C17
LOCATION: Dining room of Organization XIII headquarters, The World That Never Was
DATE: Wednesday, December 12th 2X60
TIME: 1218 hours
When Naminé stepped away to refill her water, her only lunch buddy was Sora.
Now, there are four people at the table.
Naminé stares confusedly at Xion, Roxas, and Axel, who seem to have appeared from nowhere in the empty seats at her table. What's perhaps even more strange is how they're all casually chatting, including Sora—as if they're all long-time friends and not agents from rival worlds.
What in the world is going on?
Xion first notices her expression of shock. The dark-haired girl beams and raises a hand to wave. "Hey Naminé! Did you try the lasagna?"
"The best thing I've ever had," Roxas states, his tone dead serious but his words sounding strangely out of character.
"That's cause you skipped breakfast." Axel knocks Roxas over the head. "Stale leftovers would taste delicious to you right now."
"You gotta eat breakfast, man," Sora chides. "You might still grow a few inches—once you hit your 20's, it's all donezo."
"Ah yes, let us older fellas commiserate together," Axel says with a feigned expression of dismay, resting a hand on Sora's shoulder. Sora quickly slips into his role and sighs heavily.
"While you drama kings do that, I'll take this!" Xion chirps, leaning over to grab the cookie on Axel's plate. "Naminé, you should sit!"
Naminé blinks, still frozen in place and trying to take in everything. This is...everyone's just…
Wait, what?
"I'm confused," she mumbles, mostly to herself as she sinks into the seat next to Xion. The lighthearted chitchat continues as the boys begin arguing about what's the ideal height for a guy. Xion chuckles.
"We decided to join you and Sora! Hope you don't mind," she adds a little sheepishly. "You ditched us for lunch that one time, and I was curious what was so amazing about your lunch buddy."
Naminé awkwardly chuckles at the memory, since it feels like such a long time ago. "Ah, well, you're always welcome to join. I'm surprised you guys got out early—usually I see you guys come in just as we're finishing lunch."
"Yeah, they swapped our schedules recently," Xion says while munching on her food. "In the beginning, we were mainly sitting in on lab meetings to learn more about Nobody theory and research directions. But Terra's bearing the brunt of that now, so we get to do more demos and practical sessions! Those are mainly in the afternoon, so our mornings are pretty light."
"They're supposed to be relaxing, but she makes us wake up at 7 AM sharp to train," Roxas complains, jabbing a thumb in Xion's direction.
"We're still field agents!" Xion exclaims. "You know we're on a mission, not vacation."
"What the lady said," Axel chimes in. "But shouldn't we get to sleep in on the weekends? Everyone needs a break."
Xion exhales deeply. "Look, I don't expect you guys to listen to any of the presentations, but that means you take my word when I tell you that the research they presented on circadian rhythm and Keyblade skills is very promising."
"...what'd she say?" Roxas asks Axel, who responds with a shrug.
"Consistent sleep schedules are important!" Sora proclaims, slamming his hand on the table. "Weren't we just talking about this the other day, Axel?"
Axel blinks. "I consistently sleep in on the weekends though."
"Well, tough!" Xion exclaims, and that silences the two boys who resume quietly eating their meals.
Naminé clears her throat to broach another topic. "So, uh, how do you guys know each other?" She gestures between the WINNER members and Sora.
"Your friends are pretty cool," Sora says with a grin. "Maybe even a little cooler than you, if I had to be honest."
Naminé rolls her eyes at his good-natured teasing. "I know it's rare you get to bask in the presence of cool people."
"Hey, my friends are cool too!"
"When you say it like that, you're really not convincing anyone."
"Are you talking about friends from work?" Xion asks curiously.
"Yeah, my teammates specifically. Well, I've known them since we were kids so we're pretty tight."
"Ah, the childhood friends," Xion says almost approvingly. "Kinda crazy how you guys all ended up enlisting."
"Yeah, it was really all for different reasons—like I joined cause I come from a military family. While I'm pretty sure Kairi was going through a rebellious phase and was also a little FOMO that Riku and I were enlisting."
"That doesn't sound very promising," Roxas points out.
"Yeah, but Kairi's also the most determined person I know. When she puts her mind to something, she'll see it through to the end, no matter what."
"Ah, is that a thinly veiled love confession I hear?" Xion says with a smirk.
Naminé's eyes dart back to Sora. She's heard him mention Kairi a few times as a teammate and long-time childhood friend. Now that she thinks about it, has Sora ever mentioned if he's dating?
Curiously, she awaits Sora's response to the question.
Sora opens his mouth, pauses, and then lets out a chuckle. "Wow, you sound like every other gossipy HBRC recruit. Sorry to disappoint, but Kairi and I aren't like that. She's like a combo sister-mom figure to me."
