Ellie skipped happily out of her house after smiling good-bye to her mother.

Fuu stood at the outside of her door waiting for her, her light-purple hair in its usual style, and she wore her blue shirt and usual pants and shoes too, plus her visible eye was still red.

Ellie smiled. She didn't want anything to change.

"Come." Fuu said as she began to walk away towards the sandlot.

Ellie nodded and began to follow her obediently.

"Hey Fuu, my mom has to go to the mall today. Do you wanna come with us? I'll take you to Hot Topic!" Ellie smirked.

Fuu almost smiled at the mention of her favorite store, a happiness she kept hidden, but she managed to keep her excitement down, and merely nodded.

Ellie and Fuu were best friends, but it wasn't just them.

Fuu was the strong, silent type. She usually only talked with one or two words, and didn't like to be girly, and helped Seifer, who had her complete trust, protect the town, like Ellie.

Ellie was a rather complicated girl. Whenever she wasn't with Seifer and the others, she was at the mall with Fuu, or getting her nails down with her mother. She loved the color pink, and in a lot of ways, she was like any other girl. However, when she was with Seifer, she was like a completely different person. She was bossy, yelled often, and barked out orders at others, and she could also kick butt. Ellie was independent, fiery, feisty, and very clever.

Seifer himself was the head of the "Disciplinary Committee." He hated it when someone disrespected him, or the town. He was very pushy sometimes, especially with that loser gang, Hayner, Pence, and Olette, but he did care for his friends, and his town. His followers were Ellie, Fuu, and Rai.

Rai wasn't the smartest member on the team, and he said 'Y'know' at the end of every sentence. Ellie was very short-tempered with him because of that. However, his lack of smarts was made up by his strength. He could hold more than his own with Seifer. But Ellie was no fool. She knew that he respected them, but she also know that personally he felt like he couldn't hold a candle to them.

Soon, they arrived at the Sandlot, their usual hangout. Seifer and Rai were waiting for them.

"Morning," Ellie grinned as she and Fuu joined the others on the benches.

"So what are we gonna do today?" Ellie asked.

"I dunno…we need some action around here." Seifer frowned.

Ellie sighed in response. "You're telling me. Ever since you won the Struggle, everything's been so quiet and slow.

"Slow?" Fuu asked.

"I feel like that with every day that passes, a year passes along with it…how many more days left of summer vacation?"

"125." Fuu frowned.

"Over one hundred? Damn it!" She shouted.

"Why don't we get jobs, y'know?" Rai suggested.

"I don't think anyone's hiring right now. Hayner and his loser friends took all the good ones." Ellie rolled her eyes in disgust.

"Damn them." Seifer glared.

"Nothing new and exciting is gonna happen anytime soon." Ellie sighed as she flopped onto the ground. "We might as well just sleep the summer away." She stood up and brushed off her skirt.

"Well, Fuu, my mother, and I are going to the mall." She explained as Fuu stood up.

"What are we suppose to do?" Seifer asked.

"Wrestle." Fuu threw over her shoulder as she and Ellie walked away into the direction they originally came from.

Things were silent between them for a while. Fuu wasn't one for conversation.

Ellie took a sheet of paper from her pocket. It was the homework she had given herself.

"Hey Fuu, what's 8 X 8?"

"64."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Ellie smiled. She and Fuu had been best friends for a long time, longer than she had been with Seifer and Rai.

Ellie met Fuu when she was little. They befriended each other when they helped stopped a bully from causing trouble. Ellie had had her inner fire ever since she was little. A few years later, Seifer and Rai moved to Twilight Town. There they found the thieves stealing from the shops, and kicked their butts.

Soon they arrived back at Ellie's house, and were greeted by Ellie's mother. Ellie quickly grabbed her light purple purse that had glitter roses on it, and nodded at Fuu before heading out with her mother.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Ellie walked by Fuu's side. They were already back from the mall. Fuu had picked up some of her black nail polish, and Ellie had chosen a new necklace: A light Purple Heart locket pendant, which was already on her neck.

"We're back." Fuu said as they met Seifer and Rai near the benches in the Sandlot.

"Hey," Ellie smiled.

"Hey," Seifer said back.

Ellie heard footsteps in the distance. She looked in front of them. There was a boy, a duck, and a dog.

