Thursday Morning, Twilight Town, The Mansion
DiZ portaled into the courtyard of his mansion in Twilight Town and stalked in the door. Naminé was still missing, still held by the Organization -- or possibly Riku. He had to find her, at all costs. She was too important.
He needed his computer system. It had alerted him to her presence in the first place; it could help him find her again. He paused in the entry hall, casting his gaze up at the door to the White Room, before heading downstairs.
Riku stepped carefully out of the White Room, shutting the door behind him. His eyes narrowed at the tall bandaged figure sweeping through the lobby.
"DiZ," he said.
"Riku." DiZ peered intently at his former comrade. Who had just come from Naminé's room. "What were you doing in there?"
Riku held his Soul Eater steadily in front of him and ignored DiZ's question.
"I know why you're here."
DiZ's eye narrowed. Suddenly, what Riku was up to became all too clear.
"I have important business to attend to," he replied. "Don't get in my way."
He started walking again, this time towards the stairs leading up, instead of the stairs down.
"Leave," Riku said coldly, not moving from his position. "Now."
"You will give me Naminé," DiZ stated. It wasn't a question. "She's already done damage -- Sora is trying to rescue her."
"Sora?" Riku faltered, but only for a moment. Naminé had said she hadn't changed anything. He believed her. Didn't he?
"Why should I believe you? You don't care about Sora, anyway. This was never about him."
"This is about many things, my boy -- things you don't understand. But Sora is a necessary part of all of it, and is useless if Naminé has altered his memories." DiZ glared at Riku. "She must be made to undo the damage she's done, and then we must destroy her. She's too much of a liability -- I thought you understood that."
"I understand that you want your revenge, and you don't care who gets hurt by it," Riku snapped. "Not Naminé, not Sora, and not me."
Or should he take his hood down? Show off the face that wasn't his?
"You and Sora are strong," DiZ retorted. "You are heroes, and you need to destroy Xemnas as much as I do. Naminé... can't be hurt. She's a Nobody. She doesn't have feelings."
Out of the woods and through the gate and into this mansion- stepping into it near-instantly reminded Valentine of his own world, with its dull, earthy tones and staircases and overhangs.
But the words he heard as he walked in caught his attention far more definitely than the layout of the foyer. He looked upward to see the masked man from before and the one in the cloak- the same one who had taken Naminé from the cell? And he frowned. He hadn't thought he'd get this far and actually prefer someone dressed as part of the Organization over someone who was supposedly the good guy.
"I beg to differ," he protested loudly. "I've seen her hurt."
Somebody. Even a Nobody could be somebody.
DiZ looked at the new arrivals. Wonderful. Sora and his friends were only going to complicate matters. Riku he could convince, given time. Sora, on the other hand, was all heart and no head, and wouldn't ever understand the sacrifices that needed to be made. And as for the man in the mask and silly coat... He seemed to be deluded, or worse.
"No, you haven't," he corrected. "You only think you have." He eyed Riku. "I'm somewhat busy at the moment," he called to the new arrivals. "I'll thank you to leave, and come back at a more reasonable time."
Cassandra frowned. "No. Now." Her movements were slow and deliberate as she stepped aside to let Sora take the lead. He seemed to know this guy, after all.
Sora was glad to take the lead in this case. “Namine has more feelings than you seem to Ansem!” He said calling him by his real name, since he never knew him as DiZ. “You’ll find that out yourself, but for now we’re taking her back! Wither you want us to or not!” He said heading towards the stairs and paused as he finally noticed the person in the Organization Jacket standing in the shadows. “Riku!?” Right, he wasn’t back to normal yet in this time line. “Help us! We need to get Namine home!”
Riku's blood ran cold. Sora, here? Wanting to take Naminé home? Naminé had never lived with them, on Destiny Islands. And she had promised that when the restoration was complete, he wouldn't have any of the false memories left.
Unless she ...
He looked over at DiZ, slowly, stomach churning.
DiZ nodded slowly and grimaced at Riku. "The damage is worse than I thought, then. Get OUT of my way. We need to make her fix it."
Riku lowered his Soul Eater, thinking furiously.
He couldn't let DiZ get to Naminé. He knew full well what would happen to her - after all, DiZ had asked him to "dispose of" her before. He had taken her outside of town, instead, and that was the only reason Naminé was still alive.
