For disclaimers (sort of), please see chapter one.

Author's notes:
Holy pooters - three updates in one week?! What am I on?!

Also, I made a slight boo-boo in chapter 2 that angelronin was kind enough to point out – for those of you who read it before I fixed it; Nao's birthday is June 13, not March. In addition to that, I had planned for this chapter to include more than it does, but it ran away from me and I had to find a stop point that would work and at the same time allow me to get to bed at a decent hour while still posting today. This was it.

Yes, I'm evil. No, she isn't going home - that would be way too easy.

(Lord, I hope I can deliver on all the confusion I'm causing you guys. *pats self on back* Get your head in the game! Strength, beauty and GUTS!)

*coughs* Anyway; enjoy.

Distortion
Chapter 3

"Find us where you know we are," you mutter to yourself and crumple up the paper in your hands before throwing it over your shoulder with a growl. "Stupid dreams." It's bad enough that you spent what felt like the entire night just hearing the same six lines over and over again in your dreams in a variety of voices – couldn't they at least make sense? No, of course not, you decide with a grimace. Instead, they have to repeat themselves to the point of making you horribly curious, yet remain confusing enough that you're having a bear of a time making heads or tails of anything.

Bah, whatever. It's almost noon and you've already wasted the entire day so far on it. Or rather, you've spent the hours you've been awake switching from the homework there was to complete to the piece of paper where you'd written the dream down. The homework is now done – your counterpart's notes helped in making surprisingly short work of that - but the dream remains a mystery. Irritatingly so, since you have the distinct feeling that it's important.

"We," you mutter sourly, and lean back to lift your socked feet onto the desk. "We who?"

The empty room, of course, doesn't reply, and you swallow a sigh before doing the same to a sip of of the tea sitting beside you. It doesn't quite smell like what Shizuru brews – probably because she's mastered that art as well as she masters anything else while you're admittedly a rank amateur – but it still manages to bring her to mind so strongly that it sends a pang of sadness through you.

Damn, you miss her. She's been the central figure in your life for years and years – the one person you've truly allowed yourself to count on – and you continue to have more than a hard time wrapping your head around the fact that in this universe, Fujino Shizuru apparently just flat-out does not exist. What kind of world is it where there's a version of you, but not one of her? And does that mean that somewhere out there, there's a world where she exists but you don't? Maybe one where she feels as keenly as you do now that something important is missing, only she doesn't know what – or rather who – it is?

Why couldn't you have ended up there instead? And what's going on back where you belong? Does anyone know you're gone, or has this world's version of you taken your place there?

This time, you allow the sigh to escape before forcing the glum thoughts away. They won't do any good towards you figuring out how to get yourself home, after all, and the more time you spend on pointless wonderings, the longer it'll take before you do manage to draw any conclusions. Instead, you therefore turn your attention to the lowly humming laptop, and start clicking your way through the folders until you get to one that's simply labeled Personal. Apparently your counterpart has a bit of a neurotic streak, because this folder is hidden away several layers down in her first-year notes. If you hadn't spent the other part of your non-homework time this morning just going through the computer out of boredom, chances are you wouldn't have found it at all.

But there it is, and you're curious on top of wanting something to take your mind off your inability to understand the dreams. So what's in here that she's wanting so much to keep away from prying eyes?

"Hm." You study the contents and quirk an eyebrow. Photos, apparently - all of them of Nao – and sorted as neatly as everything else.

The first one is of Nao as you remember her; shorter and also thinner and gawkier than the version you've grown used to seeing over the past few days. She definitely looks like she was in middle school when this picture was taken, though she's dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, sitting with her back against the trunk of a tree and with several smudges of dirt on her face and arms. She isn't looking at the camera, but instead scowling into the distance with a bottle of water in her lap, and doesn't seem at all aware that the photo was taken.

This was probably back when she was serving detention for ruining the flowerbed, you realize, and continue clicking through the photos. It's odd, but as the snapshots pass, you can literally see her change; going from the surly, bitter and distrustful girl you remember, and gradually starting to gain a softer set to her features and a more open look in her eyes as she grows older bit by bit. The glares and scowls are replaced with smiles and wryly amused grins, and in a few of the later photos, she even knows she's being photographed.

