a/n: Thank you to those who have left kind reviews thus far. I just want to clarify one thing here. LeSo is not my OTP, RiSo is. But someone had suggested that Sky, unlike Sora, would be suitable for Leon, and I happen to agree. Sky is very different from his younger self. With that in mind, please continue reading and enjoy!
Timeless
Chapter 2: (Not?) Accepting Help
(Sept. 21st, 2007 – CTL)
"Get the Delegates and Senators on the line!"
"Send out patrols! Catch these fuckers!"
"Where did that video originate? Find the source!"
"What the FUCK, man! How is attacking civilians going to get their point across?"
"Tell the rest of the Restoration Committee about this! We need to find these guys fast!"
"Will you two calm down and shut up?" Cid roared, getting to his feet and silencing Leon and Sky instantly. "I'm already ten steps ahead of both of you! The Senators and Delegates are being informed via messages through their phones as we speak, and a group of private security guards have been dispatched to their homes to ensure their safety. Sazh is heading up a security team to search the castle. Tifa, Aeris, and Yuffie are on their way now. I'm also running a program to trace the source of the video, but it's going to take some time. We'll catch these guys soon enough, so relax."
There was a pregnant pause as Sky and Leon absorbed this information before visibly relaxing.
"Ah…" Sky murmured. He had nearly forgotten how efficient Cid was in a crisis. "Sorry…"
"Damn right you are!" Cid took a drag from his umpteenth cigarette. "Now piss off, you two. You've done enough work for today; let us take it from here." He turned his swivel chair around and began typing madly on the keyboard to begin running a diagnostic on the whole computer system and servers. For once, Sky didn't feel needed. It was an unusual feeling, and it didn't settle well in the pit of his stomach. Shrugging, he turned around and left the room, leaving Cid to do his work and Leon to do whatever it was he did on his off-days.
Sky walked the halls of Castle Luminous, eager to leave for the night and go home. It had been a long day and he was simply exhausted. The Heartless threat had been small, not enough to really worry about, not like with Maleficent's Heartless, but it was still annoying enough that he just wanted to sleep. Any sight of Heartless was enough to bring back bad memories and with the war over, he didn't want to think about his past anymore. Still, it always had a way of creeping back up on him.
"Sky!" called Leon from down the hallway. "Hey, wait up!" He jogged to catch up to the Keyblade Master, falling in step with him. "Heading home?"
"Yeah," Sky grunted, rubbing out the back of his neck. "I'm about ready to just fuckin' pass out. It's way past my bedtime." He smirked at his own joke. Leon shrugged casually.
"You sure? It's Wednesday night." There was a long pause as Sky remembered what that meant.
"Oh shit! Right!" He pressed a hand to his forehead. "We got our training session tonight."
"It's fine if you're too tired…"
"No, I made you a deal. I would show you how to do advanced Light magic in exchange for the secret behind your Renzokuken." The Renzokuken was a special attack that Leon knew how to do with his Gunblade. It was one of the few attacks that Sky didn't know how to defend against, so he was determined to learn its secrets. He smirked again, nudging Leon in the ribs. "Don't think you can get out of our deal that easily." Leon raised his hands as if to say 'I wouldn't dream of it'.
It wasn't long before the two men were sitting in the castle's training grounds, a grand hall that had been converted for the free use of soldiers and martial artists alike. It was like a cross between a gymnasium and a zen garden. There were special sections designated for meditation, while others were designated for sparring.
Sky and Leon sat cross-legged in the centre of the training grounds, their eyes closed and their breathing even. It was completely still, the only sound penetrating the air being the occasional cricket or deep sigh as Leon slipped into a meditative trance.
"Breathe in through the nose and exhale out through the mouth," Sky whispered, opening his eyes a crack to ensure that Leon was on the right path. It was amazing how, once upon a time, Leon was the one giving the advice and teaching a young Sky how to do advanced sword-fighting, skills that would later save his life countless times. Now he was the master passing along his skills to Leon. Funny world they lived in.
Once he was sure that Leon was in the proper state of mind, Sky crawled behind the older man and sat down, gently placing his hands on Leon's shoulders. "You're going to reach down into your heart and pull out the necessary Light to form a Door, but you're going to stop just before the Door forms, okay?"
"I think I understand…" Leon murmured, instinctively leaning back. He took a deep breath and began concentrating on the Light in his heart, already somewhat familiar with creating a Door to the Corridors of Light. Just before a Door fully formed, he stopped the flow of magic and let it linger in front of him, like a white ball of fire in midair. "Now what?"
"Make it higher," Sky instructed. The ball of Light rose up into the air. "Expand it so it forms a disk above our heads." The ball began flattening out until it was a wide disk of Light roughly 5 meters wide. "Good. Now here's the tricky part." Reaching forward carefully over Leon's shoulder and down his chest, Sky placed one hand over Leon's heart to assist in the magic. "You're going to throw a bit of Blizzard up there to mingle with the Light."
Leon's facial features seemed to strain and flinch with the effort of combining two magical arts together. "Just relax," Sky said. "You can do whatever you like with your Light if you just focus." There was a puff of air as Leon released a breath he didn't realise he was holding, and then the disk of white Light in the air began turning a faint blue. "You almost got it. Just a bit more…" Sky's hand unconsciously flexed against Leon's chest, adding just a touch of his own magic to help Leon get the hang of it.
