Disclaimer: If you're familiar with KH2, you've probably already figured out that we're severely twisting speculative canon (as it stands pre-KH 358/2 Days' release), and adding some personal fanon theories into the mix as well. Stand back and watch the dominoes begin to fall...

Promenade 27: Friendly Fire

"Do you have any idea how hard you are to track down, kid?"

Hand already on his cardgun, Kaito took advantage of the fact that the newcomer wasn't actively attacking yet to take a quick threat assessment.

Whipcord thin underneath the coat, not that that means anything — inverted triangle tattoos beneath the eyes, can't tell if they mean anything, but they fit with the gravity-defying hair somehow — no weapon out; wonder if he can materialize one like Riku does — no Heartless or Nobodies; so far, but that's still a good thing — -feels- like the Shadows, but laced with Darkness, not like Méraud — and that exasperation looks genuine, not faked like Riku said Nobody emotions always are.

Kaito glanced at Riku, who was watching the Nobody warily but without the same concern Xigbar had garnered.

And Riku-kun's neither tried to run nor summoned his sword. Oh~kaaay...

"I've been busy, Axel," Riku replied, matching the redhead's English.

Xigbar, Axel, Xemnas... I'm sensing a theme here.

Axel snorted. "Busy, he says. Nice vacation spot."

Riku's hands clenched into loose fists. "What do you want?"

"Hey, I'm here totally out of the goodness of my heart—"

"What heart?" Kaito muttered under his breath.

"—tracking you down through your traces in the pathways and who knows how many dead ends just to tell you—"

Another Darkness portal flared behind Axel as he spoke; suddenly a blonde teenage girl in a white sundress ran out onto the grass, gaze immediately fixing on Riku and blurted at him in a panicked, echoing counterpoint to Axel's drawl,

"Saïx kidnapped Kairi!"

"WHAT?" Riku's sudden roar was almost as good as an explosion, Kaito noted absently. Birds vacated the nearby trees, a dog on the other side of the park started barking furiously, bright flame flared briefly into existence around Axel's hands before snuffing out, and even Hakuba looked somewhat impressed.

The blonde girl attempted to explain, words tumbling over each other in their hurry to be heard. Axel seemed inclined to unobtrusively sneak through the portal she had left open behind her while Riku's attention was distracted, but the younger boy's head quickly snapped up from focusing on the girl's face.

"Stay put," Riku snarled at Axel. Kaito watched, amused, as the (presumably) Nobody actually obeyed. Of course, it probably helped that Riku could likely track Axel down more easily than Axel had found them, should the redhead try to run.

The girl had to have noticed Axel for the first time at Riku's order because she abruptly stopped talking, giving Axel a look of surprise, though not fear. Riku seemed to take advantage of the pause to try finding Kairi, because his gaze went glassy, attention abruptly turned inward and far distant at the same time.

"Her heart," he whispered, sounding horrified. "She not at the islands, there's too much Darkness around her..." He turned back to the girl, practically vibrating as Kaito surreptitiously grabbed him by the arm in case he felt tempted to do anything stupid. "Start again, slower. What happened, Naminé?"

Wait—Naminé? That was the Nobody who messed with Sora-kun's memories... Hoo boy.

...Huh. Dark-laced-Shadow but with starpoints of Light, hidden away? Riku-kun did say that she was unique...

Kaito curtailed the train of thought as Naminé began to answer.

"I don't know how it started..." Her eyes darted to Axel in a gesture that fairly screamed 'lying by omission' to Kaito, but he decided to wait to say anything.

She continued, "I've been watching Sora, as well as I can, in case — in case of anything. He was fighting Heartless at Hollow Bastion—" a name that obviously meant something to Riku, going by the way he twitched in Kaito's grasp, "—when Saïx arrived and started taunting Sora, trying to confuse him. That's when he said he had Kairi, but I don't think he's lying. Sora's still struggling with the idea that when he fights the Heartless, he's doing what they want, and he doesn't know how to get to where Saïx is, and Axel left when Saïx came but I didn't know if he was looking for you so I came looking, too. I don't know how long it's been, you were so hard to find..."

