Oblivious Meeting (Complete)

[Charme]

Disappearing? Namine's fears of Roxas knowing came back to her all of a sudden. Her want to be a person, somebody who was real, were replaced by the fears of her own bad deeds coming to light. It was all her fault, from the beginning. Sora losing his memories, Roxas living a false life...

And the one who disappeared. The girl with black hair. The one Roxas spent a year with before she had to disappear. Namine remembered meeting her. She was such a sweet girl and it tore Namine apart to tell her what needed to be said. What DiZ had told her. If Roxas knew that Namine had told her she was only a puppet- would he care for her anymore? If he knew that it was her fault she attacked him? She quieted herself and nodded as he spoke to her.

"I am sorry, Roxas. I understand that it is where I belong. I just have an important message, and if I don't exist in this world Sora can't hear it."

The message. Or memory, in truth. The people in torment. That must be the reason she had been summoned back to this plane.

"I just don't know what to do now. I feel like I don't have a purpose, but seeing you, I know that I'm here for a reason."

[Kuu]

((Note - Roxas has no memory of Xion. Just a small piece of information in the face of the possibility of things potentially heading in her direction ^^))

Roxas watched as Namine's face fell, and that rather irritatingly frequent twinge in his chest made his eyes sting and his shoulders feel heavy. He mentally shook off this odd sensation (an effort in vain considering that it was a physical impediment) and made a note to perhaps stretch more frequently before physical activity - maybe he was rustier than he thought since being separated from Sora. His own physical sensations and the bodily memories he had felt through his other's actions were being blurred in his mind, and he couldn't quite trace the reason for feeling so odd.

If feeling at all wasn't odd enough for a Nobody.

He gave a sigh, half at himself. 'You're not going to back down, are you?' he said, putting his hands on his waist.

It had always been the same - for someone usually so quiet, she was pretty persistent. She'd been like that even when she was with DiZ and Riku, though without that stubbornness she was facing him with now, he guessed that he'd probably be a lot angrier and a lot more confused - he had been able to make peace with his other because of her.

'Well, whatever it is you're doing, I'm guessing that it's not going to be all ice cream and sunshine,' Roxas said to her, crossing his arms. 'In fact, it's probably going to make worry a heck of a lot more than I am now. So why don't you tell me what's been going on, so I get a better idea of how crazy this reason is?'

[Charme]

What was it? Namine didn't know herself. She just needed to find him and show him what she'd found. Show him all of the pain that was hidden deep within his Heart. The memories that weren't his...

And that thought scared her more. They weren't Sora's whatsoever. The memory that had been most evident was an image of Roxas, dressed in odd clothing, asleep between two older people. People Roxas had never met. It was all so confusing! Remembering them gave Namine this deep, saddening feeling in her chest, as if something horrible had happened to the three people. Roxas... Who are you really? She didn't voice that thought, but it is what made her want to meet him so badly. To make sure he was the same person she'd met in the Mansion, the one she'd felt so close to. Something was going on in the shadows, something Namine couldn't see clearly enough.

"Roxas... I found memories inside of Sora, and even though I can't see them I can feel them. They are painful and sad. I think that Sora needs them to be truly complete." She'd left a message that the Keyblader had never received, hidden deep within the journal. And since he hadn't seen them, it was her job to give them back to him. "These memories are of people I've never met-" Other than you, Roxas. Other than Xion, Axel, and myself. "And there are memories of people who have been forgotten."

Or no longer exist.

Namine looked back down to her feet, ashamed and confused. How could she tell Roxas about what she'd seen? She didn't want to see him sad again. She didn't want to tell him he wasn't supposed to exist, not to mention he wasn't actually himself. She was tired of being the bearer of bad news.

She sighed and leaned against him. "Roxas, I'm confused lately. We didn't fade back to Darkness... Are we even Nobodies at all? I'm not sure who I am anymore."

[Kuu]

Now Roxas was the one confused. Memories? Inside Sora? Admittedly, he still didn't quite get the whole memories and hearts thing, and frankly, he didn't think he'd get it any time soon, if it all. So if even Namine couldn't get her head around it, then no way was he going to stand a chance at even coming close to what she was talking about. But whatever it was, he could figure out by the look on Namine's face that it wasn't simply a bad memory - the way she avoided his eyes sent a slight chill through the air for some reason, a sensation he needless to say didn't particularly enjoy.

