(a/n: I do not own Pokemon or whatever, or Nintendo Gamecube (although I am in possession of a gamecube and a nintendo 64. So sue me! Sheesh!) And Xifa helped write this story. She is Aera, Megumi, Brock, Cameron, Dennis, Edwin, and Frankie. I am everyone else. So please read and review!)

Iris

By: Xifa and Sefie Lynne Tilmitt

Chapter 7

Four men walked into the room. Who were they? I shook my head, not wanting to know. But they came towards me, one of them that looked familliar.... black hair, blue eyes, like someone I'd seen before... He looked like he'd been upset, but the others were just smirking.

"So, Storm... How does it feel?"

Storm... so that was who I was. Well, at least I knew something reassuring.

"What the heck did you do to me?" I felt a sudden rush of anger for no apparent reason, and I walked forward and picked the main guy up and threw him onto the floor.

"Ah," he smiled, which surprised me, "It worked! Send word to Miror B. immediatly, Aaron."

"Yessir."

"Storm, my name is D'Atri... I have a lot to tell you about." He lead me to another room.

"Just tell me what's going on already." I scowled.

"You," he smiled, "Are the perfect mercenary. Now let's begin...."

I was running laps around the building like he'd told me too; he said that the stronger I was, the more he would tell me. And I already knew I was pretty powerful, because I'd picked him up and thrown him first thing as soon as I was off that machine. He said running laps was a a good form of discipline. I didn't mind. No, I didn't mind at all. It gave me more time to think.... Think and figure things out. The one thing I remembered... Aera... what is it? Who is it? Is it even a person? It didn't make any sense, but it was like the word was burned into my mind.

I pulled out something out of my pocket that D'Atri hadn't managed to steal from me. Pokemon Data System. I openned up the main screen, and on my e-mail list were a lot of names that I didn't know, like Edwin and Megumi, but then, at the very end, was Aera. God, who was Aera?! I ran harder for some reason, shoving my PDA back into my pocket. I'd have to look into that.

"Good morning, Storm," a girl with long, wavy brown hair and bright blue eyes smiled pleasantly. "I just want you to know it was all a lie."

"Who the heck are you?" I was at least polite enough not to cuss infront of a lady.

She blinked, surprised, then beamed happily.

"You don't remember anything! YESSSSS! I'm free! No more guilt about lying! Zilch! Nada! Nil!" she did a little dance. "I'm free! Oh, er...my name is Megumi. Pleasure to meet the new you," she nodded.

"You know, don't you?" I asked suddenly. "You know about before."

"Well, I was there for a good part of it," she smiled cheerfully. "So, yeah, I do know. ...do you really not remember anything? That--" polite pause "--told me you'd forget everything, but I never believed him..." she mumbled something inaudible under her breath. "Jerk. He almost makes me look nice."

"If you know, then what's Aera? Or who's Aera? And no, in answer to your question, I remember nothing, only what D'Atri told me."

"There are a good many words I have for D'Atri...however...I'm trying to cut back on that kind of stuff," she made a face. "So whtaever he says? It's probably a lie. And if it's not, well, then it's not worth your knowing. He's an idiot. Don't listen to anything he says. You can trust me there," she scowled. "Aera is the name of a spell on Kingdom Hearts, which is a popular video game. You get it after you get Aero and before you get Aeraga, if there is an Aeraga on that game...I can't remember. I got too mad when Sora became a -- well, I won't give away the ending of it for you!" she beamed.

I shook my head. "Whatever."

"Perhaps you'll learn some more about Aera. I'll go dump my Kingdom Hearts game in your room and you can play it. Yay for Aera! Only it takes forever to get there. ...maybe you'll run into it early," she mumbled. "Around seven...that might work..."

"I'm not into video games. Miror B. doesn't allow them here."

"He's too busy dancing to pay any attention to whether you play it or not," she mumbled. "And believe me, you'll like this one..."

"How do I know that you're not an enemy, huh?" I crossed my arms and observed her, looking for any form of hidden weapon.

She pulled out a small sword and tossed it at me.

"Feel safer now?" she rolled her eyes. "...you can trust me because I'm over not being trustable. Of course, you wouldn't remember. But I'm on the way to hookin' you up with your memories..." she still had the same preoccupied look she'd had for the last ten minutes now, as if she was talking just to be talking and had no idea what she was saying, too preoccupied with whatever she was thinking about.

"...How?" I didn't pick up the sword, despite the urge to. Maybe if she knew about my past, then she wasn't all bad.

