• Hello everybody! We have tons of new awards for the new year that can be requested through our Awards System thanks to Antifa Lockhart! Some are limited-time awards so go claim them before they are gone forever...

    CLICK HERE FOR AWARDS

Fanfiction ► Pieces of Heart



REGISTER TO REMOVE ADS
Status
Not open for further replies.

Mason Stark

TICK TOCK, KID!
Joined
May 12, 2004
Messages
7,091
Awards
18
Location
Gravity Falls, OR
Website
twitter.com
First off, if you haven't read it yet, please read the prologue to this story! Even if it's set in a different place, at least you get some background on what's going on. Otherwise, if you've been waiting a full month for this, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MERRY CHRISTMAS ETC. ETC.! HERE'S THE FIRST CHAPTER OF PIECES OF HEART.

Also, just a note, this chapter is prone to editting. I'm using a friend's character, but stuff happened so I dunno if I can use that character anymore, so I replaced her for the time being. If I can't use that character, then MY CHARACTER STAYS. AND SHE'S FREAKY. AWESOME ALREADY. :D

I hope you enjoy the chapter! Any comments and criticism are welcome! [and you get cookies for criticism. must improveeee!]

--------------------------

001 + A T L A N T I C

what's it feel like to fall?

why will you fall into forever?
[i hope all the years - will hold tight our promises]​

to be a hero.​

I was falling. Deeper and deeper into this black abyss. The ice cold water coiled around my skin, its freezing arms carrying me closer and closer to the black bottom. Water was all around me, yet it was like air; I could breath. Yet, I was... asleep.

Then.

It hit.

The lightning flashed. The rain poured all over me. It was a dream.

Why was it so real?

A skyscraper pointed upwards towards the sky. Buildings gathered around it. That one lone building reached up for only a single thing:

There was a giant heart-shaped moon in the clouded night sky.

TWO DAYS.

"Hm?"

I turned around, hearing a voice booming inside of my head, and let out a gasp.

My eyes were shut. I gasped for air. My heart pounded. I was suffocating! A black gloved hand threw itself over my face. The darkness was trying to swallow me!

And, I could just hear you whisper in my ear.

That voice slid into my thoughts like you were a poison.

"I guess I'll give you a head start then..."

The hand disappeared.

Yet.

Everything was black.

Was this a nightmare?

If darkness had teeth, would it swallow you whole?

The darkness wasn't just trying to swallow me.

It was trying to eat me alive.

As those teeth curled, I couldn't help but...

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"

[i hope all my days - will be lit by your face]​

"Shizuka."

The streetlight gave its final flicker. It had been buzzing continuously and flashing on and off for hours now. Yet, that wasn't the end. It still had another job to do when the sun set. But, at that moment, the gigantic ball of fire in the sky was lifting from the horizon.

Hair was lifted from its perpetual hang over the air. A pair of amber eyes gazed forwards with interest, only after cringing at the light. She never spoke a word, but the 'voice' knew it was heard.

The other figure knew what she was thinking about. No question was needed for that moment. Yet, that didn't mean questions were non-existent.

"It's here, isn't it?"

The black haired girl gave a small, barely noticeable nod, a frown curled on her pale-peachy toned face.

The figure also gave a frown.

"We better hurry, then..."

[i don't want to be old and sleep alone]​

Though they were dormant, you could see their anxiety. The heavy breathing, the beads of sweat, and their expression; they looked lost and terrified, even if they were fast asleep.

But, a quick jolt can lead to so many things.

"AH!" a high-pitched scream hung over the dark, dusty alley, before quickly dissipating cautiously. A bare hand covered their mouth as a pair of deep blue eyes swept back and forth across the horizon. They were still terrified.

Still alert and stiff, they lowered their hand from their mouth and gave a sigh of relief, even though that sigh wouldn't calm their wildly beating heart.

"...I hate it," a child-like voice escaped from the lips of a young girl as she sat on her knees, giving a sniffle.

If you had walked past the alley and saw the small girl, you would have mistaken her for five-year-old at first, after not realizing that she was sitting on her knees and not standing up straight. Yet, when she would climb to her feet in the darkness, you would declare that she must've been ten years old!

If you said that, though, you would've received a curled up fist to your cheek, or your arm. She was thirteen years old, not ten! Yet, that was an easy mistake: she didn't really look like she had gotten any taller in the past three years of being on this gigantic world. No one noticed, though.

Long bangs covered over the young girl's face, especially the bunch pointing outwards but still managing to keep her left eye out of sight. Only one deep blue eye shimmered through the darkness, making the girl seem rather eerie if you were just walking past.

Her clothes were simple, however: a black, sleeveless shirt with a turtleneck, a black wristband, a pair of khaki cargo shorts, and a pair of black skater shoes. The only strange thing was the pair of goggles around her neck and the two twin yo-yos safely tucked away in her pocket.

The sound of the nearby ocean crept into the girl's ears, and almost seemed like an alarm clock. Before she was rather drowsy and out of it. But now? The tomboy was wide awake and up to her feet. Especially when a strange growling sound echoed throughout the corner of the alley.

"...I'm kinda hungry..." the girl said with a groan.

Quickly, she exited the alley and made a march down the sidewalk. The smell only made the growl grow louder.

This was the marketplace and bay side of the city. It was like the suburbs, only there was an ocean standing right next to it. People lived and worked in these shops, using the money from the sales to live and thrive. The thought of what was coming next, though, made her feel very guilty... But, other people had to do this, too, right?

As footsteps came closer to her standing point, she quickly let out a yelp and twirled into a nearby alley, this one with a gruesome, musty, and mildew-y smell enclosed in it. The girl stood by one of the many shops, her nose and mouth tightly covered by her hand as she looked rather green, and pondered what to do next.

The shop next door, though, was a bread shop...

A sweet, dough-like smell eclipsed over the sour, musty odor of garbage, and reeled the tomboy in with a fishing rod. She carelessly stepped through the opening and into a shower of the hypnotizing scent. Her stomach only seemed to growl louder and louder with each step.

Finally, a voice snapped her out of the trance.

"Hi! What can I get you this morning?"

"...Um..."

She immediately put her rather grimy hands against the crystal glass cage before her, eyeing everything within the cabinet. There were so many different things, even weird ones that no one could even imagine! Yet, one sparked her interest.

"Erm... one melon pan... please..." she spoke timidly as she jumped to her feet.

One moment later, and the baker placed a tightly wrapped, round ball of baked dough on the counter. The girl immediately snatched it into her grasp.

"That'll be 20 munny, please!"

She froze. Her eyes grew wide.

That was the point of this, right? But, this guy had to be at least 16 or 17, and they had such a sweet smile on their face. They looked so happy. She didn't want to shatter it! Just put it back on the counter and...

"...I'm sorry," she whispered under her breath.

"HEY!!"

He just couldn't catch the girl. She was way too fast for him.

She slid out of the bakery with careless haste, whilst being chased by the young, but now furious, baker. She felt horrible as she ran. She wouldn't stop. She couldn't stop. As much as she wanted to scream 'I'm sorry!' right in his face, she didn't.

Until she accidently slammed into somebody.

"Ow!" the young girl exclaimed, falling backwards onto the ground as she rubbed her nose.

"Caught ya, you stupid little brat!!" the annoyed male's voice chimed in, as a hand curled into the girl's turtleneck collar. The victim merely gave a gulp.

She looked up at the figure desperately, her deep blue eyes wide with panic. She whispered.

"Help..."

"...What the heck? I come to do some stupid errands, and I find an idiot choking a kid..."

"Mind your own business! This kid stole from me!"

The figure raised a brow, their female voice querying, "Really. What they steal? Munny, gol--"

"Food! What else?"

The teenaged girl gave a pause. Then a good laugh, "Are you serious!? Food... of all things! You're going to lock up a kid because they snitched food?"

"Well..." the boy growled, his face rather red now, "I worked hard on those!"

The girl frowned, placed her hands in her pockets as she glanced down at the child trying to wiggle herself out of the baker's grasp.

"It's not art, blonde... You can make more, right?"

He let out a growl, "So what? They're for customers, not punks!"

"I am NOT a punk!!" the young girl randomly chimed in, before her face turned red as she tried to shrink down out of sight.

Yet, what no one really seemed to notice that the currently timid kid was now hiding behind a certain teenaged girl.

"I didn't steal anything. I swear!" the tomboy exclaimed in a whisper, hiding behind the taller girl.

"...Look. You want me to pay you back?" she queried once more, "Or would like like to consider yourself delusional?"

"Shut up!!" the boy snarled.

"The kid didn't steal anything. Screw off, idiot."

Finally, with some coaxing, the stupid teenaged boy stomped off in a huff, slamming the bakery's door with a huge bang.

"...Thank you," the younger girl's face was still red.

"Did you really steal that?" Her purple eyes were half open as she glanced down at the tomboy behind her back; she really looked like one of those 'popular' kids with sort of attitude and expression.

