Hello, and welcome back to Portal: Beginnings. I've been busy with a little thing called "life" so I haven't had much time to do much of anything in regards to Fanfiction. However, I AM trying my best to keep this stuff up. It might seem slow at first, but this is just the beginning, so it's understandable. I've taken to writing little excerpts from the story, for the future adventures. It's turning out a lot better than I thought! So please enjoy!


~entering Kimiko's dream~

~Kimiko's POV~

Okay, this is weird. First off, I'm in the city. That's not the weird part. The weird part is that no one seems to be able to see me. I'm a ghost without being dead. Either that, or everyone's ignoring me, which is just plain rude.

I wave my arms around in peoples' faces as they passed by.

"Hello? Hey! Stop! Can you tell me what's going on?" They all ignore my shouts. They brush past me without a glance. My shoulders droop and I look around.

The buildings aren't all that tall; I mean, I've definitely seen bigger. Wait; that came out wrong.(1)

Anyway, this looks to be a middle-class city. You know the kind: too big to be a small town or village, but too small to classify as a big city. Looking around, I couldn't tell where I was. I didn't see anyone I recognized.

Teens that looked to be my age and older roamed the streets in packs. They were all headed in the same direction; I assumed they were going home from school. But then I thought about it.

This looked to be a decent sized city. Why aren't all those kids on school buses? There were way too many for them all to be walkers. Not to mention that it was summer. And dusk. I mentally smacked myself. These kids wouldn't have been in school in the first place! So what was going on?

I decided to follow them to find out. It was easy. None of them could see me and even if they could, they wouldn't have suspected anything. As far as they knew, had they been able to see me, I was going where they were going. Which I, er, was.(2)

Normal city sounds assailed my ears, though somewhat muffled through the cloud of teenaged chatter all around me. I couldn't make out any specific words or phrases in any of the conversations, which was weird because I normally would. But everything was white noise.

"KEIKO!" I spun around suddenly, searching for the voice that had called my friend's name. Behind me, the groups parted slightly and I could glimpse Keiko. She had turned towards the voice whose owner seemed to be crossing the street. I hurried towards Keiko, shoving through groups of teenagers who took no notice me.

As I was about to pass another group, the owner of the voice that had called out reached Keiko. I froze.

The girl was tall; taller than me, taller than Keiko. She had about a foot on each of us. She had blonde hair that shimmered golden in the light of the setting sun. She had a pretty smile and a loud laugh. I've never seen her before and Keiko has never mentioned anything about this girl to me before.

I think I'm dreaming. Everything has gone a bit quiet and loud at the same time, and the insides of my eyelids feel fuzzy. All I can focus on right now are Keiko and this mystery blonde.

Both of them squeal and rush forward on tip-toes to hug each other. However, instead of the typical dainty girl-hug, the blonde scooped Keiko right off her feet in a bear hug and Keiko squeezed the blonde as hard as she could. Keiko bounced up and down when she was released.

"Oh my gosh, you came! But I thought...?" Keiko trailed off.

"I told Jared to off himself and that from now on, Friday night is my night to do as I please."

"Ouch. Work still busy?" The blonde sighed and carded her fingers through her wild hair. The two began walking together in the same direction as everyone else.

"It's not that, really. We only get a hit maybe every other couple weeks, now-a-days. But even so, it's a high stress-level job! We gotta locate the goods exactly when they're available, which could be at any time during any day! Not to mention that our locator is a bitchy, pushy nag, and Jared doesn't get along with her. They're both control freaks and they bicker constantly."

"Well, who's the oldest?" Keiko asked.

"Wanda is, definitely." the girl answered. "She's even older than my grandma, but she's an invalid, so she can't do anything for us but give advice and information." Keiko seemed to think about this real quick.

"Does she have any problems with you?"

"No. I let Jared be in charge. I just help him with certain stuff is all. Wanda actually likes me! I'm respectful and polite towards her. If she were younger and stronger, I know she could totally kick my butt!"

"I won't even ask about that. It'll get you off topic." Keiko stated. The blonde girl plowed onward.

"It doesn't help matters when Jared has a tendency to piss people off."

"Mmm, that's too bad. He's nice whenever I meet up with you guys. He doesn't seem like the jerk type at all."

