Author's note: Hello! This is the first story I've written in... quite a while, and it's my first ever fanfiction, so I'm a bit nervous about posting it here! My original idea was to write a story that was a sequel to Flip Flappers, and the only possible way I think the show could have a sequel, but I Thought about it and I wasn't sure it'd make too much sense... or at least not without seeing things from another character's POV first. I don't know if I WILL write a story that's a sequel to Flip Flappers, heck, I'm not even sure if I'll finish this one, but it's the first time I've felt like writing something in a while, and I've actually been getting somewhere with it. I'll warn you now, the story might be a bit messy in places, I just sort of write as I go along, so there might be a couple of things that seem... well messy, but yeah. I've tried to take as much of the speech/actions of the character from the anime as possible (the subbed version I've seen), trying to get it to fit in, to 'fill in the gaps' as it were... either way, I hope you like it at least, and thanks for taking a look!

Each chapter will cover an episode from the anime... or if I continue with my story as planned, there might be a few extra scenes. For now, this chapter covers episode 1 of the anime, although it starts with a flashback from episode 9 because I felt it helped build the story a bit.

I befriended her at the hospital. It's what I was told to do.

My whole life, has revolved around experiments and tests and Pure Illusion. At first being your friend was a mission... but as we grew up, you became more important to me than you should have.

Cocona.

I'm so sorry.

I first met Cocona at a hospital when we were kids. She was sitting on a large yellow couch and had just told her grandma she'd stay where she was, with a light smile on her face and warm brown eyes. Cocona's grandmother glanced at me as I walked past, with a hint of a smile on her face, encouraging me. She knew what I was about to do. At first, I didn't think twice about it, I was just doing what I was told, and if I did this, unlimited power would be ours, and all I needed to do was befriend the blue-haired girl who sat alone. Her smile had faded as her grandmother left her there, and her face fell into a sad frown. She looked so lost…

I thought this was going to be easy.

To start with, it was. She was so caught up in her own thoughts; she didn't even notice me sit down next to her until I spoke "These places are always so depressing. All those tests are such a drag."

Simple words. They weren't a lie either. I was getting kinda sick of all these experiments on me. "I wish they'd get 'em all done in one go."

I smiled and turned to her at that point, her full attention on me. It was probably a shock to her when I leant over and looped my arm around her shoulder, as I asked "Don't you agree?". It was kinda funny to see her so bewildered at my actions. I'll remember that look of confusion on her face forever.

"Uh, who are you?" She asked me. Heh. Ok, maybe I was being a bit too forward with my actions, a bit too friendly for a first encounter, but after all the stuff I've had to deal with today, I wanted to have some fun. I was probably a little bit mean, thinking back on it, but it was nice to be talking to someone my own age for once, and not some guy in a lab coat.

"Yayaka." I said, a big grin on my face, arm still around her shoulders. "And you?"

She blinked at me then. I'd guess she didn't have too many people at the time who'd talk to her. Heck, I might even have been the first kid she'd ever spoken to. I didn't know much about her at the time, but she gave off the impression that she was pretty shy and not much of a talker.

"Cocona" she finally said, a light blush appearing across her cheeks.

"You've got tests now too, right?" I asked. She nodded and I continued speaking "Don't those suck? They're such a pain." Of course, I had a lot more to deal with at the time than she did, not that she'd know that, but I wasn't lying when I was saying they were annoying. It felt like almost all the time I was awake I was part of one experiment or another. If I was ever scared about needles and getting shots before, I was basically immune to that fear now with the amount of times I'd been poked and prodded. I looked down at my arms then. It was a little tough to tell sometimes if all the little holes on my arms are pores or were leftovers from all the injections I've had, and blood samples I'd given... And even then, "They stick those weird tubes in you..." IV drips with who-knows-what in them, connected to a heart rate monitor, being hooked up to a device that measured brain activity...

"For real? They do that?" Cocona asked me. "Will I have to go through that too?"

I looked over at her, into those scared, wide eyes. My conversation starter had gone a bit further into what I'd dealt with than I would have been willing to admit, but I'd gotten pretty caught up in my thoughts and had just started voicing them out loud. The poor girl's grandma had left her sitting there alone, and then there was this random stranger talking about all these things that'd happen to you when you were with the doctors... "Oh, but it's okay! I was fine!" I said quickly, trying to reassure her. Oh man, I've gone too far...