"...No..."

Footsteps clicked already. The teenaged girl gave a sigh, turning her gaze around to spy the tomboy sprinting off into some nearby alley.

"...Hey!"

Her feet followed with that same sort of click, though these were much slower in beat. Though these footsteps weren't nearly as fast, it still caught up. And curled a fist around the young girl's shirt.

Immediately, she let out a surprised yelp as she was drawn backwards towards the other brown haired girl. Yet, the yelp was rather muffled. This was due to the round, baked ball of bread that was now in mid-bite. You could hear a bit of growling seem to grow louder as the young tomboy stared, wide-eyed, at the catcher.

The teenager merely raised a brow, a rather sour frown perched on her face. The tomboy gave a gulp and once again tried to pull herself away from being captured.

"So, you did steal it..."

The bit of food merely fell to the grimy ground when the child tried to open her mouth to speak. Her rushed tone merely turned into a small whimper as she stared hopelessly at the ground.

"Not that he's going to care now..." the grip was now relinquished, cueing a chuckle from the teenaged girl. Shoving her hands into her wrinkled, tan capri pockets, she quickly turned her tail in the opposite direction.

"...You're cruel," the tomboy scowled, before attempting to spit at the girl's feet. She never did, though.

"That's why I'm going to get something else for you. Am I cruel now?"

She blinked for a moment, watching as the teen came to a stop on the sidewalk. Was she joking? Did she plan that or something...?

"Well?" she repeated, the brown-haired girl turning to glance over at the thirteen-year-old, "You coming?"

It seemed rather strange, didn't it? Pointless protecting someone, accidentally tricking that same person, then being nice? That was way too easy... but...

"Yeah..." the tomboy lowered her head, walking behind the older girl, "But, who're you?"

"I'm Figgie," the teen gave a small smile, "And you are...?"

"Rena."

[an empty house is not a home]​

"...Ice cream?"

"Sea-salt."

"Oh..."

The concoction of a molded, hard liquid on a stick became even stranger with the colour: blue. Who would want blue ice cream? Rena narrowed her eyes, twisting her head side to side curiously, and merely watched as one little drop was pulled to the ground by gravity.

"Hurry up," Figgie snapped, though her voice wasn't harsh as it was played, "It's going to melt if you just stare at the damn thing all day."

Those dulled but strangely sharp words stung Rena immediately and caused the girl to begin licking the strange 'ice cream' substance without a second thought. She almost wished she hadn't, yet was very glad she did.

A strange mix. Sweet and salty? Of course that was bizarre! But how would believe that it was rather addictive? Her tongue swept across the rarely grainy surface, slowing just barely to swallow down that bit.

They merely sat on the sidewalk, their feet flat at the very edge of the concrete road that stood before the vast sea. And she took a glance with those round sky blue eyes at the brown and white haired girl.

'Why is she being so nice?' It was a perfect question. One that no one could answer but the teenaged girl herself. Why ask? That was pointless! There might not have even been an answer; just a snarl or something for giving an inquire.

Perhaps they met somewhere before. That had to have been it! Why else would a random stranger be generous to some kid who couldn't run fast enough from a novice baker?

"I don't know you, if that's what you're thinking," the teen spoke.

Rena's eyes grew wide. How...

"...Why you say that?" the tomboy frowned, taking another lick of the strange ice cream. However, this was only a cover-up of a sentence she wanted to scream out: 'are you psychic or something?'

"I just want to be nice, mmkay? Is that a bad thing?"

"No..." Though, the slight tilt of Rena's head said otherwise, "But, why me? Out of everybody else?"

"'Cause."

It still didn't really make sense. You could see the young tomboy simply gave a shrug.

"Whatever..." she mumbled.

Figgie's purple-coloured eyes seemed to lighten after a moment or two of silence. She smiled; yet, it had a mysterious bite to it.

"Hey," she begun as if barking a command, "I have to go see a friend of mine..."

Rena barely took her eyes off of the ground, looking at the teen out of the corner of her eye.

"You wanna come with?"

"Why should I?" the tomboy snarled defensively, in the midst sucking on a corner of the frozen sweet. She was more than apprehensive...

Figgie seemed to stick her nose up in the air just a bit, "Or you could stay in the stupid slums. I bet it's boring. Not like the city one bit..."

Rena choked and jerked her gaze, "...City?"

She could see that visible blue eye glimmering. The teen gave a tiny little grin.

"I could show you around if you wanted... But you'd just have to tag along with me for one little thing."

Rena was still a little uneasy. Her eyes shifted back to the ground, "I... guess..."

"Good!" Figgie jumped to her feet energetically and grabbed onto Rena's hand tightly, "But you better keep up!"

Two little puddles formed around the wooden sticks as they pointed up halfway to the sky. One fell idly to the ground as the milky puddle grew. Rena hadn't turned her head yet. They could've at least threw those away... or have taken them along!

[i don't want to be old and feel afraid]​

This seemed like a strange place to meet a 'friend'.

As they walked forwards, their footsteps slowly every little intimidating second, and as the darkness grew stronger...

The light seemed to disappear in only moments. Blowing out like a candle. However, the sun still shone overhead. Strange, isn't it?

Rena's footsteps came to a halt, her eyes wearily gazing around the long back alley. If Figgie's attitude wasn't intimidating, then this was. She had never seen an alley so dark and long. No amount of sunlight could break through it! Her heart pounded. Thumping wildly. Her lungs gasped. Reaching for breath. All alone...

A hand sweetly ushered the frightened girl forwards, those fingers curling around the young girl's palm. Rena jumped at first, but gave a sigh. After that, she stayed close behind Figgie, nearly stepping on the back of her shoes every time she paced.

They finally came to a final halt, at the very end. Rena's eyes seemed to flicker as she glanced up at the end of the back alley. Was that really the wall? It was so dark, you could barely tell...

Figgie gave a grin.

"Shizuka."

The sound of clothes moving. Nearly silent, but you could just make out the noise of wrinkling and motion. Motion of a figure...

A head lifted itself up, one eye sparkling with malice and pure discontent. The young girl took a quick step backwards at the sight. Figgie continued to grin widely.

"...Nan da yo..." a voice spat hoarsely as a question.

"What? I thought you wanted to see me..."

Shizuka gave a growl. Her long hair was perfectly straight over her eyes, yet perfectly messy and untidy on the other hand. You couldn't really tell what colour it was, however. The alley was still way too dark. However, you could tell that their posture made them look rather drunk; or at least half asleep.

The strange figure's shoulders seemed to lower as that eye shifted slowly over to the side.

"Kore wa dare da ka?" the female's voice was grainy once again. Her visible eye was staring right at Rena, who was peering over Figgie's shoulder.

Figgie gave a chuckle, "Rena-chan."

Rena's eyes grew wide and she retaliated backwards, only to quickly tap Figgie on the shoulder.

"Hey!" she whispered in the brown and white haired girl's ear, "Why're you telling her my name?"

"It's fine, I promise." Figgie assured, giving one mere glance at Rena.

"Sore wa ano kodomo desu. Ano kodomo wa watashi tachi o sagasu..."

Shizuka's sitting position seemed to get just a bit more straight.

"Honto ni..."

Figgie's eyes had grown wide. Yet, she never threw herself forwards.

Now standing before the teen was Rena, who wore a rather curious expression on her pale-yet-peach toned face. The tomboy's eyes gleamed all agog.

"...Hi," she stared down at the figure fallen on the ground and gave a child-like smile. A simple little curve.

Their long hair was all astray before their slender face. You could see their slender, nearly bony arms as they sat on their knees. A pair of untidy baggy pants, torn in random places, were there. A simple sleeveless vest, too.

"...Konnichi wa?" the voice didn't seem interested in a stupid kid. It sounded rather spiteful to her appearance. Distasteful. On the other hand, Rena was opposite: she was really interested in this strange girl. After all, she looked like she was from the slums, too...

Yet, her hand was pulled back robustly. No wonder she went sliding backwards after she felt that tug!

"You wanted to go?" Figgie spat, her voice sounding like it belonged to a vicious cat, "Then, hurry up!"

Isn't it strange how someone can change from one thing to another? Figgie seemed so genial moments ago, though it was a strange sort of tone to that, but now she was a bit surly and even bitter. Rena merely blinked as she glanced up at the teen. She barely realized she was being dragged by the girl.

They quickly left the long alley, moods seeming to reverse for both of them from when they entered. The sunlight would probably make a person happier. Neither was the case.

Rena still glanced up at the teen curiously as she wandered behind briskly, a sidewalk now beneath their feet.

What's up with you?

[and if I need anything at all]​

To the people of the slums, it's always been a mystery why they've never been allowed to enter the city. To the people of the city, they knew exactly why.

There were boundaries between the filthy streets and the massive buildings. Yet, these streets could be seen only with another citizen of the massive metropolis. Someone was about to find out why the people of the slums weren't allowed here...

