Battle Stance

Kingdom Hearts fanwork: Armory Challenge by RoseOfADifferentColor, written by Raberba girl

Summary: A collection of one-shots inspired by weaponry in Kingdom Hearts.

Introduction: Yet another challenge I've wanted to take on for a while~ For some reason, all the stories I've written for it so far are The Next Life ones. XD

Sorry for flooding my accounts with all these unfinished challenges. ^^; They're fun and help me de-stress and are easier to write than other stories, because I stopped taking them seriously and they're more accessible even under non-ideal writing conditions. I'm keeping track of my completed entries on dA, and my incomplete ones on LJ.

The Next Life: No Name (theme 98) [rough draft]

Repliku/Naminé Day, 2 December 2013

Summary: Riku's replica and Naminé awaken as young children trapped in Castle Oblivion.

A/N: Repliku & Naminé have the physical and emotional maturity of five-year-olds.

o.o.o

He woke up from a nightmare he couldn't remember. He cried for a while, then he stopped. He looked around, but there was no one there... Just white walls, white white white, he hated it so he stood up and went over to the wall and hit it, but nothing happened. It scared him, and the panic bubbled up in his chest until he screamed. He looked around desperately, but there was nothing, so he shut his eyes and screamed some more until he finally felt something in his hand.

He looked at it. 'Keyblade,' he thought. He wasn't sure what a Keyblade was, except that he was holding one now, but it didn't matter. It was something. Something heavy he could hit the wall with. So he did, hitting and hitting, and then he screamed again and something burst out of the tip of the Keyblade and burned the wall. He stared at the black mark in relief. Finally, no more WHITE, now there was something different and he could breathe again.

He looked at the Keyblade. "Thank you," he said. Then he went to go look at one of the big white doors. He didn't like it in here, he wanted to get out.

So many white rooms. SO MANY. He burned every single one he passed through, but the panic was coming again and it was hard to breathe. "I want OUT."

'Card,' he suddenly thought. He needed...a card? "Give me a card!" he shouted, but no cards came to him like the Keyblade had.

He didn't give up. He kept looking and looking, even when he started getting so scared that it hurt, and by the time he finally found her, he was crying again and exhausted. He ran to her and dropped to the floor, shoved the sketchpad away, put his head in her lap, and fell asleep, still clutching the Keyblade tightly.

Tears of relief had started running down her face as soon as she'd seen him. She hugged him as he slept and smoothed his soft silvery hair, then put her sketchpad on his head and started drawing again, but she was happier now, and so were the pictures.

When he woke up, she was asleep, cuddled close to him. He shook her until she whimpered and woke up. "We have to get out," he said.

"I don't know how," she whispered, about to cry again. "I'm so glad you're here. I was so afraid I was all alone."

He looked at the top picture in her sketchpad. "What's that?"

She looked at it, too. "His name is Sora. I think he'll save us."

"No one will save us," he said. "We have to get out."

Her face fell. She picked up her sketchbook and stood up. "What's your name?" she asked. "You look like the boy named Riku, but I don't think you're him."

As soon as he heard her say 'Riku,' he knew that that was his name; but he didn't want it, it scared him, he wasn't Riku, "That's not my name!" he yelled.

She winced. "What is your name?"

"I don't know." His face puckered. "I don't have a name. Who am I?"

"You're my friend," she said softly. "My name is Naminé."

He reached out with the hand not clutching the Keyblade and held her hand tightly. "We're friends?"

"Yes. We're together, and we'll help each other."

"We're friends. We're friends. I love you," he added suddenly. "I remember. I love you. I'll always protect you, Naminé."

Her eyes filled with tears. "That was a lie. I lied to you because they told me to, but I'm sorry, it isn't true. It's Kairi you said you'd protect. I only pretended to be Kairi so you'd love me, too, but it isn't true and I'm bad."

He hugged her, and both of them cried. Then they just stood there miserably holding hands, until he finally said, "Can we...be friends now, though? Even if it was a lie before, can we be friends for real this time?"

"You'll let me?" she whispered, her eyes full of fragile hope. "You'll let me be your real friend?"

He hugged her again, then pulled her toward the door. "We're gonna get out together."

They walked and walked. There were so many rooms, with nothing in them and no way out. Naminé finally stopped and drew a picture.

"What's that?"

"It's where Sora lives. I pretended to live here, too, and you thought you lived here, but you didn't." She tore the picture out of her sketchpad and gave it to him. "Use your Keyblade."

He did, and then they were somewhere else - sort of. He could still feel the white walls around them and he hated it, but at least it finally looked different. He had to look around a lot before he started remembering what it was all called. Sand, ocean, waves, sky, sun. Paopu. "Food," he suddenly realized. He ran and climbed up the tree, and it was hard and he scraped his hands but he did it, and then he climbed back down and ran to bring the fruit back to Naminé.

Her face lit up, but then she looked worried. "Wait," she said.

"It's good. We need it."

"But...but this star...if we eat it, we'll always be connected."

"So?"

"Do you...want to always be connected to me?"

"Yes."

She smiled. They shared the fruit, and their stomachs felt better. "I'm gonna find more," he said.

They couldn't stay in her picture forever, in the 'Destiny Islands card.' He looked around at the horrible white walls and got sad and scared and mad, but in the next room, she drew another picture and then he couldn't see the walls again. "Keep drawing."

"I will."

They slept in Agrabah. It was warm, and there were plenty of places to hide in.

When he woke up, she was already awake and they were in a garden with huge flowers that sang.

