Disclaimer:

I own nothing but my OC(s). Everything else belongs to either Square Enix or Disney.

KINGDOM HEARTS: Of Days and Memories

Naminé…?

Floor II

And all she could do, was let loose a bloodcurdling scream.

~.:*:.~

"Then…we should make a promise?"

He was met with dual "huh" to his suggestion. Goofy rubbed his nose. "What you said back there…kinda got my brain a-thinkin'. Whenever you make a promise that's super-duper big, maybe it gives you courage to face the scary stuff!"

"Courage…" Sora mulled it over, eyes gazing to the white ceiling above. Something crossed his face; a gleam of understanding.

Donald fed off his understanding and renewed energy. "Yeah- let's do it!" He held out a feathered hand for his companions; palm down. "Even if we get scared, or in trouble- or even if we get separated-"

Goofy placed his hand on top of the duck's with an added interjection. "-or even if we sorta forget each other."

Sora's ashen face held the glow of rebirthed energy and motivation. "Whatever happens. We're friends."

When the boy's hand came crashing down with his energized determination, Donald grinned too. "All for one, and one for all."

But Sora still had that nagging feeling. Something was amiss. Goofy had reassured that they'd retreat to find Ari, when the way was open again; without Marluxia to block their route again. But he could not shake the dread making its home in the pit of his stomach.

He couldn't rid himself of the feeling that his childhood friend was in deep trouble.

With the other two ahead, he slammed a fist against a décor pillar. While it was unmarred, his tension exuded some.

'I'll find ya, Ari. I won't leave you behind in this place.'

~.:*:.~

The illusion, in part, had broken from memory after a time. But it all remained mashed together in her clouded mind. Curled unto herself in a corner, she was racked by sobs triggered by memory after memory. All plagued by yellow eyes and apathetic grins. Of Ienzo's last hoarse plea for her to flee, of Even choking as his life force snuffed out. Of the image of Dilan and Aeleus walking away, their backs facing her as their statures shrank with the growth of distance.

She pressed her eyes deeper into her knees, sobbing again as the images plagued her.

Of the gardens swarming with moving shadows. Of the distant screams as the grounds were overrun.

Of cold fingers brushing over her face and neck. A smooth voice cooing such cruel words. The grip crushing her windpipe as more screams and the maddening sound of a frantic city echoed back distantly to the chapel he'd trapped her in.

She shuddered violently.

'And I could never utter the word. 'Why'…' She felt sick to her stomach, the acid churning as her nerves clenched tighter throughout her body.

The sound of the screeching of Heartless and the rampage over the city continued to dance over the walls, surrounding and drowning her in vivid imagery of her mind's eye. It was all too familiar still, even after having been locked away for nigh a decade.

Ari stumbled from her knees, pounding again on a door that wouldn't budge. For whatever reason, once she'd found the out-of-place white stone, her card didn't react. 'It was a trap to lure me in,' she'd mulled at the time, thoughts scattered and slow as everything beat around her.

The second time, she pressed forward, kneeled and heavy and limbs barely responding to the signals her brain was sending by message. But one fist collided against the stone, other arm acting as a brace to hold her head somewhat upright. Another collision. And she choked on a cry. "Somebody…!"

Her body finally gave out, side crashing to the floor and third fist missing the door entirely. She grunted as her ribs met the cold, hard floor, curling in onto herself when another wave of hysteria erupted. "Don't leave me t-trapped in here…"

A desperate plea. One she was unsure, later down the line, if it became her saving grace.

She didn't know how long it was between, but the sound of gears clicking brought her reddened eyes up in surprise to the door barring her from escape.

A silence followed, and then the shadows dissipated in a blinding light. Unlike the other doors of the castle, this one did not just open. It vanished.

Blinded, she barred her forearms against her eyes to protect her retinas from permanent damage. Caught among confusion, Ari remained paused in her protective cocoon on herself. Until a voice, aged and bitter, brought her widened eyes out from hiding.

"Such a state you're in. It's unfathomable someone such as you has found yourself so broken."

Her tongue had turned to lead the moment his own articulate one had crafted words just as well as he'd done long ago.

"Come, then. We've no time to waste." Neither cruel nor kind.

She scrambled, knees falling as her legs had to remember to bear her weight again. And follow him she did, back into halls of white where she'd welcome the emptiness of their labyrinth than the cruelty of her memories.

? (Unknown Floor)

~.:*:.~

"But…can you face him?"

Riku had to put more might than he thought into restraining the growl wanting to escape from deep within his chest. This…man, or something, before him was running riddles around his head. "What do you mean by that?"

"The essence of untamed Darkness feeds away at Ansem's shadow, which nestles deep inside your heart. Do you honestly plan to face Sora in this state? Are you not ashamed?"

Riku had to turn his gaze away from the one sole eye not obscured by slate-gray hair. It unnerved him, that color. Almost as if…

No. He shook his head, frown creasing while he clenched both fists.

