Remembering the Forgotten

By: Ellipsis the Great

DISCLAIMER: Kingdom Hearts and everything affiliated with it belongs to SquareEnix and Disney. All I own is the plot…although the original idea came from orangediscord's one-shot 'Left Behind.' Also, the idea for the 'relocation' of the Queen's soul comes from a book called 'Golem in the Gears' by Piers Anthony. And the idea for the ritual is some sort of weird merger of my own ideas with ideas from the movies 'The Brothers Grimm' and 'Thirteen Ghosts.'

Summary: Sometimes, I thought I was the only person who remembered him…eventual Seiner, other pairings unknown.

Rated: M.

Spoilers: Takes place after Kingdom Hearts II; I dunno how much of the plot will be included.

Warnings: Yaoi and some angst. More warnings later if needed.

Chapter Nineteen: Edoceo (to inform fully, instruct thoroughly)

"I believe in you, and nothing less. I believe in you, can't help myself. You're all the hope, the reason that I need; I believe in you just because I don't need no one to prove your love. For all that I have seen; it's easier for me to believe in you." –Joy Williams, 'I Believe in You'

As I woke up, I was overcome by the feeling that I was coming down from some incredible high.

'In fact,' I thought, 'this feels a lot like—'

I opened my eyes, and all thought disappeared as they met with someone else's eyes.

Someone else's blue eyes.

Someone else's blue eyes attached to a naked body.

Someone else's blue eyes attached to a naked body that was attached to mine.

I, for the first and only time in my life, screamed like a girl.

The eyes shifted, and Sora yelped as they focused in on me, screaming back at me.

I pulled out of him (fucking hell, had I been sleep-sexing? Was that even possible?) and threw myself away from him, both of us still screaming at each other.

"What the fuck is going—holy shit!" Cid yelled, slamming the door shut almost as soon as he'd opened it.

I finally stopped screaming—though I'm still not sure if it was the sound of Cid's voice or the slamming door that made me snap out of it—and then began scrambling around the room, grabbing my clothes as I saw them. Eventually, after leaving my boxers on the just-out-of-reach fan as a lost cause, I stuffed my feet in my shoes, covered as much as I could with the clothes I had managed to get together, opened the door, and stalked down the hall to my room with as much dignity as I could muster.

"What did you do to Sora, you…you sicko?" Riku asked angrily.

"I didn't do anything to that little pervert! I just woke up!" I snapped.

"You were in his room! Naked!" Riku yelled.

"Well then maybe I was sleepwalking." I snarled sarcastically, then slammed the door shut in his face. "Now fuck off!"

Hushed talking followed. Well, maybe it wasn't all that hushed; I don't really remember. At the time, I had kind of collapsed on my bed, in shock about the whole waking-up-post-coitus thing.

It wasn't even like some Las Vegas-esque, we-got-smashed-and-had-sex-but-don't-remember freak outs. This went far beyond that. For one thing, we were nowhere near Vegas. And for another, neither of us had drunk anything the night before, as evidenced by my glaringly obvious lack of a hangover.

And besides that was the fact that it was me. And Sora. That's just wrong. It would be like…like Cid fucking Aerith. 'Wrong' with a capital W-R-O-N-G.

In any case, I was in shock. That was probably why, besides not hearing any of the conversations going on outside of my doorway, I also didn't notice Sora opening the door to my room and limping in until he sat down on the bed beside me.

I jumped a little, opening my eyes and looking at him. Sadly, I wasn't in the position to punch him as I usually would have, so I just sneered at him instead.

"You can fuck off, too." I said before throwing an arm over my eyes.

Sora sighed softly. "It was Roxas."

"Eh?" I peeked out at him.

"He just…confessed." He said. "About what happened…I mean, what we woke up to back there."

I scowled, but didn't say anything.

"He says that you…switched souls, somehow…with Axel. It's some sort of spell that Zexion did." He continued, not looking at me. "I guess they were…that is to say, I guess they must really like each other, y'know? He says Axel came to talk to him, and they got…carried away."

