Chapter 77, guys! The first thing you might notice is it's a LOT shorter than my other chapters. This is because of a few things. One, because I'm an evil sadistic bitch and felt like ending it where I did; and two, because I had to get this chapter done before Thursday. On Thursday I'm going on vacation and won't have internet while I'm there. And I start working full-time when I get back. Hence - the shorter update.

And besides... I had to at least get them back together in this chapter. ;)

Enjoy. As I know you will.

Sora dragged himself out of his room only because of the tantalizing smell of bacon teasing his senses. Not an hour before he'd woken up feeling distinctively like a Heartless had formed behind his eyes for the express purpose of trying to claw them out. Naturally, he had cast a healing spell on himself first, but the magic was still tangling with the Heartless in his skull and so had done little more than dull some of the pain from yesterday's wounds.

As it turned out, thinking about yesterday proved an immense mistake. Every step he took down the hall toward the Gummi ship's main room marked a renewal in his headache. In spite of that, he found himself mentally sweeping over everything that had happened: maybe-Riku's appearance; stopping Jafar; finding Axel; grappling with Roxas' presence about what to feel toward the pyro…

Above all, though, the memory of Axel telling them to go Twilight Town floated up and drove the dullest spike of all into his skull.

Twilight Town, Sora told himself wearily, before he could wonder why exactly Axel had picked now to give them some sort of hint. Before he could wonder why, exactly, the light at the end of the tunnel remained fuzzy and dim when it should have almost blinded him with hope.

Because he knew why. It was because even if he found Riku and Kairi, one more friend would still remain lost to him.

And yet even though frustration gave his headache an extra pang, he couldn't curse Char for causing it. Partly because of his feelings for her, and partly because his migraine would get so much worse.

He felt a rueful smile twitch at his cheeks. Before meeting her, he would have narrowed his focus to the light at the end of the tunnel and thought only of what it would feel like to see Riku and Kairi again. Of the sensations of his island he could only just remember, like the sand under his toes or salt sticking to his skin.

One final step brought him to the main room. True to his senses, the scent of cooking bacon emanated strongly, but another smell became clear as well. A plate of biscuits lay on the table. Donald sat in the chair already, one feathered hand already reaching for a biscuit, while Goofy was stooped over the pan on the sizzling stove.

Watching the two of them, true to their respective impatience and domesticity, Sora felt his breath stutter on the way out of his lungs. He'd gotten so close to losing them yesterday that just the notion of acting like they hadn't almost died seemed strange.

His hunger chose that moment to intervene before he could get too sentimental. Reminded of why he had crawled out of bed in the first place, Sora moved to sit down next to Donald.

"Morning, Sora," Donald greeted him. "I guess you smelled the food cooking, huh?"

At Sora's nod, the duck went on with a wry smirk. "Goofy thought it would get you out of bed. Guess he was right after all."

The smile twitching at Sora's own lips fell away in favor of mild indignation. "Goofy!" he protested. In response, the lanky shape hunched over the stove tensed sheepishly.

Once Goofy had finished the second half of their breakfast, the trio gathered at the table and ate. Only when the hunger in his belly faded slightly did Sora surface from his food long enough to take in the empty chair, where Char would sit and comment on their bottomless stomachs. His chewing the bite of biscuit he had just taken grew slightly lax in its assault as he looked at the Char-shaped vacancy.

Over the last few days, he had never really registered her absence like this before, even though the lack of female commentary, the dry remarks that took up residence in his thoughts instead, had been palpable. What with Sora hastening his search for his friends, though, the group hadn't had much of a chance to calm down long enough for an actual meal.

He glanced over at the plate of food on the table. Goofy was reaching forward for another piece of bacon and didn't seem to notice his leader's turmoil, so caught up was he in his meal. Sora found himself a little glad for that; gods only knew how much he had worried the two of them right after Char had gone missing. Just remembering his limp resolve and half-hearted battles made him flinch inwardly.

"You didn't put as much food as usual," he remarked before he could stop himself.

Goofy swallowed his mouthful and spoke. Sora's comment had sounded almost accusatory, but the knight's response sounded calm. "Well, since Char ain't here, I just put enough for the three of us." He shrugged, though he didn't meet Sora's eyes as he did so.

