Recovery and New Friends

Tine staggered out of the first Dark Corridor she could find. She ached all over from the Keyblade's blows. He had beaten her! This was impossible! How had some stupid boy, bearing a friend's charm beat and creature that was an absolute master of the darkness power? Tine supposed that she had been too arrogant. That had led to her downfall. If she had been more serious when she fought him, Sora would be dead right now. Tine had also discovered something. Though she had been made to crush the Keyblade wielders, destroy worlds, and ruin lives, though she had been made to inflict pain, she had a very low tolerance for pain. She was appalled to realize that she was on the edge of fainting from it. She quickly opened a Corridor to some random world. It would not be a good thing to fall unconscious in the Dark Realm. If she did, then the Primal Dark might very well dissolve her human shell, and reclaim its substance from her. Tine stumbled into a rubble strewn lobby. As she looked around, she saw that she was in the foyer of what had once been a very elegant mansion. Now it looked like a hangout for drunks and homeless. Sunlight streamed through yellowed glass windows. Tine fell to the floor, her strength spent.

"This…is…this is pathetic!" she cried from the floor. She used the stair railing to pull herself to her feet. Darkness particles leaked from her wounds in black streams. None of them were fatal by themselves, but they all sung songs of agony. And worse, she sensed some terrible internal injury from where that light had struck her chest. Tine looked to see that there was a small hole in her shirt. As she pulled it up, Tine saw that a terrible red burn was spreading there. With growing anger, Tine felt the same on her back. It had come right out of the other side of her. That boy was going to pay!

Tine walked up the stairs, ordering herself not to collapse. The thoughts of a warm bed called to her. She opened the first door that she saw. In it was a small bedroom that looked as if it had not been used in a while. She saw that it did indeed have a bed. Tine threw herself on it and was instantly asleep. A little while later (Tine was never sure how much later) she was awakened by a loud click! She looked groggily around. A rock had hit the window. Feeling a little stronger, Tine got out of bed, walking over to the window and peered out. Three kids stood out there, probably around her age (or the age that she had been created to look like). One of them was wearing camouflage pants and a vest. The other was an overweight boy in a red and white jersey and jeans. The last was a girl with brown hair and an orange shirt. She was apparently arguing with the two. Tine couldn't really hear what they were saying, but it was clear enough from the gestures. Stop throwing rocks at the windows!

Then Tine saw the overweight boy look up at the windows, and his cheerful face transform into a rictus of horror and fear. He pointed up at the window where Tine was. The girl looked up, and she too jumped, her face as white as paper. The boy in the camouflage looked very surprised, but not as afraid as the others. She saw him gesturing furiously with his hand at the gates.

Oh no. This wasn't good. Tine didn't know what she'd do if they came in. She didn't have the strength to make another Corridor and she definitely didn't have the strength to fight them if their intentions were hostile. Maybe she could beg? No, Tine's mind automatically rejected that. She'd die in agony before she begged someone for mercy. It looked like that resolve was about to be tested. The three kids began to walk through the gates of the mansion. Soon, she heard them enter the large double doors.

Maybe if I scare them, I won't have to fight Tine thought. She didn't know where she was. She could be on any world, in any place on that world. She had picked a random entrance. She opened the door to the bedroom, and peered down at the foyer.

"I don't know about this, Hayner" said a girl's voice. "What if it's not a ghost, and really just a homeless girl who just happened to come by…"

"Yeah!" put in another boy's voice. "We'd just be bothering her. Right?" he said, and Tine heard that his voice was teetering on the edge of panic. Maybe she could push him over that edge. Tine thought about summoning Heartless. Then she decided against it. In her weakened condition, she wasn't sure if she could control them. She wasn't worried about them consuming her heart---after all, she had no heart to give. But she was worried that they would run amok, ruining and eventually destroying this world. And she found that she didn't want that to happen. Though she was afraid of what they might do to her when they found her, Tine enjoyed watching the three friends look around the mansion, like a mystery gang after a ghost. And she was the ghost.