The duck had white feathers, a yellow bill, and blue eyes. He wore a blue shirt with various silver zippers and blue pockets, plus a matching hat.

The dog had black fur, a black nose, and droopy black ears. He wore a green vest, matching pants, and a black hat.

The boy had sapphire eyes, pale skin, and spiky brown hair. He wore yellow high-top sneakers, red shorts, and a matching shirt with a blue vest over it, even though the whole outfit looked too small for him.

"Seifer," Ellie whispered. Seifer looked ahead and noticed them. Fuu and Rai looked towards them.

Seifer stood up and walked over to them with the others behind him. "Hey you, where'd you come from?"

"Uhhh…" The boy stammered.

"You here to pick a fight with us or something?"

"Fight? We're not here to fight."

"Yeah, you big palooka!" The duck shouted.

That struck a nerve for Ellie. She had gone from calm to annoyed in less than a minute. She put her hands on her hips and sent a glare towards them.

"Okay, smartalecks…time to teach you how to behave in my town. Bring it!" Seifer shouted.

They all formed a fighting stance.

"Man what a jerk," The boy glared, getting a nod from the duck. He formed a stance himself.

By now, Ellie had had enough. Her fists at her side, and a glare on her face, she angrily walked over towards them, and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Listen here, Porcupine Head, this is our turf, understand? Now get outta here before I kick your sorry ass!" She shouted. "And that goes for you too, you retarded duck!"

"Who are you calling retarded!?" The duck shouted.

Ellie ignored him. She had turned her attention back to the boy. "You wanna go a round, Spiky?"

"Bring it on." He returned her glare.

"Elizabeth." Fuu said calmly.

"Sora." The dog smiled.

"Fuu, you know I hate being called Elizabeth." Ellie slightly turned her glare to Fuu.

"Sorry Ellie."

"Ellie?" The boy asked.

"Yeah, that's my name, and if you wanna live, you won't call me ELIZABETH!" She growled her real name.

"Oh yeah! Ellie's always ready to kick butt, y'know?" Rai grinned.

"Do you say 'y'know' at the end of every sentence?" The boy asked.

"You shut up about Rai!" Ellie shouted, snapping the boy's attention back to her.

"Ellie, Fuu, Rai, and Seifer." The dog grinned. He turned his head to them when he said their name. "Aren't you guys the ones that Hayner talked about?"

"Hayner? He's just a local attitude problem!" Ellie yelled.

"Like you?" The boy smirked.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?!?!" Her eyes seemed to glow red, and narrowed in slits, and she appeared to be surrounded by fire.

"Come on Ellie; don't waste your time on them." Seifer glared.

"Sorry Seifer…" Ellie relaxed, and actually looked a little guilty as she walked back over to Fuu's side.

"Come on Sora, let's go." The duck glared at Ellie.

"Whatever, I gotta get home anyway." Ellie looked at the pink wristwatch on her pale wrist. It read 7:48.

"Damn it, I'm gonna miss my curfew!" She whispered. "See you guys tomorrow." She started walking.

"Bye bye, Sora. Oh, and I'm warning you," She stopped, and turned back to him, a hand on her hip. "Next time, Seifer won't be here to stop me, so don't let me-scratch that, don't let us catch you guys around her again." She warned back she started to walk away again.

"Yeah, what Ellie said, y'know?" Rai glared with the others.

"Instant destruction." Fuu growled.

"Exactly." Seifer nodded.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Ellie whistled happily as she slightly skipped through her hometown, Twilight Town. It was in its usual Twilight state, and she was heading home from the Sandlot.

Ellie turned towards a puddle from the recent rain. She smiled at her reflection. She had long straight blonde hair just a tiny bit past her back. Her green eyes were filled with happiness, and her pale skin shined in the sunlight.

She wore a pink tank-top that showed her hour-glass figure, and a matching pink mini-skirt with a slightly longer white skirt underneath. She also sported pink knee-high socks, and pink sneakers with Juicy written on the sides in gold. She had black gloves that exposed her fingers and had a midnight blue X written on her front, plus her pendant she had gotten earlier, and strawberry earrings.

She stopped both whistling and walking as she brought her wrist to her face. It read 8:02. Damn. She had missed her curfew.