For once, Donald was the one glancing from one ally to the other, eyes huge with uncertainty. "Sora," he began.

"Guys, you gotta see this!"

The voice, hoarse and eager, floated up from the Gummi ship's console. Startled, Donald almost jolted off his chair, but managed to grab the table's edge to keep from completing a humiliating journey to the floor. "What is it?" he demanded.

"Just come look," the same chipmunk – Dale, judging by his raspy timbre – urged.

"It's something you'll wanna see," Chip added, just as enthusiastically as his fellow copilot.

Something you'll want to see… For a moment, hope stirred anew in Sora's heart; the last time Chip and Dale had called the trio over, a faint signal had thrummed at the very edges of the ship's detection system, and he'd thought it was the Organization's world beginning to appear at last. It was a long shot, but maybe that signal had swum from the edges into full visibility.

Maybe they wouldn't need Axel's hint after all.

He stood, almost shoving his chair to the floor in his haste to reach the console and look at the map. A couple of strides brought him over to peer at the screen. Behind him, Donald and Goofy followed less eagerly; the duck leaped up onto the pilot's seat so his height wouldn't hinder him, while the dog looked in on Sora's other side.

As his gaze swept over the globe-like renditions of the worlds, he tapped his fingers uneasily against where the console sloped down into the screen. At first the map seemed just as frustratingly still as ever, from Port Royal's pirate ship to the austere towers in Beast's miniature castle. Nothing had changed much from the last time Sora had seen it, except the undulating, translucent green waves of the entity Chip and Dale had picked up. The maybe-Organization's world.

Then another flurry of movement caught Sora's eye, and he found its source at the castle packed within Hollow Bastion's globe.

"It's… sparking?" Donald spoke the Keybearer's confused thoughts.

"It's not covered in darkness like last time," Chip said, "but maybe it could be some kinda clue?"

Sora cocked his head to the side and leaned away from the console. "But Axel told us to go to Twilight Town."

"Axel?" Dale blinked. "Isn't that one of those Organization fellas?"

Before Sora could even begin to wonder why the chipmunks knew Axel's identity, an audible gulp was heard from next to him. "I told 'em what happened," Goofy explained, a little shamefully. "Right after you went to bed, Sora."

"Oh," was all he could say. They had gotten back to the Gummi ship late last night; Sora couldn't remember the exact time, even though he had glanced at the clock after Donald's magic had rearranged his cells into something less feline. The clock's arrows had wavered blearily in his exhausted vision, and soreness had plagued his entire body, so he had opted to use his last bit of mental energy on dragging himself to bed. It had never occurred to him that Donald and Goofy hadn't done the same thing.

Then again, after yesterday, I shouldn't have been able to sleep either.

"Anyway, why should you trust a guy like that?" Dale went on. He was clearly attempting to steer the conversation in a way that would renew Sora's determination, but he was much clumsier at that than steering a ship. His bright red nose wrinkled in distaste and he put his tiny paws on his hips. "He's one of those Nobodies!"

"He might just be luring you into a trap," Chip added, dark eyes were huge with concern.

Sora sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I thought about that a lot yesterday," he admitted. "But… I don't know why he would lie to us at this point."

On either side of him, Donald and Goofy exchanged glances. Their doubts connected and clashed over the console, but Sora thought he knew their source. He narrowed his eyes, fingers curling into a fist; it wasn't Roxas that made him… not so much trust Axel, as believe in him.

Or want to.

"Either way, we can't just let Hollow Bastion sit like this." Donald gestured at the screen, which was bright with neon blue fireworks streaming into the green backdrop.

Neon blue. Why did that color make something inside him twitch?

He shook the feeling away, trying to ignore the distinct sensation crawling along his spine, and nodded. "We can at least ask Leon about what's been going on."

Char had never been so aware of how much she hated the word goodbye until she was faced, alone, with the finality it held.

When she had traveled with Sora, some sort of emotional block had always lingered in the back of her mind. The knowledge that these people regarded Sora as more of a friend than her had diffused any sort of wistfulness she might have felt at leaving them behind. Now, though, she faced Falcon and Copperhead in front of the former's home.

