Lea was somewhere near the middle of her journal-reading when she felt her eyes beginning to close in drowsiness (or was it boredom?  This journal certainly wasn‘t helping them at all.  Just a tedious documentation of some weird apprentice‘s/future Superior’s daily activities.  You know, “Woke up, brushed my teeth, ate a box of Corn Pops, plotted against my master and my quest for world domination,” etc. day after day after day). The trip so far had been a long one, and they were nowhere near Olympus Coliseum. Beside her Tyme was in the same position. She strained her forward gaze, seeing nothing but stars and supernovas in the blackness surrounding.

"Tyme...flick to auto-pilot. We need some shut-eye."

The younger girl didn't even hesitate. She pressed the necessary button and went to grab her pillow from a back room. Lea began to pack up all the documents they had "borrowed" and stuffed them in a corner. Soon rejoined by her friend, the two fell almost instantly into a deep sleep, curled up in their chairs.



WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP

The two jerked awake to the sound of the ship’s emergency sirens, red warning lights flashing violently around the cabin.  Tyme immediately began fussing with the control panel, trying to determine what kind of situation they were in.

"What is it?!" Lea cried over the noise.

The younger girl's face darkened with sudden realization. "Craters."

"Bad?"

"Nightmare."

As if to confirm this, the ship was jarred by a small (relatively speaking) impact, both girls struggling to stay sitting. Tyme looked in vain for anything to get them out or even, pardon the pun on her name, borrow time.

"Have we got shields? Thrusters? Anything?" the redhead beside her screamed.

Her friend pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Remember that we just got this ship...on rental?" ("Rental" of course, meaning sneaking into some sort of Gummi Ship repair shop, knocking the guards unconscious, and taking whatever ship was biggest/shiniest.)

"And...?"

"And apparently they were working on the shields, thrusters, and anything else that could have been of possible use to us. To be blunt, we, my dear girl, are sitting ducks.”

Lea paled just as soon as the next big crater struck, signaling the start of the next wave of attack. Too caught up in panic to properly strap themselves in, they were thrown onto the ship’s front window. Both winced at the pain, but braced themselves for the next blows soon coming.

It was far worse this time. Coming from the front of the ship, the momentum of rock striking metal sent them flying back, hitting their heads against the opposite wall. But it didn’t stop there. No, for the next five minutes solid, there was a relentless pounding against the ship, the girls thrown helter-skelter, helplessly obtaining a frightening number of bruises and scrapes.

At some point Lea hit her head against glass, blood spreading across her temple. She touched it briefly, saw the red, and fainted dead away. Tyme screamed her name just as the final warning blared out.

WARNING LOSING ALTITUDE WARNING LOSING ALTITUDE

There was a final tremendous crash in her ear and she slipped into unconsciousness.



The older of the two girls woke to a splitting headache, the pain immediately subsiding as she realized that she was amazingly ALIVE. True, she had no idea where she was--other than in the middle of an unknown wood--but lost was better than dead. She gingerly touched her temple, sighing with relief when she realized the bleeding from her previous wound had stopped and it was little more than a cut.

Now, to more pressing matters…WHERE THE HECK WAS TYME?! She cupped her hands around her mouth and called out for her once. Twice. Until her voice began to rasp with effort. Nothing. Great, well…maybe (she wasn’t dead…she wasn’t dead…she wasn’t dead…) her friend had landed somewhere else and was waiting for her at the closest town. Yeah…Knowing good and well that if she didn’t start moving she’d stay here and sulk, possibly sinking into irretrievable gloom, Lea got up and pressed on.

At first she thought she was in the middle of some deep wood, possibly jungle.  But that soon proved false, for she noticed that the trees were more of a…tropical nature.  The faint dirt path she was walking finally took an abrupt left and ended at a dead tree.  Gingerly climbing over it, Lea pushed back some dense foliage and found herself on nothing less than paradise.   

For a moment she fancied herself dreaming.  Could this be heaven?  Certainly seemed so.  There, merely yards away, was a calm deep-blue ocean begging to be swam in.  Impossibly white sand only separated her from absolute joy.  The sun didn’t bear down at all, instead kissing her face gently and a cool wind whipping her hair away from her face.  To her left were a few native trees, all bearing some type of luscious fruit.  Her stomach growled, and she decided to try her luck with it later.  But for now…

She slowly made her way to the edge of the beach, took off her shoes, and allowed her toes to soak in the wonderful icy-coldness.  If only Tyme were here…

With an audible groan, Lea jerked back her toes and buried her face in her lap.  Here she was, too busy enjoying herself to even think about her best friend.  She could be laying somewhere hurt--dying!--for all she knew.  How could she be so thoughtless?

Just as she pulled her sock back on, two shadows darkened her sun.  She frowned and looked up into the unknown faces.  One looked puzzled, then dared to call her an unfamiliar name.

“Kairi?”





Far, far away, Tyme found herself in the middle of a mass fog so thick she couldn’t see more than a few inches in front of her. This was like no other world she had ever been in.

“Lea? LEA?!” she called desperately. There were only shiver-worthy echoes. She took a deep breath and decided to go forward. Hours seemed to pass, she getting no closer to her unknown destination.

Everything suddenly cleared, and she was in a huge white expanse. A void, to be precise. There was nothing as far as the eye could see. A step produced a sound that carried infinitely into an oblivion distant, yet so close.

Yep, this was it. The final straw. Tyme sat down--on what? She wondered, nothingness?--and curled into a ball. She had gotten into some tough spots before, but never anything like this. She’d always had Lea to turn to. And now, without her, things were looking pretty bleak.

She suddenly had a strange thought, but it seemed to make more sense the longer she pondered on it.

Was she dead?

Could THIS be the afterlife, the end of the line? She’d always thought there’d be a cloud-filled, sun-shining, angel-singing heaven waiting on the other side of eternity. But that’s just been what she wanted. Nothing was guaranteed. Yeah, she supposed, this was all that’d there’d be. For forever. And ever…

The ship must have exploded, or that final blow must have been too much for her head. She sighed. What a pathetic way to die. She’d always wanted to go out guns blazing, pulling off some unbelievable heist, at least well out of her teenage years. Death by Gummi Ship crash? That was downright pathetic.

She sat there for she didn’t know how long--did it matter, though?--thinking of everything and nothing. Her main question, however, was if Lea made it. She rather hoped she wasn’t enduring the same horrible fate. Tyme didn’t think she’d want this on her worst enemy (and she had plenty of them, the horrible brutes).

Suddenly there was an echo, so familiar she wondered if maybe it was the one she made coming back to haunt her. A footstep, coming louder and seemingly closer. Company? She dared to hope. That would be seemingly delightful.

Ah…and finally there they were. And who it was positively shocked the crap out of her.

“DEMYX?!”