Remembering the Forgotten

By: Ellipsis the Great

DISCLAIMER: Kingdom Hearts and everything affiliated with it belongs to SquareEnix and Disney. All I own is the plot…although the original idea came from orangediscord's one-shot 'Left Behind.' Also, the idea for the 'relocation' of the Queen's soul comes from a book called 'Golem in the Gears' by Piers Anthony. And the idea for the ritual is some sort of weird merger of my own ideas with ideas from the movies 'The Brothers Grimm' and 'Thirteen Ghosts.'

Summary: Sometimes, I thought I was the only person who remembered him…eventual Seiner, other pairings unknown.

Rated: M.

Spoilers: Takes place after Kingdom Hearts II; I dunno how much of the plot will be included.

Warnings: Yaoi and some angst. More warnings later if needed.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Finis (end)

"'Would you do the whole thing all over again, knowing what you know now, knowing what you knew then?' And he smiled, like the old pumpkin king that I knew, then turned and asked softly of me, 'Wouldn't you?'" –Nightmare Before Christmas, 'Closing'

My eyes fluttered open lazily, although for some reason I didn't really feel like I was waking up so much as going to sleep—a strange sensation, to be sure. The view that greeted me was misty but bright, like I was up in the clouds on an all-too-sunny day.

"Seifer."

A hand was offered to me, and my eyes drifted from it up to the face of the person to whom it belonged. I couldn't make the face out very well; between the fog and the sun (which was, conveniently enough, right behind them) it was nearly impossible to make anything out.

"You still have work to do, Seifer." The voice spoke again, slightly muffled for some reason. The hand motioned insistently at me to take it. "No time to laze about."

Hesitantly, I reached my hand up and placed it in theirs. The clouds immediately faded away, and I finally got a good look at the other person's face: a gentle, but obviously strong woman with long, flowing brown hair and kind eyes that looked very much like mine.

"I'm so proud of you, Seifer." She said, bringing my hand to her face and nuzzling it with her cheek. "You've grown up into such a wonderful man…"

"Mother?"

(PAGEBREAK,Y'KNOW?)

I jumped a little, startled awake by the ruler that had just been slapped down on my desk.

"Mr. Almasy, two demerits for falling asleep in class." Instructor Aki (how did I know that name? I'd never seen this guy before in my life) practically snarled.

I heard stifled laughter from several other students in the classroom I was in (why was I in a classroom? Where were Hayner and the others?). I sat up straight, not bothering to try and hide the confusion-induced scowl that settled over my face.

"Don't give me that look, boy." Instructor Aki said, obviously not aware that I wasn't actually directing the look at him. "I'll never understand why Headmaster Kramer is so confident in your abilities when you can't even keep your eyes open in a class!"

More stifled laughter, this time stopped short by Aki's fierce glare as it searched out the culprits. Unable to locate them, he turned and returned to the front of the classroom to continue his lecture on…whatever he was lecturing about. Or at least, he tried to, because just then a loud bell rang to signal the end of class.

I stood, grabbing the bag draped over the back of my chair and moving rather mechanically toward the exit.

"Jeez, Seifer, what kept you up all night?" A teen with light blue-green eyes, ridiculously spiked blond hair, and a tattoo taking up the majority of the left side of his face asked crudely, snickering at his own innuendo.

"Shut the fuck up, Zell." I snapped, struggling to hide the surprise I felt when the name sprang out of my mouth of its own accord.

The boy—Zell Dincht—gave me a confused look. "What? Not gonna call me chickenwuss today?" He asked tauntingly.

I just snorted and pushed past him. "Fuck off before I get pissed, lamer." I said. Chickenwuss was a name reserved for Hayner, only.

Well, maybe it wasn't, exactly, but I'd be damned if I called a complete stranger that.

Zell caught up with me quickly, eyes narrowed a bit. "Y'know, Seifer, you don't look so hot. You need to go to the infirmary? That cut Squall gave you might have gotten infected."

My eyebrows furrowed together. "The fuck are you talking about?"

Zell blinked. "Umm…yesterday you and Squall got into that stupid fight and cut each other's faces open?"

I stared at him.

"Dude, you really need to go to the infirmary."

"Just fuck off, lamer. I'm fine." I said, deciding that I was way too confused to care, at the moment, what exactly was going on.

"Who the fuck are you? And why do you look like me?"