But, they were too busy gazing at how tall the hundreds of buildings were.

"Wow..." Rena said, awestruck as her jaw seemed to drop to the perfectly paved sidewalk.

Unlike the bay-side and the slums, this place was nowhere near deserted. Cars streaming everywhere, people streaming besides those cars, and millions of lights that could be seen quite well in the daylight.

The tomboy knew exactly why she was upbraided by simply giving a quick gaze at this place: it was perfect. Spotless, flawless, and sparkling. If some filthy person stepped foot into the city alone, they would've been thrown elsewhere before their spot became scrubbed with some sort of powerful, bleaching cleaner. But, that's probably just an exaggeration.

While Rena looked in awe at this place, Figgie look at it with resentment. Sure, the place was flawless, but so were the people. You had to be perfect to live in this place. But, of course, there were the underground sort of people...

The teen was exactly one of them. A teenager who looked like they were a rebel against all of the adults. One who didn't want to grow up to be a lawyer, but some strange person like an artist or a writer for anything but textbooks. No wonder she glared at her surroundings with malice.

"C'mon," she snapped as she dropped a bit of change into a nearby glass box. Rena quickly followed behind as a pair of doors abruptly slammed behind her; she gave a nervous giggle as the ghastly, relatively annoyed bus driver gave her a terribly sickening look. Luckily, Figgie dragged the rather ditzy child behind. They quickly found a seat on the decently filled bus and kept quiet, Figgie growling at scornful glances to her acquaintance.

There was no idle chatter amongst the two for a good few minutes; the noise of the bus was enough of a reason to stay quiet.

The large wheels of the vehicle hastily dragged the loaded, steel carriage to each destination, only halting that 60 mph speed at strange red lights and at metal signs that read 'bus stop'. Rena glanced curiously out of the smudgy, grimy windows in awe, staring up at the magnificently tall towers outside. However, Figgie would have to drag the girl back to her seat whenever she laid across a seat to look out the glass on the other side.

After a few moments of idling sitting there, one person finally spoke.

"So... why'd you do that?" Rena queried, sounding interested at the thought.

Figgie only slightly lifted her head from staring at the floor, "What?"

"You know..." she gave a quick glance over to the teen, "Being nice to me. Of all people, you have to pick a worthless kid like me..."

"You're not worthless!" the brown and white-haired girl glowered, "Don't say that... Nobody is worthless."

The tomboy's voice quickly became a whisper, "But, I'm just a stupid slums kid! Nobody cares about us, everyone obviously thinks we're trash. Everyone was glaring at me before..."

As did the teenager's, "They're just pompous jerks with way too much money. They think half of this place is dirt, because it's not up to their standard."

"Wouldn't you be one of those pompous jerks?"

Figgie froze for only a mere moment, opening her mouth to speak soon after, "My parents have tons of money. They're stuck-up just like everyone else on this bus. I, on the other hand, am so sick of treating everyone like trash and being so uniform... So, I'm pretty underground... or at least some sort of rebel... And, unlike everyone else, we actually don't mind anybody in the slums. We'd actually rather be nice to them than be 'nice' to pompous asses."

"So that's why you're being nice to me!" Rena quickly exclaimed, just loud enough to get a glower from someone in the seat before them, "You could've just said that in the first place!"

Her expression was priceless: she looked so incredibly dumbfounded by the tomboy's words, and even started to give a low growl.

"...I'm seriously going to punch you."

Rena merely grinned widely. Rather childishly, in fact.

Yet, her grin dropped momentarily, "So, why were you so mad when I was trying to talk to that weirdo girl...?"

"No more questions."

"Huh? Why not!?"

"Because..."

The metal trolley came to a sudden, yet smooth, stop on the street and Figgie took the chance to raise to her feet once the vehicle came to a halt. Rena merely blinked. Kind of like she had it all planned out...

"...This is our stop!"

"What's a stop?"

"No more questions!"

"Aw c'monnnnnn! You're no funnnnn!"

Even though Rena was sulking and trying to find some way to persuade Figgie to answer her pestering questions, nothing, not one single thing, would be able to describe the young girl's excitement after they stepped out of the bus. Even if it was just walking around some city! It was still better than that stupid alleyway...

[i need a place that's hidden in the deep]​

It was just... well...

Figgie didn't get it. And she didn't know why she agreed to it. Rena didn't really care how simple it was. They merely walked around the city. For hours. It was already the afternoon by the time they got on the bus, and Figgie finally let out a grumble when it was beginning to get dark. Why would a kid be interested in looking at a city for several hours? Not going into any shops, buildings, or anything else. Just staring up at those huge buildings and letting your jaw drop to the ground.

"C'mon..." Figgie finally growled, trying to drag the young girl away from 'sightseeing' and towards one of the many buildings, "I gotta get home!"

"But I'm not done yet!" Rena eagerly protested, "There's this one cool, really tall building that looks all old and freaky and I could've sworn I saw freaky green flashies and--"

The teen's hand covered over the blabbering tomboy's mouth, forcing her to shut up so someone else could speak, "You know you can see it later, right?"

Yet, it quickly moved away, as did the elusive speaker. Rena's expression definitely said that she was way too perplexed at that moment.

"...Huh?"

Figgie had briskly walked off in the other direction, and the tomboy hurried to catch up.

"Hey!!" she exclaimed, sliding to a stop behind her, "What'd you mean see it later? I gotta get back..."

"Who said you had to go back?"

"...Um..." she merely twiddled her index fingers childishly, "I dunno..."

"Then what would happen if you didn't have to go back?"

"I... dunno..."

Figgie jerked herself around after coming to a halt, "...Do you get it yet?"

"Get what?" Rena tilted her head to the side.

Figgie's hand immediately tempted to meet her forehead, "...Wow. You're clueless..."

The teen took a step closer, "What if... someone wanted to let you stay with them? Instead of going back to the slums..."

If this were normal, Rena would perked up instantly. Yet, she actually lowered down just a bit. Was she just trying to tease her?

"I would... umm... be pretty happy, I guess..."

"Then, would you want to stay with me?"

Rena nearly fell over, "Huuuuuh?"

"My parents won't care! They can just deal with it!"

"But... uhh--"

Figgie seemed to tower over Rena now and the tomboy only tensed up more when she grasped the young girl's shoulders, looking her straight in the eye, "Look, I don't care if my home is your's, too. My parents shouldn't care, because they're stuck up snobs and they'll just have to deal with it."

"So, if someone offered to give you a home... would you take it?"

Rena froze for a moment. She remembered earlier when she didn't trust Figgie one bit. Sure, she helped her, but...

That small little smile decided to say otherwise. Just looking at that innocent smile that Figgie carried was enough to make Rena forget that she was ever hesitant to consider Figgie a 'friend'.

The tomboy gave a smile. Excitement rushed into the thirteen-year-old.

"...Really?"

Figgie nodded.

"Really!?" So much happiness and excitement was etched onto that one word.

Then, it shattered. Into a thousand, tiny, irreparable pieces. Onto that same tan, cracked sidewalk.

No! How did this happen? How did all of this happen?

Rena stared wide-eyed at the world around her. No longer was she standing in the midst of a vast city. No longer was she standing under orange and crimson clouds. And, no longer was a friend nearby.

The tomboy dug her shoes into the strange ground beneath her feet as the wind rushed through her messy hair.

"Figgie!!" she cried helplessly, "Where are you!?"

Her deep blue eyes glimmered with a powerless gleam. This place was no longer familiar. There was no way to jump out of it back into that city where she once stood. After all...
 

Mason Stark

TICK TOCK, KID!
Joined
May 12, 2004
Messages
7,091
Awards
18
Location
Gravity Falls, OR
Website
twitter.com
...>.> <.< *sneaks cookie to LS* DON'T TELL ANYONE. *hides in box*

Thanks for the comments! I really appreciate them! >w< *gives chocolate cornets*

I have the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chapters already written and I'm in the process of writing the 5th. For this, I'll try to update every Tuesday, or Wednesday at the latest. Once I get to chapter 13, however, it might be a little delayed because of something other story... [which i've been slacking off on BADLY *headdesk*] Anywho, here's the next chapter! Expect all of those chapters throughout this week! I have to revise all of them first, though. ^^;

------------------------

002 + T H E _ E N D .

here lies the end of this path.

has this journey already begun?
[if you look in the mirror and don't like what you see]​

where does this new road begin?​

It was... cold. So cold.

Is that you?

That voice quickly struck my ears, yet I could feel that I was asleep. Am I... dreaming?

It's time to wake up...

That voice came again and, suddenly, I felt everything: my fingertips pressed against a cold, glass floor, the air rushing in and out of my mouth, and the new chill running down my spine. My electric blue eyes opened as something slithered across my hand.

