Diana-sama

"Find Me"

Disclaimer: Me no own Tamora's stuffeh.

Summary: An older version of myself wakes up one night to find herself in the world of Tortall- in the palace, completely naked! Anyways, she gets some clothies, and Numair finds her. He's shocked at the resemblance between Daine and myself. Now he must teach me about this world, before the next great war comes. Numair/OC and previous Daine/Numair, all normal couples other than that.

1. Blind in the Palace

Dark clouds gathered suddenly over the grim, cold mountain on which a shocked group had stopped as if a wind god had gasped above them. Each of the faces held an expression of pain, grief, and surprise. The wind howled, shrieking at the scene. Of all the humans, one man in particular looked horrified. His lips trembled between the black of his beard. His fingers twitched unconsciously as a tear slipped from his dark eyes. The emotions came to him at a rush as he stared at his love's corpse.

"DAINE!"

Around the world, animals of all shapes and sizes screamed with him at this great loss.

Diane sneezed abruptly. Her nose twitched a bit as she reached for a tissue, smiling softly, at the anime-iduced thought, 'Someone's thinking of me! Hee hee.'

Her room was littered with books and old homework and Dungeons & Dragons crap, looking a complete mess. Currently, she sat contentedly in the mess at her computer. The screen showed her 'Happy Birthday' background, a picture of Harry Potter and his friends having a birthday party, with the words 'Harry Potter' in 'Happy Birthday, Harry Potter!' crossed out and 'Diana' scribbled above it. A BLgame Winamp skin showed the title of the light music floating from the speakers: "Defying Gravity".

A pop-up notification appeared abruptly and Diane's smile broke into a grin.

REMINDER: One week until birthday! .

"And I'll finally be seventeen!" she squealed. She glanced over at the mirror on her closet doors excitedly. Her brown hair had once again grown long and curly. Her stormy-blue eyes were cheerful behind her thick, almond-shaped glasses. Miraculously, she had gained a light tan over the summer. Today she wore a D&D tee-shirt and blue jeans.

"Bed. Now," her mother growled, sticking her head in the door and glaring at her eldest. "It's. Past. MIDNIGHT."

Giggling sheepishly, Diana clicked off her monitor and speakers and hopped into bed. Her mother flipped off the lights, irked. "Oyasumi-nasai, o-kaa," Diana smiled nervously.

"Good. Night." The door closed.

Chuckling quietly, a bit worried for what tomorrow morning would bring, the sixteen-year-old fell asleep- unaware that her mother's annoyance would be the least of her troubles.

She woke abruptly. She'd been awoken by the strange feel of cold, hard stone beneath her. Sitting up, Diane blushed. All her clothes and personal items were gone, leaving her bare (and freezing!). A shiver crawled over her entire body and she wondered how in the world she came to be here, naked.

Either way, she couldn't stand the cold that assaulted her bare skin. She stood and walked carefully, hands out in front of her like a blind person. Her glasses weren't around, so she practically was blind. (20/20 vision is normal. I have 20/400 currently, and it gets worse every year.) The only things she could make out were things a few inches from her face and the very fuzzy colors of things around her. From what she could see, Diane guessed she was in a long hallway of these stones, and that patch of fuzzy brown was probably a door.

She was right. Reached the brown, she felt it and discovered it was definitely hard wood, and she felt around for a moment to find the large metal handle. She gently pushed open the door, peering inside.

No peachy colors. That meant no humans- if wherever she was even had humans. She stepped inside and closed the door, walking around the room carefully, searching for something she could put on. Almost immediately, she found a chest and opened it, feeling cloth inside. It felt like silk.

She used her hands to measure out the length of each garment until she found one that was a dress. It was light blue in color and also made of a silky material. She put it on and found it was actually a good fit, as if the person who had owned this dress had been expecting her.

Her loose hair had started to annoy her. Normally she wore a ponytail on her wristband for when that happened, but of course, she didn't have one here. Searching through the chest some more, she found a piece of blue cloth she recognized as something you could fold over your head like a bandana. She put that on too.

