Author's Note: So, yeah, I'm a horrible person. I left you all at a horrible cliffhanger (almost quite literally) in All the Pieces. However, I just FINALLY got my replacement FFVIII and have since been rescuing Rinoa and watching Squall actually GIVE A CRAP about something in his life. I've had this sitting around waiting for rarmaster to catch up, so I shall post this here and you may enjoy it. I've updated my FAQ on my profile again and there is a lot of new info. Is that it? I think that's it.

Alpha jolted awake. He had fallen asleep over his computer again. Sometimes he had to wonder why he even had a bed. His computer was complaining that he had too many programs open. He sighed and began closing out of the ones he didn't need at that particular moment.

He left three open. One was a hack he was working on to get back into the Replica Program fully. The second was his research on Miss Namine's memory meltdowns (since she'd already more than half a dozen since arriving here). The third was the Repair Program, which he always left open because someone always needed it—regardless of whether or not they used it.

Ahem, Riku.

Alpha put the hack on a temporary hold and returned to the puzzling issue of the memory meltdowns. That matter had proved to be more urgent. Riku was always a little…on edge when Miss Namine was having a memory meltdown. And he was not lying when he said that Riku did not fight his best when a memory meltdown was taking place. He barely could even think straight.

He pulled up the scrambled notes that Vexen had transcribed after talking with Miss Namine. The notes were thorough, but still a bit scattered and veered off the point a few times. (Probably because Vexen was still trying to figure out the connection between Riku and Miss Namine.) Though Alpha found the connection intriguing, he wasn't going to study it in-depth. More for Riku and Miss Namine's privacy than anything else.

Alpha sighed. Perhaps he should talk to Miss Namine… though he didn't see how it would help. She was just as clueless as the rest of them—the only advantage she had was that she actually experienced them. And Alpha could pretty much figure that that wasn't much of an advantage.

Alpha then pulled up the little bit of research and notes from the Original Vexen. There wasn't much on Miss Namine. She hadn't been around much before the Original Vexen's… unfortunate demise. She hadn't been catalogued.

Which is another one of the reasons why the raids were continuing.

Saix didn't just want the Replica Program anymore. He wanted to catalogue Miss Namine too.

And Riku was furious.

Furious was an understatement.

Alpha rubbed his temples. If he could figure out what was causing the meltdowns, he might get closer to figuring out how to stop them. Doing so would make everyone's lives easier—but especially Riku's and Miss Namine's.

His original theory was proving to be incorrect. Miss Namine had been in Castle Oblivion for nearly two weeks… and the memory meltdowns were not showing any signs of stopping or slowing down.

Though, there was an interesting pattern. There were lulls, where she would go a couple days without having them. Then she would have one every day (at least) for the next couple of days.

He was now modifying his original theory about Castle Oblivion. Perhaps it was because of Castle Oblivion's sheer sensitivity to data (due to the heavy abundance of Replicas and the random shards of data that were stirred up and thrown about every raid.) And because Miss Namine already had the tendency to have meltdowns, all the data floating (literally) about was making it worse.

But he was afraid to mention such a theory, because no one was going to like it.

Because that meant the memory meltdowns weren't going to stop unless Miss Namine left Castle Oblivion. And that just put Riku between a rock and a very hard place.

A second modification of his original theory was that Castle Oblivion was where Riku had all of his worst memories. Granted, it wasn't this Castle Oblivion, but it was a Castle Oblivion. And because Miss Namine was formed from Riku's memories, naturally, being in Castle Oblivion would trigger all those horrible memories to come forward and attack.

But that still didn't explain why they were attacking.

Unless Riku went through such a horrible experience…

Actually, that was likely. But why the memories would attack even with such tragic events…

Alpha was having a hard time putting that theory into coherent words. He had the basic idea of it… but it was hard to explain, even to himself.

A slight modification of that theory was that Riku, himself, was the problem. If that headache he'd had yesterday (was it yesterday? Alpha lost track of time when he slept over his computer) was any indication.

But he wasn't going to mention that without proof.

And he couldn't get proof without doing a full-scan on both Riku and Miss Namine.

And he would need full access to the Replica Program to do that.

And even if he could do that, he'd have to give some explanation as to why…

Though, he could probably just say "this may help" and Riku and Miss Namine would go along with it.

If he caught them at the right moment.

But he was still lacking full access.

Catch-22 all around.

He was about ready to just label it as a weird Replica disease and say it'll just go away eventually.

But then Miss Namine wouldn't be the only one with this problem…

Unless…

What if some of the earlier Vexen Replica's had this problem… and were disabled…

Alpha went to pull up that research.

However, at that particular moment, his hack program blipped.

"I thought I turned you off…" he muttered, looking over.

"Password breach failed. Stronger password present than originally calculated for."