I jolted up from the glossy floor to find myself in a pitch black world: I was standing in the middle of darkness, among thousands, maybe even millions, of strange things that looked like eels that weren't nearly as thin as the sea creatures.

My chest pounded.

Terror latched onto me. These things grabbed me with 'hands'. They covered my mouth. My eyes. I couldn't breathe! I couldn't see... Digging their fingers into my skin.

My lungs gasped for air. An aching urge to scream. When I tried, no sound came.

A voice was pulling me in. Closer and closer...

Finally, I had a little bit of hope: a pale hand was placed on my cheek, letting me know that everything was alright. As soon as I felt that hand, everything was gone; I could breathe, I could see, and I saw... bars?

It's alright. It's just me...

I had to rub my eyes for a second to believe it: it was a girl! A blonde haired girl who had the sweetest smile on her face. So, why was she in a cage?

"...Naminé."

Yeah, that was her name: Naminé. She only grinned softly as I said that name.

"What took you so long, Ven?"

"Ven...?"

"That's your name, isn't it?"

[you can find out firsthand what it's like to be me]​

"Really!?"

That word had so much excitement, so much happiness etched onto. She would finally have a home, a place where you could stay inside during those horrible summer storms and cool winter winds that chilled you to the bone. No longer would she be alone to live with the others in this horrid part of this beach world. And no longer would she have no one to call a family.

Yet, that was just a distant memory now.

With a flash and the wind whistling away the world into dust, it changed.

No more sunny skies. No more sparkling blue water. No more... anything! The bricks of buildings laid astray across the now crackled street as the purple-grey, clouded sky hovered above.

As she now stood by the bay-side area (how, though, wasn't accountable), it all screamed one word: DESTRUCTION.

If darkness had teeth, would it swallow you whole?

'No, it would rip you apart.'

"What..."

Her deep blue eyes gazed in horror at the destroyed world before herself, her heart pounding wildly in her chest.

"...is this...?"

She reached for a pair of goggles that were hanging around her neck, only to find that there was nothing but air. The girl glanced down quickly, searching for her familiar blue-tinted goggles, and found something else along the way: no longer was she wearing that familiar outfit, or those familiar pair of goggles. Instead, a hue of blue was flashing before her eyes and she found herself wearing an outfit that was nothing like before, almost like it was a costume of a video game character.

Both of the long brown bangs hovering over her face leaned down as the tomboy gazed at her new clothes.

"...That's new," she replied, playing with her black and blue vest as a pair of black, fingerless gloves clung onto her hands.

But what was more important randomly getting a new outfit?

The demons marching in the street, ones with round, yellow eyes that were glowing deviously and strange black antenna that sat on top of their round heads.

The girl found herself sliding backwards against the wall and gazing, once again, in horror at these black creatures.

'What're these things?' she questioned silently in the thoughts of her mind, continuing to gaze down at their perfectly coordinated march down the now crackled, concrete street. The girl bravely, but hesitantly, took a step forwards and found that she would be repaying for that one moment later.

That newly acquired, oversized, black sneaker, similar to it's twin, stepped onto the only stop of concrete visible and the girl's whole body, and other foot, slid along behind. Yet, that was probably one of the worst things to do at that moment.

Every single pair of glowing, yellow eyes turned and glared. Every single antenna stopped twitching. Every single round head turned, black teeth barely visible against the shadows. And now, the girl just watched, helplessly, as they all came flying through the air.

Some dug their teeth into her arms and legs, while others just tried to scratch the face off the poor girl. She didn't bother to scream; she knew no one would hear her. But, what else could she do? She didn't have anything to defend herself with against these dark creatures!

SLASH!

Suddenly, from the ones that she could tell, their eyes grew wide and then they all 'popped' out of existence. They were gone, all gone, except the ones who hadn't dared to jump at their prey. Instead, they stopped and stared off into the distance, a good bit away from the tomboy.

That, obviously, meant it was a good time to run for it.

She slid off down the sidewalk, quickly running down the street to get away from those small, dark beasts. But, the only thing that was ringing in her ears, aside from the wind rushing past her, were the sounds of that familiar slash and a voice: someone who was screaming 'WAIT!'.

[so gather 'round piggies and kiss this goodbye]​

Someone had to be in this place still!

Everywhere she looked, she found no one. As she ran down the street, she saw no shadows in shops or even a speck of light; there was only darkness left inside the still standing buildings, just like in every corner of Cucio Bay. What did happen to this place?

But, there was one little bit of hope left: one lone person stood on the familiar, long, and tall dock that hovered over the now black ocean. That one person was none other than...

"FIGGIE!" the tomboy cried out both desperate and relieved, as she ran up to meet the teenager. Standing ahead of her was a brown haired girl, who's hair had two long, white streaks that framed her face. She looked like everyone who had been in this city, before they all disappeared, of course: like a punk who had been hanging out on the beach too much. Unlike the young girl behind the teen, she hadn't changed one bit!

"Figgie," the girl begun as she slowed to a stop behind the teen, "We gotta get out of here... somehow... It's all crazy and there was all these black things that were biting me 'n stuff and... LOOK! I got a--"

The young girl let out a sound that sounded like a mix of a gasp and a hack. The brown and white haired girl, who was about to take her in just before the world changed, had now grabbed the tomboy's throat in an iron grip.

"I was waiting for you to show up and start whining to me about that, Rena," the voice said, sounding slick and sadistic, as messy bangs shadowed over her eyes.

"Figg... ie...?" Rena said once more, her hands grabbing onto the teen's arm, "What's... wrong...?"

"What's wrong? You're such an idiot!" the teen growled with that sickened, sadistic voice. Her grip on the younger girl's neck tighten and she brought her to eye level, "You are the one who destroyed my home. My precious home where I could be a spoiled rotten brat and have all the wealth in the world. I could scream, yell, sulk, pout, and anything else to get what I wanted... But, no! You had to find me, make me feel sorry for myself, and what did you do? You turned around and destroyed my home, you stupid little BRAT!"

"I-I'm sorry... Figgie...!" Rena squeaked with strain, all while trying to pry Figgie's hand off of her neck, "I... didn't do any of... THAT!"

The teen just giggled and lifted her head up, revealing a pair of bright, yellow eyes, "Are you sure? That's sounds like something a brat with nothing but a box would do: steal someone's money after you whine and beg for it! I'm sure no one would care if I threw you over the edge and let the Heartless swallow you whole. No one would care about a peasant like y--!!"

The girl let out a hack. Her painful grip was relinquished.

As Rena fell back onto the dock, she gave her head a hard shake. Her eyes moved up from the ground and onto Figgie. How she wished she closed her eyes.

Figgie stood with a black-gloved hand through her chest, a blood-covered heart pulsing wildly in their grasp. Her eyes were completely white, no colour of any hue seen within them, and her skin tone had desaturated completely. Figgie was...

Rena threw a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming as she watched her 'friend' fall face-first onto the dock, watching in horror as her grey skin shriveled up to cling to the bones underneath it. Behind where the girl once stood was a black cloaked enigma, a hood covered their face in shadow, who held the girl's pulsating heart in their grasp as blood seemed to stain their leather, black gloves.

"I wonder how pathetic this one is..." a teenaged, male voice said as their eyes, hidden beneath the shadow of the hood, glanced over to the heart in their grasp; unlike the hearts that Heartless steal and become, this one was no heart that looked like it had been drawn with two simple, curved lines. This was, in fact, a heart that had no memories at all. This was a human organ.

Suddenly, a tongue could be seen sticking out from the shadow and it inched closer and closer... until it licked the heart within their grasp.

Rena, mouth still covered by her gloved hand, only continued to watch in horror as this black cloaked enigma licked her friend's heart; she couldn't help but want to puke at the sight.

"...What?" the voice questioned, giving an annoyed sigh after realizing what was wrong, "Haven't you ever seen a sadist before?"

"Sad... ee... est...? You're... sad?"

"Man. Just as stupid as them..."

"Huuuuuuuh?"

With a quick grumble, the enigma dropped the bloody heart to the wooden dock and removed their hood, revealing a guy who looked no older than eighteen, if not younger: he had dirty blonde hair that fell over his left eye, which was part of a pair of emerald green eyes, and a skin complex of peachy yet pale, much like Rena's own.

"It means I'm insane... though, I wouldn't go around saying that..." the enigma continued on, being rather annoyed at that moment.

His black boots made a clunk noise as they stepped over Figgie's body and made their way towards Rena as she sat sprawled on the ground. With no time to even react, the tomboy found herself in the dirty blonde's grasp, since he tightly gripped the girl's vest and t-shirt collar into his hand. Now, they were both at eye level and staring into each other's eyes: Rena was freaked out beyond belief while the enigma just wanted to start laughing his head off.

"So, what'd they call you?" he questioned as Rena watched his only visible eye squint as he asked.

"R-Rena," she shook with a gulp.

