Hello, all. This is going to be a bit of an alternate telling of a tale that most of you may or may not remember. I won't be focusing on this as much as my other project, but this is an idea that I want to write down and put up. As the summary said, expect a certain memory-manipulating Nobody to get a bigger focus and take more of a stand than in the source material. What will happen when the keystone of the game's plot does things with a different kind of initiative, I wonder? Read on and I hope you enjoy.
And know that the title is not to be taken literally, given that "memoirs" are an entirely different genre of literature that I doubt I could try to incorporate into this world. I just wanted a title that indicated that this would be "the same, but different."
Read and be sure to leave reviews. I will be accepting constructive criticism.
Ch. 1
A trio of shadowy pods materialized in the white room. When the pods vanished, two cloaked figures were revealed.
"Ugh. Why do they keep sending us to this place? It's not like anyone's going to actually find anything, if we haven't done so yet," the blonde woman with antenna-like hairs complained.
The man with spiky red hair shook his head with an amused smile. "You never know what might turn up with a new set of eyes," he said. He spoke with a perpetually-confident tone and in general kept a relaxed air about him.
"Don't forget what Saïx told us in our briefing, Larxene," the pink-haired man reminded her. "He has detected that a source of strange power materialized in this castle only a few days ago, which I suppose translates to a couple hours here. We are to obtain it and understand its nature."
Larxene rolled her green eyes. "And he can't leave that to Vexen?" she snarled.
"Saïx has divided us between the upper levels and the basements, as is tradition," the scarlet-haired man explained. "I'm sure you wouldn't have known, seeing as you're still a spring chicken. I guess that means whoever finds this 'asset' gets first dibs."
"Axel is correct," the pink-haired gentleman confirmed. "Besides, from what I understand, these business holidays give us ample time to conduct our own studies outside of the watchful eye of the Superior."
Larxene groaned. "Whatever. So long as I don't have to do any tutorial missions babysitting the new twerp."
"Well, I'll leave you to it and I'll start searching around for this new 'asset'," Axel said, exiting the room.
A moment after Axel had left, the pink-haired man raised an eyebrow. "He is aware that the search would be simpler if we all used this to view the other floors," he told Larxene, gesturing toward a large crystal ball in the middle of the room.
Larxene shrugged. "Well, he seems to like doing things his own way, Marluxia," she replied.
"Now that we're alone…" Marluxia stepped closer to converse covertly with Larxene. "You are aware of the other prize on this world, correct?" he asked.
Larxene nodded. "Yeah. The 'hero'."
"He has vanquished the Superior's Heartless. And with the destruction of his mass of undead worlds, he and his imbecile compatriots have materialized on this world," Marluxia explained.
"Why here? What's so special about this place?" the blonde asked.
Marluxia shrugged. "Who knows? Perhaps that is why Lord Xemnas elected to conduct another search of the Castle. But what matters… to us… is that the hero is strong enough to defeat a fragment of the Superior."
Larxene smiled wickedly. "So, you want to find a way to get him under our control so we can knock the big guy off of his chair, right? But how do we do that?"
Marluxia smirked. "Perhaps that is where our new asset might assist us…"
Larxene walked over to the crystal ball and placed her hand on the surface. "Well, let's take a look. Hopefully it isn't in the basement and in Vexen's hands," she said. "Let's see… Twelfth? No… Eleventh? No… Huh? Marluxia, look at this."
Marluxia took a look at the crystal ball and allowed an eyebrow to shoot up. "Interesting…"
Sora, you lazy bum… Sora, let's take the raft and go! Just the two of us! What? Just kidding.
But you can't come along looking like that. This boat runs on happy faces… *&&X%. Friends here…
"What's with her?"
"Fascinating. It appears as though she is experiencing someone else's memories."
The girl ignored them for a moment. Engrossed in the moving images floating around her, she attempted to comprehend what she was seeing. She felt absolutely certain that she did not know the people she saw. But, for some reason, they all seemed strangely familiar.