After nearly a minute, it began snowing inside the training grounds. Leon opened his eyes and marvelled at the sight, almost unable to believe he was the one responsible. He held his hand out, catching a bit of the cold fluff and watching as it melted upon contacting with his warm skin. Sky grinned at the snow flakes making a gentle decent from the ceiling to the floor.
"Add of bit of Aero and you got yourself a Squall."
"Ha, ha."
"But seriously, just add a touch of other spells and you can create a multitude of attacks. Imagine a thunderstorm, or fireballs raining down from the sky. Where I'm from, we learned to take out as many enemies as possible in the least amount of time and mana." Sky relinquished his hold on Leon's shoulders and stood up, stretching out sore muscles. It took a beat for Leon to get up as well, still astounded by the snowfall. After a few more seconds, he waved his hand to dismiss the magic and let the snow stop.
"So, ready for a lesson in how to control a gunblade?" he said, already heading toward the locker room where his Gunblade, Revolver, lay in wait.
"Nah, let's call it a night…" Sky grabbed his towel from the bench and wiped his face down, a heavy drowsy feeling taking over. Leon stopped mid-stride and stiffened, as if disappointed. "I know, I know, I'm a buzz kill. But I need to sleep. I've been on edge for days." Sky laughed sharply, walking towards the locker room to pack up his things and leave. "I feel like an old man sometimes…"
"Really? That's too bad 'cuz the Restoration guys were planning on meeting up at 7th Heaven for a few drinks. Interested?" Sky slowed his step as he considered Leon's invitation. It would be nice to have a few drinks to wind down, but he still felt a little weird being around people who had died several years ago by his perspective in his old timeline. Plus, there was that nagging sleepy feeling that was beckoning him to his bed.
"Some other time, okay?" he answered reluctantly. Leon seemed to sag just the slightest.
"C'mon, Sky, you hardly ever hang out with us. You used to be so social, making friends so easily."
Sky stopped walking abruptly. "Maybe it's because all my friends died…" It came out as a faint whisper, as if he hadn't really intended for Leon to hear him. He didn't want to feel sorry for himself, especially since the dark threat was no more, but it was hard sometimes to forget the horrible things that had happened to him. He just wasn't ready to let go and move on.
"Dilly dally, shilly shally," Leon murmured. Sky stirred at those words.
"What?"
"It's something Aeris told me when we first arrived in Traverse Town. I was so upset about losing my home and all my friends, but she told me that living in the past wasn't going to bring them back. I had to move forward if I wanted to make a difference. So I did. I stopped dilly-dallying." He smiled, clapping Sky on the shoulder. "Maybe you should too." He very rarely said more than a sentence at a time, so it must've been truly profound advice he was giving. Sky figured he'd be wise to heed it. With that, Leon turned and began walking down the hall, waving at Sky as he left. "Goodnight, Sora."
"That's Sky!" Sky called after the older man. Sometimes he thought Leon did it on purpose to irritate him. "Goodnight, Squall!" He could have sworn he heard Leon chuckle.
Sky's apartment wasn't too far of a walk away from the castle, since his job required him to be on call at all times of the day and night. It was nice, but it was isolating at the same time. His friends lived more in the heart of Radiant Garden's commercial district, so the only time he ever saw them was occasionally in the castle. It didn't help that they had had hectic busy schedules.
And yet, he found himself often turning down their offers to hang out and he wasn't sure why. Certainly he was tired tonight, but there were other nights where he would have nothing else to do and he still refused to go out with them. And every time, Leon would always look so disappointed, having been the one who would ask him all those times. Sky didn't mean to disappoint them, but he just felt odd hanging around them, like sitting in a room full of ghosts and bad nightmares. It evoked too many memories that he felt were better left buried. One might've asked why he chose to live in Radiant Garden at all. He had no answer for that.
Arriving at his front door, he fished out his keys from his pocket and unlocked the front door, pushing his way in with a heavy groan. The lights were off inside and it was cool and silent. Sky paused at the threshold of his door, simply staring into his empty apartment, and for the first time in a while, he felt lonely. Every night was the same. He came home to an empty house. No one was waiting for him. Looking over his shoulder, he briefly considered heading back out to meet up with Leon and the others at Tifa's bar, but thought better of it. Instead, he shut the door behind himself.
Dinner was a quick and lazy effort of microwaved hotdogs without the buns or toppings. His shower lasted longer than it took to eat. He stood under the cascading water, letting the heat of the water cleanse his skin and ease his troubled mind, imagining how the clear liquid swirling down the drain was all his negativity and darkness getting sucked away, never to be seen again. He allowed his thoughts to drift to the new threat to Radiant Garden's peace, the Righteous Hearts.
In his timeline, they had been rounded up and sentenced to life imprisonment, but he couldn't remember for the life of him who had captured them or where they were hiding out. All he knew was that it had happened sometime after he had been kidnapped and rescued from their headquarters. The rest was all a blur. He supposed none of that mattered since everything was different now. He would just have to capture them all over again.