"Friendzoned just like that?!" Axel exclaims dramatically. "I feel bad for this girl I don't even know."
"Oh god, you should talk with my friend Selphie sometime. She's also a huge gossip and drama queen—but anyways, it's not like that. We've known each other way too long for anything to happen."
"You can say that about her, but that doesn't mean she'd say the same about you," Xion points out.
"What makes you say that?" Sora asks.
"Please don't say women's—" Roxas begins.
"—it's a women's intuition!" she finishes proudly, holding out an expectant hand with her palm faced up. Roxas hesitates for a moment before digging out a five munny bill and handing it to her.
Naminé watches the exchange with a raised brow. Before she can ask, Axel speaks.
"Don't ask. The kiddos have weird bets with each other all the time."
"Okay…"
"I mean, you guys can probably relate," Sora says, gesturing at the WINNER team members. "You've known each other for awhile, right? Can you imagine seeing your teammate differently one day?"
The WINNER members glance at each other skittishly. As a bystander, Naminé wants to laugh at their awkwardness. Making your friends uncomfortable is kinda fun.
(Having friends—she can call them friends at this point, right?—is also kinda fun.)
"I don't know about Hollow Bastion, but we've got strict anti-fraternization rules in school," Axel announces.
"Rules are meant to be broken," Sora pushes with a sly grin.
"I feel like if two team members start dating, it'll mess up the entire group dynamic," Xion says diplomatically. "I mean, there's a reason we're in groups of three, right? I remember they explained once why it's a good balance."
"Yeah, it's enough people for safety in numbers but still an efficient unit," Roxas adds.
"Exactly. I wouldn't want to risk disrupting the team flow."
"But you shouldn't devote your entire life to work," Sora adds, narrowing his eyes. "Oh no. Do I have to give my spiel on work-life balance? Is being a workaholic just part of the culture at Land of Departure?"
"I am not a workaholic," Naminé interjects, realizing that he's more than likely referring to her.
"Sorry Naminé, but you kinda are," Xion says.
Naminé's head turns towards the dark-haired girl. Is this what betrayal feels like? Being called a workaholic by a friend—
Honestly, Xion is probably right. It's probably something she should work on...someday…
"You know, when your friends think so too…" Sora trails off with a goodnatured smirk, and Naminé does her best to ignore his smug 'I told you so!' grin.
"I've always wondered where the stereotype came from," Axel says, somewhat shifting the topic much to Naminé's relief. "It's kinda funny, cause it's all relative, right? You guys think we're a bunch of workaholics, and we think you're all just lazy."
"But in the end, both worlds are some of the few remaining worlds that are adequately fending off Heartless attacks," Roxas says.
"Is this an 'enemy of an enemy is my friend' situation?" Xion chirps.
"We would probably be better off working together," Sora admits. "I guess logistically it's just too hard. Our worlds are quite far apart."
"Hollow Bastion and Land of Departure used to have an alliance years ago," Naminé says. She's mostly just reciting a random fact she recalls from class, but suddenly she has every eye on the table on her. Feeling the need to further the conversation, she continues speaking. "Uh, I think it was a quite awhile ago? I just remember hearing that our gummi ship technology grew rapidly cause Hollow Bastion was providing a lot of support during this alliance."
"Oh yeah, I kind of remember my parents talking about this," Sora says. "I think they had me tag along to a joint diplomatic event once. This was back when things were a little more peaceful." He sighs. "From what I remember in high school history class, the Heartless invasions got worse and it was difficult to count on Land of Departure for assistance. This was before our defense system was up and running, so we suffered from quite a few bad invasions and the alliance sort of dissolved I guess."
"Funny how the story's similar on both sides," Axel says with a solemn expression. "We were taught that we also had several battles where Hollow Bastion didn't show up. There were a few really bad invasions with a lot of casualties. And our only defense against Heartless is Keyblade wielders."
"That's when they started mandatory enlistment, right?" Xion chimes in, voice light and airy despite what she's saying. "They needed people, so schools like DiZA were created. It's all hands on deck in Land of Departure."
An unsettling silence enshrouds the lunch table. Naminé knows her peers are just stating historical facts, but she's unsure how Sora's taking it in. She sneaks a glance at his expression. Though he usually wears his heart on his sleeve, Sora looks a little perplexed with the information he's heard.
"I didn't know," Sora finally says neutrally. Four heads mindlessly nod along in silence, unsure what else to add to the conversation.
"Anyways," Axel says with an abrupt change of tone, "that's enough history lessons for today. Moral of the story? Heartless drool and field agents rule."