"You got that right," Axel muttered when she trailed off, rolling his eyes.

Riku pinned Axel with a glare. "How much of this is your fault? We were even; you wouldn't have come looking for me unless you were trying to fix something you were involved in."

The redhead shifted his weight uneasily, not meeting Riku's gaze.

Riku's hands clenched into fists again, fingers curled tightly enough to drive the nails into his palms. "Having Kairi in your possession," he ground out, an undertone of Ansem's growl creeping into the words, "would not have enabled you to separate Roxas from Sora again, no matter how much you tried to force things."

Axel didn't respond, beyond looking up at Riku with such an utter absence of expression that Kaito found himself unconsciously taking mental notes.

The two stood unmoving, matching gazes, for a short eternity of silence; then Riku exhaled slowly. "Just... go. You've done enough damage."

A tinge of regret shadowed Axel's face. "I..." He hesitated, then closed his mouth. Shaking his head, he turned and disappeared into the Darkness.

The Nobody's response seemed to have surprised Riku a little, because he stood watching the entrance to the corridor for a few moments until Naminé rounded on him, arms akimbo.

"You don't know what it's like to go from having washed-out memories to having the real thing, especially if you don't understand how." She glanced between Kaito and Hakuba uncertainly for a moment, then refocused on Riku and continued determinedly.

"I was lucky — I reached out to Sora, so I knew it was because I'd touched his memories. Axel felt for only a moment, fighting Sora in the castle, before Sora went to sleep... He didn't realize that taking Roxas under his wing for a year meant that when Sora's memories linked back together properly, Roxas's connection to both of them would affect him, too."

Naminé's eyes softened, harshness draining away into solemn gravity. "I can sense the way Sora affects people, because of what I am and how I was born. He has more heart than anyone... and people he meets can't help but be affected by it. Why else do you think I was able to defy Marluxia for the first time, or to help you fight Zexion back then? Why else do you think that a year later, Roxas finally cared about his lack of memories enough to leave the only life he'd ever known in search of the face behind Sora's name?" Her voice remained quiet, but gained an extra layer of intensity, driving her point home. "Why else does a person who shouldn't possibly have the capacity to feel, seek to reclaim a friend he lost?"

Riku breathed out in a long, slow exhalation. "...So it did happen."

Kaito was so busy trying to translate and process Naminé's little speech and slot the wealth of new information into place that he couldn't be sure what Riku confirmed suspicion was referring to, but the younger girl apparently did. She nodded, a little sadly.

"Axel would have started feeling in shades, just like Roxas, with it slowly getting stronger as Sora's old memories came back together and his sleeping self started to reach for the half that was awake. They wouldn't have known how or why it was happening, only that it was, and that the others in the Organization learning about it would be dangerous. I don't know if they even knew it was happening to each other."

Naminé looked up at Riku, blue eyes regretful. "And then Roxas tried to leave, a gamble that Axel wasn't willing to match. ...But if he had been willing to take that risk with Roxas, then maybe both of them together would have been strong enough to defeat you, when you came to capture Roxas for DiZ in order to wake Sora up. You wouldn't have taken Roxas beyond Axel's reach. You wouldn't have stolen the only person in existence that he could and did — does — care about, now that he can care again to a degree, away from him forever."

"I..." Riku put a hand over his face and swore, though not as foully as Kaito figured he could have after a dressing-down of that caliber. "I can't do anything about that. I can't do anything about either of them, and Kairi needs help. If we run into Axel again later, you can be the one to talk to him."

"...All right."

Riku took a deep breath. "We're going after Kairi."

"Agreed," Kaito replied promptly. "But in about twenty minutes."

As Riku turned on him, golden eyes blazing with an anger he'd never seen in the younger boy before, Kaito continued without flinching, "Your coat and your potions are back at the game shop, and if we go after Kairi, odds are we won't be coming back here anytime soon. We're going to go thank Solomon-san and Yugi-kun, grab our stuff so we aren't doing this half-prepared, and then I'll get us where we need to go. And after we get Kairi, you're going to tell us the full story behind Axel because this damn well counts as Need To Know, Riku!"