Had Naminé lied to him? Maybe she had been too scared to tell him the truth. Didn't she trust him? Maybe she shouldn't. Maybe he shouldn't trust her, either.
Except she was the other side of Kairi, and he'd gone through hell to keep Kairi safe when their island had fallen to Darkness. He couldn't let her Nobody die.
He looked at Sora, wishing for the millionth time that he could say something to him. Ask what on earth was going on. But this wasn't his voice, or his face. Sora could never know what Darkness had made him into. He stayed silent, hood safely up.
He frowned at DiZ, wavering.
Sora took a deep breath to keep what little patience he had left. “RIKU! Please listen to me, not to Mr. Belt Head! Cassandra, Valentine and I have come to take Namine back! The Organization took her and we’re just returning her!” He shouted with a pleading anger in his eyes. It was really one of those looks that only Sora could pull off.
Riku was his best friend, he couldn’t understand why he was wavering.
"Sora, she's DONE something to your memories," DiZ thundered. "She's not your friend. You don't know her. You've never even met." His one visible eye bored its gaze straight into Riku. "And now, we need to make her fix you."
Shouting. Voices. Angry. Naminé jolted awake again, looking around in panic - no. White Room. Riku.
... Riku?
Company, he said. Right? So hard to think.
Naminé got to her feet, slowly, wishing she weren't so dizzy. Riku. They were yelling. Was he ... he might need her. He.
Somehow, she made it to the door. "Riku?" she asked softly. And just over his shoulder ...
"DiZ," she breathed.
Riku whirled around. "Naminé," he said, reaching out to grab her before she fell over. What was she doing standing up? Why had she come to the door? Now DiZ could see her and - and the hell with DiZ, Riku thought, half-carrying Naminé back to the blanket he'd laid on the floor. He couldn't kill someone, in cold blood. Certainly not someone with Kairi's eyes.
He didn't even realize he'd spoken.
"Naminé!" Valentine took the steps two, three at a time as he rushed up toward the white room that the man in the cloak had carried her into. He had seen her, she was there, there was no way anyone was going to take her away from him again. No more vanishing acts. No more boom, fire, volcanoes, eat the fruit and see the future and there's nothing good there at all and he doesn't want to be a waiter, juggling on the street for nothing and she's right here. He was stumbling over himself by the time he reached the door, pushing his way inside after the two strange men who were so very much closer to his entire world than perhaps he would like them to be.
So very white in here. White rooms always seemed so fitting for this sort of thing. And for Naminé...
"Naminé!"
"Namine! Riku! Don't!" Sora shouted after them and followed Valentine up the stairs into the White Room. "She hasn't done anything to my memories!! I'm just from the future!" Pause.
"That's not as crazy as it sounds! Really!"
At least with his hood up, Riku could eyeroll in safety. Thanks, Sora.
"Shouldn't have gotten up," he said in an undertone that hopefully only Naminé could hear. "It's gonna be okay."
He set her down carefully on the blanket and stood up, squaring his shoulders to face everyone else.
DiZ glared at Sora and Rikku and pushed past them. "Naminé," he said, leaning over her. "Tell me what you've done. Now."
Naminé flinched, closing her eyes. DiZ. Here. It was over.
At least he wasn't the Organization, at least he wouldn't make her hurt Sora first. At least --
She shook her head. Nothing. She didn't. They had yelled and they had hit and she hadn't. She promised. Never again. Never again.
Could she sleep now, please?
Valentine saw an opening to get closer, so he took it, pushing past the frightening man in the mask and falling to his knees, brushing his hand against her cheek.
"She hasn't done anything," he protested as he pulled his coat off, gently gathered her up in his arms, and draped the coat over her protectively, "and she never will. She lives with this day in and out."
"Valentine's right! Namine hasn't done anything to me! And she wouldn't!" Sora said blocking DiZ from getting to Namine and Valentine with his keyblade. "Leave her alone and let us take her back to school."
Valentine had Nanime, she was safe that way at least. It was just a matter now of getting out of there and back to the ship. "Ansem you don't want to hurt her. You're not a bad guy."
"No, I'm not," DiZ said. "But sometimes the greater good requires sacrifices. Sora, she's a danger to you. Can't you see that?"
Dammit. There were more important things than his secrets, like Sora's mind. He couldn't let them leave without --
Riku cleared his throat. "Naminé never went to school with us."