"Aw crap…" She muttered under her breath. "My parents are gonna kill me…"

She imagined her mother scolding her, saying that it was the 8th time that month she had missed her curfew. She sighed and hung her head as she kicked at a tiny rock.

"It's not my fault that those new guys nearly got into a fight with me and the gang…" She glared at the ground at the thought of those three new arrivals: A duck, a dog, and a boy.

She continued walking. "Who does he think he is?" She spoke to no one at all. It was the porcupine boy that made her the angriest.

He had called Seifer a jerk! And that duck had also called him a palooka! Seifer was always looking out for the town, and they needed to learn some respect. Seifer had merely asked them a question, and they had insulted him!

She kicked harder at the rock, and it hit someone in a black robe on the head.

"Oh!" Ellie gasped. "Sir, I am so sorry, I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing." She smiled apologetically.

The man turned to her for a moment. His face was covered with a black hood.

She went wide-eyed as they were both silent for a moment. A strong wind blew leaves in a circle around her. Her eyes began to fill with fear, and she put a hand to her heart. Her legs began to tremble, and then the silence was broken by the man snapping his fingers.

A circle of creatures formed around her.

They were tall, slim, and a white-grey color. They had scythe-like blades for hands, teeth that looked like a shark's, and a strange symbol on their oddly-shaped heads.

"What the hell?" Ellie whispered.

One of them tried to attack Ellie, but she kicked it in the head. She looked around for the man, knowing that he had sent them after her, but he had vanished.

"Looks like I'm on my own," She decided as she punched one in the face that tried to attack from behind without even turning around.

Meanwhile, the sound of fighting attracted Sora, Donald, and Goofy. They saw that a girl was under attack, but failed to see that it was Ellie because of the lack of light where she was.

"Come on, we gotta help her!" Sora yelled as he summoned his Keyblade and ran towards them with Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Goofy slammed his shield onto one of them as Donald casted a thunder spell onto another.

Sora thrashed one aside with his Keyblade.

"Thanks," Ellie whispered.

"Don't mention it." Sora answered as they stood in fighting stance back-to-back. Ellie sent a kick and took out another one. Soon, they were all gone.

"Man, what the heck were those things?" Ellie asked.

"Heartless?" Donald panted.

"What are the Heartless-wait a second," Ellie recognized Donald's strange voice. "YOU GUYS AGAIN!" She shouted.

The others realized that they had helped the girl who wanted to fight them fight…whatever those things were!

Ellie sighed and actually smiled. "Well, I guess I do owe you thanks for helping me. You see, I just got angry because you insulted Seifer. You know, he's really not that bad once you get to know him. But I'm missing a few links here: Someone tell me what's going on!"

……………………………………………………………………………………………

"Namine?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah, then we met Hayner, Pence, and Olette, and they said if we wanted to know more about this town, we should talk to you, and then that whole mess started." Sora explained. "So, I'm Sora!" He smiled.

Ellie nodded. "Yeah, I know. But I don't think I got your names."

"Nice to meet ya Ellie, I'm Goofy, and this is Donald!" Goofy smiled.

Ellie nodded. "Hey, are you guys going on a journey?"

"Um…I guess so, why?" Sora asked.

"Well…can I come with you?" Ellie gave a hopeful grin.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked at each other. "Sure, why not?"

"But what about your friends, and your mother?" Goofy asked.

Ellie's smile faded. "They'll figure it out sometime. And I know they'll understand."

"Well then, what are we waiting for? We need to get the station!" Sora cheered.

"Yeah, come on, I'll show you where it is!" Ellie turned on her heels and started to run in the direction of the station.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

"This is it." Ellie said. It was a tall clock tower.

Before they had a chance to head into the station, they were attacked by the same creatures.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy summoned their weapons, and Ellie attacked one of them in the head with a kick.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

They all collapsed. Panting, Ellie tried to fight them off but ended up getting a nasty bloody scratch on her arm. She winced.

Sora raised his Keyblade to try and block an attack, but it was blocked by someone else. Sora looked to find a small person in a black robe holding a Keyblade that looked like Sora's, but the colors were inverted.

Donald and Goofy threw themselves forward. "YOUR MAJESTY?" Donald cried.

He put a finger to his lip. "Shhhh! You gotta board the train and leave town! The train knows the way." He explained. "Here," He handed Sora an orange bag with a blue leaf on it that was tied at the top with a string that had feathery ends.

