Kaleb's words echoed in Namine's head over and over. She hadn't slept last night. She couldn't have. Her damn memories haunted her. The image of Rai with his hands on her sister. The image of Larxene dominating Ven. Kaleb saving them. All of it in perfect detail. It was the first time she cursed that memory of hers. The memory that allowed her to remember sunsets and paint them later exactly as they were. The memory that let her draw every detail of someone's face after seeing it once. That memory no betrayed her and taunted her with her own helplessness. She had been useless. She did nothing to help her friend, nothing to help her sister. The guilt had kept her from eating that day. Nobody seemed to have noticed though. At least that's what she thought.

She walked to the parking lot with Sora, Aqua, Kairi, and Ven. There waiting for them were her friends, all waiting around by the cars. They all turned and took notice with Xion greeting them with the most unwelcome question Namine could think of "Hey, what did Mr. Luxord want?

Aqua told them the whole story. During her explanation Namine kept looking at the ground. Just don't mention me. Don't talk about how I just did nothing.

"Oh my god" Aerith gasped when Aqua had finished her story.

"I'll kill them." Terra growled.

"Whoa easy there, brother!" Axel said pulling both his hands up, "That line of thinking will only create more problems."

"Axel's right" Zexion reasoned "The only one who ends up dead in that scenario is you."

"I don't literally want to kill them, I wouldn't mind beating their asses though." Terra said rolling his eyes. Terra tended to exaggerate and rather often and didn't really mean what he said. Point this out to him and he'd bring things back to the level they needed to be.

"We all would" Riku agreed.

"Yeah, but warned about stirring the pot." Cloud stated, "It'd be bad if we went looking for trouble now."

"So, what? Are we supposed to do nothing?" Roxas snapped.

"What else can we do?" Aqua sighed

Aqua's question brought a silence with it. No one knew what to say. No one knew what the could say. Pranks and small fights here and there were one thing, but this was far worse. There was nothing they could do, they were completely helpless.

"Well I doubt they will make a move right now." Zexion said, finally breaking the unwelcomed silence. "From what I gather they are in hot water with the rest of the numbers."

"Chances are they may not do anything at all." Cloud said

"What makes you think that?" Roxas asked.

"Think about it Seifer's crew isn't exactly the brightest bunch. He may interpret things as stay away from us period."

"Seifer's always been one to push the boundaries though."

"Then he'll more than likely return to his old ways."

Cloud had a very valid point. Seifer and Larxene had always reverted to old ways after escalating once and a while. It wasn't the first time their bullying had landed them into trouble. Namine thought back to a year ago when they lit Riku's desk on fire after one of their fights. The fire almost burned down the entire room. For a month or so afterwards they didn't hear a peep from Seifer or any of his gang.

This revelation seemed to put everyone at ease a bit. Seems like things may go back to normal. Namine wished.

Arriving at home Kairi and Namine each returned to their rooms. Their parents were away on business again and wouldn't be back for a month or so. This was a relief as the panic that ensued would have been more than Namine could handle. Namine entered her room and threw her backpack on the floor moved towards her desk. She needed to detox, to release all her stress. She needed to make something.

Namine changed out of her school clothes and into her artist's ensemble: jeans and a tank top.

She pulled out her paints and a fresh piece of canvas. She didn't even think she allowed herself to let the brush flow across the canvas, the smooth colors forming distinct streaks with every brush stroke. The picture began to form. Time became irrelevant as it always did when she painted. Things just seemed to happen. She was where she wanted to be, in a world of her creation. A world where she had control, where no one could bring anything into it, no one but her.

She took a step back she saw a beach littered with shells. Waves crawled up the shore then pulled back into the distant sea. Clouds gently seemed to be gliding across the sky the way a figure skater would across the ice. The bright sun shone and illuminated the beach giving the sand the glitter of gold. This painting was almost like the real thing, all it was missing was the smell of sea salt blessing one's nose.

Now what to name it? Namine thought placing her hand under her chin smearing paint that had splashed on her hand. She hadn't noticed though, and even if she did she wouldn't have cared. This was the hard part. After all what could capture all this beauty with mere words. Ah that's it!