"Pretty good name... Mine's better," he cockily stated, "Name's Aoi. I'm a Nobody, but I'm not stupid like the other eleven guys and gals in the Exil-Orgy. But, enough about those idiots... Don't you want to know what happened to your so-called 'home'?"

Rena gulped once again, realizing that Aoi brought her in a little bit closer so that their noses were barely touching; didn't this guy know about personal space? She only nodded, hoping that would get her down on the ground again as soon as possible.

"Alright then... It was an illusion. A fake, a fraud. If we could create characters, we would be roleplaying in it."

"...Illusion...?"

"Yeah, one of those. This world that you knew, well the 'version' of it that you lived in, was only a computer program. Kind of like Twilight Town, but the only problem was... this place was destroyed as soon as you landed on here; talk about bad luck. Someone was bright enough to make an 'overlay', with fake people and places, to watch over you guys and keep you from screwing up."

Rena's blue eyes merely widened as this chimed into her ears. An illusion? The whole town was... fake?

Her glance passed from Aoi's emerald eyesight and down to the shriveled up, bony figure that laid on the wooden dock below. She merely gave a cringe.

"So, Figgie is..."

Aoi gave a scoff, "If she was, she would be here, now would she?"

The tomboy let out a growl and shifted a harsh glare onto the dirty blonde, "Then why was she like that!? Say it!!"

"She wasn't your friend, you know..."

Rena growled once more, her eyes seeming to narrow with pure annoyance. She merely gave a pout, "Of course she is!"

"Then why would she promise all of that stuff and take off? She was waiting for Cucio Bay to go back on destruction mode, so she and that weirdo could take off. See where that got her?"

"...How'd you know about that?"

"Oops," Aoi gave a chuckle, "I think I just over-talked."

There came a sound like wind, though it was only a quick burst of it. Unfortunately, this guy wasn't allowing Rena to see what that noise was; but, whatever it was, that wouldn't have been good news.

"Thanks for screwing up, kiddo! Cucio Bay and that stupid 'friend' of your's are gone, and it's all thanks to you! Now, I need you to do me a favor... Tilt your head to the left a little bit and go in... THERE!"

"AHHH!"

Suddenly, everything went from purple to black, with that freaky enigma waving good-bye before the exit.

[i'd encourage your smiles i'll expect you won't cry]​

'What happened...?'

The girl stumbled around, as if looking for a pair of glasses that she lost. She was alone, in the dark of all places, and was sliding across a glossy floor that stood underneath her feet.

'I guess I'm dreaming... Okay! I wanna wake up now!'

Rena stumbled and fell onto the floor, where she just laid there and let out a deep sigh of annoyance.

'Guess not...'

She rolled over onto her back and simply stared up at the 'ceiling', or the rest of the darkness that was hiding above her. Her deep blue eyes lit up in the dark 'room', seeming to be the only bit of light; if there were bright enough, anyways.

'What did that guy do? He threw me into... some place... but where is it?'

Something slithered. Rena jolted up from her laying position to sit up straight, feeling her heart race once more. There was nothing there, as far as she could tell at least; she was still alone, so how could anything be there?

There is no light within the darkness...

Rena jerked her head around after hearing a voice come out of nowhere. Her breathing quickened and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up straight.

Why won't you just give up?

A voice... It sounded rather cynical, like they believed everything was horrible; they sounded pretty... pessimistic.

Something slithered across her legs now and Rena jolted to her feet, her heart still pounding wildly in her chest.

'That guy... um... AOI! GET ME OUT OF HERE!'

That same something wrapped itself around her stomach. Her arms were helplessly locked to her sides. Something coiled around her legs and arms, while another grabbed her neck. She choked. Terribly struggling.

I... I'll never give up...

A boy! His voice echoed in her thoughts. Rena gritted her teeth. Still struggling...

'Get... OFF! I didn't mean to get here! It was all that stupid guy's fault; blame him!'

They were coiling tighter. She was turning pale. Gasping for air. Trying to break free!

I still have to see them: my friends, everyone I cared about!

The things grew larger. Gluing themselves to the tomboy. One covered her eyes. Yet, she still couldn't take her sight off of that.

'I just want to go back home, okay? Not that world I was in... that place was illusion; I know... Just let me go back!'

Pointed teeth. A lashing tongue. It curled around her feet.

Just let me out!

The darkness was trying to eat her!

'Please!'

I have to see them again!

There came a sudden flash of bright light that filled the edges of nowhere. That light came and it seemed as if those strange things had never been there in the first place. All there was, at that moment, was the young tomboy and something strange: a sword that looked like a giant key. It was silver on the blade and long pole that held it all together, while it was blue on the outside 'rim' that looked like the outside of a box. At the end of this key, though, was a keychain: one that had a crown emblem hanging from it.

"...Whoa." Rena finally spoke without the words echoing in her thoughts, rather than spitting out of her mouth. The bright light dimmed until it made a simple, white glow around the key-shaped weapon.

You're the other: the one they need. You are the only one who can open the Desolate...

A strange voice echoed in the girl's mind once more and, with a flash, the darkness crumbled away. Now, there was just Cucio Bay: it was still in the midst of destruction, with a dark, purple-hued and clouded sky. Yet, one thing had changed, though it was only for her: she now had this weirdo key and a voice was still talking in her mind. This voice, though, belonged to...

Yeah... that's just like--!

"Hey!"

Rena's eyes were only taken off of the strange blade when she felt a hand grasp her shoulder. Defensively, she let out a yelp. She was beyond frightened!

Taken aback, he merely stared at the girl, her eyes wide in a comical way. He almost believed he should've laughed. But...

"You!" he said breathlessly as he put two strange yet familiar swords onto his back, "I... found you..."

The tiny hairs on the back of Rena's neck rose and a strange chill ran down her spine. This was probably the third weirdest thing today, next to crawling around in the dark and meeting an insane enigma that stole people's hearts just to lick them; but, really, what kid runs up to you and says 'I found you!'?

"Uhhh..." Rena muttered cautiously, "Who're... you...?" Her head begun to tilt to the side, her deep blue eyes narrowing, and the boy gulped while his electric blue eyes grew wide.

"I-I..." he begun nervously, fidgeting with his black wristband. The boy looked only a few years older than Rena, about fifteen or sixteen to be exact, and wore another one of those strange costumes: he wore a soft, light blue coloured vest with a tall collar that only hovered a few inches from the side of his neck; at the end of his sleeveless vest were zippers, which only covered up a bit of the t-shirt sleeves that connected to the vest. The vest was parted down towards the left side, rather than down the middle, but the part was rather wrinkled by the two brown belt-like straps that held two oversized keys on his back. Clinging to his two legs were a pair of strange pants: one part was black, with a zipper running up and down it, and the other was a cream colour, though it seemed to have some sort of light blue mixed in, that separated the black bit with a crown-like 'edge'. A pair of black and silver sneakers could be seen underneath the baggy pants, while on his arm was a strange crown-shaped object around his right arm while a black wristband sat on his right wrist.

Underneath a head of spiky blonde hair were two blue-hued eyes. The strange thing was: they were the same exact colour as Rena's own.

"I'm..." he gulped once more, now thrusting his hands into his pockets. Rena tilted her head to the side.

"That's not important right now!"

He bravely took a step forward, clearing his throat and removing his hands from his pockets; as if to show he was trying to be 'un-nervous'.

"Are you that last one on this world?" he questioned with a bold, clear tone.

Rena simply shrugged. "I dunno..."

"I don't think there would be that many people with all of those Shadow Heartless back there," he added in with a laugh. Rena, once again, tilted her head to the side in confusion and the blonde cleared his throat once more, out of a horrid habit of his.

"I... umm..." he muttered once again, "Do you... are you..." He let out a sigh of frustration, seeming to scratch his ear as he questioned, "Can you... get out of here...? Don't you have a gummi ship or something?" He didn't even know how to put that into any other phrase.

Rena shook her head, hair flopping back and forth quickly as if she were a puppy dog with floppy ears. "No..." she replied, rather confused by the word 'gummi ship'.

The boy gave a warm smile. "C'mon then," he said, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder, "I can't just leave someone behind around here, now can..."

BHAM!

A loud crash echoed throughout. It rippled. It grew softer by the seconds. Then came a cloud: a massive dark cloud. It swept through the world like blood in water. It was impossible to see! It was so dark. So bleak. So hopeless.

When the cloud finally dissipated, leaving behind a fog within the town, his eyes shined through the mist and found one, and only one, thing: that girl had a keyblade.

[!save me! get me out of here]​

She ran.

That brown-haired girl ran, as fast as her oversized sneakers would be willing to take her. She zoomed down the sidewalk and through the purple-toned mist that laid across the streets as a blanket. Yet, when she finally stopped, she only wished as her heart raced.

