Day 58: Cafeteria

[gald_digger]

Anise woke up feeling lucky to be alive. She still felt a bit waterlogged, even though her skin, hair, and clothes were completely dry. During last night's adventures, she'd swallowed a lot of water, and it still felt heavy and disgusting in her stomach. Her arms and legs were tired from treading water. Lying still in her bed, she still kind of

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[scintillatingly]

The morning came as suddenly as all the other times, but Sora's main response to it was to groan and roll over in his bed. He'd gotten further with Kratos and Kairi than he had during some of his other nights recently, but he still wished that they'd seen more, that they'd at least found a few answers for his friend.

On the other hand, none of them had been tempted to take those drugs, so that was the bright side of the whole thing. And now they knew exactly where the medical wing was and they had a lay of the land, so it would be much easier to go back there in the future. And he would take Kairi there as many times as she wanted to in order to figure out what had gone on during those days that she'd been gone.

As Sora sat up from the bed, he realized that he still had both of the girl's presents in his possession. (Well, not right now, since their things were taken during the day, but they'd be back tonight, right?) If they teamed up again tonight, Sora would just have to head over to Kairi's room and drop them off with her before they headed out anywhere.

Other than that, he couldn't help noticing that they were back in the military uniforms. Now that there were no outsiders for the military to pose for, it made sense, but that didn't mean that Sora had to like it. He let out a sigh as he pulled his beret on, hoping that it would stay on better this time around.

As usual, Sora went and left a message for his club members on the bulletin board, finding that the staff was still as polite to him as they'd been before. And, of course, he had access to all of the good food, so it wasn't long before he had a plate of french toast that was drowned in syrup on his tray.

He didn't see any familiar faces among the patients so far, and so he decided to go take a seat on his own. Hopefully whoever had decided to try those drugs last night hadn't suffered too badly...

[For Riku.]

[antiheroed]

While Sora felt that he had gotten farther than he had in some time, Riku realized he felt the same way. The cold rush of morning-the chill, of course, due to the difference in setting between the MRI room's fighting and his sterile room-was not one that he met with disappointment. He was sore from the fight, but he didn't feel tired. It was quite the opposite. Accomplishment was something he could boast about. Not only had he visited the medical wing and taken that drug, but he had something else to show for it.

There were other things to mention that didn't reflect that feeling, but Riku knew that things could only go so far in the institute. He was satisfied as he dragged himself out of bed. That was enough for him. All his time in the institute had led to a lot of feeling of dissatisfaction, so he found it didn't change much to change his tune-or, as much as Riku's tune could change.

That feeling didn't vanish as he pulled on the rest of his uniform, and it definitely didn't as he was guided down toward the cafeteria. Riku's nose wrinkled at the slop handed back to him, but it wasn't that important. He knew his friend was here-possibly both of them, actually-and he had things to share. Being active did some good for him. He recognized it, too.

So when he located Sora, Riku didn't hesitate to join him. There was a pause in his step as he approached him to size him up, and also to be sure he wasn't meeting anyone else. They hadn't planned this, anyway; odds were, knowing Sora, he was waiting for someone else.

But then, who cared if there was someone else? They could make time for his return. It was an oddly arrogant thought for the boy whose thoughts commonly lingered in Darkness, but he allowed it to carry him into sitting across from his friend. Time would only tell if this mood stuck. Spending time with Sora would hopefully not be a test of it-his friend's continued presence was a good thing. Riku needed him there, even if he didn't want him to have to deal with the crap that the place put him up against. But he knew he could handle it.

For now, he offered his typical smirk to his friend as he looked out through his light colored bangs. "Look who's back?" Not his typical greeting, he knew, but he imagined Sora had seen enough of his confidence in the past to recognize something good had happened.

[scintillatingly]

Sora was in the middle of cutting his french toast up into more manageable pieces when he was approached. It took a split second for it all to click in his mind, mainly because the uniform that Riku was wearing looked so completely foreign on him. His mind focused on that trivial fact first, too overwhelmed by the fact that Riku was here to acknowledge the rest.

That all passed just as quickly, though, and Sora was on his feet without realizing why or for what reason. "You... it's really you!" He felt like he'd said that so many times during his time here, and always to Riku. Well, Kairi had come back once, but with Riku it was turning into such a pattern that it would have been funny under any other circumstances.

But no, there was another part of this that made it different from all the other times. Riku... he didn't look confused, his eyes weren't darting around in suspicion (or not as much, anyway) -- he remembered! Just like Kairi had remembered.