I snorted. "That's a hell of an understatement if I've ever heard one."

"Yeah." He let out a short, bitter laugh that was more than a little out of place coming from him.

"Alright, well…thanks for telling me." I said, feeling uncomfortable. "Now seriously—fuck off."

He didn't move for a moment, but finally stood, hissing with pain and sitting down again.

I rolled my eyes and opened my mouth to say something, but he spoke before I could get so much as a syllable out.

"Do you think I'm gay?" He blurted, giving me an alarmed look.

"…Huh?" I asked. Seriously, two bi-curious guys in as many days? And both of them had decided I was the one to come to with this shit? This had to be some sort of fucking joke, right?

"Well…Roxas is gay, obviously." He blushed a little. "And he's my soul, so…does that mean I'm gay, too?"

"I don't know." I groused, sitting up and scratching my head. "It's not like I'm some sort of expert on this sort of shit just because I'm gay!"

"How did you know you were gay?" He asked desperately.

"I don't fucking know, chickenwuss!" I said. "I just…knew, okay? Other guys talked about girls and tits and shit, and I realized I was more interested in sneaking a peek at them than I was the girls. If you're so curious, why don't you talk to Cid? He's gay, too! I'm not some sort of Homo-expert or whatever just because I happen to like boys. Jesus."

He giggled. "Yeah, okay." He paused, suddenly hesitant. "Say…can I ask you one more question?"

"Sora…"

"Just one more, I swear!"

I clenched my jaw shut and closed my eyes, counting to ten. "Shoot." I finally gritted out. He obviously wasn't going to fucking leave until he asked.

He took a deep breath. "Do you think Riku is gay?"

I blinked. "…Are you serious?"

Sora nodded, biting his bottom lip.

"Aw, hell, Sora, I don't fucking know." I groaned. "I mean…he looks gay, I guess, if you wanna go all stereotypical and shit, but I don't look gay, so…who knows? Why don't you just ask him?"

Sora gasped and turned red. "Eh? No, I couldn't! I'd be too embarrassed!"

I frowned. "So…you like him?"

He pursed his lips, looking down. "I don't really know. I mean, if I did that would definitely mean I'm gay, but I'm not sure of that, either. Riku's my best friend, though…but Kairi's my best friend, too! I'm just…I'm so confused right now…"

"Well…it's not like you have to be in a hurry to figure stuff out, right?" I asked. "Take your time and think about it—which of them do you like more? Or…I mean, the person you like doesn't have to be one of them just because they're your friends. You could like…shit, I dunno…René, I guess, or…maybe…Olette?"

He laughed. "Definitely not Olette. I hardly know her!"

I shrugged. "Yeah, sure. All I'm saying is that you don't need to rush yourself about this."

He grinned widely at me. "Thanks, Seifer." He stood up again, letting out a small whimper but not falling over this time. "You're a real pal."

I rolled my eyes. "Your ass hurts, doesn't it?"

His blush from before returned with a vengeance. "Y-yeah." He squeaked.

I reached into the nightstand next to my bed and grabbed a bottle of ibuprofen. "Take two of these and a hot bath and you'll feel a little better."

His eyes widened. "You mean you…?"

"I…what?"

"You've had sex before?" He asked.

"Me? Sure, but not on bottom." I said as coolly as I could even though I could feel my cheeks heating up a little. "Well, still not on bottom, I guess…but I fight a lot, so I'm used to being sore and having to deal with cramps and sore muscles and stuff. This is…kind of like that, I think."

He nodded wordlessly, then his eyebrows furrowed together.

"What?"

"Roxas says he's really sorry." He said. "To both of us."

"Nah, 's okay." I waved him off. "It just…freaked me out a little." I smirked. "But thanks to them, now I have a real plan."

He perked up. "Really?"

I nodded. "Yeah. The Queen's gonna be sorry she fucked with me by the time I'm finished with her…" My smirk turned feral. "Assuming there's anything left of her by the time I'm finished."

