Author's Note: So, working 13 hour days TOTALLY is just... idk. It's great because of the overtime... but getting up at 7:00, to be at work by 9:00, to start work at 9:30, work until 11:00... not get home until midnight... UGH. This is day two of two of 13-hour shifts. Woofreakinghoo. At least I get paid a crapton.

Moving on. New chapter for you! This is a bit of backtracking... considering this takes place BEFORE they all go to Hollow Bastion. This is BEFORE Joseph and Toby were bored and pestering 29 about it to the point where Namine takes them to the Islands. In fact, this is only a few mere HOURS after Toby arrived.

So... yeah... Sorry about posting out of order... But, onto the chapter anyway!

"Here goes nothing," Vexen muttered to himself, knocking on 23's office door.

"Come in," 23 mumbled.

Vexen walked in.

"Oh, it's you," 23 said. "I was expecting 19."

"Sorry, not who you were expecting," Vexen said, twiddling a pencil between his fingers.

23 just shrugged.

"What do you want?"

"I want to know why you know so much about Toby, actually," Vexen said. "And why you were so opposed to him being here."

23 shifted uncomfortably. "He's a Weapon, that's why."

"Yes, but what is a weapon?"

"I said, it's a child experiment with not just the looks and personalities of the people they were spliced together with, but the abilities too. Jill and Toby were the only successful ones because fire and lightning were the only successful combination. Lightning is unpredictable. So is the personality type of the person the lightning comes from. I'm sure you can understand why I'm uncomfortable having him here. I thought for sure that Riku…"

"You never answered why you know so much about him," Vexen said, interrupting him.

"I was supposed to be Toby's caretaker," 23 answered. "But I convinced Master Vexen that it wasn't in my Programming. I told him I wasn't fit to be a child's caretaker. I was built for the purpose of helping build other Replicas, not look after ones."

"So, I take it you were briefed on what Weapons were then, when you were asked to be his caretaker?" Vexen asked.

"That is correct," 23 responded.

"Is Toby a danger to any of us?" Vexen said. "Tell me your honest opinion."

"It's not like anything I say matters," 23 grumbled.

"Nonsense, I'm sure some people here care."

23 rolled his eyes.

"Do you think he's a danger to us?"

"Yes, I do."

"Why?"

"Because, he's got Larxene in him. And lightning is so unpredictable."

"And the fire in him isn't?" Vexen mused.

"What are you saying?" 23 said, his eyebrow raising.

"You keep saying that Larxene is unpredictable, but have you considered how unpredictable Axel can be?"

"All the more reasons why he's dangerous," 23 said.

"Or maybe not," Vexen said. "He could be a great asset to us."

"Saix should have destroyed him."

Vexen glared at 23. "How dare you say such a thing!"

"Oh, not you too!" 23 said. "Don't you go telling me what to do!"

"I'm just shocked that you would want to destroy a boy who isn't even responsible for his powers. He's not even responsible for his entire existence!"

"This coming from the man who created Riku," 23 said.

"That was a past life," Vexen said.

"Don't tell me you don't feel proud of Riku."

"Don't tell me your Master Vexen wouldn't have been proud of Toby!"

"If my Master Vexen was still alive, we wouldn't be in this mess! But your Riku…"

"Stop," Vexen said. "Stop right there."

23 stopped. Then he swore.

"How is it that you can do that?" he asked.

Vexen smirked.

"You know, maybe if I had access to the little bit of the Program we had, I'd be able to figure out if Toby's the threat you think he is. I really think knowledge is the best route before action on this one."

"Way to change the subject," 23 spluttered. "And if you think I can get you through Alpha's passwords and firewalls, you've got another think coming."

"Don't you have access to the Program?"

"Only what I need to have access too. Alpha's got the whole thing on shut down because he doesn't trust any of us. Well, he trusts 2, but that's about it. Oh, and maybe 29, but I don't know if 29 really has any access."

"I'm sure Alpha trusts more people than that…"

23 snorted. "Fat chance. He's afraid any of us will defect to Saix's side any day. He feels that he's the only one immune."

"Why…?" Vexen began.

"Because he's the only one who didn't turn to Saix's side at the beginning of all of this. He's the only Zexion Replica who went against Saix. And, what did he do? Oh, he disabled all of the other Zexion Replicas."

Vexen didn't have a response to that.

"So if you think I can get you into the Program, you're wrong. You'll just need to keep pestering Alpha about it, you selfish git."

"I'm trying to help you!" Vexen said. "Maybe I could decode something…"

"Maybe you're not like our Master Vexen at all! Close parallels don't mean they're exactly the same!" 23 said.

"This is true, but maybe a fresh pair of eyes…"

"Why are you telling me this?" 23 asked. "Bother Alpha!"

Vexen frowned. "Why are you so jumpy?"

"I'm not jumpy," 23 said.

"You're certainly more quick to anger than you were when I got here several months ago."

"What's it to you?"

"I'd just hate to see something happen to you because of a rash decision, that's all," Vexen said.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Vexen shrugged. "I've seen so many things in my lifetimes. Many of which I wish I could un-see. I would hate for something terrible to happen to you because of a rash action."

"Why do you think I'm rash? And why do you care about me all of a sudden?"

Vexen shrugged.

"All you care about is Riku," 23 continued.

"That's not true," Vexen said.

"You care about Riku and your stupid little experiments."

"When was the last time I conducted an experiment?"

