AN://I have decided to try my hand at a "thrown-into-the-game" story. Partly to see how people like it, but mostly because I'm absolutely bored with school and wrote each section when I was supposed to be studying for something or another. (Oops, sorry teacher, but you are boring.) Do forgive me for adding another silly story into the Kingdom Hearts fanfiction archive. Oh yeah, and just because I lost three times today before lunch, to all who understand the reference, you just lost The Game.
Disclaimer: I own nothing that is recognizable in even the most barest of ways.
Chapter 1: The Beginning Has Never Been So Strange
I've been having these strange thoughts lately. Like is any of this for real or not? …Just kidding!
I suppose I should introduce myself. Name's Althea, but you can call me Ally; everybody else does even though I tell them not to, but right now, I really don't care what you call me. And if you're one of those people that finds significance in the meaning of names; it means healer. I've seen sixteen years and find it all very dull and boring, especially the school part. My hair's a nice, plain, ugly brown color. Wish I had my brothers' blue-black hair though, would've been a whole lot nicer. My eyes are, I guess the color of milk chocolate, or at least I think that's what color they are. I'm about five foot four; that's pretty short in my mind seeing as all my classmates are taller than me, well, almost all of them. Anyways, enough about me. I want to talk about something else. Kingdom Hearts. More specifically, the worlds of Kingdom Hearts. And to be even more specific, why I'm currently hiding by clinging onto one of the roofs of the Third District in Traverse Town and watching as the carefree brown-haired blue-eyed keyblade-wielding boy Sora is squashed by one anthropomorphic black dog in green clothes named Goofy and one anthropomorphic white duck with only a blue shirt named Donald Duck.
Yessiree, I'm watching history in the making. I'm watching one of the most important scenes in Kingdom Hearts One. And I've got a front row ticket, too bad I can't tell much of the details since I'm so far away, even with my glasses on and perfectly clean for once. Maybe I should have packed some binoculars when I left the house today. Then again, how was I to know that I'd end up here? Oh look, Guard Armor just made Donald fly for the first time in his life. I'm so tempted to wave to him from my perch, but alas, I can't give away my position until Maleficent is done watching the scene on her scrying stone.
Run, Sora, run! Don't let his spinning attack hit you or the others. Come on, hero boy, don't die. And don't make me waste one of these potions on you guys. The funny thing is, when I suddenly appeared on the rooftop and was about to slide off, what steadied my balance was a well-hidden box of curative substances. Potions, Ethers, Hi-Potions, Mega-Potions, Mega-Ethers, Elixirs, and even Megalixirs. But there's only a few of each kind so I'll have to be sure to use them wisely. Also in the box are a few tiny decorative boxes, large enough to hold a potion or ether. They look awfully like the item boxes players would pick up sometimes from a defeated enemy in the game and it is these boxes that I plan to use to safely throw down curatives to the trio when absolutely needed. And one appears to be needed right now.
I pick up two item boxes and stuff a Potion and Ether in them before tossing them down to the battle just as Donald destroys the last arm with a Fire spell. Goofy dodge rolls away from a stomping foot, the last detached appendage, and Sora is hit on the head with one of the boxes. He rubs his head and opens the box, jumping up as he uses the much needed Potion. He tosses the other box to Donald who uses the enclosed curative joyously. They gang up on the foot and destroy it, quickly switching to the body and quickly running away as it spins around. I think I hear them complain, but that could just be me filling in the relatively soundless battle with their battle quotes from the game.
The Heartless stops in the center and the group charges at it, attacking from all sorts of angles. Then they quickly back away as it shudders and releases its dark purple and blue crystalline heart before disappearing in an array of blue lights. Next they'll talk. Donald and Leon will convince Sora to go with Donald and Goofy. Then when Sora leaves Traverse Town on the Gummi Ship, it should be relatively safe for me to get down. Relatively because I didn't climb up here in the first place and therefore don't know where the footholds and safe spots are located in the walls. Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I get there; for now I'll just watch as Leon walks through the door from the Second District with Yuffie in tow.
Just as the game dictates, Sora listens to Leon and Donald and gives a supposedly goofy smile that makes Donald and Goofy burst out laughing. They talk a little while longer and then the whole group walks through the First District doors. The door slams shut behind them and I carefully stand up using the box as leverage. Quickly deciding I'll need them, I pocket the curatives and start looking for footholds. Murphy's Law of course dictates that when something can go wrong, it will. So it shouldn't be a surprise to me when I suddenly slip and fall into the empty box as it slides down the roof and hits the ground.
