Disclaimer: I own nothing! Except my OC.
A/N: So this story has been floating around in my head for over a year (there were some, er, complications), and I'm finally getting around to putting it together. Yay! xD
Well, onto reading then. xP
Chapter One
Pain. Unrelenting pain. It flowed through her entire body. The pain was unbearable, but at the same time, the young girl lying in the middle of nowhere did not stir. The wet, coldness of the ground comforted her. She did not want to cry out. She wanted to lie here until she simply ceased to exist.
Time was a nonexistent factor, nor were memories. Where she had come from, and how long she had been in the state she was in, she did not know.
She was gaining self awareness. She could feel the water gathering at her fingertips. She dared not open her eyes for fear light would add to her slowly diminishing pain.
She was lying on her side; one arm underneath her body, the other bent at the elbow, her hand somewhere near her face. Her legs bent at the knees as if in the fetal position. She could feel the water gathering between her toes; she wasn't wearing shoes.
She continued to lie, for how long, she wasn't sure. Only a faint yellow glow was penetrating through her eyelids. The sun? Perhaps the light from a single lamp post? As the intensity of her pain dwindled, she began to feel a soft wind continuously flow across her body. If it wasn't for the cold water that was soaking through her clothing, the breeze would feel nice; it was comforting. Something from a distant memory; far out of reach.
Her senses were becoming more prominent as the last of the full bodied pain that had once engulfed her, left. She could hear the wind blowing, the rain drops lightly hitting the already soaked ground. She could feel the wet fabric clinging to her skin. Her fingers felt the grooves in the concrete. Though her eyes remained closed, she saw a flash of lightning, followed closely by a ground shaking roar of thunder.
The noise startled her. She was not scared, but the loud sound was not expected. She sat up, and opened her eyes for the first time. Sitting up had not hurt the way she expected it to. She looked around, taking in all her surroundings. It was nighttime; she could tell by the navy blue sky. She was lying in the middle of a street. How long had she been here without anyone noticing? Buildings lined the horizon; no plant life visible anywhere.
The place seemed void of life. Had she been the only one to survive some terrible accident? She still could not remember anything except for her first moment of consciousness. She looked for the light source. It did not take her long to spot it; a large heart shaped moon lit the night sky. It was not familiar to her, how she knew that she wasn't sure. She looked down to the ground, gasping when she saw her reflection in the puddle of water she awoke in.
Oval shaped, light brown eyes stared back at her. She blinked as she raised a slender hand to feel her hair. It was jet-black, and dripping wet. As she wrung out her hair, another noise startled her. It was a sound she remembered well, but from what memory? Soft music was drifting to her ears from behind the buildings to her left. A C-major chord? How could she tell?
She stood up. It took her a moment to find her balance before she looked at her soaked garments. Black leather pants and a three-quarter sleeved black shirt. She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering for the wind had picked up, and wind and cold water don't mix well. The source of the music was getting closer because the sound was growing louder.
The young woman took a few slow steps forward, waiting for the source; a person dressed similarly to herself. This person had on a black cloak that covered their head, making their face obscured by shadow. They were playing an instrument that appeared to her as some sort of guitar. How had she known what the large instrument was called? She was beginning to get a headache from trying to remember memories that she couldn't seem to grasp on to. They blipped into her mind for split seconds; long gone by the time she realized they were there.
She stepped out into the street, about fifteen feet away from the person dressed in black. They stopped, the guitar disappearing into nothingness. The person removed their hood, revealing themselves to be a young man. He took several hesitant steps towards the soaking girl.
"Who are you?" he asked, deciding that she was not a threat. He walked up to her, as to get a good look.
The girl just stared at him. He was about a head taller than she was. He had light brown hair done up in a mullet type style, a few loose strands hanging around the edges of his face. His eyes were teal in color; friendly eyes.
"What's the matter, cat gotcher tongue?" he asked, a smile on his face; an empty smile. She moved her eyes to look into his.
"Cat?" she asked softly, hearing herself speak for the first time. Her voice was quiet, but it was strong; stronger than what she imagined it would be after what she had been through. The young man cocked an eyebrow.
"You know, cat?" he said, "Furry, soft animals that 'meow'?"
His teal eyes looked into her non-comprehensiive brown ones, and shook his head as he said, "Never mind. Name's Demyx," he stuck out his hand.
The young woman looked at his black gloved hand hesitantly before slowly extending her own hand into his.
"Name's– uh…" she said, staring at their combined hands moving slowly up and down. "I don't remember…" She let her hand slip from his like water. She looked down to the ground out of – embarrassment? No… – she was embarrassed; yes – but this was different. It was as if she were experiencing a memory of being embarrassed. It was difficult to understand and puzzled her even more than she already was.
Demyx gave a slight chuckle as he said, "Yeah, that's okay. None of 'us' remember our names when we first get here…"
The girl looked up.
"Us?" she asked. Demyx nodded. "What do you mean? How did I get here? Why can't I remember anything –"
"I think I outta take you to see Xemnas, our little Organization's leader…" Demyx interrupted.
Though she wanted to ask more questions, she kept silent as Demyx led her to, well, wherever it was they were going. As they walked down several more empty streets identical to the one where she woke, a memory suddenly burst its way into her head.
She looked at Demyx and blurted out, "My name is Nida…"
Demyx looked at her and said, "Nice to meet you, Nida. Your memories will eventually all come back to you like that. Weird isn't it…"
"Why's that weird?" Nida asked sincerely.
