track of the argument somewhere around the word 'Rikku', but while the first two argued the third girl came rushing over to him. She helped pull him to his feet – which made him wince – and started checking him for wounds by methodically patting him down. It would have been more embarrassing if he didn't think he actually needed it: he ached everywhere at once - except his head, which pounded.

Without warning he felt the familiar sensation of magic healing and gasped. It was like he'd been plunged into a cold pool of water and his wounds had simply shrivelled up and disappeared. He blinked, feeling his mental faculties fall back into place. The woman was staring at his face, eyebrows knitted together with concern.

"How do you feel now?" she asked.

"A lot better," he answered honestly. He ran a hand across his face and arms experimentally, finding no cuts or bruises of any kind. No throbbing pain in his head either. All up it was a great change, though it came with the realisation that he was still wearing his costume for the masquerade ball. It looked as bad as he had just been feeling; burnt, shrivelled and torn in a dozen different places. But it was fine for now, so he put it out of his mind. "Thanks," he said with a smile at the woman.

When she smiled back it all clicked into place. "Woah," he said, pointing at her accusingly. "I know you! Yuna?"

She nodded, her short hair and long-ass braid swinging in response. "That's right." The other two girls joined them now, and Sora identified them as Rikku and Paine. They were the Gullwings. They looked practically normal compared to whatever pixie-type thing they had been in the last life, though their dress code hadn't changed much. There were no wings this time, but black leather, orange scarves and frilly half-dresses were all making a reappearance. None of them seemed to like sleeves very much either, and showing off copious amounts of skin must have been the 'in' thing at... wherever they came from.

"The last time I saw you guys you were this big," he said unbelievingly, gesturing with his hands at what he assumed was the appropriate pixie size.

"Actually," Rikku jumped in excitedly, "We saw you last night at the ball. You're welcome, by the way."

He blinked. "For what?"

"For saving you, dummy," she rebutted. "You know, with the adorable costumes? Giant cat thing that got you out the backdoor?"

"That was you?"

"Don't ask," Paine prompted sourly.

"Anyway," Yuna cut in, "We're acting on Luxord's orders here. Are your memories back? Keyblade working and all?"

"Well, yeah but..." he fumbled mentally. "Is that Luxord as in My-facial-hair-makes-me-look-like-a-pretentious-douchebag Luxord?" They all nodded in a weird synchronized fashion. "Isn't he... you know, evil?"

"Different life," was all the explanation Yuna gave. "Long story short, we're taking Xemnas down."

"And we need you to help us," Rikku chimed in.

"We also needed this to be a stealth mission," Paine added with a pointed glance at Rikku, who blushed and looked elsewhere. "I don't see that lasting much longer."

When he stopped to think about it, it was weird how an explosion of all things would've gone unnoticed in... well, anywhere. Which raised all kinds of questions.

"Um, so where are we exactly?" he tried first.

"We're still in the hospital," Yuna explained, though she was looking down the corridor distractedly. "There isn't much time. The Organization are all here and we need to stop them before they get Kingdom Hearts. Will you help us?"

All three girls awaited his response, but a moral dilemma surfaced in his mind. "I need to find Riku," he said, unable to hide the sudden urgency he felt. How had he not thought of that before? Rikku stared at him with a slight tilt of her head. "Uh, I meant the other Riku. My Riku. And Kairi as well," he added in what was totally not an afterthought, not at all. Guilt rose but quickly turned to concern for both of them. "Where are they? Do you know?"

"We'll get them," Paine assured him, but before they could get any further in their discussion a booming voice echoed across the hall.

"Hey!"

All three girls spun to see what Sora already could; Xigbar full clad in his Organization cloak. A thousand thoughts about tacky dress sense rose in his mind, but all derailed when he realised that Xigbar was holding a gun – and one of those weird spiky purple guns at that. The imminent danger pulled his inner thoughts to a dead stop.

"Run, Sora!"

"What?"

As Paine drew her sword and charged at Xigbar, Sora's first instinct was to do the same. But Rikku had his sleeve in hand before he could even try. Yuna glanced at her and a silent understanding seemed to pass between them. Then, as she turned with guns raised at Xigbar, Rikku grabbed his arm and physically pulled him down the hallway in the opposite direction.

