We do crazy things for the ones we care about (backdated to early morning of the 1st)

[attheclocktower]

Characters: Xion (attheclocktower), OU!Sora (derping), and Keyku (keybearer)
Setting: Starting at the Dorm Floor 1 elevator then moving throughout the Tower
Format: idk whatever what you guys wanna do
Summary: At around 1 am, a group of friends decide they don't want to sit around and watch their friends die anymore. In a stunning display of brilliance*, they decide that storming through the Tower in the middle of the night to try and find them is the best course of action. * Some sarcastic elements may be present in this statement
Warnings: Violence (most likely KH-style), but probably some injuries

[Frantic people were not the most rational ones. All Xion knew was she'd already tried the darkness corridors, trying to reach Riku or Naminé or somebody. She had to help them somehow. She couldn't just... they had to be okay. They had to. She just needed to get there, and-

But no matter how hard she called, the black passageway wouldn't come, the same way it hadn't come when she'd first tried to leave the Tower. So that left no other option than to try to find where in the Tower they actually were. She hadn't recognized it from any of her hovering over the feeds, but... there had to be some way to get there, didn't there? She wasn't there when any of the others had been taken to the elevators, but with the weather how it was, the it still seemed as good a place as any to start.

Little did she know she wouldn't be the only one looking.]

Comments

[derping]

[Sora wasn't thinking anymore. Couldn't think.

Maybe he should have been thinking, but he didn't want to. He didn't want to let what he had seen on that terminal sink in any more than it already had. There wasn't any time for that.

He had to move - he had to find his friends. Find Riku, because he couldn't be- ...he couldn't not be okay.

A very small part of him was still wishing that he had never left his room, that he had never noticed the crowd gathered around that screen (the same tiny voice that still, even now, tells him he should have never gone back to the play island on the night of that storm). The rest was what was sending him running full-speed towards the elevator.

It's a good thing he notices that someone else is going in that same direction before he crashes into her. It's even someone that he thinks he recognizes.]

Xion!

[He was going to say more, but he has to stop just short of the elevator, trying to catch his breath before more words can come out. Even then, it's hard to talk when your mind refuses to slow down.]

[keybearer]

[And, like Sora, Riku hasn't exactly looked where he's been going. He's been in way too big of a rush to figure out what was going on, maybe find a way to get up that elevator and lend a hand. Something, anything---

And then he spots Sora and Xion. Taking a deep breath, he hurries right over to them, Keyblade in hand. Did they have the same idea that he did?]

[attheclocktower]

[Xion manages to stop herself short before crashing into Sora, thankfully, and the footsteps alert her to their other arrival. She doesn't say much, her mind is still numb. It has to be; it's the only thing keeping her from breaking down then and there.

She looks from one to the other.]

Sora? Riku? [She blinks, then shakes her head. She doesn't even have to question why they're there. Why else would they be?] We have to do something.

[derping]

[Sora looks at Riku, then at Xion, and it doesn't take him long to put two and two together. All of them are here for the same reason.

(He notices Riku's Keyblade, too, but where it came from is a question he can save for later.)]

Then let's go look for them. [In a flash of light, his own Keyblade appears, his grip on it tightening almost as soon as he has a hold of it.] Together.

[keybearer]

[Riku nods. It's not a bad idea; in a tower this dangerous, there's safety in numbers. And besides, he's used to traveling in groups.

That Keyblade, though... It's a tiny bit alarming, but he won't bring it up just yet.]

Sora's got the right idea. We'll be safer as a group.

[attheclocktower]

[Xion's worked alone and in groups (or at least pairs) before. Plus with the Tower as dangerous as it was... She nods firmly and - seeing as how they both already have theirs at the ready - she summons her own Keyblade in a flash light and soft chime.]

I tried making one of the darkness corridors to where they are, but it wouldn't come. [her mouth tightens. There has to be some way to where their friends were.]

[derping]

[Sora wasn't sure what Xion was talking about, but that didn't really matter right now. Whatever it was, it hadn't worked, so they just have to do something else. Simple, right?]

So we'll just have to look around. There has to be some way to get there.

[He wasn't sure where they would start, exactly, but they had to try something.]

[keybearer]

If we have to, we can check all the floors. Might take a while, but it's better than sitting around doing nothing.

[Hmm... so Xion has a Keyblade, too. He'll make a mental note of that, while he reaches for the lucky charm on his belt and attaches it to his Keyblade. Oathkeeper time!]

[attheclocktower]

Right.

[There wasn't much more to say now. They needed to get moving, to find the others as soon as possible] I think the power's out so we'll have to take the stairs. [At least it was when she'd gone down for lunch earlier.]

Let's go.

[derping]

[You don't have to tell Sora twice; he's ready to run off in the direction of the stairs the second Xion says "Let's go", and that's exactly what he does.

When they reach the stairs, he dashes down them so fast that it's amazing that he doesn't trip over his own feet. He has to, though - if they're going to check everywhere to find their friends, they'll have to move fast to get there in time to help!

He finally forces himself to come to a stop when they reach the first floor below the dorms - the same meadow that they had that bonfire in.]