Namine scribbled on one of the note cards from her desk her chosen title: LOST SERENITY.

Ven was walking along the beach behind his house. He always loved the beach. So, did his brothers. The triplets enjoyed lot of the same things, yet they were all distinct. Sora was the charismatic. Thank god for that. Ven chuckled at the thought. Roxas would only use that power to further his sexual deviancy. Ven was just happy he used condoms. Amazing how lucky he is to not have an STD. Not to say Roxas wasn't charming but Sora had something that drew people to him. Ven's friends could always tell him and Roxas apart much to Ven's chagrin. There was no fun in it if people always knew which one was which. What set of triplets has only 2 of the 3 be identical anyway?

His thought then found themselves being dragged back to earlier in the day. Back to normal huh? He hated Seifer. He hated Larxene. He hated that he was their toy. He wasn't Terra, or Riku, or even Axel. He didn't have the physical strength to fight him off. All he had was his mind. That was his, that ingenuity he was proud of. It was what really set him apart from his brother. Rigging up stink bombs or setting it so Seifer's pen would release all its ink. He'd always come up with new ways to annoy his tormentor. The best part no teacher could ever prove it was him. His friends knew, and Seifer knew. The fact that he'd always gained some form of vengeance over his tormentor was always enough for Ven. Now even that was gone. No retaliation. After all this was something above taking a few hits.

His thoughts drifted to Larexene who was almost as cruel as Seifer. Only she'd never done anything physically to Ven til last night. She'd always made him uncomfortable with her lewd remarks. Telling him how she'd toy with him. How she'd make a man out of him. He'd rather take Seifer's physical abuse over Larxene's verbal torture. He couldn't even remember all of last night. He reached up a rubbed the back of his head. Feeling the lump where his head planted itself against the wall. He remembered up to that point but there was a blank after that. He'd gathered a bit from Aqua's recounting of the incident, and he did remember Kaleb driving away on his bike. What a weird guy. One moment he helps us the next he's a total asshole.

Rather than ponder the strange guy, Ven turned his attention to the sea. In the distance he could see the other islands. They seemed so small off in the distance, as if the sea could swallow them up in the blink of an eye. The waves rolled up the shoreline, leaving a white foam that was dragged back and vanished back into the blue vastness. Ven allowed himself to become mesmerized by the pattern of the forever rolling waves.

"So, this is where you were"

The words snapped Ven out of his trance. He looked over to see a mirror image of himself. The same blue eyes, the same spikey blonde hair. "Roxas…"

"Sora finished making dinner, figured you'd be hungry."

"Not really, but thanks."

Roxas looked out to the sea, "You know you did the right thing."

"Huh?"

"Telling Sora, it was the right thing to do"

Ven looked down at the sand. "But Aqua-"

Roxas cut Ven off not allowing him to finish that thought "Aqua had good intentions, but even she can make mistakes."

Roxas turned to look at his brother," You did the best thing you possibly could have done and told Sora."

"It still feels like I betrayed her though" Ven said, sadness ached in his voice.

"No, it wasn't her choice to make." Ven could sense some resentment in Roxas's voice. "You had every right to decide for yourself."

"My choice directly opposed her wishes though"

"Ven" Roxas's tone took a more serious turn "You were looking out for yourself. Aqua is my friend but you are my brother and you'll always come first."

Ven paused for a few moments and thought If I hadn't said anything we wouldn't have the support of the others. Just having people be there made Ven feel so much better. I can't be the only one who feels this way.

Ven then smiled "Yeah you're right Roxas, thanks."

Roxas returned the smile mirroring his twin perfectly "No problem now let's go eat."

Ven took one last look at the sea, the setting sun had dyed it a rustic orange. The smooth waves kept their endless push and pull at the shore. Ven felt himself once again enchanted by the calm beauty but managed to break away and follow Roxas back to the house.

Now it seems we really are giving everyone some depth didn't think I'd have Namine fall into such a role so soon.

Lot more to her than meets the eye.

Indeed.