The other continued, face neutral but words a poison on his silver tongue. "Sora's fate is to battle the Darkness. By that law, he must appose anyone who hosts the Dark. In other words, you."

He was satisfied at the wince the teen shuddered through. He grinned, a smug peel of lips over white teeth. "Not to mention you're a toxin to the other bearer. It's unheard of for a bearer to remain in limbo- between the Light and the Dark. By keeping you out of the equation, she cannot drown by your toxin." His grin shattered into a piercing gaze. "Your entire existence is nothing but a parasite. But if you don't believe the words I say," from his sleeve, a card fell into place between his right middle and index fingers. And he tossed it with precision towards the boy. "Then you had best get going, and see the truth with your own eyes."

Riku fumbled after catching the card, eyes widening with brown furrowing at the image depicted. "Th-this card…! No way…this is our-"

The slate haired young man nodded once; slowly. "Yes," his way of speaking was precise and equally matched the pace of his rising gaze on the adolescent. "It is your home."

Riku grimaced after his departure into Darkness; eyes casting downwards again to the card he held in hand. 'I'm…I'm not some parasitic thing. I won't deter them- not again.'

~.:*:.~

He'd led, she followed. In silence, save for the sound of their shoes scuffing against the polished floors. His stride tall and dignified, stiff with purpose. Hers was clumsy and focused solely on keeping up with his lengthy pace.

Step. After step. After step.

Finally his voice bounced between white walls and white ceilings, bringing her gaze to snap upwards on the red bindings wrapped around all but one amber eye.

His gaze was sharp, his words giving away nothing but purpose. "You are to meet and wait with a young girl ahead. You're in need of rest, and I've no time to sit around whilst the other bearer wanders these walls lost."

She was perplexed. "Other…?"

"In that room to which you came to be captive, you did not feel the foundation of this citadel quake. The…'caretaker', if you will, has been felled by your friend. However, something transpired in which he's now no longer able to function as he had been prior." He turned away from her confused frown, nonchalant in his walk as they continued to pass through halls. "The other once drifting in Darkness has found his way here. And while you've been reacquired from your prison, he's still lost as he searches aimlessly."

She stopped her pace, staring at his robed backside as he approached a set of double doors much like the ones she'd become used to in every stretch of hall she traipsed through alone. "That…what do you me-"

"Now is not the time to be asking questions." His tone was sharp. "For now, please continue inside. She will answer everything as I pick up the pieces of this mess."

Ari knew he wasn't being unkind. But no less did she feel any better. Rather than argue, as much as the thought enticed her, she wrapped her arms tighter around her abdomen and hurried inside at a quick little trot when he beckoned her to proceed ahead of him.

'Riku…Sora… Donald and Goofy and Jiminy, too. What happened…?'

Her heart murmured with a cold shudder.

'What do I do?'

Dim lighting, off-white walls. Down a shallow staircase, an archway lacking any door to bar her way and light washing outwards from the frame. The man and the girl continued on in silence; he following behind. Down the hall, and down the steps. Down down down, that's all she was beginning to recognize. And when they came through the archway, pain seared her eyes. The light washing through blinded her corneas as it pierced the dim contrast she'd become used to for the stretch.

Behind her, she heard him hum in thought, as his eye came to faster than her own sight could. 'He's gone through these halls, and this room, before.' She mulled, wincing as she tried to look back at him. Vaguely, the browns and reds of his garb pulled through against the whitewash around them. But his gaze fell not on her, but what was within the room that he was focused on bringing her to see.

"Well?" his voice was curt. "The prognosis?"

A shy voice answered him with hesitation lilting her speech. "He's just gone to sleep. They…all have."

She turned to the location of the voice. And through the adjustment her pupils dilated to, she saw the slim little form of…a girl? Younger than she, and dainty in structure. Ari gasped, when her eyes were locked onto those of the other.

Ari backstepped once, at the trap those blue irises pinned her in. "Who…?"

The girl clutched her fingers together, eyes suddenly darting away. "My…my name is-"

"Unimportant at this time. Sora and the others are safe then, I take it?"

The girl flinched, meeting the man's gaze timidly. "Y-yes. They're safe and sound in these pods you built. They're working flawlessly so far. But I won't…won't know much else until after I deconstruct the chains in their memories that-"

"Very well," he brushed off. Placing a hand on Ari's shoulder, he leaned down to her height. "This is the one I wished you to speak to. She will bring you up to date on the current situation." He briskly turned away, waving off the pale child and the teenager as he marched away at the same intent pace he'd used when guiding Ari down the halls of the castle to the chambers he planned to leave her in. "If you'll excuse me- there is one more tool to recover before he, too, becomes unusable."

Ari, though frowning, her gaze softened when she turned her attention away from the disappearing form from the shadows. The other girl, she noted, seemed to shy away, avoiding her eyes as she nervously shifted her fingers over her knuckles in rotations.

The older veered her eyes to the large mechanism standing high in the center of the whitewashed room. 'Is that the pod she meant?' She wondered, tucking her hands into her hoodie's pocket and noting the wires both connecting on the top from the ceiling, and through the root of the flooring.

