A/N:…

The Savage Nymph:

Chapter One:

I was really really ticked off. I threw down the book, and began shouting at Axel as if my life depended on it.

"What is up with you! We're on the same side, aren't we? Why don't you leave me in peace, and go play cards with Luxord or whatever you losers do! Damn you, Axel." I took a breath and hit him with another bolt of lightning. "Who says I will never measure up to you? You don't know me!" Axel's clueless expression changed, and as he cocked his head, he appeared to be listening to something other than me. "So stop acting like you know anything about how I measure up to you, just because I'm younger than you!"

As I drew breath once more, Axel, looking really concerned, clapped a hand over my mouth and shoved me against the wall. As was natural, I fought back, sending shocks up his arms that made him grimace. He opened up a portal behind me just as his name thundered through the otherwise empty library.

"AXEL!" The voice clearly belonged to Xemnas, the Superior. Why he sounded so furious, I didn't know, and I heard him continue just as Axel shoved me through the portal. "Axel, I wish to speak to you!" Axel followed behind me, and at once I found myself in his bedroom.

My rant momentarily forgotten, I said tartly as he sat down on his bed, "You know you can't hide from Xemnas forever."

"I know."

"So why did you run?"

"I didn't want you to get caught with me."

"What?"

"Xemnas—I mean, the Superior—he thinks I'm a traitor." There was no hint of emotion in his voice, so I had to ask.

"And are you?"

"What?"

"A traitor."

"Oh." He seemed to be debating whether or not to lie to me, and after a few seconds, a small smile crept across his face. "Hey, Larxene." And his chakrams appeared in his hands, and I smirked as I called forth my own knives. "Think fast."


Things got a little more plesant in Castle Oblivion once I established a reputation among the other members, namely a decent sized burn—which would someday be a scar—on Axel's right arm. Needless to say, I gained a little more attention, from everyone. Soon after he arrived, Roxas and Axel became best friends, and often fought together. I still bothered Xigbar, got in Vexen's way, pushed Xemnas down the stairs, and still stole Luxord's cards, but I felt a little better. Except for the memories.

Memories are tricky things. Mine kept returning to me at odd moments, sometimes in dreams, sometimes at odd moments when I was wandering the vast castle. At first, they were few and far between, but soon, I had flashbacks all the time, and it was hard to keep my head out of the past.

Sometimes I walked, and poked in the other member's rooms, and I wondered who they were. Who they used to be. But, like other Nobodies, they, and I never showed hint of their past lives, no matter how hard you tried to read between the lines. But, then, of course, there was the time that Axel slipped up.

We were fighting, not nessicarilly a common event, so Marluxia and Demyx had come to watch. When me and Axel practiced fighting together, it was always and event to see. Even Xemnas had come once, but he remained stoic as always.

Our fight proceeded as normal, lightning and fire flying everywhere. A stray flame caught Marluxia's cloak on fire, which Demyx doused with a small spurt of water.

Our advantages were balanced out, if not leaned in my own direction. He was quick, but I was quicker. I depended greatly on my agility, it had kept me alive many a time. All at once, our elements clashed, each trying to overpower the other.

"Just give up, Axel. You'll have to eventually!" As an unspoken tradition, threats and trash talk was often exchanged during our little skirmishes.

"You really think I would give up, Larissa?" And, at that precise moment, when those last three syllables left his mouth, the expression of everyone in that room changed. Axel seemed almost as shocked as I, for he had spoken my name. My true name. But how? I had never, ever spoken of my past, I was sure of that. Marluxia and Demyx seemed overcome with confusion, and could only look on.

"Larissa?" I said, the word slipping through my mouth unvoluntarily, as we both withdrew our attacks out of shock. "How—How did you know my name?"

His chakrams clattered to the floor, a blank expression on his face.

"How do you know my name!" I shouted, demanding this time, my temper rising.

He looked deep into my eyes, true, real regret clear on his face. "I don't know."


That night, I dreamed vividly of my past, my beginning.


Larissa opened her eys slowly, and blinked twice before taking in her surroundings. At once, she shot up in bed, her heart racing and her hands sweating suddenly. Where was she? What was going on? Oh, yeah. She remembered, sinking back into her pillow in resignation. She had moved.

It all seemed so unfamiliar to her, the light blue walls that made up her new room, even the sunlight streaming through her window seemed somehow—alien. And, of course, the boxes. Her room was filled with them now, plain, brown boxes with lables scribbled on in the utter haste of moving, such as Larissa's clothes, Larissa's books. Only a few were open.

Her heart rate settling down, she slid out of bed and started searching through boxes, looking for something to wear on her first day of school in her new town. Her parents had moved all around Starlight, but this was the first time they had lived in the city since Larissa had been born. After deciding on a pair of capris and a simple black shirt, she slipped her shoes on and walked downstairs to greet the rest of her family.

They all were seated at the kitchen table, in various states of exhaustion. Her brother, in particular, had his face resting in his cereal bowl, but her parents seemed to be ignoring him.

"Good morning, Rissa." Her mother said, using her age old nickname.

"G'morning, mom. 'Morning, dad." She replied, and her father looked up from his newspaper, and gave her a sharp jerk of the head and a smile, his way of saying good morning as well.

"Hey, mom? I'm going to go ahead and walk to school today." Larissa said, turning back to her mother.

"Are you sure, sweetheart? It's two miles from here."

"I'm sure, mom. I could use a little exercise, after all." She replied, swooping down to kiss her mother on her cheek before quietly slipping out the door and down the sidewalk.

Larissa reached the school in half an hour. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she approached the school. It was always different, even if she was used to being the new kid. Somehow it was the same, though. Same shocked silence, same stupid questions about the small, trianlgular marks under her eyes. But that was no big deal.

As she neared the the stone steps, heads seemed to turn in her direction. Just last year, she had gone through a short, rebellious stage, and dyed her bangs blue. But here, she was not the only one with strange colored hair, and in fact, in the corner, there was a small girl with a head of bubblegum pink hair. But still, head turned and stared at her odd appearance, and, unlike times before, one word rippled through the crowds, whispered, shouted, or just slipped out.

"Avery."

"Avery."

"Avery."

And one person stepped through the crowds, clearly the guy whose name had been whispered through the crowd of assembled high-schoolers. He had red-orange hair that hung down in front of his eyes, but not enough to hide the small, black triangular marks under his eyes.

"Avery."

A/N: Thanks for all of the lovely reviews so far, guys! I love you all! I hope to get another chapter done tomorrow, but I have school, so no promises. Cookies for all you good reviewers!