Kylie Masters was never exactly head of her class. She never aced a test, and she was almost always late for everything. And this morning, she was late for her first practical battle. Thieves were attacking the school. She had to be there.
"Shit, shit," she thought out loud. "Shit, shit, shit, I'm gonna be late!" She grabbed her squire's sword and tunic, slipping the tunic over her blonde head. She dashed out her dormitory she shared with Cindy, Dorothy, and Ophelia, her fellow cadets that were to be stationed with one of her best friends, Ramza Beoulve. He was great. She backed out of the door, still trying to sheath her sword. She stumbled onto the main road. In the middle, she saw Ramza stab his sword into the chest of a man clad in peasants garb. His living companions, a chemist and a female squire, looked at each other, and than ran for the hills. Out of breath, her hair a mess, and her sword swinging limply at her side, Kylie ran up to Ophelia. She tripped on the way.
"Why do you continue committing acts like robbery? You wouldn't have died this way if you'd led an honest life," Ramza mused.
"Did I miss anything?" Kylie panted, her blue eyes betraying her exhaustion. She had always been a little shorter than everyone else, but her bent over and panting made it even worse.
"Yeah, the whole battle," griped Cindy. "You're real late."
"Don't worry too much Kylie," Ramza said. "The Academy won't kick you out just because you missed one battle."
Later on, Kylie faced the board.
"Miss Masters, you are regularly late for every single battle," the head of the Gariland Board of Education said as he flipped through Kylie's record. "Every single lecture, every single training session, everything. Normally, we'd expel you, but due to your outstanding performance in the battles you showed up for, the Board has decided to parole you under the watchful eye of the Academy's best student, Ramza Beoulve."
Kylie's eyes lit up for a second, but her years of training her mock disappointment fell into place as a scowl appeared on her face.
"And, as an added bonus," the head continued. "You will also be assigned with our most punctual student, Ophelia Kaishou, at her request. She felt that perhaps some of her attendance habits would rub off on you."
On the outside, Kylie scowled, but on the inside, she did a little dance. She was going to be stationed with her best friends and not moved for a little over a year! No transfers, no reassignments, no nothing! Just her, and Opie, and Ramza, and Delita for a whole year!
"I accept your terms," Kylie said, faking reluctance. She was escorted outside by two other promising students, and major teacher's pets, Alicia and Lavian. When she was finally reunited with the rather large group that was going to Igros to perform boring guard duty, she jumped on the back of her good friend Ophelia Kaishou.
"Oh god Opie," she yelled in her ear. "Oh I love you so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"Um, you're welcome," Ophelia said, obviously disturbed by a girl tackling her from behind. "Could you get off of me now?"
"Oh, right," Kylie said, and made a serious face. "We're all serious now that we graduated. Can't have any fun anymore, can we?"
"Are you kidding?" Delita Hyral said from in front of Ramza. "With the four of us, we'll have a blast!"
"Who else are we stationed with?" Kylie asked.
"Well, there's your boyfriend, David," Ramza replied, and Kylie squealed with delight. "Dorothy, and a few new recruits that fought with us, Cindy, Keane and Akintunde?"
"Yeah, I think that's right," Ophelia replied. "We're supposed to meet up with a squadron of Limberry knights on the way. The Aegis Knights. The leader is-"
"Algus Sadalfas," Delita said.
"That's my name," came a voice to Kylie's right. She spun around to see a young, blonde boy in blue overalls with a red long sleeve shirt on underneath. He smirked. "Don't wear it out."
"Who are you?" Kylie asked.
"I'm Algus," he replied, and the scene disappeared. Kylie's memories of the five years she spent with Ramza and the rest of his group. Golgorand, Murond, Lionel, Riovones, Limberry, Igros, and all the rest of the ordeals they went through in that four and three quarters years extension of their original mission to guard Igros.
"Algus," Kylie spat, losing some of that happy-go-lucky quality after seeing, and causing, so much death. "What are you doing here?"
"I cut a deal with a higher power to get you out of here to face something, what it is we don't know, but you have to kill it. Or stop it. Or something. I don't care. What I do care about is you getting over your issues about Ramza. All that baggage."
"What baggage?" Kylie asked. "Ramza and I had a good breakup, no tears, no nothing."
"Oh I'm not talking about Ramza," Algus said. "I wasn't around for that. Ramza killed me. No, the guy I'm referring to is more around my time during the party. You know, a monk."
"David," Kylie said. "Yeah, there were some tears there. But I got over it."
"Oh God, why did I like you?" Algus looked up and clutched at his hair. "You're so stupid! I'll spell it out for you in plain English. It's… not… your… baggage!"
"Oh," Kylie finally understood him. "It's David's baggage. He's the one who has carried it around for four years."
"Yes," Algus said in a sarcastic, mocking tone. "It's about goddamn time. Just watch the scene."
It was a layout of Kylie holding David's hands with them standing face to face, nose to nose. Kylie remembered this moment as the one in which she broke up with him for good. It was after Fort Zeakden in the Inn at Igros, and the group had gone their separate ways. Dorothy had gone to look for Ramza, Ophelia had gone back to Gariland to speak with the Board, and David wanted to head for Igros, taking Kylie with him. But she didn't want to go. She left him and headed for Zarghidas.
"It's just…" she remembered saying, and how she could almost taste the sadness radiating from poor David. "Things change after such a traumatic event. Feelings change. I don't know if I feel the same way know as I did back then. I'm sorry." Then she left him for about four months until she went shopping in Dorter and found him and Ramza again.
"I was ecstatic," Kylie reminisced. "To think I'd see my old friends again, after all that time. Too bad we got thrust into a war against the Zodiac Braves."
"Yeah, it was," Algus said. "When you get out, talk to David. He'll be waiting for you. Then, I'll get out of limbo and into Heaven."
"Wait," Kylie threw her hands into the air. "Before, you said you liked me?"
Algus rolled his eyes and the whole room turned white.
A/N: What do you think? Do you like Kylie? She was created to be likable, but most of my "likable" characters seem annoying. I like Kylie, she's got a lot of potential as a comic relief character. I like many of the other originals better, but hey, she's not bad. Okay, next up is Malak, and a new twist on his history.