When she did pry her eyes from the machine, she noticed the other girl shyly watching her; as if waiting for punishment or anger to come lashing her way from the older girl.

Ari took a breath, and sighed tiredly. She offered a half smile, surprising the little blonde. "Perhaps you could tell me your name, now?"

The other was perplexed, to her small amusement. "He's gone," she beckoned back towards the archway leading up the darkened stairway with a nod of her head. "I doubt he'll be back anytime soon." Her smile pulled a little wider.

Letting loose a breath Ari suspected she was holding for quite the time, the girl nodded once to the request. "My name…it's Naminé."

"Naminé?" Ari tested on her tongue. 'So that's who you are…' She nodded once, accepting the persona of the name she didn't know in grace. "Alright then, Naminé. I get the feeling you already know my name…?"

She nodded, letting go of her knuckles, clasping her wrists instead behind her back. "Your preferred name is Ari- but I do know your full name." Her smile was small, at that. "Arina."

Ari let a dry chuckle break, nodding at the other. "Knew it." Her gaze shifted, again, to the pod standing high and wide behind the little blonde. The humor fell, and Naminé turned away when their eye contact broke. Ari licked her cracked lips. "Think…you can fill me in now?"

"Of…of course." She noticed Naminé flinch again. "Please…will you come this way? And…and not judge me until I tell you the full story?"

Ari nodded, taking careful strides until she stood side by side by the girl. She looked down into her irises; the color so similar to hers it was perplexing. "Deal."

The pads of her fingers pressed just as firmly as the palm of her hand; spreading over the opaque glass. Her eyes watched the face of the sleeping boy- oblivious to everything transpiring around him. In a smaller chamber, Naminé had shown her the passage, Donald and Goofy slept soundly, too.

"I see…" Ari murmured. "So that's what happened." It made sense. Why Sora's behavior had become erratic the one reunion they'd shared, before she'd made the decision to hunt for Riku in the lower halls. "But what I don't understand is this- why not my memory?"

Her eyes flicked to the girl, who had lowered her own gaze down to her sandaled feet. The younger bit her lip. "I…didn't want to erase any trail. The…Organization was never after you. You were my insurance, I suppose." She looked up, finding reprieve in no scolding emanating from the other. She pressed on. "Sora's memory, because of who and what I am, is easy for me to manipulate. However, you are tied to the person I stem from…in a sense."

"A 'Nobody'," Ari mulled. "That…makes sense." She looked aback to the sleeping boy. "You feel like her. I was taken aback, when I first cast you in my line of vision." She laughed softly, turning back to the girl with a hallowed smile. "So lemme try to piece your logic together. I wasn't directly easy to disassemble via memory. And your hopes were that before Sora encountered this…Marluxia, he and I would cross paths again and everything you dismantled in him might bring itself at least a little closer to the surface. Do I have it?"

Naminé's eyes brightened, a gasp escaping her abruptly. She smiled, nodding vigorously. "Yes! Because you are Kairi's cousin, you may have triggered some of the damage I'd done to dismantle itself. I never put any hint of you in the replica of Riku, too, in greater hopes that Sora would find it suspicious that this 'Riku' didn't acknowledge any recognition of you. I covered my tracks…and I used you as my one hopeful trump in all the damage I'd caused. However…" She tapped at her lip with her left index finger. "You behaved in a way I hadn't quite predicted. Rather than proceed or take another alcove of stairs up- you decided to pursue after the tug you felt from Riku's heart. Rather than return to Sora's side…you chose to find your way to Riku's, instead." Her smile was soft. "It might have been for the better, this way… I'm not sure how Marluxia would have behaved." She frowned. "That's…why you were given that card. It was meant to build itself off the memories you shared of that place, from when you were small. If nothing else, to keep you out of the way."

"Well," Ari clicked her tongue, scowling at the glass under her touch absentmindedly. "It worked."

"Yes…but at least you're still alive."

She turned to the smaller girl, quirking a brow.

Naminé's gaze held a steadiness Ari was surprised such a small girl could powerfully utilize. "If they knew just how dangerous you were to their plans, they'd have made it a priority to dispose of you."

She felt sick, though she was pretty sure her face didn't reveal the notion. Rather, she feigned to take what Naminé said in stride. "Then…what happens now?"

The blonde turned, then, to the boy asleep inside his glass cocoon. "We wait for Riku to find his way. He has a choice to make. And we're at a standstill until he makes that decision."

Author's Endnote:

First of all, let me apologize for the weeks of silence. School became chaotic, tacked on with depression and preparation for my graduation. As consolation for the delay (btw I did graduate from college! As of December 10th :)) I'm posting four chapters today. I still might be a bit slow in posting weekly updates, but I'm back to work (kinda, still finishing up Final Fantasy XV).

So expect four chapters today!

I think I'll leave this chapter here. Thank you for sticking through! We're getting close to the end of Castle Oblivion.

~ AoZ