AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry this took so long to get on; I just moved for university last week so I was busy packing and saying goodbye to people and such. Plus, you know, procrastination.

I hope you all enjoy this chapter! A special thanks to Kasagai-chan, FanFictionWriter123, relena soulheart, Silverbird22 and Queen Mickey for reviewing the last chapter!

This chapter is dedicated to Kira Neami, Lumiere D'Amour, LilyAllycia, Pure-chan and The ninja of anime3.

Enjoy! Please review!

Chapter 12 – Forgotten Girl

~Mariko's POV~

It was quite a few hours after Aqua had arrived and the sun was already starting to set. Aqua had been caught up on everything, including the fact that she was a video game character in our world, and amazingly she seemed quite calm about the whole ordeal. Riku, Aqua and Hana had been chatting for ages up at the paopu fruit tree while the rest of us had set up a camp fire.

"They could come and help," Chizu was grumbling.

"Well Aqua kinda needs to be told everything that's happened," Hisano pointed out. "She's missed 11 years' worth of gossip."

At that point Chizu threw a branch at Hisano, which she easily managed to dodge. "You're not helping either!" she cried "Actually, only me, Mariko and Machi are actually doing anything right now!"

I looked around and realised she was right. Hisano was just lying on her back watching us, and Sora had taken Kairi back to the main island for the night, afraid that being in the Realm of Darkness had affected her more than she was admitting. Selphie, Tidus and Wakka hadn't been to the island in a few days, and Riku, Aqua and Hana were now making their way back from the tree, but they were still a few hundred metres away from us.

Hisano shrugged. "Hey, I went on a glorious and dangerous rescue mission today. I've done my work; screw the fire."

This time Machi threw a branch at Hisano and actually managed to hit her. Hisano swore and jumped up, starting to chase Machi round our make-shift fire pit. Chizu and I just rolled our eyes and kept throwing branches in the put before Hisano actually tackled Machi and knocked her to the ground.

I heard a laugh behind me and turned to see Aqua grinning at the two girls attempting to wrestle each other on the sand. Riku was smiling too, used to our antics at this point, whereas Hana was face-palming in embarrassment.

"Is this…normal?" Aqua asked, still giggling slightly.

"Yes," Riku and Hana answered at the same time, albeit in very different tones of voice: Riku sounding quite amused while Hana sounded like she wanted to murder them right there and then.

Machi clearly heard the embarrassment in Hana's voice and stopped trying to strangle Hisano, turning to face her.

"Ashamed of us being weirdoes now Hana?" she teased.

Hana plopped herself down next to them and lightly pushed Machi, causing her to lose her balance. "I'm always ashamed of you guys," she joked.

I heard a sigh next to me and looked round at Aqua. "Are you okay?" I asked.

Aqua nodded with a sad smile on her face. "Yeah, I'm fine. You're all just so close…it sort of reminds me of how I used to be with Terra and Ven."

I nodded in sympathy. I wasn't as well versed in the Kingdom Hearts universe as Hana or Hisano, but Hana's favourite game was Birth By Sleep – the game Aqua, Ventus and Terra were from – so thanks to her very rarely shutting up about it I knew quite a bit about that particular game.

"We'll find them Aqua."

I glanced round to see that Riku had joined in the conversation. "We'll find Ventus and Terra, I promise," he repeated.

Aqua didn't meet his gaze. Instead she just nodded before heading towards the forest to gather more wood for the fire.

"She doesn't believe that we're going to find them, does she?" Riku sighed.

I shrugged. "Can you blame her? If someone had just come up to you and said, 'don't worry, you'll find Sora and Kairi,' would that have helped you at all?"

"Well…no, probably not," Riku admitted.

"What I don't understand is how she knew our names," Chizu piped up.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Even back in the Realm of Darkness she knew my name," Hisano frowned. "It's really weird."

