In this chappie, I'm going to bring in Namine. If you've never played Chain of Memories (and therefore wouldn't know who she is) it's okay, because neither have I ;) Anyways, I'm basing her character loosely on what I do know about her, so if you have played CoM, she probably won't fit into the same mold, but I'm kind of hoping there will be some similarities…
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Within the week, there were rumours of New Yevon members being the first invited to Youth League festivals, and vice versa, and generally a new sense of peace all around. The Celcius was in the harbour in Luca. It was still about 10 minutes before they had to get to the stadium for the show. Melody was sitting on a box next to Rikku, looking out over the water.
"So, Kairi, are you going to sing with us again?" She asked excitedly. Melody blinked in surprise.
"You want me to sing?" She asked. Rikku nodded vigorously, grinning.
"Of course! You were a BIG hit in Zanarkand!" She answered. Like usual, Melody only had a vague idea of what she was talking about, but had to take her word for it. She sighed, frustrated.
"It's annoying not being able to remember." She said with a pout. Rikku gave her a hug.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find a way to remember. And we'll help you do whatever it takes. Promise." The Al Bhed girl said reassuringly. Melody smiled genuinely at her.
"Thanks Rikku."
"No problem! I'm off to see what everyone else is up to, coming?" Rikku asked. Melody hopped off the box, but then seemed to change her mind and shook her head.
"No thanks, I'll catch up with you later." She answered quietly. Rikku nodded and trotted off, calling for Yuna. Melody sat on the ground and looked down into the crystal water. It reflected the powder blue sky overhead so perfectly. She leaned over, looking straight down, and ran a finger through the water. Her reflection was distorted for a long moment, but when it reappeared again, her reflection was a Heartless. She frowned and splashed it away, hitting the water with her flat hand. She hit something, as if she was giving someone a high five. Confusion was written all over her face as she watched the reflection clear once again, her hand still pressed against whatever it was she felt. She leaned forward further, putting her weight on her hand. She put her other hand to the water's surface, and felt another hand pressed against hers, seemingly from under the water. The reflection finally cleared, and in it was the same blonde girl she'd seen in the mirror earlier.
"Who are you?" Both Melody and her blonde reflection asked at the same time.
"I'm Melody…or Kairi."
"My name's Namine." Both girls spoke at the same time, and were barely able to make out what the other had said due to their own voices. They had almost all their weight on each other's hands, leaning towards the water. Melody watched her curiously. Wherever Namine was, it was cloudy and beginning to rain; she could see the drops hitting the water.
"Where are you?"
"Why do you look like me?" They asked each other. Then they laughed. A slight movement from the both of them sent the reflections back into distortion. Melody watched patiently for the reflection to clear. When it did, she saw herself. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. She peered deeper into the water, and suddenly felt her center of gravity throw forward. Namine's hands, which she'd been leaning on, were gone, and she dropped forward into the water. The cold sent her into momentary shock, and she flipped over and over, sinking deeper. By the time she regained control of herself, she was completely disoriented and started to panic. She couldn't tell which way was up and her air was running out fast. An odd sensation come over her, and she tensed up, instinctively trying to fight whatever it was, but it was too late; her panic had gotten enough of a grip on her consciousness that she couldn't stop whatever it was that was taking control. Darkness was eating away at the corners of her vision, and within moments she found herself falling into darkness. She felt oddly separated from her body, and she began to remember things that she had forgotten, but a moment later, she had forgot them again, and even those memories that she had were slowly but surely disappearing. Instinctively, she reached upwards; there was still some glimmer of light far above her. Hearing a noise, she twisted around, and saw someone falling towards her from behind. She blinked in surprise. I guess gravity doesn't really apply here… she thought to herself tiredly. As the other person fell towards her, she reached towards them and caught their hand, which was stretched out towards her. Both were tugged to a stop, finding themselves floating in the middle of darkness, holding desperately onto each other's hands. Both girls stared at each other. Both of them were dripping wet, both of them had apparently fallen into water. The other girl was Namine.
"What's going on?" She asked desperately. Melody paused, getting a massive headache, her brain feeling like it was being stuffed. A moment later, the feeling had passed and her eyes went wide in understanding.
"Oh no, the Heartless! It's coming out!"
"What do you mean? Are you part Heartless too?" Namine asked in surprise.
"Me too? You mean you are?"
"Yes! I thought I was the only one!"
"So did I, but we have to do something! This isn't the first time this has happened to me, but I've never fallen so far, and I'm not sure that we'll be able to fight our way back."
"What do we do?" There was a long pause.
"I don't know, I guess we have to hope someone comes to help us…"
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Rikku came running up the pier towards Sora. She skidding to a stop in front of him.
"Have you seen Yunie around?"
"She's over there." He told her, pointing. "Is Kairi down here?" He asked. Rikku nodded and ran off again. Sora strolled down the pier towards Melody, seeing her sitting on the ground, leaning over the water. He blinked, deciding that the way she was sitting couldn't be entirely possible, because it made it look like the water was holding her up. She had a strange look on her face. He picked up his pace, wondering what the matter was. Without warning, she dropped forward into the water. Sora was taken aback fro a moment, then started to run.
