Of Red and Yellow

As the lecturer droned on and on, Akara sighed from boredom. Everything he said she had heard before. Nothing at all caught her interest. Being a warrior, she was not only versed in the fighting arts, but of an unnecessary class of history and a more necessary class of magic. But unfortunately, the magic teacher had gotten pretty much killed by a novice, so she was out of commission for the time being. After an hour of continuous ignored-by-the-teacher snoring from the other students, the class was over. Akara immediately went to the library.

The library wasn't her favorite place, her favorite being the fighting arena. When she searched the shelves for an interesting book, one in particular caught her eye, a old worn blue tome with faded gold lettering saying "The Legend of Kingdom Hearts."

"A legend..." whispered Akara. She walked over to a nearby table and opened the up the book to a bookmarked page. Once passage stood out from the others. "...for in the deepest darkness lies the true light, but only the one who can open the door can find it. But when red and yellow meld together, the End of the World will return, and all hope will lie in the hands of an outsider and his companions..." The rest of the book was about former kings and a key, and some keyholes, and a ton of other stuff. But the other info was instantly forgotten, and the mystic passage stayed in her head.

But then a misty globe floated up to her, with a message. The standard "Come to the headmaster's office or you're dead," message that made even the toughest of students run to the office as fast as they could. The headmaster was renowned worldwide for his incredible strength, and held the trophy for "strongest person worldwide" for about eighteen years. Well, anyway, Akara rushed off to the office, knowing it was about another mistake she made. The headmaster always singled her out for mistakes, just because she was the first otherworlder to go to the school. Of course, Akara was the only otherworlder to ever visit Tabonia.

When Akara walked in, the headmaster motioned her to a seat. A quiet snicker was heard, and Akara looked around, seeing a tall girl smirking in the shadows of the room. "Your recent failure has come to notice," he said slowly, stressing 'failure,' and 'notice.' "Forcing us of the training committee to talk about what has to be done in light of the situation," he droned on, and the tall girl seemed about ready to burst with laughter. "And, I'm sorry to report, that you have been permanently suspended from our school. You have twenty-four hours to gather your belongings and leave," he finished, and Akara was silent with shock. The tall girl burst out laughing.

"The great Akara, going to be the best warrior ever, now kicked out of the school! This is so ironic! It's so great!" the tall girl laughed.

"Zaraz, be quiet," he snapped, then asked, "Akara, do you have a last request?"

Coming out of the initial shock of being expelled, she answered, "Yes, sir. I would like to have a battle with Zaraz."

"There's the answer I was looking for! This'll be fun! Snitcher vs. Victim!" he yelled out loud.

"Sir!" exclaimed Zaraz.

"Hey, it's true," he said.

How blunt can you get? He may have a ton a muscle, but a puny brain, thought Akara. The only way he's keeping this job is scaring all of the committee members in place. But I guess it means good things for me.

"Thank you, sir. If I could have an hour to get ready?" asked Akara, and walked out of the room.

"Yes. Zaraz, you get ready too," snapped the headmaster.

"What? Only an hour?" she exclaimed.

"If that's all Akara needs, that's all her and her opponent gets. Your time started five minutes ago," he said, making Zaraz bolt out of the room. He smirked. Akara would probably be remembered for this last battle.

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Akara pulled the traditional red tunic on over her bronze shirt in preparation for the upcoming battle. She had a hunch that Zaraz knew more than what she was telling, and had more than one reason to snitch on Akara. If she let Zaraz win this battle, she may get some info she needed and at least an ally to help her out of the world. When she finished getting dressed, Akara sat on her bed and meditated, to gather her mind, magic, and muscle, as the fighting teachers called it. There would probably be a great use of magic in the battle, and she had to be ready for everything. Zaraz wasn't particularly known for fighting fair. As she meditated, her mind wasn't totally on her breathing, but a bit on the battle.

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"Are you sure you're ready, witch?" taunted Zaraz. It was the common custom to taunt your enemies to unnerve them, or strike a nerve, whichever was faster. Akara stood ready, her staff in front of her. Zaraz followed suit.

"Ready, Go!" yelled the headmaster, and the battle began.

Zaraz lunged at Akara, trying to force her to block. Akara evaded the shot, and swung her staff around to trip Zaraz. Zaraz fell, but quickly jumped up and summoned the common blade, except that hers was long and jagged, more to cause pain than the kill. Akara didn't summon hers, but sent a huge strand of fire toward Zaraz, making her dodge. Akara continued her ruthless attacking, while Zaraz dodged every attempt.

Soon, Akara slowed down, not from exhaust, but so that Zaraz would win. Zaraz stood triumphantly, and sent a bolt of lightning toward Akara. She dodged, but Zaraz stood where she dodged to, her strength being quickness, and cut through Akara's bandages, and her jagged blade cutting through the still tender flesh from the former fight. Akara cried out in pain. Zaraz smirked. Rules said that the first to shed blood would win.

"That'll teach you to battle the mighty Nightfox!" yelled Zaraz, her voice echoing throughout the stadium. Akara heard a gasp, probably from Kylia or the headmaster, them being the only people she told the names to. Zaraz cursed. Akara was the one who smirked as Kylia lead her off the stage.