There's something about this musty place. It reminds me of the secret place back home…
"Hey! Shrimp! Eyes up here!" Larxene shouted. The girl finally looked up from the memory visions. These individuals were new; they had not appeared in the memories.
"What's your name?" Marluxia asked.
The girl remained silent, not sure how to answer. My name? What is my name? Do I even have a name?
Larxene snapped her fingers. "Hey! We asked you a question!" she hissed.
The girl still did not speak. While she had been watching other people through these illusions, she did not contemplate who she could be. She doubted the visions she saw were her own memories. Did she have any of her own?
She felt an intense pain and fell backward. "Nggh!" she yelped. The visions fizzled and vanished. She looked up at Marluxia and Larxene. The woman held her hand up, lightning crackling between her fingers.
"What's your name?" Larxene asked viciously.
The girl pushed herself back up to a sitting position, wincing from the pain. She thought about remaining silent just to spite the woman, even at the risk of more pain. But she wanted to understand something about herself.
"My… na…?" she slurred uncertainly.
Larxene raised her arm to attack again, but Marluxia caught it. "Don't bother. She does not seem to have any memories to call her own," he told her. "She is a Nobody without a past. Not unlike someone we know."
Larxene pulled her arm free and scowled. "So, she's just a puppet to mold like putty," she muttered. "Hmm… Her first wasted breaths could make a good enough name for a waste like her."
She glared at the girl, and fear entered the girl's eyes. Larxene rolled her eyes.
"Get up, Naminé," she ordered.
The girl looked at her in confusion. "Naminé?" she repeated, unsure what to make of this foreign word.
"That's what I called you, isn't it? Now, get up! Come with us!" Larxene barked.
Nervously, Naminé complied. She stumbled a bit as she forced herself to her feet and took her first steps since materializing in the strange white room, but she soon got the hang of walking and followed Marluxia and Larxene.
Sora ran his hand through the grass. Goofy stood staring up at the blue sky. Donald simply looked back and forth, taking in the scenery. They were quite surprised to find themselves in a grassy plain after what they had just been through.
Only a few hours ago―or at least they thought it was a few hours―they had battled Heartless as they made their way through a world made out of the remnants of worlds swallowed by Heartless, fought a fierce and terrifying battle against what looked like a giant fire-breathing demon, defeated a man who had possessed the body of Sora's best friend, closed the door to darkness and saved the worlds, and watched their closest friends slip away from their grasp once again―Riku and King Mickey were trapped in the Realm of Darkness on the other side of the door they sealed, and Kairi returned home to Destiny Islands. Then, the dark world collapsed beneath their feet and they fell into an empty void.
After a day like that, seeing a peaceful grassland on a clear sunny day was pretty jarring.
"Do you think it worked?" Donald asked.
Sora nodded. "Yeah. Everything's back to normal," he replied with certainty. "All of the worlds have been restored. The guys in Traverse Town are back home. Kairi's safe…"
"But the King and Riku are still gone," Goofy lamented. "They're trapped in the Realm of Darkness."
Sora and Donald sighed as they realized that he was right. Sora had spent the entire adventure searching for Riku and Kairi. While Kairi was safe and sound now, Riku was even further away than he had been before. Meanwhile, Donald and Goofy's main objective, while they had been sent out to find Sora and fight the Heartless, had been to track down their missing king. They had seen him for a minute and they had not even gotten the chance to talk to him before they were separated again.
But knowing that Riku had overcome his own darkness and was done fighting him, along with knowing where he was, gave Sora hope and confidence. "Don't worry. They can handle themselves," he assured his friends. "They have each other, right?"
Donald and Goofy smiled and nodded, realizing that Sora was right. Sora smiled and clasped his hands behind his head.
"Okay, then. I guess we should figure out where we are, huh?"
