Chasing The Truth

By FlikFreak

Chapter Thirty-One: Light Cycle


Another explosion of flame, followed by a sudden wave of water and a tornado from the skies. Hundreds of Nobodies were sent flying, but thousands, maybe millions remained. Kairi bit her lip and readied one of her own spells; Shantotto was powerful indeed, but they could only go for so long. Earlier she had been fighting alongside Yuffie and Leon when Shantotto and Aerith had arrived from headquarters bearing news of an emergency swap-out. Kairi was meant to be sent back, but Yuffie was far more exhausted and Kairi allowed her to go back instead. Still, something seemed off. An emergency swap? What was going on?

A sorcerer struck from the left. Kairi raised her keyblade in time to block, but stumbled. Aerith sent a small healing spell her way and rushed to check on her. "Are you alright?"

"I'll make it," Kairi replied, standing. "What's with this whole swap thing?"

"Freya's the one that ordered it."

"Freya? But isn't she…?"

Aerith nodded. "I know, but she sounded urgent. She ordered the switch right when Rhyme started to act up again."

Kairi's eyes widened. "Wait…does that mean the switch-out might've had something to do with Rhyme?"

"I think so," Aerith said, "But I just don't know how, and I have a feeling that Freya isn't about to tell us."

Without another word, Kairi headed into battle again. She could worry about Rhyme later. If these nobodies weren't taken care of, there wouldn't be a Rhyme to be concerned over.


Neku cursed quietly. "He's not here."

"This is just the Pit Cell," Tron explained. "Normally the Game Grid will export to here." Then, without any preamble whatsoever, he knelt down and began typing at a giant television-esque object similar to what Neku had seen in the I/O tower.

"Can you pull up a visual at least?" Riku asked.

Tron nodded. "Certainly. I'm sure this terminal should have a function like that…"

"Can't we just go onto the game grid ourselves and get him out?" Neku asked, crossing his arms impatiently. "If it's as dangerous as you said it is, then Sora will need backup."

"Not necessarily," Tron replied. "If he's using a Light Cycle, he'll be fine."

Light cycle?

"Okay, I have a visual. Opening now."

Riku and Neku hovered behind Tron anxiously as a window appeared, at first riddled with static before showing a large, flat area patterned with grid-like linear marks. That must be where it gets its name, Neku observed. In a maze of walls, he could make out one light blue shape zipping down the corridors, tailed by a few other small, darker objects. Tron typed at the keypad rapidly, and the visual zoomed in. The light blue object turned out to be some form of motor bike, and its rider was none other than Sora himself.

"So that's a Light Cycle," Riku muttered. "Sora told me about it, but he never went into it much…"

Tron opened another window. "Pit Cell to Blue One. Do you copy?"

Sora veered around a corner and charged his front wheel into one of his pursuers. "Roger. This is Blue One speaking."

Neku didn't waste the opportunity to speak. "Sora, what're you doing in there?!"

"Long story short, I think I mistyped my entry point. Once I make it to the exit, I should be transferred back to the Pit Cell."

"You're awfully calm about it," Riku commented dryly.

"So? I've done this before. It's not hard."

Riku groaned. "Then hurry up and get out of there. We've still got our problem on the outside, remember?"

"I know, I know. I'm almost there; the exit's dead ahead."

"Don't get cocky," Tron warned him. "You've got four devastators waiting for you at the end."

"Piece of cake."

As Neku watched, four large objects rose, standing on what were probably four legs, their bodies wired with violet circuitry. Those must be the Devastators he mentioned, he reasoned.

Sora leaned forward, shooting through with an explosion of speed and evading a barrage of white, glowing projectiles. Any that got too close bounced off of a sudden burst of green hexagons that surrounded Sora, whom disappeared into a large crack in the wall – if that could count as a wall – less than a split second later.

"This is Blue One! I'm out! Commencing transport to Pit Cell!"

"Roger," Tron replied, turning to the two behind him. "Stand back a bit. He's coming through the terminal."

Neku hardly knew what Tron was talking about, but he stepped back anyway. Sure enough, a few moments later, a column of light appeared for a brief few seconds, quickly becoming replaced with a very tired Sora. "Geez…next time I need to pay more attention to what I type."

"You okay?" Neku asked.

Sora glanced up and nodded. "Yeah. Just gimme a few seconds and I'll-"

"We don't have a few seconds," Riku interjected. "We came in to disable the computer as fast as possible. Remember, we've still got Radiant Garden to worry about. Rounding you up took long enough, and we lost even more time dealing with Neku's recklessness."

