Chapter 2: New Life


*poke poke poke* "Hewo?"

Naminé slowly opened her eyes, dizzy and confused, but feeling soft fingers poking her cheeks. Wait... her cheeks?

Her eyes flew open and she let out a startled gasp when sunlight flooded into them from above. She cringed, one hand going up to shield them, the other digging into grass and dirt underneath her body, a ripple of shock and confusion radiating through her. What in the world... how was she... how did she...

"Are you okay miss?"

Naminé lowered her hands and blinked a few times, the outline of a very young redheaded girl slowly appearing to be standing over her. "You fell outa a bright light."

"I... did?" said Naminé weakly.

"Ahuh," said the girl, "It was all swirly and shiny and sparkly and then 'poof'!" throwing her hands up into the sky and spinning on one leg, "You dropped down!"

Naminé rubbed her eyes and squinted, starting to make out the more detailed features of the girl. She was in a white dress with a purple bottom and blue lines along the top. She had purple-blue-white shoes, a soft and young face, but those eyes, those blue eyes... they were so familiar... unsettlingly familiar.

"Hey grandma!" called out the girl, looking past her, "I don't think she looks so good."

"Who doesn't look so good, Kairi?" came a curious old voice.

Kairi...?

Naminé swallowed thickly, her eyes going wide, staring into the little girl's blue's own. That was... that's impossible...

"Y... you're Ka... airi...?" whispered Naminé.

It... it was her... it felt like her... it was her... but that's... shes just a little girl...

"Oh... oh my, where did you come from dear?" came a concerned voice.

Naminé leaned her head back to see an elder woman in a purple dress with a white apron over it. "I... I don't..."

She had been inside of Kairi, trapped, how was she out and alive? Why was Kairi a young child?

The little girl held out a hand. "Here, lemme help."

A hand that an older Kairi had held out not long ago...

To take her back in...

To absorb her...

Reclaim her...

To imprison her...

Naminé screamed. "NO!"

She shrank back, a surge of ice rocketing up her spine, the physical beat in her chest so loud and fast her ears were ringing, her eyes watering, a sob escaping her lips, rolling over and curling in on herself as she breathed raggedly. Not again-not again-not again-not again-not again...

Kairi yelped a little and stumbled a few steps backwards, withdrawing her hand and then falling on her bum, startled and looking a little scared.

"Shh child, shh," came the elderly woman's voice, kneeling down next to Naminé and rubbing her back, "Shh."

"G-grama? Whats wrong with her?" asked Kairi skittishly.

"She's just a little scared, that's all," said the elderly woman.

"But I'm not scary," whined Kairi.

"Well I don't know dear," teased the woman, "You are my ferocious little granddaughter."

Kairi giggled a little and made claws at her grandmother. "Rawr rawr!"

Naminé just laid there, curled up, for a few minutes as the ringing leaving her ears, the soothing hand on her back ever present, slowly coming back to herself. She uncurled a bit, peaking up at the elderly woman. She took note, and removed her hand. "Feeling better?"

"I... I don't know."

The woman gave her a look over, a slight frown on her face, lingering on Naminé's eyes for a long moment before she turned her head to Kairi, then back to Naminé, cautious curiosity in her gaze. "Hmm... what is your name dear?"

Naminé didn't need to be able to peer into the woman's memories to understand her connecting the dots even if she didn't understand why or what or how. If she was Kairi's grandmother, she knew her grandaughter's eyes anywhere, even if they were on someone else's face. "I'm no one."

The woman looked displeased. "No one?"

Naminé turned her head away, mumbling, "Just a shadow, just a Nobody."

The woman's frown deepened intently.

"Grama?" asked Kairi quietly, coming up to stand next to her, not-so-subtly whispering, "Why does she talk like that?"

The grandmother said nothing for a long moment, Naminé could feel her eyes upon her, before she spoke, "Because I think someone did her wrong Kairi."

Naminé tensed a little when she felt old wrinkly hands slide under her. "Oof, good heavens, I'm getting to old to be carting little girls around."

Naminé swallowed thickly as the woman heft her up and cradled her against her chest. "Come dear, lets find you a bed to rest in, my granddaughter is right, you don't look well."

She said nothing in response, just laid relatively limp in the woman's trembling arms. It was selfish, the woman was old, she shouldn't be carrying a body equivalent to a young teenager. She just... couldn't muster the strength to say anything, or do anything, but be carried around. In some ways though... it was nice... she didn't think anyone had ever carried her like this before. She'd been dragged around plenty of times by her wrist, though Larxene had grabbed her by her hair once or twice. That had hurt. This though, it was gentle, careful.

It made her ache.