"So, what do you make of her?" Axel asked. He had returned to the thirteenth floor to find that Marluxia and Larxene had found the asset, who appeared to be a thin teenage girl with blue eyes and long blonde hair, wearing a sleeveless white dress and blue sandals.
Marluxia regarded the girl sitting in a simple chair. She stared directly ahead as the memory visions danced around her. "It appears as though she has access to someone else's memories," he explained. "From what I can guess based on the characters shown in these illusions, these memories belong to the boy with the Keyblade, Sora."
Sora… So, that was his name… But who were the boy and the girl with him?
She saw chains weaving through these images. She reached out to grab one of the links and pulled it free. The link broke off from the adjoining links and one of the images faded. Panicking, she put the link back in before the two orphaned links could fold into each other.
"Did you see that?" Axel asked.
Marluxia nodded. "It appears as though she can do more than simply view memories," he said. "She can manipulate them as well." He turned to Larxene. "I do believe we can make use of this."
Naminé paid no attention to them. She was mesmerized by what she had done. She was surprised that she could interact with the chain of the boy's memories. She started to worry that there might have been consequences to her actions if she had not acted quickly enough. She focused on the memory that she had almost caused Sora to lose.
Gimme a break, Kairi…
Kairi. That was her name. The girl Sora was close with. She seemed interesting. She acted sure of herself. Sweet and cheerful, and she did not act disappointed or mad while she seemed to be mocking him. There seemed to be a natural air of playful banter between Sora and Kairi, and the other boy… Riku, did they call him? She wanted to know more about them and the bond they shared.
"Naminé," Marluxia called. Realizing that she was being addressed, the girl looked up at the pink-haired man, who approached her with a smile that belied less-than-wholesome intentions. He rested his hand on her shoulder, making her nervous. Her focus diverted from the memories, the illusions around her faded. "Allow us to develop a better understanding of what you are able to do."
"Look out!" Riku shouted. Alerted by the warning, the mouse king jumped out of the way of a Darkside's punch. He retaliated by aiming his Keyblade and launching an orb of light at the monster, destroying it instantly.
Riku swung his wing-shaped sword and cut through a Shadow. He parried a swipe from a Neoshadow and counterattacked by stabbing it in the chest. He ran away from the oncoming horde of Heartless and stood back-to-back with Mickey.
"We need to find a place to get some breathing room," the teen said.
Mickey nodded in agreement. "You're right. This is not any place that we want to be." He looked around and saw a clearing in the distance which seemed to be devoid of the dark monsters. "This way. Follow me."
He ran through the crowd of monsters, carving through them with his Keyblade to cut a path. Riku followed, eager to get away from danger. A creature resembling a baby dragon flew at him, but he knocked it out of the air with a quick strike.
The Heartless continued their charge. In desperation, Riku decided to exert the control that he had been given over the creatures, even though he knew that they were the enemy. He raised his sword arm.
"Heartless! I command you to stop!" he shouted. A few of the creatures stopped and looked at each other in confusion, then continued their assault. Riku cursed under his breath. He slashed through a Shadow that jumped at him and continued running.
He saw Mickey jump off of a cliff ledge and land on a rock platform, then hop to the next one. He followed, knocking down any Shadows that tried to cut him off, and jumped across the gap. A few more jumps, and he reunited with Mickey on the other side of the ravine. They continued their sprint, ducking under and around rocks and fighting off any Heartless that got in their way.
Eventually, they came upon a clearing with no Heartless in sight. Breathing a sigh of relief, Riku dropped down and sat on the ground. Mickey raised his Keyblade and shouted "Heal!"
"Thanks," Riku replied. "It's… Mickey, right?"
The mouse nodded. "It's nice to meet ya," he returned the official greeting. "Though, I suppose I would've preferred if it were in… brighter circumstances."
Riku let out a laugh. "Yeah, I guess." He glanced at Mickey's Keyblade, which resembled Sora's but with its colors reversed, and then looked back out at the clearing where everyone had closed the door. "Did we really do it?" he asked.
