Note from magik: Well, last chapter here. I won't disappear entirely, but I can tell you I don't have anything new to post. (I haven't even had time to revise my own novel!) Well, most of that is because papers for classes are coming due for the midterm and I've been working on my stories for my creative writing class. Revising that has to take precedence because it's for a grade and I really do want to graduate in the next year here and then I also have to have a second story written... so... yeah... Spring Break can't come fast enough!

Note from rar: Great, now that we're done with this Can't Escape sequence, we can move on to Dead Inside! (in other words, I've updated, lol)

Vexen turned around, and was glad to find that the Heartless weren't in the immediate vicinity. They were outside—Joseph had spotted them through the window. The Heartless, however, were nothing like he had ever seen before. They were similar to Neoshadows, but similar to Possessors in the very same way. He studied them a moment longer, but didn't see the Emblem on any of them; they were Pureblood.

"Yes," Ienzo said. "Those Heartless have become common around here for some reason." He was moving towards the door as he spoke. "Vexen? Do you mind helping me get rid of them before they cause any damage?"

"Uhm." Vexen blinked a few times, not used to being asked such a question. "Yes, certainly." He paused, glancing back at Joseph. "Will we need Pi's help?"

"I suppose not," Ienzo replied, slowly.

"I wasn't programmed for fighting," Pi added.

"Right, then you can keep an eye on Joseph," Vexen said. "Make sure he stays out of trouble, and out of harm's way. 29 would kill me if he got hurt."

Pi agreed, seeming actually happy about this arrangement. Vexen figured he was just glad to have an excuse not to fight. Joseph didn't seem nearly as happy about the arrangement, but Vexen ignored him and followed Ienzo outside.

"What kind of Heartless are these?" Vexen asked, as he summoned his shield.

"They're called Poolers," Ienzo replied, as he paged through his lexicon.

"Poolers?"

"Yuffie named them," Ienzo said, as if that alone was explanation. Vexen wasn't quite sure who Yuffie was—the name sounded familiar, but he couldn't remember actually meeting anyone by that name—so it didn't suffice as an explanation for him. Thankfully, Ienzo noticed his confusion and explained further: "See? Their main attack is forming a pool of darkness beneath their victim that will send said victim to the Realm of Darkness. Watch your step, by the way."

Vexen quickly moved away from one of the pools that was forming near to him. The pool didn't seem awfully large, but he figured that the Heartless were capable of making them as large as need be. If they weren't, then they wouldn't be such a threat.

"Remind me again, who Yuffie is," he said, encasing one of the Poolers in a block of ice. He smiled slightly; he'd always enjoyed doing that.

Ienzo finished his attack—was that an attack he'd stolen from Riku?—and turned to Vexen. "A girl who lives here…" he said, sounding maybe a bit confused. It was hard to read other's emotions while in battle, though. Too many other things going on.

"Should I know her?" Vexen asked, smashing the encased-in-ice Pooler with his shield. That shattered the ice, and did a decent amount of damage to the Pooler.

"She's part of Hollow Bastion's Restoration Committee," Ienzo answered, directing his attention to attacking another Pooler. "But… I suppose you weren't around here long enough to meet any of them."

"I don't believe I was," Vexen agreed. He dealt another blow to the Pooler he was dealing with, killing it. They didn't appear to be very strong; no stronger than your average Heartless, anyway. Why exactly were they a—ah. He had made to attack a different Pooler, only to have it sink into the ground like a Shadow would, easily avoiding the attack. That could definitely be frustrating, if they did it frequently.

Still, with the rate Ienzo was attacking them—that appeared to be an attack stolen from Axel…—Vexen was lead to believe they could be very bothersome. He quickly stopped focusing on analyzing them, though, and went back to attacking. Attacking needed to be his first priority. If he could not attack and analyze at the same time, then he needed to stop analyzing.

He swung his shield at the nearest Heartless—another Pooler, though he could see a few Mega-Shadows starting to appear—hitting it one, two, three times. The attack was a familiar pattern, and without giving it much thought, he caused an icicle to shoot up from the ground below the Heartless, sending it into the air. He stared at it for a second, before trapping it in a block of ice. The weight of the ice caused it to crash to the ground; the impact killed it.