At first he wanted to resist, to go back and fight Xigbar like he knew he probably still could, but Rikku's grip was strong. He practically had no choice but to run along with her, turning down corner after corner. She seemed to know where she was going, but with every echo of gunfire she glanced behind her with what looked to be worry. Eventually it grew too much for her. She stopped, pointing down the hallway.

"I'm sorry Sora, but I can't leave them behind. There's a bunch of rooms with huge glass windows straight down there. Let out all the Organization members that you see."

"What!?" he cried.

She cringed. "Right, didn't get to explain." With a glance behind them she ushered Sora behind yet another corner, hushing him with her hand. "There's no time for the whole story, but basically Xemnas is going to kill off the expendable members of his group to... do something I really don't understand, but it will make Kingdom Hearts appear. You follow?" He frowned in confusion. She continued nonetheless. "Your job is to make sure that doesn't happen while we distract Xigbar. Now go do it."

"Wait," he said, grabbing her arm as she turned to leave. "What if I run into someone else?"

"Run away really fast," she advised, giving him a sympathetic look. "Don't try anything silly on your own. We can't risk it at this point."

"And how do I know who are the bad guys are?" he urged. "Which ones don't want me dead?"

"One through five and seven are bad. Kill those ones," she said. Then she gave him a brief thumbs up before turning and running back around the corner, heading straight back to the fight with Xigbar.

The adrenaline made Sora take off down the corridor in the way Rikku had pointed, but even as he ran he knew he still had no idea what he was doing. Numbers One to Five and Seven, she'd said. The only problem was he'd never bothered to learn the numbers. This was going to get really complicated really fast.

His first instinct was to just run back to the fight and help the Gullwings, but thoughts of Riku clung to the front of his mind. His Riku, not the other one, and when it came down to it he wanted to find him, which he couldn't do if he was preoccupied with fighting.

Oh, and he had to find Kairi. She was here too.

When he rounded the next corner he found exactly what Rikku had described. There was an imposing metal door with a number pad on the left side. To the right of the door the wall became glass looking into a room beyond; white walls encompassed a huge grey floor. In the middle stood a woman in a straight black coat, blonde hair in a very distinctive style, looking for all the world like she had insect feelers poking out of her head. It was unmistakably Larxene. He had no idea how she managed to get that coat again, but that was hardly the most pressing issue. She had her knives out, metal glinting between her fingers as she eyed the walls around her. When her gaze swept right past him without stopping he started to catch on to the fact that the window might have been one of those one-way things. Maybe all the walls were windows. Was the rest of the Organization watching somewhere too?

He didn't catch onto what was really going on until a section of the wall slid open to admit Axel, striding in wearing the same black coat. The biggest hint to the situation was how he was toting his chakrams, clutching them in his all-too-casual manner. His eyes were locked onto Larxene's, neither of them dropping their gaze as they stood at opposite sides of the room. A long pause followed where Sora's mind raced to find a way to stop what was clearly going to happen from this side of the glass. Then, before he had come up with any solution, a red light flashed through the room. Axel and Larxene rushed at each other.

Fire and lightning flashed on the other side of the glass as Sora ran back to the metal doorway. He tried the first combination that he could think of: 1234. The small screen above the numbers flashed with the words 'Access Denied'.

He tried again: 6969. 'Access Denied'. His third attempt, 9999, had the same result.

When he clicked on to just how many possible combinations he could try before this worked, he whipped out his Keyblade and pointed it at the keypad. It did its usual thing; a thin white beam of light shot out the end and hit the keypad, just like it did when it unlocked anything. But the light hit the screen and fuzzed out, bringing up the words 'Keyblade Denied'. Of course, it only made sense that the Organization would have thought of this beforehand. They had planned all of this. It wasn't going to work. He couldn't open it.

He ran back to the window. Fire lined the walls on the other side of the glass, searing the floors as Axel lobbed fireballs at his foe, the savage nymph dancing out of reach each time. She flicked her hand, tossing knives with deadly aim. Before they hit their mark they were deflected by chakrams, which flew across the room in a sudden retaliation. It became harder to follow when Larxene started calling electricity out of the lights around the room; one would suddenly burst with a searing light that made Sora flinch and look away. There had to be a way to stop this, to get them to stop killing each other before Xemnas won.