Somewhere between talking with Riku about the past and waking up the next day, Riku had disentangled himself from her and pulled Copperhead out of bed to meet them here. It had proven a terrible decision in the end, as Falcon and Copperhead were trying even harder not to accidentally graze the other both physically and visually. After Copperhead's story, he was the last person Char wanted to offer a sense of closure to; not even the idiotic nickname and attempts to flirt incensed her as much as what he had done to Falcon.

When she had voiced her objections to Riku, though, he had patiently reminded her that Copperhead had yet to tell them whether he would still help find the machine. Even now, a few minutes after the fact, Char felt embarrassment ripple along her spine at having so easily forgotten one of the things that had held sleep teasingly out of reach.

Apparently, that same insomnia had applied to Copperhead as well. The confidence that bordered on arrogance had vanished, pulling his chin farther away from the sky than normal, and the scythe strapped to his back seemed to have a curving effect on his spine. Even the gaze he fixed on Char was bereft of curiosity: just a dull, near-nonexistent desire to hear what she had to say.

She angled her head to glance over at Riku, who stood just slightly behind her. Even with her head tilted back to properly appraise him, she could see he was watching the other member of their audience.

For once, Falcon wasn't watching him back.

Char drew herself up after a moment of waiting for someone to speak. It only made sense that she had to shatter the silence, since she was bidding farewell to everyone here. Still, she found herself resenting Riku's unwillingness to make this easier on her.

Maybe he's just trying to piss me off one last time. Rueful wryness accentuated the thought and pushed aside the petulant annoyance.

"So," she said in an attempt at brusqueness. "Riku and I were talking last night, and…" It occurred to her then, abruptly, that she hadn't the slightest clue how to phrase her return to Sora. I'm leaving? Leaving the machine to him?

He's taking me home?

The last one seemed the most fitting, a fact that made the rational part of her cringe and writhe out of embarrassment for her emotional side.

Fortunately, Riku chose that moment to intervene. "She has somewhere else to be," he explained. A weight descended lightly on one shoulder, its physicality replacing the metaphorical one that Riku had just lifted. Char prayed that the fingertips grazing her collarbone couldn't feel her shoulders twitching in a muffled sigh of relief.

"What he said," she added, nodding in his direction.

"I thought she had to be here to help find the machine," Falcon said. Char blinked; out of the two world natives, she had expected Copperhead to be the one who spoke up. Admittedly, Falcon's unspoken query resonated with feigned, dutiful curiosity, with an undercurrent of muted defiance.

Riku sighed, his hand slipping off Char's shoulder. The redhead maintained steady eye contact with Falcon, even though she knew all too well that her emotions were justified. "I did too, at first. But we're in the exact same situation we would've been if I hadn't dragged her out here."

He trailed off then, and Char heard a frustrated breath puff out just over her head. Even after the month-long separation, stretching in a Sora-shaped chasm between what they thought they knew of each other, her memory placed earlier occurrences of that sound immediately. She had heard it on the days she found him standing in front of Sora's pod, watching his best friend sleep so dreamlessly and blissfully; she had heard it in the World That Never Was, right after Xehanort's Heartless had replaced the boy she knew; she had heard it when Ansem, wrapped in a disguise as well, had laughed and denounced Roxas' eventual disappearance as a Nobody's sole fate.

She heard it when the situation lay far beyond Riku's knowledge and composure, when he had no idea what to say or do next.

Because of that, when she took it upon herself to control the conversation again, much less reluctance marked the action than before.

"Let's just say I have someone who needs me," she said. "And who I need right back."

Falcon didn't look satisfied with that response, but to her credit she didn't pry into it. She just let her hand flutter down limply at her side and stared down at the ground, as though finding days when she had thought the same way in the grass beneath her feet.

As though the desire to speak had left Falcon and seeped into Copperhead, the latter sighed aloud, and Char almost jumped. Only when the initial surprise faded did she realize just how resigned that one raspy breath sounded.

It sounded like he knew duty should pull him forward, and selfishness shouldn't tug him back as it had when Xemnas had first offered to help bring Dyme – Demyx – back. She suppressed the small shiver at how Demyx's Other factored into all of this; somehow, she had found taking down the Organization much easier when she could see them as the mindless demons who had dragged her away from home.

