So Far, but yet...

*Kh3 SPOILERS!!!!*

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A corridor of Darkness manifested with in the depths of Gizmo shop. A young girl dressed in pure white stepped out of the black smoke that issues from the strange dark tear in the air. To see the young girl coming out of it would have been off putting for many. Her appearance and Aura didn’t look or feel like it belonged to such an ominous force. Regardless, however, here she was. It was part of the reason she chose this place to open her corridor in. The Gizmo shop was often empty and there was no fear that she would attract unwanted attention or aggression.

Namine’s crystal blue eyes looked around the noisy shop. It gears moved all along the floors and walls. There were sounds of clanking, chimes, and grinding among the colorful interior. In fact, she was standing on the flat side of a giant gear at the moment and was being moved in a circle even though she remained stationary.

After a moment or two of trying to get her bearings she was starting to get dizzy and hopped off gear. Namine waved her hand at the corridor and it sealed itself and vanished without a trace. The air where it once was, was once again whole. She made her way to the door that was behind her, and as she did so she clung to a ream of papers to her chest. The Memory witch that Traverse Town was the best place to start. The others had probably already checked here but it couldn’t hurt to look again.

She opened up the heavy door into the town. She could see the hotel right along the road. She walked a little was and then took one of the pages from the Ream and fixated to the hotel wall for all to see. The page showed a drawing of a young man with brown spike hair, blue eyes, dark close with red plaid around the edges, and he had a kind face. Above the picture she had drawn of him it read, “Missing!!” and underneath the picture it read,



Some people in other worlds had means of contacting any one of these names directly. Others would have to wait till the appeared, but with half of the worlds looking for the missing hero, the odds of someone running into anyone of these people were high. She knew that it was a feeble attempt to find the boy. It wasn’t like he just decided to go on a stroll and just didn’t come back. It was much more complicated and deeper then that. But, this way if he did manage to find his way back on his own in some shape or form, then this would help. So Namine wasn’t going to let it deter her. Any attempt was helpful.

As she walked around the upper level of the second district she would stop here and there to put up a poster. A few times she even asked a passerby if they have come across the boy in the picture. All of them, of course, said no. Namine thought she had the top half covered, so she made her way down the stairs that leveled facing the fountain with the changing back drop when the bell tolls on the top of the Gizmo Shop.

Namine was humming to herself as she placed a poster on the cobblestone wall next to it. She then made her way to the fountain thinking that on either side would be a good place to place posters since lots of people visited it. In fact, there was someone there already.

“Hello, Sir. Pardon me.” Namine started making her way to the man in a white dress shirt accompanied by a black vest who seemed to be searching the fountain. “I was wondering if you could have a look at this drawing,” She pulled out one of the pages to show him. “and tell me if you have seen the boy in the pic……” Her words fell away instantly. Namine was now close enough to the man to make out his face. The air in her throat caught and got stuck there. Her eyes were wide in terror. Her heart began to race and was beating painfully against her ribs. Her grasp on the papers she held went slack and the pages fell only to be picked up by the wind; scattering and blowing them all across the district and beyond.

“Mar-Marluxia?!”

The wind howled.


Lauriam

Namine flinched at Marluxia’s movement as a force of habit. When he backed up her eyes flicked quickly around the area. She was so used to that meaning he was making room for Larxene to swoop in on her. The little witch braced herself for a hit or to be forcefully grabbed in some way by the Savage Nymph. After all it was rare to see one without the other. But, It would seem that this one of those rare times. No one else was there apart from just him and herself. Her eyes flicked back to him. Her mind was racing and it was impossible to tell which was going her faster, her mind or her pulse. She thought of turning and running, but could she out run him, and where would she go? the Restoration committee was no longer in Traverse town. Merlin’s magical house was a possibility, but even he might not be there at the moment, plus you needed a fire blast to unlock the door and she wasn’t confident enough to take what she learned from Riku to attempted it at the moment. If she messed it up she would at a dead end and trapped.

She could just scream for help, but that would get other innocent people involved. Everything her mind was racing to think of was shot down only seconds later. Even though she was looking at him, her eyes were out of focus and she wasn’t really seeing him. She forced herself to come back to the hear in now. That is when she noticed he wasn’t wearing his Organization cloak….Of course….she could corridor out of there! The darkness didn’t effect her like it did others. She didn’t need the cloak even now in her replica body.

Namnie was just about to turn and bolt through a corridor when Marluxia spoke. “Namine. Breath. I am not here to hurt you.” The young girl stopped dead in mid turn as if he ordered her to and she obeyed out of habit. There was nothing in his voice that made it an order but her eyes automatically looked at the ground as if she was a child being scolded. On the contrary, He had never spoken to her like that before. It was deep, polite, and gentle. There wasn’t a hint of disdain or taunt that normally accompanied his voice.