"Kairi dear, could you go open the door for me?" asked the woman.

"Kay!" said Kairi, rushing up ahead.

"Would you like to rest, or bathe first?" asked Kairi's grandmother.

Naminé didn't answer.

The woman sighed. "Well, you've been laying in the dirt, you could use a bathe before being put into bed, your dress could probably use a wash too, best to get dirt stains out quickly, white is always such a chore to clean."

Naminé's eyes flickered up, sighting a cottage a ways from the stone path the woman was walking on, a small dirt road with a picket fence around it, plastered with finger-paints. Inside the fence was a garden on one side, a small play area on the other side, Kairi's was waiting on the steps, eagerly holding the door open while bouncing on her feet. Kairi's grandmother took Naminé inside and down the hall and into the bathroom, setting her down on the edge of a tub.

The woman huffed a bit, wiping her forehead. "Oh I miss my younger days. I could cart my own daughter across the town and back."

She sagged a little, sad. "Oh how I miss her."

Naminé blinked once. Kairi had no memories of any parents, this woman's voice tickled deep, buried childhood memories, so Kairi at least had known her. "What... happened?"

The woman looked away for a moment. "The investigation says it was an accident, took both my daughter and her husband from me in one night. My heart tells me someone did it intentionally. Someone robbed my sweet Granddaughter of her parents, me of my daughter."

She shook her head. "It's in the past my dear, lets get you washed."

She started the tub and then motioned to Naminé's dress. "Alright, out of that. I'll give you some of my spare clothes after while that's washing."

Naminé swallowed, eyes going wide. "You'd... give me clothes?"

No one had given her anything else to wear since she'd been born.

Kairi's grandmother gave her a puzzled look. "Of course, I'm not going to just leave you to walk around naked."

She huffed. "Kairi used to try to do that. Weaseled out of getting dressed once and ran down the street as bare as the moon once without an ounce of shame. Ah the innocence of children."

Naminé smiled a little. "It... sounds like a good memory."

"Oh I'll tease her endlessly about it when she's older," agreed Kairi's grandmother.

Naminé giggled a little before reaching for the bottom of her dress and lifting it up, taking it off, and handing it to the woman. Kairi's grandmother took it and set it on the sink before turning back, "Alright, lets get you in and..."

There was a sudden, sharp intake of breath, and Naminé's head turned to see the woman staring at her back in horror. Slowly, the woman walked forward and lifted a trembling hand inches from her back, her voice shaky, "That's..."

Then her tone changed.

"Dear," asked the woman with a voice of pure fire, of an righteous anger as she rested a finger on her back, on what felt like a little bump, "I'm going to ask you once, and only once. Are these cut marks on your back?"

Naminé froze and paled.

"Something to remember me by you little witch," whispered a memory of Larxene's malice filled voice, "Nothing left where anyone can see them, but these you'll always feel and recall our time together."

This... if this wasn't a dream of some kind, and she somehow had a new body, why would those still be there? Was this an exact replica of her old body?

She twitched a little. Why did the word 'Replica' make her ache?

Kairi's grandmother took one look at her pale face and closed her eyes. "Oh child."

The woman drew her into a hug, and Naminé trembled in it. She wished, oh how she wished, this woman had been her actual grandmother, that she had actual family. She was being so kind. Not because she had her memories messed with like with Sora, or because of a promise built on lies, or because Kairi herself had perhaps felt responsible for her. At most Naminé looked a little like the woman's granddaughter, and could offer her nothing that she knew of, she had just apparently dropped out of the sky, and was a stranger, but the woman still cared. She was nice just because she could.

The woman helped her into the tub and started washing her down. The shampoo smelt of flowers, it was a foreign, but soothing sensation. It was the first time she'd had anything like that. The most DiZ had ever gotten for her was a bar of soap at the old mansion, and Castle Oblivion had been spartan. Nothing in that place was welcoming or helped out an intruder, what one brought in was all they had. She'd been fortunate Larxene had thrown a scubbie at her to wash herself off with because she said she stank.

This... being completely clean, her skin tingly if but a little wrinkled on her hands, her hair not feeling greasy, was nice.

The clothes Kairi's grandmother briefly left to get, a nice knitted purple sweater and pants, felt strange. Not uncomfortable, just... she was used to having her arms and legs bare, used to being cold. Castle Oblivion had been a a little cool, the Twilight Town Mansion on the other hand had terribly cold nights. DiZ had never bothered getting her commodities like warmer clothes, a blanket, or a heater. Being warm... it felt nice. Though the feel of cloth on skin that had never born it before would take getting used to.

She led her down the hall and to a little maroon room filled with stuffed animals, toys, little child-drawn pictures, and a small bed. Kairi was there, sorting through her animals. "Dear, you can rest here."