It was easier when things were as black and white as our revenge. When I could still think of what Master's doing as our problem, instead of just his.

Copperhead folded his arms and looked at her and Riku. Surprisingly, he maintained eye contact rather well; despite the utter defeat lingering on his face, Char swore she saw a flicker of his old confidence there as well.

Consequently, she knew what he had decided to do.

"Well, since Blaze is leaving, I figure I might as well say this now," he said. Char narrowed her eyes sharply at his words; for some reason, she found herself bristling in anticipation of one last attempt from him to flirt.

However, he ignored her budding hostility and continued. "I'm gonna keep helping Riku and Falcon," he announced.

Char's eyes widened. Why are you so surprised? she scolded herself. You knew he would keep helping.

Nonetheless, she felt relief, warm and all-encompassing, spread through her body, a feeling that intensified at his next words. "I figure if I've dragged myself into this, I might as well stick with it to the end."

His explanation stirred something inside her, reached past the serenity of knowing someone could make up for her absence and dragged gentle fingers across a chord inside her heart. It took a few seconds to find the reason why, and when she did, she had to hold back a small, surprised sound.

Because what he said sounded disturbingly similar to what she had told Riku regarding Sora last night.

Beside Copperhead, Falcon had gone rigid. The set of her jaw suggested she was chewing viciously at the inside of her cheek. Char braced herself for an argument against Copperhead's decision, but surprisingly, the dark-haired girl remained silent.

She forced her gaze back to the man, who was eyeing her with a mixture of resolve and hesitation. Like a child waiting for his mother to confirm he could do something. The sight made contempt twitch inside her, before the Sora in her heart put it to rest.

In his own way, Copperhead was trying to give her a sense of closure.

For that, she stepped forward and extended her hand. "Thanks, Copperhead," she said with a smile. "Good to know someone will be taking up the slack while I'm gone."

She forced herself to ignore the twitching shape at the corner of her eye and instead focused on him. It was almost disgusting, how much concern she felt for these two people she had barely known for four days.

At this point, though, maybe only part of that was because of Sora. You can't blame every burst of softness you have on him, she thought, realizing it for the first time.

Copperhead appraised the hand she had offered to him, one eyebrow slightly raised over a violet eye. Char rolled her eyes. "It's a handshake." She couldn't resist adding, "Did you expect a hug?"

"Well, since you're offering…" At her blank stare, his lips perked in a genuine grin. The mask had broken, and it looked like he wasn't going to don it again anytime soon. "I'm just kidding," he laughed, proffering a gloved hand and placing it in hers.

His laughter wasn't a bad sound, she thought to herself.

"Don't even try it, Copperhead," Riku sighed. Throughout the last few minutes, he'd just looked on silently, and so when he relinquished that quietness, Char had to look over at him. He looked like he was trying not to let a smile get the best of him: a sight that, on Xehanort's face, should have rattled her, since a grin from her former fellow apprentice normally set along the contours of a smirk. Now, though, after four days, her mind had finally strung Riku's appearance apart from the boy she had known.

Really, then, it almost hurt that she was leaving him until Sora found him again.

Almost.

I thought you were done fooling yourself.

Shaking the dull ache away, she looked back to Copperhead and lowered her hand. "Just work hard, all right?"

He must have caught up on the briskness in her voice, because he drew himself up and pumped a fist. "Definitely! I am a machine-finding… um… machine!"

Char rolled her eyes at his clumsy enthusiasm. "I'll hold you to that. You know Riku will tell me if you don't pull your own weight."

"It's true," Riku piped up. He sounded teasing enough, but the look he tossed at her had slight dread in it. Gods only knew when they could meet up again.

Copperhead lowered his arm and quirked an eyebrow. "My dear Blaze, you wound me."

You couldn't call me by my name just once? Char left the question unspoken, knowing its low priority.

Every bit of amusement, every remnant of enthusiasm that bantering brought, left her as she turned to Falcon. She could feel dual pairs of amber and violet eyes clashing against her back and felt a wave of defiance crash along with them; no matter how worried Riku and Copperhead were, their continuous staring would make an already-awkward departure even more stilted and formal.

