Disclaimer: me no own. You no sue.

Summary: listen to 'Sanctuary' backwards. Then you'll understand. Mild spoilers ahead

wonk uoy naht noitceffa erom deen I

The room was white. Everything was white; from the floor, to the walls, to the ceiling. There were no other colours inhabiting the room except for the occasional powder blue patterns on door frame, but even that couldn't be acknowledged properly because of the overpowering intensity of the never-ending supply of white. The colour, or the anti-colour, was becoming an irritating strain on Sora's eyes as he almost yearned to take sight upon another, less infuriating colour. After his eyes properly adjusted to the bland, slightly blinding, surroundings; he noticed that the room also contained a large, crystalline orb and a small—white—chair.

His irises contracted slightly as the corners of the room appeared before his eyes, like the room itself was spinning in front of him. Strangely enough, the room changed as it became visibly smaller (but it was hardly noticeable because of the humanly dangerous amount of white) and the contents instantly disappeared and reappeared as different ones. The orb was replaced by a large table, and the chair was now accompanied by a second one; both being on opposite sides of the long, rectangular table. The walls weren't completely white anymore: they were covered in sketches that were coloured by other colours; red, yellow, blue, green… the room wasn't completely white anymore.

'Hello, Sora.'

The brunet turned his head and realised that someone had entered the room while he was fixated by the drawings on the walls. He blinked slowly; he didn't recognise the girl who sat on the other side of the room. She was pale, blue-eyed and had long blonde hair that was swept to one side on her shoulder. She had a very lithe frame and for a moment Sora had mistaken her for the ghost of Christmas unknown. She smiled calmly at him and softly spoke, 'Don't worry. I didn't expect you to recognise me. I'm Naminé, but I doubt you needed to know that.' Sora nodded once, it was the only thing he could think of doing, and kept his eyes on the fragile-looking girl in front of him. 'Oh, yes. Take a seat.' Sora blinked again and mutely sat in the empty chair that was only inches away from where he stood.

'Sora, there's something you need to know,' she mused, 'about your friend, Riku,' Sora instantly looked up at her when she mentioned Riku's name, 'well… while you were asleep, he came to check on you. This was before he…' she looked down at her lap anxiously, 'before he let himself be immersed in darkness. I was told to watch over you while you slept, and I have to admit I wasn't always at my post. But on one occasion that I was gone, DiZ reported to me that Riku came to see you. I returned as soon as I could, and… well, he was intent on seeing you. Like it meant the world to him just to see you, despite your unconscious state,' Sora allowed his head to droop slightly as a pang of guilt shot through his nerves, 'I showed him to you.

When he saw you there, he looked back to me and said, why? Why did you let this happen to him? What did he ever do to you, Naminé? What could he possibly have done to deserve this?' she recalled, a sorrowful look developing in her usually hazy eyes, 'I explained to him the whole story… and, Sora, you wouldn't believe it unless you saw it happen, he started pounding on the glass pod that contained you; like he was trying to break you out. And he was yelling at you, or your body, rather, and saying, damn it, Sora! Why did you have to search for me and get yourself into this? Why couldn't you have left it as it was, instead of interfering all the time and trying to be the freaking martyr? It was… frightening. There was a fire in his eyes that water couldn't put out, and when I thought he was going to attack something, or someone… he just fell to his knees and continued to mumble, or attempted to yell but his voice was hoarse from yelling moments before…' she trailed off.

Sora continued to stare guiltily into his hands, listening silently to Naminé's explanation and taking it in. A small tear trailed down his cheek and splashed into his palm as he breathed in a shuddering sigh. Naminé seemed to notice the change in the brunet's demeanour, and her eyebrows furrowed in concern. 'Sora,' she spoke, breaking Sora away from his trance state, 'I… have something to show you,' she gazed at the table in front of her as though trying to avoid making eye contact with the brunet. 'You will find it when you wake up.' She finished as she gazed up again. Sora stared at her dubiously after roughly wiping the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand, tilting his head to the side in obvious confusion.

