"Sincerely, Nobody" by ladydemelza

Chapter 8

Reminder: this story is in the process of being updated from how it was originally posted. Thank you for bearing with me as I continue to work on it.

Where…am I?

You know where you are.

Oh? That's right. Hollow Bastion.

See? You've remembered. I knew you would.

This can't be…

But it is, so you may as well make the most of it. Or at least accept it.

Where are my friends?

Looking for you, of course.

Oh. Are they really? And, who are you?

You. In a more sensible frame of mind.

…I see.

Take a deep breath and open your eyes.

Naminé's eyes shot open as she sat up at a dizzying speed. The wave of magic that engulfed her had exploded through her veins as electric as lightning and her body had just shut down from the stress of it. The weight of her memories was heavier than she ever could have imagined, pulsing like a migraine in her head—flashes of blood, battle, and magic. So much blood, sticky and scarlet and all over her hands.

She rubbed her hands together and ran them through her hair, immediately noticing that it was shorter. The ends felt singed, like maybe it had been burned off by the magic. Before she had collapsed, she had felt tired, extremely sick, and dizzier than ever. The power coursing through her now was still almost too much to bear, a blistering heat blossoming in every nerve of her body.

With effort, she hauled herself to her feet, still feeling a little dizzy once she was fully upright. The burning inside of her began to quell a little, but she remembered how magic felt, and knew it would never fully go away.

Instead of focusing on the pain, she decided to see what she could do. She eyed the crystal walls critically. Just beyond them, she noticed Hana and Tomoko frantically attempting to contact Korin. Realizing with a pang that they were worried about her, she tried to banish the guilt she felt by focusing on magic.

She placed her fingertips lightly on the crystal wall, focusing and channeling her power through them. Both walls of magic shattered. Her heart nearly leapt from her chest, a familiar pulse of adrenaline. It felt intoxicating now, overcoming her thoughts with instinct.

Hana and Tomoko squealed as Naminé stepped out of her enclosure, white magic glowing at her hands and eyes slowly turning red.

"Roxas," Leon said uncertainly. "Are you all right?"

"I… I remember everything," he said slowly, still feeling relatively ill. "Up until the day we were reborn here."

"Good," said Leon, a businesslike tone about him. "I can't really say how or why you are the first. That will be a question for later, when we have less pressing things to attend to."

Roxas couldn't stop himself from considering the connection he had always felt to his friends, the way seeing Korin had immediately roused his old animosity toward her, the way he'd always felt a little out of place in his own life…

"I don't think I was ever really gone," he said finally. "Not really."

Leon considered this. "Magic is strange and at times inexplicable. Possible that your own influenced how the spell affected you."

"I felt things," Roxas said. "Old feelings about Korin, for example. Those were all from my memories. I shouldn't have felt things from my past, but I did."

"Seeing her could have affected it," said Leon with a shrug. "We may not ever fully understand, but we can ask Naminé when we find her."

Riku was listening intently, biting his bottom lip almost unconsciously, but said nothing.

Sora, who had been silently observing Roxas since the spell broke, suddenly quietly requested, "Leon? Take us back, please. I want to get to Naminé before something bad happens…"

"All right, then," Leon said, looking pleased that he had convinced them to come with him even though only Roxas had his memories. "Yuri? Would you like to come along? I think Aeris would like to have a look at you."

"Why would she care about me?" Yuri looked both skeptical and curious at once.

Roxas opened his mouth to say something, but Leon shot a fierce, threatening look his way, which plainly and unmistakably said one thing: Shut up.

"Are you coming to Hollow Bastion or not?" asked Leon, hedging.

Yuri had noticed Roxas, who was struggling to keep whatever Leon had insisted he shouldn't say to himself. "You okay, Roxas?" she asked warily.

"Yeh—fine," he said, glance snapping over to Leon.

Leon gave him another warning look. "Well, you've got a few minutes to decide," he told her. "Aeris should be popping up any minute, so I'm going to send you all home for 10 minutes to collect anything you might want to bring along. At some point during that time, Aeris will come and get a shadow set up for you."

"Shadow?" Riku repeated uncertainly.

"It's a spell," said Leon. "It will basically create another you—a shadow of you—to live in your place. But just for now."

"Whoa. So, while we're gone, there will be… fake things that look just like us walking around?" Sora asked in disbelief. "Like a doppelganger?"

"Exactly!" Leon affirmed with a nod. "If she performs the spell properly, which she will, they'll act just like you, as well."

Sora and Riku exchanged uncertain glances. "O-kay," Riku said at last. It sounded no more impossible than everything they had already heard.

"All right, then. You have ten minutes. Collect whatever you think you may need. Nothing more than what you can carry, though."

He snapped his fingers, and all of them disappeared from Sora's basement and reappeared in their bedrooms.

Sora paced in his room, neglecting to grab anything. What exactly did one bring to a magical land as supplies for his past self? His thoughts were running through his head faster than ever before. Mostly of Naminé, waves of intense worry competing with persistent feelings of nausea and anxiety.

Before long, a very pretty brown-haired girl sporting a pink dress and big blue eyes popped up out of nowhere. He had been pacing, and just when he had whirled around to make another walk across his room, she was sitting on his bed as though it was perfectly normal for her to be there. She looked vaguely familiar but Sora couldn't place it – a feeling he figured he'd need to get used to, at least until his spell broke.

"Hello, Sora," she said brightly.

"Um," he stuttered. "Uh… You must be…"

"Aeris!" she smiled, and stood up with her hand extended. Sora slowly shook it, still mystified that he had been alone one moment and in her company the next.