"Do what?"
"Set everything back the way it was. Did we restore the worlds? Are the islands back in the realm of light?"
Mickey nodded. "Yup. Defeating Ansem and closing the Door to Darkness purified the Heartless world on the other side and returned all of the worlds' hearts to the light," he said confidently. "Our friends are back home, safe and sound."
Riku smiled, relieved. "At least Sora and Kairi made it back alright," he said.
Mickey dismissed his Keyblade and sat down next to him. "Yeah, but don't you want to be there with them?" he asked.
Riku frowned. "I do, but… I can't."
Mickey raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Why not?"
Riku sighed. "Do you want to know how I ended up here? It's all my fault. I let Ansem and Maleficent use me. Sora tried to help me, but I let myself be convinced that he'd gone off and abandoned me and Kairi so he could play with the Keyblade with his new friends." He sighed and slammed his fist to the ground. "I was so stupid. I sided with the Heartless and even tried to hurt Sora. Then I let Ansem take over my body."
Mickey shivered. "I'm sorry," he said sympathetically. "But… you know… from what I saw of him, he looked like he didn't want you to be stuck in here."
Riku sighed. "No… I guess he didn't. He kept trying to get through to me, no matter how much I antagonized him." He shook his head. "But I can't go back to the islands. Even if Sora and Kairi will still accept me… I still have to live with the guilt of what I've done."
Mickey could not argue. He had some mistakes and failures that still haunted him. He shook his head. This was not the place to dwell on such depressing thoughts, lest the atmosphere feed on them and cause the thinker to sink into despair.
"Well, at the very least, we can find a way out of here," he advised. "Whaddya say?" He held his hand out for Riku to take.
After a second, Riku smiled. "All right, your Majesty," he replied, taking the mouse's hand. Surprising Riku with his strength, Mickey helped him to his feet just as easily as another human of his build would.
As they started walking in a random direction, they did not notice a figure watching them from a cliff above. The shrouded character took interest in the duo, denizens of light trapped in the Realm of Darkness.
"This girl is quite powerful," Marluxia commented after spending the last few hours studying Naminé's abilities. He, Larxene and Axel stood in a corner of the observation chamber, watching Naminé as she sat in the opposite corner. Marluxia had provided her with a simple white chair so that she did not have to sit on the floor. Illusions of Sora's memories floated around her, the web of visions having expanded as the girl developed a better understanding of her powers. She wanted to reach out to the people in the images, but refrained as she did not want to cause any damage to Sora's memories.
As she watched footage of Sora, Riku and Kairi playing on the beach, a separate image began to form above the vision, disconnected from the chain. The scene that was displayed was identical to the one below it, except that it now included Naminé… or at least, that was what she thought she looked like.
"Hey, Marluxia," Axel said, pointing past the pink-haired man in front of him. Marluxia and Larxene turned to see what was happening.
"I don't believe it," Marluxia mused. "It appears as though she is creating a memory, copying what is in front of her and adding herself to the mix." At first, the vision followed the original memory's movements, only with Naminé pasted in as if in a green screen video edit. However, over time, the actions in the illusion began to deviate from its template, and the interactions between the original three shifted to account for the fourth player, as if Naminé actually was part of the scene.
Naminé sighed, and the new vision faded to nothingness. She wanted it to be real, but she knew all too well that it never could. She was not a part of their circle. She never would be. She was only an aberration with no identity of her own.
She was a "her", right? Sora and Riku used that and related pronouns in reference to Kairi and some of the other girls. On a slight examination of her own physicality, Naminé seemed to look like the girls, in particular apparently having a very similar build to Kairi and the brunette girl called Selphie, while she appeared somewhat different from Sora, Riku, and their other contemporary guy friends such as Tidus and Wakka.
