Prologue: Arrival

"Hey, are you alright, hey…"

"Who do you think she is?"

"She has a fever; come on, let's get her inside."

She could hear the voices, but she just couldn't open her eyes to see who was talking. Not that it would have mattered much. It hurt. Her body hurt all over. Trying to think about anything also hurt. All she did, all she could do was listening. Listening and waiting. She felt herself being moved, probably by the owners of the voices. She didn't know those voices, didn't know who the ones they belonged to looked like, but she couldn't move. Her body just wasn't responding. She was at the mercy of the owners of the voices.

Instead of feeling restrained, or any of the horrible things that popped into her nightmares on occasion, she felt herself being laid on something that was a bit comfortable. Something wet and cool was put on her forehead. The voices were talking again, but she couldn't make out the words. Seconds later, she was completely unconscious.

Rest was fitful at best.

Hayner, Pence, and Olette had to deal with their fair share of strangeness once in a while, capping off with getting involved with Sora's adventures that one time, but things were never really quite normal in their town if you knew where to look. Well, the self appointed Disciplinary Committee was still as annoying as ever. That was a very unwelcome constant in their lives. Still, them finding a strange girl they hadn't seen before unconscious in the tunnels underneath the town, while on the way totheir Usual Spot to hang out wasn't as strange as seeing Nobodies, but it was all the more worrisome. Hayner and Pence helped pick her up from the ground and brought her quickly inside the Spot, putting her in the small couch they had inside. She had a very high fever, and her skin was moist with sweat. The two boys left to get some medicine and maybe some ice or at least something with water and a towel they could use, much to her insistence, leaving Olette alone with the strange girl, sitting next to the small couch. Although she did want to keep an eye on her, part of it was because she wanted to be away from her friends after Pence innocently suggested that they had to take the girl's shirt off to help her cool down. She knew the chubby boy well enough to understand he wasn't really being a pervert, but it was still embarrassing for her. It didn't help that the girl didn't seem that much younger than they were, especially since she seemed to be… developing… like Olette was. The brown haired girl then shook her head at the ridiculous track her thoughts had taken.

"What's taking those two?" Olette asked out loud, even if the only other person around wasn't conscious enough to hear. With nothing better to do, Olette looked at their guest. She had rather short cropped dark hair that let part of the bangs grow longer than the rest, framing her face. She was wearing a long sleeved light blue shirt, black pants that reached just above her ankles, and a pair of dark blue sandals of a design she couldn't remember seeing before. Her pale skin was flushed due to her high fever, which made her wonder how she got there if she was that sick. The strangest thing was the red-orange orb she was holding in her left hand, not letting go even in unconsciousness.

The unconscious girl seemed to be much stronger than her delicate appearance suggested, as she was holding the orb in a vice like grip. Olette had tried to get the object free, but try as she might, the hand wouldn't budge a millimeter. She gave up on that quickly enough when the… gem (?) started getting hot all of a sudden, making her pull her hand away as if she had been bitten. Olette wondered if Hayner and Pence would probably try themselves once they noticed the orb in the girl's hand.

She wondered if the orb had glowed when it started getting hot. At the moment, she didn't know what to make of it, or the person who didn't seem to want to let go even if asleep. Or maybe… it was the gem that didn't want to let go of the girl? Olette got up from the arm of the couch where she was seating and smoothed her shirt and pants up a bit, before she started pacing around impatiently.

'Those two probably ran into Seifer's gang or something' she thought with some concern. Looking back at the couch's current occupant, Olette then became a bit more relieved to see the unknown girl was actually looking a bit better. She walked to the couch and knelt beside it, putting her hand to the girl's brow. She still had a bit of a temperature. Olette was going to have some words with her friends if they actually got there after the fever completely disappeared.

At that moment, the strange girl began stirring on the couch. It seemed as if Olette was going to give an earful to those two after all.

She couldn't remember the last time she had this much trouble waking up. She couldn't even remember falling asleep. The last thing she did remember… the things that happened… Were, were they just a dream? What happened? Where was she? Where was…?

She sat up unsteadily in her… bed? Was she back in the hospital? No, it didn't feel at all like a hospital bed. When she rubbed her eyes, she was surprised when her mind cleared enough to notice the weight of a small, foreign object in her hand. Opening her eyes, not only did she finally appreciate the gem she now held in the palm of her hand, but that she was laying on an old couch, inside of a room with ann eclectic assortment of objects stored inside. There was even a well used dartboard by a wall, but that wasn't what drew the most attention right now. No, it was the girl with dark brown hair dressed in an orange sleeveless shirt with some white floral print and beige pants that was there in the room with her.

"Who-who are you?" she asked in an incredibly timid voiced. "W-where… am…" then she backed away frantically, crab-walking backwards on the couch. Her head dashed all over the place to try and find something that was recognizable or someone she knew. She did not recognize a thing, and in the recesses of her mind, she feared that someone had captured her for her bloodline again. But before she could rationally process that thought-like why she was on a couch and not confined in any way-she approached the end of the old piece of furniture and promptly fell head first on the floor, with her legs dangling helplessly in the air. Her eyes lost whatever focus they had in favor of a nice collection of bright, sparkling stars.

Olette didn't waste much time in getting to the girl and trying to help her back on her feet and into the couch again. "Are you alright?" she asked, feeling rather silly after asking such a stupid question. After all, she just saw the younger girl freak out and fall on her head and she asked if she was alright?

