Note from magik: So... sorry about not being to access the chapter until roughly 10 hours after I posted it. I don't know what fanfic's problem was.

Regardless... so apparently I didn't write the beginning of the last chapter, just the end. Honestly, sometimes, the way rar and I write this stuff it looks fairly contiguous. So unless I have a distinct memory... yeah...

Anyway... As for who wrote this chapter... well... does it really matter? Just enjoy!

Ienzo had stopped his current research in favor of reading through one of his favorite lexicons. It had a lot of his favorite spells in it and he was contemplating switching over to this one and just adding a few things to it. Either that, or he needed to take large portions of this lexicon and copy them into his current lexicon.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Pi, is this important?" Ienzo asked.

He frowned when he heard an excited whisper, rather than Pi's voice. He couldn't make out what was said during the whisper, but he thought he caught his name…

"Sorry, Mister-Ienzo-Sir!" came a different voice—a child's voice. "I don't mean to disturb you, but I bring a message from someone who wishes to speak to you!"

Ienzo frowned. He bookmarked his page and went over to the door. He wasn't aware that anyone wished to speak with him. Not anyone who couldn't simply come themselves.

He opened the door. His eyes beheld two children. That was not the shocking bit, however. The shocking bit was that the older of the two boys looked strikingly like Ienzo, himself. His steely-grey hair falling into one eye, though the boy kept pushing it away. The younger of the boys bore a resemblance to Axel.

"May I ask who you are?" Ienzo asked, raising an eyebrow.

The older boy answered him. "My name is Joseph. This is my friend, Toby. The two of us came on behalf of Vexen."

"Vexen, who?" Ienzo asked.

"The real Vexen, the one who disappeared," Joseph answered.

Ienzo's brows furrowed. He pointed across the hall.

"Go in there, let's talk."

Joseph nodded and made his way over, showcasing a great amount of energy. Toby, however, moved a bit quieter and slower, as if he was afraid he would break something if he moved too fast.

The three of them went into the room Ienzo had pointed out, which just so happened to be a sitting room of sorts.

"Sit where you like," Ienzo said.

Joseph immediately went to one end of the couch. Toby sat down next to him. Ienzo sat in a wooden chair by a desk.

"You mean to tell me that Vexen is alive?" Ienzo asked. "It's been months since he's been seen here."

Joseph and Toby both nodded.

"He's alive all right," Joseph answered. "He's been in our universe for quite some time now. A few months, I would guess."

Ienzo frowned. "He's been missing for much longer than that…"

"I think all the Vexen Replicas have figured out that your universe runs faster than ours," Joseph said, scrunching his face up. "I don't remember details though."

Ienzo thought for a moment. This all was logical enough.

"Vexen Replicas," he mused. "You mean to tell me you have a Replica Program in your universe as well?"

Joseph bit his lip. "Well, more or less. It's complicated. But yes, we've got a Program."

"How do you know Vexen?" Ienzo asked. "And how did you know to come here to deliver me a message from him? Why couldn't he come himself?"

"Well, Vexen showed up in our universe a few months ago, like I said," Joseph said. "Before Toby showed up, even!"

He nudged Toby in the ribs playfully. Toby rolled his eyes.

"Earlier today, or it might have been yesterday, given how time passes all wibbly-wobbly and stuff," Joseph began. "I was with Vexen in Twilight Town. Our Twilight Town, not yours. Though, I've been there too and it's nice."

"You're rambling," Toby muttered.

"Shh! I'm telling a story! Anyway, Vexen and I were in Twilight Town and this giant Heartless showed up! Vexen threw himself in front of me and he shouted your name, Ienzo. Of course, I had to ask about it because he did a completely illogical thing, something no Vexen usually does. The only Vexen who does that is 29, but he's my caretaker, so that makes sense."

Ienzo made a mental note to ask about caretakers when Joseph finished his story.

"Vexen told me that he used to take care of you, way-back-when before Xehanort happened."

Ienzo snorted. That was a simple way of putting things…

"Then he got all panicky and mopey because he left you behind when he came to our universe to avoid Xehanort. Then he felt all bad because he figured you were probably dead because you were a traitor too. But look! You're not dead and I can go home and tell Vexen and then he can come here and say hi and everything will be all nice and happy."

"You have such an optimistic view of life," Ienzo murmured.

Joseph shrugged. "Sometimes I do, I guess."

"Why couldn't Vexen come himself?" Ienzo repeated.

"Oh, he was too scared to come because he wasn't sure if Xehanort was still around or not."