My head snapped up, meeting eyes identical to mine that were set in a face identical to mine, except that it looked older and kind of strange, sans beanie, and with my blond hair slicked back like that.

"I'm Seifer Almasy—who the fuck are you?" I asked as a small crowd began gathering around us. Then I jerked back, finding Hyperion suddenly pointed at my face.

"I'm Seifer Almasy." The man-who-was-me said. "And you aren't even a good doppelganger, if that's what you are."

I summoned my Hyperion, mirroring his stance by sticking it in his face. "Listen up, fuck-weed: if I was a fucking doppelganger, I sure as hell wouldn't be yours, because you're a fucking retard if you think you're anywhere near skilled enough to beat me. And that intimidation bullshit you're trying to pull only works on chickenwusses and idiots, so don't try it with me."

"They're both Seifer, if we're going by who's the bigger asshole." I heard Zell say.

"What's going on here?" I blinked as a man who was Squall but wasn't Squall pushed his way to the front of the crowd, looking between me and the other guy with a carefully neutral expression.

"None of your business, puberty boy." The other Seifer sneered. "I've got it under control."

"If 'under control' means 'about to get my ass kicked.'" I said. "And when the fuck did you cut your hair, Squall?"

Everyone in the crowd turned to stare at me.

"Wow, Seifer, you did get yourself stuck in quite a mess." The crowd turned again, this time with me included, and this time to look at the person who had spoken. I scowled, recognizing him as that black-haired guy from the semi-finals way back in the Coliseum.

"And who are you?" Squall asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

The guy grinned widely, looking kind of like Sora but…goofier, if that was possible. "I'm Zack Fair. I just came to pick this guy up." He motioned at me. "Can't believe you got into this much trouble after only a few minutes, Seifer."

"He isn't Seifer. I am." The other me said.

Zack giggled. Like a girl. "Well, technically, you're both Seifer. Only he's from the future. And younger. And…well, at the moment he's kind of mostly dead."

"He's what?"

"I'm what?"

"The hell?!"

"It's a long story." Zack said. "But…see? He's not really completely here." And with that, he stuck his hand through my face. "Don't worry about it—the Lifestream's trying to get him back to his original body, since he went and destroyed the one Ansem gave him, but it got a little bit confused. It doesn't do this sort of thing very often. So it sent me to fetch him and take him where he was supposed to go."

"This is really confusing." Selphie, looking older and decidedly not possessed by an evil tyrant, said.

"Don't worry about it—you're going to forget all of this ever happened in about…now."

(PAGEBREAK,Y'KNOW?)

"What…in the fuck…was that?" I hissed as I suddenly found myself in what seemed to be a small house. It reminded me of Aerith's place back in Radiant Gardens.

Zack rolled his eyes. "I told you—the Lifestream was trying to get you back to your original body, and kind of…missed."

"It…missed." I repeated, my voice deadpan.

"Yeah. It does that sometimes." He shrugged. "Now c'mon—we gotta get you back in your body before anybody comes to check on you."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because seeing you in creepy-ghost-form might freak somebody out." He replied simply, like it should have been obvious, tiptoeing into another room. I followed, not tiptoeing but keeping my footfalls quiet anyway. "Okay, there ya go!"

I looked at the figure in the bed. It was definitely me, alright, but it looked more like the me from the place Zack had just spirited me away from. Slicked back hair, stick-in-ass expression (even asleep!), long-sleeved jacket, lack of beanie…

"I look like an asshole." I murmured, scowling.

"Seifer, you are an asshole. That was established, like…years ago. And I don't even know you that well…or, at all, actually…" Zack said. "Just go. And don't worry—your memories will come back to you slowly, so it won't overwhelm you. Oh! And Persephone worked it out so that you'd be able to tell the difference between them and the ones Ansem gave you, since you'll essentially have both."

"Persephone did?" I asked.

"Yeah. She says you're finally the hero she always knew you'd be, and that you should take it easy for a while so your body can get used to…y'know, being alive again."

I gaped at him for a moment. Opened my mouth to say something. Thought better of it. Decided I didn't really give a fuck.

"So how do I…" I motioned at my body.

"I suggest doing a canon ball." Zack said sagely. Then, seeing my incredulous look, he sighed disappointedly. "But…once you touch it, it should just absorb you, so I guess it doesn't matter."