"Oooh, tell me!" He exclaimed eagerly, clasping his hands together like some sort of middle school girl.

I rolled my eyes and stood up, ruffling his hair. "I'll tell everyone."

"Yay!" He cheered, then yelped. "Ooh, oww…"

"Take the pills and a bath." I said, shoving him toward the door lightly. "I'll wait and tell everyone when you're done, okay?"

He nodded enthusiastically, downing the pills even though he didn't have anything to wash them down with (that had to be fucking disgusting) and tried to take off to the bathroom. But after about two steps he let out another exclamation and took it slower.

Looking after him, I sighed a little.

I had promised to tell them my plan, but…

I couldn't, and wouldn't, tell them all of it.

(PAGEBREAK,Y'KNOW?)

"So, so, so?" Sora said as he flopped into a seat beside René, looking as if he had completely recovered from that morning's…excitement.

"So, what?" René asked, startled.

"Sooo, Seifer said he has a plan!" He replied.

"You do?" Hayner looked at me, his expression a mixture of surprise and hope.

I nodded. "But it's going to be really risky. I haven't completely figured everything out yet, and I can't tell you all of it."

"Why?" Cid frowned disapprovingly.

"I don't know that I could pull off what I'm thinking if you guys know everything." I explained. "I think it'll work better if everyone is surprised, including you guys."

"…Fine." Cid said, still frowning at me.

I ignored him. "Alright, well…like I said, I haven't worked out all of the kinks yet, but I'm pretty sure it'll work regardless."

"Okay, okay, whatever! Just tell us!" Sora said impatiently.

"Keep your pants on, lamer." I said, then took a deep breath, mentally preparing myself for their reactions. "Look, so…first, we have to let the Queen have Roxas."

As I expected, there was an immediate uproar, mostly compliments of Riku and René.

"What?!" They yelled in almost perfect unison (René was a bit louder).

"Hear me out!" I said. "We can't sit back and wait her out, not if we want to save Hayner and the Organization."

"The Organization?" Sora echoed softly. "So they…they're really back?"

"Yeah." I said.

"All of them?" Donald asked.

"I guess so." I said. "They somehow switched me with one of them, and I saw eleven of them in the cell with me. That's twelve."

"And that Roxas fella makes thirteen." Goofy said.

"And just why do we have to give her Sora's soul to save them?" René asked.

"Because I don't want her to take anyone else." I said. "And because I think they're strong enough to fight against whatever spell she's gonna be using to anchor Roxas down. So what I'm thinking is…"

"How are we supposed to give her Roxas?" Riku interrupted angrily. "Are we just gonna hand Sora over to her?"

"I'm getting to that, if you'd fucking shut up for a minute." I glared at him fiercely for a moment, then looked at Sora. "I remember one of you telling me that Riku can control darkness, right? And he can unlock the darkness in your heart. So I think what we can do is have Riku and you fight for some reason…a big, explosive fight, like maybe…he's pissed about what happened this morning and blows it out of proportion or something like that. Since you can sort of control where your heart goes, give it to one of us so we can give it back to you while Riku takes Roxas to the Queen."

"Excuse me?" Riku asked.

"You're the one getting pissed, so it'll make more sense if you do it. Plus, I'm betting she knows about you giving in to the darkness once already, so I don't think she'll be too suspicious if you do it again."

"Yeah, okay, but Sora won't be able to give his heart to anyone here." He said. "He can only give it to Kairi."

"I can give my heart to whoever I want." Sora said with a slight frown, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Sora, everyone here is a guy." Riku said, pulling a face. "That'd make you…gay…wouldn't it?"

Sora recoiled a little.

"You got a problem with gays?" Cid asked.

"Not with you guys." Riku said quickly. "But Sora isn't gay! He likes Kairi!"

"How would you know?" René asked. "Sora can like anyone he wants to like, girl or boy!"

"Save the fighting for later." I broke in before anyone else could speak up. "Can you do it or can't you, Riku? Sora?"