"His guard is really up in public. He hates people staring at him and he doesn't want to make a scene. And he's generally mellowed out by the time we all meet up."

"Poor guy..."

"Yeah," the girl agreed thoughtfully. A moment of silence passed between the two before Blondie spoke up again. "Jared is totally different at home, though. He's bright and moving and energetic. He's funny and we laugh a lot. But with Wanda there, nagging and getting on our nerves all the time, though, it gets to be all sorts of stress and tension. And then Jared wants help with his machines and inventions, there's different stuff we each have to do... Not to mention that the job itself is dangerous. Jared gets the worst of it, I think. Our competitors target him cos he's weaker, though I do try my best to protect him. We usually get out with little more than scrapes and bruises on a bad day."

"That's lucky, I guess," Keiko stated. "But what exactly prompted this Friday night special?" Keiko asked. The blonde sighed and shoved her hands in her back pockets.

"He wants me to help him work on his projects constantly. I don't know as much as he does about the stuff, but I have really great ideas that he's kinda working on and he wants my help. I don't think he understands that I like to do a lot of different things. I have to stay active! I can't work on any one thing constantly; I'd go insane! And since we started working together, I haven't really had any time to myself to do what I wanted. I got fed up, plain and simple. So I gave him my conditions. Of course, he threatened to kick me out and all that junk. I had to re-explain that I just need 'me' time. I don't want my life to revolve around Jared any more than it already does. But the dude is paranoid. He thinks I'm gonna leave him or betray him like Wanda has about dozen times now."

"Well, if he's already had experience with a woman betraying him like Wanda has, even if it's at her age, I can understand why he's like that with you. But hey, this is you we're talking about! You wouldn't betray anyone for anything!"

"And I told him so. I just want one night a week where I can go out and be my normal weird-ish teenaged self in public. So I gave him the ultimatum: he allows me this small freedom or I walk. No bodyguard to keep him safe. No one to help him with his robots or any other projects. And if he wants me to help him with artifact hunting, then he'd better start paying me, or I'd switch sides or go vigilante."

"Wait, isn't he paying you now?" Keiko asked. The blonde tilted her head back and laughed out loud.

"PAID?" she guffawed. "Keiko, Jared doesn't need to pay me. I live in his house, eat his food, and spend his money on supplies, clothes, and little outings like this. I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for him! He brought me into his world; that leaves me indebted to him."

"You've more than paid off your debt, Ana" Ah-ha! I thought. Finally,a name! Ana shook her head at Keiko.

"I have, but I like him and he needs me. I wouldn't really leave him like I said I would. And I doubt I'd make him pay me either; I'd probably have him owe me a few favors instead."

"Well, in other news," Keiko said. "I'm glad you're coming to the club with me. Being your idea and all, it would have been a shame to go without you."

'Clubbing? Keiko doesn't go clubbing! And she could've called me!'

The scene faded into black and I was left with my thoughts and an irritation that wouldn't go away.

Another scene popped up. It was of Ana again. She was sitting somewhere way up high. She wore warm clothes and the wind was blowing her hair wildly about. Ana looked up at the sky. It was clear blue, no sign of darkness anywhere. Clouds raced each other in the sky and Ana watched, smiling to herself. It was hard to feel mad at someone who looked so peaceful. Empathy worked through me and I realized that I was jealous before! I was jealous of this girl! But why?

Was it because she was going clubbing with Keiko? Was it because she had the ability to go clubbing with Keiko? She apparently had time to hang out with her, whereas I was stuck in China training at the Temple. She had the ability to be there when I couldn't.

I caught myself. I had never seen this girl before! How would I be dreaming of her? I must have made her up. Huh. I didn't think I had such a vivid imagination. But this could be my subconscious's way of telling me that I missed Keiko and that I should try to spend more time with her. But in the waking world, I don't know how I would be able to do that between finding Shen-Gong-Wu and doing my training.

Ana sighed breathily and carded a hand through her wild hair. I observed her for a few more moments, then disappeared.(3)


(1) You know me; gotta have my sexual innuendos! :D

(2) Kimiko always seemed a little awkward to me.

(3) Sorry for the sudden jump from one setting to another. This is as smooth as I could make it.