"I dunno… it's just funny… since they're technically not your memories…" Demyx shrugged, putting one hand on the back his neck.
"What do you mean, 'not my memories'?" Nida inquired, wondering how he could say such a thing.
"It's just– look, Xemnas will explain everything to you. I'm not really the best at explaining." Demyx said, giving Nida a small smile.
"Xemnas… is that your leader?" Nida asked. Demyx responded by nodding, then he suddenly stopped.
"You know," he said, putting one hand on his chin after he had stopped walking, "I think I know a way to get there faster. You look cold, plus you're soaking wet," Demyx gave the shivering, dripping Nida a once-over and added, "Not to mention you're shoe-less,"
Nida looked down at her bare feet and smiled, "Where are we going, anyway?"
"The Castle that Never Was," Demyx answered, reaching his arm out. He twisted his hand while making a fist, and to Nida's surprise, an oval of black swirling mist appeared.
"What's that?" she asked. Demyx took her forearm and dragged her in it alongside him.
"It's a portal of darkness," he answered nonchalantly as the portal engulfed the two of them.
For a moment, it felt like the air was being sucked out of her lungs. But it was all over before she had time to think. She gasped for air when the portal spat the two of them out. She caught her breath and looked around her. They were no longer in the cold, dark, rainy streets of the city. They were standing in the middle of a white and grey hallway. The tiled floor alternated between white and grey squares, as did the ceiling. The walls were white with what looked like moving wisps of grey lines. There were no cieling lights, but the whole place was lit up. The light wasn't warm; it was a cold, white light. Not that the hallway itself was cold (it was actually quite warm compared to the weather outside), the light that lit the place just seemed void of... something.
"This is the Castle?" she turned to ask Demyx. Her eyes widened as she looked at the strange creature Demyx was speaking to. It was funny looking, moving about in an eerie fashion. It looked as if it had a zipper for a mouth, well; Nida assumed it was a mouth. It was conversing with Demyx in a whisper-like language.
After a rather loud whisper argument with the creature that resulted in the creature disappearing into thin air, Demyx nodded towards Nida.
"That thing was a Dusk. You'll learn about them soon enough," he said. "And don't worry. You'll pick up the language; it's not too complicated." Demyx pointed to two large double doors at the end of the hallway that were marked with a large brass Roman numeral one.
"That's where Xemnas's office is," Demyx informed. Nida nodded, took a look at Demyx, and asked, "Do I go in alone? Or are you coming with me?"
"I suppose I should go too. Superior's not expecting anyone today," Demyx led the way down the hall, closely followed by a curious Nida.
Maybe I'll finally get some answers... She thought.
Demyx knocked loudly on one of the doors, causing countless echoes to reverberate off the hallway's walls.
"Enter," a deep looming voice emanated from somewhere beyond the door.
"Come on," Demyx said, motioning for Nida to follow him through the door, into a large room that resembled the hallway in the fact that it was completely white. There was a large wooden desk in the corner of the room that sat in front of a large window that extended from the floor to the ceiling. It had an excellent view of the heart shaped moon that Nida had seen earlier.
There were tall book shelves and filing cabinets that lined the perimeter of the room up to the edges of the window. There were countless books of all shapes and sizes, with scraps of paper marking pages.
Standing in front of the wall sized window was a man wearing an identical black cloak to Demyx. He had long white hair that broke off in soft spikes at either side. He had his hands crossed behind his back and was looking up as if in deep thought as he stared out at the yellow moon.
"Superior," Demyx said to get the man's attention.
The darkly tanned man turned slowly, revealing his amber colored eyes as he stared into the light brown ones of Nida.
"Ah– Number nine, I see you've found a new one," he spoke in the same deep voice that had spoke for them to enter. His voice was cool and empty; controlling.
"Demyx," Xemnas directed, "You may leave. I'll discuss with her alone." Demyx nodded and gave Nida a wink before exiting through another portal.
Nida returned her attention to the man now sitting in the dark-grey chair behind his desk.
"Come," he said, gesturing towards an empty black arm chair resting on the opposite side where he sat. Nida nodded and went to sit in the chair, which wasn't very comfortable; it was hard– overstuffed.
"First, let's begin with your name," the man said, taking out a fresh sheet of paper, and sporting a pair of reading glasses. One of the creatures Demyx had called a 'Dusk' materialized and handed Xemnas a pen before making its way towards a book shelf.
"My name is Nida,"
ZOMG.... I ended it...... RIGHT THERE. :X
Her nobody name will be revealed in the next chapter. Yay!
The reason I waited so long before I actually put this story up, was, well there's a few reasons, so, here they are:
1. School was not giving me extra time to write.
2. I've been busy on YouTube, but at the moment I'm not editing, so I finally have a reason to not be lazy and actually write.
3. Stupid Xion got introduced as the Organization's 14th member, and I just knew I'd be hounded on if I didn't mention her. lol
So I had to think of a way to incorperate her, which I did. :D
Alright, so I may have overused comas and semicolons...but at least I tried. xD
If any grammar buff would like to be my beta reader, PLEASE CONTACT ME!
Also, I really tried to be very descriptive in the first part of the story that lacks dialog, so, I hope it was done well.
Review por favor!
*fan-girl squee* Xemnas in glasses! 8D