"Right." I said, reaching out.

"Oh! And Seifer?"

"Yeah?"

"Tell Cloud…and Aerith and Yuffie and Cid…and Vincent if he'll answer his stupid cell phone…wait, does he have a cell phone? Never mind…just tell them I said 'hi.'"

"Yeah, alright." I said, chuckling a little. Then I touched my (well, by body's) shoulder, and everything went black.

(PAGEBREAK,Y'KNOW?)

'Fuck, my head hurts.' Was the first thought I had as I slowly came back to the land of the living. I blinked my eyes open, seeing Zack's ghostly figure give me a huge grin and thumbs up before disappearing. Blinking my eyes rapidly to rid them of the sleepiness that lingered there (how could any of me be tired, now?), I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood.

Bad idea.

'Very bad idea.' I decided as I immediately fell back onto the bed, my legs weak. Frowning stubbornly, I forced myself to stand up again, ignoring my still-wobbling legs in favor of going to the door and opening it. Luckily, whatever stasis spell Ansem had used was a good one, so by the time I reached the bathroom (turns out I was in Aerith's house, unless we'd gone somewhere else with the exact same floor plan) my legs weren't shaking anymore. Mostly.

After I'd finished taking a leak, I followed my nose to the kitchen (there's no mistaking the smell of pancakes, and my stomach was growling like crazy). Everyone immediately stopped talking and looked at me (I suspect they heard my stomach).

"Uh." I said intelligently. "Hi?"

"Seifer!" Sora hollered, jumping up out of his seat before anyone else could react. But instead of tackling me with that big, goofy smile of his like I'd expected, he scowled at me. Fucking scowled, like he was…y'know, angry.

We had obviously spent far too much time together. I was a terrible influence on him, if he could actually scowl.

"Seifer." He said again, more subdued this time. Forcibly subdued, in that creepy way that people do when they're beyond pissed but are desperately trying to stay clam. "Do you see this face?" He pointed at his face.

Slowly, I nodded.

"This is not a face that I make." He said. "Ever. Because I'm Sora, the Keyblade Master. The resident ball of everlasting sunshine who never, ever gets this face and always…always smiles, no matter what." He grabbed my collar, somehow managing to seem almost intimidating despite being several inches shorter than me. "And if you ever make me make this face again, I am going to rip off your balls and feed them to you." He went up on his tiptoes. "And the whole time I do it, I'm gonna smile."

In spite of myself, I gulped and nodded.

He released me and fell back on his heels. "That being said…" This time, he tackled me, bursting into tears and wailing, "Don't ever scare me again like you that you stupid jerk-face cuz you're like a brother to me and then you went and threw yourself into a cauldron of poisonous potion and I thought you were dead and everyone thought you were dead and we could've found another way to kill the Queen without you dying, you big dummy, and why didn't you warn us that your plan was so phenomenally stupid so that we could stop you?"

As he continued babbling, losing more and more coherency the further into his rant he got, the others swarmed us.

And by 'the others,' I mean: the Radiant Gardens gang (minus Squall, of course, the antisocial bastard…and that blond guy, Cloud), Selphie (Queen-less once again, thank God), Riku, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Wilbur, and Louis.

Yeah…'swarmed' is a really good word for it.

And yes, you read right: Hayner was (as far as I could see) nowhere to be found, as was René. So as soon as everyone had mostly calmed down, I asked,

"Where the fuck are the lamer and René?"

"And wouldn't you deserve it if we didn't tell you?" Riku asked, scowling at me.

"René hasn't woken up, yet." Sora said, shushing Riku. "Roxas thinks he and Axel are having a hard time merging."

"Not really—my body just had to adjust to it."

We all turned to find René standing in the doorway, yawning. This time, nobody swarmed the newcomer—we were all too busy staring at him.

He hadn't been kidding about the body adjustment thing, you see. He had actually, somehow, gotten taller than he already was (and he, being Riku's clone or whatever, had been pretty damn tall to begin with), and skinnier, too (also quite a feat). His hair was shorter, though it looked less like changes due to the merge and more like he had just taken a kitchen knife or some shitty scissors and sawed away a few inches. It was messy in that 'I just got out of bed and couldn't be bothered brushing' way, and fell into his face so that you could hardly see how his eyes had thinned out into the catlike shape that Axel's had, and lightened into more of Axel's lime green eye color and less of Riku's blue-green. They were still a little blue, though.