"Ow…" I murmur before pulling out one of the Potions and downing it. I smack my lips and try to decide what it tastes like. "Tastes like cherry coke. I thought it was supposed to be bitter." The ache in my back and butt slowly fade away and I stand up again and brush off some imaginary dirt and dust whilst adjusting my glasses. "Hope no one saw that, or heard me yelp, especially that witch, and I've probably just jinxed myself." I look around and wonder if the geography in the game had even a slice of truth in it. Deciding it wouldn't hurt to check; I wander the Third District, comparing the real paths to the video game ones in my mind. It's relatively the same as the game; mainly it's bigger and slightly brighter. I wonder if that means it's not always night here and that it's nearly morning?
There's the secret entrance to Merlin's place. The fire emblem on the door isn't glowing; as expected since Sora's probably only now learning the fire spell and Donald probably didn't have any time to visit Merlin between searching for Leon and squashing Sora and the keyblade. Here's the little walkway alcove, the one that traveled around part of the edge of the district. I remember fighting at least six Heartless every time I entered it in the game. Three at one entrance and three at the other entrance. Oh and here's the exposed electricity wires and rough town map. Over there's the Lady and the Tramp themed fountain, looks exactly the way it did in game if not alittle dimmer because of a burnt out bulb. I wonder if the door to the Small House is open; maybe I could stay there for a little while as I figure out what to do?
I walk straight to the small/vacant house from the game and carefully look into the window. The window is dusty and too hard to see through, so I'm guessing that it really is abandoned, at least for now anyways. As I'm about to check if the door is locked, I can't help a stray thought of mine. Did the dark fay see me in her scrying stone? If she did, did she just pass me off as a silly little girl? Or did the fact that I fell off a roof with little more noise than a short yelp of surprise and a muttered ouch catch her attention? Could she be waiting in this building; the way she waited for Princess Aurora in her old cottage in the Disney version of her story? Whatever, I wanted an adventure, if being jumped by Maleficent is a part of my adventure, then so be it.
I turn the knob to find it locked. I frown and do a quick mental quick of everything I packed into my casual backpack this morning. I recall packing some heavy jewelry wire. The thing is, before I ended up here I was planning on walking over to my friend's house so that I could fix a necklace of hers, so I included my jewelry materials along with my normal daily luggage of: a first aid kit, cash and credit card, phone, water bottle, and journal and pen. I reach into my bag and pull out some wire and cutting pliers. I cut off six inches of wire and stuff the rest and the pliers back into my bag. Carefully observing the type of lock, I bend the wire into a makeshift key and test out my newly discovered lock-picking skills. I know the theory for an old-fashioned lock like this one—you just move all the tumblers out of the way and into their unlock position—but I've never actually tried it out. A few minutes later I hear a single click, but it's not very loud so I check for another tumbler and soon enough find it.
But it's hard to get it into the proper position so I squat there for a while with my ear to the door listening for the other and hopefully last click. I hear a strange noise behind me. Like water rippling through the air. The noise startles me and I accidentally break the lock by jamming the pick into the keyhole and forcing the tumbler into the unlock position. I know that last part since I finally hear it click open and even see it open a teensy bit. I suck on my bottom lip and take a barely noticeable deep breath before slowly turning my head to face the entity behind me. Heheh, it looks like I did jinx myself earlier since I'm staring at a tall black-robed dark fairy that goes by the name of Maleficent. Oh well, time to lie through my teeth.
"Whoa Lady! Could ya not do that? Fer a secon' Ah thou'h' dat noise was one of them Heartless thin's tryin' ta kill me." I say with an accent I'm familiar with while faking relief that she wasn't a Heartless. I see her raise one of her delicate violet eyebrows and I turn back to the door, pretending—though not completely—that that was the object of my focus before she arrived and hoping that she would leave me alone.
"What are you doing child?" She asks walking a little closer.
"Tryin' ta figur' out wha' moron broke ma door an' how they did it. Seems like they stuck sunthin' in da keyhole and jammed it up real goo'." I say examining it closely and sticking a finger into the hole. Please believe me, please believe me, please believe me…
"I see…" She mutters before turning around in the reflection of her I see in the doorknob. But she doesn't walk away yet and so I don't drop my act and I won't until she's far away and I'm convinced that she thinks nothing of me. "I wonder if you could help me child," she starts to say while facing me again.