Ienzo snorted. Sounded like Vexen, mostly worried about his own skin. Except, a long time ago… when he was in his care. The story Joseph had detailed about that Heartless in Twilight Town reminded Ienzo of a couple of cases in Hollow Bastion where it had been him and Vexen and some of those darn Unversed.

"How did you know to come here?" he asked.

"Well, I've been to this universe a couple of times before, mostly by accident, but it happens. So, I figured I could probably get myself here on purpose if I was trying hard enough. Namine, our Namine, not yours. Though, I'm sure she's pretty nice, too. I've only kind of met her. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah! Namine can form Dark Corridors to people, not just places. So, I figured if she could do it, I could certainly try. So I did, and it worked! Toby and I showed up just down the street."

Ienzo was impressed. Dark Corridors seemed to be able to do the same thing that star shards could: take someone to people, not just places.

"So, what do you plan to do now that you've found me?" Ienzo asked.

"Well, since Xehanort is dead and you're not," Joseph said. "We're going to go back to our universe, tell Vexen what's going on, so he can come here and talk to you! Because I know he wants to. Unless, you'd rather just come with us…?"
"Probably not," Ienzo said. "No offense meant. However, given the difference in how time works between the universes, it would probably be better if Vexen came here."

"I think that makes sense," Joseph said, scratching his head.

"I do have another question for you," Ienzo began.

"Sure!" Joseph said.

"You mentioned something about your caretaker…"

"Oh, 29?" Joseph laughed. "He's a Vexen Replica—though you probably figured that. He looks after me, because… uh, I don't know why Master Vexen chose him to look after me, though I'm glad he did—" Joseph paused then, rather suddenly. "Hang on. I came at this the wrong way." He thought for a second, and then said: "I am an experiment created by Master Vexen because he wanted to see what would happen if he combined the data of two different people. Oh, and Toby's an experiment, too."

Joseph gestured at Toby, and then pointed to himself again. "29 looks after me and keeps me out of trouble. That's what all the caretakers do… did. You can't have all those kids running around and not have someone look after them." His eyes suddenly widened in shock. "Ohmygosh, Toby, I just realized, you don't have a caretaker, do you?"

Toby slowly shook his head.

"I wonder what happened to him…" Joseph said, slowly, frowning.

Toby shrugged.

"You don't know what happened to him?" Ienzo asked, a bit surprised. "But shouldn't he have been taking care of you?"

Toby shifted uncomfortably. "Well, yeah, but… the thing is… I sort of…" He swallowed. "I spent the past couple months—"

"Locked up by the Organization," Joseph finished. Toby threw him a questioning look, but Joseph ignored it. "'Cause Toby's a special brand of experiment, equipped with the abilities of a couple different Organization members. But the Organization deemed him dangerous, so they locked him up since our Replica Program was all out of whack and they couldn't do anything else with him. And since he was locked up, he didn't need anyone looking after him, so his caretaker was probably reassigned."

"I'm not dangerous!" Toby protested.

"Well, yeah," Joseph replied. "But the Organization thought you were for some reason."

"Whose abilities do you have?" Ienzo asked.

"Axel's and Larxene's," Toby answered.

"Ah, I could see why the Organization might consider you dangerous, then." Ienzo turned to Joseph, moving his head so that he could almost look at Joseph with both eyes, given the fact that his hair hung down over the right one. "And I take it you broke him out of wherever he was being held."

"What was I supposed to do? Leave him there?" Joseph looked horrified. "I'm not cruel!"

"And it wasn't at all hard to break him out?"

Joseph shook his head. "Nah. All I had to do was open a dark corridor. I mean, you'd think that they'd put someone they considered dangerous in a corridor-proof room, but-"

"They probably didn't see a need to," Toby said. "I can't form dark corridors."

"Mmhmm," Ienzo said, slowly, not entirely positive if he believed this story. Then again, there were things about their universe that he obviously didn't understand, but…

"Aw, no, now you look curious!" Joseph whined. "I was trying to avoid explaining all the crud that's going on in our universe! I mean, I could explain it, but it'd take forever and 29's going to realize I'm gone eventually, and I didn't tell anyone I was heading over here…"

"No, it's alright," Ienzo assured him. "You don't have to explain."

Joseph grinned. "Great! We need to get going, anyway," he hopped to his feet. "Vexen needs to know you're alive. So… we'll just go. I'll send Vexen over here. Expect him to be here… in, I don't know, less than a day? I'll send him over as soon as I possibly can, which might be a while for you due to the timey-whimey-ness." Joseph shrugged.

"Alright," Ienzo said.

Joseph saluted. "See ya! C'mon Toby."

He opened a dark corridor, and the two were gone.