A/N: Just a little side note, Axel and Roxas don't come in until the 1st Chapter. This is just the prologue :0 please, stick with me, I promise you won't be disappointed. :3 R&R and if you have any suggestions, as this is my first KH FF, please leave them in a review 3

Veiled Memories

The pale girl, her light blonde hair spilling down past her face, masking any and all of her noticeable features, focused intently on the small sheet of paper resting on table, her hand, a fine charcoal pencil nestled in the crook formed by her index finger and thumb, slender hands working tirelessly as she sketched, the incomplete image slowly manifesting itself into a tangible picture.

As the picture's subjects became more and more apparent, a wicked smirk threaded itself into her lips, replacing her once passive expression and causing her to look much more… sinister—her former innocence smothered by the small curve of her lips.

"Almost done…" the blonde giggled, clearly amused by whatever affect her finished art would have on reality.

"N-Naminé… are you sure you want to be tampering with fate… like this?" the woman, her hair an unnatural blonde, practically yellow, asked, her tone incredulous, as if she couldn't quite grasp ahold of the idea as an actual reality. "This isn't about Sora anymore… is it?"

The petite blonde girl known as Naminé sighed, her pencil clattering to the table as she released it from her grip, hair finally falling back away from her face as she straightened up, bright blue eyes regarding the woman with a cold glare.

The young girl stood up, her pure white dress falling just at her knees, the edges tattered, and, slowly, her movements deliberate and precise, she stalked over to her, a slender hand cupping the much taller woman's face in a gentle yet maleficent manner.

"If you question me again Larxene," the blonde said sweetly, though there was a much darker tone laced just underneath the false kindness, "I will ensure your demise… I'll strip you of so many memories, you'll be lucky to be sentient."

"Yeah, yeah," the woman replied dismissively, paling visibly despite her false bravado. "I'm not afraid of you, little witch."

"You should be," Naminé interjected icily, her nails digging slightly into Larxene's cheek. "I control your fate… I can alter the threads of time. I can create an entirely false reality out of nothing… leaving you lost, cold, and alone."

Larxene's hand closed around Naminé's throat, lifting the delicate blonde a foot in the air, her legs dangling uselessly. "Threaten me like that again, and I will end your reality and save myself the trouble later. You may think that you have power over me—that your magic holds more sway in the castle than anything I could ever do-but, frankly, your head would spin if you realized the influence a little bloodshed holds." As the last of the venomous words left her lips, she slammed the girl against the ground, her body trembling as she tried to struggle to her knees.

"I would say you'll regret that… but I am more than apt to believe you after that little display… I suppose I can tell you what I am doing… if you think you can handle it."

Larxene opened her mouth, inhaling as she prepared to answer, but Naminé cut her off with an icy glare, her lips twisting wickedly, inner malice surfacing from the depths in her glacier-blue eyes. "Think before you answer Larxene… if I show you what I have planned, you will become intertwined in my machinations… such a bind is until death…"

Larxene smirked, her teal eyes narrowing, face darkening. "Tell me, little witch," the woman laughed, the sound dark and twisted as it escaped her lips, "I am sure I can handle whatever 'darkness' is swirling within the depths of that little 'innocent' mind."

Naminé laughed as she stood up, the sound surprisingly harsh and macabre as it left her lips; it sounded foreign, contrastingly sharply with her supposed "purity."

"Well…" Larxene pressed, leaning in closer to Naminé, who had reseated herself at the table, her hands eager to resume the sketching—the weaving of her intricate spell.

"What if I told you… I could change it all—that I can do more than simply rearrange the delicate threads that form memories; no, no, no… there is much more to my powers than that…" The petite blonde giggled seeing the confusion twist Larxene's expression, the sound surprisingly bubbly, her beautiful elven features contorting until she resembled more demon than human; her inner darkness finally surfacing in a morbid, cadaverous manner, her expression warping until she was scarcely human…

The darkness melted away as quickly as it had come… her face once more retaining the same innocence that lulled her enemies into a false sense calm.

After all, Naminé was a witch; you don't earn that status by being pure and warm-hearted. No, there was no doubt—there was more darkness within the void where Naminé's heart should have dwelled than there was in the entirety of Organization XIII.

"I don't quite… understand…" Larxene breathed, her voice still shaky; despite her fearlessness in battle, there was something about the way the young blonde had shifted—the being of fathomless darkness she had momentarily reverted to—that had sent a flicker of fear washing over her. One thing was for sure, Larxene would not underestimate the teen again.

Such an action could prove to be fatal…

"I don't expect you to… not yet, anyway," Naminé sighed, the darkness now all but dissipating from the blonde's aura, "Just know that I have set this plan of mine in motion… the wheels of fate have begun to switch gears—their motions no longer seamless. Until my spell is complete, you will not breathe a word of this to anyone. Promise me this Larxene."

"You have my word," the woman laughed, mockingly holding one hand against her heart, the other raised in testimony. "But…"

"But?" Naminé repeated slowly, her hands curling into claws, arcane energy flickering across her splayed fingers.

"Oh calm down," Larxene hissed, quickly administering a stinging slap to the blonde's cheek. "I'm not going to blackmail you, if that's what you are thinking."

"Then what do you want…?" Naminé said slowly, her hand still clutching her cheek where the echo of Larxene's slap still hummed.

"I simply what to know what it is that has inspired this…?" Larxene asked, her voice brimming with mock sincerity.

Naminé's lips curled up wickedly, a dark grin spreading across her face.

"Revenge…" she whispered. With that, she closed the sketchbook, but not before Larxene had seen just what it was the young witch had been drawing.

Axel and Roxas, each on separate sides of the page, their arms reaching for one another, their outstretched fingertips just a hairsbreadth away from uniting them as one… and, in the split second Larxene had blinked, the rift had grown wider…