Chasing The Truth

By FlikFreak

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Plans for Disabling


"She's been doing better since Shantotto and Aerith swapped out," Shiki stated. "Not by much, but it's helping."

"What exactly went on here?" Leon demanded calmly. "…and why are there scorch marks on the walls?"

"We aren't sure," Shiki replied, shaking her head. "Rhyme said she felt like she was drowning or something. Freya told Aerith and the Ambassador to leave, and ever since then she's been calming down."

"And it looks like my suspicions were correct," Freya added, folding her arms and flicking her tail idly. "Leon, tell me our current status."

The swordsman counted on his fingers. "Let's see…on the front line we've got Aerith, Kairi and Shantotto…Cid's in the lab, Xenuk's helping him right now…and here at headquarters we've got me, Yuffie and all of you."

"Zidane left earlier," Yuffie added. "So he's not here. Merlin's probably at Disney Castle or somewhere else, and who knows what the gullwings are up to."

"Hang on a sec," Leon said. "I'm seeing a pattern in how we've been divided up…we've never had all our magic users on the front at once before. Normally we're more balanced out than that."

"I know," Freya said. "That's why I named specific people to replace."

Yuffie's eyes widened. "Wait a minute…what does the way we set up our position have to do with Rhyme?"

"It has everything to do with Rhyme," Freya replied calmly. "Let me explain…"


"I never want to go there again," Axel whimpered as he secured himself in his seat. "I bet my Somebody knows how to swim and never told me…"

Sora laughed. "Not too fond of water, are you, Axel?"

The replica sighed. "Never was, never will be."

Axel always flat-out refused to go on any mission involving Atlantica mainly because he couldn't swim, but he couldn't stand Demyx either.

Did you get along with Demyx?

Yeah. He was okay. Obnoxious sometimes…but he was okay. Poor guy was really easily misled, though…

"Just one thing bothers me," Neku said quietly. "He and Joshua seemed to know each other."

Joshua shrugged. "I get around."

He's not about to tell us anytime soon, is he?

Nope.

A sharp beeping snapped Sora from his conversation with Roxas. Riku was already rapidly tapping at the keyboard. "We're getting a distress signal," he stated.

"You're awfully calm about it!" Neku cried as he buckled himself in.

"Bring up communications," Sora said, taking his own seat and starting up the engines.

Riku nodded. "On it. Looks like it's coming from Radiant Garden again. Labs, to be specific."

"We'll land there, then. Opening connection."

The communications screen flickered a few times before a familiar face appeared on it, the sound taking a few more moments to adjust. "You guys finally back?"

"Xenuk," Sora breathed in relief. "Everything okay over there?"

"Of course not," Xenuk replied. "There are Nobodies all over the place, and we can't even get through the Cavern of Remembrance unless we focus everything we've got. Cid thinks he's found a way to bypass the Cavern, but everyone's so busy keeping the nobodies away from town we can't make any use of it."

"We're on our way right now," Riku assured him. "We'll use the portal in the Lab, got it?"

"Yeah. Cid's making a few rounds in the other room right now. We'll be waiting for you." And with that, the connection closed.

Why do I get the feeling I've been through this before?

Because we have?

We have?

Does the phrase 'Hostile Program' ring a bell?

oh, no. Sora wasted no time in diving for the warp drive button. "Hang on to your seats, everyone," he announced. "This is going to be a bumpy ride!"


You're back! How'd it go?

I still owe Neku an explanation, but right now we've got bigger problems. How's Rhyme?

Freya knows what happened to her, and she's taken care of the situation. I'm doing what I can to help calm her further, but it's only a matter of time unless we get rid of those nobodies fast.

Then we'd better get sta-

We can't, Ven. Remember?

Right…but the others are on their way right now.

Good. Listen, Ven, I need you to do me a favor…

Sure, anything.


"Ah, Jaxuk. You have news?"

"Yes, sir. Naxeyv has fallen, and the Nethicite has been stolen by the boy."