Falcon had kept silent while Copperhead had spoken. Every iota of effort that Char suspected she had exerted to do so showed on her face, in the sharpened edge of her jaw and contours of her fists. Disbelief, fury, desperation all found their marks on her face as well, but Char forced herself to gather all those despondent emotions aside and find something else in the irises where bloodshot streams met. What that something was, she didn't know; sorrow, perhaps, or the tiniest hint that their truce had some genuine reconciliation behind it after all.

Char did know, though, that she had no idea what to say.

Before shame at her reasoning's lack of articulate expression could form, though, Falcon had effectively headed it off at the pass.

Char's vision became enveloped in a black-and-cyan blur just before the smaller shape effectively cannoned into her. The impact had little to no momentum behind it, considering Falcon had stood only a few feet away moments before, but still managed to almost topple Char over.

"It figures that this would happen," Falcon muttered into Char's ear, tightening her arms' grip around her shoulders. "I finally start to like you, and then you have to leave."

Char's eyes widened. She was dimly aware of Copperhead drawing in a sharp breath behind her, and of Riku eyeing them momentarily before turning his head away, almost out of respect.

Like he didn't want to tarnish such a rare display of emotion by staring.

After a few seconds of hesitation, she lifted her arms up and returned the hold.

Char stumbled out of the portal with another shadow close at her heels. Stray bits of ichor clung to her heels, making her shudder and kick out to eradicate the trailing bits of darkness.

She glanced around, only to blink and then laugh under her breath. "What?" Riku asked as he came to stand at her side. A sidelong glance revealed that he had folded his arms, position of his body indicating that he still faced forward. He, too, was looking at the grays and meticulous buildings of the town that widened out from the alley he had placed them in. "You never specified which world you wanted to wait for Sora in."

"So you picked Hollow Bastion?" Char tilted her head to give him a bemused stare. His decision baffled her; for all he knew, she was still wallowing in misery about every bittersweet memory this place held.

He didn't even know that anathema had transferred to Twilight Town. Gods, could she ever find a true home without coming to loathe it eventually?

For some reason, the notion of Destiny Islands flitted across her mind before her better judgment tamped out the budding fire of uncertainty it might have brought.

"Look, I'm sorry about everything that happened here." Even without looking at him properly, she could hear the latent vitriol sharpening every word. She could understand that; this was where he had fought Sora and almost killed him. Him and Kairi both.

"But Sora would have to come here anyway." That only increased Char's confusion, especially when his composure returned long enough to steady his voice into firm certainty. Surprised into actually looking at him, she cocked her head to the side.

"Because?" she prompted.

Riku turned his head to meet her gaze. "Because he needs to find a way into the Organization's world. I would go there myself and wait for him, but I need to find the machine first."

"So he's gonna have to talk to Merlin about the best way to go," Char assumed. She sat back on the balls of her feet and uttered a dry sigh, distressed fingers coming up to massage her temples. Her most vivid memory of the old wizard floated up, acrimonious in its tang and cringe-inducing in nature; he had offered his magic to the group, and she had laughed at him.

Geez, I was bad back then.

Riku nodded, amber eyes dark as they rested on her. She met his eyes fairly evenly, only for her confusion to return at his next words. "Looks like you're gonna have to carry out the last part of your promise after all."

It took her mind a few shameful moments to attune itself to his meaning. Once it did, though, she could only mutter a paltry "oh yeah" and stare down at the ground. Even after a year away, even in this obscure alley between Merlin's home and the house next door, the gray concrete underfoot was so damnably familiar.

The last part of her promise had involved taking Sora to the World That Never Was and using him to enact the last part of her – Ansem's – revenge. While her intentions had completely changed, the end result was the same.

"Well," she said, hating how gruff her voice sounded, "I should get going."

And, she couldn't help thinking as she studied Riku – not Xehanort – the end result here had been the same, too. In the end, she had to say goodbye to someone she cared about.

Goodbye. She really hated that word.

Seeming to sense her thoughts, Riku opened his arms, just as he had on that day a month ago. When she had trod the line between knowing that powerful pull toward him existed, and having the emotional courage to string the word love to it.

