Notes:

Song of the arc: Your Affection by Shihoko Hirata

Song of the chapter: Reweave by Konomi Suzuki

Falling, falling, falling deep.

Opening her eyes would not work. There was a sting to them every time she tried. Breathing produced bubbles of air as she sunk further into the abyss. Was she alive? Was she dead? Was there a difference here? Where was here? Opening her eyes for a single moment reminded her of the dreams Sora had. What did it mean?

And just as quickly as it came it stopped. She had awakened to Kairi cuddling her like a full size body pillow. Naminé never spoke of the strange dreams, what was there to tell? She had dreams of falling into black water. Was it even anything to talk about? And so it happened again and again and again for four nights until the fifth.

During the fifth night she fell backwards until hitting a wall of black. Then a blinding light as the blackness turned into a stained glass platform. White with a tint of blue around it, the colors were magnificent. She tried to take in the image as there was only empty darkness here besides this. An image of herself sleeping with her legs together but her arms out as if her body was to make a cross shape.

There were faces as well, perhaps the people she most cared about? People important to her? Friends? Each one started faintly glowing as she looked at them. On her sides below her arms, Kairi on the left with Sora on the right. Her Other and Sora, the first person who cared about her even through her lies. Above her arm on the same side as his Other was Roxas. They were connected through Sora and Kairi, brought into being at the same time. And, she had hoped… no. He was a friend, he did care for her, but Xion was the girl in his heart. It made her chest hurt.

However, on the other side there was no face. Or rather, it was so heavily obscured that it was impossible to make out. She tried to get closer, to see what was truly there. Not just on the floor, but in her own heart. She stood just over it but the shine from it had twisted. Something seeped from it, something horrible and evil.

"You!" A voice booming from the glass called to her. "Not this time, not this time, not this time, not this time!" She could feel it down to her very bones, no, her very being had a chill. Whatever this was, it had a true everlasting hatred for her. Was this… was it in her heart? No. It felt different. Almost like something or someone was holding it back.

Then it began banging on the glass. The noise was horrible. It hurt her down to her very core. Then without breaking through the glass section of a circle where a face should have been, a sliver of a crack was etched.

Taking this moment as the only opportunity it could, the monster slowly turned its whole body into a black liquid. Her chest was burning, pain filled her as she desperately tried to back away. If this was a dream she wished she could wake up. If this was something else… she knew she'd die here. The black liquid tried to reform itself but try as it might it could not hold a form other than an ooze of darkness. Occasionally an arm or a leg would pop out but even as it was Naminé could feel it's murderous rage.

"Youyouyouyouyouyouyouyouyou!" It slowly creeped towards her until it shot an arm at her. She had nothing to defend herself with so she merely put her arms up to cover her.

Right before the impact a sword had come slashing down cleaving the arm in two. With a screech of pain the creature tried to regroup itself. Naminé moved her arms to see who saved her. Even If the figure was wearing a black cloak to protect against darkness the blade gave them away. Soul Eater. "Ri- my Riku, is that you?" The cloaked figure unsummoned their sword and picked her up quickly carrying her to the back of the platform where pure white stairs that were spiraling into the sky had seemingly come from nowhere.

She could not believe it, there was so much she wanted to say. So much the two had left unsaid between them. She knew now wasn't the time but she had to know. "Riku, I'm so glad." She felt like crying as her mind was racing. They caught her hand with one of theirs as she tried to reach into the hood to feel his face.

"Sorry, Naminé. I'm not him. He's not him either." Her heart sank as they let go over her hand to pull down the hood. It was certainly Riku's face but it was different. Darkness had never taken hold in them. This Riku and her Riku, the Replica Riku from Castle Oblivion, were two vastly different people. Their eyes said it all, completely blue. He ran up the stairs carrying her but the creature had grown two arms and was quickly gaining on them. "Sora!" The boy who was not Riku shouted.

Then jumping down from what Naminé presumed was further up the stairs was a boy who looked exactly like how Sora was when he started his journey had it not been for a strange heart-like symbol on the back of his shirt. "Cyclone!" He shouted as green winds enveloped his body and struck away the darkness. Then the boy jumped up the stairs until he reached his friend and Naminé. "Riku, is that the thing that guy talked about!"

