Author's Note: Hey look! More crossover! Woo! Enjoy!

"On it," Riku said, getting up.

Namine looked up at him and smiled.

"Do we want to wait for him?" he asked, smirking a little.

She shrugged.

He ended up waiting until Riku had returned with Namine's sketchbook. And Namine was intently into a drawing a Vexen Replica fending a Larxene Replica off with his shield before he started talking again.

"So how many Larxene Replicas are left?" Riku asked after a bit. "It would seem you've killed most of them."

He stopped for a bit, thinking. "I've killed… seventeen Larxene Replicas." He nodded, confirming that statement. "Amaryllis has killed some and Axel's killed a couple. So that leaves nine of them. Unfortunately, L is one of them." He growled and shook his head.

Namine was in the middle of drawing another Vexen Replica behind the first one. He was attacking with ice.

"Hey, is that in The World that Never Was?" he asked, sort of looking over her shoulder.

She frowned. She didn't like people looking over her shoulder. But she let Riku do it. But… She shook her head to clear it. He had asked a question.

"It's the Round Room," Riku said. "That's what they call it. I think it's otherwise known as the Place Where Nothing Gathers."

"Huh, when was there… nuh-uh! Is that Vexen?"

Namine blinked, staring at the picture. "Um, perhaps?"

"Yeah, because that's L."

"How can you tell?" Sora asked.

"That's the worst scowl on any Larxene Replica I've ever seen. That automatically makes it L. Bet that's 37. Vexen did say he got caught and Xemnas might be looking for him… How is it that you can do that?" he asked. "I didn't say anything about that."

Namine shrugged, shaking her head.

"Say what about Vexen?" Kairi was the one to ask this time.

"Oh, apparently while I was away in Hollow Bastion for a week to do an experiment for Namine's meltdowns…"

Meltdowns? As in… Namine had a fairly good idea what those were. They weren't good. Why was he…? She chided herself for stopping listening.

"…and L and 37, who are basically just a set and it's disgusting, find him and drag him to Xemnas and insist that he's from a parallel universe."

"That can't be good," Riku said.

He shrugged. "It's not really my problem."

"Meltdowns…?" Namine said, finally, her mouth catching up to her brain. Goodness, she was slow this afternoon.

"Uh…" he scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah. I don't really want to talk about them. We're working on fixing them. It's fine."

"Isn't that when someone remembers a lot of things at once?" Sora asked.

"You could put it that way," he said gruffly.

Namine was already drawing. She already knew that his Namine didn't have the memories to become a meltdown. Sure, she had memories, just not the…

Halfway through her picture, she started drawing another on top of it. And then another. And then another. The pictures crowded in her head, all on top of each other. There was no way she was going to be able to draw them all out.

They were his memories that she was forced to live through.

Namine gasped. She slammed the pencil down and slid the sketchbook off her lap.

Everyone was looking at her.

"Namine…?" Riku began.

He didn't look too thrilled either.

"That's awful. What she must go through… I… I can't even…"

He looked at her sketchbook and winced.

"Why would you try to draw that?" he asked, frowning.

"I didn't try. It just happened. Hang on a second…"

She racked her brain for everything she knew about memories. What would cause them. What were the factors. The memories themselves were clearly not stable… especially since…

"Unstable memories," she whispered. And they were her fault.

But could she fix them? Perhaps? Would it even matter? He seemed to be fine. It was his Namine that was having the meltdowns…

"Maybe I could fix them," she said, her voice louder now. She looked at him. "I'd understand if you didn't want me meddling anymore, especially after all I've already done. But if I could get a look at her memory bank, I might be able to repair or make up for whatever's causing them. Program aside."

Her last words brought a smirk to her own face. Sometimes she prided herself on the things she could do without the Replica Programs. Fixing Sora and Roxas? The brunt of that had been her. She'd been learning to take pride in her work when it was for something good.

She expected him to say no. That he didn't want her meddling. That he was fine living separate lives or something like that.

Except, he actually seemed to be considering it.

"Hmm, well, we're going to run one more experiment in Hollow Bastion when I get back. We're going to test to see if getting her out of Castle Oblivion does anything." A scowl crossed his face and he cringed. But he didn't say anything about that, rather he continued. "If it doesn't though, maybe I'll take you up on that offer. It'll be up to her though, too."

"Of course," she replied.

"Besides, everything's a little crazy right now anyway. What with the Vexen and Xemnas thing, and there's something going on with Roxas, plus there's the usual Rebellion stuff…"

"What about Sora?" Kairi asked.

Of course Kairi would ask.

If Namine remembered correctly, Sora hadn't been doing too hot the last time they were there.

"Uh," he said, scratching his head. "I haven't seen him in a while. I think he's doing better as far as his darkness is concerned. I honestly don't know. Sorry."

"That's okay," Kairi said, shrugging. "I was just curious."

"What was that bit about Roxas?" Riku asked.

"Oh, well, so he got killed before the Rebellion started. It might have been what started it, actually. No, that was definitely the Program going to Saix. But Roxas got killed right in there. Except, apparently they found a way to bring him back. Axel was behind it, I think."