In the midst of the slums, Rena found something worse than any sort of small, weird creature; it was terrifying. Before her, standing taller than any skyscraper, was a shadow: thousands of glowing yellow eyes could be seen, many melting into the blackness while others stared with wide eyes, and they all formed this horrifying black creature that stood tall among the destroyed buildings. Yet, it couldn't even seem to stay in one piece.

Hovering above the grotesque creature was a massive, strange, purple orb with purple-hued lightning bolts streaking the inside of its seemingly glass exterior. A massive gust of wind could be felt that pulled towards this orb, pulling you closer and closer until you were sucked up into the orb's wrath.

Many of the familiar 'shadow' creatures from before could be seen disintegrating from its now-forming 'body' at the top, while others stood their ground down at the bottom to form two legs and wonky, wrinkled feet. The only problem was: they were all about to get sucked up.

Outside of the area the large shadow was in the rest of the world. Rena watched, helplessly, as her 'world' fell apart: the sea was disintegrating into this large orb, along with the streets and some of the destroyed buildings.

Cucio Bay was disappearing.

The large key within the tomboy's grasp gave a strong vibration, as if signaling Rena to do something other than just stand there. But, the girl simply brought the weapon up to eye level and frowned.

"What am I supposed to do!?" she exclaimed aloud, as if she heard the key telling her to do something. It vibrated once more, seeming to be rather persistent after its second time. She simply frowned.

"But... what do I do...?"

Suddenly, a pair of arms clung to the young girl, as if to keep her from flying up into the air.

"It's you," a voice said, pulling the tomboy close while they dug their feet into the ground, "You're the one that Naminé told me to find!"

Rena simply blinked and glanced up to see that same boy once more. She tempted to wiggle out of his grasp but found no avail in doing so.

"Erm... mind getting... off...?" Rena said nervously, seeming to ignore what the blonde had said.

"Not until we get out of here," he simply stated before he released his grasp and put one hand on the tomboy's shoulder, "Which'll be any second now..."

With one hand outstretched, the blonde haired boy's eyes stared off into the distance in complete concentration. Yet, Rena wasn't willing to find out what was coming out of the blackness that came swirling into view. She instantly knocked away the boy's grasp with her own oversized key and slid off until she could see the blonde glancing over at her.

"Screw off!" she angrily exclaimed, forcing herself into a battle position with the strange sword, "I'm not tagging along with weirdo blondies, especially not ones like you; even if it means getting out of here!"

The male sighed in frustration once more. "You don't get it!" he exclaimed as he stepped forwards, "That! That thing that you have... It's nothing ordinary. It's--"

"AHH!"

A familiar scream of horror emitted from the brown-haired girl, one filled with fright at the sight of it.

Her hand! It was...

Into dust, the tomboy was beginning to fade. She glanced up at the blonde, hoping he would be able to stop this somehow.

But, she wasn't the only one. The boy also found his hand disappearing.

The two of them were fading. Their blue eyes watched in horror as their hands faded, their arms faded, and even themselves begun to turn into dust that flew up into that ominous orb.

Then, it was gone. The whole world. It all disappeared.
 

Mason Stark

TICK TOCK, KID!
Joined
May 12, 2004
Messages
7,091
Awards
18
Location
Gravity Falls, OR
Website
twitter.com
Thankies for the comment! 83;

He's not freaky... he's just trying to be. >.>; He's a big softie. Seriously. xD; And I would probably get punched by that comment... but it's true... >: *shuts up*

New chapter time! Well, two new chapters. This will never happen again. Yup. Enjoy!

-------------------------------

003 + RUSH

after the moment we disappear

is there anything left to happen here?
[pulling you in, spinning you 'round]​

or do we find another place to call 'home'?​

Why was this town always so boring? The teenaged girl sat on top of a fireplace, the flames within it licking inside the container, with a hand underneath her chin while a look of boredom sprawled about on her tan-toned face. Her foot dangled aimlessly in the air, swinging back and forth as if it were a metronome, while mako blue-tinted orbs stared half-opened at a piece of the wall across the room.

"AY!" A loud, crackled, and rather grumpy, voice boomed through the shop. The teenager glared over at a blonde hair man with a toothpick in his mouth with disgust.

"What now?!" she loudly complained with a snarl, grabbing the edge of the fireplace and halting the swinging of her foot.

"Someone's orderin' gummi parts, so git yer' ass upstairs and git 'em!"

"With the moogles!? NO! They're gonna try to haggle with me again for... materia... little perverts..."

A fist slammed onto the light yellow coloured counter and the teenager fell the fireplace from alarm. Then, the old man started cursing. She couldn't seem to count how many curse words came sprinting out of his mouth; there had to be more than 20, and there were probably some in a foreign language as well. Pushing herself to her feet, using the fireplace's round edge as a crutch, the girl glared over at the cynical adult with the sailor mouth. When he stopped spitting into the air, the teen couldn't help but be incredibly rude.

"...In English would be nice, gramps," she rolled her eyes, blowing a bit of stray hair that fell into her face.

"NOW!" the adult's voice boomed within small room while the teen let out a small yelp.

"Alright, alright! But, if they start talking with the fake accent again, I swear--"

AH! I'M SORRY! I didn't mean to get it! REALLY!

"...What the..." the girl's stance was now straight. Whatever that screaming was seemed a lot more interesting than those stupid moogles. And, apparently, the old man realized that.

"Alright..." the blonde seemed to loosen up a bit, idly playing with the toothpick in his mouth, "You go see what that is, and--"

With a grin, the teen didn't dare wait for him to finish; he probably would have changed his mind in the next five seconds, anyways. Instead, she sped through the large wooden doors and quickly slammed them behind her, hurrying off to see what all that shouting was about.

"BUT YER STILL GONNA HAVE TO GET ME THOSE BLOCKS!!"

[lifting your feet right off the ground]​

A giggle seemed to echo into their blank thoughts, a boy's voice loudly marching behind.

"Gimme a bre--!!"

A wave of static filled into an empty space, cutting off the boy's voice as if it had been slicing through with a knife.

Now, rather than just sound, there came a flood of images: a girl was standing on the beach, holding out her hand with a smile on her face, and a boy went to take it. That same boy was on his knees before he jolted up to his feet, screaming at a cloaked figure standing before him. The girl reappeared again, trapping behind bars and looking for a way out.

Their voices came in a flood and never seemed to end. The only time it stopped was when the final image came in: a silver haired boy holding the girl's body, stepping backwards, as a black creature that looked like an exact duplicate of the first boy sprung out of the ground.

From there, everything faded into black.

Yet, something clawed its way in.

It shredded through the darkness. Claws sinking into the walls. Tearing them to bits. Wicked yellow eyes. It giggled psychotically.

I fOuNd YoU!

"AH!"

The brown haired girl woke up with a jolt, her heart bouncing madly inside her chest as sweat rolled down in small droplets from her face. The tomboy's lungs rapidly gasping for air. She fell back against the wall, staring off into space with her deep blue eyes.

"What... was... that?" she questioned in between breaths, now incredibly freaked out by the voice crawling through her thoughts like a parasite until it finally found something. It was scary, especially with another surprise.

The walls. They definitely weren't familiar.

Her hand brushed against a red bricked wall that stood behind her and she jumped to her feet, as if there were a bug on the wall. Her deep blue eyes motioned around to glance around at this new setting: it was an alleyway that faded off into darkness at the end. Somehow, it was rather eerie.

Rena, a chill running down her spine, took a quick step backwards and ran into the entrance of this alley, finding a strange town before her eyes.

"This... isn't... home..." she whispered aloud, her eyes growing wide as she glimpsed around the new surroundings with panic.

That panic turned into dread. The dread transformed into horrible thoughts.. Her eyes grew wider. And wider. Thoughts came flooding in. She was terrified! What happened to her home? What happened to Cucio Bay?

"Home isn't... it can't be..."

Something grabbed her shoulder. Rena let out a small scream of fright as she was jerked around to find...

"Are you alright?" the voice questioned in a kind, soft tone. Her heart was no longer up in her throat, pounding wildly with terrified emotion. The tomboy gulped and glanced down at the ground, her hands lazily hanging by her sides.

"Y-Yeah," she said with a small, unnoticed sigh.

A small 'hmmm', as if pensive in thought, came from the figure, while a frown seemed to form on their face.

"You don't look alright. What's your name?"

"Rena," she replied, her tone blank yet sad at the same time.

"Rena, huh? I've been looking for a 'Rena'."

"Huh?"

A giggle seemed emit from the figure hovering over her. Rena had glanced up to see their face, yet only saw a shadow hiding them as if it were a mask, and found a small knife pointed at her throat.

"Kyuuuu~ I didn't think I would catch you that fast!" the figure giggled sadistically.

Rena gulped, her eyes still staring up at the shadow.

"W-Who're you...?"

First, they were in front of her. Now, they were behind, the knife's blade now pointed sideways across her neck.

"Me?" another giggle ensued, "My name's Xatzku~ And, you are my prey! I haven't had one of them in a long time, ya know! How fast can you run, kiddie?"