Before she had strung that four-letter symbol of salvation and damnation alike to someone else entirely.

She had to perch herself on her tiptoes in order to make the hug a proper one, but the embrace was still as warm and familiar as the days she had crept into his room in search of nightmares' relief.

"Don't break his heart," Riku whispered into her ear.

She let out a trembling chuckle. After all this, Sora's welfare was still what he worried for the most. "Don't worry," she murmured back.

He stepped back, arms returning to their safe place across his chest almost the instant they released her. "I'll see you later," he said.

Even after the dark portal disappeared, she found herself staring at where he had been for a few more seconds. It figured, she mused; the instant one burden had lifted from her heart, another one replaced it. The same thing had happened with her nostalgia. It had transferred from this place, its monochromatic gray and broken towers, to Twilight Town with its beige buildings and eternal skies.

In the vein she had come to know well, her concern for Sora had wound its way back around to Riku. Not just him – Falcon and Copperhead, too.

Honestly, it almost made her wonder if she would ever know happiness again.

Uncertain and dark as the future seemed, though, she knew her priority lay with Sora, undue emotions or not.

She took a deep breath and made as if to step out of the alley, only to jolt in her tracks as multiple globules of darkness materialized in front of her. Unlike the shadows she had just emerged from minutes before, every trailing tendril disappeared at once.

Immediately, her swords were in her grasp and she charged forward, flinging all her strength into one side and bringing that sword down on one sphere. The vaguest silhouette of a Heartless had just revealed itself when she made contact, and it bounced backward on two legs.

Then the Heartless' true forms made themselves clear. Shocked into lowering her sword, she could only stare in shock. "Heartless from the virtual world?" she whispered. But Tron beat back the MCP!

Yellow light suddenly throbbed at the center of her vision as one of them lunged. It thrust one sparking mitt toward her, swallowing her vision in electricity; she remembered a man declaring himself as a Heartless commander and Donald and Goofy howling in pain with every ounce of voltage pumped into them.

Narrowing her eyes, she ducked out of the way. The glowing fist swung harmlessly over her head, with little more than heat emanating from tiny yellow claws marking its path. Unfortunately, one of the Heartless' fellows chose that moment to move forward as well.

The wall, get your back away from the wall or they'll overrun you, and she swung her entire body to dodge behind the Heartless, making sure to drive the tip of one blade into one of them as she swept past. It writhed at the impact before falling back and taking a droid at its back down as well.

Something lit the corners of her vision, and she whirled, swords at the ready. Pedestals of light were ascending and descending rapidly and making the gray concrete simmer; Char nearly coined it one of the MCP's tricks before her mind caught up to her paranoia and told her it was the defense mechanism. She allowed herself to relax a bit, even as she forced a Heartless back with both swords at once; maybe she could get some help now –

But wariness caught up and told her something was wrong. The pedestals flickered and glowed a fiery orange, and where the top circle should have been an orb sat, swirls of equally orange light dancing in its depths.

Moreover, instead of converging on the enemies, they were following her.

"Watch out!" a feminine voice shouted from behind her. Footsteps tapped rapidly and, with little more warning than that, heralded a sudden push at the center of Char's spine. By little more than the grace of good balance she managed to avoid flying back into the wall, although she did knock her uninjured shoulder into it.

She barely held in a hissed curse and spun around, not knowing whether to glare at or thank her savior. What she saw instead made her eyes widen: a dark-clad, dark-haired shape, dancing expertly around the manipulated defense mechanism's every strike.

Dark outfit, dark hair – her mind immediately attached it to Falcon before the lack of translucent blue Keyblade decidedly proved her wrong. She watched while her savior vanished in a puff of smoke and reappeared just behind a Heartless. "Yuffie!" she shouted breathlessly.

The self-proclaimed ninja plunged one star-shaped weapon into a Heartless, pulling her head away from the myriad of sparks that freed themselves from its core. She tugged the weapon away and jumped off her target so she could turn her head. "Yeah, that's me –" Boastfulness died out at once when she saw just who had greeted her. "Char?" she cried. "What are you doing here? Where's Sora?"