"What's that?" he asked, looking at her sketchbook.

She touched the picture she'd drawn of a Keyblade. "Way to the Dawn," she said softly.

He looked at the picture for a long time. "That's my name," he finally decided.

"Way to the Dawn?"

"That's too long... Dawn. My name is Dawn."

She smiled. "I like you, Dawn."

"I like you, too, Naminé."

o.o.o.o.o

Kairi shivered a little as she and her two best friends made their way through the silent white halls. "It's kind of creepy in here..."

"The fact that it's a dream world cut off from its source doesn't help," Riku remarked. "Aqua said it'll completely collapse once we move whatever node is holding it together."

"Good riddance," Sora grumbled. "I don't even remember half the stuff that happened here, and it still gives me a bad feeling..."

"Shouldn't we have run into some Heartless by now?" Kairi wondered. "Or Dream Eaters, or something?"

"All the cards were lost, we're basically just looking at raw data..."

Riku was the first one to sense that they were being watched. He deliberately fell behind, a frown on his face as he looked around.

There...glaring aquamarine eyes, quickly disappearing behind a white pillar. "Hm," he murmured.

"Heeeey, look at this," Sora said at one point, crouching down to inspect something on the ground. "Paopu seeds, and some stem... Was someone eating here?"

"Or something," Kairi muttered darkly.

Riku glanced over his shoulder. "Was it you?"

Sora and Kairi looked at him in confusion. Riku inclined his head meaningfully, so they redirected their attention, and then they saw what he was looking at. "Who's that?!" Kairi gasped.

The child fled. He was no match for three teenagers, who quickly caught up to him.

"Let me GO!"

"That's a Keyblade!" Kairi gasped, as Riku struggled to keep the boy from either escaping or smacking anyone.

"Whoooaaa," Sora exclaimed, "he looks just like you, Riku!" He giggled. "Except tiny."

"He's so cuuuute," Kairi gushed.

"A little help here?" Riku said in annoyance.

"Run, Naminé!" Dawn shouted. "Run away!"

"Naminé?!" Sora and Kairi exclaimed at the same time.

"Where is she?" Riku asked sternly, twisting his young replica's arm a little.

"You can't have her!" Dawn screamed. "I'll kill you! Don't hurt her! She's my friend!"

"Naminééééé," Sora and Kairi were calling, "come on out, we're not gonna hurt yooouuu!"

Dawn was crying by the time they found Naminé, and she cried because he was. "But it's Sora," she sobbed, trembling in Kairi's arms, "It's Sora, he'll help us, he promised...he promised..."

"Yeah," Sora said earnestly, "we're here to help you guys! We've been looking for you."

Kairi handed her tiny Nobody over to Sora and crouched down to where Riku was still struggling with Dawn. "Sshhh, Riku, sshhh. It's okay, we're not going to hurt you or Naminé."

"I'M NOT RIKU!"

Kairi glanced at Riku, who shook his head. "He's my replica, he doesn't really have a name..."

"DAWN! I'M WAY TO THE DAWN! I'M NOT RIKU I'M NOT RIKU I HATE HIM HATE HIM HATE HIM...!"

Kairi stared. "Dawn?"

"No way," Riku growled.

"Isn't Dawn a girl's name?" Sora said in confusion.

"It's my name!" the replica shouted, "MINE!"

"All right, uh, Dawn, all right," Kairi said soothingly, and Riku groaned. "C'mon, Dawn, we're all gonna go home to Destiny Islands together. Don't you want to get out of this big lonely castle?"

Dawn went still and stared at her.

"It's much better than here," Sora coaxed. "This place isn't even real."

"I-I'm not real," Dawn said shakily. "They told me I wasn't - and it's his fault!" he shouted, shoving back against Riku so that his older lookalike grunted. "All your fault! If I kill you I'll be the real Riku, except my name is Dawn now but I hate you and I'm better than you!"

"Forget this, let's just get out of here," Riku said, standing up and walking off with the boy gripped tightly in his arms.

"Let me gooooo...!"

"He's scared," Naminé told the other two, looking desperate.

Kairi smiled. "We know, Nami-chan."

"I'm scared, too..."

Sora kissed her temple and squeezed her in a hug. "It's okay, Naminé. You don't have to be scared, because we're here. Everything's gonna be okay."

She smiled tremulously at him. "Thank you, Sora."

o.o.o.o.o

The children refused to be separated that first night. They huddled together under the same blanket, gazing out a window that showed the real sand and waves and moonlight of Destiny Islands, rather than illusions. "We got out of the white walls," Dawn said.

"I told you Sora would save us," Naminé said softly.

"You like him better than me," Dawn grumbled.

"I like you both."

"...Naminé?"

"Yes?"

"I'm still your friend, right? Even though we got out and everyone here loves you?"

"Yes. You'll always be my friend, Dawn."

"Good." For the first time, Dawn felt like he was safe.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: I don't...really like this one much, but I needed to show how Naminé & Repliku joined the others. Next is Ven & Vani for their Day near the end of December, and I'm still working on an installment for Riku & Repliku. ^^; I have a few more ideas for after that, and I know this series is just going to keep growing. XD

I'm also so glad I finally found a name I like for Repliku~ X3 I'm gonna have fun with it. I have another RikuRepli fic in a different universe I wrote a while ago, but I still need to type it.

The bad news is that I got sick today, which stinks. -.- Also, I didn't realize that my family's going to be busy this whole week, so that might mean I can't post anything for those early December Pairing Days except the VanNami picture. :/ Oh well...