Rena didn't say a word; she just stood there, her eyes wide as she hoped and waited for this enigma to disappear.

"What? Cat got your tongue? I promise you that I'm not the cat..." they giggled again, and the knife seemed to disappear from view. Rena took her chance, and jolted forwards before jerking herself around to see the figure. Her eyes widened once more at the sight. though: they had a cloak, much like Aoi's.

"Are you... are you with Aoi?"

They giggled, "Of course, silly~! Why else would I be after you? Because of that key thing?"

"Key thing...? That key?" Rena glanced down at her hand, as if the key was supposed to be there.

"Well, I guess that's one reason. Kyukyukyuuuuu~ The keyblader's not very much at all without the key to wield, ya know..."

Suddenly, with a burst of light and coils of black surrounding it, the light formed into that familiar key. Rena gulped and, tightly grasping it, threw her arm by her side at once.

"So, you lost, kiddo?" the figure mewed, their arms crossed against their chest.

"I... I dunno..." Rena didn't know whether to answer or not. She gulped and threw her eyes down at the new ground she stood on. She could hear footsteps echo in her ears, then a gloved hand ruffled her already messy hair.

"Of course you're lost! You're like a little lost puppy dog who can't find their way home! So cute! But, you know what I think about little puppies?"

Rena lifted her head up and found the figure right in front of her face, "W-What?"

Their tone became as deadly as poison, "I think I should claw their eyes out!"

A knife came flying straight at her head! She barely had enough time to duck, let alone give a small yelp.

"Stay still! Don't make me pin your tail to the ground!"

Rena had hastily taken off running. The cloaked figure casually walked behind, throwing knifes straight at their victim.

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to get it! REALLY!"

"That key of your's? HA! What makes you think we want that thing? We've already done that sort of tactic, and it didn't work out so well for them!"

The young girl was up against the wall now. Cornered, like prey usually is.

One knife stabbed through one side of her hood, another went through her sleeve, and others did the same, cutting through her gloves, pants, vest, sleeves, and one even (which had to have been a butcher knife) was right against her neck.

She was standing there, horrified, as she was pinned to the wall by knives, while her key-shaped weapon seemed to disappear from sight. What did this enigma want?

"Dawwwwww~ The poor wittle baby gonna cry? Is the mean, ol' Nobody being scawey? HA!"

"Oy! What's going on out here!?"

A new voice seemed to etch itself into the air, and Xatzku turned their gaze to greet them. It was a tan skin-toned teen, who looked like she could kick your ass just by giving you a dirty look.

"Okay... I think Cid should at least give me some slack for this..."

"Girl. I'm busy, so if you don't mind... why don't you hurry along and go play your stupid toys like good children do?"

The teen seemed to roll her eyes.

"Well, you're in my town, with a kid hanging from my wall. I think I have the right to check things out."

"Look: this kid is being a brat and won't come back with me. I dunno how she got here, but coming with me right now!"

Rena immediately shook her head as Xatzku wrap her grip around one of the knives in the walls. The teen raised a bow.

"Funny. She doesn't look like she wants to go back. Especially when you've got knives on you..."

"Shut it!" Xatzku spat, taking one of the knives out of the wall and pointing it straight at the wall, "Quit being a smart ass already, and go mind your own business!"

The enigma begun to take the knives out of the wall, forcing Rena to fall to the ground. Xatzku latched her grip onto the girl's hood and forced her to stay behind her.

"I think we'll be going now, won't we?"

Rena shook her head, having loosened the figure's grip on her hood, and ran right behind the teen standing nearby; the tan-toned girl seemed to let out a little laugh, even if her face didn't show it. Xatzku was fuming now.

Then, without warning, a hand reached up and pulled the black hood down to her shoulders, realizing an adult, peach-toned face with brown haired that was pulled back into a ponytail, though a bang or two was hanging down in front of her face, with amber eyes that seemed to pierce right through you.

"You little brat!!" Xatzku screamed, marching forwards as her hands seemed to glow with a purple aura, "Just because you're hiding behind some idiot doesn't mean that that's going to keep from dragging you back!!"

Now with some of the knives in her grasp once more, she charged straight towards her prey, but only found a fist punching right into her stomach.

"Oy! Screw off!!"

Xatzku growled and slid backwards. She giggled once again.

"Don't think I won't be coming back, kiddo~ We still have a game of cat and mouse to play!"

Then, with her loud, insane laugh echoing through the area, she disappeared into blackness.

The teen let out a sigh, and begun to march off towards one of the buildings standing around in this part of the town.

"I thought that there would actually be something to cure my boredom... Haha. That was such a damn lie..."

"Umm... excuse me?" a voice came from behind the older girl while a hand seemed to tug on her vest.

"What now!?" she growled, jerking herself around, "Look, kid. I'm not a freakin' babysitter! Just go back to where ever you came from and--"

"But, I-I... I'm lost..."

[you can't believe it's happening now]​

"So, you went out there... and you came back with a damn kid?"

The blonde haired man with the toothpick in his mouth only seemed to glare in disgust at his employee, who didn't look too amused either.

"You told me to go check it out! And, I did! What else was I supposed to do? Let that freak come back and stab the kid into the wall again!?"

The teen could hear the dangling of feet as they motioned back and forth repeatedly, over and over again. The kid she had found outside in the First District was now sitting on top of the fireplace, much like the older girl had been, and kept her deep blue eyes locked on her moving legs, waiting for something to happen.

"Brat!" the old man screamed, rummaging around in his pockets until he found something balled up in a wrapper, "Eat this! You dun wanna turn into skin 'n bones like Miss Tanning Booth over here, now do ya!?"

"HEY!" the teen added in with a scream, "I have a name, ya know!"

The young girl seemed to cringe at the word 'brat', as if it were a fist that punched her right in the face. She hesitantly jumped down to the floor below her moving feet, and motioned towards the counter, where she took the wrapped up ball before scurrying back to the fireplace; after opening it, she realized that it was a little meronpan that the old man had been saving.

"So, what'd I do?" the teen questioned, shifting her mako blue eyes over to her blonde haired 'boss' that sounded like a sailor.

"Eh," he simply crossed his arms, his southern accent sticking out like a sore thumb, "It's yer problem, not mine. Yer the one that gotta find places from everyone in this town when they get their asses stuck here... Figure it out!"

"What!? Why do I... I... er... GRR! I'LL MAKE NINJA BRAT DO IT! She's too hyper for her own damn good! She can take care of it!!"

The girl on the fireplace seemed to cringe at the teen's screaming, while she barely nibbled on the bun.

"Eat the damn thing, kid!!" Cid screamed, where the tomboy frantically nodded and timidly said 'y-yes, sir!' as if it were a whisper.

"Ughhhhhhhh. C'mon, stupid kid..." the teen said to the tomboy, now tugging on her arm as if she was just going to pull her down, "Let's go figure out where you're gonna go..."

"Y-Yes, ma'am..." the tomboy timidly replied once more, jumping down to the floor and tagging along behind the fist fighter.

As the doors creaked shut and the two girls disappeared from sight, Cid merely blinked and rolled his eyes.

"Nah... that can't be it..."

[can you feel it? can you feel it?]​

"So, what's your name, kid?" the teen asked as they made their way past the Accessory Shop, the tan girl seeming to be in a hurry to get to a set of doors beyond the shop.

"M-My name is... umm..."

"What? Spit it out! You can't sound all jittery all the time!"

"My name... is..." the tomboy gulped and glanced up at the teen, "Rena..."

"Rena?"

"Yes, ma'am..."

"Stop calling me that! Call me Raynie!"

"Y-Yes... Ray... nie..."

Raynie seemed to have steam coming out of her ears after that moment. She was already annoyed, which was a fantastic thing in such a sarcastic way, and it might've gotten so much worse as soon as they got into the next District.

"So..." Raynie questioned, her arms crossed, "Where'd you come from?"

Rena gulped, "Uhh... Cucio Bay..."

"Really? Well, you just got on another refugee world again..."

"What's a... refugee... world?"

Raynie seemed to freeze, steam coming off of her head once again, "You don't know what a refugee world is, but you came from one!? What's wrong with you?!"

Rena gulped and sunk down to the ground, her eyes full of dread as she glanced up at the teen, "I-I'm sorry...! I didn't know there were worlds..."

"What? They keep everyone clueless there now? Jeez! They probably have a lot on their hands now..."

"But, it's... gone..."

"Really?" Raynie questioned as she seemed to perk up, "Well, it was a stupid place anyways... If it gets destroyed, then someone must've done something wrong to make it weak..."

Rena simply trailed along behind Raynie, though her footsteps seemed to begin to slow down as she glanced down at the ground. She called her 'world' stupid! That word felt like a slap across the face; after all, that had been 'home' for a while before it...