He hated that voice.
Sora hung his head. "Riku.... I know that. She goes to school with me now. It's a new school that the King sends me too after all this is over, we defeat the Organization and you me and Kairi go home! I'm from the future, like I've been saying. I already know that right now you've got Xehanort's body not your normal one and that's why you're twice as tall as me and have the deep man voice."
Really Sora's explinations for things were really all his own. "I don't know how to explain it any other way!" He slumped. "I'm really okay though my memories are all fine and in the right place!"
Xehanort? Riku hadn't heard that name before. But the rest of it sounded ... plausible.
It could still be a lie. He needed to -- well. If Sora knew about that, then there was no reason he couldn't talk to Sora. Right?
Riku carefully took the hood of his cloak down. "I thought I looked like Ansem," he said.
"Yes and no?" He ssaid taking another deep breath. "See the one that we though was Ansem, isn't. He was the heartless of Xehanort, Ansem the Wise's apprentice," he said motioning to Diz. "Xenmas is his Nobody. I know it doesn't sound quite right, but that's how the King explained it," he shrugged.
DiZ -- the real Ansem -- harrumphed thoughtfully. "You seem awfully well-informed. That doesn't mean your memories haven't been tampered with."
"Didn't," she insisted. She had to remember not to talk, it was so loud, but none of them were listening.
Naminé shifted slightly. "Valentine," she murmured, fingers playing lightly with his shirt. He was holding her. He was here. She was safe.
... What on earth was he doing here!?
"Sssh," Valentine hushed her gently and gathered her up even more closely in his arms. "I know you didn't. The man with the face I don't trust seems to be annoyingly disagreeable."
He had his Naminé back, there in his arms. Not much else concerned him anymore.
"They haven't been! I keep trying to tell you! I'm a different Sora than the one you've met!! I'm from the future where everything is done with! I already defeated all the Organization in my time line and Riku, Kairi and I went home!!" Seriously this guy was deaf as a doornail!
"Namine has not done ANY-THING to me!"
DiZ loomed over Sora and looked down at him. "LISTEN to me, Sora!" he boomed. "You don't know that your memories are real! You CAN'T know that they're real!" He pointed an accusatory finger at Naminé. "She has the power to change your memories -- that's what she does. She's dangerous. Even if she hasn't changed them now, she could at any point in time. She's a Nobody -- she's one of them. She doesn't have a heart, she can't feel, and she can't be your friend. I know you don't have the courage to do what needs to be done, so step aside and allow me to finish this!"
Cassandra had followed everyone into the room silently. Then she had watched everyone yell at everyone else, accusations and explanations flying every which way. It was all very confusing, and she couldn't follow everything.
Why did everyone need to yell, anyway? Couldn't someone just explain what was going on?
Still, in all the confusion at least one thing made sense. That guy doing the looming and yelling at Sora wanted to hurt Namine. That made him a bad man. The yelling and wild gesturing also made him a confusing man, but that was okay. Cassandra was creative, after all, and had a solution to both of those problems.
Stepping forward lightly, she paused for just a moment to consider her options. Then her hand snapped out to hit DiZ (or Ansem, she wasn't really sure) in the back of the head precisely hard enough to knock him out.
As he collapsed she frowned down at him. "Talk too much," she complained.
Riku nodded his approval. "Nice moves."
With DiZ dispensed with, they could talk freely. He turned back to Sora. "You're really from the future? Or were you just saying that to shut him up?"
"I'm really from the future," Sora nodded with a smile.
"And you're not allowed to tease the me you have known later about being all sappy when the me that you know from here finds you and Kairi again! Because I was not crying... the uh.. heartless just hit me really hard!"
"I never cry when the Heartless hit me," Riku said, face lighting up. "Must just be tougher than you."
He resisted the urge to muss up Sora's hair, instead kneeling down next to Valentine. His smile faded slightly. "I don't know how bad she's hurt," he explained. "Couldn't run out for potions, it'd mean leaving her unguarded."
"'M fine," she said, shaking her head. Bad idea. She should remember that one. "Sorry."
There were lots of people here. They'd come all this way?
"I still hate that word," Valentine gently admonished with a shake of his own head. "This isn't your fault."
"I have heal if she needs it," Sora said, joining them with a smile and totally not elbowing Riku as he did. That was just their imagination as was the smirk on his face, it was a smile of worry for Namine.