Axel studied her expression curiously. Was she experiencing… longing? Loneliness? he silently wondered. From what he and his colleagues could tell, she was a Nobody, the same as them, albeit with a befuddling nature. And Nobodies did not have hearts, lacking emotions; they could not "feel". And yet, just by viewing the memories of someone else, she seemed to be developing some sort of feeling. She seemed to be sad that she could not be among the kids in the visions.
"You know, maybe we can have some fun with this squirt," Larxene said with a devious smile. "Say, how about we get her to play around with the kid's head?" She laughed evilly and looked at Marluxia, trying to get a read on what the scheming assassin was thinking. However, her attention kept getting drawn away by the moving images that swirled around Naminé. There were dozens of visions that all vied for attention from even out of her peripheral. It was difficult for her to focus.
Larxene let out a noise that was a croaking mix between a groan and a bloodthirsty scream. Even without the capacity to feel even fear, Axel was left uncomfortable. "Someone make her stop that!" she shouted. Naminé flinched in fright, but the illusions did not falter. Marluxia and Axel looked around uncertainly, having no idea how to actually make the girl stop watching the visions.
Impatient, Larxene let out another croaking groan and stormed out of the room. She was gone long enough for Axel and Naminé's biological heartbeats to slow down before she returned. In one hand, she was carrying a pad of paper with a brown leather cover and a cardboard backing, bound by a series of rings. In the other, she carried a box of crayons. Larxene stomped over to Naminé. The visions whirled about until they opened a path for her to step through, as if the illusions too were terrified of the lightning-slinging Nobody.
Larxene shoved the pad into Naminé's hands and put the box of crayons down next to her chair. "You want to look at and play with those memories? Draw 'em in this! Don't bother us with this swirling chain web thing!"
Naminé lifted the cover to do as she said, but found that the first page had already been drawn in. The girl looked at the page in confusion, having absolutely no idea what to make of the sketch.
Larxene grimaced and grabbed the page, ripping it out by the holes for the rings. "Just ignore those," she said rapidly as she removed three more pages, folded them together, and shoved them in her pocket. Sighing, she turned and walked away, shooting a glare at Marluxia and Axel to make sure they did not even consider pressing her about her drawings.
Naminé shyly took a crayon out of the box and started scribbling, her mind's eye focusing on an image of Sora and Kairi. As she continued to draw with each of her crayons, the illusions slowly faded, until not even the swirling chains could obscure her at all.
"Better?" Axel asked sarcastically.
Larxene glanced back at Naminé, a look of disgust still plastered on her features. "A bit."
"So, you were saying that we could get Naminé to mess with Sora's memories when he comes here and get him to do what we tell him, correct?" Axel asked Larxene. "Are you sure we can get her to go along with that?"
"Hmph," Marluxia grunted with a smirk. "That is a puzzle, but I believe that we can give her all the incentive she requires." Larxene and Axel looked at him quizzically. He simply smiled and flipped his hair back, before striding over to Naminé. He stood behind her and watched her sketch from over her shoulder. The drawing seemed to depict Sora and Kairi sitting together on a short pier.
He put his hand on Naminé's shoulder to get her attention. "You seem to be thinking a lot about Sora," he said, his calm tone easily able to disguise his malevolent nature. "Do you want to meet him?"
Naminé was taken by surprise. What did he just say? Did he ask if she wanted to meet Sora? How? Why?
"I… can't…" was all she could muster.
Marluxia shook his head. "Oh, I'm sure we could work something out," he told her. "We could bring him here, and you could meet him."
Naminé felt nervous at the prospect. She did want to meet Sora and his friends, maybe become friends, but she did not know how it could work, considering what she was, whatever she was.
Marluxia sighed, almost as if he had been reading her mind. "But, I suppose it would be strange, seeing as how he has never met you before and yet you know so much about him," he said. "But maybe if he did have some memories of you, it wouldn't be too tough." Naminé looked up at him in surprise and confusion. What did he mean by that? "Perhaps if you could put in a few tiny memories to add to the ones he already has. Then, it would be like you two were already friends."
