Melody returned to the house, and this time noticed how odd it was that the kitchen lights were on. She poked her head in to turn them off, but froze when she saw Lil crying softly and Tegan and Naomi helplessly trying to comfort her.
"What…happened?" Melody asked, stepping into the room.
"Lil's p…pregnant." Naomi whispered. Melody's eyes went wide.
"By who!" She asked quickly, sitting down.
"We don't know." Naomi answered sadly.
"She's done that many guys?" Melody asked, immediately regretting saying it. "Sorry, I didn't mean it to come out that way." She said, hanging her head. Naomi smiled sadly.
"It's okay. But that's the problem. She says she hasn't. Ever." She answered with a sigh. Melody blinked.
"She…doesn't remember doing anything with someone at all?" She asked, frowning. Naomi shook her head, and Melody squeezed her eyes shut pushing out all the terrible theories coming into her head about how this could possibly have happened. Tegan went upstairs to wake Rochelle; it was decided that everyone needed to know what was going on. All five girls sat in the kitchen, talking quietly until dawn the next morning. By then, Melody and Naomi had both dozed off, resting their heads in their arms. Lil was exhausted, and Tegan and Rochelle were only awake because they drank a huge amount of coffee, and if they drank any more, both would likely explode. Thankfully for them, only Tegan had class today, and she didn't have any in the morning. All of them dragged themselves up the stairs and into bed, Lil not even bothering to change into pajamas. And even more thankfully for all of them, Naomi dreamt of a dark place again.
"Emma?" Riku asked, seeing her figure emerge from the darkness. She froze in place, once again all her memories coming rushing back to her. Then, she swore very loudly, not exactly a characteristic thing for her to do, but nonetheless an action with good reason.
"Why did I forget again?" She asked. "How could I possibly have forgotten!" She was clearly upset with herself. Riku cringed.
"Don't get so mad about it. I think I know the reason behind it all now." He told her. She instantly went quiet.
"The reason? That we forgot you mean?" She asked.
"The reason that everything happened. Everything has a final destiny, even fate itself. Everything is destined to leave the world at some time, and it seems now is fate's time. Your destinies are broken because that would allow you to fight the Fates." He stated, but then Emma interrupted him.
"Woah, what do you mean, fight the Fates? I have to fight the Fates?" She asked.
"Not just you, all of us." He answered.
"Oh, all nine of us then. I guess it helps that we already have experience fighting divinities." She said, a hint of bitterness in her voice. Then something dawned on her. He said all of us… "You too?" She asked. Riku nodded.
"See, there's a prophesy, one that I thought Sora and Kairi and the others were supposed to fulfill. Ten hearts, four worlds, one fate. Sora, Kairi, Yuna, Tidus, Rikku, Gippal, Paine, Baralai, Nooj and Leblanc. From the Destiny Islands, Zanarkand and Spira to save Fa'Diel. Their fate was to die fighting the Goddess." Emma interrupted him again.
"But there were only nine of us when we fought the Goddess. And who are Nooj and Leblanc?" She asked.
"Nooj and Leblanc were friends from Spira, but Nooj was injured, so both stayed behind. Then I thought the two who would take their place would be Lisa and Bud, or Larc and Sierra or Pearl and Elazul, but none of them did. So, the prophesy wasn't fulfilled. But I think now, that you, me and the eight others are to be the ones to fulfill the prophesies, coming from four different worlds, to bring the Fates their destiny. And now, the Fates are fighting back. They know who you are, what you are meant to do, so they created our destinies so that we would all be dead before we got the chance to fight them, but now we've broken our destinies, no longer bound to them so they've made you forget who you are to keep you from finding out what you need to do."
"But you remember who you are."
"And I'm locked in here because this is the fate they wrote for me." He answered. Emma frowned.
"But how are we supposed to fight them with you stuck in here?"
"Sora still has the power to let me out, he just hasn't found out how yet."
"Speaking of Sora…where are the guys? I can make the girls remember who they are by just calling them by their names, but how are we supposed to find the guys? We have no idea where they are, and Earth's a big planet to search for them." Her face fell. "I mean, that's assuming that they're actually even on Earth." She said slowly. Riku smiled slightly.
"Hey, that's what the crystal's for, right?" He said, helping her up and walking towards the crystal. "Show me Sora." He ordered. An image flickered to life inside the crystal. It was a bleary-eyed teen who looked like he just woke up. Emma squinted at it.
"Hey! That's on the campus!" She said, breathing a sigh of relief. Sora wandered out into another room. Emma grinned. "There's Gippal and Tidus, too. Baralai's probably around there somewhere. That makes our search a lot easier." She said, sitting down. Then she frowned. "Wait, how am I supposed to know to search for them if I can't even remember who I am when I wake up?"
"I guess we'll have to find some way to get someone to call you Emma." He answered. Emma pouted.
"How are we ever going to get that to happen?" She asked. Still pouting, she screwed her face up in thought. Riku started laughing. She glared at him, relaxing her face.
"I'm sorry." He said, trying to catch his breath. "But your face…" He started laughing again. Emma looked horrified.
