Note from forevermagik13: Kay, so this chapter was written by both of us. Well, in sections. I wrote the part with 29 and Joseph, rarmaster took care of the little snippet with 37 and Saix, then I tackled Riku's brain and she took the bit with Riku and Joseph. Uh, that takes care of the business stuff... Is there anything else I should say?

rarmaster: no, no there's not. I suppose I should mention that I think Riku would absolutely despise lightning in any shape or form. That and I wouldn't put it past Larxene to randomly electrocute him (since he's the Riku Replica, in case you forgot, and Larxene was absolutely cruel to him in CoM)

forevermagik13: *shudder* Moving on. You guys can read now.

Meanwhile, 29 sat in the chair next to Joseph's bed. The electricity sparking around Joseph's body had stopped, but he had yet to wake up. 29 was growing worried. Obviously, Joseph was okay enough to not be breaking down—but that Larxene Replica had not spared him when she shot him through with electricity.

His head flew up when he heard Joseph cough. Joseph coughed again and rolled over. His eyes flew open and he sat straight up in his bed.

"Joseph!" 29 exclaimed.

"That was awesome!" Joseph shouted. "I wanna get electrocuted again!"

29 smacked his hand to his forehead. Of course Joseph would enjoy such an experience as being electrocuted. 29 made a mental note to have Riku talk to him about the dangers of electrocution. Riku should theoretically be the best deterrent for that.

xx

"Need to… hurry…" 37 muttered, typing frantically. He was typing with his left hand, though that was his injured arm. However, he needed to specify what he was repairing with one hand, and since he couldn't necessarily reach the wound with his left hand, he was specifying the wound with his right.

"What are you doing?" came the cold, disapproving voice of Saix.

37 did his best not to cringe. His typing slowed significantly, but he didn't stop typing.

"I'm repairing my arm… sir," he replied quietly. "I regret to inform you that the mission did not go as well as planned. We walked in the door and were literally down two Larxene Replicas almost immediately. I am, actually, the only one who came back alive."

"Just barely, it seems," Saix scolded.

"Only my arm was damaged, and I am fixing that right now," 37 replied. "Zexion Alpha put up a rather good fight, somehow. I'll be sure to get rid of him next time."

"Of course," Saix said.

37 swallowed, and then continued his continuous typing to finish the last protocol in repairing his arm. He hit the 'Enter' key and a blue light began pulsing from the wound. Within seconds, it was completely healed.

"You cannot get rid of me," 37 said. He knew Saix was thinking about it. "I am the only one who knows how to operate the computer properly. Without me you might as well just hand the Program over to the Rebellion. Just remember that."

With that, 37 walked briskly past Saix and out the door.

xx

Riku sat on his usual couch, a gazillion things running through his head.

They had gotten lucky. 37 had not brought the most skilled fighters, or something like that. Saix's side was down four people. The Rebellion hadn't lost anyone since Roxas. Granted, five people (including Riku) had gotten injured. Two Marluxia Replicas had pretty nasty scythe-wounds and there was a Vexen Replica who was recovering from a concussion from a blow from Lexaeus' axe-sword.

Riku rubbed his shoulder. The axe-sword was what had gotten him too. He had a nasty bruise coming up on his left shoulder and it was becoming painful to move.

Several Vexen Replicas (along with the real Vexen) had prompted Riku to use the Repair Program to fix it, but Riku didn't see the point in doing that. He had never needed the Repair Program before and all of his wounds had healed just fine.

Granted, he always had Namine or Kairi to help patch him up…

Namine…

He started to reach for the picture in his pocket, but he winced because it hurt too much to move. He sighed and closed his eyes. He could imagine exactly what the picture looked like. He knew what it felt like between his fingers.

Namine…

He was startled out of his thoughts by Joseph, who was complaining to 29.

Well, at least that means he's okay… Riku thought to himself.

Joseph had been the fifth injured replica, having taken quite the blow from that Larxene Replica. If it wasn't for 29 clobbering her with his shield right after that, Riku would have taken her down easily. That behavior didn't settle nicely in his gut. Maybe it was because of all the stuff the Larxene from the other universe had put him through…

He jumped (and then winced) when someone (probably Joseph) plopped down next to him on the couch. He opened his eyes and, sure enough, there was a pouting Joseph.

"Riku," 29 said softly.

"Yes?" Riku responded.

"I would like you to talk to Joseph about the dangers of electrocution."

Riku frowned, looking between Joseph and 29. "Why?" he asked.

"Because Joseph…" 29 began.

Joseph cut him off. "I wanna get electrocuted again!" he shouted.

Riku's eyes went wide and his stomach sank.

"What?" he said, his voice coming out rather dead-sounding.

Why would anyone want to go through that torture again?

"Are you-" he began, and then paused. It took him a second to actually find words. "Joseph," he began, but stopped again. He rubbed his head, still not quite sure what he was supposed to say to that. "Why?" he asked finally.

"It was fun!" Joseph laughed.

Riku shook his head. "No, Joseph, it's not fun."

Joseph nodded insistently. "Yes it was!"

Riku shuddered slightly at that. Maybe he was just overreacting, however, how was being electrocuted fun? It wasn't fun. It can't have been fun. There was no possible way it-

He shook his head.

"Didn't it hurt?" Riku asked.

Joseph frowned. "I don't quite remember," he replied after a moment. "But it still was fun!"

"No, Joseph, that's-" he began, but had no idea what to say. His head was beginning to hurt, too. And it hurt a lot. He wasn't sure if this was just because Joseph was frying his brain or for other reasons.

"Are you okay?" Joseph asked.

"No," Riku muttered. "I don't understand how the heck you can think that being electrocuted is fun."

Joseph shrugged.

Riku was silent for a moment.

"Joseph, listen to me," he said, turning to look Joseph in the eye. "I know you think it was fun. I don't understand why, however…" he sighed. "You got lucky. That Larxene Replica was kind to you, do you understand? You got blasted with lightning only because you were in her way and she didn't like you. But the moment one of those Larxene Replicas hear that you think being electrocuted is fun, they're going to make sure it's not fun."

"How so?" Joseph asked, cocking his head to one side.

"By pinning you to a wall and sending so much lightning through you that you can't think because it hurts too much," Riku replied quietly. He shook his head again. "Trust me, that is not fun. And I don't want that to happen to you."

"Did that happen to you once?"

Riku turned away. "More than once…" he whispered.

There was silence.

"You want to go get some ice cream?" Joseph asked suddenly.

"Promise me you won't try and get electrocuted again, first," Riku said.

"Okay!"