The last picture of the bunch is almost enough to make you blush - not that there's anything even slightly perverted about it. It features Nao in her high school uniform this time, sitting on a lawn somewhere – half on one hip with her knees bent and her feet pointed off to the side – leaning on one arm with the other tucked around her waist. She's cast halfway in soft shadows by what's either the setting or rising sun, and looking directly into the lens with a gentle smile on her face and a thinly veiled look of complete and utter devotion in her eyes that clearly marks the identity of the photographer – as if you had any doubts.

What caused such a difference, you wonder, and what kind of an idiot is your alternate that she can't see what's right in front of her face?

Natsuki, I'm always thinking of you.

Hm. The same kind of idiot that you are yourself, apparently.

"Hey." The snick of the door opening is the only warning you get before Nao enters the room, and you quickly click out of the folder of photos. That's a discussion you'd prefer to leave to someone who can actually explain it, and as much as Nao deserves to know, she'd probably refuse to believe anyone but your counterpart anyway.

"Hey," you return as Nao closes the door, and then grin at her. "Feeling better?"

There's a glare in it for you in reply to that, as well as a faint blush, which makes you snicker. You can't help it – watching Nao's jaw drop time and again last night was really pretty funny, even if you also felt kind of bad for making her head explode. Figuratively only, thankfully.

"And here I was gonna apologize for freaking on you yesterday," your guest remarks snarkily as she flops onto the bed and scowls. "So much for that."

"Alright, alright." You wave one hand at her and manage to school your face into a more serious expression. "Peace. I'm sorry."

"Hmf." Nao glowers for a few moments longer, but then takes a breath and seems to let it go – again, a curious counterpoint to the version of her that you know, because she certainly would've held a grudge. "Fine," she mutters. "Why are you so amused at the whole thing, anyway?"

"Well..." You refocus your attention on the monitor and start skimming through a short paper you finished earlier. "I was pretty surprised that you didn't know anything about the Carnival, or the HiME for that matter." True. "I mean, you didn't bat an eye at me coming from a different reality, y'know?"

Nao snorts. "That had nothing to do with magic or monsters, thanks," she comments. "One look in your eyes made it pretty clear that you weren't her."

Curious now, you look up. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Nao fishes a cellphone from the pocket of her own jeans and taps at it for a little while before holding it out to you. "Here. See for yourself."

You take it from her and turn it so you can see the screen properly, and find yourself looking at another photo. It's much smaller than the ones you were looking at previously – mainly due to the size difference in the respective monitors - but thankfully this is a fairly close-up image of this world's Kuga Natsuki. It shows her from the waist up in her kaichou-uniform – the summer version, going by the vest – her arms are folded across her chest, and she's leaning back away from the camera as if she's not too happy with the picture being taken in the first place.

And it's weird beyond words to look into the carefully blanked face that looks exactly like your own – to meet the clear, green eyes that you see in the mirror every day, and see an entirely different person looking back at you. Nao definitely wasn't joking when she said that you were better with people than she is, because these green eyes have several, sturdy walls behind them that stand at a distinct counterpoint to the slight, almost practiced smile on her lips. They're closed off and shuttered in a way that yours haven't been since before you entered high school.

Of course, you realize, and can almost hear the click as several previously loose pieces of the puzzle suddenly connect. Here, Nao is who she is because someone reached out to her – forced themselves into her life and taught her that the world isn't all that bad. For similar reasons, this Natsuki is who she is, because in her case, that didn't happen.

Shizuru didn't happen. Mai did, from what you gather, but Mai... Mai isn't Shizuru. In any reality.

Oh, it's probably not all quite that simple – there's still several things about your alternate that you don't understand - but this is definitely as good a place as any to start.

"You've got that weird look on your face again," Nao comments.

"Ah." You blink and glance up from the phone in your hands. "Sorry. Just having a personal epiphany."

That earns you a curious look. "Yeah? Get those a lot?"

"Not nearly often enough," you admit.

"Hm." Nao thankfully seems content to leave it at that, and instead glances down before picking up the crumpled piece of paper you discarded earlier. "What's this?"

Urgh, not that again. "Just a dream I've been having," you grumble sourly, and deposit the phone on top of the bed. "I think I've had it both nights, though it didn't include any actual words until last night. I've been trying to figure it out all morning."

"One of thirteen, one of ice," Nao quotes as she unfurls the wad of paper and starts reading it. "Thirteen?" She glances up at you. "Ice is you – I figured that much yesterday, but I thought you said there were usually twelve of these HiME?"