"You hadn't heard of us before we came here, had you Riku?" Hana asked. "Cause if there's some weird prophecy about us that we didn't know about then now would be a great time to tell us."

Riku shook his head. "Nope, nothing I've heard of anything," he answered, "but Aqua is technically a lot older than me. Maybe she'd heard something about you before I was born?"

"I guess that would be possible," Hana mused as Aqua walked back towards us with an armful of wood.

"What would be possible?" Aqua asked, dropping the wood on the pile.

"That you had maybe heard about us from some sort of prophecy years ago," Hisano explained. "We're just trying to think of any way you could know our names."

Aqua sat herself down between Hisano and Chizu as Riku tried to get the fire going. "I suppose that might be it," she said. "I still honestly have no idea how I knew your names. I'm certain I'd never seen any of your faces before today, except for Riku, Sora and Kairi and that was when they were children."

Everyone fell silent as they tried to think of other possibilities. When nobody spoke up Riku coughed awkwardly.

"I guess we should get some sleep," he suggested. "We've been through a lot today."

Aqua chuckled. "Technically I haven't slept in eleven years. I guess I could do with a nap."

"You don't sleep in the Realm of Darkness?" Machi asked, surprised.

"Nope," Aqua answered. "Time isn't really a factor there. If you all hadn't told me it had been eleven years I wouldn't have known how long I'd been away. Since there's no way to tell when it's day or night there's no way to tell when to sleep. Plus I…I don't think I moved from that spot on the beach since I found it."

Aqua looked a bit upset again so Hisano spoke up.

"Well, if you haven't slept in eleven years then I think you need an early night!" she teased.

Aqua burst out laughing. "Yes ma'am!" she saluted.

"Mariko."

"…"

"Mariko!"

"…Wha?"

"C'mon Mariko. This is important. I need to speak to you."

I blinked my eyes open sleepily and slowly sat up. I wasn't on the beach and nobody else was there. I jumped up in a blind panic and summoned my keyblade.

"Mariko! Calm down!"

I spun around but I couldn't find the source of the voice. I could barely see anything; it was pitch black.

"…Who are you?" I asked in a shaky voice. "Where is everyone else?"

I felt a hand on my shoulder and whirled around to see a figure around my height in a black coat with the hood up. The same coat that Riku, Kairi and Hisano had worn when they went to the Realm of Darkness.

"Who are you?" I repeated.

The figure reached up and pulled her hood down. It was a girl around the same age as me, maybe a little younger. She had bright blue eyes and short black hair. I recognised her straight away.

"Xion?" I gasped.

Xion smiled somewhat shyly. "You know who I am?"

I nodded, grinning and dismissing my keyblade. "You're Hana's favourite character. She talks about you a lot."

A faint blush flared up on Xion's cheeks. "They must have portrayed me well in the games then," she giggled.

I was surprised. "You know about the games?"

Xion nodded. "I now live inside Sora's heart, so anything he knows I know."

I looked around. "So…where are we?"

Xion shrugged. "This isn't a physical place. You're dreaming. I guess we're inside your head."

"Inside my head? I would have thought my head would be a bit more interesting than this," I admitted.

Xion laughed again before her face turned more serious. "Mariko, I really need to talk to you. It's about how Aqua knew all of your names."

Now I was listening properly. "How do you know how she knows our names?"

Xion sighed slightly and shook her head. "I honestly don't know. I just kinda…know it. Sorry, I know I'm not being clear at all…"

I smiled. "Don't worry about it. I'm kinda getting used to stuff not being very well explained or people not knowing how stuff works. The Kingdom Hearts universe is a bit nutty that way."

Xion smiled. "That is true."

I shook my head slightly. "Sorry. Back to Aqua."

"Right," Xion nodded. "Basically – although Aqua doesn't realise it – she summoned you here while she was in the Realm of Darkness. Since she is connected to Sora she subconsciously realised he was in trouble during his Mark of Mastery exam, and somehow she reached across the worlds and called you and your friends here."