Of course, Namine couldn't have met everyone in Sora's memories - his other had travelled across countless worlds, making friends close to his heart along the way. But there was something about Namine's voice as she described what she had found that ground against Roxas' logic. Almost as if it had been something she had not expected, something which she felt was unusual, maybe even impossible. But if it was something so important, why wasn't she telling him what it was?

"Roxas, I'm confused lately. We didn't fade back to Darkness... Are we even Nobodies at all? I'm not sure who I am anymore."

The blonde Wielder had no answer that came to mind off the top of his head. What were they? He supposed that he was part of a greater whole, of a greater existence, but his rebirth had caused him to consider the whole issue of his own reality once more. Why didn't they fade into darkness? Why was that he felt in his own way, believed in his own faith? Could he and Namine have become something more, something real? Or was it his desire for a Heart speaking - would that make him all that much different from the Organisation?

No. He wouldn't fall into that darkness again.

'You're right, we didn't fade into darkness,' he said. 'We got the chance to meet our others, and live through them. Whatever it is that we are, it doesn't change the time we spent together, with each other and with Sora and Kairi, no matter how weird the way it all happened was.'

Roxas looked up into the endless, twisting darkness that surrounded them. 'Maybe... maybe because of them, we were never meant to fade into darkness,' he whispered, almost inaudibly, as if his thoughts had gained a voice. 'Maybe all this time... we were meant to fade into light.'

He turned back to Namine. 'I'm going to go back to Sora,' he said to her. 'I have to do what I'm meant to do. But... as for you, who you are and what you'll be - that's all something that you're going to have to decide.'

Strange... for a brief moment, he almost remembered a similar situation in the past where he was trying to stop someone from doing what they believed to be right. Maybe this was a sign - Namine was the one who had to make the decision whether she would go back to Kairi or not, and what she wanted to be. Roxas realised with a slight sadness that after she made her decision, she might no longer see herself the way he remembered her.

'It's strange, isn't it?' he said with a half-chuckle. 'It used to be you telling me all these things and I was the confused one bumbling about all over the place.'

[Charme]

((Sorry for the delay, worked like seven days out of the five I've been gone. And that makes no sense whatsoever. XD ))

Namine smiled as Roxas brought back something she'd never experienced before: nostalgia. She'd known the word and its definition, but had never understood how it worked. Just like a person couldn't tell a blind man what blue was, you can't explain emotions to Nobodies. Not the ones without memories, anyways. She understood that the memories were the keys that made her and Roxas special. They didn't know emotion, yet they felt it despite their lack of Hearts.

She shuffled closer to Roxas, trying to brush away the chill of the Corridor around her, and laughed. "Roxas, don't ever change." Roxas was a ray of light in her eyes: a true hero. He was able to focus on his mission without fear or second guesses. Namine was so afraid to carry on with hers that she ended up hiding from the world. "I promise you that I'll never fade away from you." Namine was afraid to return to Kairi at the moment, while she had a mission to do, but in the end, when Sora knew the truth, she could return peacefully. That was her reason to exist: Kairi needed her other half.

Namine felt a blossom of joy inside. Needed. That was an emotion she hadn't felt either. Well, in a positive connotation, anyways.

The young girl let go of the second guesses as she stared at her hero. She didn't think of the boy who stood between the brown-haired man and the blue-haired girl. She didn't wonder if Roxas was Roxas at all. She didn't doubt that he was the Keyblader she cared about most. She just enjoyed his company, hoping that she could help him where he was having trouble.

"Now... what is your mission, Roxas?"

[Kuu]

As Namine's face came closer to his, and he wondered if he had ever really felt what Sora had felt when Kairi did the same thing to him, and if whether it had been anything like what he was feeling now as he inexplicably began counting her eyelashes. Perhaps they'd been more separate than they'd thought - even when they were two parts of a whole, it seemed that their coexistence was a lot more complicated than he'd first thought it to be.

'I won't fade away from you either,' he replied. 'I promise.'

Promise. A big word - and not one he'd had a great track record with. But hey, he had to start somewhere, and this one didn't seem like a bad one to erase that losing streak with. But then again, the promises he'd made before were still withstanding, and they weren't the kind that he could just pass up as a fail - his promise to Sora was one that would most likely take a little more than just a 'sorry, I couldn't pull it off'. Though how he was to get started, he had no clue. All he knew was that there was a reason for him to have returned, something which he had to face. So when Namine asked the question as to what his 'mission' was, he had nothing.