He hit the glass with his Keyblade, only to have it bounce off and jar his teeth at the same time. He bashed on the wall with his fist, screaming at them to stop. But they couldn't hear him and the fight rushed on, now at close quarters.

It was over before he knew it. He saw Axel dashing in, swinging his weapons in a circle that Larxene was leaping right into. He closed his eyes at the last minute, unable to watch. He'd seen violence before, even killed Larxene herself once before, but she was a Nobody then. It had been necessary. It had been clean. This time it was full blown murder. Whatever had been blocking the sound from the room suddenly disappeared, and as the sound of metal clattering to the floor reached his ears Sora felt his stomach clench. Here he was trying to stop Xemnas and he didn't even know if he'd be able to kill him when the time came. Sure, Xemnas was evil, but committing murder? Even his second layer of past memories was iffy on the morals behind that.

When he opened his eyes Axel was gone, presumably through another opening that had appeared in the far wall. And in the center of the floor was Larxene, or what used to be Larxene. Her form was crumpled with her limbs contorted at unnatural angles, bloody footsteps leading away from her. For a moment he just stared, unable to look away. Then he threw up.

Vexen mentally frowned as Xigbar swept into the room. The man's robes were in shambles; ripped and burnt in a dozen different places. How that had even happened was beyond him, but Vexen didn't bother dignifying the man with acknowledgement. He just continued scribbling on the paper in front of him as if he was taking notes on Larxene's death. It was a ruse, of course, but Xigbar of all people wouldn't be paying enough attention to notice. A long moment passed.

"Problem," the scarred man finally said. "Sora's escaped."

"What?!" Vexen roared in response, ruse abandoned instantly. "That is impossible! We prepared for everything he's capable of." Xigbar just shrugged. Vexen mentally raced through the possibilities. "Was it the Keyblade?" he asked, but he wasn't surprised when Xigbar shook his head. Through his own careful science the Keyblade was physically unable to open anything at all in the building. "Magic, then?"

"Nope," was Xigbar's answer, clearly enjoying this much more than he should have been.

"The power of friendship?" he spat sarcastically.

"Nah-uh." Xigbar noticed the look on Vexen's face and promptly dropped his humoured smile to summon something a tad more humble. "It was the Gullwings," he explained. "Uh, short pixie girls, used to work for Maleficent. Got taller, work for Luxord. You know."

Vexen steadied himself. Losing control now would hardly help the plan. "You took care of them, I trust?"

The silence that followed made him all but want to abandon his calm and hiss something scathing at the man. Not one but four armed people were loose on the floor, some of which had explosives and Xigbar had let them get away. Fantastic.

"We can't risk anything at this point," he said, quickly thinking. "Take Xaldin and search the halls. Find them, Xigbar."

The other man looked intrigued. "Don't you usually insist using numbers over names?"

He gave him a flat look. Xigbar threw up his hands in mock apology. "'Kay fine, I'm on it."

But he paused on the way to the door, looking out across the room Vexen had prepared.

"And those guys?" Xigbar asked with a gesture at the bodies on the tables around the room. "What do we need with a bunch of half-dead kids?"

"Insurance," he explained. When Xigbar didn't catch on he tried again. "Sora would never let anyone he knew die willingly, and Axel knows better than to move against us as long as we have Roxas' life in our hands. We have the upper hand against the two of them. But we won't need it as long as you do your job!"

"Alright, alright," Xigbar said wryly, finally leaving the room with a sarcastic salute.

As he swept out Vexen turned back to the experiment he'd avoided drawing attention to. It was more of a security plan than anything else. His old memories had awakened more than he had anticipated; he knew how this scenario ended. Last time his science had helped him right up to the point where Xemnas had planned his death, by Axel's hand no less. When the plan hadn't been within the Superior's grasp he'd simply taken control by mass murder. And what was happening this time around? They didn't have Luxord, they couldn't kill the members in order like they'd planned. Where would they pick up the slack?

When they ran out of the excess Organization members he knew Xemnas would start killing off those loyal to him as well. He didn't know who would be first or if any of them would stand a chance at all, but this time he was going to be prepared. Shields be damned, he needed people to die.

With a final twist the sharpest spike on his shield came loose. He hefted it with one hand, slashing it through the air. Yes, this time when everything hit the fan he was going to survive this – no matter what.