Sora couldn't help it. He reached forward and clasped a hand on his friend's shoulder, giving it a hard shake. "Who told you that you could disappear like that?" Even though he was joking, the relief was clear in his tone and on his face. Riku even looked like he was in a good mood, which caused Sora's to shoot up in turn.

"Where've you been?" he continued, knowing that he had to get to the heart of this even if he didn't want to think about it. "Did they keep you in the medical wing all that time, like they did with Kairi?" If that was the case, then Sora might have been right by him last night without knowing it. It was weird to think about!

[antiheroed]

His expression sobered somewhat at the string of questions, because he realized he didn't know. One of the key things to getting his friends out of here was present in that answer, and he didn't have a clue. Then again, he knew that wasn't unique to his situation. It was the only thing that kept him steady, kept him from losing that good spirit he had about all this. That was a question they would have to find the answers to, but maybe not now. Maybe that would be another visit to the medical wing, this time with a focus on their records.

He gave a soft shake of his head. "I don't know. I don't remember." His hand grabbed for a utensil so he could poke at the unrecognisable mass in front of him. What was that smell-or eerie lack of it? For all his predictions before he left, replacing the food didn't figure into being high on his list. And looking across at Sora, he squinted at the sight of his normal food. It spoke to his mood and disposition that it wasn't one of the first things he noticed or paid mind to. But he looked beyond it at the pins Sora collected, as well as the dog tag that hung down. This place had changed.

"But I went there last night. The guy I was with last night said I just missed you. I almost went after you, but ..." Riku shrugged and let it trail off. Maybe this stuff in front of him wouldn't taste as bad as it looked. Instead of saying "you could handle yourself fine," he swallowed the food and turned his head to the side as he met the bland taste. That was worse than some of the things he cooked on his own while trying to bring Sora back. And it wasn't like he had a duck and dog to take care of him.

"So, instead," he pressed on, trying to roll past the taste and the look of displeasure he knew he had, "I got some stuff done over there." Riku decided to exclude the trial for the moment. Since he expected disapproval from his friend for his decision, he decided to leave that for the moment.

[scintillatingly]

Just like Kairi, it sounded like Riku couldn't actually remember anything from the time that he'd been gone. Sora held back a sigh, knowing that he should have expected it and yet being frustrated by it nonetheless. He could have advised his friend to ask one of the staff about where he'd been this whole time, but it wasn't like they could trust them to give a real answer.

Sora hadn't expected to hear that Riku had actually woken up last night. Still, that would explain why he seemed to be at ease this morning, instead of upset and confused. Learning that his friend had actually gone to the medical wing himself, and more than that, with someone who apparently knew Sora... How had he missed all this?

"I was there too, with Kairi and another club member," he said with a frown. How had they not run into each other? Though Sora had to admit that the three of them hadn't gotten that far into the area before night had ended. It was just bizarre to realize that Riku might have been just around a corner and he'd had no idea, couldn't have even imagined it. "Who were you with?"

He didn't really blame Riku for not looking for him, seeing how it was hard to find much of anything at night, let alone a specific person. And he'd tracked him down first thing this morning, too. Man, was Kairi going to be glad to see him!

However, what Riku said next quickly caused Sora's smile to turn into a frown. He'd "gotten stuff done" over there? Even if his friend was being vague about it, Sora already had a guess for what had happened. While he'd been able to warn Kairi to not take those drugs and she'd actually listened to him, he could only imagine the sort of argument he would have gotten into with Riku over it. "You took those drugs, didn't you?"

[antiheroed]

Caught already. He should have figured if anyone could tell that he was hiding something that big, it was Sora. And Riku knew that his friend knew the extent of things he would go through to accomplish something. He didn't bother looking guilty. Instead, he looked away toward the rest of the cafeteria and observed, and for a moment, there was a flicker of Ansem again. He stood next to one of the guards dressed in military garb, and when the guard didn't notice him, Riku finally got his confirmation: he wasn't really there. Ansem wasn't that good at hiding himself.

But he just pocketed this information for now, because there was no need to worry Sora. The corners of his mouth twitched down as he glanced back toward him and studied him. His friend just gave the confirmation that Kairi was still there, so the last bit of worry regarding his friends was swept under the rug. In an ideal world, he knew that he didn't want her there, but it was clear that just leaving this place didn't mean they just went home. "Nothing happened," he told him. "It was all a sham, I bet. Some way of just seeing if we'd do it." Riku knew that wasn't the case, but he wanted to look into it more before he made any solid decisions.