Think we should start here?

[keybearer]

[It's a good thing Riku's a fast runner then, eh? He's able to keep up the pace pretty easily as he runs down the stairs; it's not too different from when he and his friends had to make a mad dash out of Hollow Bastion, after all.]

Well, we have to start somewhere. Might as well.

[attheclocktower]

Don't forget to keep an eye out for monsters.

[They tended to be out in force at night, after all. She looks around. She's been to the meadow before, of course, but now she's looking at it a little differently - using the eye she'd been trained to use during recon missions. The advantage of this floor was that it was relatively flat - easy to see in many directions.

The downside was it was hard to see - especially at night - how far it went, and the forest had already proved that the floors were not restricted to the proportions of the Tower...]

[derping]

Right.

[His mind isn't on the possibilities of monsters wandering around, though - he's solely focused on looking around and figuring out where to go. This floor was big, and Sora couldn't see much, but they'd find something if they looked around - at least, he hoped they would.]

Do you guys think there's an end to this place? Maybe there's a door hidden somewhere!

[And the best way to find out, he figured, was to keep walking, which is exactly what he does.]

[justabignobody]

[Waking up after dieing is not the most pleasant of things. Waking up after dieing and being frozen in sleep paralysis for twenty minutes? ...Yeah, let's not even go there.

That being said, Riku is kind of maybe pretty shaken by the experience... and he does recognize the particular irony of him of all people being killed by Darkness and Light at the same time. If that's the tower's idea of a joke, he's certainly seen better (then again, the tower's ideas for jokes, are never really amusing to anyone, really).

He doesn't really actively remember getting up and walking down to the library floor, finding himself a corner to............... be alone in. There is something nice about this place, even though he does associates it in part with Zexion, he associates it even more with DiZ, with books and scrolls and days spent quietly at the mansion, reading and recovering from a particular careless mistake.

He pulls out one of the books - he doesn't even look at the title - sits down at his corner table and starts to read. Even though he forgets the lines to moment he's read them, it is a pretty good distraction.]

[attheclocktower]

[Well... hopefully this will be a better distraction. Or perhaps it will be worse. But regardless, it's coming.

The three of them had met up on the first floor, not too long after Sora had finally come to. Xion herself had already gone to the infirmary and had her shoulder reduced, and wrapped up in a sling before she was escorted out without so much as any further directions on what to do.

They knew there wasn't much point in looking for the place where their friends had been anymore - it had been long since too late for them to do any rescuing. But... they still searched. For some kind of clue as to what happened, maybe even their friends themselves. Not to mention Xion knew she herself was at least a little concerned about Sora.

But sure enough, they're scouring the third floor, and Xion catches sight of a telltale flash of silver hair in the corner of her eye, and upon turning, sees the black cloak and blindfold]

Riku!

[And now she's running as fast as her legs can carry her in his direction.]

[derping]

[Though he was trying not to, Sora had probably been giving his friends good reason to worry.

His head, for one, had still been throbbing when he left the infirmary. No one had kicked him out, but he couldn't stand staying in there for another minute. He was moving slowly, carefully, but trying his best to act like everything was fine...well, physically, at least.

His health was the last thing they needed to worry about right now...and, to be honest, it was one of the last things on Sora's mind, too.

It didn't feel real. It was the same feeling he'd had after seeing the islands get attacked, after waking up here - it was as if everything that had happened had just been a bad dream. Honestly, he couldn't stop himself from wishing that it really had been. Sora had been trying to put on a brave face ever since he got here, but now he was even letting himself believe that maybe he was just in denial. That what he wanted, more than anything, was the impossible - to open up one of the doors in the tower and find Riku and Kairi, and a half finished raft, and a beach at midday. He wanted to open his eyes and realize that what he had seen on that terminal last night had just been his imagination, and that all of his friends were okay. That all of this worrying was for nothing.

And he was even starting to let himself realize that, no matter how much he wanted these things to happen, there was a very real chance that none of them were going to. More importantly, just sitting around and wishing would never help anybody. He had to do something.

That's why he had to be sure. He had to keep looking, had to find out what had happened. He couldn't give up, because maybe...maybe they would still find something.

So they searched. Sora certainly hadn't argued against the idea; he would have gone by himself, if Xion and the other Riku hadn't been there, too. He had to keep looking, until there was nowhere else to look.

When Xion calls Riku's name, Sora turns in the direction she's facing instantly, even though it takes a minute to process what he's seeing and hearing. Sure enough, it's Riku - older Riku with his black coat and his blindfold (why does he wear that thing, anyway?) and...and...

He was there! Safe and sound.

Sora doesn't even say anything. He just starts running, and it's probably sheer willpower that keeps him from falling over with the way his head is feeling, but somehow he manages it. He doesn't stop until he reaches his best friend.]

Riku?

[Sorry, Riku, but he's just going to put his hand right over the pages of that book you're sort-of reading and...stare, out of shock and relief and happiness and a whole mess of other emotions that are taking their sweet time working their way through his brain. Seriously, you're lucky he isn't giving you a hug right now. Give him a minute.]