"I-I… I don't know," the girl replied, holding her head in the spot she landed on. Olette put her hand to the girl's brow again to check her temperature once more, and resolved to get a first aid kit with a thermometer later for the Usual Spot. She still felt a bit warmer than she should be, but wasn't really burning up. Where were Hayner and Pence?

It's amazing how being worried can make things seem slower than they really wer. Had Olette a wristwatch or some other time piece available, she'd have noticed that not even 10 minutes had passed from when Hayner and Pence had left.

"Who…who are you?" the dark haired girl asked Olette once more. This time, however, Olette was close enough to actually see the eyes of the other girl. They were pale, very pale colored. They seemed to be a soft lavender shade that she was fairly certain a human's eyes shouldn't be. For that matter, where were her pupils? Olette couldn't keep from having a sharp intake of breath in surprise when she saw that the girl could have been blind. Immediately, the pale-eyed girl faced away from Olette, her body tightening up a bit as she began rubbing her shoulders anxiously, as if to fight off a rash. Her eyes cast downwards as if there was a bug on the floor, yet there wasn't any.

She then spoke in the softest voice Olette had ever heard and was so surprised by it she missed what the girl said in the first place. "I'm… sorry… what did you say?"

"I-I-I… I'm so sorry!" the pale-eyed girl spoke louder this time, in a guilty sounding voice that only made Olette feel even worse.

"No, no, it's okay, you didn't do anything wrong," the brown haired girl said, trying to comfort the girl with the weird eyes, but she just stiffened when Olette brought a hand to rest on her shoulder. 'What was wrong with this girl?' she thought. Then, she shook her head and took the reins of the conversation and introduced herself, hoping for a better response. "My name is Olette. What's your name?"

The girl turned to face Olette, looking straight to her eyes ('wasn't she blind at all?') and answered. "My… my name is Hinata. Where-where am I?"

"Hinata? What a nice name," said Ollette to Hinata, showing a friendly smile to the timid girl, who averted her eyes again. Olette still didn't know what to make of her behavior yet, but thought nothing more of it for now, worrying about her friends, Pence and Hayner. Were those two ever going to show up at all? Hinata looked at her with some concern, which meant that Olette had let he worry show. "Oh, sorry, I was waiting for some friends of mine while you were asleep. We found you in the tunnels under the town and brought you here. They left to get some stuff for you."

"Tunnels?...? Hinata asked, her confusion evident in her face. Tunnels under the town? She couldn't remember any such tunnels underneath her town. Even if there were, she couldn't remember being there in the first place.

"Yeah, the Underground Concourse of Twilight Town. That's where we found you." Immediately, Hinata's face changed to one of horror.

"Twilight Town?" she yelled. Then, she got up from the couch and ran outside before Olette could stop her, not letting up her pace even when she stumbled a bit and hit her shoulder on the border of the gate at the opening, past the piece of red tarp they used as a door. Nor did she stop when she bumped into Hayner and Pence.

"Hinata, wait!" Olette yelled, going after the girl.

"Olette, what-?" Pence started to say but Olette interrupted him.

"We have to go after her! Come one, you guys!"she said, barely stopping to look back to her friends. The two boys followed after her.

"This is your fault, Pence! If we hadn't stopped by your house to get your mom's ice bag-" Hayner said to his chubby friend.

"Well what were we supposed to use, then? A zipper bag?" Pence defended himself. "We needed something to hold the ice on her forehead!"

"Whatever, Pence, let's just find her before she hurts herself" and with that, Hayner and Pence tried going even faster to catch up with the two girls. 'Man, but she's faster than she looks!'He thought.

They never noticed the figure following them.

They caught up to Olette at the Tramway, along with Hinata, who was looking all around her, the buildings, the streets, and the people all around her, with an expression of total despair on her face. If the trio was worried for the girl already, their unease increased with the way she was hyperventilating. Hinata then started wobbling on the spot. She swayed unsteadily until she finally dropped to her knees. Hayner, Pence and Olette dashed towards the girl as she started coughing and collapsed completely on the ground.

The small orb Hinata had been holding all throughout her desperate run fell on the ground and rolled like an ordinary marble.

Hayner crouched next to the girl and propped her up. "Hey, is that blood?" he noted when he saw the stuff on the edge of her lips.

"Oh no, we have to get Hinata to a doctor!" Olette exclaimed worriedly.

"Let's get her out of here first. Come on," and with that, Hayner picked up the smaller girl and carried her in his arms. He might have gotten farther had he not slipped on the orb. Fortunately, Hinata didn't hit the ground. Unfortunately, Hayner did. And so Pence and Olette now had two unconscious people to take care of…

Good things some of the bystanders decided to help the kids.

In the commotion, no one noticed him. Perfect. He had a mission to do for his master, an important one. He couldn't afford to be discovered at all. The… new arrival… seemed to require some help. He'd have to do something about that quickly. But first, he needed to make sure no one took what the girl dropped on the ground.

It would be… very inconvenient if it feel into the wrong hands, after all. At least, that's what he thought, seeing as he had no idea what the orb was for in the first place. Oh well. It was time to resume his mission. He had no intention of making his master angry.

WHITE KEY:

Trials of the Heart

A new player has arrived, and the adventure of a lifetime begins. Yet the seeming frailty of Hinata might hold more beneath the surface.