"There you are!" the one named Hayner roared. She heard his shoes run across the foyer. He reached the bottom of the stairs. Tine looked down at him. "Who are you?" he asked. "What are you doing in the old mansion?"

"Hayner!" said the boy in the red jersey. He was walking stiffly like a toy solider, as if he had to make himself move for fear. He probably did. "D-don't make it angry! Supernatural creatures have a-all sorts of f-fr-frightening powers!"

"This isn't any supernatural creature, Pence" Hayner said. Actually, the one named Pence was closer to the truth than Hayner.

Tine concentrated all her strength…and then hurled a ball of dark energy at them. It hit the bottom of the stairs and exploded into molten drops of blackness, before dissipating. "Take that…" Tine screamed in her best ghost voice. And then the floor seemed to tilt and whirl around her, and she fell down the stairs.

Pence and Ollette saw the "ghost" fall down the stairs toward them. This was weird. In movies, ghost didn't usually fall down the stairs at people. They definitely didn't utter small moans of pain as they tried to get back up. Ollette suddenly thought that maybe Hayner was right, and this was no ghost. She moved a little closer and gasped. This girl was covered in wounds. Cuts and bruises blossomed all over her arms and face. Her shirt had a hole in it, and she could see that there was a terrible burn on her chest. "Oh my God" Ollette said, stepping toward the wounded girl.

Pence screamed "Ollette! What are you doing?! It might be dangerous!"

"Shut up, Pence" said Hayner, as he helped Ollette lift the girl off the floor. Her skin was surprisingly cold, which did nothing to ease Olette's mind about her ghost theory. But she helped her stand anyway.

"Th…thanks" Tine said. She quickly touched the minds of the two kids holding her, making the dark particles streaming out of her look like regular red blood to their vision.

"Who did this to you?" Hayner demanded. "Was it that rat Seifer and his gang? This is low, even for them."

"No" Tine said. "I don't know who you're talking about" she said. "It was some guy named Sora…but that's another story. Look, I'm really grateful, but---"

"Sora?" Hayner gasped. "Sora did this to you?"

"You…know Sora?" Tine asked.

"Yeah, we met him at the end of summer break last year" said Pence. He had finally come a little closer.

"Well, that's good to see a lot of people know each other" said Tine. "But I've really got to go and---"

"I can't believe he would do something like this to you" Ollette said. "Come on, we'll get you to the Twilight Home Hospital."

"No!" Tine said. "I'm fine. I really am. I'm not hurt as badly as you think." She stumbled as she tried to walk. Then Tine thought maybe I'm more hurt than I thought I was.

"Here" said Hayner. "I'll give you a piggyback ride to town."

"But I can walk" Tine protested.

"No you can't" Hayner said, looking at Tine's trembling legs. "You can barely stand. Sora must have done a real number on you" he said, his voice trembling with anger.

If only you'd seen what I did to him Tine thought but she said nothing. She climbed onto Hayner's back.

"Whoa" said Hayner. "You're light as a feather. Are you sure you're on?"

"Yeah, I'm on" said Tine. Though they were the same height, Hayner had no trouble carrying her. It was good to be light because you were filled with darkness power and nothing else at all.

"What is this place anyway?" Tine asked.

"Twilight Town" said Ollette. "Welcome to Twilight Town."

"Where are we going?" Tine asked. "I told you, I'm not going to the hospital."

"Calm down" Hayner laughed. "We're going the Usual Spot. It's the place where we always hang out." He looked up at her. "So, what's your name?"

Tine cleared her throat. "My name is

(Roman Numeral Thirteen)

Tina" she said.

"It's great to meet you, Tina" said Ollette. "Especially at the beginning of summer break. Now we have a new friend."

Pence had said nothing during this exchange. He lagged behind the rest of the group. He could see the dark particles streaming out of Tina's wounds. Hayner and Ollette seemed not to see them at all. Pence, the only one who hadn't touched the strange girl could. He had a feeling that there was something more to their mysterious new friend.