"Stolen?" Meyxours echoed. "That's not very pleasant."

Jaxuk placed a hand in the air calmingly. "No need to worry, sir. It is still a perfect weapon if we set it off without them wanting it."

Meyxours quirked an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Every actor will be in place soon," Jaxuk continued. "I assure you, I can perform this act without need of a rehearsal."

"Very well…but what of Zidane? He seems out for blood…yours, specifically."

Jaxuk grinned. "Oh, him. He won't be a problem. In fact, he's one of the more important actors in this performance…"


For a computer lab, the room was rather large. There had to be at least twenty screens to the thing, and the keyboard and disc slot were built on top of the CPU. In front was a window overlooking the manufactory near the bottom of the laboratory. Xenuk, hood partially up as it had been before, was overseeing the man typing away at the keyboard was a simply-dressed blonde-haired man.

Sora stepped forward. "Are we here in time, Cid?"

The man and Xenuk turned around. "About time you got here," Cid commented. "Everyone's off in the low ground fighting off the biggest hoard of nobodies I've seen since the gates broke and let in all the heartless. Luckily there's more of us to fight now…that Shantotto lady took out about a hundred of them with a single spell, but she needed a good bit of rest after that."

"I've been helping out wherever I can," Xenuk added. "Earlier I had to check in on Rhyme, but right now I'm helping Cid in here."

"How is Rhyme?" Neku asked eagerly.

"Quiet for now," Cid answered gruffly. "They could hardly hold her down an hour ago."

"Hold her down?" Joshua echoed, placing a hand to his chin almost mockingly. "Last time I checked, Rhyme wasn't exactly the type to lash out."

Xenuk shrugged. "She didn't lash out. It was more like she was having a seizure or something."

Neku's jaw would have found a new home on the floor had it not been securely attached to his skull. "Seizure?"

"She's fine now," Xenuk assured them. "She was reacting to something. Aerith thought it had something to do with the resonance that sent her into that coma. Freya seems to know something more about it, but she isn't talking yet."

"I can see why," Joshua stated. "Learning something potentially shocking as that isn't a swell idea in the midst of chaos."

"Where've you been during all this? Cid asked. "Sleeping in castles again?"

"We were fighting Naxeyv in Port Royal," Neku explained, pulling the shimmering blue stone from his pocket. "And we managed to get this away from him."

"Deifacted Nethicite," Xenuk breathed. "That stuff's more dangerous than the manufacted version."

"What's the difference?" Axel asked.

Xenuk breathed deeply. "Well, both forms of Nethicite serve the same purpose; they absorb magical energy and whatnot. There's one main distinction between the two, though. Manufacted Nethicite dissolves when it absorbs too much energy. Deifacted Nethicite, on the other hand, is not only harder to find, but it causes that enormous explosion that I told you about. Telling the difference by eye is really hard, but when I was still with the Zoners, Naxeyv taught me about it."

Neku eyed the stone in his hand like it was a bomb, which everyone now knew wasn't far from the truth. "Then we'd better keep this thing far out of reach," he said. "I don't want it blowing up in my face."

"Agreed," Axel added. "I may like explosions but there are some that I'm just not a fan of."

"Don't worry," Cid assured him. "You get a fair enough warning when it's 'bout had enough, though I still wouldn't try it if I were you."

Joshua seemed unimpressed, but plucked the stone from Neku anyway. "I'll hold onto this for now."

Cid crossed his arms. "Now that we have that out of the way…mind tellin' me who's who?"

Sora slapped himself mentally for forgetting. "Oh, right! Cid, this is Neku. He's the guy that helped me in Shibuya. And that's Joshua, he helped me out a bunch, too."

"So yer that Neku kid," Cid man said slowly, rubbing his nose and holding a hand forward. "You've prolly herd of me by now. Name's Cid."

Neku nodded eagerly, shaking the man's hand. "Nice to finally meet you in person, Cid."