She searched through the room a bit more, but found little more she could see. There were a few books and written-on parchment, but that was no good. After spending a minute resting on the bed, she stood once again and exited the room, continuing down the hallway blindly.

Meanwhile, Numair tossed and turned in his sleep, his mind plagued with nightmare visions of his dead love trying to wake him up. "Numair!" she pleaded in one such vision. "Find me...! Find me! Please, Numair- find me!"

He sat up uncomfortably, awakened by such a dream for at least the third time that night. Sighing, the mage decided sleep wouldn't be worth it anymore, so he stood and pulled on some loose, comfortable clothes- black for grieving. "I wonder if I'll ever stop grieving," he murmured quietly.

Find me! The dream flashed in his mind. Grumbling, he reluctantly decided his dreams may have been important. They were reoccuring, if only for one night, and reoccuring dreams were signs from the gods. 'But why would Gainel send me images of.. Daine, asking me to find her?' he thought. '...oh well, I guess.'

Wandering the palace corridors, he'd been here ever since the "incident" as his friends so elegantly avoided it, Numair stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a girl wandering near the hallway toward the Library. Her hands were outstretched and her eyes unfocused, as if walking forward blindly. The blue dress and bandana he recognized to belong to Alanna's things- but Alanna was at her home, Pirate's Swoop, and she certainly didn't look a bit like this particular girl, whose presence made his throat go dry.

She was the mirror image of Daine.

"Hello?" she called unsurely, blurry eyes looking toward him. Even her voice was the same as Daine's, a light a beautiful soprano pitch. "Is someone there?"

"Daine," he breathed. He didn't know how, or why, or anything at that moment, except that she was here. "Daine!" he cried, running toward her.

She blinked at him as he reached her, her hands stretching out to meet him. "H-hello?" she asked again. "Who are you?"

"Numair," he replied quickly, pulling her close to him. "It's me, Daine, Daine, it's me-"

"Numair?" she repeated, surprised. Her tone indicated she recognized him. Her eyes remained blurry as she looked at him for some reason, and she used her hands to reach up and gently touch his face, his beard, his hair. "Numair from Tortall?"

"Yes, Daine, it's me," his voice became a little less sure as he realized something was different with her. Had-had she gone blind or something? "Daine, what's the matter- you can't see...?"

"My name is Diane," she corrected him, quietly. "And I don't know where I am, or where my glasses are. I can't see a thing. Are you really Numair?"

His face fell, his heart still clinging to hope. "Diane?" he repeated. "You... you're in Tortall. Why do you look so much like Daine?" he asked the last bit in a whisper.

Diane could hear his upset. "I-I don't know... I've looked like her since I was thirteen. Why..? Has something... happened to her?"

"She's... dead."

The girl's stormy blue eyes widened. Numair studied them closely, recognizing them to be identical to Daine's. "Dead?" the exclamation was more a statement than a question. She was quiet for a long bit, as Numair simply was comforted and hopeful by her presence. "Maybe that's why I'm here," she said quietly. "I am almost identical to Daine physically. Though... our personalities are a bit different. I wish I could see you," she ended toward Numair.

How he had wished to see her, before! Somehow, he couldn't speak. This was just too much, probably some strange dream-

"It's like a dream," Diane murmured, almost exactly in tune with his own thoughts. "Numair?" He still didn't speak. Diane took that as he was listening. "Have you ever heard of a place called America?" He shook his head a bit. "Or Virginia?" Another tiny shake. "Then, I really am in Tortall... this isn't my world."

"Huh?" he managed. Gods, he sounded stupid!

"I come from a world where you- and Daine- and Alanna, Jonathan, everyone- are all legends. I read about you in storybooks... but- in the stories... Daine never died." She looked a little confused.

He blinked. "Another world? I've never heard of things like that happening, between two Material Planes anyways..."

"It's theorized a lot on my world, that's how I know about it. Though my world seems to have forgotten magic, the theory of magic is still studied by many. I was a bit obsessed with my studies," she giggled a little. "Just a 'bit'."