"Far as I know, yeah," you nod and set the laptop onto the desk. "But when it happened back home, a company called Searrs tried to hack into the HiME's power. They created a thirteenth one."

Nao grunts thoughtfully. "So whoever this 'we' is, it's definitely someone who knows you're a little out of place here."

"To put it mildly," you mumble. "But who the hell knows that here?"

"Well, me," Nao points out dryly. "But I sure don't have the power needed to pull you from one world to the next. I don't think any human has that kind of power."

Something about that makes you straighten. "Say that again."

Nao blinks. "Well, me?"

"No – the last part."

"I... don't think any human has that kind of power?"

Human.

We.

Find us.

"You've got that expression going again," you hear Nao say. "Another epiphany?"

"Yup."

"...should I open the door before you run into it face-first?"

"Please." You refocus your gaze and eye her. "Up for a trip to the library?"

Nao pulls a face. "Is talking in layers something you make a habit of?"

No, it isn't. But her reply brings to mind someone else who certainly does have that habit, and you grin in response.

Finally – progress.

Maybe even towards home.

xXxXx

"You owe me a new jacket," Nao complains about half an hour later, and you roll your eyes as she displays the tear along one arm.

"I didn't decide to have the gates to the actual school buildings sealed off during the weekends," you argue. "Or to have spikes put on the fence. We had to get in somehow."

"You do realize that the kaichou is given keys to those gates?" Nao growls. "You know, for emergencies?"

That actually makes a lot of sense, you realize, and clap a hand to your forehead. "...fuck."

Nao groans. "How have you lived to this age?!"

"Oh, shut up," you mutter, and start jogging across the empty courtyard when you see the large, circular building looming in the distance. "Fine, if your version of me can afford it, I'll get you a new jacket tomorrow."

Nao gives you another odd look at that, but merely shakes her head and picks up her own pace to match yours.

"Well," you muse as you reach the door to the library. "I suppose the kaichou is given keys to the individual buildings too, hm?"

Nao rolls her eyes and leans against the wall. "Fat lot of good those do when they're probably still in the dorms."

You don't dignify that with a response, although you do send your companion a searching glance when you remember something about Nao back in your own world.

This version notices your look, and returns it. "What?"

"Where I come from," you tell her with the quirk of an eyebrow. "Your counterpart was pretty handy with a lockpick."

"You mean you're not gonna continue your action-hero theme and kick the door in?" Nao smiles charmingly. "Aw, come on! Where's your macha?"

"I will slap you if you don't knock it off," you warn her. "Can you do it, or not?"

"Killjoy," Nao mumbles, but obligingly fishes a set of lockpicks from her inside pocket and drops to one knee in front of the door. "Keep watch, willya? Ten to one says Suzushiro has her goons patrolling, and I'd rather not end up in detention again this term."

"Mm." You obligingly scan the surrounding area while you listen to the faint clicks that signal your companion working. "What'd you get it for previously?"

"Breaking curfew." Nao's response is partially muffled by a louder, more significant sounding click, and you turn to see her pocketing the picks with a satisfied smile before she pushes the door open and bows. "After you."

The library is, of course, dark and completely abandoned, and the sound of the door clicking shut behind you echoes in the huge, vaulted chamber. It looks exactly as you remember it from the times you hunted Nagi down in here, except the massive clock on the floor is set only halfway to the point you last remember seeing it at.

"So, here we are," Nao comments in a bored tone. "Although I still don't see why."

"We need to 'find them where they are'", you quote. "Or where I know they are." Your eyes settle on the large, double doors at the opposite end of the room, and you point towards them. "And if I'm right, that's in there."

"What?" To say that Nao sounds disbelieving would be putting it mildly. "Those doors have been locked in all the time I've been here, and don't even think of asking me to try picking them," she continues as the two of you walk across the floor. "There is no lock to pick!"

"Checked, have you?" you return bemusedly.

Nao shrugs. "I was curious."

Curious, maybe, but in any case she's right, you decide with a sigh as you reach the doors. There's no keyholes to work with here – hell, there isn't even door handles – and you study them in silence while Nao settles herself on the floor with an annoyed grunt.

How, you wonder as you reach out to touch the wooden surface and look up, are you supposed to get in?

HiME of Ice... enter...

"Yow!" You jerk your hand back, and the sudden, hissing voices disappear as suddenly as they showed up. "What the hell was that?!"

"What was what?" is Nao's lazy reply from behind you, and you spin on your heel.