"And you said you couldn't fight," Ienzo called.

Vexen rolled his eyes. "Heartless are completely different than Replicas who are Programmed to fight and fight well," he said, throwing a glance at Ienzo. Ienzo was in the middle of mimicking the attack Vexen had just preformed. Vexen couldn't help but chuckle. "Stealing my attacks, too, now?"

"What do you want me to do?" Ienzo replied. "Besides, it looked effective."

Vexen couldn't argue with that. He returned his attention to battle, attacking a Mega-Shadow that was nipping at his heels. It was only two shield bashes before it was dead. He took a glance around the area, surveying what Heartless they were up against, and how many of them there were. There wasn't a terrible amount of Heartless, and most of them appeared to be Poolers. The only other Heartless around were the Mega-Shadows he noticed earlier, and now a few regular Shadows. All Pureblood, he realized, finding it amusing. It wasn't every day—

Wait a minute.

All Pureblood.

That meant…

"The DCP," he breathed, eyes going wide in horror.

"Really?" Ienzo asked.

"What?" Vexen stared. It was a good thing that most of the Poolers were gone by now and the rest of the Heartless in the area were basically harmless, because he had stopped paying them any attention.

"Do you know how long it took me to figure that out? I mean, granted, it was only a couple of minutes once I really started thinking about it, but you come to that conclusion in four seconds flat?"

"And?" Vexen couldn't see what the problem was. Was Ienzo honestly upset that he had figured it out this quickly? "It was a bit obvious when I took the matter of Pureblood Heartless into account—" Wait. He was getting sidetracked. "That is beside the point, Ienzo! This is not a minor darkness problem!"

"I realize that—" Ienzo began.

"You said you were only having minor darkness problems!"

"Yes, Vexen, I know what I said," Ienzo sighed. "I didn't want to worry you, alright? We have it handled."

"Are you sure? Because, if you need—"

"Vexen," Ienzo interrupted. "Can we worry about the Heartless for now, and then continue this discussion later?"

"Yes, yes of course," Vexen said, though Ienzo had already directed his attention back to killing Heartless. Using an attack that was most certainly was stolen from Lexaeus, he destroyed all the Heartless in his proximity.

Vexen watched, thinking he should probably use a large attack that would kill multiple Heartless, too. But did he know any attacks like that? It was hard to think when his mind was reeling with sudden worries about the DCP. Why hadn't he remembered it sooner? Now that he'd realized what was happening, he could taste the building darkness in the air. It shouldn't have taken him until he noticed that all the Heartless were Pureblood for him to remember about the DCP.

But, more importantly, why had Ienzo not mentioned it? And then write it off as nothing once it came up?

He said he didn't want to worry me…

But why wouldn't he want to worry me?

Do I worry that much?

Besides, I could help!

A different thought occurred to him, then, and he frowned.

Does he not want my help…?

Ienzo's actions almost made it seem that way. He'd written all darkness problems off as nothing the moment they came up, and then quickly directed the conversation in a different direction when Vexen brought the DCP up. If Ienzo only was avoiding it to avoid worrying him, then Vexen supposed it was understandable. But one could think that he was avoiding it for other reasons…

You're being ridiculous, Vexen!

Ienzo probably just directed his attention back to the Heartless so quickly because they are a threat. An admittedly small threat, at the moment, but a threat nonetheless. It would be logical to take care of them first, and not argue about—

Why did I just use the word 'argue'?

Were we arguing?

Vexen's foot slipped, suddenly, distracting him from his thoughts. He quickly moved before the pool of darkness forming beneath him could grow large enough to consume him. Heartless. He needed to focus on the Heartless. He couldn't just stand here and lose himself in his thoughts.

He located the Pooler that had attacked him, and sent and icicle at it. The icicle somehow did enough damage to kill it. Deciding not to question it, he turned his attention to the rest of the Heartless.

Now: what had he been planning on doing? He'd been planning on doing something before he'd been distracted with his thoughts. Oh, that's right! A large attack. He needed a large attack; one that would harm multiple Heartless at once. He knew one of those… he had to… aha!