"But... this is her room," murmured Naminé.

"That's 'kay," said Kairi cheerfully, plucking out a stuffed chocobo toy, "I'll sleep with gramma."

She looked down at the toy for a moment, thinking, before walking over and holding it out, "Here. This is Boco. He's my bestest friend, he says he'll keep you company."

Naminé's eyes went a little wide for a moment, staring at the little toy, before she carefully reached out and took it (making sure not to touch Kairi). "T-thank you."

The girl's grandmother gave the child a warm smile. "That was very nice of you Kairi."

Kairi beamed. "Boco says everyone should be nice, and sharing is a part of that. My bestest friend has the best advice!"

Naminé gave Kairi a curious look. She understood the thing with young children and make-believe/inanimate object friends, but, why would she choose this over a real person as her 'bestest' friend? She broke her thoughts and took a step back when Kairi started forward with a hugging motion, aborting the movement.

Kairi's grandmother laid a soft hand on the young child's shoulder. "She doesn't like to be touched dear."

Kairi gave her a baffled look. "Oh, um, okay?"

Naminé just hugged the toy chocobo to her chest and averted her eyes.

"Well, have a nice nap," said Kairi awkwardly, taking her grandmother's hand.

"Sleep well child, when you wake up, if you're feeling up to it, I'll make you some soup," offered Kairi's grandmother.

Naminé nodded her head and walked over to the bed, sitting down on it, freeing one hand from the chocobo to run along the blanket, to squeeze a pillow. It was all so soft. She laid down on the bed, staring up aimlessly at the ceiling as she clutched the toy, taking a shaking breath as the stress of it all caught up to her. She took a number of deep breaths until the soft patter of feet drew her attention to Kairi's grandmother, walking over and giving her a deeply concerned look.

"It helps to draw the blanket up dear," she said softly.

Naminé blinked and averted her eyes, mumbling, "I know, just..."

Wasn't used to having one to actually do it. She would have eventually drawn it up.

The elderly woman gently tugged the blanket out from under her, Naminé shifting a bit to let her do so, and laid it on top. "Thank you."

"Of course dear," said the woman, looking down at her for a moment before turning and walking away.

With all the confusion and stress plaguing her sudden new existence, she thought it might have taken awhile to get asleep, but...


Naminé blinked awake all the sudden, to the sound of voices talking outside of the room.

"What is it exactly you wished to report, ma'am?" came a deep, and terrifying familiar voice.

Of a titan of a man, hard and unmoving. Cold and uncaring. A nobody that hardly pretended any emotion of all. Who looked once at her, at Larxene, at Marluxia, and turned away from what was happening, not bothering to do anything.

Laxaeus.

"My granddaughter and I found a child earlier today, just entering her teenage years if I had to guess," explained the woman, "She... showed signs of both physical and mental abuse."

Naminé rolled away, putting her back to the door, hugging Kairi's toy chocobo tighter.

"Abused?" snarled Laxaeus in a deep, kindling voice, ire and anger rising.

"She has cut marks on her back, and the way she talks about herself worries me," admitted Kairi's grandmother.

Laxaeus said nothing for a long moment before he spoke in a tight voice. "The child's name?"

"She never gave it, and I've never seen her before," answered the woman, "She's blonde, has blue eyes, pale skin, and was dressed only in a small white dress that didn't properly fit her. Honestly... I gave her new clothes and she looked at me like I had just given her the world."

Naminé swallowed thickly, grabbing a pillow to shift over her ears. It didn't help much.

"There hasn't been a child abuse case since I was a young boy myself," muttered Laxaeus sourly, "I'll pass word along to the rest of the guard. They are going to want to interview the child."

"I'm making soup for her to eat, perhaps afterwards when she actually has something in her belly," suggested the woman.

"Very well," agreed Laxaeus.

"Thank you, Guardsman Aeleus."

Naminé gave a start and whispered, "Aeleus...?"

She turned her head towards the door and closed her eyes. There was no presence of a Nobody nearby. It... it wasn't him, it sounded just like him though. She curled up around the chocobo toy, turning its head up to face her. It felt awkward to do so, but... she'd never had a stuffed animal to talk to. Not to mention... she was technically only a bit older than one year old, even if her physical body was based on Kairi's. Or well... older Kairi's? It was never to late to try she guessed...

"Boco right?" she whispered, "What do you think is going on?"

She had only ever seen a chocobo in toy stores in some of Twilight Town's shops. She didn't know if they were a real animal or not. It was... a bird though right? They chirped or hooted. Some people say they sang, though nothing like a humanoid did. She tried to imagine the toy chirping back to her in the common language... it just felt awkward to even try. She sighed, depressed. She'd never had an actual childhood, trying to do childlike things now was pointless.