"Kairi!" He skidded to a stop next to the edge and saw her figure dropping deeper and deeper into the water. Taking a deep breath, he dove in after her. The cold water was slightly disorienting. He glanced around and caught sight of the small shadow below him, still sinking like a stone. She stopped moving. With a sharp kick, he shot down into the water after her. She was sinking slower now, the momentum from her fall wearing off. He started to kick harder, catching quickly up to her. As he approached, her limbs started to thrash. Getting closer, his eyes went wide. He knew what was going on. The Heartless sign in her ankle was burning blindingly. Her eyes were wide and her irises blood red. A pair of grotesque Heartless antennae grew out from her head. He gave one more kick towards her and grabbed her wrist, trying to drag her upward. She pulled her wrist from his grip savagely. He tried again and she reacted the same way, glaring furiously at him. He frowned and grabbed her, pulling her towards him and grabbing her by the waist. With one kick they shot upwards. She fought him tooth and nail, loosing herself further every second to the Heartless. She dug her nails into his shoulder, pulling at his skin as they surfaced. He gasped, both in pain and need of air. She was snarling viciously at him. Helpless to do much of anything else, he kissed her. She tried to pull away, fighting and biting for the first few moments, and then relaxed, and soon started to kiss him back. She felt something wet on her lips and pulled away in surprise, breathing hard. His bottom lip was bleeding terribly. Gasping, she touched the cut. He cringed.
"Did…I do that to you?" She asked quietly. Sora ignored the question, not saying yes but also not saying no, and pushed her wet hair out of her face.
"Are you okay?"
"Me? I'm fine, don't worry about me, it's you I'm worried about." She answered. He climbed up onto the side of the pier, and pulled her up next to him.
"I'm alright, it's just a few scrapes. What happened to you?" He asked worriedly. She paused and scratched her head, trying to piece everything together.
"I don't really know. I saw Namine's reflection in the water, so…"
"Who's Namine?" He interrupted, blinking. She paused.
"I...uh...well, I don't really know." She admitted slowly. "She looks like me, but she has blonde hair, and I keep seeing her in my reflection. She's a lot like me, I think, she's even part Heartless like me and-."
"Wait, how did you know you're part Heartless? I didn't tell you about that, did I?" He asked suspiciously. She paused, a grin slowly spreading across her face.
"Give me a minute, I'll get to that." She answered. His eyes went wide, but he stayed silent. She giggled and continued. "Anyways, I saw my Heartless reflection in the water, so I splashed it away, but I hit something. I think I hit Namine's hand, so I looked back at the reflection and saw her in the water. I guess I didn't realize how far over the water I was leaning, so when she disappeared, I fell in. I thought I blacked out, and I felt like I was falling. Namine was falling towards me, so we caught each other to keep from falling further. For a while, I felt like my head was getting stuffed, and then..." She stopped, looking up. Emma was walking towards them.
"I've been sent to come get you, the show's starting soon and the girls want you in the stadium A.S.A.P." With that, she grabbed the other girl's hand and pulled her to her feet.
"Wait a second!" Sora called after them, but they were already racing down the docks, their laughs echoing back towards him. He frowned. He was sure she remembered. Or at least pretty sure... He sighed, deciding that there would only be one way to find out, and wandered down the pier towards Tidus and Baralai, who were walking to the stadium.
...
Emma flung open the door to the dressing room and walked inside.
"Hey Kairi, why are you soaking wet anyways?" She asked, sitting the other girl down on a towel-covered chair.
"I remembered!" She answered feverishly. "But I didn't get to tell Sora!" She whined. Rikku, Paine and Yuna were sitting across the room, and all of them went silent.
"You remember?" Yuna asked quickly. Kairi jumped to her feet and walked around the room.
"Our dressing room in Zanarkand looked like this one, just with different colours, right? And the festival that we sang at there was for Tidus's blitzball team?" She asked excitedly. She skipped over to them and threw her arms around the closest one, who happened to be Paine. Yuna and Rikku jumped to their feet and hugged Kairi. Paine grunted, being crushed by the other girls. Emma skipped over and joined the group hug. Paine groaned again.
"Guys!" She cried, her voice muffled. Kairi gasped and pulled back, grinning sheepishly.
"Sorry Paine." She said quietly. Emma glanced at her watched and gasped.
"Kairi, we have to get you changed! You need to be on stage in a couple of minutes guys!" She announced. Kairi started digging through the closet while the Gullwing girls tried to figure out a way to share their garment grids and the songstress dressphere with her. Emma was having more success at putting together an outfit, so Yuna started to tame Kairi's hair, which had become quite frizzy and teased by her 'ordeal'. By the time they had all gotten finished, she looked as breath-taking as she had last time they had made her over. She twirled in front of the mirror and smiled.
"You guys are amazing!" She announced. There was a knock at the door, and a voice called through it.
"The girls are on in five! Hurry it up!" Yuna pushed open the door and jogged down the hall, followed by Kairi, then Paine and Rikku and Emma. They made it to the back stage and looked at each other. Emma grinned.
"Good luck guys!" She said, laughing. Rikku frowned.
"Are you not coming?"
"Me? I don't sing. I dance. Besides, this is for you guys." She told them, motioning towards the stage. Yuna shot her one last smile, before finding herself, followed by Rikku, Paine and Kairi, in the spot light surrounded by a roaring crowd, the entire stadium filled energy. She smiled. This might just be an even bigger success than the last concert. Wakka and Lulu were with the guys, front row. She smiled charmingly at them and began to sing.
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WOOT! Another chappie done, and I think I kicked the writer's block! YESSSS! rnr everyone!
