"Perhaps I can help." She slowly turned to see who stood there. A thin, ghostly girl smiled up at her innocently. Her skin and dress were paper white, and her hair had only the faintest shade of blonde. The only color on her small frame was her piercing blue eyes. She held a notebook that seemed gray in comparison to the white monotone.

"Who are you?"
"I am Naminé. I have the power to change people's memories."
"Change…memories?" She smiled with her eyes closed.

"You don't remember? I guess you've been in here too long. I was the one who changed Sora's memories of his friend Kairi so he'd think it was me." Laska was lost.

"I don't remember. Anyways, what could you possibly do to help me?"
"When you forget something, it's never really gone. Memories linger within our hearts, locked away, often difficult to reach. But they are always connected. One leads to another, like links in a chain. I can find those memories for you, if you want to know. But it comes at a price."

"I'm listening."

"You might lose some of your other memories."
"Believe me, I have nothing worth holding on to. It's worth it."
"Okay." Naminé took out a pencil and started rapidly drawing in the notebook. Laska noticed that it was a quick sketch of her.

"Why are you drawing me?"

"Just a second…there we go." When she pulled the pencil away from the paper, it glowed a sparkling white, blinding Laska. It surrounded her and she found herself being teleported somewhere. When she was finally able to open her eyes, a colorless void was all around her.

"Where…where am I?"

"Oblivion." The word echoed all around her. Before she had a chance to reply, she saw a cloud of dark smoke in front of her. The world around her changed to a forest at night, and it began to rain softly. The smoke twisted and turned until it was in the smooth outline of a person in an Organization cloak.

"Who are you?"

Silence.

The enigma walked toward her methodically, and she turned to run, but tripped over a tree root. Her ankle throbbed in pain when she tried to move. The person approached her, footsteps crunching in the leaves. The rain continued to fall slowly. Laska shivered, mostly from fear. The person now stood over her. She closed her eyes, waiting for an attack. Instead, the person reached out a hand to help her. Laska slowly opened her eyes and reached out to grasp the gloved hand, but it vanished into smoke at her touch, along with the rest of the person. Thunder rattled the trees and a spark of lightning created an inferno. It instantly engulfed the trees in flames. Screams filled the air as the heat blasted Laska. Branches crackled and fell around her. The noise was deafening. Suddenly, one shrill voice cancelled out everything else.

"Laska!"

It echoed in the empty room. She glanced around. White once again.

"There you are. I was afraid you wouldn't come back." Naminé stood there, notebook in hand. Laska realized she was standing up, instead of on the ground as she had thought.

"Did I ever leave?"
"You traveled back into one of your memories. Actually, I think it was a few of them combined. I was lucky I got you back, though."

"Why?" Naminé sighed sadly.

"I've seen people become trapped in their memories before. It's not pretty. They freeze up, their eyes glow white, and they stay that way. Forever."

"Am I supposed to remember anything now?"

"Well, it should've worked…No matter. If you don't start to remember anything soon, I'll find out why. Don't worry about it." She smiled again.
"Well, thanks anyway." Laska turned and walked away, fading out like a ghost. Naminé stared after her, confused and hoping the spell had worked.

"I don't see why you're making me do this." Zexion practically dragged Axel across the hallway. "Because you need to learn to get along with people."

"Why? That's not fun."
"Just go along with it." They reached the door, and Zexion opened it, dragging Axel inside. Nexis stood there, waiting.

"Oh look. It's my least favorite person," said Axel, breaking away from Zexion. In two seconds Nexis was holding a small dagger against Axel's throat. It was attached to a band on his wrist, and it sparked with electricity.

"There's something you don't see every day." Axel secretly summoned the Fire and Wind wheels, then tried to throw off Nexis's arm with one. And with that, the fight began.

"Wait! This isn't what I had planned-" Zexion tried to interrupt, but was ignored. Axel and Nexis were too busy trying to kill each other. Axel discovered that Nexis had two wristbands, each with a dagger that shot electricity at him.

Nexis discovered that Axel sucked at fighting.

"You're not much of challenge, Axel. Maybe you should just give up so we can all go home happy." Axel became enraged, creating a wall of fire that slowly crept toward Nexis. Axel smiled, certain of victory. Suddenly, a lightning bolt shot out of the wall and rammed into Axel, knocking him over. It ricocheted off the walls again and again, each time crashing into him and shocking him with electricity. When he was no longer able to get up, the lightning bolt hit the ceiling and landed in front of him. The glow dimmed, and there stood Nexis, smirking.

"I told you so."

"Now come on people, I didn't want you guys to kill each other! I was hoping Axel would apologize…"he trailed off, glancing at Axel as if he needed permission to speak. Axel glared at him so hard, it was like he got hit with a rock.

"I. Never. Apologize." Axel disappeared without warning, leaving Nexis to enjoy victory and Zexion to cower in a corner.

Time. It passes for all and waits for none. There is so much yet so little of it. Time is the beginning, end, and beyond.

And Laska was frozen in it.

At this point in time, Laska lay back on her bed, facing the ceiling with closed eyes. She let her imagination take flight as she drifted off to sleep. First there was a sky, pure and blue, then clouds. A drop of water blurred the image, and the scene shifted to a waterfall. An invented droplet fell onto her cheek, slowly trickling back into her hair and leaving a trail, much like a snail would. Other droplets quickly followed the single one. One at a time, they covered her, sank deep into the roots of her hair, deep into her mind. But she didn't notice. Her imagination flew off into the sky. While it flitted about to random things, a tiny fragment broke off and settled onto the earth. This small piece knew only one thing, and that was time. It foresaw that time would change soon. But it could not see beyond that. It felt time continue on, and did not wish to be left behind. It told Laska, Time to go. Leave this world, before Time leaves without you. She opened her eyes, reluctantly leaving the dreamlike state. As she slowly sat up, a flood of memories hit her mind like a tidal wave, leaving her swirling in the wake. 'The drops of water…they were memories. Everything I've forgotten is…back.'

She wasn't sure what she felt just then. Laska held a hand to her forehead, attempting to suppress the pounding headache. Her mind raced through the mess, picking out arbitrary remembrances that vanished as soon as they appeared. Her head seemed to be clouded thick with smoke.

And then, faster than it had come, it was all gone. She slowly blinked, not quite realizing what happened. She should have known it would take time to sort out the memories, time to recollect everything. 'I should have seen that coming.' She tried to search through her mind and remember things, but it was all empty, as though she had lost more memories than she had gained.