"Your Majesty…" Donald said as the short man fled down the nearby road.

"The King? Was that really him?" Sora asked.

"It coulda been…yep, I know it was!" Goofy cheered.

"Wait a second, wasn't your king locked in the realm of Darkness?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah, but if the King is here, that means Riku's here!" Sora smiled.

"He's gotta be!" Donald nodded.

"Well, I'm gonna go look for Riku. Then he and I can go back to the islands together! What are you guys gonna do?" Sora asked.

"Well…you guys helped me, so I'm gonna help you! I'm coming with you Sora. Donald, Goofy, what are you gonna do?"

They groaned and made faces. "Gawrsh guys, do you have to ask?"

Sora laughed.

"Hey, what's so funny?" Donald demanded.

"Your face!" Sora shouted as he held his stomach and pointed at them.

Donald and Goofy looked at each other before going into laughter themselves. Ellie giggled, but she didn't laugh too hard.

"Okay guys; let's get a start on our new journey!" Sora announced.

"Yeah, and we better hurry and get our tickets!" Ellie noted the time, and the ticket booth closed at 9:00 pm, and it was after 8:30.

"Sora!" A familiar voice called out.

Hayner, Pence, and Olette stood in front of them. They seemed surprised to see Ellie with them.

"Oh…um…hi…Ellie…" Olette forced a smile.

Ellie tried her best to smile, and act nice, but truly, Hayner did love to tick her off.

"Hi." Ellie grinned. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We came to see Sora and the others off." Pence explained. "Um…are you going with them?"

"Yeah…some things attacked me earlier, and---" Ellie was cut off by Olette.

"Ellie, your arm is bleeding!" She shouted.

Ellie looked at her arm. It was gushing. "Ew…" She muttered. She tore off a part of her white underskirt and wrapped it around her wound. "I'll get a proper bandage when we get to where we're going." She smiled.

A bell rang from above the ticket counter.

"You guys better hurry and get your tickets!" Olette smiled.

"Right, thanks," Sora smiled as he took the pouch out from his back pocket.

"Huh?" Olette whispered. She copied Sora's action, and took out another bag that looked exactly like Sora's.

"They're the same!" Goofy announced.

"Yeah," Olette nodded.

Sora shrugged and handed the ticket salesman the money. "Four tickets please."

A purple train with yellow stars and crescent moons appeared.

"Well, thanks for coming to see us off guys." Sora smiled.

"No problem." Hayner grinned.

Donald and Goofy boarded the train, however Ellie and Sora stayed. Ellie looked towards the direction the Sandlot was in.

"Hey Sora, you sure we haven't met before?" Hayner asked.

Sora rested his elbow in one hand, and scratched his head with the other. "Positive. Why do you ask?"

Hayner shrugged. "I dunno…" He grinned.

Sora smiled for a moment before he sadly frowned, and a tear fell from his eye while Ellie tried to fight back her own tears. She had never left Twilight before, and she had always seen Fuu and the others every day, and they always made sure they were in the same class every year in school. Now that was going to change.

"You guys okay?" Olette asked.

"Yeah, yeah….don't know where it come from." Sora shrugged as he wiped the tear away.

"Pull it together." Hayner laughed slightly.

"Right…see ya!" Sora boarded the train with Ellie.

"Bye." Ellie waved and gently smiled.

"Hey Ellie," Olette started.

"Yeah?"

"You don't always have to be so brave, you know."

Ellie was on the brink of tears, but tried to fight them back. "Well, can you tell Fuu and the others that I'm going with them?" She motioned with her towards Sora.

"Sure," Pence smiled.

"Okay…thanks…Good-bye."

"Bye."

The door closed and the train began to leave. Ellie took a seat next to Donald and Goofy near the windows. Sora remained at the door and leaned on it.

Things were silent between them for a while until spoke up.

"You know…" He started. Everyone looked towards him. "I'm sad."

"We'll be back!" Donald said quickly.

"Yeah, we can visit Hayner and those guys again!" Goofy smiled.

"And I'll get to see Fuu, Seifer, and Rai. We've been best friends for years, and I've never left Twilight Town before. But I am excited." She admitted.

Sora nodded before sitting next to them and waited to see where they would arrive. A bright light filled the room from the windows and the sky turned to a green-version of space.