He focused his energy into the ground, causing icicles to sprout up and trail about the area. The smaller Heartless died the moment the ice touched them; all except one who'd decided to sink into the ground and make itself invulnerable. On the larger Heartless, the attack wasn't quite as effective: damage was done, but none of them died. Thankfully, Ienzo unleashed another of Lexaeus' attacks, and it finished the job.

Vexen took another glance around the area. All the Heartless were gone. Well, all except that one Shadow, who now pulled itself up out of the ground. Ienzo mimicked the Poolers' main attack and formed a pool of darkness under it, sending it away. Vexen doubted it was gone for good, but at least it was gone for now.

He turned to Ienzo, banishing his shield. "Are you sure you don't need my help?" he asked. "Because, if you do, I can stay here…"

"Vexen, we have it handled, I promise," Ienzo said, firmly, closing his lexicon.

"I'm serious, though," Vexen said. "They won't miss me in the other universe. In fact, Riku'd probably be happier if I was gone. In fact—"

"Vexen," Ienzo interrupted. "Do you want to help that badly?"

"Well," Vexen faltered. "I just—"

He paused, as a pair of arms was thrown around his waist. He slowly glanced down to find that Joseph was clinging to him.

"You can't go!" Joseph cried, and then paused. "I mean, you can't stay here! I'd miss you too much!"

"Joseph," Vexen began, but Joseph wouldn't listen.

"You're the only one who likes to talk to me! I mean, yeah, I've got Toby to hang out with now, but I can't ask him questions about stuff! You're the only one who I can ask questions! 29's gotten tired of answering my questions, and even when he does answer, his answers aren't nearly as much fun as yours."

"Now, Joseph," Vexen tried. It was no use.

"Besides, Vexen," Joseph said. "We need you!"

"Now, that's not true," Vexen said, gently prying Joseph off of him. "I'm sure the Rebellion would do just fine without me."

"Nuh-uh!" Joseph insisted. "We could use all the help we could get. And I'd miss you!"

Vexen turned to Ienzo.

"I'm sorry, Vexen," he said. "But it seems I have no say in this. You can't stay here. Joseph would miss you too much."

Vexen didn't fail to notice the slight smirk on Ienzo's face as he said this. He turned back to Joseph.

"Shouldn't you have gone home already?" he asked, at a loss of what else to do.

Joseph grimaced, paling slightly. "Well… it's… only been five minutes!" he said, quickly. "I mean, I'm pushing it, but I might still be able to get back before 29 notices!"

Vexen snorted. 29 would've noticed regardless of when Joseph returned, despite what Joseph claimed. "I'm not covering for you," he informed Joseph, plainly. "This is your mess to deal with."

Joseph sighed dramatically. "I know…"

Vexen turned to Ienzo. "I suppose I should see Joseph home," he said, "before he gets himself into any more trouble with 29."

"So, goodbye, then?" Ienzo said, raising his eyebrows.

Vexen shrugged.

"Oh don't worry!" Joseph punched Vexen in the arm. "You can come see Ienzo whenever you want! Or he could come to our universe! Though… I don't think he'd like it very much in our universe…" Joseph frowned. "There's a lot of crud going on over there."

"Joseph!" Vexen scolded.

"What? I only said 'crud'!" He was silent for a moment, before adding: "Don't tell 29… kay?"

Vexen and Ienzo laughed.

"Come on, Joseph," Vexen said. "Let's go."

Joseph nodded and formed a dark corridor. "Bye Ienzo!" he called, darting through.

"Goodbye, Joseph," Ienzo called. He nodded at Vexen. "So will you be coming back?"

"Another time, I might," Vexen said. "But, for now; goodbye, Ienzo."

"Goodbye, Vexen," Ienzo said. He raised his hand in a partial wave, and smiled. "Keep out Joseph out of trouble, will you?"

Vexen laughed. "I can't make any promises, there!" He started through the dark corridor, but paused. "You be careful, alright?"

Ienzo rolled his eyes. "I'll be fine, Vexen. Stop worrying so much."

Unable to think of anything to say in response, Vexen stepped through the dark corridor.