"I don't honestly believe you could ever forget about Aera...or Aeraga, if they had it...dang it! I can't remember if it was in there or not! Wait, what were we talking about?" she broke out of her trance, picking up her sword and putting it away, smiling. I'd missed my chance. "Anyways...well, I don't know if it'll work, but...I don't know. I think it will, if anything I know is right..."

"I have a question.... why is it, that when I woke up... that I couldn't even remember my own name, but I knew the word Aera?"

By now she'd moved on to singing this strange song that I would guess was called 'I believe in a thing called love', since that was the only line of it she seemed to know. She blinked and stared at me as if I were stupid.

"Oh, that's all you remembered? That's cute," she said distractedly.

"Cute?" I stared at her as if she'd grown a second head.

"Yeah, cute. You guys always were cuties. I was kinda jealous, then I just didn't really care anymore. I mean, how can I destroy cuteness?! It goes against everything that I've ever learned..."

"S-ure."

"Yeah, seven's good. You better not leave this horrid place anytime soon, okay?! Because I'm stuck here and you're not leaving until I get to go too," she stuck her tongue out at me. "You've ditched me one too many times. I'm not doing this again."

"Why would I leave? This is my home. And what do you mean, I've ditched you? How did I know you before? Your name was in my PDA. So I must've known you pretty well in my past."

"You kept my name?" she laughed. "I added that in myself and figured you'd delete it. Whatever. You must not have found it or something. You used to be madly in love with me, in a former life. No! I'm joking," she laughed again. "Though it'd be funny if I could really make you believe that, although it'd cheese her off a lot...but..." she shook her head, still laughing. "It's not funny. Stop laughing, Megumi, there's nothing funny about this at all."

"There's no such thing as love." That was just something I knew, without being told by D'Atri.

"We'll talk later. Well, maybe a lot later...I've got places to be, people I've locked in my closet who are probably ready to kill me...perhaps you'll meet her later...if she doesn't kill me...or suffocate in all my clothes," she was still laughing, still. "Bad Megumi. Nothing funny about her dying, bad Megumi. You'll see her later, in any case," she nodded. "See you later, Storm."

"....See ya, Megumi." There was so much I wanted to ask her, but that would have to wait.

I spent the rest of my day fighting, and it even took me a while to realize what I was missing; Pokemon. Someone had taken my pokemon! I didn't know what they were, but I was pretty sure I'd had at least one at some point in time. I ran to D'Atri's office, shoving the door open. He sat there with his feet propped up on his desk, smirking like he was king of the world. I walked over.

"What did you do with them?"

"What?" he scowled, looking up at me from his custom designed office chair.

"What did you do with my Pokemon?!" I slammed my fist on his desk.

"Ah... These?" he chuckled, standing up. Two pokeballs were clipped to his belt.

"Give me those!" I grabbed at them.

"Now, now, Storm... Am I going to have to hurt you? Your temper seems to have carried over."

"Just give me my pokemon." I demanded.

He tried to pick me up by the shirt collar and I shoved him easilly away from me. He underestimated me. D'Atri threw a punch, but I easilly darted out of the way and I knocked him onto his back. To my surprise, he laughed. Maybe he was crazy.

"So it's true... It worked! You -are- the perfect mercinary.... No emotions, strong as an ox.... hahahaha!"

"Stop talking nonsense." I glowered at him as he stood up.

"I'm not. You forget, I'm the one in control here. I have all your memories in the palm of my hand, and you can't do anyrhing about it! So until further notice, -you're- the one taking orders, understand, Storm?"

"...Yessir." I turned away, clearly this fight was over.

"You're dismissed. And don't forget; next time you just strut on in here, then there will be consequences."

"...Whatever."

I walked out into the hall, looking at my watch. What had Megumi said? Something about seven? Well, it was nearly seven... I walked to the place I'd met Megumi and sank down against the wall and closed my eyes. So many thoughts overwhelmed me, thoughts that made no sense, just little clipets of random setences. But that was okay. I welcomed them, though. Maybe it was a part of my past. But all I heard were screams and overwhelming anger and sadness....The tree that was beside the wall rattled, as if something was in it. I stood up and went into a fighting stance.

"Who is it?"

"Ah!" an orange haired girl fell out of the tree. "Watch out!"

I caught her, then abruptly set her down. "...Who... are you?"

"It's...me." she looked hurt. "Did you really forget me?"

"Are you... Aera?! I... I woke up, and I didn't remember anything... I didn't even remember my own name... but I knew one word...Aera. Are you Aera?"