Neku scowled, but said nothing. As much as that sounds insulting, he has a point…

Sora nodded and cracked his knuckles. "Okay then, here's the plan. We get into the other computer, disable it, and get out. There are still hoards of Nobodies outside in the user world that need to be taken care of, and as good as the others are, we're the best ones for the job."

"Sounds good to me," Neku replied making a fist with one hand. This thoughts, however, were elsewhere. Gee, he sure makes decisions fast…

"The I/O tower should have a way from transporting from one computer to the other," Tron suggested. "We should start there."


"Things calmed down when those two swapped out," Shiki explained, "But it's more like we picked the lesser of two evils. Rhyme still isn't feeling well."

Axel nodded. "Considering the number of Nobodies outside, I'm not surprised. At least now that we're back we should be able to get rid of them."

"I don't see all of you," Beat pointed out. "Where's Phones?"

"Neku, Riku and Sora are disabling the computer," Axel explained. "Me and Joshua were sent back here to check on you guys."

Shiki nearly dropped the book she was reading. "Joshua came?!"

The said silver-haired boy entered the headquarters, shoving aside a small clump of hair from his face. "You called?"

Beat immediately cast aside all previous thought and charged toward Joshua. It took both Leon and Axel's full strength to restrain him from beating the Composer to a pulp (or at least trying). "The hell you doin' here?!"

Rhyme bit her lip, still rubbing her head. "Beat, calm down. He's only here to help, aren't you Josh?"

Joshua nodded. "That's right. I can't stay away from Shibuya for long, though…"

"I don't care, yo! Pretty boy's the one that-"

"Beat, Stop!" Rhyme cried. "He did help us when the heartless invaded the river, remember? If it weren't for that, Shibuya would be gone, and so would we!"

The skater hesitated at his sister's words and calmed. After being released by Axel and Leon, he rubbed his arm and glared at Joshua. "Fine. Prissy kid stays…for now."

"I wasn't planning on staying forever," Joshua replied. "I'm just here to help up the ante, if you know what I mean."

"Up the ante?" Yuffie echoed.

"With so many nobodies," Joshua continued, "Even our two groups combined can't afford to make any mistakes, and dead weight won't help us at all."

Shiki crossed her arms. "Dead weight?" She mumbled.

Joshua quirked an eyebrow. "Say, Beat…do you still have your skateboard?"


Had it not been for the monochrome tone of his skin, Neku would have had a tinge of green to his face. "Now I know how the copy and paste function feels," he moaned.

"At least it's not a solo match in the game grid," Sora pointed out. "I prefer dizzy over pain."

Riku rolled his eyes, somehow unaffected by their sudden trip through the I/O tower's depths. " Let's just find the database and shut it down. The sooner we're out of here, the better."

This place looks a lot like the I/O tower we were in just earlier, Neku observed, swallowing. The difference is more of something I feel, though. Are we really in the other computer?

"Tron's staying behind to keep the terminal open," Riku began, "But he left me with some instructions."

"And what would those instructions be?" Sora asked.

Riku crossed his arms. "He said that if we want to stop the Zoners from using the computer, we don't have to turn it off or disable it. He said if we just disable the database instead of the entire computer, then we should be good to go."

Neku blinked. "Now that I think about it, that makes perfect sense. If they want the computer's data, we just keep them from getting it."

"So we just delete it all?" Sora suggested.

"No," Riku replied. "If we did, we'd be deleting Axel, too."

"Let's just get to the database first," Neku suggested. "Then we can figure out how to handle this."

The agreement was made silently. Neku stayed as close as possible to Sora, still unsure of how to handle himself as data. Upon exiting the I/O tower, however, they found a several large masses of black in front of them, accompanied by yellow dots and various colors of circuitry. It took Neku a few moments to discern that it wasn't the ground that they were looking at.

Sora leapt back a few feet. "Geez! There're heartless everywhere in here!"

You've gotta be kidding me. Heartless, in a computer?

"Only figures," Riku groaned. "What's the plan?"

"We still need to get to the database," Neku pointed out. "Otherwise we can kiss Radiant Garden and everyone that's there good-bye."

Cursing quietly, Sora summoned Remembered Dream into his hand. "Then we cut through."

Neku blinked. Even inside the computer, he can still summon the keyblade? Wait, if that's true, then that means…

There wasn't time to think when Sora charged forward. "Come on, you two! We gotta hurry!"

Riku's keyblade appeared in a flash and he charged forward, heartless flying like rag dolls. Neku followed suit. "Where're we headed?!" He called over the chaos.