That's my line, Char thought dryly. She opened her mouth to say as much, but then one of the Heartless remembered its initial target and moved toward her, fists glimmering that sickly yellow again. Blocking the blow proved easy enough when she crossed her swords, but it didn't decrease the strength of that light in her retinas. She glared, forced to squint, and tried not to think of the last time she had seen light this color.

"I think talking can wait till later," she grunted.

"Yeah, guess you're right." Just like that, Yuffie was back to her normal, boisterous self. She grinned before turning to one droid. "Let's do this!"

With their combined efforts, the Heartless fell that much more quickly. Char delivered one last, fatal blow to her assailant before turning to Yuffie. "So," she began.

Just as she was forming her next words, though, the ninja's arm shot out and she was pulling Char out of the alley. The redhead barked out a surprised "Hey!" but of course that didn't deter Yuffie in the slightest.

In her haste, she nearly clocked Char's skull flinging the door to Merlin's house open. Between dodging the wooden harbinger of death and snarling her indignation, Char saw that nothing had changed since the last time she had been here: from the dinner table to the computer that took up the wall beyond it, and Merlin's desks where he studied magic. Of course not, you were only gone for a few days, she chided herself. At the computer sat Cid, who turned at the sound of the door opening and rasped out a confused sound at both Yuffie's hurry and her burden.

Naturally, Yuffie didn't stop in her tracks until she had tossed Char down onto one of the chairs at the table. When she had recovered from the shockwaves reverberating through her now-bruised tailbone, Char glared up at the infernal grin on Yuffie's face. "I could've gone that way by myself!" she growled.

"Yeah," Yuffie said, "but if you stay in one spot too long, the beams of light all converge on you."

"Not like you didn't learn that the hard way or nothin', right?" Cid rolled his eyes, bracing one elbow on the computer desk as he twisted to face them. Though he addressed Yuffie, his gaze quickly slid to Char. "So. Glad you came back, Char. Thing is, I thought the kid would be with ya."

Char's annoyance at Yuffie – you couldn't have told me before you dragged me off and almost killed me with a door? – petered off instantly at Cid's unspoken question. "You and me both," she muttered, before raising her voice. "We got separated a little farther down the line." In an instant, she decided to keep Riku's location and role in that separation hidden; addictive as the truth could be, sometimes it caused more problems than any fabrication. "I found my way back here. I figured he would come here soon."

"Yeah, well, you saw what's going on outside." Yuffie sighed, falling melodramatically into the chair next to Char's. "The MCP hacked into the town's defense mechanism and he's sending Heartless everywhere again."

"Least that's what Leon thinks," Cid added.

Char sighed. "Not again…" She had figured as much when the Heartless had shown up and the defense mechanism had almost impaled her with fire.

It figures that I get back just in time for something else to screw my home over.

But she wouldn't let that happen again.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Sora breathed. "I thought everything was supposed to be under control here!"

Donald lowered his staff and wiped the sweat off his forehead; the droplets were visible against the orange light of the defense mechanism's pedestals. "There weren't even Heartless like this before the Organization showed up!" he grumbled.

"Don't these look like Heartless from Tron's world?" Goofy asked, tentatively. Once he had finished his question, Sora understood why he sounded so reluctant to mention it. In his mind's eye he could see electricity flickering off bleak walls and a bright blue landscape burning into him.

Donald must have remembered that as well, for he twitched in lieu of agreeing with the knight.

Sora shook his head, trying to shake the feelings of anxiety that had arisen anew at just thinking of his friends in that much pain. "We just need to talk to Merlin," he said. "He'll know what to –"

Suddenly he jolted, a cry of pain and surprise escaping him. Orange light swirled together in his lower vision, lighting the air before searing into him again moments later. Donald shouted the Keybearer's name, only to squawk and barely dodge another pedestal of light and fire.

"What's going on?" Goofy gasped. One pedestal slid over to him as he spoke; the split second before it exploded, he managed to bring up his shield against it. The ensuing fiery blast engulfed his crouching shape in a blinding blaze and left his turtle shell-like weapon with little more than a scorch mark slashing across it.

"I don't know, but we can't hang out here forever –" The last part slanted up as Sora rolled away from a pedestal just in time.