This Riku sighed, "I told you to call me J.J. for this so she wouldn't get the wrong idea. But I guess I already blew that one." There was a roar from down below from the creature as it began to hoist itself up individual floors of the winding staircase.

"Can't you put me down! Or at least explain what's going on!" Naminé shouted.

"No can do, we've gotta be fast, Naminé, Truth will catch up soon." The Riku calling himself J.J. said.

And soon it did as an appendage of darkness tried to swipe at them but the Sora look alike shot electricity into the air above his head striking the arm back. "Exo Spark!" Failing back down it gave our brave heroes just enough time to continue on the stairs. "Riku, how much farther? I'm running out of mana over here!"

"We're about a third of the way up, just a little more!" The two boys pushed themselves to keep running. Naminé knew that if J.J. would just leave her to her fate then they could definitely escape. The monster only seemed to be after her. Why did they care so much to help her?

Then a slick black arm had managed to grab J.J.'s leg just long enough to make him drop Naminé down the center of the spiraling staircase. She was falling, falling, falling down. She saw he life flash before her eyes, or what little of it there was. She had seen those who hurt her, those she hurt, her Other. She had seen Riku, not her Riku or even J.J. but the true Riku, smile brightly even though he did so so rarely nowadays. Only one thought ran through Naminé's mind.

I want to live.

Then, as if on command, multiple steel chains erupted from her chest and with it a brightly colored bat creature. She felt as if she knew what it was. Even if she could not remember what it was or how it even knew her the creature looked as if it was going to help her and help her it did. With its claws It gently grabbed onto Naminé's head and flapped its wings to the fullest to pull her back up to where the boys were waiting for her. The chains disappeared back into her body as the bat flung her to the boys and then sped off to fight the ooze monster.

Delivering one screech attack of three rings made of magical energy to the monster it's essence was scattered into a miasma of darkness. J.J. and the Sora breathed a sigh of relief as they slowly started ascending the stairs as the bat came back to land on Naminé's head. It happily cooed and swayed its body as it waited for Naminé's affection. She gently pet it as they climbed and the bat was just as happy as it could be. Did it know her?

"So can I finally get told what's going on?" Naminé asked partially annoyed.

"Yeah Riku, I'm not really sure on the details either." The other boy said.

J.J. sighed. "I guess we do have some explaining to do." The group had finally reached the top platform of solid white with an ornate white door at the other end. "I'm Jimmy's Journal, J.J. for short or Data Riku. That's Data Sora." Data Sora gave a polite wave and smile.

"You guys are the data versions of my friends? How did you get here? Why are you here? What is here?"

J.J. put his hand up for her to stop asking questions. "Please hold all questions until the end, thank you." He said it in a completely monotone and serious way the two other teens and even the bat laughed. Without missing a beat he continued. "Yes we're the data versions of your friends, no we can't tell you who sent us here, they said they needed help to save you and, well, Sora always helps a friend in need. And to answer the last one, we're in your dreams, kinda."

"Kinda?" There was so much she needed to ask them.

J.J. nodded, "Dreams don't work on a regular fixed time axis. That Komory Bat there is already your friend and you technically haven't even met outside of your dreams yet. You could tell us its name if you think hard enough. Or maybe not."

She racked her brain for a name and before she lost hope she had a tingle of a name cross her mind. "Nightwing?" The Komory Bat cooed and flapped its wings as she figured out its name.

Data Sora raised his hand. "Yes Sora?" Riku asked.

"What's a fixed time axis?"

Riku sighed, "Time is transient in dreams." Data Sora shook his head. "Time is nonlinear?" Data Sora shook his head again. "Time moves like this," J.J. started dancing like an earthworm. "Sometimes in dreams we can see the past and sometimes we can see the future, sometimes we see things that never happened all the time."

That made Naminé's head spin more than the first but apparently Data Sora understood as he smacked his fist to his other hand. "Yeah that seems about right."

The headache got worse as she nearly fell down. "That seems to be our que. Go through that door Naminé and this dream will end, we'll be going back to the datascape."

Naminé felt awful trying to leave through the door but she had to. The Komory Bat sank into a pink mist and went inside Naminé's heart. She walked towards the door before J.J. stopped her. "The person that brought us here! They said it was a shame they hadn't practiced enough. They hope this time it will be better." She did not understand as she fell through the white door to wake up the next morning.