"There are bound to be tons of heartless near the database," Sora reasoned. "So let's go where we find the most of them!"

"Are you insane?!"

Sora laughed as he sliced his way down the path, to which Riku chuckled. "He's Sora. What were you expecting?"

Good point, Neku replied mentally as Music of Shibuya appeared in his hand. A burst of song accompanied its manifestation, and only moments later he was slicing a path through the masses of heartless.


Geez, Radiant Garden is a mess.

What'd you expect, Ven? We've got the keybearers in Ansem's computer trying to disable it, an empath on the rampage, two Zoners and their horde of nobodies causing mayhem…did I miss anything?

Other than the fact that there's a piece of deifacted Nethicite nearby and Shibuya is still in a frenzy? Not a thing.

Whew…looks like we're going to be pretty busy.

Yeah. You make sure Rhyme stays safe for now. Once this is over, she should be fine. I'm going to keep an eye on everything else.

Ven, don't forget why we're doing this.

I know, I know, but still… Neku isn't just a…well; to me he's a friend now.

You know we can't get too attached.

Don't remind me…but it's better than being selfish and just…

Yeah, I guess you're right. Be careful.


True to what Sora had predicted, the largest group of heartless had gathered near their destination. It was only a matter of smashing their way through and racing into the room beyond, slamming the doors shut. Of course, closing the doors wasn't quite as easy as they had hoped; not only was it a sliding door, but several heartless still tried to force their way through it.

"Push harder!" Riku shouted.

Neku winced and gave another burst of strength into the door. "I'm trying! I think one of them has an arm through!"

Sora aimed a small jolt of lightning at the offending heartless, causing it to shriek and retreat. The door closed with a loud bang, and several heartless behind it hissed in protest. Neku and Riku slid to the ground in exhaustion. "Well, we made it to the database at least," Riku said in between gasps for breath. "What now?"

"We have to block off access to it somehow," Sora replied. "Or just make it to where the Zoners can't use it. The question is…how?"

Neku crossed his arms. "If we delete the data, then Axel will be deleted too, so that's out of the question. Destroying the computer itself will do the same thing. We could delete only select data, but I doubt we'll know what's what. What we need to do is just cut them off from it."

Sora furrowed his eyebrows in thought. He had heard this somewhere before…when had it been? Hmm…hey, Roxas, you got any ideas?

How about we get out of here? I'm surprised I still have conscious thought in this place, but that doesn't mean I like it any better.

We'll leave as soon as we're done. You're better at computers than I am…what do you have in mind?

Didn't Tron have to go through something like this once?

He did?

From what I'm getting from your memory, yeah. He said something about his functions being taken away, so he needed to get to the dataspace to get them back…

Of course! Roxas, you're a genius!

Heh. I try.

"Sora, is there a particular reason why you're grinning like an idiot?"

The keybearer ignored Riku's comment. "Guys, we can put a password on the dataspace!"

Neku blinked. "That's…actually a good idea. We'll be locking away the data instead of deleting it, so no one gets hurt."

"Roxas come up with that?" Riku asked with a smirk.

Sora crossed his arms indignantly. "We both did," he insisted.

"Having a password is all good and well," Riku pointed out, "But what're we going to set it to? We can't use anything easy or they'll break in and this'll all be a waste."

Neku cracked his knuckles. "Leave that to me."

Sora watched as Neku strode confidently up to the keypad and examined it briefly. "Huh…looks just like an ordinary keyboard. Saves me learning time..." He tentatively prodded at a few buttons until the main screen lit up with a password entry form. Neku grinned mischievously, typing in the fields and confirming.

"Password set."

Neku clapped his hands off. "Mission accomplished."

"If you're finished, then we'd better get going," Riku stated, stepping forward. "We might have blocked access to the database, but there are still Nobodies wreaking havoc outside that we need to take care of."

Sora nodded. "Right. Let's head for the I/O tower!"

Hey, Sora.

Yeah, Roxas?

What if the Zoners break into the computer? And what if they revive the Organization after all? What'll you do?

I'll have to fight them all again, I guess.

But what if the fighting never stops, Sora? Don't you ever think about that?

I used to, but not anymore. I know it sounds cheesy, but…I'd rather die fighting than live as a coward. If I'm fighting for what I think is right…or if I'm fighting to protect my friends and people I love, I'll go on for as long as I have to.

yeah. You're right. Let's go.


…not liking this chapter either, but I think it's better than the last one. In compensation, I promise you all that the next chapter will kick some serious butt.

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)