"Leon sent me to make a shadow for you," she explained. "Just hold still, this shouldn't take long…"

She began muttering under her breath, closed her eyes, and positioned both of her pointer fingers so that they formed a small cross. Sora felt an odd sinking sensation in his stomach, and suddenly felt unnaturally chilly. Squeezing his eyes shut, he waited until he was sure she was finished to open them.

"There we go…how are you today, Sora?"

"A little weirded out," came shadow Sora's voice.

The real Sora opened his eyes, and almost jumped when he saw the exact replica of himself standing next to him.

"Holy…he looks just like me!" Sora exclaimed.

"Well, what were you expecting when he said, 'shadow'?" the shadow asked. It was almost too uncanny for Sora to process fully.

"Well…never mind."

"Ready to go, Sora?" Aeris asked.

Sora made one last glance around his room, and noticed his photo album on his bookshelf—filled with pictures of his friends from around the time he had met them to as recently as his birthday, which had been just last month. He rushed over, quickly pulled it off the shelf, and nodded. "Yeah… I'm ready."

"Okay, then," she said, snapping her fingers.

Sora watched as his room and the shadow Sora melted away, and he reappeared seconds later in his own basement.

He was apparently the first that Aeris had visited, which made sense since he was obviously the closest. The basement was completely empty. Wait—where had Leon gotten off to?

When Roxas felt his feet slam down into the ground of his room, he felt immediately relieved. Something about his room just made him feel much more at ease. Even though he knew that this was only his room in his life here, what a strange feeling that was—he still felt calmed after everything that had taken place at Sora's.

He was leaving this world that he knew, and heading to another… one that he hadn't been in for seventeen years. He felt an incomprehensible mish-mash of apprehension, nostalgia, and longing.

Roxas headed to his closet and pulled out an old, empty backpack. He didn't have much time to think of what he wanted to bring—Leon had appeared in the doorway of his room.

"Roxas?"

"I know what you're here for," Roxas said immediately. "Why'd you shut me up back there?"

"Because," Leon sighed. "I know you think you know what you remembered—about Yuri, I mean. But…just because it looks like her doesn't mean it's her. I mean, we've really got to be positive about that before we tell her."

"Leon. She looks the same, and her name is the same. We've been friends forever, both here and there. I know her. Believe me, it was her."

"I know, Roxas. I had a good relationship with her, as well, and I agree. It's just that…we've really got to bring her back with us. To be sure."

"Okay, I guess I understand why you didn't want me to tell her."

"Good. Just wanted to make sure we were clear."

Roxas hesitated for a moment. "Do you think Naminé is still alive?"

Leon sat down on Roxas's bed, head in his hands. "I really hope so, Roxas."

"Are there any leads as to where she might be?" he asked. He didn't have any of his weapons and hadn't fought or used magic in 17 years, but still felt ready to charge into whatever danger was keeping Naminé from them with reckless abandon.

"Once we're there, Aeris will be able to find her," he said. He looked up at Roxas. "It will be especially easy if she has remembered everything and used magic."

"And if she hasn't?"

Leon sighed, and hung his head again. "I don't know. I can see why you're worried, though. Do you remember anything about her from the past?"

Roxas dug deep into his memories. When he thought of Naminé, he could tell immediately that she held a very special place in his heart…a deep, unconditional emotion that he couldn't entirely describe. One particular quality of hers stood out—her generosity. She went out of her way to use her magic to help reconstruct houses and heal any wounds the people of Hollow Bastion might have. Not only was she a gifted fighter, but a very caring and kind person. Unbelievably tough on the battlefield, but soft at heart and more than happy to help any who needed her talents.

"I remember how helpful she was to everyone," Roxas said. "She was amazing, wasn't she, Leon?"

He smiled a small, thin smile. "Yes, she was. I expect more of your memories will return gradually…and then, perhaps, you'll know what I was talking about."

"What?" Roxas asked, snapping out of the dream-like state his memories had drawn him into.

Leon stood up, chuckling. "See you in a few minutes. Aeris should be here soon."

As she let Hana and Tomoko strategize (why not? They would lose either way), Naminé got her first good look around the room—it seemed as though this was where Hana, Tomoko, and Korin lived. Three beds off in the far right corner of the room were covered with simple white sheets and comforters. The nearly all white kitchen area to Naminé's left was sparkling clean. Several comfortable chairs littered the open far left corner of the room, and the amount of white in the room was becoming almost straining her eyes.

Naminé listened carefully and picked up on what Hana and Tomoko were talking about. "Korin warned us not to engage her," Hana whispered.

"But she hasn't attacked yet, so let's get her before she remembers how to do everything," Tomoko insisted.

"If her eyes are red, it will take more than two people to kill her. You know that." Hana sounded afraid. Naminé thought it was wise of her to be.

"Of course you would know all about it," Tomoko said with malice. "We all know what you were up to, just before they were sent away."

"Shut up, that is ancient history," Hana snapped. But deep behind her eyes, Naminé thought, the history did not seem so ancient at all. The pain stirring there still was plain.

"What will he say about that when he comes back?"

"I told you to shut up," Hana said, growing angry. "Let's just get out of here."

"No. We're going to fight!" Tomoko shouted, making a quick decision and firing a spell at Naminé.

She stuck her arm straight out in front of her almost involuntarily, and a clear shield that looked similar to the walls she had been imprisoned in appeared, and she easily blocked Tomoko's spell. She still felt waves of pain as the magic passed through her burning veins, but something else stirred inside her as well – a pride that felt almost feral, that made her want to fight. The magic grew stronger and she couldn't suppress the feeling.

"Let's find out just how much I remember," she said, eyes blazing red.

Thank you for reading and reviewing!

Love,

ladydemelza