They both nodded, neither looking at the other.

Riku looked pissed. Sora looked…kind of heartbroken.

"And…after the Queen gets Roxas?" Cid prompted, frowning at the two sullen friends.

"Well, I'm hoping that Riku will be able to 'join' the Queen, and maybe find out some other loopholes to the spell, if there are any other than the two I'm thinking of."

"Two?" Hayner asked.

"Yeah." I said. "Sort of. Roxas is one of them, since I'm pretty sure he can disrupt whatever she uses on him to get him to create that barrier. And the second…" I trailed off, pursing my lips together.

"And the second…?" Riku motioned at me to continue.

"That's part of what I can't tell you." I said carefully. "But if I'm right about it…well, it might just put an end to all of this bullshit."

"That's fucking suspicious." Cid said.

"I agree." Sora said, giving me a surprisingly stern look. "You can't keep us in the dark if it's dangerous, Seifer."

"Sure I can." I said with a smirk. "Would you guys trust me, already? The element of surprise sometimes works better if everyone is surprised."

"Just so long as you swear you're not going to do something really stupid and end up killing yourself." Hayner said.

I shrugged. "Look, lamer, I can't promise that. We don't know what's gonna happen, or what sort of shit that bitch is gonna have waiting for us. All I can promise—all any­ of us can promise, for that matter—is that we'll try our best."

He wrinkled his nose, but nodded.

"I just wish we had a foolproof way to get all of the souls out of the fucking way." I said, letting out a frustrated sigh.

"I might be able to help with that!"

We all jumped a little as the image of a young boy—somewhere in his tweens, I'd guess—appeared on a nearby screen.

"Lewis?" René blinked.

"Hey, René! I was thinking about all of that stuff you and your friends told me, and finishing up some of the research on you that I started back when we met, and I'm pretty sure I have a good idea what's going on." The boy said. "So I triangulated the position of your ship based on the signal from the phone I gave you, and we caught up with you, so would you guys let us dock and board? This will be a lot easier to explain face-to-face."

(PAGEBREAK,Y'KNOW?)

A few moments later we had been officially introduced to Lewis and Wilbur, a father-son combination that was more dysfunctional than any other I'd met, including my own. See, Lewis was Wilbur's dad. Or would be, since he as actually a year younger than Wilbur. Apparently, Wilbur had gone back in time and brought Lewis to the future for reasons too complicated to explain here. The gist of it is that they were searching the worlds for someone they referred to as 'The Bowler Hat Guy.'

Don't fucking ask, okay? I told you it was complicated.

In any case, we had been officially introduced and given a short run-down of their history. Then, Lewis dove straight into the problem at hand.

"Okay, so the first thing I would like to establish is that René, whatever you guys may have previously been led to believe, isn't a copy. Or a replica." Lewis said. "He's a clone."

"There's a difference?" Riku asked with a scowl.

"Yes, and a pretty big one at that." Lewis said. "To be a copy means that you're an exact double of your original, which René most definitely isn't. Actually, there's no such thing as a copy of a person. Humans are too complex to be replicated, and there are too many outside factors that affect what a person is like. Even if we just take the most basic layers of a person, it's not in any way possible to replicate one due to one seemingly simple part."

"Which is…" Sora asked.

"The soul." Lewis said. "Hearts and bodies can be created, that much scientists have known for a while even if not many have perfected the art."

"In your time." Wilbur snickered.

"Shut up." Lewis hissed before returning to his lecture as if nothing had happened. "Souls, on the other hand, are far too unstable to even try to make, much less replicate."

"Yeah, he's right. He—well, he as my dad—has tried before." Wilbur said with a sage nod. "Bad week at the Robinson house."

"The toilet?" Lewis asked with a grimace.

"The toilet." Wilbur said.

"I don't want to know." I said before anyone could ask.

"Right." Lewis said. "Anyhow, because of his lack of a soul, René has an advantage."

"Over…?" I asked.