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"So, what are you going to do now?" asked Jaki, the head healer at the academy. "You have only one hour left here, then you are banished to the city. I know you can't survive there."

"I don't know. I want to get out of this city. But I just don't know how..." wondered Akara out loud.

"Here, let me heal this before you leave," said Jaki, and she continued healing the erratic cut that Zaraz sliced during the battle. Akara winced a bit, but the healing was less painful than the herbs and other medicines that a less accomplished healer like Kylia would use. "Even if you were to get out of the city, where would you go? It's not like you have any relatives outside the city gates."

"I have an idea," said someone from the doorway. In waked Kylia. "I have a friend in the city that found a strange material that he calls 'Gummi,'" she commented. "He makes ships out of it. They supposedly can travel through space. That just may be your ticket out of here."

"That sounds great," Akara said half-heartedly. "Where does he live?"

"I can't tell you, but I can show you," Kylia said simply, and grabbed her bag full of healing medicines and herbs. "Come with me." Akara got up, grabbed her small bag of belongings, and followed Kylia out the door. As they passed the final doorway to the city, Zaraz glared at Akara.

"What happened to you after you admitted your name?" asked Akara kindly and sarcastically.

"I've been banished. But, luckily, I can join the cult that haunts you. I have a message for you..." she said, and walked up to Akara, and whispered in her ear, "Your foreboding death draws ever near." Backing up, she said, "How's that for a prophecy? Just be warned, people are watching you every minute of your life. Especially my darling Darkblade." Zaraz walked out the door, leaving Akara bewildered.

"Come on, his workshop isn't far..." urged Kylia, almost dragging Akara to the city.

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"Ah, Kylia! Who's the friend that follows you this evening?" welcomed a young man with short blond hair with a leather apron on.

"Cameron, we need a ship, and we need it fast," Kylia said.

"Um, what type of ship? Sailing or flying?" Cameron asked.

"Not one of your regulars! We need the..."

"Gummi ship," finished Akara.

"Oh, so you're going to attempt to fly that thing out of this city, are you? Be my guest. I have no desire to leave," said Cameron, motioning Kylia and Akara to follow him to the back of the workshop. He threw back a curtain, and a huge brightly colored 'Gummi' ship was waiting, with many other blocks of different shapes and colors pushed against the wall.

"Where did you find this stuff?" Akara asked. The 'Gummi' seemed abnormally familiar to her. But that's impossible, thought Akara, I don't remember anything from the world I'm from, if I'm even from another world.

"I just found it laying around one night after a meteor shower," he said simply. Cameron went inside the ship, closely followed by Akara, while Kylia left. "Oh, yeah," he said, remembering something. "Kylia, you're going to need to accompany your friend as far as the next world or thing that you guys meet."

"My name's Akara," muttered Akara.

"Okay, Akara, these buttons are the guns. Just guns. The blue buttons are lasers, and the two pedals are the accelerator and decelerator. Don't bother with them, though. Neither of them work; the ship goes on only one speed: fast. This screen shows what other ships are in the area, and this screen shows gummis floating around in space. Don't open the door unless you're on a oxygen-producing planet. And..." he said, as Akara and Kylia got into the two front seats, "Most importantly, don't get killed. Have a fun time!" Cameron got out of the ship, and walked over to where a customer was waiting.

"Ready?" asked Kylia, and she started pressing buttons at random.

"Don't do that," said Akara, who pressed a bunch of buttons in order, pobably by instinct, and the ship slowly rose off the ground. As it rose out of Cameron's workshop, the people of Tabonia gaped and stared, never seeing this before. Quickly, Akara pressed another button that made them exit the atmosphere, leaving Tabonia behind.

"So, what'd you bring on your big trip?" asked Kylia.

"Just some food, a few items, and this paper," said Akara, and handed the paper to Kylia. "I can't read the language, and it's meaningless to me. I just keep it because it was the one of the only things I had when I first found myself on your world."

"It says... Worlds Map," uttered Kylia, translating the text. "Our world is on it, and the next world is... something called 'Hollow Bastion.'"

"Then let's go there," Akara said, and started to steer the ship to the distant world.

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"Where did all these ships come from?" yelled Kylia as she steered the ship. Akara shot down another ship quickly. The ships were numerous, and more powerful than the simple ship Akara and Kylia had. The ships were suicide bombers, and kept on trying to crash into Akara's ship. Luckily, Akara had given Kylia some flying lessons before the weird ships came, and Kylia was a master flier now. Kylia dodged yet another ship as Akara shot down five more.

"Why should I know?"

Suddenly, a huge ship started shooting the little ships with a 'Ultima' laser. Ten little ships were going down at a time. And then, after all the little ships were gone, the big ship targeted Akara and Kylia...

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Saphire's notes: Ooh, a cliffhanger. I actually put a bit of Kingdom Hearts in this chapter, just proving to 'anonymous' that this is a Kingdom Hearts fanfic. So, thanks to:

Calypso Silverhawk

Bracken-Fae

Review please!