"Thanks for keeping in touch," Joshua added, smirking as usual. "It's been a big help."

"Not a problem Joshua," Cid said, staring at the platinum blonde. "Though, shouldn't you and that Hanekoma guy be taking care of Shibuya?"

"Shibuya is in good hands right now," the Composer replied vaguely. "We're here because we received a distress signal. Care to elaborate?"

Cid nodded. "Oh, right. Well, everyone's in town fighting at the moment. We switch our positions so we won't wear ourselves out, but we don't know if it'll ever end. We could use some backup, but Tron thinks that maybe that computer is the source of it all."

"Tron?" Neku echoed. "Who's he?"

"Security program," Cid replied. "Looks after the town. He and Sora teamed up a bunch of times to get us out of some tight spots."

Neku looked highly doubtful. "Riiight…"

Sora cleared his throat nervously. "Anyway…if this has something to do with the computer, Cid, why don't you let me handle it?"

"You?" Axel echoed, a smile trying to appear on his face. "Sora, last time I checked, you were about as good with computers as a piece of rock."

The brunette crossed his arms. "Shut up, Axel. I don't do it like that, anyway."

"Then how do you use a computer? Jump on top of it?"

"Donald tried that once…trust me, it didn't go well."

Cid shrugged. "Well, Sora, you know how to turn it on."

Sora nodded. "Yeah. The rest of you stand back. I'm going in solo. The rest of you go to town and help out; Cid's got things covered here."

Neku's expression was twisted between humor and humiliation. "Sora, we're talking about computers here. It's not exactly life-threatening."

"Just stand back," Riku instructed them. "Sora knows what he's doing. Although…" He paused. "You sure you don't need backup? There could still be heartless there."

Sora smirked. "No sweat! If there are any, I'll handle them."

To be honest, Sora, I think Riku has a point. You should at least bring one other person with you.

Well…I guess it couldn't hurt. "Okay, I take it back. Riku, wanna give me a hand in case anything comes up?"

Riku shrugged. "Good to see Roxas talked some sense into you. There's no way I was going to let you go alone, anyway."

Sora crossed his arms indignantly. "Quiet, you."

"What exactly are you doing?" Neku asked, crossing his arms.

"I'm going to see if I can disable the computer in the Cavern," Sora replied. "Don't worry about me. I've done this a million times."

"Three actually," Cid corrected. "And the first time was an accident."

"Hey, I still know my way around!" Sora protested. "Okay, opening internal access…and activating data transfer. You guys might want to back up unless you're coming, too."

Neku gave Sora a look that clearly described that he thought he was crazy. Joshua, however, just smirked. Axel only stared blankly. Cid and Xenuk obediently stepped backward.

A large, red portal stood behind them, surrounded by a strong metal frame. The grid on the object slowly began to fill with a white light as it powered on. Sora had to squint; it was very bright to look at.

I wasn't awake last time you went through. Does it hurt?

Nah. It tingles and it really jumps out at you, but it's completely safe, honest.

"Sora, look out!"

The keybearer turned around just in time for Neku to shove him out of the way of the portal's beam. He had no time to regain his position and assure his friend that the portal was harmless when the light zeroed in on the ex-proxy and his astonished best friend, freezing them both in a wireframe.

Everyone stared and gawked silently as the beam gradually drained each and every polygon of Neku from in front of them, leaving only an empty, white net of lines. After the last bit of color was drained, the wireframe itself was dragged into the light, and the device flipped off.

As the very last trace of Neku and Riku vanished, Sora finally found his voice again.

"…uh-oh."


You saw that coming, didn't you? Admit it. XD

Zoners:

The Deceptive Evoker, Meyxours (Chasing The Truth/???)
The Elegant Reaper, Jaxuk (Chasing The Truth/???)
The Fallen Prince, Zarxilt (Chasing The Truth/Final Fantasy XI)
The Ruthless Emperor, Naxeyv (Chasing The Truth/Final Fantasy XII)