"Everyone else." Lewis said. "René is basically a husk. It's a bad way to put it, but it's true. Most normal humans will disappear after they've lost their soul, like Hayner is. But since René never had one in the first place, he won't. It's like…his body doesn't know what it's missing, so it doesn't know how to react to that. Or…something. Anyhow…now, he's kind of like a soul-catcher."

"You mean…if I went near a soul, I would…like, suck it up?" René asked.

"Yep." Lewis said. "And, assuming that its original body and heart had been destroyed, you would assimilate it into yourself so that it would become your own. Souls need to feel complete, you see; that's why Organization XIII was created and had such a large following of Nobodies."

"Could he accidentally suck up Sora's soul?" I asked. "We're planning on releasing it in order to get closer to the Queen, so…"

"No, no." He shook his head. "I'm pretty sure his soul is safe, as long as his body and heart are still alive. Even if René did try to suck it up, he wouldn't be able to keep it for long, especially if he was near Sora. Once Sora's soul is gone, his body and heart will start calling for it, in a way, so that as soon as they're close enough again they'll merge."

"I have a question." Sora said. "We think that the Queen disrupted our merge, so that even now we aren't completely back together. Is there…I mean, will we be able to be one again someday, now that we've gotten rid of her spell?"

Lewis thought for a moment, then pulled some weird gadget out of the small duffel bag he had brought onto the ship with him. He pointed it at Sora, fiddling with a few of the buttons.

"I think…" He began. "I think that whatever spell that woman was using isn't the reason you and your soul haven't merged together. Now that you're aware of your soul, I don't think you'll ever be able to completely forget about it. And those memories are keeping you from fully merging."

"Oh." Sora frowned thoughtfully.

"But I doubt that's a bad thing, really." Lewis shrugged. "A little inconvenient sometimes, maybe, but it shouldn't affect you."

"Oh." He said again, but this time he had his usual grin on his face.

Lewis started to say something, waving his hand a little, then stopped as the little machine in his hand made a strange beeping noise, like a metal detector that had just passed over a hunk of scrap metal. He blinked at it, then looked at me.

"You…what are you?" He asked.

"The fuck do you mean 'what am I'?" I asked.

"I mean exactly what I asked." He said, adjusting the dials on the machine again. "That's…that's so bizarre!"

"Lewis, make sense when you talk." Wilbur said, rolling his eyes. "And don't leave us out of the loop just because we aren't freakishly smart!"

Lewis gave him a dry look, but explained, "This machine measure the frequency of your body, heart and soul. Each of these dials hones in on one of those frequencies." He paused. "For most people, the frequency stays relatively the same. The only discrepancies usually come from the differences in age—for example, Wilbur's body and my body would have relatively the same frequency, since we're about the same age. But René's body is on an almost completely different frequency from anyone else's since it was created, not born. The same goes for his heart, and of course since he doesn't have a soul the frequency is non-existent entirely."

"Okay, so…?" I asked.

"So your body's frequency is almost the same as René's." Lewis said, adjusting his glasses and giving me a hard look. "But your soul has a frequency similar to Sora's, and your heart is on almost the exact same frequency as Hayner's."

"Well fuck if I know." I said. "I thought I was a normal person."

"But didn't Merlin say that you'd been made younger before you got sent to Twilight Town?" Hayner asked. "Could that be why the frequency is weird?"

"No." Lewis said immediately. "If that were the case, then I'm pretty sure the frequency would just be a little wonky. But right now the frequency is radically different from anyone else's—that's why the machine made that weird sound when I pointed it at him. It was set to the same frequency as Sora's body, which should be pretty close to Seifer's since they look like they're about the same age. So maybe I would get a little beep or two, but you guys heard it. That was an extreme reaction."

"Maybe instead of making him younger, Ansem made him another body and then put his head and soul in it." Sora said. "We don't know what his body looked like back then…maybe it was really sick or wounded or something."

"He was supposed to have found him after his world was destroyed, so it is possible." Cid said.