“It’s okey. I am not your enemy.” Namine’s eyes snapped up and the orders seemed to have knocked the wind of her. She focused on his face. “Mar…..” The word got caught in her throat as she really looked at him. Her face screwed up in concentration and confusion. Her eyes met his. They were……blue. They pulled her in and there was a rhythm behind them now. It was steady and strong just like Even’s, Ienzo, her own and so many others who’s rhythms were once silent or weak. “No……” She stepped slightly closer to him and looked at him as if she was searching for something in his face. “Not Marluxia”

Namine’s eyes went from his face to the water fountain next to them. In her head there was a distance voice and a blurry image that matched the shape and colors of the man before her now. The voice was male and very familiar even though she had just come to learn the sound of it recently. As the voice rang in her head it went in and out like a bad single on a radio. It called and the blurry figure turned to greet the voice.

Just like that the link snapped together. The water from the fountain trickled soothingly and the wind seemed to calm as did Namine’s breathing. She was still very wiry of the man but now that her head was clear she knew that if he tried anything she could call any of the others to her side immediately.

The wind was a gentle breeze that brought the sent of flowers from garden window boxed from apartments high above them. “What brings you here, Lauriam?” She spoke the name she heard in the brief memory while staring into the fountain as the breeze brought the scent of Roses, forget-me-nots, and…….Dandelions             


Lauriam

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Laurium look surprised as namine said his name. She smiled her soft smile and simply said, “have you already forgotten my ability?” She let out a small nervous giggle. She then pointed to her own head. “I'm a memory witch. Things such as names aren't really buried deep within one's mind. It takes very little effort for me to access that information. Sometimes I don't access it at all and it just comes to me.” She put her hand down that was pointing at her head. “the memory was blurry but I distinctly heard another male voice Call your image by that name. I promise I wasn't snooping the memory just…came to me when I was about to call you the name I truly know you by. As if the memory was correcting me”



Laurium's answer to her question had taken her aback. She never really considered that the other organization members were from different worlds. When it came to the members of the original 13, it kind of just felt like they were just there. It was hard to explain, but in fact, Each one of their completed beings we're from somewhere. The world that never was and Castle Oblivion could hardly be called their home world. It was a place in which they resided or worked towards their goal as nobody’s, but it wasn't where they were born or came from as completed soles with hearts. This concept seemed to have an effect on the replicated nobody, does she really couldn't place a word for the emotion that was brought to light. It shined a light on each one of the members of the organization, her organization.



“Maybe I can help.” suggested namine. “ I am still very much connected to the darkness as much as I am the light. I can create a corridor to send you home.” she was clearly under the impression that lauriam was simply stranded on the current world. “it might take me a few tries, if I never been there before. We'll have to make sure no heartless follow you through and that you're newly-completed hearts is protected….. But I may be able to assist.”


Namine turns and looked at the rippling water in the fountain as a distorted the reflections of both him and her. "And I can tell from your eyes that what you say is true. You are not the man I knew . Much time has passed and you have been completed, you are similar to the man that you were once before. I have to have knowledge of the person that you have become. They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. When I look into yours now, I don't see the darkness I did before. The emptiness, bitterness, and dark ambition are no longer there. I won't lie, There is something behind your eyes that is still partially dark.” namine turned her eyes upon him once more. “A kind of…obsession? But for whatever reason I do not fear it as I have feared the darkness that laid with you when you were marluxia. perhaps this is the type of darkness that you are meant to embrace and make it your own. Perhaps it is the type that fully completes you.”



The memory witch once again turn to look at the fountain. “I'm not sure what you mean by none of this was supposed to happen. We all make mistakes.” The young girl seem to be under the assumption that he meant that what he had done as a nobody wasn't supposed to happen. A kind of guilt that may have laid with him. “the best thing to do, I have learned, is to accept that it has happened and move on. Move forward and make something extraordinary out of the circumstances. Others will forgive you if you are truly sorry. The hard part….” she looked down at her own hands. “is learning to forgive yourself.” silence fell between them momentarily. “And sometimes in order to forgive yourself you need a helping hand.” the memory witch turn back towards lauriam and stretched out her hand. It was trembling but the young girl seemed to be determined all the same. “Maybe we can start again. Hello, I'm namine. It is finally nice to meet the real you.”