After drying off and changing into a simple pair of black boxers, he sat on the edge of his cold bed, soundless and unmoving. It was only in the middle of the night, on nights like this, where he felt the faint grief of his loss creep into the borders of his life once more. He looked over his shoulder, a habit he had picked up many years ago, half-expecting to see a figure lying in bed, a wisp of silver hair, half-expecting to hear a deep soft voice telling him everything would be okay. But even in the pitch black darkness of his room, he knew he was all by himself. He would never find his dead lover lying next to him.
Sky sighed heavily as he lay down and drew the covers up to his chest. He would never have Riku the way he did before.
Sometimes he wondered why he had never faded away with the rest of his timeline. Sometimes he wished he had.
(May 30th, 2008 – ATL)
"Sora?" called the muffled voice of Kairi beyond the door. "Sora, I know you're in there! Please open the door!" Silent seconds ticked by where Sora pretended he couldn't hear Kairi. The banging continued. "Sora, please!" The brunet slipped deeper under the covers until his spiked locks were no longer visible.
There was sharp sound outside the room accompanied by a whistling wind noise and the lock on the door glowed brightly for a moment before unlocking by itself. The door opened and Kairi walked in, holding a new dagger-sized Keyblade that resembled Riku's Soul Eater. She was wearing a look of complete and utter misery upon her face, tears still streaking down her cheeks. Sora spared her one glance before sinking under the covers once more.
"They told me what happened," she whispered, her voice wavering. "I'm so sorry!"
"Stop it!" Sora shouted, springing up in bed. "Stop lying! He's not dead! There is no proof!" Kairi could only gape in shock and hurt, unable to summon words to respond. Sora huffed and threw off the bed covers, stomping towards the door. "You all should have more faith in him. He can't be taken down that easily."
"Sora, wait!" Kairi reached for his arm but he pulled out of her grasp. "Listen, I know it's hard to accept, but he's gone! He never reported in! We have a witness who saw everything! He's…" She took a sudden sharp intake of breath as a fresh wave of tears spilled from her eyes. Her throat constricted as she was overcome by emotions. "I wish it wasn't true too…But he's just…gone… I'm sorry…" Sora watched her carefully, trying to read her, trying to listen to what she was saying but unable to accept the truth. It felt like his brain was trying to shut down on him.
"No…" he whispered, reaching blindly for the doorknob. "No, I won't believe it…" He opened the door and backed out, eyes still trained on Kairi. "I refuse to believe it." With that, he stormed from the room and down the hallway, ignoring Kairi's pleas to stop.
"Sora, please! I want to help you!"
(Sept. 22nd, 2007 – CTL)
Sky was slow to wake up, clinging to the remnants of a dream or a memory. He could have sworn he could still hear Kairi's voice crying in his ears but quickly realised it was his cell phone across the room ringing at him. Once his brain was functioning at the correct speed, he bolted out of bed and grabbed the phone out of his pants pocket where he had haphazardly dumped them the night beforehand. Despite his quick reflexes, he just barely missed the call and had to wait for the person on the other side to leave a voice message. Once he was certain enough time had passed, he played back the message and instantly recognized Cid's gruff tired voice on the line.
"Got some good news, kid," he said. Sky could almost imagine him taking a pause to take a drag from his cigarette and scratch his nose. "I was up all night and I managed to trace the virus origin. You're not gonna like this, though. It was uploaded from a terminal inside the castle, meaning we got ourselves a mole. Come on in when you get the time." The message ended. Sky groaned. Cid was right. He didn't like this one bit.
After managing to dress himself in a pair of jeans, a white tank top and a black open button-up shirt over that, Sky made his way over to Castle Luminous to sort out what was going. A mole within the Restoration administration was not a good thing, but it meant they were one step closer to bringing in the rest of the Righteous Hearts and preventing another attack. He stuffed his hands into his pockets as he entered the security control room. True enough to Cid's word, the older man looked like he hadn't slept yet, dressed in the same clothes that Sky had left him in the night before.
"There you are, kid!" Cid said. "You get my message?"
"Yeah," Sky grunted. "So we got a mole? How do I find him?"
"It's not that simple. All I was able to figure out was that one of our terminals was accessed to drop the virus. Doesn't mean I know who was using that terminal. But I think I know who might be able to help us out." Cid paused, likely for dramatic effect, pointing at the large red iris mounted on the wall beside them. Sky followed his line of sight.
"Tron?"
"Tron. He monitors all input and output data. I've been working on a program for him that should upgrade his anti-virus detection skills. If it works the way I hope, we'll be able to trace back which terminal was accessed and what user was using it." Sky held his head, not understanding half of what Cid just said. He was about to tell the old man off when Leon walked into the room.
"Got your call, Cid," he said. "What's this about a mole in our administration?"
"Long story short, we're going to use Tron to help us track down the mole."
"Oh sure," Sky scoffed. "Give him the short version and give me the techno-babble."
"If you're up for a trip into the Space Paranoids, it'll make things go a lot faster," Cid pressed on, ignoring Sky's rantings. Leon nodded. "Good. You two, stand by the iris and I'll drop you in." Cid began typing up a storm on his keyboard while Sky and Leon stood side by side in front of the red iris.