'Wake up…?' he repeated, and then the room began to fade away into darkness as everything seemed smaller than it did before. The room was moving away from him; or rather, he was moving away from the room, in midair. Soon the white room was immersed in darkness and he instantly reached his hand out. 'Naminé, wait!' he called, his voice echoing into the darkness' depths. At that moment, the brunet jumped slightly out of his lying position on the couch. He glanced around frantically before staring blankly into space and rubbing his eyes drowsily. 'I was dreaming…?' he questioned aloud before remembering what Naminé said to him. You will find it when you wake up. 'When I wake up…' he mused, and his eyes finally rested on a videotape that he never noticed on the table before.

Cautiously, he picked the videotape up in his hands and examined it with curiosity. it didn't have a label on it, so it was probably a blank tape or one that Yuffie used to record one of her shows. 'Hey, Merlin,' Sora called out, 'can I use your T.V.?' since he started his journey, which was only the day before, Sora had been staying at Merlin's house to rest up when the Heartless finally tired him out. It was an unbelievable discovery for the Restoration Committee when they found out that even the hyperactive spiky-headed ball of unlimited energy gets tired after a long day of slaying countless Heartless. The old magician called back an approving reply, and Sora leapt up from the couch and wandered towards the television set that stood ten-to-twelve feet away from the couch. Sora hesitantly pushed the videotape into the video cassette recorder and watched as the screen began to fuzz up slightly.

The static soon ceased and an image came on the screen. Sora's eyes widened as Kairi appeared on the screen, from the background Sora assumed that she was at the island, and afterwards another image appeared. This time he, Kairi and Riku were talking while being at their usual spot. Then Kairi and Riku faded away into colourful dust as the image Sora leapt out of the scene and into another one. More scenes were appearing on the screen; including the day that Sora found Kairi unconscious in Hollow Bastion and Riku, who was currently possessed by Ansem, grinned mockingly at him. Sora blinked in confusion when he saw Namine appear on the screen, and then an image of himself being captured by a see-through pod thing before falling unconscious. Within a few minutes, the tape ended and the static consumed the screen once more. Afterwards, Sora had noticed that during the tape, a song he didn't recognise was playing. He narrowed his eyes in concentration as he strained to remember what the lyrics of the song were.

In you and I, there's a new land…

Angels in flight…

And then there was that one line in the song that seemed to be sung in a different language altogether. He noticed that exact line was replayed over and over again throughout the song, along with some other lines that were also sung in the indecipherable language. He scratched his head in confusion and turned his head to see there was now a note on the table. He grabbed for it with one hand and read through it curiously.

This was what I wanted to show you.

Now, play the tape backwards, Sora.

Then you'll understand.

—Naminé

The brunet stared blankly at the note but then mused to himself and rewound the tape. He pressed play while it was still set in reverse and watched it all over again. He noticed that the images were now in a different order, and that the music seemed to take an alternative tune. However, he jumped slightly when he vaguely heard the word 'Why?' and resumed to watching the tape. Even though it was overlapped by static, Sora was sure that he did hear different lyrics this time around. Once the tape was finished, he involuntarily shuddered as he recalled the lyrics that he heard when he watched the tape backwards.

I hear I was Ansem, I hear I was Ansem,

I need more affection than you know…

Ansem. He could've sworn he heard the name 'Ansem' during the tape. All though, that wasn't the only thing that disturbed him; it was the fact that the indecipherable words he heard before now made sense. What he thought was a different language was actually the singer repeating the words 'I need more affection than you know' backwards over and over again. And the other indecipherable lines were retranslating themselves. Does this mean, he thought, there was a hidden message behind that tape? He remembered some more of the lyrics:

I hate emotion

I need true emotion.

I need more affection than you know

I need true emotion.

I will not destroy them.

Sora gnawed on his bottom lip. What, he wondered, had this tape had to do with Riku? Then he remembered the words 'He was Ansem… I hear I was Ansem.' His eyes widened slightly in shock as he was mute and stunned with fright. What he didn't notice, however, was that during the whole re-film, someone was standing behind him the whole time. The brunet turned his head and stared up at the hooded figure behind him as he swallowed back bile. '… Riku?'

As the house had been deserted since he started watching the tape, no one was there to hear his screams.

No idea what the heck influenced that... but... well... ummmm... no comment.