She didn't let go of the toy though. She liked the fluffy thing.

She retreated inwardly to think, tuning out everything else around her. She did, first, the only thing that ever seemed to calm or comfort her when everything else was going wrong, that DiZ was having a particularly bad day and took it out on her, or things like that. She reached for her connection to Sora, for the comfort she could never truly have from him. It was there, and for a moment, she just basked in his ability to live happily, to be content, to have friends, a real life. Though, the connection was... different. Not diminished, just... bubbling with youthful energy. Sora had always been a mixture of silly and goofy, though he could be serious when it counted. This... it was actual youth.

He was as young as Kairi was currently.

Naminé wasn't stupid. There was an answer, its just... how? Her last memories were of Kairi talking to her in that heartspace. Her true self, her somebody, the real person, had been trying to do something for her, for some reason. Naminé didn't deserve the attempt, especially if Kairi had somehow actually succeeded. Or... no. It hadn't be Kairi, the Princess of Heart had asked, and something else had answered. Something bordering on divinity...


-She begs me with an intent as pure as her heart. Your life is free to do as you wish, Shadow of my child. Step out of the shade, into the light, into a time when you can truly help those who need it, and make your desire a reality-


That toneless, soundless voice. More like words imprinted into her head than someone speaking to her. What had been said makes her squirm uncomfortably. Did Kingdom Hearts have its own voice? It's own thoughts and will? Or was it something else? If not... why would it grace her a moment of its light? A chance to live? Just because Kairi hoped to be able to do something? And what it said... she wanted to help people, but all her power did was hurt them. Rearranging memories or shattering their chains was hardly a benevolent ability, it was also limited to people connected to Sora, so she couldn't even use it to stop bad people.

Kingdom Hearts had wasted its time.

She drew the covers over her head and curled tightly under them, burying her face in the toy chocobo; tired, so tired...


Naminé nearly screamed when she woke up to the face of a certain red head inches from her own under the covers. "Am I really that scary?"

Naminé swallowed thickly. "It's... its not... not you, its just... please don't touch me. Something really bad," for her at least, "Would happen."

"But... I already touched you," said a baffled Kairi, making Naminé's face pale, "I poked you when you fell out of the sky and nothing happened."

Naminé felt dizzy and faint, "Nothing... nothing happened? I... I didn't fade away?"

She didn't lose what little freedom and existence she had?

"No?" answered Kairi, confused.

Naminé made a choking sound.

Kairi sat up, pushing the covers off them, "Are you okay?"

Naminé lunged at her, making Kairi yelp as she pulled the little girl into a hug, crying and rasping out, "Thank you... thank-you thank-you-thank you."

For being the reason she exists even as she does in the first place.

For being kind enough to care about someone who doesn't truly exist.

For not leaving her in that prison within her flesh.

For asking a second chance at life for her even if she didn't deserve it, hadn't wanted it, and had just wanted to fade into her (for not believing that).

"U...um, okay," said Kairi, looked a odd mixture between happy, confused, and concerned.

The door creaks open, through her blurry eyes, Naminé can see Kairi's grandmother standing there with the outline of two uniformed men behind her, the woman looks her over for a moment before turning to her companions, "Perhaps... she should be given a night's rest before you ask your questions."

"Of course," murmured Aeleus, "We've at least seen her and can begin a preliminary investigation off what she looks like. But if she has been kept in a cellar or hidden in a house all her life, the chances are slim of any kind of identification."

Naminé turned her head away, shutting them out. Even if that had kind of been true. Marluxia and that room in Castle Oblivion, DiZ and the White Room in the mansion, not to mention DiZ had thrown her in a closet and locked her in there until Axel eventually plucked her out of there after Roxas had... she buried that line of thought away with a shudder.

There was rattling of dishware being set on a dresser, then a shifting of the bed as Kairi's grandmother sat down next to them and rubbed gentle circles on Naminé's back. "Shh child. My granddaughter and I will take you in and look after you. Everything will be alright now, I promise."

Naminé clung to them desperately, feeling light headed and surreal beyond belief. If this was a dream, then she hoped she'd never wake up. Even if it was a lie, it would still be the kindest thing ever done for her. A new life all her own was more than she could have ever hoped for...


Author's Notes:

Friendly reminder just how much of a scumbag DiZ was. In the manga he literally left Naminé locked in a closet to starve/dehydrate to death until Axel found her in chapter 14 of the manga. Which... could possibly have been days locked in there considering Sora took a gumi trip to another world in that timeframe.

P.S. any good idea's for Kairi's grandmother's name?