Echo: The idea for this story came to me when I was nearing the end of Dream Drop Distance. I finally had some time to sit down and write this, so here's the story! Just a note, there are a bit of spoilers for those who have not completed Kingdom Hearts 3D, though I tried to make it as vague as possible.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

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"Allie, it's almost eleven o'clock PM! Go to bed already."

"Mom, just one more minute. I just need to finish this one part and then I'll go right to bed, I promise!" Allie said as she paused the game she was playing for a moment to look at her mom.

With a sigh, her mother shook her head. "Just hurry up and finish it quickly! Then go to bed. You have school in the morning, so keep that in mind."

Smiling, Allie nodded her head. "Thanks mom and no problem!" She waited until her mom had closed the door to her room before she unpaused the game and continuing with the current fight.

The game she was playing; Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance. She had been looking forward to the game ever since she had first heard about it. The only thing that had stopped her from getting it when it first came out, was the fact that she didn't own a Nintendo 3DS.

When her birthday came around, the gift she had received from her parents had been a purple Nintendo 3DS as well as Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. Needless to say, she had been ecstatic, claiming that it was the best birthday present that she had ever received.

Just about every chance she had she was playing the game. That led to this very moment where she was working on beating the current boss. She couldn't help but feel that with each Kingdom Hearts game the bosses near the end were just becoming harder and harder to beat. That thought simply made her even more determined.

Allie found it hard to hold back a cheer of joy as she delivered the final blow to the boss. With a large smile on her face, she watched as the cut scenes started to roll. And then it was revealed that there was yet another battle that she had to face. Thankfully, this boss wasn't as hard as she expected it to be, and she delivered the final blow the third time she faced the boss.

Then it was back to more cut scenes and she couldn't help but smile as she watched the cut scenes to unfold. When all the cut scenes came to an end, she saved the game before turning her 3DS off, a yawn escaping past her lips.

Looking over at the clock on her nightstand she took note of the time, 11:30 PM. Well, she had certainly gone past her time limit of a minute. Then again, that was probably to be expected in a way. With another yawn, she prepared herself for bed. Being more tired than she thought, Allie drifted off to sleep only moments after getting into bed.

K

"Come on, come on, come on…" Allie basically chanted as she stared intensely at the clock, as if she could somehow get the time to change. Everyone knew it was impossible to get the clock to change the time.

That didn't stop everyone, including Allie, from doing it on a daily basis. It was something that had become like a second nature to everyone after their first semester of high school.

Just as the big hand on the clock was about to complete its rotation on the clock, it stopped. Blinking, Allie frowned in confusion. She had never seen the school's clocks stop moving before. Of course, it could be that the clock simply needed new batteries. However, before her thoughts could even continue, she realized it just how was silent it was in the classroom.

Looking around at her classmates, Allie tilted her head to the side. To her left was a red haired girl who looked like she was talking to the girl next to her. Then to her right, a tall blonde guy who was in the middle of a high-five with the kid next to him. The weird part was that they weren't moving. It was like someone had paused everything.

Everything; but her that is.

This was like something out of the Twilight Zone. Biting down on her bottom lip, Allie glanced around, shifting uncomfortably. And then she saw it; a message on the whiteboard in a shiny black color.

There's no going back if you choose to move forward.

An obvious shiver went down her spine at the message. It was creepy, that was for sure. Any message that mysteriously appeared on the whiteboard would be creepy and it wasn't like the teacher could have written the message. After all, the teacher was frozen at the back of the room. Plus, the last time she checked, the markers for the whiteboard didn't shine.

Before Allie could even think of anything else, the bell rang loud and clear. The noise of that was heard everyday around this time had returned and everyone was back in motion. The sound made her jump in surprise, and she quickly looked at the clock with wide eyes. It was only when most of her classmates had left that she glanced back at the whiteboard.

The message that had been on the whiteboard only moments ago, was now gone without a trace. It was like the message had never been there and it scared her. It hadn't been her imagination, time had stopped and there had been a message on the whiteboard.

K

The rest of her day went by as it usually would.

The bus ride home was annoying. She honestly could not wait until she finished driver's education; that way she could get her driver's license.

Homework took her an hour to complete; which she found annoying.

Even with her after school routine, those words on the whiteboard seemed to be embedded in her mind. Messages just didn't appear like that and then vanish without a trace. That was something only for movies or a book. Heck, even a video game! That just didn't happen in real life.

Before Allie could even think more about it, her phone started to ring. Shaking her head slightly, she pulled the phone out of her pocket, looking at the screen to see who was calling before answering the call.

"Hey Sam, what's up?"

"Oh, just trying to procrastinate on homework again."

Hearing what her best friend said, she let out a small laugh. "Let me guess, Spanish homework?"

"Sí and why can't every word in Spanish be that easy? Oh and did you finish Kingdom Hearts 3D yet?"

"I don't know, but you would probably be saying the same exact thing if you were Spanish and trying to learn English. And for your information, I beat it last night."

"Yeah, you're probably right. Well, what did you think?"

"I loved it! It's become my new favorite Kingdom Hearts game. I didn't really like the whole drop system at first, but after getting halfway through the game it kind of grew on me."

"I know what you mean about the drop system…Ah; I have to go, my mom's yelling at me to stop procrastinating… Bye, Allie."

"Alright, I'll talk to you later then. Bye Sam."

And with that, her conversation with her best friend came to an end. Sam was one of her friends from middle school and the first friend she had that was interested in Kingdom Hearts. The two of them would often hang out and play Kingdom Hearts together; taking turns playing the video game and helping each other out.

It was a shame that they ended up going to different high schools, but that didn't stop them from hanging out whenever they had the chance. Even though two of her friends from high school were into Kingdom Hearts, Allie still found it more fun to talk to Sam about the video game. He had been the first friend she had that had played and liked the Kingdom Hearts games.

All this thinking about Kingdom Hearts was making her itch to play her favorite video game series. Now that she had finished Dream Drop Distance, she could play from the start to the almost end of the series. "Hm, but what start? The first Kingdom Hearts game or Birth By Sleep?" She could either play in the order the games came out in or play in the order the storyline went.

After a few minutes of thinking Allie decided to start with Birth By Sleep. She made sure all of her homework and school books were away in her backpack before getting out her PSP. Before playing Dream Drop Distance, Birth By Sleep was her favorite game in the series. Of course, the first game would always hold a special place in her heart.

Once she put in BBS, she went the motions to start a new game. Everything was normal up a strange message popped up on the screen.

Do you wish to move forward?

She knew for a fact that message had never shown up before. However, as strange as it was it instantly made her think of the message that had appeared on the whiteboard. As much as her mind was screaming at her to say no, it was also saying yes and so was her heart. Even if curiosity killed the cat, she wanted to know what was going on. Without another thought, Allie hit the yes button, then next thing she knew everything around her was black and she was falling.

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Echo: And I'm going to end it there for now. I hope you liked it. So, please review and tell me what you think!