As the wheels in my mind started turning again, and my plan really started taking shape, I began wondering just how true Hayner's belief in 'no such thing as coincidences' really was.

"Okay, that's perfect!" I said.

"What in the hell are you talking about, dumbass?" Hayner asked.

"Shut the fuck up, lamer." I snapped, then looked at Lewis. "Is there any way for you and cone head over there to find my real body?"

Lewis' eyebrows furrowed together as Wilbur let out an indignant squawk at having been called 'cone head.' "As long as it's still around…I mean, it would have had to have been put under some sort of stasis spell to keep it from disappearing or something without its heart or soul, and if we do find it and release it we'll be hard pressed to get it to you in enough time to keep all of you from disappearing…"

"You didn't answer my question, Lewis. Can you find it?" I asked.

"Well…yeah, probably."

"Good." I said. "You have four days before the Blood Moon—that gives you two days to find it and two days to get it to Prydain."

"Seifer…" Hayner began.

"You trust me, don't you, lamer?" I asked, grabbing his hand and squeezing it. "I'm taking care of things, okay?"

"You don't play fair." He huffed, looking away from me.

I snorted but didn't comment. "Right. So Sora and Riku, you already have your job. Riku, if you can get in a little closer to the Queen and feed us some more information on the ritual, that'd be really helpful. If you can't…well, whatever. Nice try. René, once Sora's reclaimed Roxas, I want you to suck up one of the Nobodies."

"Which one?" René asked.

"It doesn't…" I paused, glancing surreptitiously at Sora. "The one with spiky as hell red hair."

Sora jolted forward a little, giving me a wide-eyed look. I just smirked back at him.

"Spiky red hair, got it." René said, though he was looking between Sora and I strangely.

"Then I'll work my magic, kill the bitch, get my original body back, and all will be well." I said.

"Still sounds fishy to me, you being so damn vague." Cid said.

"Just trust him." Hayner said, smiling at me just a bit. "He's an idiot sometimes, but he usually gets things right eventually."

"Shit, chickenwuss, if you keep this up I might start thinking you actually like me." I drawled.

"See? He's an idiot sometimes." Hayner said, his grin widening.

"Right." Lewis giggled. "Well, we had better go now if we want to find your body in time."

"What about the Bowler Hat Guy?" Wilbur asked.

"This is more important right now. Just come on." Lewis said. "Taran, are you going to stay here with them?"

The third newcomer, who had stayed quiet up until then, nodded. "Yes; if there's someone this evil on my world, I have to help get rid of her."

"You'll only get in my way." I said. "So fuck off, shorty."

"I am not short." Taran said. "And you need me."

"For what?"

"You don't know where the Queen is, do you?" He asked.

"You already told us—the Horned King's castle." René said.

"You don't know where that is." He said. "And besides, you'll need a boat to get there."

"We have the Highwind." Cid said. "I doubt we need a fucking boat."

He shook his head. "You'll need a boat. This ship won't be able to get to the island."

"Why not?" Cid asked, bristling a bit at the apparent insult to his beloved Highwind.

"I've seen people try to go to the island that appeared in the Horned Lake in ships like these." Taran said. "They all go out of control, crash, and are destroyed by the monsters in the lake. Not to mention the Gwythaints."

"Gwythaints?" I asked.

He grinned. "You'll have to take me along if you want my help."

"Son of a bitch." I cursed.

Triumphantly, he smiled and waved at Lewis and Wilbur. "See you soon, Lewis. Wilbur. Thank you very much for helping me."

"'S what friends are for." Wilbur said. "Good luck, everyone."

"Good luck to you, too!" Sora chirped.

They left, and Cid stood, looking at me expectantly.

Making a face, I put my hand on Hayner's arm, holding out my other hand, which was the one with the ring on it. The ring glowed, and let out the small beacon of light that always appeared when I touched Hayner.

Hayner reached up and put his hand overtop of mine.

"Let's go."

End Chapter Nineteen