Disclaimer: I don't own anybody or anything in this story besides Akara and a bit of the plot. Everything else is owned my Square-Enix.

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Chapter 1

Transformation

"Daddy! Daddy!" she laughed, reaching her arms up to her smiling father.

The smiling father picked up his small 3-year-old and swung her around. He then hugged her tight and set her down again. She grasped his hand and walked with him down the corridor.

"Are we going to the library today?" she asked, "Are you going to read me a story? What story are you going to read me? Is it going to be the one about the light?"

"Yes, we are going to the library to read a story. It can be any story you want."

"Goody!" she giggled, and hugged her father, "Oh, is Uncle Cid going to be there?"

"No, sweetie. Uncle Cid has to work on his blueprints."

Her small face scrunched up in a frown.

"Oh well."

They walked together down the stairs.

"Hey, dad, what does this mean, a door to the innermost darkness will open, and the true light will return? That doesn't make any sense! Is there really a true light? And even if there was, I doubt it would rest in everlasting darkness," said the now 7-year-old girl.

"Well, I'm experimenting with similar projects right now. Maybe you can find out from them," he said jokingly.

"Really? Does that mean you'll let me go to your lab today?"

"No."

"Why not? I'm old enough! How dangerous could it be?"

"Trust me. It's too dangerous."

She sat down at the table in a angry pout. She rummaged around the papers and found her homework and started doing it. Her father walked away.

"I can follow him. He'll never know I'm there. I can finally find out what he's experimenting with."

She quietly followed him down into the courtyard, past Rising Falls and Sunset Gates. She waited until the elevator came back up to get on. When she got down into the dungeons, she saw her father with his lab coat on, pushing some buttons a certain order. His lab coat had a weird symbol on it, like a upside down heart with an X though it. She followed him trying to get in before the gates closed. Her dress got caught on the pattering on it, though, and she couldn't escape.

"Daddy, help!" she screamed.

He looked behind him and was surprised to see his daughter struggling to get away from a closing gate. He quickly pushed the button to open the gate again, and helped his daughter get untangled.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, clearly angry.

"I followed you here to see your experiments."

"I specifically told you--"

"Look!"

A weird creature appeared in front of Akara,

"What is it?"

The weird thing lifted it's head as if sniffing, and slowly crept toward Akara, seeming to see her as a good source of food.

"Daddy..." she wailed, nervous.

Her father stood, dumbstruck, seeming to be frozen in place.

The creature advanced further.

"Daddy..." she cried, now truly frightened.

He still didn't move, as if under a spell of the creature. She, too, was now frozen, and she couldn't move. The creature suddenly lunged forward, and clawed her from her right shoulder down to her left leg. The spell broke, and Akara collapsed. A black blur appeared, and destroyed the creature. It was Squall.

Akara woke for a moment, still stunned by her attack. She seemed to be paralyzed. Akara slowly opened her eyes. She was in the healing ward, where her friend Aerith worked with other talented healers. She could hear a conversation between two of the nurses, and they sounded angry. She closed her eyes and listened.

"That poor girl, being attacked by that ... thing. It's such a shame."

"And her so-called "Father" doesn't seem to care. He's locked himself in his lab, never coming out, even when she seemed to be dying. Obviously he doesn't care a bit about the girl."

Akara wanted to shout out, "He is a good father! I love him!" but her avid curiosity silenced her.

"How's she doing?" Aerith asked.

"She finally seems to be getting better, finally. But she'll probably have that scar for life."

"If Squall hadn't followed her, she would probably be dead by now."

"What was she doing down there, anyway? Aren't the labs supposed to be closed to the general public?"

"A friend of mine heard them arguing in the library the day that the accident happened."

"Really? Maybe she was trying to prove that she was able to fend for herself."

"Well, if that was the reason, then she sure didn't prove it."

"Come on, guys. Cut her some slack. Anyway, she can hear everything you're saying."

"Really? You mean she's awake!"

"How else could she hear you?"

Akara made a mental note to put something gross and slimy in Aerith's bed. She opened her eyes to see the nurses standing over her, and, of course, Aerith. They helped her sit up

"You just had to inform everyone. I'm really starting to loathe those powers of yours, Aeirth."

"It's both a gift... and a curse."

"Hmph."

"You'd better go back to sleep. Those wounds you got were pretty bad."

Akara yawned.

"I guess you're right."

She fell back into a deep sleep.

Akara woke up to silence. No one was around, not even Aerith or the nurses, who usually stuck around all day and all night. It was night, and shadows crept upon the ground. On her nightstand was a small bag with her every-day clothes and some food. On a piece of paper there was a note, in Aeith's handwriting. "Good-bye," it said, and nothing else.

"That's weird," Akara commented.

She slipped into the clothes and searched around in the bag for anything else. She found her precious necklace, a heart with a stone embedded in it that was constantly changing color, and her mother's fan. The fan was a piece of art, all twisting and turning. When open, it had red colored cloth. When closed, it became a weapon, like a small dagger. She tied the bag onto her back and ran out of the infirmatry.

Immediately after she left, the weird creatures that had attacked her started to appear. They ignored her completely and head off toward one direction. She ignored them and headed off toward the docking bay, where Cid's ships were held. All of them were gone save one.

It was a one-seater, made especially for Akara. If anything bad happened, she was supposed to escape using this. Cid had given her lessons on how to drive it, so she hopped in it. She set her bag in the cargo section and she left.

Heartless ships, both large and small, were attacking her world, and searching for survivors. She turned on both her shield and warp, and hurried out of the area.

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Thanks for reading this, and all that good stuff. If you can, please review. I am looking for ways to better my writing. Thank you again.