A/N:

Disclaimer – I do not hold any kind of official claim to Kingdom Hearts or any of its affiliates, including (but not limited to) Disney and the Final Fantasy series.

Awakening

Naminé wasn't sure what this was.

She was in Castle Oblivion, working on restoring Sora's memories, like she always did, when she came upon something strange. It was different from him, much different – and yet, somehow the same. It lingered near where his heart was and she could sense light within it.

"This –" Naminé murmured in surprise, "– this isn't right. It's not any kind of memory I've ever touched before."

No matter how much she poked and prodded it with her mind, the substance barely reacted. Then it suddenly came to mind –

"Is this not a memory?"

. . .

Walking aimlessly through the castle halls, Naminé sketched on her pad with a plain pencil while she thought.

After making sure she was right, the Nobody had known for certain – it wasn't a memory. Not really, at any rate. It had memories inside it, as well as feelings and wishes and hopes: just like a heart.

Naminé wasn't sure why another person's heart was inside Sora. She had wanted to return it to whoever it belonged to, but all of her attempts to grasp it failed. The heart just slipped away every single time. For some reason, it didn't want to leave.

"Maybe from the hurt in it..." she murmured, feeling her hand sketch with its pencil like a different being.

She had asked politely with her mind if she could at least get to know it. The heart had responded after a few moments, but not with much – just a couple of memories that still made Naminé frown sadly.

They had been crystal clear, as if the heart had remembered them perfectly. One had a boy's voice talking to a young man and woman, both of whom older than him, with a sense of enjoyment filling him. They had been quizzing each other on a test their "Master" was going to give them in a few days, but it had soon devolved into chatter.

Another had just been a still image – one with an armored man flying into the sky on some sort of vehicle. Naminé had gotten the impression that it had been the young man from before, as well as a feeling of worry and frustration.

The last simply played two fights that had been going on at once, of the boy fighting someone who looked like a dark Sora, and of the boy fighting the young woman from earlier. All of them had been using Keyblades, a shock to Naminé. The difference between the two was that the boy hadn't been in control during the latter – that was the dark Sora who he was fighting in his mind. And when the boy had finally beaten him, his heart had shattered from it and took residence in the real Sora.

What was interesting was that when he came to him, Sora had been a little kid, and the boy's heart had already been familiar with him.

Naminé sighed, blinking away her thoughts. The puzzle couldn't be put together until she worked on Sora's puzzle a bit more. He only had recent memories back so far, not the old, fuzzy ones she would need to inspect for any clues to the strange heart's problem.

She looked down at her sketch and gasped.

. . .

"Tell me!" she panted out, shoving the sketchbook towards a sleeping Sora. "Is this you? Show me where, please!"

Naminé didn't get a response, of course. In her hurry, the Nobody had forgotten to actually try contacting the heart inside Sora before confronting it with the drawing she had made.

On the paper was a vague pencil sketch of a young boy slouched in a large white throne, appearing to be sleeping peacefully. Chains extended from the throne to climb up the wall, all of them ending with an unfamiliar symbol Naminé got the impression of seeing in the boy's memories.

She stood there for a second in silence, catching her breath and glad that neither Riku nor DiZ were in the castle at the moment.

"Please..." Reaching out towards Sora with her mind, Naminé contacted the heart and showed it her memory of seeing the drawing. "Is this you sleeping?" she asked.

The heart didn't actually move, but she got the impression of a hesitant nod.

"Can you take me there?" she asked hopefully.

There was a pause, then the sense of a sad shake of the head.

"Why?"

An image of Castle Oblivion was shown to her, as well as the strong feeling of being lost.

"I know the castle does that, but I've lived here since my birth! If anything, I know it the best out of everyone who's been here."

There was the impression of a shrug, but it was also hopeful.

"I'll find you, I promise," Naminé told the heart, opening her eyes and looking determined.

I don't know if I should make a sequel shot to this or not, guys.

~ Melody