"I'll warn you," Sky said quietly to his companion. "The first time's always a bitch." As the words left his lips, the iris came to life and fired a beam at the two men, converting them into data and uploading them into the world of the Space Paranoids.
When the conversion was complete and the two men were standing in digital form within the computer system, Leon swayed uneasily on his feet, feeling distinctly light-headed from the process.
"Easy," Sky said, steadying his friend. "What'd I tell ya?"
"It's funny," Leon muttered as he regained his balance. "We've had this computer system for years, and this is the first time I've actually been in here." He took a long look around, marvelling at the sight of the glowing neon walls and the flashing lights. That's when he noticed his own clothes had gotten flashier and there was a small headset on his head.
"Pretty cool, huh?" Sky said with a hint of excitement. If there was one thing he liked doing, it was sharing experiences with someone who had never done it before.
"Ah, welcome, users!" said a voice behind them. Sky and Leon turned to see Tron standing there with his arms wide in a welcoming gesture. The computer sprite blinked a few times, staring at Sky in wonder. "Sora, is that you? Goodness, you've grown! Has my central processing unit malfunctioned or has that much time passed on the outside?" Leon coughed to cover up his laugh while Sky groaned, placing his palm on his face.
"No, I'm Sky," the Keyblader explained. "Didn't you get the information from the war?" Tron seemed to glaze over as he accessed that part of his hard drive before returning to normal.
"Ah yes, I remember," he said, smiling. "You're from the future. My apologies." He turned to Leon. "And you must be the system admin, Squall Leonhart." Now it was Sky's turn to suppress a chuckle while Leon grimaced.
"Actually, it's just Leon," he said. "I don't go by the name Squall anymore." Tron looked thoroughly confused.
"You users are a peculiar bunch with your designations." He shrugged it off. "Shall we discuss the reason you're here? Cid uploaded a program for me to trace back a recent virus. I can get right to work, if you'd like."
"Run us through it," Sky said, gesturing Tron to lead the way. The trio began walking towards the main core.
"It's a very simple process, actually. We're basically retracing the virus' footsteps backwards until we reach the terminal where it originated. Then I'll run my program and it will filter out the last user to upload anything." Retrieving a data disc from the main core, Tron punched a few buttons and a glowing path appeared at their feet. "There we go. Now we just follow the path." He began walking along the glowing path as it led out of the main core and down a corridor. Sky began wondering if it was really necessary for him and Leon to enter the Space Paranoids at all. It looked like Tron had it well under control by himself.
Just as the thought was crossing his mind, there was a sudden flurry of pixel data in front of them, taking the form of a Heartless. The trio got into defensive positions.
"Remnants of the virus," Tron said darkly. "It's a replica of the one that infected our system at Disney Castle during the war." The digital Heartless let out a screech that disoriented the humans, but Tron remained unaffected. He held his hands in front of him and fired a pulse of energy at the Heartless, deleting it from the system.
"I think I see now why we're needed," Sky grumbled, shaking his head out. They resumed walking down the hallways, encountering more minor digital Heartless along the way, but the virus spawns were dealt with easily enough. Finally, they reached the end of the path where a terminal was. Tron loaded the disc into the drive and waited only a moment for the program to load. It displayed a page's worth of code, much of which was gibberish to Sky, but what he did understand was the username.
"According to the report," Tron explained. "User #44125, clearance level Beta, was the one responsible for uploading the virus and video file to the server." Sky ignored Tron, reading the name for himself.
"Our mole is none other than Lucrecia Crescent," he murmured. "Why does her name sound so familiar…?"
"Lucrecia?" Leon repeated disbelievingly. "She certainly has the clearance to access sensitive files and sections, but she's been with us since the start of the Restoration Committee's creation! She's a brilliant scientist who's been helping us adapt all the old technology with the Heartless tech that Maleficent put in the castle. Why would she be working for the Righteous Hearts?"
"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Who knows how long the Righteous Hearts have been opposing the Restoration Committee? Or maybe she turned sometime down the line. Either way, we have to find her and take her in for questioning."
"According to the sign-in chart, she didn't report in for work today," Tron said.
"Then we have even less time than I thought," Sky snapped. "Thanks for your help, Tron."
"Anytime, Sor- I mean, Sky. Come visit again soon." Sky and Leon saluted as they activated the terminal to take them back to the real world. Pixel by pixel, their forms returned to the security control room where they had left Cid. The older man didn't need to be told of the situation, having monitored it from the outside, and was already taking the liberty of loading up camera feeds all over the city to track down where Miss Lucrecia Crescent had disappeared to.
"I got facial recognition program running on all the CCTV in the city," he said, pointing to the active monitors. "If she so much as steps foot outside her house for a smoke, we'll find her. I also got the security footage from the last few days. If we rewind to the last time she was in castle, we can track where she went from there. But it's going to take some time to sift through dozens of tapes." Sky nodded approvingly. He retrieved a print-off image of Lucrecia's face and information. Squinting, he wondered if he'd seen her face before, perhaps walking down the street in the opposite direction or somewhere in the castle while she was working.
Shrugging off the déjà vu feeling, Sky said to the others, "I'll run foot traffic detail, see if a little door-to-door questioning gets us anywhere."