Alpha sighed. He was running out of ways to program the hack to be smarter than the passwords. He had been able to guess some of the Original Vexen's easier passwords, and hack through a few others. (Before Saix had completely gone bonkers and Alpha still had access to most things.)

But the passwords that he was currently trying to hack were proving to be the hardest yet. (Go figure.)

Alpha was currently trying to hack into the Disabling part of the Replica Program. Seeing 4 being carried in by Lexaeus a couple of days ago had led him to direct all of the breaches at the Disabling section. He had learned two things since starting this direct hack:

These passwords were the hardest passwords.

They were still the original passwords.

The Original Vexen had purposefully made these passwords harder, to prevent abuse. And then Saix had just been handed them.

Alpha sighed. "Sometimes, Vexen, I hate you."

"Did I do something wrong?" Vexen asked, sticking his head in.

"How long have you been standing outside my door?" Alpha asked.

"Not long, actually," Vexen replied. "Have I done something?"

Alpha shook his head. "My Vexen, not you."

"Ah. I had a question…"

"Yes?"

"Was there a particular reason why we were keeping the chemistry set away from Joseph?"

Alpha's eyes widened. "Did you give it to him?" he asked.

Vexen shook his head. "No, but he found it. I think it was a Dusk who gave it to him."

Alpha sighed. It was nice to have some Dusks floating about that were actually on their side, as opposed to Saix's. Saix didn't like the Dusks, so he didn't make use of them. Xemnas didn't appear to care that some were missing.

So they had Dusks to help clean up after raids, and gather floating data and menial stuff like that. But they weren't supposed to do much else…

Especially not help Joseph!

A small explosion from deep in the castle made both Alpha and Vexen jump.

"Joseph," Alpha stated.

"Most likely."

Alpha got up swiftly and headed out. Vexen started following behind.

"Do you need any assistance?"

"No," Alpha said, waving him off. "Don't touch my computer."

Vexen sighed and stopped following Alpha.

If Joseph was lucky, Alpha would get to him before 29 did. He would have been luckier if it was Vexen. But Vexen hardly reprimanded Joseph.

And Joseph had been allowed to get away with too many things lately. It was partially their fault, what with the raids on Castle Oblivion, and beginning to think of raiding The World that Never Was (one unsuccessful raid down, countless more to go). But Joseph needed some discipline—and not just from 29. Joseph was getting good at getting around 29's words.

xx

A Nobody that certainly wasn't a Dusk was lurking in one of the hallways.

Alpha pulled out his lexicon, ready to strike.

"Relax, he's with me," came a cocky voice from behind him.

"Axel," Alpha said, not even turning around.

"Yo."

Rather than ask why Axel was there, because that question would lead to any number of vague answers. Alpha asked instead why there was an Assassin floating about.

"I'm training him," Axel replied. "At least, I think it's a him. I can't really tell gender."

"Training, like a dog?" Alpha asked.

"Yup," Axel replied. "Training him to be able to sense when a raid's coming. As a warning signal for you guys. He's new, has no ties to Saix. Figured it be a nice opportunity to test my command over my little minions."

"Why not just send a warning," Alpha asked.

"Too obvious. If this guy's already here, then he can warn someone, and be out of sight before someone with Saix notices. I do have appearances to keep."

Alpha sighed.

"Right, well I'm going to go handle Joseph now," he said. "Shall I just leave any Assassin alone then, if I find any more?"

"Please do," Axel said. "Saix thinks it beneath him to try and control anyone else's Nobodies. Or at least mine, Demyx's or Luxord's. Though, I think Xemnas, Xigbar and Xaldin would get on him if he tried to control any of theirs too… so, yeah."

Alpha frowned, wondering why the Original Zexion had never been giving a Nobody to control. Though, none of the original Castle Oblivion team had been rewarded a Lesser Nobody to control—save for Axel. But he was the only one to survive that.

Anyway, he had Joseph to worry about.

He started walking off again, not oblivious to the fact that Axel was following him.

"I don't think you're going to be any help reprimanding Joseph," Alpha said curtly.

"What did he do this time?"

"Found the chemistry set."

"Really now? I thought we hid that well enough."

"According to Vexen, it was a Dusk to get it."

Now Axel frowned. "Odd, I didn't know Dusks…"

"Neither did I," Alpha said.

They found Joseph in one of the spare rooms. He sat dead in the center, a smoking pile of… something sitting across from him. His face was covered in soot.

"That was awesome!" he said, looking at them.

Alpha crossed his arms over his chest and began tapping his foot.

"How did you get the Dusks to get that for you?"

"I can get them to listen me."

Axel and Alpha were both shocked by this news.

"Great," Alpha muttered. "Just what we need."

"Ya know," Axel said, tapping his chin with a finger. "We could use this to our advantage."

Joseph perked up at this.

Alpha sighed. Neither Riku nor 29 were going to like this.