There was a flicker of a returned smirk before Riku folded his arms. "It couldn't hurt. She didn't wake up for a bit. Had me kinda scared. I think they don't like to hear 'no'."
No. Naminé shook her head. She didn't need spells. She was fine. She was. She was --
"Dangerous," she murmured. Sora was the more kind-hearted, but DiZ was right. "They'll. Find me again."
"Well, then we'll have to find you again, won't we?"
Valentine glanced upward for a moment at the people gathered around in the room. He couldn't help but smile at the sight.
"It would seem that you have a good many people willing to come to your rescue, you know."
"Like Valentine said Namine," Sora smiled. "We've got no problems with protecting you again. Besides, I haven't gotten a chance to do much hero work at school."
Cassandra nodded. Then she leaned over Namine and said sternly, "Can't let the bad things that might happen stop you from living." She knew, after all.
All of a sudden, Cassandra remembered something. She lifted her hand to wave down at Namine, "Hi, Namine."
"Hi," she said, a faint smile crossing her face. "Good to see you."
And it was. More than she really had words for, especially at the moment.
"Shouldn't have." A gentle shake of her head this time. Less woozy that way. And everything was a little less dizzy when she could hold on to Valentine, and if they were a little dizzy, well, so what. Somehow, she was safe, now. Right?
"Well, that's the problem," Riku said, standing up with a frown as he brushed the dirt from the bottom of his cloak. He waited just a moment longer for the serious tone to settle in before he continued.
"I told this dork he had to take care of Kairi. I think that means you're stuck with him, too."
"Hey!" Sora laughed and lightly hit Riku's arm. "It's not my fualt a certian best friend of mine decided he had to be all self sacrificing and stubborn!"
He turned back to Naminé with a grin. "I promise I protect you. No mater what he says."
"I believe you," Naminé said, and it sounded steadier, to her own ears, than her voice had thus far. Maybe she could try standing up? She had a rather steady Valentine to lean on, after all.
"Thank you," she said, flushing somewhat awkwardly. "And I think --"
Her eyes flicked nervously to where DiZ was still out cold on the floor.
"--We should get going?" Valentine followed Naminé's gaze to the eerie man and shuddered a little as the thought of what might happen were he to wake up flicked through his mind. Going off to save the girl didn't tend to end well for him when the crazy types were still standing. "I couldn't agree more."
"Do you need a doorway back?" Riku asked, holding one hand out the way Naminé always did.
"Just to where our Gummi ship is," Sora added. "Chip and Dale would get pretty darn mad if we jsut took off without them."
A portal rippled into place before them. "Sure, a Gummi ship," Riku said with a smirk. "I guess they're okay, if you need that sort of thing."
Sora rolled his eyes and smirked at Riku. "Yeah, well some of us just can't be that cool," He stood there a moment grinning before reaching over to Riku to hug him tightly. "Loosen up Riku, things aren't as bad as you might think."
Riku only hesitated a moment before putting his own arms around Sora.
"You guys really ... make it back to the island?" he asked.
Sora grinned and gave Riku a tight squeeze before pulling away and nodding. "Yeah, You, me and Kairi all get to go home."
Riku nodded and cleared his throat and looked serious. This wasn't because he was going to get choked up if he talked. Shut up.
Naminé stepped forward tentatively, but she had to hug him, too. "Thank you," she said softly. And then, after a moment, "Didn't really ... think they'd mind ... did you?"
Of course he went home with them. Had he really doubted it? He knew Sora and Kairi better than she did, after all.
Sora's smile seemed to brighten more at Naminé and Riku. "I'll see you later Riku," he said as he waived the others through the portal before going himself, calling over his shoulder and making a face. "And remember to write me at school like you've been forgetting!!!!"
Riku managed to wait until everyone left, and he had safely closed the portal, before cracking up.
(OOC: Tiny epilogue to follow, but this is really the end of Naminé's plot. Our Heroes will be back to Fandom Thursday afternoon. Preplayed with the fantasmariffic importantman, iseewhatyoumean, key_of_heart, and sarcasm_guy, who have put up with my insanity and rock the hizzy on so many levels. Thank you guys for being amazing, and thank you to electric_sitar for being awesomesauce and hopping in for some cracky good times. So much love. NFI, NFB, but as always, OOC rocks my socks off!)