I frowned. "But…we didn't arrive until after Sora's exam was well over. If she summoned us while he was in danger shouldn't we have arrived sooner?"

"Time flows differently in different worlds," Xion explained. "You got the message exactly when you were meant to, but it was Sora's heart nearly falling to darkness that triggered it."

I ran my hand through my fluffy brown hair and stopped for a moment to think about what Xion was saying. "So Hana was right. We are meant to be here."

Xion nodded with a serious look on her face. "Sora, Riku and the others need you. You may not be part of the seven lights but they will still need you all to fight with them when the time comes."

"By 'you all' you mean me and the other girls?" I asked.

Xion screwed her face up a bit. "Well yes…but not just you."

I frowned but I waited for her to continue.

"Xehanort is strong. Really strong," Xion stated. "And he isn't alone. No matter what way you look at it, seven versus thirteen isn't a really a fair fight, and no doubt there'll be heartless, dusks and maybe even unversed also helping him. With you girls helping Sora and the others the odds tip in our favour. But with even more people, we would have even more of a chance."

"What people?"

"Kairi and Axel…I mean, Lea for a start." Xion's face fell slightly when she mentioned Lea but she quickly recovered. "But not just them. Sora and Riku met a lot of people on their travels who I'm sure would be willing to help. Chip and Dale still have the Gummi Ship. Donald and Goofy could go to other worlds and ask people to help. When they hear that Sora needs them, I'm sure they'll all come."

I remembered something that Hana had told me about Kingdom Hearts suddenly. "But I thought that other people weren't allowed to know that there were other worlds," I pointed out.

Xion smiled rather deviously. "Given the circumstances I doubt any of the Keyblade Masters would be too angry."

I grinned. "Wow. You're not as innocent as you first seemed."

Xion laughed. "I get that a lot."

"But what about you?" I asked. "You have a keyblade too right? Can't you help us?"

Xion sighed heavily and looked down. "Nobody remembers me…apart from people from your world. My own best friends don't remember I ever existed… Even if I could help they might think I'm one of the enemy. That or Xehanort could try to use me. I'm only a puppet after all…it probably wouldn't be too hard for him to take control of me."

I couldn't help myself. I pulled Xion into a hug.

"You're not a puppet," I promise her. "I might not know as much about you as Hisano or Hana do, but even I know you're not a puppet. If you were then you wouldn't have emotions. You wouldn't have a heart."

I pulled away and Xion looked shocked. Then her face broke into a huge smile.

"Thank you Mariko," she smiled. "You're really sweet." She looked up for a moment before looking back at me. "It's nearly morning. You need to wake up now and tell Hana what I said. But make sure nobody else apart from your friends knows about me. Sora and the others can't know."

I nodded reluctantly before squeezing her hand. "Try to come and help us. They won't think of you as the enemy, I'm sure of it."

I suddenly felt my eyelids getting heavy and found it impossible to keep them open. Xion faded from my few just as I heard her murmur something.

"I'll try."

I bolted awake. It was morning and I was back on the beach sleeping in a circle around the remnants of the campfire we had made last night with no help whatsoever from Hisano. Hana was next to me still fast asleep. I knew she was cranky when she first woke up but this was important information so I shook her violently.

"…'et off," she mumbled, rolling away from me.

I grumbled and shook her again. "You need to wake up," I hissed in her ear. "It's about Xion."

Hana's eye opened slowly as she realised what I'd said. "Did you just say…?"

I pulled her to her feet and dragged her away from the campsite in case Riku or Aqua was lying awake.

"Xion spoke to me last night," I explained. "She said we were called here by Aqua in order to help fight Xehanort, but she didn't realised she had called us. That's how she knew our names."

Hana's eyes widened. "Xion told you all that?"

I nodded "She says we can't tell Sora and the others about her though."

Hana sighed but also nodded. "Yeah, I understand that. Did she say anything else?"