The group chuckles along at Axel's obvious attempt to brighten the atmosphere. Naminé is starting to appreciate Axel's tact that shows up in the most surprising ways.
"Field agents and OATS operators," she adds in for good measure.
Axel quirks a brow in her direction and nods approvingly. "My bad, didn't mean to leave out our precious colleagues. Field agents and OATS operators rule!"
"Why are you called OATS operator?" Sora asks with a chuckle. "I think of some worker in an oatmeal factory whenever you say that."
"It's short for—" Xion cuts herself off and turns towards Naminé with a sheepish grin. "What's it stand for again?"
Naminé rolls her eyes with a grin. "Operations and tactical support."
"So you're an operator in charge of operations?" Roxas asks with a deadpanned expression.
"Yeah, that's so redundant," Sora says. "Why aren't you guys just operators?"
"I like the term OATS," Naminé says. "It sounds friendly. Like I'm a friendly operator."
The table cracks up for some reason Naminé isn't entirely sure. She's starting to grow a little self-conscious as they continue laughing to themselves. What's so funny about what she said? She's a friendly operator...right?
Okay, she doesn't need an answer to that question right now.
After finishing their food and staying on relatively neutral conversation topics, Naminé heads back to her hotel room with Xion to take a quick break before the next meeting on her schedule. The moment she lies down on her bed, an overwhelming wave of fatigue hits and she realizes her fatigue.
"Weren't you gonna shower?" Xion chides with good intentions.
Naminé sighs, resisting the urge to close her eyes. She'd gone a little overboard with her workout this morning, and the appetizing lunch only contributes to the afternoon dip.
"Maybe after a quick nap...I'm so tired," she admits, reaching for her phone to set an alarm.
"Sorry again for crashing lunch today," Xion says with a grin. "We were talking about you and Sora, and I got curious."
In any other situation, Naminé would've been reading into what Xion said, but she's so tired that she sticks with simple responses. "Talking about what?"
"Oh, you know. Just what you guys run off to do everyday." Xion chuckles. "Also, I could've sworn this guy was your enemy number one a few weeks ago, but now you guys are all chummy."
Chummy? Her mind dwells a little on how funny that word sounds. "Me and Sora? We've just been spending a lot of time together training." To work on Synergy. That's why they have to work well together.
Xion nods along. "Well, I'm glad you guys are getting along. I was a little cautious of him at first cause you kept saying how he was bullying you or whatever in the beginning, but I guess that's water under the bridge."
Thinking back to when she first met Sora is a mental task beyond her current ability. Naminé nods along drowsily, chuckling at the thought of Sora as a bully. "He's okay. We work well together."
"You're gonna have to tell me more about your mission sometime," Xion says with a strange lilt in her voice. "I have no idea what you guys do when you say you 'work' together."
There's definitely subtext that she's missing, but Naminé doesn't have the energy to think it through. Something about her and Sora? While her mind is halfway to dreamland, she murmurs a nonresponse and dozes off.
She can worry about her relationship with Sora another time.
LOCATION: Simulation room of Organization XIII headquarters, The World That Never Was
DATE: Friday, December 14th 2X60
TIME: 1533 hours
Slashing down one simulated Heartless, Naminé whirls around just in time to parry the attack of another.
From the corner of her vision, she spies Sora twirling his Keyblade with one hand, easily taking out a handful of Heartless. He glances at her and beams.
"How're you doing?" he asks with a cheeky grin.
"You couldn't even hold off this Heartless for me?" she exclaims, pushing against the one currently pressed up against her Keyblade. It leaps backward and hops between its feet, as if contemplating its next move. Naminé's attention swerves back to it just as it makes its next attack.
"Of course I can! I just thought you could handle it," she hears Sora exclaims from across the simulation room. "Even without Synergy I can—and with Synergy, I can do anything!" The exclamation is punctuated with a war-cry and the sound of a Keyblade slashing through the air. Glancing towards him, Naminé sees he's already cut the larger pack down to half.
Her own Keyblade glows dimly, as if to remind her of her current battle. It's getting easier to maintain Synergy and her hyper-focused state even while conversing with Sora. Besides immediate strategy and planning, she's always thinking about her purpose of fighting in the back of her mind.
To protect. To defend.
The Heartless in front of her lunges, and Naminé deftly takes a step back. Keeping her eyes on the enemy's hands and feet, she raises her Keyblade and swings forward. The shift to an offensive stance throws the Heartless off, and Naminé keeps up her momentum with a barrage of attacks. Each step she takes builds her confidence, and a jab at the feet topples the Heartless, allowing her to finish it off with a blow through the chest. The simulation dissolves into pixels, and Naminé turns towards Sora just in time to see him finish off the rest of the Heartless.
