In the best stories, the events of the story are driven by the characters and the actions they take and are not sucked along by a giant plot forcing people into roles.

But what if you went to the beginning of the story and gave one character knowledge of the entire storyline? They may try to change events. From there, they won't know what will happen, and the story that started almost the same could very well become a different story entirely. With even more possibilities, if a character's entire mind was replaced with the mind of someone familiar with the story, and with a different personality…

You get this.

Experiment 01- Tales Of The Abyss, test subject Solana Zahnne, target Fon Master Ion.

"Ion, get up."

…

"Ion!"

…

An unfamiliar voice suddenly woke me up. I had just laid down to take a nap after finally beating my most recent video game, Tales Of The Abyss, and somebody was already waking me up?

"Nooo… I want sleep," I groaned, opening my eyes to see who it was.

And promptly screamed and flailed around, managing to both tangle myself up in the sheets of the bed I was somehow on and accidentally hit a rather annoyed-looking girl in the face. She was rather short, with dark hair in huge pigtails and a pink… piece of clothing that covered most of her body, a white and purple coat over it.

It was unmistakably Anise, from Tales Of The Abyss, and I recognized the voice as hers as well. This had to be the weirdest and most realistic dream I had ever had.

"Honestly, Ion, what is with you? Screaming when I wake you up? You're not even one to sleep in most of the time," she said, putting her hands on her hips.

One thing registered, even though I wasn't quite awake. She had just called me Ion… and I didn't look a thing like Ion, being female with long white hair, reddish eyes, and no color to my skin. I shook myself off and managed to get myself out of the tangled sheets I was tied up in, and took the opportunity to steal a glance at myself. I could see a bit of dark green hair from the corner of my eyes that reminded me strongly of the color of pine needles, and my hands were unusually small and delicate and actually had some color to them.

This couldn't be a good thing. I decided to play along and get some time to try to wake myself up. Sleepy or not, this was a very weird dream and I wanted no part of it.

"I'm sorry, Anise, I had a strange dream. Can I have a few minutes…?" I said, trying to sound innocent and apologetic. My voice came out sounding just like Ion's. How weird, even for a dream.

"Alright, but please don't take too long. We're stopping in Engeve to wait for that letter, you know," Anise said. She looked a little more cheerful after my words, and left the small room.

I took the chance to observe where I was. It was one of those little rooms on the Tartarus, and I was alone with Anise gone. Unlike in the game, there was a closet and a mirror. Man, this was a realistic dream… and I never had realistic dreams.

"Okay… if I pinch myself and it doesn't hurt, I'll know it's a dream," I muttered. I pinched the skin on the back of my hand, and winced. It did hurt…

"…this is not cool. Not. Cool. I really hope I wake up soon," I sighed. I went over to the mirror, where I could see that I really did look exactly like Ion, with a childish face, wide pine-green eyes, a slightly upturned nose… I licked my slightly dry lips, and on the way back to rest my tongue felt a loose tooth where I had already gotten my adult tooth for a year or so. Of course, Ion was just a kid, so still having baby teeth was possible… but this was way too real to be a dream. I wasn't quite dressed, so I went to fix this. Ion's usual outfit was easy to get on, and rather comfortable, and the head ornaments were easy enough to figure out. I picked up the tuning-fork staff by the door and took a deep breath. If I wasn't dreaming, which I was starting to think was the case at this point, then I'd have to play Ion while figuring out what had happened. Luckily, Ion was just a cute naïve little thing, so it wouldn't be that hard. I just had to act mostly clueless and apologize too much and nobody would know the difference.

I hoped.

I opened the door, and stepped out. No doubt, it was the Tartarus. I could barely feel the landship's motion, but I could recognize now that the vessel I was aboard was moving.

"Hello, Fon Master. Anise told me you had a bad dream," a cool and vaguely amused voice said from behind me. I stiffened up in shock for a second, then turned to see a tall man in a sharp blue uniform behind me, clever red eyes watching from behind glasses and straw-colored hair straight, long, and neat. Colonel Jade Curtiss. I wasn't sure how to talk to him while still seeming like Ion…

"N-No, it wasn't… I already forgot it," I stuttered, nervous. Great, he was going to know something was up, and only a few minutes into this…

"Hmm. Well, in any case, we're almost to Engeve. You should come into town as well, the fresh air would be beneficial to your health," Jade said, staring me down with an unreadable expression. "Shall we?"

"Alright," I said. Jade turned and started off, taking precise steps, while I followed along behind him, staff still clutched in my hands.

It wasn't long until he led me to a closed door, where Anise was waiting. I noticed her battle plushie, Tokunaga, tossed over her back. The Tartarus came to a stop as we approached.

"Hey, Ion. Don't wander too far, okay? I don't want to have to run around all of Engeve looking for you," Anise said to me. I responded by nodding, and watched as Jade opened the door. A set of stairs came down, and the two of them started down at once. I followed, trotting down the stairs after the pigtailed girl and red-eyed soldier.

This is an actual serious fanfic. Yeah, really. Let's see how my cute albino girl Solana does when tossed into this world as Ion, shall we?