'Well... I don't actually know,' he admitted, trying to prevent his voice from sounding too sheepish. 'I figure that I'll probably make my way off this world and try to pick up some info on the way, cleaning up the mess as I go. You know, Sora-style.'

It wasn't his style to run around without proper intel (probably because that had been drilled into him during the Organisation days) but when there was no intel to go on, hitting the road running didn't sound like too bad an idea. But, here in front of him was someone who'd been around longer than he had - maybe she could tell him.

A slight frown darkened his features as he asked her, 'Hey... what's been going on with the worlds? Why's Sora still running around the place?'

[Charme]

Namine paused. What was going on? Jeez... Where to start?

"The Dark XII, Ansem's strongest Heartless are battling the Organization for control over the Worlds. The two factions are warring against each other and the Light. Worlds are disappearing again, just like when it first started. Things are hectic right now."

Namine didn't know what was going on with the individual characters, but as a whole, the two factions rose and fell, an ever-shifting equation that constantly tore the ground out from underneath the righteous' feet. Right now? She had no idea where they were. She was almost afraid to talk to Sora. Afraid to share the pain that lied deep in his heart. Instead, she had been searching for Roxas in an attempt to figure out what happened. Why they were here.

"Roxas... Are you going to get involved with the Organization again?"

DiZ wasn't around to keep them back anymore. She didn't want to see him taken by Xemnas ever again... And Marluxia was a different matter altogether.

[Kuu]

Roxas froze as Namine's words struck him, each shard of information forming a terrifying whole in his mind. He took a step away from the blonde, white-clad Nobody. 'W... what?' he said in a stunned voice. 'The Organisation's Heartless? No way... no, that's impossible! The Organisation were taken down. I saw it! They faded into the darkness. They all faded into the darkness! And now, not only are they somehow back, but they brought their Heartless with them? This can't be happening!'

But it is happening - Namine wouldn't lie. And if I managed to come back, then why can't they?

As Roxas brooded, Namine's voice interrupted his thoughts with a question laced not only with curiosity but an unmistakable note of worry and fear - "Roxas... Are you going to get involved with the Organization again?"

As he looked up at her, he saw the concern etched in her face, and all of a sudden, he just wanted to forget about everything, to leave behind the memories of the Organisation so that they could never haunt anyone again - take Namine with him and just go somewhere, anywhere, just a place where they could be themselves. All this chaos, all this mess - he didn't want to have to face any of it, it wasn't his scene. Nothing here for was for him, it was for Sora. It was Sora the Keyblade had chosen, not him. He hadn't been chosen by anybody.

And yet, here he was, Keyblade in hand, ready to do what he wanted to do least for the sake of others - it was starting to sound like a chapter out of the story of a certain Somebody he knew.

'I can't not get involved, can I?' Roxas said, but not without difficulty. 'The Organisation was the whole reason everyone suffered - the whole reason you suffered. I can't just let everything happen the way it did last time. And now, their Heartless have somehow appeared as well - it's going to be a lot harder for Sora and everyone. Except this time, I'm here. And this time, I'm gonna be on the right side.'

I won't let you get hurt. Not by the Organisation, not by the Dark XII, not by anyone.

[Charme]

Namine nodded. This time, it was their turn. Xemnas and Ansem had both been defeated once before. Now, only a couple of years later, they were ready. They understood what was going on. The heroes of light knew what Kingdom Hearts was, how it was formed- everything. There was no way the Heartless or the Organization could get that step ahead they had the last few times.

"So it's time for us do to this?"

It was a simple enough question, but the reality behind it was far scarier. Fight against two dark beings, beings surrounded by raving lunatics with elemental powers. Raving lunatics that could eat Hearts and control Heartless. Despite all the looming dangers, Namine smiled. A short giggle escaped and she felt the warmth return to her fingertips. "I guess for once the Nobodies are gonna be the heroes."

[Kuu]

Roxas stared at her for a moment, then he broke into laughter - the first time he'd made such a sound since his rebirth. 'Haha, I don't know, I'd never thought of it like that.'

But amidst his laughter, something troubled Roxas - he had not missed the fact that Namine had referred to them as 'us', which undoubtedly meant that at least somewhere, there was hope that perhaps she would be able to go with him. Roxas still didn't know how to go about this - should he let her accompany him, at least for a while? He had no doubt that he wouldn't enjoy her company, and as resolved as he was in his intentions, he couldn't deny that he had felt a twinge of regret at the long loneliness ahead of him. And perhaps, he just might be able to protect her better with her by his side. But then again, the danger she was in would lessen the further away she stayed from him. He knew it would be easier for others to identify him if they saw her by his side - his Keyblade was too easily recognisable, and its association with Namine would be an easy link for the Organisation to make.