With that explained, he added, "And I was with a guy named Albedo. He's smaller than you, and a lot more annoying. I didn't think it was possible." The jab was necessary to keep his friend from lecturing him about taking those drugs. Being on the receiving end of that lecture didn't seem like fun. He knew what he was doing, and it turned out okay. Some mind trick was something he could deal with.

"But really, it's too bad I didn't run into you guys. It would've been a lot more fun fighting with you than him. He shrieked like a girl at first." It was really laid out there as another distraction, another way to keep Sora from focusing on the unimportant drugs.

[scintillatingly]

Nothing had happened? Sora found that hard to believe, since it wasn't like their captors ever had to find a reason to mess with them. More than that, Soma had mentioned on the bulletin that they should not take those drugs if the offer was ever made again. She hadn't given any more details than that, but Sora could read between the lines enough to know that something bad had probably happened.

Which either meant that Riku was lying or that the side effects hadn't kicked in yet. "Are you sure? I mean, either way they know that you took it, which might mean that they'll single you out later." Sora didn't like that idea at all, especially since the institute had tampered with his friend so many times already. With how often Riku had disappeared, he really should have taken better care of himself. Still, Riku didn't remember most of those times, so it was no surprise that he was being reckless. "Just... try to be more careful, okay?"

Albedo was definitely a name that he recognized, even if he'd only interacted with the boy once. He was still a big mystery to Sora, though hearing Riku's opinion about him only added to the confusion. Albedo had been pretty calm when they'd talked, so to then be told that he was annoying -- maybe it was all the fault of the sedation, that time? Or his mood. Then again, Riku wasn't the most tolerant of people. Of course, the jab came soon after that, causing the boy to bristle. "Hey! You wouldn't spend so much time with me if I was really that annoying.

"And... you should be careful around him. His brother told me that he was bad news, or... dangerous, or something." If he'd screamed at the sight of a monster, though... It was hard to imagine him being a threat. Then again, it was possible that he'd just been startled.

[antiheroed]

"If they single me out, it gives us an in," Riku explained, deciding to stick with that first off. That was why he wanted to go there in the first place. It didn't have anything to do with exploring, which was a decidedly good thing. The fact that Sora also hit the wing last night took some wind out of his feathers, but not entirely. "That's why I went. If they think I'm obedient, then I can use that to my advantage." And if they just thought he was opportunistic, it provided him with the same chances. He couldn't let go of that.

"But come on, you know I can take care of myself." He delivered it with his typical cocky phrasing, and he even finished off purposefully by shoving another spoonful of slop into his mouth. This time, he didn't even wince. "Albedo was a wimp. He's all talk and nothing else. But he was smart. Not a bad partner to have for the night." That was the extent of the compliments he could pay him. Beyond that, Riku just flat-out didn't like the guy. He didn't even absorb that he was supposed to be dangerous-and in his opinion, he could definitely tell when someone was all talk.

A part of him recognized that he was laying this all on thick, but his confidence was still at hand, and it made it far easier to be cocky about this. He relaxed into place and eyed Sora. There were a lot of questions to ask about the changes, but he realized they shouldn't waste time on them. He could tell from the announcements and his surroundings what had happened. And it was probably a good thing that he wasn't bragging about knowing that was coming, even if the temptation was there.

So he left it alone for now and waited to see what else Sora had to say. Riku figured his friend would give up soon enough on worrying and tell him what he actually needed to know.

[scintillatingly]

Sora could see the point that Riku was making, but that didn't mean he had to like it. It was just like his friend to take a risk like that if it might get him closer to their captors, but Sora didn't want him to shove himself out there all on his own. They were supposed to do this together, after all, and yet Riku always wanted to run ahead and take care of things on his own. He'd avoided him for way longer than he should have during their fight against the Organization, for instance.

"I know you can, but that doesn't mean that you can't ask for help sometimes," he chided his friend, his expression pinched with a frown. He forced himself to take a bite of his food despite the fact that the excitement of seeing his friend again and the concern he had for Riku's well-being had kind of killed his appetite.

Either way, Riku didn't seem too worried about Albedo, and at this point, neither was Sora. He wasn't planning to buddy up with the other boy because he trusted Nigredo and Junior more in the end, but he also wasn't going to actively worry about any of that. Riku clearly hadn't had any problem with him, after all.

"But man, you've missed a lot!" Even though Riku hadn't technically been gone all that long, it certainly felt like it with all that had happened. "I guess you've figured out that Landel's been kicked out. Actually, he found the radio guy and is bothering him now, so we're not completely rid of him." It was a shame, it really was. "Oh, and we went to Doyleton! It was snowing and everything." He grinned at the memory of making that snowman with Tsubaki.