"You didn't hear that?" you demand.

Nao hold up her hands and shrugs. "All I hear is dust settling." She sneezes faintly. "The director really should have this place cleaned more often."

Weird. You furrow your brow and turn back to the door, aware of the fact that you can't hear anything unusual anymore, either. You haven't moved, so why?

Wait... you did move, you remember. You were touching the door before, and hesitantly, you reach out your hand again.

Welcome, Natsuki-hime... The voices resume in an instant when your fingertips reach the carved wood. Enter... open the Gates of Valhalla... speak the name of the One-Eye, and be granted entrance to Asgard...

You have to pull your hand away again, because even that tiny bit of contact of... whatever kind this is... is taxing enough to leave you feeling short of breath. "Valhalla?" you muse to yourself. "Asgard..."

"Are you dropping marbles all over the floor again?" Nao wonders. "Funny... I don't hear any clattering." Your glare only makes her grin. "Seriously, what's with all the Norse mythology you're suddenly spouting?"

"Norse?" You send her a glance from the corner of your eye, because it seems that she might actually know something about this, unlike yourself. "Who's the one-eye, then?"

"Odin?" Nothing happens at Nao's curious response, and you frown at the doors before deciding to try it yourself.

"Odin," you say – loud and clear with your own voice reverberating in the still air – and as if on cue, a loud rumbling echoes in the entire room as the massive doors slowly, haltingly start sliding open in front of your face.

"Whoa." Nao's voice and the sound of her getting to her feet is partially drowned out by the grinding of the doors, and by the sound of several bits of rock clattering to the floor in front of you. "That's one hell of a parlor trick."

You grunt in reply. It's hardly a parlor trick, but it's not like you know what else to call it, either.

"What is this?" Nao wonders.

That, at least, you can reply to – if not exactly make sense of. "The Gates of Valhalla."

"... and we're going in there?"

"I am," you tell her as you turn to face her. "You don't have to. You can wait here if you want."

"Oh, no!" A hand grabs your arm as you take the first step, and Nao easily matches your pace. "No way am I gonna be sitting on my ass out here. If you croak, I seriously doubt that my Natsuki is ever coming back, so deal."

"It's so nice to feel appreciated."

"Shut up."

xXxXx

It takes what feels like at least a good twenty minutes of walking down the sloping, narrow pathway before it widens enough that the two of you can walk side by side rather than single file, and it's a good thing that the strange, bluish glow from the rock around you is strong enough to light the way. After all, it's not like either of you thought to bring a flashlight.

You take a deep breath. Now that you're no longer brushing against the rock with each move you make, the snippets of whispers that invaded your head with every touch have finally stopped, and you feel the springy tension that's settled between your shoulderblades ease somewhat. You haven't said a single word on your own during the trek, and whenever Nao's spoken, your replies have grown more and more short and snappish, until she at last decided to leave you in peace completely.

"Sorry," you mumble in her general direction and rub your temples. "This place is getting to me."

"Proof that you're human," Nao returns with shrug. "I think even Gandhi would freak out here."

"Mm." You nod, even though the fact that you're not entirely human is probably part of the problem here. Normal humans don't battle monsters. Normal humans don't come back from the dead. Normal humans don't hear voices from simple contact with inanimate objects, and normal humans certainly don't feel as if the very stone around them is alive.

"Can you feel anything?" you ask Nao curiously.

"Sure," she replies gamely, and you watch her breath mist in front of her face. "It's colder than a well-diggers ass in here. How could I not feel that?"

That wasn't exactly what you meant, and it probably shows on your face, because the pale, green eyes give you another curious look. "I..." You start, then stop and try to figure out how to explain yourself. "There's some kind of energy here," you continue, fumbling for the words. "I heard voices when I touched the door, and I hear them in here if I touch the rock."

Experimentally, Nao settles her palm against the stone wall, and then shakes her head. "Nothing here."

You too reach out then, and place the entirety of your hand against the cool, glowing rock, and in an instant, you're flooded with a rush of foreign energy that sends you to your knees.

"The inexplicable cannot be explained to those who do not know, Natsuki-hime!" a voice hisses in your ears, and you can feel yourself shaking from the sheer power flowing through your veins until hands grab your arms and pull you physically away from the wall.

"Damn," you pant, and appreciate Nao's arms holding you up from behind, because your legs sure don't feel like they're able to support you.

