Song of Lala Act XII: Ascend

A voice in Lala's mind brought her back into awareness, though she remained in a deep slumber. "My, my, little girl. You just love to thwart my plans, don't you." Lala recognized the voice: Maleficent. "Now, you will do as I say now, and stop being such a nuisance. You will go to Twilight town, where I will give you further direction. Don't fail me this time. You are still mine; even with your heart, you are incomplete." There was sinister laughter, and then Lala felt herself sink back into the darkness of sleep.

Lala woke up feeling refreshed and recognizing her surroundings. She had been interrogated when the others arrived to home base over the little girl and healing, and over the name Lala. She answered to the best of her ability. She had explained that she did not know how she healed the child, she simply had sung to her to try to get her to hold on to her life. She explained how she had saved the same child from the Heartless in Traverse Town while she was a Shadow and that that was how she received the name that the child called her, Lala. She still deemed it best to not ask to be called by her new name just yet. It would be best to let the whole Nobody thing blow over if she ever did take up that name formally. She wouldn't want to go through being accused of being one again. She was terrified of what her friends might have done to her.

And she was uncomfortable here in her new surroundings anyway. Radiant Garden was where her parents were from and where she had been born, but she did not remember much of it at all. And while Lala had traveled through a few worlds, she was not yet sure what she thought of this one. She had never intended on staying on any of the others, and yet this is where she supposed she belonged after what Aerith had explained about everyone returning to the worlds where they had come from, though nobody remembered what had caused them to be returned. Lala had no idea either. All she knew was that she was wishing to move on and find what she was searching for, be it her Nobody or whatever else it may be.

Thankfully, today was the day that she would leave on her new journey. She was looking forward to getting away from Radiant Garden and seeing the worlds again, this time not being a timid little creature that could be squashed like a bug. Well, relatively speaking she was less useless, but she still was just a girl without even a weapon. If her Heartless chasing trick were to fail, she was toast. But hopefully it wouldn't come to that, and she always had the option of running like a mad woman if all else failed. She didn't know what she would do if she ran into any of those Nobody things that Leon had talked about, because they were apparently way faster than Heartless. Well, she would just have to face it if it happened.

She approached her shiny new Gummi ship that Cid had made for her. She said some goodbyes to her friends, wishing them good luck in restoring Radiant Garden and they told her to be safe and to come back if anything went wrong. And things were bound to go wrong, they seemed to imply. They really had no faith in Lala's ability to protect herself, and she really couldn't blame them. She had never shown any signs of ability back in Traverse Town, and yet now suddenly all she had to do was yell at Heartless and they ran away and somehow she could heal people? It's no wonder she was questioned so much.

Lala sat in the cockpit of her new vessel, finding it much more comfortable than the Heartless ships that she had ridden in before, but she also had no idea other than what Cid told her how to control the freaking thing. And she had no idea where to go. She could go to this Twilight Town, as Maleficent told her, and hope that she would find what she was looking for, or she could do everything in her power to go the opposite direction. She decided that she could fight Maleficent, and Twilight Town would just prove her strength to herself. Besides, it was the only direction she knew how to go.

But it all begins with a single step. And Lala pressed the ignition and began her next step in the journey.

Forever more,

I'm not alone,

Forever more,

I'm not alone.

For in my heart,

I hold my friends.

This is the start,

Not the end.

Forever more,

I'm not alone,

Forever more,

I'm not alone.