"What's wrong with my face!" She asked urgently. Riku started laughing even harder. She crossed her arms and waited impatiently for him to calm down.
"There's nothing wrong with your face, just your expression. You looked kind of like this." He twisted his face into a very awkward expression. Emma grinned.
"Are you trying to stretch your mouth bigger than it already is or something?" She asked sweetly. Riku grinned, then frowned, realizing the jab she took at him.
"Hey, my mouth's not that big. Though I think Sora might argue with me on that." He answered.
"So would I." Emma told him, still grinning. Then, her face lit up. "Hey! I got it!"
"Got what?" Riku asked, bewildered.
"I know I remember who I am when I hear my name, but you think it could be because there are strong memories tied to my name? Maybe it's just a strong memory that I need to get my memories back. Like if we were to make something with a big impact on me happen here, then when it happens to me when I'm awake, I'll remember this dream, and then I'll remember who I am!" She said. Riku stared at her.
"I really don't follow…" he admitted.
"If something was to happen to me here that would have a big impact on me, then when something similar happens to me when I'm awake, it would make me remember…oh wait, that won't work." She said, hanging her head. Riku straightened up.
"No, no, I get what you mean, why wouldn't it work?"
"Because what kind of thing can happen here that would have that big an impact on me? And how do we know that anything will happen to me while I'm awake that would be close enough to remind me of this dream? And even if it does happen, it may not happen for months, or even years." She answered, then sighed. "It seemed like a good idea when I first thought of it."
"No, it is a good idea, and besides, it's the only one we have." Riku answered, trying to sound reassuring, though from Emma's expression he could tell his efforts were in vain. He sighed. "Well, we have to make sure that it will happen to you when you're awake, and that it will happen soon, so…hmmm, what are you going to be doing in the next week or so?" He asked. Emma shrugged.
"Nothing life changing." She answered. Riku lay back on the ground.
"Well, I guess tell me anyways, then maybe we can think of something from there. Who knows, something mundane might have a big enough impact to get you to remember."
So, Emma sat there, listing all her classes, all the people in her classes, and together they thought up random things that might have a big enough impact that could happen to her in class. They spent what felt like forever creating random scenarios, and decided they should try something other than class when the scenarios developed into things like 'what if the chair I was sitting on somehow broke and I fell and broke my leg, so I'd have to stop dancing for the year?' and other ideas that were clearly never going to happen. Emma was lying on her stomach, pouting again.
"Even if I did break a chair, I don't think you can break a limb that badly falling off it." Riku sighed.
"Well, I guess you never know." He answered
"And even if it did happen, what can we do here to create that memory in the first place?" She asked.
"Maybe just coming up with idea is enough." He suggested, though both of them knew it wasn't true.
"Maybe that nasty Heartless that took over the goddess will come back from revenge." She said, knowing that the idea was unbelievably farfetched, but not really caring. Riku smirked.
"That thing's long dead. The goddess took care of it after Kairi collapsed." He answered. Emma sat up.
"So it really is dead then… that's good." She answered, for lack of anything else to say. He looked at her.
"So, what else do you do to pass the time?" He asked. Emma shrugged.
"I dunno. I'm going to wake up soon, anyways. I guess I'll see you tonight." She said. Riku frowned, not sure that he should voice his concern.
"What if you don't dream yourself into here again?" He asked. Emma bit her lip.
"Well, I have been for the past few nights, and I guess we'd just better hope for all our sakes that I do." She answered, not sounding too terribly sure of herself.
She did. For the next number of nights, she dreamt herself into the darkness and visited Riku. They spent most of their time the same way, though because the apparent hopelessness of the situation hadn't fully set in yet, they usually ended up trying to see who could come up with the most farfetched, amusing idea for a memory for Emma. It was early Friday morning, and Emma knew she was about to wake up. She laughed in spite of herself. Every day, she found herself wanting to go to bed earlier and earlier, though during the day she never did understand why. Riku was watching her, confused.
"What's so funny?" He asked. Emma shrugged.
"Nothing important." Then, a very, very, very important thought dawned on her. "Hey! I have a date tonight!" She said suddenly. Riku sat up, interested.
"You do?"
"Yup. You think that might be something we could use to get me to remember who I am?" She asked, excited. Riku shrugged.
"Maybe, but we'll have to go fast, you said you'd be waking up soon." He answered.
"What do you think we can do?" She asked. There was silence for a moment, and stillness. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, he tilted her face up to his and kissed her.
Naomi's eyes snapped open. Her alarm clock was beeping loudly and annoyingly. She hit it a couple of times before she managed to get the snooze button. She flopped back down into bed. She'd been having odd dreams that she could never seem to remember recently, and they always gave her an odd sensation, like there was a hole in her memory. This time though, she woke up feeling different. Her lips were tingling and her heart was beating out of her chest. Closing her eyes, she tried to remember what happened in her dream. All that did was make her heart beat even harder. Sighing, she crawled out of bed and started getting ready for her classes, but she fumbled with her things and couldn't focus very well. Shaking her head to try and clear out the fogginess, she decided she needed a strong cup of coffee, wrapped herself in her housecoat and wandered out into the kitchen.