Lauriam

It happened in an instant, and only lasted a split second. The moment lauriam took namine's hand the vision that she had had earlier when she had discovered marluxia's true name appeared before her minds eyes once more. Division was indeed laurium, but he looks slightly younger than the man that grasped her hand so gently right now. The familiar voice called-out the name she had just learned. The laurium in the vision turned too faced the person who called him. As he did sell the vision became much much clearer. Running towards him was none other than ventus. Then through the vision came a whisper that was not being spoken by either of the projections that's stood in the memory. It was still the voice of laurium, but it was the one that was with her right now. “ventas…ventus was connected to Sora. Ventas was connected to him…that's how she knew, correct?”



The soft voice of laurium brought her back to the present State of mind. What namine saw, heard, and felt completely stunned her. Her eyes were wide and bright. There was a small gap in between her lips, and her eyebrows rose up her forehead. Lauriam was literally kneeling on his knees so he could look her in the eyes properly. his voice was soft. It normally was soft when he spoke to her even in his nobody form. But there was no hint of a threat. In fact, he was actually complimenting her. Her heart definitely skipped a beat and it seemed as if all the air was drawn from her lungs in that moment. His hand was warm and gentle as well as his expression, and a smile graced his face. It wasn't a sneer, smirk, or grimace, but an actual handsome, thoughtful smile.



As she watched him in stunned silence the smile eventually faded from his face as he explained that getting to his world would be even beyond her power, nor her words be able to change what he felt. She really didn't expect them to. There were wounds that were too deep. They would leave scars, traces of the pain that once was there. But she knew that it was the first step in healing. And she would convey that to him if she could. After all it was something very similar to Riku back when he was helping her put sora’s memory back together. In fact, that maybe the very reason she decided to trust the once marluxia. When she looked in his eyes they were very similar to the eyes that Riku once held. After all, it is as king Mickey always said. “The eyes cannot lie.” even as he knelt before her she knew that he would not hurt her as he once did. Her body began to relax and the stunned expression.



As laurium let go of her hand , she placed it back down at her side. Her eyes still remain on the man in front of her. They followed him as he stood up to his full height. when he turned to look at the file and again she still kept her blue eyes on him. She studied his profile, and her head tilted a little to the side. “the cost of your own existence?” namine restated his own words. “but you just got re-completed. I am sorry, I don't understand.” her eyes were sad and confused. She didn't know what he meant by that. Or rather, she had an idea, but it couldn't be, could it? Her theory, it didn't quite fit with somebody who is nicknamed the graceful assassin.



However surprising all of this has been, it was nothing compared to what came next. The wind was once again knocked out of namine by his mere words. The look of surprise was even more noticeable on her face than before. Where her lips had only made a small Gap previously, it was now opened 2 its full extent in shock. She got asked and actually took a step backwards nearly falling over her own two feet. She managed to rebalance herself and remained on her feet. “ wait, what?” she said exasperated. “you're from a completely different time?” time travel wasn't a New concept or anything to her. In fact master xehanort, hadn't he done the very same thing. Travel to different parts in time to acquire vessels that he needed for the 13 hearts when his original plan didn't quite go over so well. Namine had simply just thought that that was something of his. Where the vessels that were him through different times how to manage time to travel. She didn't think for one moment that the others that weren't xehanort we're also from a different time.



Watching laurium something in his words seem to have struck a bell with the memory witch. “the world that the others were once a part of...that…that sounds familiar. I have heard a story about that before.” Her face screwed up in concentration. Her eyebrows knitted closely together as she tried to recall the story.



“Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light. Everyone loved the light. Then people began to fight over it. They wanted to keep it for themselves. And darkness was born in their hearts. The darkness spread, swallowing the light and many people's hearts. It covered everything, and the world disappeared. But small fragments of light survived... in the hearts of children. With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world. It's the world we live in now. But the true light sleeps deep within the darkness. That's why the worlds are still scattered, divided from each other. But someday, a door to the innermost darkness will open. And the true light will return. So listen, child. Even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide you. Believe in the light, and the darkness will never defeat you. Your heart will shine with its power and push the darkness away.” namine spoke the story that she had once known through Kairi. “kairi’s grandmother used to tell her that story all the time. Is the world in that story, the one that disappeared and then was reborn as the scattered worlds we know now….. is that where you come from?”



Namine also turn her head to stare into the reflections of the following. “That story…. Has to be over hundreds of years old. It's the summarized story of the keyblade wars that xehanort was so obsessed with making happen again. Are you, are you saying your friend that time?