"Um, so you'll also..." Cocona looked at me terrified, her words getting jumbled as she spoke. Was she worried about me? Some person she'd never known existed before today? How could she care about someone she'd just met? Those brown eyes looked at me with such concern I was taken aback. Heck, I probably looked just as shocked as she did when I'd sat down and started talking to her. Beyond all the people at Asclepius, I didn't really know or talk to anyone else. Most conversations were pretty abrupt. I was pretty much another machine to them, but one that could go into Pure Illusion. Expermients only stopped when there was a chance I could die; they couldn't afford to lose this precious link to this other world and the key to unlimited power. I'd be patched up if I was in pain, given medicine if I was sick, but there was no warmth behind the actions. It was basically like being raised by robots. Each action was just a program they carried out and performed. At the time I didn't know much better, I thought that's how people were and that's how things would be. I was taken care of there, but that was about it... And then they wanted me to go and talk to this specific girl. This wide-eyed, blue haired girl. It was part of their tests and it was important that they got her to Asclepius to help in their search for the key to the power of Pure Illusion. Very few people could do it, only specific people. Asclepius had a pair of twins who could go too... I'm not sure I'd call them 'friends', maybe 'allies' but they were the only other people my age I knew... And they were just like everyone else at Asclepius. Human robots just following their programming...

But Cocona... Something about her just seemed so... genuine. She was worried about this person who sat down next to her and started talking to her two minutes ago. Already she'd shown more action and life in her movements and her voice then I've encountered in probably all my life. I felt... happy talking to her. A smile broke out on my face.

"You're a nice girl, huh?" I'd asked her. At that time, I'd forgotten that I was meant to be befriending her for the sake of a bunch of cultists who wanted to rule the world. I was just... a girl. And I was talking to another girl. A human. Someone who had emotions and saw me as someone who was alive. For a few moments, I was with someone who cared.

...And she was about to get tested on too.

"You don't really wanna have them either, right?" I asked her. I knew how bad it could get in there. Maybe at a hospital it wasn't quite as bad as Asclepius... but what if it was? Being spoken to by robots, going about their procedures, looking at you like statistics on a piece of paper, than as another living thing.

"Yeah." She answered. Couldn't blame her.

"All right." I slid off the bench, and offered her my hand. "Wanna run away then?"

She gasped before looking up at me. I was pretty sure I had the biggest smile I'd ever had in my life on my face, and probably looked like a grinning idiot, but I didn't care. I was sick of all these stupid tests, and all those guys in lab coats. I could finally get away from it all, and I wouldn't be alone either if she came with me. Someone who seemed to actually have thoughts and feelings, a mind of their own.

A friend.

Slowly, hesitant, Cocona's hand reached for mine...

I'd flopped forward on my desk during the mock exam at school, lost in my memories of how I met Cocona. I couldn't care less about the papers in front of me. It wasn't even a real exam, it wouldn't count towards final grades or anything, so why bother? I noticed that she looked out the window at some point during it. Didn't blame her, these things are boring as heck. Even if it was dark outside, the tiny yellow sparks of light that came from the nearby town were a lot more interesting to look at than the printed text on pieces of paper, we had to look at literally every day... Ok, maybe we saw the lights of the town every night too, but at least it's easier to look out the window and daydream about all the things you could be doing, than it is staring at things that would be meaningless as soon as Asclepius got their hands on the Amorphous.

Did I know what they were planning to do with it exactly? Not really, and I didn't care. For Cocona staring at the city lights and daydreaming, maybe about having an adventure like in all the books she's read, was probably as exciting as her life got sometimes. After all, she didn't have Pure Illusion like I did. I've been adventuring for basically all of my teenage life, going to all sorts of crazy and colourful worlds, facing danger every day, with the twins Toto and Yuyu at my side. Although I'd consider them allies rather than friends, I did need them to be there, not just for backup and extra fire power. You physically can't go to Pure Illusion alone. I don't know how, or why, but you just can't, and believe me, I've been forced through every possible way to see if it could be done.

Although I had company when I went there, I wished with all my heart that I could take Cocona with me. So badly I wanted to show her all the wonderful places we could go, all the sights and sounds and smells and colours... The twins could keep an eye out for Amorphous and I could take Cocona and show her worlds beyond her wildest daydreams...

Asclepius knew Cocona was the key to finding unlimited power, the key to Pure Illusion, and it was my job to befriend her and get her on our side. Apparently there was another team of people, Flip Flap, who wanted to study Pure Illusion, and in doing so, would take the amorphous from it. Amorphous were shards of power left behind by someone called Mimi, who was the first person to reach Pure Illusion (the only one who could go there alone), and they had the power to grant wishes. Asclepius wanted those shards so they could get that power for themselves. What were they gonna do with it? Not a clue.