"She's probably not even in the city anymore," Leon muttered. "After pulling a stunt like hacking into our security system and loading a virus? It was only a matter of time before we figured out it was her and she knows it. She's probably halfway to Fantasia by now." He shook his head slowly, running his fingers through his hair in a nervous fashion. "I still can't believe she'd do that. She seemed like such a good person…"
"Alright, let's move out then. Get Yuffie and Tifa on it. Leon, you're with me. We'll check her place first." Cid nodded and began making calls as Sky and Leon left the security room at a brisk pace. They both understood they had a limited window of opportunity to catch Lucrecia before she vanished off the grid, if she hadn't already.
Hitting the open outdoors, Sky inhaled deeply, trying his best to focus on the task at hand, but finding it difficult. The name "Lucrecia" stirred something in his subconscious. He knew the name but he couldn't remember where from. He definitely hadn't heard it from Leon or the others. There were so many new members of the Restoration administration that Sky couldn't keep track of them all. No, he knew the name from his old timeline. It was buried in his memories and he just couldn't grasp at it.
"Hey," Leon said beside him. "Keep alert. She could be anywhere." Sky wanted to snap at Leon but felt his voice die before it reached his lips. Leon was right; he needed to stay focused. The problem was they didn't even know where to begin. Putting out a news broadcast would only alert Lucrecia to the fact that she was being hunted, but how else were they supposed to inform the citizens that a terrorist was on the loose? On second thought, perhaps it wasn't a good idea to tell the people that. The last thing they needed was panic on the streets. Sky knew the Righteous Hearts wanted a little panic and chaos. It would give them the opportunity to sweep in and claim the leadership position, citing the recent attacks as proof that the Restoration Committee was incapable of dealing with a crisis.
Leon and Sky walked in silence as they entered Radiant Garden's bustling downtown, their eyes trained on the faces of every person they passed. Sky glanced at the print-off in his hands, looking over the information and the address listed. She didn't live too far from the Borough. The walk from the castle to her house took less than half an hour, even with the amount of speed-walking they were doing. As they stood outside her door, Sky and Leon had a silent debate about whether or not they should knock or just bust down the door.
"If we knock, she'll run," Sky hissed, his voice just barely audible.
"We can't just go barging into her house," Leon countered, not much louder than Sky. "She's a Radiant Garden citizen and she has rights. We'd need a warrant to enter her home without her consent."
"She's a fucking traitor to this world! She doesn't deserve rights!"
"Shh!" Leon waved his hand at Sky's increased volume, nearly smacking Sky's shoulder. "Innocent until proven guilty." With that, he knocked on the door. Sky rolled his eyes and folded his arms in a petulant child-like manner. They waited patiently (more like Leon waited patiently while Sky made 'tut' noises) until it became apparent that either Lucrecia wasn't interested in answering her door or she wasn't home.
"Thank you, you just wasted five fucking minutes," Sky snapped, already backing up to kick in the door.
"Hey, wait—" The ground shook as Sky's foot connected with the brittle wood, knocking it off its hinges and sending bits of woodchips and splinters across the ground. The sound echoed down the street and several birds screeched, fleeing the nearby trees. "You idiot! If she was home before, she's probably taken off now!" Sky ignored Leon and stalked into the house. They both went quiet as they took in the emptiness of the barren rooms, the lack of furniture and presence of a human being. It appeared as though Lucrecia hadn't lived in this home for a long time.
"She's cleaned out the place," Sky growled, kicking the woodchips across the hallway. "Shit!"
"If she ever lived here at all," Leon added. He looked around what should have been the living room, noting the dust on the floor and walls and the stale unlived smell of drywall.
"So this was a decoy house? Dammit, we're wasting our time here. Let's hit the streets and see if we can find someone who knew her. One person doesn't just vanish into thin air…" He trailed off when several people came to mind who certainly could make themselves scarce, one being Cloud Strife when he had vanished with Sephiroth over two years ago, another being Riku during the time that Sky was searching for him when they were teenagers, or any member of the Organization, or just about anyone who had access to the Dark and Light Corridors. "'Kay, never mind. Let's just go."
After checking the house thoroughly for any evidence of being lived in and coming up empty, they hit the streets again. They began systematically knocking on every home and business they came across, holding up the photo of Lucrecia and asking if anyone had seen her recently. Only a few shop owners recognized her face but she hadn't visited them in quite some time. After a long day of knocking on doors, Sky decided to call it a day. Their search proved fruitless and they were getting nowhere fast.
"She's jumped ship by now," Sky grumbled. "Fuck… There goes our lead." He let out a frustrated noise. "Things were so much simpler when we were just fighting Maleficent. We knew exactly where she was and what she had planned." Taking a minute to stretch his arms out, Sky began mentally planning his next course of action. "Let's head back to the castle and see if Cid's turned up any more information."
By the time they returned to the castle to report in, the sun had gone down and the stars were starting to come out in the hazy post-sunset light. Cid was still in the security room, his eyes completely focused on the task at hand. He had taken the virus attack as a personal challenge and wasn't about to back down from it until he sorted it out and got those responsible to pay for disrupting his calm. Sky folded his arms, glancing at each monitor of random images of people working in the castle, walking the streets, shopping in the Marketplace, and enjoying an evening snack at Scrooge McDuck's ice-cream stand.