Naminé turned her head away. She could not do that. It was not right. Even if she wanted to meet him… She just could not do that to him.
Marluxia squeezed her shoulder tighter. "Don't you want that, Naminé?" he asked. "Don't you want to meet Sora? To be his friend?"
Naminé knew that Marluxia had no good intentions. But there was little she could do with him and Larxene bearing over her. "He's too far away," she said, making up any sort of excuse, having no idea if it was true or not. "I can't do that with him so far away."
Marluxia smiled, possibly in amusement, possibly with scheming intent. "On the contrary, he is on this very world," he said. Naminé's eyes shot open in surprise. "Only a few days away, in fact. I could bring him here for you." He crouched down so that his face was level with hers, and he stroked her cheek. "That's what you want, isn't it?"
Naminé remained silent, unsure what to do. On the one hand, she could not bear to do what Marluxia wished to Sora. On the other, there was very little she could do for herself even if she said no. Especially if she said no with Larxene in earshot. But she had seen what Sora had done on his journey. She had seen what he could do. Maybe he could help her, if she could get him on her side, assuming that, whatever Marluxia wanted her to do, he was not too far gone.
"Okay," she finally said.
Marluxia smiled and stood up. "Perfect. Now, you go ahead and think of the kind of history you want to create. It's all up to you. In the meantime, I'll work on leading Sora here."
With that, Marluxia walked past his colleagues and out the door. Larxene gave Naminé a mocking wave and followed him. Axel exited as well. When they were all out in the hallway, the three Nobodies turned to face one another.
"So, Marluxia, how do you intend on luring Sora here?" Axel asked. "I doubt he and his pals will just follow a sign that says 'This way to a new friend, totally not a trap'."
Marluxia shook his head. "Nothing like that. I simply need to draw them in the right direction with something that would be a welcome sight to them," he replied. "They are seeking a way to find Sora's friend and their king, correct?"
"I think so," Axel said, going off of the rumors spreading along the grapevine amongst the Dusks flittering between realms. "But they're stuck in the Realm of Darkness, right?"
Marluxia smiled and waved his hand, causing a Dusk to materialize in a swirl of white thorns. He placed his hand on its head and willed some energy into it. The bipedal, humanoid Dusk shifted until it took the form of a yellow quadrupedal dog. Larxene scowled and balled up her fists at the sight of the dog.
"That mouse king owns a dog that looks like this," Marluxia said. He pinched is fingers together and an envelope appeared between them. The seal was marked with a symbol consisting of three circles. "And it all began… with a letter." He stuck the letter into the dog-Dusk's mouth and patted it on the head. "Make sure Sora and his companions follow you, but don't let them catch up," he whispered into the canine's ear. The Nobody that had taken the form of Pluto nodded and ran off down the hall.
Marluxia turned to his colleagues. "Now, let us prepare," he said, an evil smirk on his face.
Naminé overheard the conversation. She now knew for certain that the Nobodies had the intent on luring Sora into a trap. They likely planned on using her to tamper with his memories more than they had previously claimed. Well, two-er-four could play at that game.
You guys at it again? All right, I'll be the judge… It's a charm to help us find each other if we ever get separated. The three of us will always be together… Sora, let's take the raft and go—just the two of us! Hehe. Just kidding… Sora, are you really… No. He can't be! I won't let him go… This time I'll protect you… Come on, Sora. We made it this far by sticking together. You can't go alone… It's my lucky charm. Be sure to bring it back to me…
She was not sure why, but Naminé admired Kairi. The girl whom Sora cared about. Maybe it was how she acted around him, kind and caring. Maybe it was her strength of heart, or strength of will.
Whatever it was, Naminé decided that she would take strength from Kairi, and from Sora, too. She did not know where this desire came from, but after watching what Sora had done on his journey to other worlds, she somehow knew that what she planned to do was the right thing to do. She would do everything she could to help Sora survive this ordeal, and put a stop to whatever Marluxia and the others had planned.