"Well," comes her voice by your ear, and you wonder why it's trembling slightly. "I'm glad I couldn't hear that before, and I think I'd prefer never hearing it again."

"You heard it this time?" you ask, and manage to get to your own, admittedly shaky feet.

"You were the one speaking," Nao responds, and when you snap your head around to gawk at her, it's obvious that she's more than just a little disturbed by it all. "Only the voice sure wasn't yours."

You sigh. "Sometimes I could really, truly deal with just being a perfectly normal kid," you mutter, and take care not to touch the wall as you straighten fully. You don't know if the loss of control was because the energy is stronger here or simply because more of you was in contact with the source, but you'd rather avoid finding out. "Why the hell can't you hear this stuff when I can?"

"Well..." Nao falls into step beside you as you continue down the path. "Whoever that was called you 'Natsuki-hime'."

"I was a HiME," you agree. "But you..."

"Are not, near as we know" Nao finishes, and wraps her arms around herself as she shivers faintly. "Maybe that's why?"

"Maybe," you mutter, and glance up as the path widens into a large cave in front of you. "Ah. I guess we're here."

"Oh, joy," Nao mumbles. "Welcome to Creepout Central."

The cave is massive, you determine as you crane your neck back and fail to make out anything but the tips of the largest stalactites hanging from the ceiling somewhere above. This place could hold an entire soccer field – bleachers included – and still have room left over for plenty more. You also count – as expected - twelve stone pillars; all covered in strange carvings, all glowing softly with the same, blue light that the walls give off, and all standing at twice your height in a rough circle in the middle of the cavern floor.

"This is seriously weird," Nao mutters next to you. "What the hell is this place?"

"Where I know they are," you respond softly. Even from several feet away, you can feel the pillars humming softly, and you hear Nao's footsteps follow you uneasily as you continue towards them.

"Where who is?" Nao demands. "Dammit, give me some straight answers!"

"The Childs." Cautiously, you touch the pillar that calls to you the most with a single finger, and hear a familiar growl echo in the back of your mind as you close your eyes. "Duran..." You touch the next one in exchange for for a melancholy call that sounds faintly like a whale. "Kagutsuchi..." Another pillar, and another low growl – somehow different this time. "Harry..." Slowly, you make your way around the outside of the circle, softly naming each of them while Nao watches in some concern from a few feet away. "Gennai, Miroku, Gakutenou, St. Vlas, Julia, Diana, Yatagarasu, Suishouhime, and..." You come full-circle – as it were – and reach towards the final pillar. "Kiyohime."

At that touch, the rush of energy is back, although this time you at least manage to stay upright.

Enter the circle, comes the hiss in your ears again, and you can almost feel a strange wind swirling around you. Enter and learn... There's more being said, but it's a cacophony of whispers that blend into a solid wall of unintelligible noise, and you pull back and have to take a few seconds to let your heartbeat settle back down before you turn to face Nao.

"I don't like that look on your face," she tells you. "That's not an epiphany – it looks more like idiocy."

Strangely, the alarm in her voice makes you smile. "They're asking me to enter the circle," you tell her, and hold up a hand to stop the protest you can see forming. "We have to figure this out somehow. This is the best bet."

"Fine," she replies after a few moments of sour scowling. "If you die, I'm gonna kick your ass."

That makes you grin. "Let's see," you tell her, and step into the circle. The HiME symbol is visible on the floor here, you note idly as you feel the air start to shift around you. It's still solid rock like the rest of the floor, but colored darker than what surrounds it, and when you step onto it, it starts glowing abruptly. Strongly.

Blindingly.

This time, the rush of power not only sends you to your hands and knees – it's so sudden and outright agonizing that it makes you cry out.

"Those who came before are gone," comes a growl, and you're vaguely aware of your own lips speaking the words much like earlier. "Those who will be have yet to arrive."

"All is one, and one is all," a hiss takes over. "In Valhalla's halls and the true land of Fuuka, time is but a footnote in the story of eternity."

"Natsuki!"

"No!" You somehow – somehow – manage to wrest enough control back to stop Nao before she can grab you. "This... needs to happen!" You grit your teeth against the pain. "Just... ten minutes!"

"Release yourself, Natsuki-hime," comes the growl once more. "Find what you seek in the world that mortal eyes don't see."

"Come..." The hiss again. "Open your eyes, and we will show."

Then there's a sudden suction around your middle, and before you can blink, the entire room – everything around you – just disappears.

xXxXx