He didn't know what to do.

'I'm not sure if I'm a hero,' he said slowly, 'But it doesn't sound like my sort of thing. I've always been someone from the darkness. If Sora's going to be running around the Light, I'll be in the shadows. I won't be seen, I won't be heard - for everyone, it'll be like I don't exist. That's how it's got to be. Sora mustn't know. No-one must know it's me. That means I'll have to be running away all the time, always hiding but still there, helping - it's not going to be easy.'

Would you still come with me then?

[Charme]

A shadow in a hood.

Roxas was going to work from the shadows... Namine had to work in the light. That meant that there was no chance they could work together. They were working from two different sides; but that was good, right? That way, one had the other's back, and Roxas always had somebody to look after him. She would make sure of that. He never had to be alone in the Darkness.

Her sketchbook materialized before her and she turned to a new page, the magical mosaic's warm glow fading away. Namine carefully drew lines, lighting up the darkness of the Corridor with golden beams. Her hands rose, and the golden light met in her palms. The page began to burn with golden flames, and the ashes met between her hands. A golden star settled.

Her blue eyes met Roxas' and she held the item out. "Roxas, we have to work on different sides this time. If you ever need my help, just hold this close and I'll hear you. I'll save you from the Darkness."

She was sad, but she had come to the realization that this is what they were meant to do. Roxas would be better off hidden, away from the Organization and all those who would seek to destroy or take his Keyblade. Namine, with her own Keyblade, would have to hide it. She had to help Sora, but she couldn't become a target. If they knew she had a Keyblade... They wouldn't bother with her memory abilities.

Roxas had to hide in shadows. Sora had to stand in the Light. Namine? She had to turn in the Nothing.

[Kuu]

Roxas took the gift from her, feeling the warmth from her skin spread through his fingers as the charm passed from her hands to his. It was a simple thing - a yellow, star-shaped talisman that somewhat reminded him of a paopu fruit hanging off an unadorned silver chain. But to him, it embodied so many things which he deemed precious to him - a memory, a connection, a promise... it served as a reminder that he had to protect all of them. For him, this was Namine.

But in the midst of all that, he couldn't help but realise that this could very well be the last time they would see each other in a long while. They had both said as much - Roxas had to work alone. It had always been destined to be so. So this would be goodbye for the two of them until providence brought them back together again, although Roxas didn't know whether they would still be as they were, or back with their others. He hated himself for even considering the hope that it would be the former.

'You too,' he said. 'Don't get hurt because of me. Just call for me, and I'll come to you. Don't bear the pain on your own and believe in me. I'll find you and I'll help you. Wherever you are.'

Roxas raised his hand, the star-shaped charm clutched tightly in his fingers. 'I promise.'

He summoned a portal behind him, and raised his hood over his face so that his features were once more obscured in shadow. He turned to leave, but then stopped, and fished around in his pockets before taking something out, flicking it at Namine to catch.

It was a WINNER stick.

'I couldn't give you that day out this time, but... maybe after all this is over - well, you know,' he said, grateful that his hood covered the blush rising in his cheeks.

Then he turned around one final time, and he disappeared into the darkness.

((Would you like the honour of the last post? ^^))

[Charme]

((Most definitely.))

Namine caught the small beige object in her hands as Roxas left. The portal behind him writhed and the pale girl felt the flutter of emotion that seemed to suck the darkness closer. It was time for them to part ways, time for her to find Sora... The Worlds were in motion and Namine knew that Roxas was going to disappear. She would worry for him... Roxas could be stubborn at times, although she didn't know if he knew it. Would he call her if he was in trouble? Or would be consider it too dangerous?

The hooded figure disappeared and Namine looked to her hand.

WINNER.

She felt a sudden realization and a surge of emotion... She didn't know why. Perhaps it was her gift of memory. There was a strong one attached to this one, and Namine felt she understood where it came from. This was Roxas' treasure, one that he'd had for a long time. The blonde Nobody held it with both hands, smiling. Roxas was alright. That was all that mattered.

With that last thought in mind, Namine sent a pulse of magic through the Darkness and felt it thrive. Sora was a beacon of light, and perhaps the Darkness could tell her where he was...

[END]