"Makes sense," Sora said. "They're friends."

"But to just rebuild a Replica…" Riku mused.

"Yeah, right?" he said. "I'm not sure what I think of it either. He's kind of puppet-ish and I don't really like him."

Namine shuddered at the word "puppet." She also saw the irony of him using the word.

"Well," Sora said. "I hope everything works out…"

xx

Vexen, who had, of course, been watching the entire scene, was currently scribbling down notes hastily. This experiment had two functions: one, to see how Riku would interact with the original Namine, based on his observations with the Namine Replica. His findings were certainly interesting so far. Then, it was also to see if the Namine Replica had a meltdown while Riku was away. Surely if she did, Riku could not be the cause of them, correct? He was in a different universe!

They were just talking about the Rebuilding of Roxas when he was interrupted by a Keyblade being poked into his side.

"What are you doing here?" a boy with blond spikey hair and blue eyes asked. Vexen took a startled step back, vaguely recognizing the actual Roxas, though he knew full-well what he looked like. However, he wasn't able to back up very far, because there was yet another Keyblade being poked into his other side.

He turned around as best as he could and tried to figure out who exactly it was he was looking at. She looked familiar—she looked a lot like Kairi, actually. She had black hair, and eyes that looked an awful lot like Sora's…

He could also tell from the looks of her, that she was a Replica.

"Wait a second," he said, pausing. "You're Replica Number 43!"

The girl, Xion, raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?" she said.

"She's got a name!" Roxas growled. "It's Xion!"

"You're… you're alive!" Vexen exclaimed.

"Obviously," Xion said, her Keyblade inching closer to Vexen's chest. "You didn't answer his question. What are you doing here?"

"I'm conducting an experiment…"

"Aren't all of you?" Roxas asked. "Which one… oh…"

He began to lower his Keyblade. Xion kept hers pointing at his chest. "What is it?" she asked.

"This is Vexen," Roxas said.

"Be specific," Xion said. "There are… oh…" She lowered her Keyblade as well. "You're the Original one. Though, can we trust you?" As she said that, she raised her Keyblade once again.

"I dunno," Roxas said. "He did disappear for nearly a year."

"I never wanted to work for Xehanort, if that's what you're getting at," Vexen spluttered.

"That still doesn't explain what you're doing here," Xion said. "And why now?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Vexen said.

"If you knew the life I lived, you'd understand that I'd believe just about anything," Roxas said.

"Well, I was in another universe for that time period…" Vexen paused, something dawning on him. "Has it really been almost a year?"

"Well, that's the estimate we get from your Replicas," Xion said. "Based on when you left and all."

Vexen's eyes lit up. "How many of them are still around?"

"Too many to count," Roxas replied.

Vexen beamed.

"Man you are weird," Xion said. "Axel wasn't kidding."

Vexen shuddered, as he was apt to do anytime Axel was mentioned. "Is… he around?" Vexen asked.

"Axel?" Roxas said. "No, last I checked he was trying to get Kuin to go on a date with him."

Xion snorted. "She'll never say yes."

"We're getting off-subject," Roxas said. "You were in another universe?"

Vexen nodded.

"I don't want to know," Xion said, putting up a hand. "I just want to know why he's here, now."

Vexen hesitantly pointed at the Riku Replica, sitting with the Real Riku, the Real Namine, Sora and Kairi.

"Why are there two Rikus?" Roxas asked.

"The one in the middle is a Replica," Xion said.

Roxas looked at her, a puzzled expression on his face.

"How do you figure?"

"He's the Riku Replica that Vexen made," Xion said. "I saw his project file when I was looking up stuff about my past."

"You hacked my computer?" Vexen asked.

"You didn't make it hard," Xion muttered. "Your passwords all had the word 'replica' in them. Well, except the one that was 'scienceiscoolxiii'."

Roxas laughed.

"Anyway, so that's the Riku Replica," Xion said. "And I'm assuming you brought him here for some dumb reason?"

Vexen puffed out his chest. "I'm running an experiment to see…"

"And suddenly, I don't care," Roxas interrupted.

"You hang around Axel too much," Xion muttered.

"You're no better," Roxas argued.

Vexen started to sneak away from the pair, but he was met with two Keyblades in his back.

"Really?" he groaned. "This isn't necessary."

"You still haven't answered why you are here!" Xion pressed.

"I told you before, I'm conducting an experiment," Vexen said, pointing yet again to the Riku Replica sitting among the others.

"And I'm thinking we conduct an experiment of our own," Roxas said, looking between Vexen and the group sitting along the beach.

He caught eye with Xion and she nodded eagerly.

Roxas hooked one arm around one of Vexen's. Xion followed suit with the other arm.

"This should be interesting," Roxas said as the two of them began dragging him towards the others.

"What!?" Vexen said. "Why are you doing this?! You're interrupting my research!"

"No, we're just doing a bit of our own," Xion said.

She and Roxas shoved Vexen to where he landed (on his face) right in front of the Riku Replica.

"Hey, everybody," Xion said. "Look what we found!"