About the summary…this is based off of an OC. I promise that it will hook up with the plot of the game and the rest of the characters later on. There's already been a crossover reference to this fic in The Summoned Land, and it will return again in other fics as well…

This is meant to take place three years before the game actually begins, and ends somewhere within the plot of The Summoned Land, so somewhere within the time where Rydia is still in the Feymarch and Cecil and company are searching for a way to reach the Underworld. That's the timeline for this fic, at least for this character. Afterwards, this character will not reappear until I get into post-game-fics.

There are some recognizable characters that you'll get to…and meet more of eventually, but first and foremost--who on earth is this mysterious girl?

(WARNING: This is short!)

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters and places that appear in this story. They belong to Square Enix. The OC on the other hand is MINE.

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Memories Scattered Like Rain on the Wings of a Storm

Her body was sore, her nerves were frayed, and all around her a world of black shifted and twisted her senses. It was like floating in ether, some fluid substance with no top and no bottom. Where was she?

Her mind tried to latch on to elusive thoughts, any memory she could recall--who she was, where she was from. She blinked her eyes rapidly, furiously searching for a light of some kind, anything that would orient her and convince her that this was real. She wondered if she kept staring long enough if she might wake up from all this and find herself home again. But where was home, and what if this wasn't a dream? Would her sight return? Had she even lost it?

Panic twisted her gut and her heart fluttered spasmodically in her chest.

She closed her eyes again, the blackness behind her eyelids no different from the world enveloping her body. She calmed herself, steadied her breathing, and in that instant felt her feet brush against something solid. Gravity returned soon afterward and her body sagged to rest on something hard but sturdy. Was this really real? She felt down gingerly with a hand, fearing this too might be an illusion that would break at her touch. She'd been drifting in emptiness for so long, tangibility was a foreign concept to her, but no—this felt real enough. Unwilling to open her eyes again and be disappointed by the sight of nothing, she explored her surroundings with her hands, allowing them to see for her.

The ground was smooth, polished even, and there were tiny cracks evenly spaced, perfectly straight. Warmth seemed to emanate from some portions of the floor while others remained stone cold.

Falling.

Her mind jolted at the memory. This wasn't right. She'd been falling, that had been her last thought before coming here. Where and for what reason still escaped her, but common sense told her she should be dead.

Reluctantly she opened her eyes, slowly, fearfully.

A light teased her senses and she rubbed her eyes vigorously, involuntary tears forming when she was unable to focus.

She opened her eyes wider, adjusting to this change, and when her vision finally sharpened, she was so surprised, she barely remembered her fear of blindness only an instant before.

The lights were tiny and faint, but they were there. They were everywhere, in fact. There were large patches of darkness above and surrounding her, but the floor was illuminated and she wondered why she'd never thought to look down while she was falling. What was this place, to have a floor that shone like a maze of fireflies trapped in glass?

Was this an afterlife?

She decided further exploration was necessary, and stood up to investigate where this strange path would lead her. The moment she flexed her leg, however, a searing pain shot through her right thigh. She yelped in pain, clutching her wounded leg. What kind of afterlife would allow a person to feel pain?

Utilizing more caution, she eased herself upright while giving more consideration to her injury. She'd been wounded before the fall. She remembered that now too. But for what reason?

She stepped forward and hobbled along the glowing path until it narrowed. She groped with her hands to see if anything bordered the path, walls or anything, and her fingers felt a surface similar to that of the floor. Was this a corridor of some sort? She went to lean on the invisible wall for support, but the moment her hand fully rested on the surface, a stream of light surged through the wall and spread like a spider web along the entire length of the passage. It was so bright it blinded her and she shielded her eyes.

A corridor, long and narrow, was revealed to her. Where she had arrived was a wide platform hanging into the darkness, but this hallway led to an unknown end that disappeared into the sea of curiously bright lights. She limped into it, hoping that maybe she could find an exit and return to wherever she was meant to be. Hoping she could escape this strangeness.

It wasn't long before she began to suspect she wasn't alone. Footsteps. Hurried footsteps were coming for her. The farther in she went the louder the footsteps became, but she couldn't decide from which direction they were approaching. There was an echo that was playing tricks with her ears. She looked behind her—no one. How could there be? She stopped moving, but the other footsteps never flagged, coming from no particular direction, and every direction at once, bouncing their sound off of the walls. Her nerves caught up to her again. Who could be in a place like this besides her? Instinctively her hand went to her waist, grasping for something that her conscious mind couldn't remember. To her surprise something was indeed affixed to her belt. There was a short slender blade buckled there in its sheath. She drew it cautiously, staring at it in wonder. She knew how to handle weapons? The sound of the footsteps grew louder still, and her body sprang into action, her legs spaced for balance, her knees slightly bent for quick movement. Her right leg screamed its protest, but she ignored it. She wasn't going to allow herself to be taken without a fight and left to float in darkness all over again.

In the strange light of the corridor she waited.