"Anything?" he asked, taking his eyes off the flickering monitors.
"Actually, yeah, something strange you may want to check out," Cid answered, already in the process of pulling up a specific video. "Here's the footage of Lucrecia uploading the virus." He clicked a button and played back a silent clip of the woman Lucrecia standing at a terminal, typing something and inserting a disc into the CD-ROM. After a few seconds, she removed the disc and walked away. "Then I grabbed the footage of all the cameras that she passed by." He pointed to three different monitors that showed Lucrecia walking down various corridors until she reached the main entrance, signing out and leaving the building. She made her way through the bustling streets until she walked off camera in the last piece of footage that Cid had to offer. Sky waited a beat to see if anything else would play back, but there was no more video.
"So what happened? Where's the rest?"
"That's just it! She walked into a camera's blind-spot and then literally pulled a vanishing act! Look at the time stamps on these two clips!" The first clip, which showed Lucrecia walking into a back alley attached to the Marketplace, was marked 2:45AM. The next clip, which showed an empty portion of the alley further down displayed the same timestamp, but no Lucrecia. "She walks into the alley, which, by the way, has no exit, she steps into a spot right between two cameras' peripheral vision, and she never emerges from the alley! She just disappears!" Sky frowned deeply.
"Did she use a Light or Dark Corridor to escape?"
"No, I checked for Corridor activity. The only activity noted is when the Heartless started popping up. That was nearly an hour after this footage was taken."
"We'll check out the alley where she vanished." Sky made a quick waving motion to Leon to join him. They left the castle with a renewed sense of purpose, both feeling pretty good about this new lead of theirs.
They reached the alley in question, having retraced Lucrecia's steps, and they began looking around for clues as to how someone could leave the alley without going out the way they came in. Leon pressed his hands against the walls, looking for hidden doors while, Sky checked the ground for secret hatches or sewer grates that one could slip into. He looked straight up, trying to get a feel for the height of the building, wondering if it were possible for someone to scale the wall without any visible handholds or equipment. The buildings around them were both at least 6 storeys high with no ladders or fire exits above the ground level. But it was the only logical explanation to her disappearance.
"I'm guessing she escaped up the side of the building and she got help," Sky said aloud, getting Leon's attention. "Maybe someone lowered a ladder for her to climb up. We don't have cameras set up on the rooftops and she knew it. In which case, it doesn't matter what we find here. It doesn't change the fact that she got away and we're probably not going to find her." He cursed silently under his breath and checked his watch, grimacing. It was already 8PM and he hadn't eaten dinner yet. "Let's just call it a day and pick up tomorrow."
Noting the hungry look in Sky's eyes, Leon said, "You want to grab some dinner at Tifa's place? I bet she's back by now." Sky was about to make up another excuse but stopped himself before he said a word. Vaguely, he wondered just how many times Leon would invite him out before he got sick of rejection and stopped talking to Sky altogether. Then there was the lonely thought of going home for another night to an empty house and eating canned pasta that made his stomach churn.
"You're buying."
oOoOo
Sky and Leon pushed their way past the front doors of 7th Heaven, the restaurant and bar that Tifa had started up shortly after the war had ended. She had excellent chefs and servers working for her who made her place one of the best bars in the city and on a night like tonight, it was always busy. The tables were packed with people drinking, eating, and enjoying the peace of Radiant Garden, laughing and conversing about their daily lives. Sky felt a little awkward at first, being a little rusty with socializing, but upon seeing Aeris, Yuffie, and Tifa occupying a large table in the corner, he felt himself warm up as his old personality slipped out.
"Hey guys!" he called as he sat down with Leon beside him. The others were mildly surprised to see the brunet outside the castle at all and Yuffie took the opportunity to pounce on Sky.
"So~ra!" she squealed, hugging him close. "It's so good to see you! You never come out to the bar with us!" Sky laughed, carefully trying to disentangle himself from the little ninja.
"It's Sky, remember?" he corrected unconsciously. Most of the times when people called him 'Sora', it was a slip-up, but with Yuffie, she did it on purpose to annoy him the same way she did it to Leon by calling him 'Squall'. "I'm just here for the free food. Leon's buying."
"Ooh, what'd you do to convince him to pay?" She giggled lightly, hoping to hear some juicy gossip, but Sky wasn't about to enable her.
"Nothing. He offered, I accepted. That's what friends do, right?"
"Well if that's the case, then buy us a round of shots!" She clapped her hands loudly, getting the attention of a nearby waitress. "Five shots of Blue Rhapsody please!"
"Hey, I never agreed to that!" But it was too late to call the waitress back, who had made her way to the bar and was informing the bartender of the order.
"Relax, silly, it's only 7 munny a shot!"
"7 munny? That's 35 munny total!"
"Oh, awesome! You can do math!" She made a face at Sky, shaking his shoulder playfully. By the time he managed to get her off him, the shots had arrived on a platter, an eerily blue coloured liquid that seemed to be giving off a faint glow. "Bottoms up, everyone!" Yuffie raised her shot glass, toasting the night and clinking it gently with her companions. One by one, they all drank their shots in one gulp and slammed their glasses down in a loud clang.