Riku deflated, swore again, and nodded, then looked at Naminé. "Go ahead of us. Get Kairi, and as close to the edges of that place as you can. If Saïx figures out what happened, we'll catch up soon and deal with him. All right?"

Naminé swallowed, but nodded. "I'll try. Just… be quick. Even together, like this we don't have the power to hold Saïx off for long, if he finds us."

Riku's expression darkened. "I know. Go."

Without waiting for Naminé to leave, he whirled out of Kaito's grip and strode quickly in the direction of the game shop, long legs eating up the ground. Kaito waited for Naminé to run back into her Darkness Corridor, closing the way behind her, before he turned in perfect tandem with Hakuba to hurry after Riku.

…Heh. So he's not willing to turn his back on an opening into the Dark either.

They followed Riku in silence to the game shop, trailing him as he not-quite-stormed through the door, and Hakuba caught Riku by the shoulder as Solomon looked up at them in surprise.

"Oh, dear. What happened, boys?"

"Go ahead," Hakuba ordered Riku quietly. "We'll explain."

Riku nodded shortly and continued into the house, while Hakuba smiled wanly at Solomon from beside Kaito. "An acquaintance of Riku's made contact with us while we were at the park and brought an emergency to his attention. After everything you've done to help us, an abrupt departure on our part is hardly proper, but we are the only ones available to deal with the problem."

Solomon favored them with an understanding smile. "If there's something we understand around here, it's dealing with emergencies. Go and take care of things, but I hope you'll let us know how everything turned out when it's over."

"Thank you. I'm certain we will... Hopefully sooner rather than later."

Kaito eyed Hakuba's expression. "...I'll go get our stuff. You can probe Solomon-san for any last pieces of wisdom."

He headed inside, leaving Hakuba to say goodbye without an audience.

In the living room, Yugi looked up from where he was still curled up on the couch with his homework. "Are you really leaving, Kaito-kun? Translating 'worried snarl' isn't easy, but I've had practice and that's what it sounded like..."

Kaito's lips quirked. "Yeah. Sorry that it's so sudden. A friend of Riku-kun's is in trouble."

"It's okay. If it's important, you have to go." Yugi smiled, standing and following Kaito's trajectory to the study. "At least you had enough time to adjust before everything went crazy again, right?"

Grabbing Hakuba's side-bag with an eye out for anything the scrupulously neat detective might have somehow left out, Kaito snorted. "It's my brand of luck at work. We shouldn't be completely over our heads, but it's not going to be fun."

"There are worse things."

"Mmm."

Kaito exited the study, Yugi trailing behind, and found himself automatically catching a moving projectile before it could impact against his chest.

"What the —"

His eyes focused to recognize his travel bag, which by any normal measurements would be considered impossibly small given that it held a Kid suit, a change of clothes, various Useful Stuff™, and... Yes, the extra weight came from the thermos of Solomon's tea, with a recipe taped against the outside. Looking up, he saw Riku standing tensely by the game shop door in cloak and gloves, hood lowered. Kaito closed the bag and slung it over his free shoulder, giving Riku a dry look. "Nice throw."

A tight smile. "Nice catch. That's everything. Are you ready?"

"Almost." Kaito turned to Yugi. "Thanks, Yugi-kun. You guys are lifesavers."

Yugi smiled again, and abruptly caught Kaito in a hug. "It was fun to have house-guests, even for just a few days. Be careful, and come back again."

Further evidence that Yugi-kun is a class all of his own and not home-grown Japan, other world or not.

"Sure." Kaito semi-awkwardly returned the hug for a moment, before pulling away and approaching Riku. He held out a hand, fingers prompting. "Bag of Shinies."