What was also bothering namine she didn't voice out loud at the moment. If this was indeed all true, it was ven's memory that lead her to laurium's real name. The two looked like they knew each other the way that ventus was greeting him. Ven didn't look very much different than he does now in the memory, but lauriam looks younger and he wasn't built as he was now. But ventus and never mentioned marluxia or lauriam before, and so wouldn't that put the two of them in the same time then? When she had sifted through sora’s memories undiscovered the memories of ven, Terra, and aqua, the graceful assassin never came up……so how? How could this very memory be what connected the two hearts together.




Lauriam

Laurium's narrowed eyes coupled with his neutral expression frightened namine. She was way too used to that expression from marluxia. As she looked at him she half expected to see his eyes turn gold or even the sudden movement of his hand to indicate that his scythe was about to come upon her. As the silence stretched on between them it was unnerving to the girl. She fought the urge to take a step away from her companion. She was trying her best to not lump lauriam in with marluxia. It was true that with most of the other nobodies that they seem to have taken on their previous personalities and beings. Example the fact that Lea and axel are virtually the same person. However, there were those such as Roxas and herself that are completely separated from the beings they originated from. She was trying to take this view with lauriam as well. He didn't seem to be similar to marluxia in personality, but part of her was still a little uneasy. Especially when he glared at her it was easy for her to pick up the bit of marluxia that made up lauriam. After all, that glare had haunted her for half a year, and in every nightmare she had ever since. She knew part of it was her own guilty conscience as well. Does she never really told anyone about this particular guilt yet, not even Riku or Kairi



However, unlike with marluxia, namine seem to be able to read the neutral expression on his face. Instead of his eyes turning gold as she had feared, they seem to confirm her theory instead. She looked back at the fountain as she tried to process all of this. So he was from a completely different time. It wasn't like he was put to sleep during that time and then awoke in years later.



As the man put his arm up in front of him, namine had the urge once again to put some distance between her and laurium. The weapon that she knew he had could reach a long way, she was far too close if he decided to use it on her. However, nothing happened. She tilted her head and her eyebrows knitted together. “is he having trouble summoning his scythe.” She thought to herself. “but, it doesn't make any sense. none of the others seem to be having any issues using their abilities, even though they have transitioned into their completed forms. So then, why is he?” then it occurred to her that maybe it wasn't his scythe that he was trying to summon at all. Was it possible? Could he possibly be one? It all did kind of fit. If he was from the time before and during the keyblade war (perhaps it's the very war that he is trying to undo, namine's thoughts ran wild)….. perhaps he was dragged here by master xehanort for that reason. If anything this definitely showed how little of the story, that they have been thrust into, they understood.



“It is…. Pitiful.”



Silence fell upon them once again. namine stared at the man's profile. After a moment she spoke once again. “I i think you might be wrong.” she finally plucked up the courage to say. “when you said there was nothing in your nobody to be found except for darkness.” she shook her head. “you're wrong there had to be something more than just darkness to you. I’m almost certain that Sora saw something in you, in each and every one of you. He was happy when you first felt something. His goal was never to destroy you, but it was to complete you. To give whatever he saw a second chance in the light.



If that time period really is where you are from…then it is possible that you are one of those children from the story. Perhaps it was that small fragment of light that's Sora saw in you.  one of the very fragments that saved everyone from the darkness and rebuild the world.” Namine said. “you are a hero, and even if you weren't at the time….. now is your time to shine. You just have to remember. you said you don't know yourself very well.” namine stepped closer to his side and cautiously placed her small hand on his arm. ” but in order to learn exactly who and what you are, you're eventually going to have to face who you once were. Whether you accept that person or reject that person….. that I can't help with. It's up to you, and it will shape who you decide to become.”



Namine let go of him. “learning about one's true self is tough and everyone questions themselves at times…Riku just said that to me not too long ago. He said that I helped him through it. Maybe that's something you need as well. Someone to help you through it.” she smiled up at laurium.
"Oh, and nothing about this is pitiful either. now if you go through this without learning anything..... That, that would be pitiful."


Namine looked back at the fountain. “but I really don't see how this fountain can connect you back to world that existed years ago. When Kairi grandmother told her that story they lived in radiant garden. The story States after all, the fragments of light rebuilt the world and she said it was the world they lived in today. perhaps the start of the connection is actually in radiant garden. “ she wondered out loud



Lauriam

Namine placed her hands behind her back and rocked on her heals. “Of Course, it is more complicated then that. It always is.” She giggled. “it wouldn’t be much of an adventure, and you won’t learn what you are truly capable of if things didn’t get complicated.”


Namine sat down next to him on the fountain’s edge. It was a bit closer to him then what she was standing. She placed her sketchbook in her lap and stretched her legs out as far as the would go. “That is pretty sound logic, now that I think about it.” She admitted.