"And now for real food, please," Sky chuckled, elbowing Leon. "I'll have the butter chicken."
The food and drinks lasted well into the night, as did the conversation. Sky found himself slipping back into familiar territory, smiling whenever someone made a joke and offering stories of his own. It was times like these that made it easy to forget the negativity and remember that he was living in a safe, happy world. He was amongst friends. As the night went on, Aeris was the first to politely excuse herself, citing an early morning as her excuse. It was close to midnight when Yuffie challenged the remaining others to a drinking game.
"Oh, I can see things getting ugly real fast here," Tifa laughed. She was no light-weight when it came to drinking and she could hold her own, but she wasn't so sure about Sky and Yuffie. The last thing she wanted was her beloved bar to fall victim to two hyperactive drunks. Nevertheless, she never turned down a challenge, so she called over her friend Barret to grab a bottle of Blue Rhapsody from behind the bar and join in.
"Let's play 'Truth or Drink'!" Yuffie giggled excitedly.
"What are you, twelve?" Sky scoffed, ruffling Yuffie's short locks.
"What, afraid we might find out what colour underwear you wear?" Tifa teased. "We all know about your paopu-print boxers."
"I'm not even going to ask how you found that out. But seriously, let's play something a little more exciting." Sky cocked an eyebrow as he leaned forward, peaking his friends' interest. "I never."
"Oh c'mon!" Yuffie blurted out. "How is that any different than 'Truth or Drink'?" Sky leaned back, folding his arms and smirking.
"Fuck if I know, but it's automatically cool because I said it. So?" Yuffie let out a little huff and shrugged noncommittally.
"Fine, I'm in, so long as I get drunk." The others nodded in agreement. Sky leaned forward again, pouring out five shots.
"Alright, since I suggested the game, I'll start." He looked around dramatically, his grin giving nothing away but promising mischief and embarrassment for others. "I've never… lived in Radiant Garden for more than 4 years." The others groaned, taking up their drinks and snapping back the alcohol.
"Too easy and obvious," Leon muttered. "I've never been to Destiny Island before." Sky made a face at Leon as he alone took a shot.
"I've never kissed someone of the same gender!" Yuffie laughed. Tifa, Sky, and Leon all took shots. "Tifa?"
"I was young and curious," Tifa said with a shrug as if it were completely normal to admit something like that to her friends. "And what about you, Leon?"
"Not telling…" he muttered, folding his arms in a very Leon-like fashion, which essentially told the others to fuck off. Sky raised an amused eyebrow.
"Well I've never had to stand and pee before," Tifa said with a haughty laugh. All the guys present chuckled at the obvious prejudice and took shots.
"I've never worn a bra," Barret countered, as if getting Tifa back. Tifa, Yuffie, and surprisingly Sky all took shots. "You seriously have worn a bra before?"
"It was a long, long time ago and it was a dare," Sky said defensively. "We were doing Truth or Dare in Riku's basement and…" He trailed off, feeling a slight pang of sadness upon thinking of his past, especially anything concerning Riku. He shook his head, unwilling to go down that mental path. It was his turn to come up with another 'I Never', so he thought of a good one. "I've never gone skinny dipping." Everyone but Leon took a shot. He sat there with a look of deep concentration as he thought of another one to keep the ball rolling.
"I've never had to look after a child." Barret, Sky, and Tifa took shots. "Who'd you look after, Sky?"
"My mini-me. He may as well have been a child with the way he was acting for a while." Everyone enjoyed a good laugh at the younger Sora's expense.
"I got one," Yuffie declared loudly. It was obvious by her volume that she was already feeling pretty buzzed. "I've never had a scar before." Leon and Barret made 'tch' noises before taking their shots. Sky was a little more reluctant to take his. "Ooh, So~ra, you have a battle scar? Let's see it then!" Feeling a little self-conscious, Sky lifted his shirt to show the criss-crossing scars all over his torso. "Whoa! Where'd you get those?"
"Believe it or not," Sky began. "I got these from the Righteous Hearts in my timeline." The others made varying noises of surprise and interest.
"Really?" Yuffie exclaimed, suddenly holding onto Sky's arm as she swayed in her seat. "What happened?" Sky allowed a moment to compose his thoughts as the alcohol worked its way into his system and loosened his tongue.
"I was kidnapped by them. Something about me being a special case and they wanted to study my heart. A lot of it is all a blur, but I got rescued and spent a couple months recovering."
"Did they get captured?"
"Yeah, I think so…"
"You think so?" Leon piped up, his arms still folded but more relaxed now. "You don't know for sure?"
"Well, it was a while ago and…" Sky trailed off for the second time that night. It suddenly occurred to him that his memories of the actual time spent with the Righteous Hearts were a lot fuzzier than he recalled. Not a lot was standing out except for the moments when an ethereal Roxas kept his mind stable. Maybe his brain was trying to spare him the torment of remembering a dark period of his life, but it seemed like every time he attempted to access those memories, he'd receive a small jolt of pain somewhere in his head. He vaguely remembered being rescued, but much of it was garbled like a television with poor reception.
"I'll never leave you. I'll always be in your heart…"
Sky jumped when Yuffie's chair bumped into his, knocking him out of his fading memories and settling his mind back in the present. Whose voice had that been? Who was he talking to? Maybe it was the alcohol buzzing through his system, but he couldn't help but feel like he was on the verge of uncovering something huge.