Wordlessly, Riku produced the small bag and dropped it into Kaito's waiting palm. Kaito hefted it thoughtfully, mentally reviewing what remained after Riku's potion acquisition and his own shopping trip for Hakuba's sunglasses, deciding whether anything might be more trouble than it was worth if a jeweler saw it. Memory stirred, and Kaito poured the crystals into his free palm. Most had the makeup of cubic zirconium and a few colored semi-precious stones, but one blueish gem that Kaito had picked up amidst the chaos on Himura's world was too large to be anything but suspicious to a jeweler. Kaito snagged and pocketed it before Yugi came around to see what he was doing. As it was, the younger boy's eyes widened at the sight of the small handful of crystals as Kaito returned them to the bag.

Kaito half-smiled. "Sometimes Heartless leave this stuff behind when they dissipate."

"Wow..."

"Come on," Riku interrupted brusquely, herding Kaito through the door. On the other side, Solomon and Hakuba broke off whatever they were quietly discussing and looked over.

"We're ready," Kaito announced. He handed Hakuba the side-bag, and set the bag of crystals on the counter in front of Solomon. "For room, board, Hakuba-kun's staff, the tea, and a wealth of lessons. Thanks."

Solomon smiled. "It's been a pleasure to have your company, Kaito-kun."

Kaito nodded, glancing back at Yugi as Solomon and Hakuba exchanged a last farewell. "Say goodbye to Mokuba-kun and everyone else for us?"

"Yeah." Yugi nodded. "See you again." He grinned. "Hopefully before we have to deal with another crisis of our own."

"We'll do our best," Kaito promised, and then they were out the door, heading for the closest alley.

"Can you find her, or do you need to follow me?" Riku asked as soon as they were nominally out of sight of the game shop.

Kaito hesitated. "...I think I can find her. The Shadows know her."

Riku nodded curtly. "I'll go through first. You two follow, and be careful. There will be Heartless and Nobodies on the other side."

Hakuba's grip on his staff tightened a little, and he smiled thinly. "Trial by fire. Let's get this over with, shall we?"

"Mmm." Riku extended a hand in a gesture Kaito recognized as summoning his sword. Unexpectedly, however, a flash of light accompanied the weapon's appearance. When it faded, Riku held a new sword, similar in base to his original, but with the circular crossguard looking like it was a smaller dragon's wing bent in a semicircle, opposite a mirroring angel's wing... and a keychain dangled from the hilt, in the shape of the emblem that some of the Heartless bore.

All three boys stared.

"...Riku-kun? You said you didn't havea keyblade," Kaito observed.

"I dont! Didn't." Riku turned the blade over in his hand, as if expecting it to disappear. "I don't understand..."

Hakuba leaned in and caught the keychain with his free hand. "Well, if I might make a guess... You mentioned that keyblades are influenced by the hearts of those capable of wielding them. Given recent events, it might be safe to assume that the permanent exorcism of Ansem a few hours ago had some additional and previously unnoticed effects."

Riku's eyes widened, and Kaito hid a smile, adding, "It's pretty obvious that the Darkness has still had an impact on you, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, and it's not all you are, either. You've been the balance for a long time..." Kaito tapped a finger against the angel's wing on the hilt. "Now it looks like you finally believe it."

"...Oh." Riku looked down at the keyblade and opened his hand, letting it vanish, then immediately summoned it back. When the keyblade appeared for a second time rather than his old sword, a fraction of the tension in his frame bled out. "I can feel it," he murmured, running gloved fingers down the flat of the blade. "There's a connection. Not like the imitation that Ansem constructed, or when I stole Sora's keyblade..."

"Heaven help me, I'm surrounded by thieves," Hakuba declared, shaking his head, but he was smirking faintly.

The blond solicited a brief chuckle from Riku before the younger boy pulled himself back to events at hand.

"I'll take this gladly, considering where we're going." Riku pulled the hood of his cloak up with his free hand, to cover his face as it had been when Kaito had first met him. "Do it."

"Hang on, then." Kaito -reached-, carefully, for the -feel- that had accompanied Namine's presence.

The Shadowrift opened.

This may be the finale arc, but the story's not over yet. Please don't forget to review, even if it's only a few words.

Ocianne

3/09