"To heck if I know! You could be conducting one right now and I wouldn't even know it."

Vexen frowned. "Something's different about you."

"Go away, I'm tired of listening to you mumble nonsense."

"I don't mumble!"

"Go away!"

Vexen's frown deepened. This conversation had gotten way out from under him. He hadn't learned anything about Toby that he hadn't already known. He had learned that 23 had weaseled his way out of being Toby's caretaker, however. But that was it...

It wasn't even like the information about Alpha was new. Vexen knew that Alpha had the whole Program on lockdown. The extent of the lockdown was just larger than he had originally assumed. He thought Alpha was just trying to keep him out. That wasn't the case.

Alpha was trying to keep everyone out.

Perhaps he should just keep trying to hack the system. Since he knew that talking to Alpha wasn't going to do anything.

Alpha was just being overly paranoid.

"You're still standing there," 23 barked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

Vexen frowned, then decided it wasn't worth it to argue. He turned on his heels and walked out.

And promptly got run into by Joseph, with Toby following right behind.

Not surprising.

"Oof!" Joseph grunted. "I'm so sorry, Vexen!"

"It's no matter."

"Oh! Have you been introduced to Toby yet?"

"Not officially…"

Joseph's eyes lit up. "Well, Vexen, this is Toby, Toby, this is Vexen."

"Just… Vexen?" Toby asked.

Joseph nodded. "You see, he's like the original Vexen, except he's from a different universe."

Toby raised an eyebrow. He didn't ask any question, but Joseph seemed to understand what he was getting at. Or he just continued talking; one of the two.

"You'll probably get to see the other universe, actually, or people from it. Oh wait! You already have! You met the other Axel! You see, they're all from the same universe. It's like our universe and their universe are mashed together and we keep running into people from there!"

Joseph mashed his hands together to illustrate his point.

"I've even been to their Twilight Town!"

"What does 29 think?" Toby asked.

Vexen stifled a laugh.

"I mentioned it in passing, he doesn't seem to have a problem…"

Toby turned to Vexen.

"So, are you just always here then?"

Vexen nodded.

"Okay."

"Vexen, you've got that look," Joseph said.

Vexen blinked and looked over at Joseph. "What look?"

"The 'I'm about to conduct a scientific experiment' look," Joseph answered. "I'd offer to help, but your experiments aren't really all that fun."

Vexen wasn't sure what to say about that.

Joseph's face lit up.

"Oh! There's something else that you need to know about Riku!"

Toby looked like he wanted to roll his eyes.

"Vexen, here, created him!"

Toby took a second to process this.

"Oh, okay."

He didn't even question it.

"Why does Toby need to know things about Riku?" Vexen asked.

"Because," Joseph answered. He frowned, thinking. "Well, because I figured it'd just be better that he knew. I mean, Riku can have anger management issues…"

Vexen wasn't sure what to say to that.

"I figure we're fine so long as Toby doesn't electrocute him."

Vexen winced.

"But back to that experiment!" Joseph said.

"I'm not conducting any experiment."

"Uh-huh," Joseph said, not believing him in the slightest.

Vexen sighed.

"I just want to see if Toby's as dangerous as 23 thinks, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to do that without any access to the Program."

"So you think I'm dangerous, too?" Toby said, his eyes narrowing into a glare.

Vexen suddenly realized the tactlessness of his last statement. He knew that rectifying this was going to take a lot of extra care. He squatted down, getting on Toby's level. It was something he used to do with Ienzo—years and years ago.

(Though, Joseph looked more like Ienzo than Toby did. Toby looked to him what he would imagine Axel had looked like at such a young age. Not that this was a huge surprise, given whose data the two boys were made from.)

"I don't think you're dangerous," Vexen said. "Not compared to other people in this Castle. Joseph's right when he says Riku has anger management issues. And I hope he doesn't hear me as I'm saying this, because he won't forgive me."

"So you're saying that compared to Riku, I'm not dangerous," Toby said, raising an eyebrow.

Vexen got the feeling that this was the most that Toby ever talked.

"I'm saying that I think you're you. You didn't ask to have an unpredictable control over fire and lightning. It's not your fault. And no one, here, has the right to tell you that you can't be here because of your powers. Because none of the rest of them asked for the powers they have either."

Joseph grinned.

"We're all a bunch of misfits!" he said.

But while Joseph seemed to like the idea, Toby was unsure.

"Tell me what's bothering you," Vexen said, looking Toby in the eye.

"I don't want to be locked in a room again because I'm dangerous."

"I doubt that was why Saix locked you up," Joseph said.

"L didn't like me wandering around."

"That's L!" Joseph said.

"L doesn't like anyone," Vexen said.

"Except 37!" Joseph said, making gagging noises.

"But even if we did think you were dangerous," Vexen said. "We wouldn't lock you up in a room. I promise you, nothing is going to happen to you because someone here in Castle Oblivion thinks you're dangerous. Between 29 and I, both of you are safe."

Joseph rolled his eyes. Toby looked comforted, however.

"Maybe I can get Axel to teach you how to better use your fire," Vexen mused.

Joseph snorted. "Fat chance. Axel doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do."

"Worth a shot," Vexen said. "But in the meantime, you two should go do things that don't involve getting in trouble."

Joseph and Toby both stifled laughter at that. Then they ran off.

"I'm going to need to keep an eye on them," Vexen mused to himself.