I stay squatting by the door but I stop in my poking of the door to look at her slightly. "Wha' do ya wan'? An' don' call me child."
"You see, I'm looking for someone of a very curious nature to me. Last I heard of this person, she was hurt since she fell off a roof here in the Third District."
"Fell off a roof in da Thir' Distric'? Lady, Ah thin' yer frien' is dead. Etha da fall killed her or da Heartless 'ere earlier did. Etha way, Ah doubt you'll fin' 'er. Ye'd hafta be immo'tal ta survive that."
"Yes, yes, you would have to be immortal to survive such a fall, or just have really strong magic reserves," she muttered the last part, "Did you say there were Heartless here earlier?" She asks suspiciously. Darn it, she suspects me, I can hear it in her voice.
"Yea, some twerp and two animals were figh'in' some Heartless down by the fountain. I vamoosed as soon as Ah heard da figh'in' an' I came back soon as it was quiet. An' now 'ere we are, talkin' lak da best of friends. Now can ya leave?" Drat, I can't keep the accent much longer since I'm getting nervous.
Maleficent stands there still and I suppress a shudder. "Curious. So very… curious." She starts to say. "You speak as if you are one of those mongrels from the ghettos in some worlds." I feel like glaring at her for her metaphor, not all people from the ghettos sound like that, and I should know. She walks a little closer and holds her hand by her chin as the other remains on its spot on her staff. "And yet, I feel as if you know more than you are saying. And that you are watching your words carefully…very carefully." She pauses for a moment to think and then a slow and evil smile crosses her face. "You are the girl that fell from the roof and as you said, you would have to be quite strong to survive such a fall unscathed, even with Potions. Drop the act, my girl, and let us talk like civilized women." She waved one hand around and looked quite smug.
Oh boy, I'm screwed. "Curses. Oh well, what do you want with me?" I stand up straight and proud, my normal stance.
She raises a brow momentarily. "A name, for starters."
She waits expectantly but I refuse. "Sorry ma'am, but I follow the old rules of courtesy in which in one offers their own name before asking for another's." There goes my smart-aleck tone, not so subtly saying that if she wants my name, she'll have to risk saying hers in a public place where there is the chance of running into Sora. And everyone knows that would be bad for her this early into the timeline.
She frowns before speaking again. "I'm Maleficent, now what is yours?"
"Althea." I resist the urge to mock bow but a smirk still appears on my face. Sorry witchy, but I'm in control here.
"Althea, a pleasure to meet you, little witchling." She stops talking there, and I'm pretty sure it's because I couldn't control my confused face when she called me witchling. "What's this? A witch that doesn't know who she is? That makes you even more interesting." She's back to smug.
"I'm not a witch. The closest I've ever come to being a witch is that I'm the great-granddaughter of a dead gypsy king. But that doesn't mean anything, it's just stereotype that gypsies are witches." I frown, trying to make sense of the term.
"A stereotype that might as well be true. True gypsy blood makes simple humans into witches and warlocks." She counters.
"But my dad's not a warlock, he sometimes claims it but it's obvious that he only wishes it. And my brothers aren't warlocks either. I'd know it." I say desperately. Back home, real witches aren't taken to kindly and most people don't believe they exist anyways.
"I'm hearing nothing of any aunts, uncles, or grandparents, could you not know if they are? And how would you know in the first place; would some disembodied voice tell you these things? The magic gene in the gypsy blood is known to skip most members of a family, only being in the children with the most potential." I stay silent, too confused to say anything else. She's cornered me figuratively. I become even more confused when her smug smile becomes a kind one. A kind smile on the dark fairy's face! I must be dreaming. "Come with me Althea. You may not know it, but it is a common practice among magical-folk to take in any unapprenticed magic-users. It's obvious you don't have a teacher; that was the reason I came looking for you in the first place. I am a very powerful witch and as I was scrying the area I saw you fall from the roof and do nothing but shake off whatever pain you might have felt, it was also hard to not notice the untamed magic you hold. I originally thought you were an unruly student and was going to take you back to your tutor. But now..."
AN:// If you like it, review. If you don't like it, don't review. If you're lazy, just refresh the page so the hit count goes up signifying, to me, that you liked it.