He stretched, his back cracking so loudly that even Squall flinched a bit, then ran a hand through his hair as he looked all of us over. He arched a thin eyebrow at me, nodding, then his eyes fell to Sora, who was still kind of mostly attached to me.

We could all see the change in his face—his eyes lightened to even more of that acidic green color, and Axel's tattoos appeared on his face.

"Roxas!"

"Axel!" Sora—well, Roxas, if the lighter hair and eyes were anything to go by—exclaimed as the lanky man scooped him up and away from me. He sounded a little annoyed, but he was obviously mostly just ecstatic seeing as how his grin was wide enough to split his face in two.

I crossed my arms over my chest, smirking smugly. Mission Accomplished.

Oh, come on. We already established that Riku was straight, right? And anyone with two eyes could see that René was completely head over heels for Sora—and unless they were just really exuberant fuck buddies, Axel felt the same way for Roxas.

Then again…judging by the look on Riku's face, maybe he wasn't so straight…

I guess that makes sense, seeing as how René is definitely a fruit. Oh, well.

But enough of that mush.

"Oi. As sweet as all this shit is, my dentist is all the way back in Twilight Town." I said. "So would somebody tell me where Hayner is before I get a cavity?"

"Ah…well, actually, my boy…" Merlin said. "We aren't entirely sure where Hayner is, at the moment."

My gaze hardened. Everyone around me took a step back. "Excuse me?"

"He was here for a while." Aerith said. "He stayed by your bedside for a few days and wouldn't move at all, even to eat. You've been asleep for over a week, Seifer." She paused. "And then, yesterday, he just…left. We didn't even realize he'd gone until I took up lunch."

"Then why in the fuck are you all here instead of out looking for him?" I demanded.

"We're eating breakfast." Cid said, giving me that no-nonsense look of his. "And don't you take that fucking tone—you think we haven't been looking? We gotta sleep and eat, ya dumb shit. Vincent's still out looking, since he ain't gotta rest and shit like the rest of us. We were gonna go out soon and start looking again."

I snorted. "Fine." I said, turning to leave. My stomach chose that exact moment to growl, though, and I yelped a little as Cid grabbed me by the forehead (yeah, the forehead) and shoved me into a chair, slamming a cup and a plate of food in front of me.

"Eat, twerp." He said.

"No." I said, standing back up. "I have to find Hayner!"

Hands on my shoulders, Cid forced me back into the seat. "Sit your ass down in that chair and eat your goddamn breakfast!"

"But—mph!" I nearly gagged as he speared a pancake and shoved it into my open mouth.

"Now fucking eat!" He said.

Giving him the best glare I could manage, I began eating, hardly able to stop myself now that I'd started—I hadn't eaten in a week, and this body hadn't eaten in over a year.

"Look at him go!" Sora giggled, snuggled pretty cozily in René's arms.

"I bet fifty munny he makes himself sick." Yuffie said.

Ignoring them, I stuffed the last pancake into my mouth, chewed, swallowed it down with the help of the cup of milk I'd been given, and wiped my mouth, turning a now much more potent glare on Cid.

"Happy now, mom?" I asked. "Can I go?"

Surveying my empty plate with a suspicious eye, Cid nodded triumphantly.

"Sure—Hyperion's by the door. If you get lost…well, good luck with that." He said.

"'M not gonna get lost." I muttered, snatching up Hyperion, and left.

(PAGEBREAK,Y'KNOW?)

Okay, so I was a little, teensy bit lost.

Who knew such a…quaint little place could be so fucking confusing?

Luckily, there weren't any heartless around—that was a load off my mind, since it meant that Hayner couldn't have gone and gotten himself killed by the little bastards.

Anyhow, by this time I had wandered out of the still-being-rebuilt town, and into the crags and canyons that made up the surrounding area. The whole place was a fucking maze.

But somehow I made it to that Crystal Fissure place, which I was pretty sure led to the Great Maw. And from there I wandered over to the Dark Depths, where Sora and Cloud had evidently fought against this guy named Sephiroth. Tifa seemed to think that, since Cloud was back again, he had finally defeated that Sephiroth fellow. Cloud himself didn't seem so sure of it.