"What the heck are Cid and Merlin doing with the defense mechanism?" Donald demanded.

"It's probably got something to do with those computer Heartless showing up," Sora tossed over his shoulder. He stuffed the Decisive Pumpkin's Keychain into his pocket, fingers shaking as he did so. "Come on, we've gotta go! You're gonna be a roasted duck if this keeps up!"

Never before had the winding path from Hollow Bastion's empty marketplace to the wizard's home seemed so long; then again, before now, only Heartless had dogged them every step of the way. Sora could deal with Heartless, heck, even Nobodies.

The very town's defenses turning against him, though – that, he hated to admit, was something beyond the Keyblade's power.

Reduced to flight, ducking beneath the sparking mitt of every droid Heartless that coalesced in their path, he found himself frequently glancing over his shoulder to check on his friends. The first time confused him, because he only saw a green shield following him; and then one Heartless bounced off it and he decided to turn back around so he wouldn't get electrocuted by a flying droid. It took a few more glances for him to realize Goofy had thrown up his weapon and herded Donald behind it with him.

Within moments, the tapering pathway widened out into what might have, in Hollow Bastion's distant past, served as a courtyard. Sora made a beeline for the familiar house tucked into the courtyard's edge, nearly crashed into it, straightened just in time, and fumbled with the doorknob. What would have been an easy task grew immensely difficult in his haste.

His shoulders hunched, eyebrows drawing over his eyes. Stupid thing… open…!

"Hurry up!" Donald roared behind Goofy's shield, as the pedestals roved about in search of prey.

As fate would have it, just when Sora moved closer to get more traction on the ground, the doorknob suddenly wriggled beneath his fingers. The door swung open.

And as it turned out, he had been leaning against the door more than he had thought.

So, with the absence of that surface to hold him up, he found his center of gravity tilting sharply downward, until he was getting a face full of Merlin's floor.

"Sora?" a high-pitched voice shrilled above his head.

"Hi, Yuffie," he mumbled.

An instant later, something passed over his prone form. Yeah, no, just walk over me; that's okay. He winced when the agony lifted and glanced up at Yuffie. The ninja was staring down at him, dark eyes huge.

Why did it look like something besides bemusement at his unceremonious arrival lurked in her gaze?

Suddenly he realized she still held the door open and the Heartless were still outside. Quickly, he scrambled to his feet and darted the rest of the way inside.

"Good thing we're out of – huh?" Donald's irritated remark cut off at once, and Sora turned to see what exactly had rendered his unfailing acrimony useless.

Every thought flew out of his head as well when he saw just who was there.

Char was half-standing, had risen from her chair in response to his arrival but still gripped the table's edge. He took in her tense stance, the half-slackness of her jaw and the expression on her face.

Almost like something she had longed for finally yielding to satisfaction.

That was probably mirrored on his face as well.

"Hi," Char said, breathlessly.

Sora's brain quickly caught up to him, registered the others looking on: Cid at the computer, with no small amount of amusement twitching at his whiskered cheeks; Yuffie covertly shuffling closer to the edge of the room; Donald staring, with his beak dropped and working uselessly; and Goofy too surprised to speak.

Sora cleared his throat. "Hi."

Just "hi?" he wanted to scream at himself. That's all you have to say to the girl you got depressed over? The girl who pulled you away from Kairi and gave you something else to fight for?

The girl who –

His mental tirade never fully took off. Impulsiveness pushed that aside, just like it had so many times before, and just like so many times before, he found himself moving toward her.

As his arms came around her, hers immediately rose up to meet his embrace and return it.

It was strange. He could have sworn he felt something wet dripping against his collarbone from where their cheeks pressed together.

He gave himself a second to register she was, in fact, crying before his brain shut down and his eyelids followed it in a descent that blocked out everything. The only thing he could concentrate on was feeling, was familiarity and warmth and the sensation of tears of his own threatening to slip free from their self-imposed prisons.

She still smelled like cinnamon.

Finally, made it past his brief wall between himself and her and reality. Finally.

Wow, do a lot of people hug in this chapter. Hug Char, specifically. (I mean, she kind of needs it, but still.)

I really hope this was enough to tide you guys over until I get back. The next chapter will have more action in it, I promise.