"Why would you be here, then?" he asked slowly. 'Do I really want to know the answer?'

"Daine was said never to have died in the stories," she replied, thinking hard, "so perhaps she wasn't supposed to, and I'm some odd replacement. Or perhaps it was a mere accident in the threads of the Universe. A 'hiccup,' per say. Those two are the first that pop into my head," she stopped. "Numair?" she murmured quietly, trying to peer into his eyes and discover why he was silent.

Numair fought to stop himself from giving her a crushing hug or yelling at her. Was she here to relieve his sorrow, or to torture his loss? While he struggled internally, Diane leaned forward and gingerly felt his face with her hands, still trying to fathom his dark eyes. "Numair? Is something wrong...?" He couldn't prevent himself from doing it- he kissed her, rough, hard, and suddenly. How he had missed her!

Diane stared at him for a second, surprised at his suddenness. She made a tiny noise when he did it, not because it was a kiss, but because of the surprise- she'd been kissed plenty of times before back in her world. This kiss made her toes curl, and sent a strange, forboding shiver up her back.

The kiss broke- who had broken it, neither could tell- and Diane stuttered, flushing, "N-N-N-Num-mair?" He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted.

"Numair?" a page boy questioned, coming around the corner toward the Library. He spotted Diane and gawked. "DAINE?"

Diane blinked. "Eh?"

"Y-you're back!" the boy grinned in amazement. "Numair! What happened?"

Numair received the boy's appearance in stride. "I'm not sure yet, Roald- I only found her here recently. Could you do me an errand and get your parents for me before you go to your duties today?"

"Yes, sure!" he shouted excitedly, running off.

Diane looked back at Numair. "Huh? What's going on?"

"This is something important, obviously," he said, not really answering the question.

She frowned and put her hands on her hips impatiently. "Well, I suppose so, what with me being in a different world and Daine being dead when she's not supposed to and all-" She stopped herself, noticing the change in Numair emotionally. She didn't need sight to tell she'd just stabbed him by bringing that up so bluntly. She frowned, agitated with herself but not wanting to provoke another kiss- though kisses were definitely more welcome than the stupid confusion going on right now. "Sorry," she mumbled. "But it's true. And if you're going to deal with me, you have to deal with all that!"

He looked at her, troubled. She couldn't tell his thoughts anymore, his expression hidden from her. "I know," he said calmly, and his calm worried Diane a little more. "Come on, I'm going to take you to Jonathan and Thayet, they have to see this to believe it," he said the last part under his breath.

"Okay," Diane answered slowly. Numair started walking away, toward the King and Queen's rooms. After a few moments Diane realized he was leaving without her. "Numair! Wait!"

He turned and saw her pitifully walking to him with her hands outstretched again. She hurried, thinking he was still walking. There was almost a desperation to her hurried, cautious walking, as if she needed to stay with him for more than simple reasons. "Wait," she called out again, and nearly stumbled.

"I'm right here," he said reassuringly, moving back toward her and helping her steady. She smiled toward him.

"Oh."

Gently, he laid his left hand over her eyes, while his right hand remained on her elbow, where it had been earlier to help her be steady. A pearly white light shimmered and Diane flinched, blinking at the brightness. When he removed his hand, she could see again. Her eyes widened as she really took him in.

He certainly was handsome. He was tall and darkly tanned, his appearance adding to the feeling of protection she felt near him. His dark eyes were slightly wet, though he hadn't shed a tear, from being so close to having the one he loved return.

Diana turned a light shade of pink when she realized he had noticed her staring. "Let's go," she muttered, looking away and trying to stifle her blush.

A/N: Slightly awkward ending, I know, but I was looking really hard for a space between chapters one and two ; Anyways, it's been forever and a day since I've actually been on FFN! Hoo boyo. I already have chapter 2 done as well, and I'm working on chapter three. I'm estimating that I'll get through about six chapters before becoming disinterested, so look forward to six chapters. ;