There he was, though, the little chickenwuss. Sitting curled up like he had way back when this whole mess had started, looking at the portrait of Roxas that I had done. Roxas' portrait wasn't out here, of course, so he was just…staring out into the Depths, a rather forlorn expression on his face.

Without announcing my presence, I walked over and plopped down beside him, leaning back on my hands and looking at him.

"You okay, lamer?"

He looked at me, a little startled, but didn't seem all that surprised by my appearance otherwise. He just sighed and rested his head on his knees, though he was still looking at me.

"I couldn't stand it anymore." He said, his eyes filling with tears. "I tried everything I could think of and you just…wouldn't move. It was like you were dead, and I couldn't…I couldn't take it. So I left and came out here."

"And you look like you're about to freeze, you idiot." I said, shrugging my coat off and draping it over his shoulders. "I didn't almost die so you could go and freeze to death, dumbass."

He shook, not from cold but from a big sob that overtook him just before he threw himself into me, knocking us both over.

"I was so…so scared." He whimpered into my chest. "You just…jumped, and I…" He hiccuped, shrugging. "Well, after I thought about it I guess it was kind of obvious that you were going to do something idiotically heroic like that, you fuck-tard, but a warning still would've been nice. And then I realized that that's why you sent Louis and Wilbur after this body, so I wasn't as freaked out or sad as everyone else when we came back here. But then…it was a whole week, and you still didn't even twitch. And I started to think that you…that you were…"

"I'm sorry." I murmured into his hair. God, I'd missed this. I hadn't even realized how much until just then. "Apparently, the Lifestream missed a little when it tried to put me back in this body."

Sniffling loudly, he peered up at me with an incredulous expression on his face.

"That's what I thought." I sighed. "But I ended up back in the past, before my home world was destroyed. I got to meet some of the people from there…saw Selphie and Squall and…and the old me. And then Zack—you remember the guy from the semi-finals at the Coliseum, right?" He nodded. "He came and got me and brought me here. And…well, here I am."

Still not looking like he completely believed me (hell, I didn't completely believe me), he nodded hesitantly before sighing and closing his eyes and leaning into me again.

"Just never do it again, okay?" He asked softly.

"Hey, the Queen's dead, right? And this is the only body I've got, now. So unless you decide to do something really…really retarded, I'm not going anywhere. Think you can manage that, chickenwuss?"

I could feel him smile into the crook of my neck. "Yeah, I think so."

"Good. Being dead is weird." I said. "I think I met my mom, too, but I don't really remember. And Zack stuck his arm through my face. Crazy stuff, man."

"You're so stupid." He laughed.

I laughed, too. And, as everything that had happened finally got to us, we both laughed ourselves into hysterics for a long time, the sound reverberating through the Depths and making us laugh even harder, until there were tears in our eyes and we had let go of each other in favor of holding our sides together. Until finally, falling onto our backs, our sides sore, the laughter faded away into a comfortable silence.

I snagged him around the waist and dragged him closer, kissing his forehead.

"Sorry for taking so long, lamer." I said. "I didn't mean to—"

He grinned up at me, cutting me off. "That's Your Royal Lameness, to you." He said, wrapping his arms around my neck. "And as your Sovereign Chickenwuss, I order you to shut the fuck up and kiss me."

Chuckling, I did.

And we lived happily ever after.

…

"Ow! You fucking bit me!"

"Serves you right, jackass!"

Well, we didn't kill each other, at least.

The End

A/N: It's OVER! :faints: FINALLY! I never in a MILLION YEARS meant for this to turn into such a long, confusing, involved story. Ever. I mean, it started out with them looking for Roxas, and…jeez, it's come SUCH a long way since then. It's insane. But…well, I'm really relieved that it's finally drawn to a close. Sad, of course, because it's turned into my baby, but still relieved.

(And before anyone asks…yeah, I've been planning to set up René and Sora for a LONG time. Almost since René showed up, actually…hopefully now that it's happened it doesn't seem too out of left field. I've been hinting at it for a while…it's just that everyone expected Riku/Sora, so…eh. It was really amusing to me to read all of the pro-Riku/Sora stuff, though, lmao.)

Thank you guys SO MUCH for all of your support throughout this story! You guys have been COMPLETELY awesome! I hope everyone enjoyed the final chapter, and I hope you'll stick around to read the stories to come!

Love you guys! –EtheG