"Yeah, that's me...is that all you remember?" she asked nervously. "Just my name? Or anything else or...your aura...it's back..." she blinked, surprised. "I'm too late, aren't I?! I told Megumi to drive faster!!!"

"What are you talking about? I have no memories at all, before this morning."

"Nothing?" she echoed faintly. "Nothing...I've gotta go find Megumi. Megumi will know what to do!" she looked really upset at this. "...I...how could you just forget everything?" she shook her head. "Who am I to ask? I wouldn't know..."

"I'm sorry..." Two words I never thought I'd say. I felt some kind of compassion towards her, and for a fleeting moment I thought of giving her a hug. Why? What were these thoughts? No, no, there was no such thing as compassion, it was all a lie and no one really cared about anyone... "I'm sorry I don't remember. But I can't help it. I would give my right hand to be able to remember just one day of my past, but I don't and it's not my fault." I shook my head, feeling empty inside.

"I know...I just...I guess I wasn't expecting this," she sighed, then reached over and hugged me. "It's okay, though! We'll get out of here, and then we'll figure out how to make you remember everything...and it'll be okay again..."

I was surprised that she hugged me. I felt heat rise in my face. I hugged her back. "I mean, I... I know you must have meant the world to me.... because, I mean, your name was all that was in my head.... I didn't know who I was or where I came from until D'Atri told me... Thankyou."

"I know. And if you remembered that much, then I know you'll be able to remember the rest of it. It'll just take time, right? But you will remember, right?"

"Yeah.... yeah, I think I will. So... um.... how did we meet, anyway? According to D'Atri, I lived here my entire life.... but I don't think I can believe that now..."

"You blew up one of the old bases and were on the run. Some of the other members of Team Snatchem had captured me and had me tied up in this bag...and you fought them and kept the bag. You're such a jerk," she smiled fondly. "You waited forever before you let me out!"

I smiled. It felt odd to smile. "Sorry."

"Oh, no you weren't. I don't think you really liked me much at the beginning," she grinned. "Course, I probably wasn't much of a help when it came to that..." she smiled sadly. "Oh well..."

"I blew up a hideout? Why? This is my home... isn't it?"

"Some power-crazy idiots kidnapped you and did a bunch of bad experiments on you. If you believe that's what it takes to be home, then I guess this is your home...: she said vaguely.

I was shocked, to put it simply. D'Atri's stories were about parents that didn't care and dumped me here, and that I had lost my memories in a car crash, and that I owed it to him to stay here because he raised me and saved me when I was nearly dead. Well, that was a bunch of bull. My world was being flipped upside down....

"But I suppose you wouldn't know that. And..." she paused, thinking. "I guess now that you don't know anything...well, I'll give you a choice...you can either come with me and Megumi and learn what really happened...or stick around here and live whatever kind of life they tell you you've been living."

"I want to know what really happened. I don't want to live a lie."

"Okay, well, I'm not sure how we're gonna escape from here just yet...they don't know I'm here..." she shook her head. "Megumi's kept me locked in her closet for safety. She's distracting D'Atri right now, so I don't know how much longer I have before I'd better head back to her closet...but we'll figure out a way to get outta here."

"There anything I can do to help? I mean, can't I do anything to further our escape? Or anything to help you?" I felt completely useless, just sitting there doing nothing.

"Just...try to remember everything, okay? I know there's not much you can do for the situation, but...please just try, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll try to remember..." How to blackmail D'Atri into telling me the whole truth... No, no, I had to do this the right way.

"Okay. Can I meet up with you later, then? Especially if you remember anything?"

"Yeah... do you still have your PDA?"

"Yeah."

"Then we can keep in touch easilly..." I nodded. "That works... yeah, that works great. Aera... Thankyou..." I paused. "Someone's coming. We gotta split up now, but I'll try to remember, okay? I'll... see ya around."

I gave her a hug, which felt awkward, considering I had thought ten minutes ago that I never met her and that there was no such thing as love. But I was pretty sure, deep down, that the strange, unfamilliar feeling was love. Maybe.

"Okay. See you soon," she quickly kissed me before turning and darting into the building, waving as she ran.

I felt my face turn red. Oh yeah. Love was definetly real. I ran back to my room, sprawled out on my bed and closed my eyes. It was a lot to take in, the seperate lives I had been living. The fake memories, seeming so real that they could almost be touched. The real memories, seeming like a farfetched nightmare. But I knew, deep down... that the second set of memories had to be true.