[antiheroed]

At the mention of not going it alone, Riku couldn't help but smile. It was exactly as he predicted the night before. His friends would have been really upset if they found out he had handled getting the drugs without any assistance. As much as he wanted to go it alone, he realized having someone there really did help. If he was in full-form, without anything weighing him down, he could have handled it, but he knew this place hindered him. But logic wasn't really the reason why he asked for Albedo. When it came down to it, Riku acknowledged it was just for this reason-because of that stupid look on Sora's face when he told him to ask for help.

"I did," he said. "Why do you think I ended up with that guy in the first place?" He didn't want to push it, but it was a show of improvement for him. The fact that Sora hadn't noticed that he hadn't gone it alone did confuse him, but he realized his friend probably figured they were thrown together for some other reason. That sort of thing seemed to happen here a lot.

At the mention of Doyleton-and more specifically the snow-he realized he was actually envious. Last time he was there, it was raining, which wasn't something that the Islands were unfamiliar with. But snow was a whole different ordeal. His only experience with it was fleeting and purposeful; running through and trying to get Sora's attention and to get things done didn't leave a whole lot of time for snowball fights.

"Good thing I wasn't there. You would've ended up covered in the stuff." He considered his next statement, because he wanted to push Sora past this normal stuff, even if he admitted that he liked hearing about it. But he worried the staff would come and split them up. They had a way of doing that at unfortunate times.

So he started with what made sense. "Kairi's fine, right?" He needed to completely confirm that she was all right. His mind clicked on that before he hit on his next points. "And are there any other things? Is the club looking into them?"

[scintillatingly]

While Sora realized that Riku had been with Albedo when he'd taken the drugs, that didn't necessarily make him feel better about it. Sora would have wanted to be there himself. He realized that Riku hadn't really had the option of taking him with him, but it bugged him anyway. Going with a stranger was definitely better than trying to handle it alone, but...

In the end, it was probably better to drop it. The damage was already done, so Sora was just going to have to keep an extra close eye on his friend in the next day or so to make sure that he wasn't targeted somehow. Riku might have thought he had everything under control, but you could never be too careful with this place.

"Hey, I wouldn't have minded!" he responded in regards to the snow, offering a small laugh. "You would have been just as covered." Well, if the staff had let them. Sora hadn't started a snowball fight for that very reason, even though he'd been tempted. As fun as it would have been, it wasn't worth getting punished over. And making the snowman had been just as exciting. He wondered if it had melted already...

He wasn't too shocked that Riku wanted to be absolutely sure that Kairi was okay and quickly nodded in response to the question. "Yeah, I've been taking care of her! She's really curious about looking into the medical wing more since she knows that's where she was kept for that whole time that she was gone. So I guess that's what we're focusing on for now, on top of exploring and listening to the radio."

The Head Doctor had also given that tip about the basement, but Sora wasn't that interested in listening to him. If they ran out of other options, maybe, but for now he thought they were managing fine on their own.

[antiheroed]

In his opinion, the sole important mystery of the medical wing was already sought after by him. If they were going to go there, it had to do with the drugs and nothing else. He hadn't checked out every room, but from what he garnered from his inspection of the area, it was nothing special. Riku hoped for something else, but Albedo had been right: if someone was really having something done to them, it wouldn't be because they were kept there. They'd be taken somewhere else. Or, if there was something, it was altered for that night, but he doubted it. He checked out the recovery rooms and hadn't come up with anything conspicuous, and of course, the infirmary itself hadn't been that unique.

"That shouldn't be our focus." He didn't like being so blunt about the matter, but it had to be said. "I got the only mystery, and if there's follow-up, we'll see what happens. But before I ran into that fight, I looked around. It wasn't that unusual." Unless running into a monster was said to be, but given the various places those things seemed to roam, he didn't think it was that strange. "So keep that in mind for tonight."

As for Kairi, he figured he'd explain it to her himself. He didn't want to disappoint her, but the point needed to be made. The last thing he wanted was for her to not uncover any necessary mysteries, but he didn't see the point. And besides, leading her into a place that had no answers but would probably just result in a fight didn't seem like a good idea. Riku wanted to circumvent that.

"We're supposed to be focusing on things that can give leads. So, what else is there?"

[scintillatingly]

While Sora could have been offended by Riku calling his plans a waste of time, he wasn't. It was something that he'd done for Kairi's benefit from the start, and while he was curious about the new area, it sounded like his friend had scoped a lot of it out already. Sora didn't always have to listen to Riku, either. If he wanted to check it out some more, then he would. But it was mainly Kairi who he was worried about.