"Are we done?" Sora asks, having grown used to relying on Naminé to figure out which wave of Heartless they're on. She kind of wants to prank him sometime, maybe say something like the next wave is gonna be 100 or some outrageous number. He'll probably just not believe her at that point, right?
She tucks the idea away and nods. "Yeah, I think that's it."
Taking a moment to catch their breaths, both take their time to press their hands against the exit button to end the simulation. Stepping out of the simulation room, Naminé is especially sore today. She takes extra care to remove her equipment slowly, sighing tiredly as her muscles ache with every movement.
"You okay?" Sora asks.
"Yeah, I don't know why I'm extra tired today," she complains.
"Same," Sora says. "I went a little hard at the gym yesterday, and then I didn't sleep well last night."
"I slept perfectly fine," Naminé says, gingerly massaging her arms. She barely does any upper body workouts—why are they sore?
Oh, that probably means she needs to work out her arms.
They break off to their respective locker rooms to wash up and unwind. There's one last meeting on their schedule for the day, and then they're free! Thankfully, the meeting's just a debrief with Hiro, so it should be low-key enough.
Heading towards the meeting room they're all familiar with at this point, Naminé and Sora arrive minutes before Hiro does. The young scientist plops down in a seat and sighs tiredly.
"Long day, or long week?" Sora says with a chuckle.
Hiro looks like he's about to say something else but then changes his mind. Instead of keeping up the banter, he turns towards them with a serious expression.
"How's Synergy going?"
Sora and Naminé glance at each other. They're definitely both a little wary of Hiro's evident fatigue. Well, maybe he's had a really long day and week. They should keep this short and sweet then.
"Pretty good," Naminé says. "It's getting easier to maintain it now, and we're both fighting better against Heartless."
Hiro nods along. "Okay, great. So, the big bosses are happy with the results we have. In fact, they're so happy that they're pushing for us to try something new in the remaining 10ish days we have left."
"We only have 10 days left?" Sora exclaims. Naminé also had not realized their mission is coming to an end. It feels like she's just gotten used to this new routine of working out and training with Sora, and now she has to just go home and forget about it?
"Yeah, unfortunately. You guys want to be home for the new year, right?" Hiro says pointedly. Both of them nod stiffly. "Anyways, what I was trying to say is, do you guys remember the original reason you ended up here?"
"Cause you picked on us," Sora says deadpanned. Hiro chuckles a little.
"Right, sure. I mean, remember when we had that big conference with both your worlds?" Hiro continues. "It was to learn about new research specifically on how to fight Nobodies."
Ah. Nobodies. Somehow Naminé had completely forgotten about this frightening new enemy threatening all of humanity. It's also the reason she'd ended up on the away mission that'd extended into this current mission.
Briefly, she wonders how her peers and everyone back at home are doing. It feels irresponsible for her to be gallivanting off in this world removed from all the fighting back at home. Now that she's thinking about it, it's probably time she head back home.
"Where's this going?" Sora asks. "Your boss wants us to eliminate all Heartless and Nobodies by the end of the year?"
"Yeah, no biggie right?" Hiro says with a grin. "Nah, but since Synergy works so well against Heartless, they're wondering if it'll work against Nobodies too."
Naminé blinks. It seems like logical reasoning on their part. With the urgency of figuring out a way to combat the new enemy, it makes sense to divert resources to this research.
"How do we test that?" Naminé asks.
"Well," Hiro begins, "how do you guys feel about fighting a Nobody?"
A/N: Well, I have emerged from schoolwork alive (aka haven't failed yet!) and horribly behind on this chapter, but thanks to everyone who has stayed tuned and supported me all along! I keep coming back to this fic thinking I have so many parts of the story I want to tell...but actually I'm kinda winding down this story. I had very ambitious plans for this fic, but as I'm writing and thinking ahead of my schedule next year, I think it makes sense to finish this fic at 20ish chapters (which means just a few more chaps!). Because as a reader myself, I know that inconsistent and delayed updates is one of the most frustrating things.
So yes, this fic will be coming to an end! I know I've left a lot of crumbs here and there, and we can't possibly wrap everything up in just a few chapters, so THEORETICALLY I will have more fics to come. But for now, I want to finish the main plot we have for this story to end on a semi-finished note! As always, if there's anything in the story you're curious about or have questions, please PLEASE let me know! I always love talking about the extensive headcanon I've created for this fic, and I've only gotten to share a tiny portion of it so far!
Anyways, I hope this update has been worth the wait and that you stay tuned for the rest of this fic! Please also strongly consider leaving a review, especially if you haven't yet and you've been enjoying the fic. As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter and have a wonderful rest of your day!