"She said that we need even more help to fight Xehanort," I reported. "Other than Kairi and Lea, she suggested that Donald and Goofy take the Gummi Ships and go around the other worlds asking people to help. She said that given the circumstances it should be okay to tell people about other worlds."

Hana's eyes began to sparkle. "That is brilliant…I can't believe we didn't think of that!"

"Can you think of people who would help?" I asked.

Her grin widened. "Oh yeah. A lot of people."

~Hana's POV~

Around half an hour later and everyone was filled in on the plan, including Sora and Kairi who had come back over from the main island. Sora, Riku, Aqua and I were now making a list of everyone who we thought would be willing to help.

"Everyone from Hollow Bastion is a must," Sora said. "Leon, Cloud, Yuffie, Aerith and Tifa would all be great."

"What about that girl Mulan?" Riku suggested. "And that Aladdin person?"

"Then there's Tarzan, Jack Skellington, Peter Pan, Hercules, Simba and loads of others," I said. "This list is going to be pretty long…"

"I was thinking of Peter as well," Aqua said. "Also what about Experiment 626? He's small but he's strong."

"Of course, Stitch!" I grinned. "Last time we saw him was at Hollow Bastion as well."

"Can you think of anyone else?" Sora asked Aqua.

"Well…there was a boy I met once called Zack. He was pretty good. Said he wanted to be a hero."

I paused to think. The last we saw of Zack in Birth By Sleep was during the credits scene where it looked like Sephiroth had taken him somewhere. Plus I had no idea what the link was between him and Cloud in this universe. Was it anything like it was in Final Fantasy VII? This could get complicated…

"Are Donald and Goofy really going to be able to find all of these people before we have to go fight Xehanort?" Riku asked, leaning over my shoulder to look at the list and startling me.

I forced myself to not blush. His face was so close to mine…but I bit my tongue and focused.

"They should have plenty of time today anyway," I said, looking right at Aqua and smiling. "Today's the day we get Ven back."

Aqua grinned and looked like she was going to reply before a voice behind me interrupted.

"Yeah, about that."

We all looked round to see Lea standing there actually looking slightly worried.

"Hana, Riku. I need to talk to you," he said.

We both looked at each other a shrugged before following him, leaving a rather confused Sora and Aqua to finish the list off.

"What's up?" Riku asked.

"You're going to Castle Oblivion, aren't you?" Lea asked.

I nodded. We had gone back to Master Yen Sid's tower the day before just after Aqua had returned. Aqua had stayed on the island with the others but we'd reported that she was safe and that we planned to travel to Castle Oblivion to retrieve Ventus the next day.

"Castle Oblivion used to be where Aqua, Ven and Terra trained under Master Eraqus," I explained. "When the world was lost to darkness Aqua took Eraqus's keyblade a transformed the world into Castle Oblivion. Only Aqua can find the room where Ven's physical body is hidden. Even if she's forgotten where it is, we think that Ven's heart within Sora may react when it's near Ven's body and help us to find him."

"So you're planning on taking Sora with you?" Lea clarified. When we both nodded he sighed.

"What's wrong with that idea?" I asked.

"Sora had every memory of Castle Oblivion wiped from his memory, remember?" Lea pointed out. "Naminé made sure of that. If he goes back to the castle and starts to remember stuff, you don't know what might happen. Naminé made it very clear to me once that if someone who has forgotten certain memories remembers them again all at once, it can spell disaster."

"…We never even thought about that," I sighed. "What are we going to do? We can't risk Sora getting hurt but we need him to come with us as a failsafe."

I turned to Riku, expecting him to look worried but instead he was grinning. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of black fabric.

"I have an idea," he chuckled.

AN: I do love Xion in case you couldn't tell :-D

Since I'm at uni now, sadly, lectures and placements and such have to be my priority. I pinkie promise I will still update this as often as I can though!

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Please revieeeeeeew!