"Kairi's the one you have to tell," he said after a pause. "I mean, you can't really blame her for being curious. I think she's hoping that some of those rooms might jog her memory." Though Sora got the feeling that Kairi wouldn't really want to remember those days she'd missed in the end. Still, it had to be disconcerting, knowing all that time had passed and having no memory of it.

In fact, Sora knew all about that sort of thing, seeing how he'd lost all of his memories of Castle Oblivion. It was something he'd come to accept since then, especially since a few of the blanks had been filled during his time here, but the point was that he could empathize with Kairi.

Either way, his friend wanted more information, and so Sora started sorting through the past few days for something of interest. "Oh! I made it out to the forest a couple nights ago. Someone told me that the guy who makes the radio announcements hangs out there sometimes, but I don't know how true it is." Not that he thought Venom had been lying, but it seemed like the chances of actually finding Marc were pretty slim. The outside area was a place that still needed to be explored, though, so he'd have to see what Riku thought of the news.

[antiheroed]

Just as he expected, Kairi was the one who needed to be filled in. But if his memory hadn't been jogged, why would hers be? Reason stated that they were both apparently kept there, though he hadn't confirmed for himself yet. He didn't think it mattered that much, if, in the end, his memories were gone. What chains were taken away probably wouldn't be replaced until they took care of the institute altogether. That made the most sense to him, anyway.

"I'm planning on it."

He left it there and pressed on to consider what else Sora had to say. A lead to the radio guy himself? That seemed to be the best way to circumvent following clues. If anything, they might be able to get some real information, rather than the snippets that were sent out at night. Anything they could actually follow could work-and if the Head Doctor was there, they could ask about their memories, too. Riku liked that idea already.

"That's where we've gotta go," he told Sora. "If Kairi insists on the medical wing, we can compromise, but the forest is our best bet for everything we need to know. How to get out. What's going on. And if our memories can be recovered, we might be able to get Landel to tell us." His voice darkened at that last bit, and he figured Sora would pick it up. He doubted his friend would mind a little fight, especially since that guy was the reason they were here in the first place. Replaced or not, it wasn't like Riku had any sympathy for him.

[scintillatingly]

It seemed that he'd hit on the right thing to tell his friend, if Riku's reaction was anything to judge by. Sora was glad that he'd come across a piece of information that counted as useful in Riku's head. It meant that he'd accomplished a thing or two while Riku had been gone. He didn't want Riku to get his hopes up about all this, since Sora still thought that running into one guy in a whole big forest was pretty unlikely, but...

Hey, he was the one who was supposed to be optimistic, right? They would just have to go back there and do their best to track Marc down.

"That all sounds good to me," he agreed. Even the last part, since Landel deserved a taste of his own medicine by now. Sora couldn't assume that the man was completely weakened even after he'd been kicked out, seeing how he was forcing Marc to work with him. Still, those force fields might have come down by now, which meant they had a chance.

"Anyway, we can always split up too. One of us could go with Kairi to the med wing, or she can head there on her own with some of the other club members." Sora still wasn't that comfortable with the idea of Kairi heading off on her own, but it wasn't like she hadn't done so in the past. Plus, she had that sword! Which they still needed to take some time to show her how to use. "I know how to get to the forest, though, so I should probably head that way." Not that it would be that hard to give directions, but it was always easier to be shown rather than told, right? He had to wonder if he should invite Venom along for this, too. Even if he wasn't a part of the club, he'd probably be interested.

[antiheroed]

The idea of sending Kairi off alone didn't appeal to him, either. Weapon or no weapon, Darkness or no Darkness, the idea that she would be off somewhere else without them being able to keep an eye on her made him uneasy. It wasn't like he explored every section of the medical wing. Worse, if there was more than one spider hanging out there, who knew what else there could be? He wrote off the idea as soon as his friend suggested it. They agreed from the beginning that Kairi would be with them every night. There wasn't a reason to change that.

"We'll send someone else to the med wing," he said. "If they find something worth looking at, we can head there the next night." That sounded like a compromise that Kairi would agree to, as well, if she were here. He preferred knowing where she was when the night fell, and though he got through the previous night okay, her presence was still a mystery. It wasn't any longer.

"So the three of us can work together," he continued. This plan was largely because Riku wanted to explore those woods for himself. Sora played the big hero enough times that Riku wanted to encounter Landel for himself and see what he could do. It was time to take another shot at that himself. The med wing last night was one thing, but Landel was definitely on the scale of Xemnas. They had to chance it.

"But first, let me find Kairi and make sure she's okay with it." Riku realized that just telling her what they were doing might upset her. "I'll drop you a note about it."