A door slid open a few arm lengths away, and her breath caught in her throat. A figure began to emerge, but she hesitated, wondering if they would turn out to be friend or foe.

It was a man who stepped through the portal, a man with scraggly white hair and a stooped back who was scratching his head in confusion. He didn't see her at first, as he was looking in the wrong direction, but when he did, his expression was that of horror and he jumped. His eyes were dark and beady, amplified by a pair of unusual glass objects resting awkwardly on the bridge of his nose with strange wires hooked behind his ears. At the moment his eyes were especially wide, staring at her.

"You! You're the cause of the disturbance!" he croaked out. It didn't seem his voice was familiar to being used in such excited tones.

"Who are you?" she demanded instead, gripping her blade more tightly. "Where is this place and how did I get here?"

"Who I am is none of your concern," he sniveled. "You re-routed energy from the tower's primary power source and activated its teleportation sub-routine."

She stared at him. "I did what?"

"When something gets near enough to the tower's support beams at this altitude, the tower is automatically programmed to cast a teleportation spell on the object and bring it slowly to rest somewhere on the structure without damaging it. I was working on something when you went and stole my power! Now my experiment is ruined!"

All she could do was stare at him in return, uncomprehending. "I'm sorry?"

"You should be! Several months' worth of work all ruined!" he shouted.

She lowered her weapon and released the tension in her muscles. "Can you tell me how I can leave here?"

"Leave here? Girl, do you not know where you are?"

"No!" she shouted. "Otherwise I wouldn't have already asked!"

He blinked at her through the glasses on his face, one measly eyebrow raised. "The Tower of Bab-il! You're at the middle ground, between the upper and lower worlds. The place where the balance of the tower is maintained. To get out you'd have to find a way of flying or teleporting. There used to be a reverse mechanism to send all transported objects near the tower's vicinity back to a location just outside of its range but—"

"I don't understand what you're saying," she interrupted him, shaking her head in dismay.

"I can't send you back! There isn't enough power for that!"

Her spirits sunk. There was no way out?

"What kind of place is this, then?"

"I can't tell you that."

"You can't tell me anything about this place other than its name, and you can't get me out of here?"

"That is correct."

"If I'm trapped here, at least tell me who you are," she pressed.

"You're the intruder, tell me who you are!"

"I—" she stopped, realizing just then that she didn't even know her own name. "I can't remember," she answered, frowning.

There was a pause, while the man blinked at her in disbelief. "No name, is that it? Fine. I'll just call you Girl. Does that suit you? Now go away."

"Girl" frowned. "Where am I supposed to go?"

"Somewhere—anywhere—so long as you stay out of my way and don't bother my experiments."

"What? But how can you leave me here?" she implored. "I don't even know who I am, and there's no way to escape this place? You're just going to leave me here to die?"

"Don't get tetchy with me," he warned. "You dropped in uninvited. It's not my responsibility to baby sit you. I might also add that you're pointing a weapon at me. That doesn't make me want to help you any."

Girl looked down at the weapon in her hand, having completely forgotten it was there.

"I'm sorry," she managed. "I didn't know who you were going to be."

"As you can see, it's just me. I walked all the way down here to find the cause of the disturbance, got a knife pointed at me by some impertinent girl, and now you're impositioning yourself on me. I'm not a happy man, so if you don't mind, I'm going to return to my laboratory, and you can fend for yourself until you either find some way to fly, or dig your way out into the underground. Good luck."

Girl angrily sheathed her weapon and decisively placed her hands on her hips as the strange man began to walk away through the doorway he'd opened.

"Just hold on!" she stopped him. "What if there's something I can do? Maybe you need an assistant? You said you worked in a laboratory, right?"

The glasses on his face amplified his already buggy eyes to even larger proportions. "I don't have time to waste on prattling assistants. As I said, go away."

Girl stood in the hallway watching him turn his back on her and march away. Slowly, painfully, she began to follow him. She couldn't afford to lose him and be left alone in this tower. After a ways, he noticed she was following and turned long enough to flail his arms in the air.

"The great Doctor Lugae works alone!" he cried back at her. "Go away! Leave! Find someone else to bother!"

A doctor, huh?Girl thought as she continued to trail behind. A doctor could cure wounds, couldn't they? Maybe even the wound that was sending piercing pain through her leg? So far he was the only person she knew, and doctor or no that meant he was the only person who could help her. If she could convince him that she had some usefulness…maybe just maybe she could stay with him long enough to find a way to escape…or at the very least remember who she was.

The Doctor eventually gave up trying to convince her to change course and doggedly shuffled through an endless series of passages. Girl did her best to keep up. This was her only chance at freedom, and she knew she couldn't give it up.

If she did, she'd be a nameless, homeless girl forever, and that was something she just couldn't abide. But who was this Doctor? Why was he here, and could she convince him to help her?

She watched him, his white coat flowing behind him as he walked with his equally white wispy hair sticking up in all directions from his head. She couldn't help but feel something cold worming into her gut. Did she know what she was getting herself into?

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Thanks for reading, everyone! Until next time…

myth