"What about where you were held?" Leon pressed, drawing Sky back into the conversation. "Maybe it will help us track them down here and now?"
"It's weird but… I can't remember anything really from that time period. I don't know who specifically held me or where I was. A lot of what I do know is from what Kairi told me after I recovered. And then it was never brought up again, like everyone was afraid I'd have a breakdown or something if they mentioned my kidnapping." Sky sighed, putting one hand on the back of his neck in deep thought. "That's so strange… I've never really thought about it before…"
"Was that an 'I never'? 'Cuz we all know how you never think." Leon let out a hearty chuckle when Sky punched him in the arm.
oOoOo
It was into the wee-hours of the morning by the time Sky and his friends left 7th Heaven and it was only upon Tifa's insistence that they go home and rest. Sky and Leon staggered out of the bar, holding onto each other for support, both certain that if they let go, the other would collapse. Yuffie was bouncing behind them, surprisingly stable despite her heavy intoxication.
"Tonight was awesome!" she exclaimed at the top of her lungs. "You should could out more often, So~ra!"
"I will if you stop calling me 'Sora'," Sky said in a slurred sort of way. "'Cuz yeah, 'cuz…yeah… That was fun. I had fun! I haven't had a lot of fun in a while…" They were walking aimlessly up an empty street, not really paying attention to where they were going, but reluctant to depart each others' company just yet. "I… I should get home. Cid'll kill me if I'm late for work…"
"You're the head of security," Leon murmured. "You make your own hours."
"Tell that to Cid." Sky was bubbling with barely-contained giddiness for some inexplicable reason. He knew he had to go; his brain was fairly coherent in his drunken state, but the commands were slow to come and he felt warm all over, somehow guessing it had to do with the person practically carrying him down the street. "I better get going." The three stopped walked, staring in opposite directions.
"Well I'm this way," Yuffie said, pointing behind herself as she started to leave. "Night, boys!" They waved her off.
"I'm that way," Leon said, pointing down the street.
"I'm… that way…?" Sky mumbled, unsure as he pointed upwards.
"You're drunk," Leon stated as if it weren't apparent. "You're drunk. I better walk you home and make sure you don't end up in a trash can somewhere."
"I'm fiiiine…!" Sky said, pushing away from Leon to demonstrate. He only stumbled twice before getting his footing. "I'll be fiiiine! And besides, I hear trash cans are quite comfy to sleep in!"
"I'm not letting you go in this… state." It sounded as though Leon was having difficulty coming up with the right words as his alcohol-drenched brain struggled to work through basic sentence structure. "You're gonna hurt yourself!"
"What are you, my dad? I can take care of myself."
"And you live really far. Like… really far… I just wanna make sure you actually make it there. It's no bother for me to walk you home."
"Dude… if you walk me home, who will walk you home?" That question almost threw Leon off-guard as he actually paused to think about it.
"That's not important!" he finally said after a moment, realising Sky's question was irrelevant.
"Whatever, dude. I'm going home and you're going to your home. I'll be fine." As if to demonstrate, Sky did a quick turn, like it would prove he was sober enough to walk on his own two feet. "How about this? I'll call you the minute I get home, that way you know I made it. If I don't call within an hour, then you can walk me home. Deal?" Leon went to shake Sky's hand but paused when he realised the last part of Sky's plan didn't make sense. But before he could retract his hand, Sky latched on and shook vigorously. "Deal! See ya tomorrow!" Without waiting for Leon's brain to catch up, Sky began lightly jogging down the street.
"Other way, jackass!" Leon called.
"I knew that!" Sky laughed as he backtracked and began jogging in the correct direction to his house. "G'night, Riku!" Leon stiffened at that, taking a moment to assess if he had actually heard correctly before shrugging it off and heading towards his own home. Sky was oblivious to his own slip-up.
To Sky's credit, he did manage to make it halfway home before something stopped him. He was cutting through an alley way when suddenly, there was a black bat flying in his direction. His reflexes were slow to react and it hit him square in the face with a loud crack. He stumbled to his knees, loudly cursing and holding his injured forehead.
"What the fuck!" he roared, dazed as he tried to see his assailant. In the darkness, he couldn't make out a face or body, but his attacker didn't give him the chance to recover. They hit him again with their baton, knocking Sky off his knees to the ground. Then the attacker walked behind Sky, wrapping an arm around his neck and pulling him up slightly.
"Stop looking for Lucrecia," a raspy voice warned darkly.
"Who are you?" Sky hissed, weakly attempting to get the arm off his throat.
"Stop looking for Lucrecia or you're dead. This is your only warning." With that, the attacker released Sky's neck and hit him again in the back of the head, knocking him out cold.
oOoOo
a/n: You with me so far? :D In case the action is getting a little difficult to follow, I recommend watching 24. It kind of inspired this story. Originally, this story was supposed to be a quick 2 or 3 chapter story just about Sky reflecting on the last few months of his life and starting a new one, but I really wanted to do a mystery intrigue crime drama thing. Anyho, don't forget to R&R, otherwise I won't know if anything I'm writing is actually any good.