It shouldn't be too long though before we can finally make a move. I think I've grown quite close to Cocona in the time I've known her, but it doesn't quite seem enough to take us both there yet. Being close to someone, syncrhonised thoughts and feelings, were meant to be the way to get you there normally. The twins could come with me, and survive, because of how they were made. Specifically crafted for the purpose of coming with me, so the search for amorphous could begin... but they couldn't go together without me. Why? How the heck should I know? I'm not a scientist, maybe they need to be near me or something for all I knew.

But then... even if I wanted to go to Pure Illusion with Cocona, would I want her to be caught up in this with me? I wasn't so sure. I mean, yeah, part of me wanted her to come to Pure Illusion with me, but at the same time, it was pretty dangerous there...

It turned out that it wasn't too long before she'd head there herself... but not with me.

I caught sight of Cocona again a little while later in the school corridors.

"Oh, Cocona! You got called to the office?" I smiled and waved when I caught sight of her. I'm not too sure what it was, maybe because she was my only real friend in the world, but seeing her always made me day a little brighter.

"Our choices for the mock exams are due by the end of today." She said.

Oh yeah... the mock exams...

"I'd forgotten about that." I was too busy thinking of all the things I could show you... "What a pain" It might not even matter in the long run.. I barely have time to think about school in between all these missions I've been doing on... I should probably get a list of schools to move on to though, there's no telling when I'll actually find something...

That's what I'd ended up spending my spare time doing, getting a list together of high schools I could move on to next. I just sort of threw it all together, not really thinking about what I'd actually want to do in the future... It's not like it'll really matter in the end, as Asclepius would probably just have me follow Cocona anyway whatever she chose. Not that that would be a bad thing, I'd still get to see her.

I was sitting in the nurse's office on one of the beds next time we met, feeling a bit nauseous. Probably shouldn't have been eating cream bread in my current state, but screw it, I get sent to all sorts of places, have fought and dealt with hundreds of instances of god-knows-what, I deserve some damn cream bread, sick or not. Cocona was being an assistant to the nurse, keeping an eye on things when she wasn't around, although at the moment she was browsing a list of schools on her phone.

"You still can't decide? What's the big deal? You could get in anywhere." Maybe the words came out a bit harsh, but Cocona didn't seem to notice.

"I don't want to go just 'anywhere'" she said. Oh Cocona... it might not even matter by the time you'd get to go there anyway. I sent her my list of schools anyway, now wishing I'd put a bit more thought into it. She seemed kind of lost for what to do next to move on, and I wish I could do more to help.

She left the room when the nurse came in. I kinda wanted to call her back so I'd have someone to talk to again. Or at least someone who wasn't... one of them.

I guess I should be thankful the nurse was a part of Asclepius, I didn't have to lie if they wanted to send me out on a mission, or if I got a weird injury on an adventure, but at the same time...

"Go home if you're feeling sick" she said to me. There wasn't any look of concern on her face... or any look really for that matter. Just another human robot following their programming. 'Go back home, to the main base where we can keep an eye on you, where we have better medical facilities than the one at your school. Come here, where we can stick more needles in you, take more blood samples, even though you've been to Pure Illusion a million times and have suffered no ill effects...

Actually, that might be where Toto and Yuyu came from. Maybe they were partly cloned from my DNA samples or something. That's why they can come with me, make sure I don't screw up or die. Maybe they need injections from me to be able to keep going there and survive...

"Yeah, yeah..." I muttered. Being kept an eye on everywhere all the time was getting on my nerves. Yeah, Pure Illusion was dangerous, but at least while I was there, Toto and Yuyu were quiet. Ok, they were there to keep an eye on me too probably, but still, they barely spoke, and I was fine with that...

Speaking of Toto and Yuyu, they were the next people I encountered... Although they spoke few words, what they DID tell me was enough to set me on edge. They'd told me about a pink-haired girl with the hoversurf and a yellow robot that said Cocona's name this morning. Flip Flap. They were the only ones to have that kind of technology on them. They must be after Cocona too.

I had to move fast.

Authors note: I have written 2 chapters for this story so far, but I'm not going to upload them all at once, I'm gonna try and figure out where the story is going exactly. That's a problem with having an idea for something and having it branch off in five different directions at once.