Traverse Town was just another world to her. It was easy to forget the origins of this World when one never really had a home world to lose to the darkness. She had been born when Kairi gave her heart to Sora for safe keeping, and he had released her heart back to her. Her existence started inside Castle Oblivion, then taken to the World that Never Was, only to be return to Castle Oblivion aka the World of Departure. From there she was taken to Twilight town, then back into non-existence as a part of Kairi. And of course, she couldn’t forget her brief stay in the Final World. If she had to call anything her home world, it was Kairi herself.


“But even though it is logically to start here,” Namine turned herself to look at the back drop of the fountain. “I have to wonder if it was truly the best place to start.” She looked back over at Lauriam. “I mean…well…It seems to me the best place to start any journey might be Destiny Islands.” She paused allowing this to sink in. “Everything seemed to have started there for a lot of Keybladers in one way or another if you think about it. It put everything in motion and might very well be the center of all the chains of events so far. Maybe it is the Key to what you are looking for as well.”


Namine fell silent once again. She looked at the ground. After hearing what he had said about not begin able to use it anymore, and the way he had held his hand previously to try to summon something, she came to two possibilities. One was for some reason he forgot how to use his Scythe. Which was looking less and less likely. It didn’t add up since all the other completed hearts could all still use their weapons and abilities from the time they were Nobodies.


“Lauriam?” She said in almost a whispered. The other option through her for a loop but it added up. The memory she drew from him about Ven, and that he was hear searching for the connection between worlds. She knew the secret behind bell print on the fountain. What it was hiding, and a Scythe wasn’t going to get him what he is looking for.


There were people chatting here and there. There was humming of the electricity all around them from the hundreds of lights in the town. The fountain was trickling behind them. But even so, it all fell on deaf ears. Everything fell silent to the little memory Witch accept her own voice and the man next to her “are you…..were you,” She started and even thought her voice was just above a whisper, It sounded much much louder to her. She braced herself. She didn’t know why she felt the answer may take her breath away. But if it wasn’t the answer that she thought…would she feel relieved or even more confused? What if it was the answer she thought?

“a Keyblader?”




Lauriam

Namine’s head snapped around at the answer he just gave. She was right into think that the air was going to leave her if the answer was yes. Her eyes were wide, and speech seemed to elude her for the time being.



Lauriam was a Keyblader! His home world was a world of that vanished hundreds or possible thousands of years ago! So, it was now clear that somehow, he either managed to survive all these years or got pushed through time. Maybe even both!



Had Xemnas and Xehanort knowing just what they had? She had thought the purpose for Sora and Roxas, other than completing the 13, was so they could have a Keyblading Nobody among the organization that they could control. However, they had had one along. Lea didn’t conjure his till later and still had to be trained in the art. Was it that didn’t know, He hadn’t been on the best terms for the so-called higher ups.



Even more stunning was the memory that lead her to Marluxia’s real name. A young man had called for him. One’s whose image she knew very well. That would mean that what was all true for Lauriam was also true for this other person. They were at least from the same time, Possible the same world. And, just like Lauriam he to existed now.



“Ventus….” She whispered out loud but to no one in particular. The puzzle’s piece were beginning to fall into place, but the full picture was still unknown and distorted. More and more questions seem to arise, thought it was impossible to figure out where to start.



Lauriam said he had lost his blade, maybe forever. Namine started to sober at those words. Her eyes going back to normal size. That made sense now, why it was possible the other didn’t know. If he couldn’t conjure his blade then Xehanort would want a failsafe, which was Roxas.



Namine shook her head and smiled. “I don’t think it is forever. I doesn’t seem likely.” She said. “After all, a Keyblade is a weapon that the heart creates right? I don’t think it is something that can be lost completely. You didn’t lose your heart completely. Even those, have no heart were able to summon forth a keyblade because even though the vessel was empty at the time, they shared a heart with someone else.” The little Memory Witch stated confidently. “I think your heart has to remember how to do is all. Perhaps it is the wrist." She quoted a certain red headed keyblader, smiling even more. So she didn't say the name since she knew the two didn't quite see eye to eye" Give it time.”



She looked back at the Fountain back drop. “So, it is the Keyhole you think could help you get back to your time?” Namine inquired of him. “You said earlier that, nor should all of this have happened. All of what?” She wondered if he was talking about him being here or something else.



“Let’s go for a walk. You said there is nothing you can do here now, and the fountain isn’t going anywhere.” Namine stood up and offered her hand to Lauriam in good faith once more. Perhaps figure out this man will start to piece together another young man as well. Sora was just going to have to wait a few moments longer.




Lauriam