"C'mon, slowpoke!! We don't have all day to sit around 'n chat! There's a hotel in the next District, which is where you're gonna stay, until you actually get out of here!"

Rena cringed and nodded, "Okie... dookie..."

A gloved hand reached itself up against the wood, outstretching its fingers as the palm pressed against the door. There was no hesitation at all: Raynie pushed open the door quickly and swiftly, as if she had punched it in a way.

She gave Rena a small glare and a huff, as if that was supposed to signal that she better follow along. The tan teen then stepped through the doorway, the young tomboy shuffling along behind in hopes that Raynie wouldn't yell at her again.

The door slammed shut as the two passed through its gates, and their blue eyes lit up as they glanced around in the new 'world'.

It was huge!

Shops brightly lit the walls with neon lights and quirky signs, their windows glimmering beneath the dark sky hovering over the town. Small lanterns were lined around the desaturated brown wall that separated the upper level from the lower area just a small bit below. The ground was grey with cobblestone sinking into it, as red brick roofs shone brightly above.

But, the biggest thing of all? It was none other than a magnificent clock tower hiding behind in the background. The building itself was mainly white, many stained glass windows peering out into the world before it. A familiar burgundy-coloured rooftop could be seen before the face of a tan-coloured clock sat in front of a tower that stretched itself up into the night sky.

Of course, they weren't going to that.

With a small 'ah!', Rena found herself being jerked off to the left side, as well as finding herself dragged along towards a small house-like building with a grand neon-lit sign in the form of a house as neon 'smoke' billowed from the rooftop on the sign. That was the hotel, the place where people had to start off somewhere.

"You stay in the Blue Room," Raynie commanded sternly, a frown forced onto her tan-toned face, "And don't get out and find me... You're on your own after this."

"Yes... ma'am..." Rena replied, her eyes glancing down at the ground with a melancholy like stare, as if there was a sigh following behind. Her anxiety begun to kick in, though, as Raynie abruptly came to a stop.

"Shit!!" she screamed, tightening the gloves that were already wrapped around her hands, "There's stupid Heartless out already!? Man, they dunno when to quit, even if you punch 'em in the head a million times!"

Rena gulped and begun to back off. Raynie, though, pushed her forwards to come face to face with a pair of strange creatures with helmets on their heads, yellow eyes glowing brightly against their black skin.

"Kid! Run in the hotel right NOW! Don't just stand there!!"

Rena had a great fear of moving, though. Her eyes were wide with panic as she stared at the two creatures, watching as they inched closer and closer towards the two before them.

"Kid!!" Raynie screamed from behind the girl, "Run already!"

"It's... them..." Rena said with a thick tone of panic etched into her voice. She gave a small nervous laugh, her feet slowly beginning to move backwards.

"Dammit!! Do you ever listen!?"

Rena never heard her.

Her eyes were wide set on the two shadows with helmets. She could see them licking their black teeth with their black tongues, longing for those hearts that these humans carried.

One boldly took a step forwards, claws outstretched as their hands were readied. Rena simply gulped at the sight. She wanted to scream to Raynie. So badly...

Finally, it striked. It licked its teeth once more, then pounced forwards through the air, arms stretched forwards as it jumped towards its prey.

"KID!!"

Clash!

Raynie's light blue eyes stared off at the young tomboy behind her. No longer was she focused on the Heartless before her, though it seemed like it was simply twitching at this point.

Instead, her eyes were latched onto the dance the child and the creature lead until the black demon disappeared without a trace.

Raynie finally kicked the Solider Heartless behind her in the gut, the creature disappearing without a trace like its brother before. The teen gave a nervous laugh as she inched closer to the girl.

"I take it back... I seriously do..."

Rena blinked, having lifted her eyes from the spot where the Solider she defeated once stood.

"Eh?" she questioned, tilting her head to the side. Raynie let out an odd, almost insane fit of laughter.

"This is nuts!!" she screamed between her laughs, "A kid! A stupid KID! You're shorter than Sora, even!"

Rena's face gained a small pout, her eyes flickering with blue flames as they licked the pupils of her deep blue eyes, "Hey! Don't call me short!!"

"That's not it!!" Raynie interrupted with a small giggle, wiping her eye as if she had been crying from the laughter, "You're the one we were trying to find this whole time! Well, not exactly you, but just a general... thing..."

The teen cleared her throat, a bit of seriousness striking her voice, "But, fork it over. I need to hang onto that key..."

Within Rena's grasp was none other than that familiar silver and blue key that she had barely known since Cucio Bay. It was tightly gripped behind her palm and her fingers, as her black glove wrinkled around the handle. She defensively hid the key behind her, though, to keep Raynie away from it.

"What'd you want with it? I found it. It's mine!" she growled, taking a step backwards away from the teen.

"Oyyyyyy!" Raynie fought back, taking a step towards the kid, "You can't find those things! I doubt you even know what it is!!"

"It's a keyblader!"

Raynie choked.

"A keyblader?" a muffled fit of laughter was hidden behind her gloved hand, "No, I think that's you, kid! That thing you have is called a 'keyblade', and you can't go around randomly picking those up off the street!"

"Well, I found mine in some dark place this weirdo guy threw me into! Does that count as picking it up off the street!?"

"UGH! YOU'RE SO STUPID! Just give me the damn key, or I'll knock you over the head to get it!!"

"No!" Rena protested once more, protecting the key as she wrapped both hands tightly around the handle. Her feet slid backwards once more, while Raynie completely charged forwards towards the tomboy.

The teen let out another groan of annoyance and frustration. She was so close! But, some kid was being stubborn and wouldn't actually listen! Were all keybladers stubborn? Doubtful, but this one was being too headstrong for their own good!

Her feet slid across the cobblestone ground and she finally towered over the young girl, her hand outstretched to receive the key within her grasp.

"Give it! They're going to keep on coming if you don't fork it over! I need to get it out of your hands or else--"

Several tiny explosions went off around the twosome, resulting in the appearance of three more of those already clique Soldier Heartless. Raynie let out a growl once more.

"And THAT, kid, would be why I'm trying to get the thing away from you! So they don't keep on coming back, so we don't keep on having to fight over and over and over again!"

Rena simply gulped, her eyes wide as she glanced around at the familiar Heartless.

"Why do they keep coming back...?" she questioned with another gulp, now glancing up at Raynie.

"BECAUSE!" Raynie exclaimed, her hand outstretched still as a glare glimmered in her mako blue eyes, "If you've got a keyblade, they'll keep on coming and coming until they've destroyed the wielder that holds it!"

Rena froze, her grip loosening on her oversized key, "Destroy... me?"

"Yes, you!!"

There was no hesitation in what the tomboy did next: she thrust her weapon into the teen's grasp, then turned around to make a run for it.

"Nu-uh!" Raynie screamed both triumphantly and annoyingly, "That doesn't mean that I'm taking the damn thing!!"

"But, I quit! I don't want anything to do with that stupid thing!!" Rena exclaimed, tempting to escape Raynie's grip.

"Not if you actually know what you're doing!"

Suddenly, the two sped off, Raynie seeming to drag Rena along behind. The young girl merely watched as the Soldiers faded from view, before they came charging after the pair.

"Ah!!" Rena screamed, trying to turn herself around so the tan teen wasn't dragging her so much anymore, "They're coming after us!!"

Raynie smirked with a grin, "No problem there!"

It was only a moment later that the scene changed into a warm, home-y hallway that, apparently, belonged to the hotel. Rena let out a small gasp as Raynie finally let the young girl escape her grasp, yet only managed to stare at the amazing sight before her eyes.

"Pneumatic Rush!!"

There was no other way to describe it: it was amazing; at least to a kid who had never seen something like this before.

A small wave of water had blasted out from Raynie's hand, which was now covered by a green, gel-like ball of 'water'. The wave slashed through the Soldiers that came bursting through the open doorway, and destroyed them all with a single blow.

"Whoa!" Rena exclaimed with a grin as she watched the water coil back into the gel-like glove before the glove itself disappeared, "How'd you do that!?"

"I'm not explaining that now!" Raynie groaned, "We've got work to do!"

Suddenly, a gloved hand grabbed onto Rena's hood once more, swiftly dragging the girl behind as if she didn't know how to walk. Raynie immediately kicked a door open afterwards, seeming to cause the people inside to jolt.

"Whoa! Raynie has a keyblade!!" a high-pitched, female voice exclaimed, before Raynie snapped with a 'Shut up, stupid ninja baka!'

Then, a triumphant tone streaking her voice, Raynie exclaimed with a grin: "I found a keyblade kid!"

[rushin' through your hair]​

"You've gotta be kidding me," a male voice groaned, "You're shorter than Sora was..."

Rena blinked, looking rather innocent as she sat on the bed within the room. She gave a nervous laugh, unlike the last reaction to that statement, "Uhh... sorry...?"

"Lookie, Squallie-kun!" Raynie squealed, as if she had turned from a grumpy teenager to a hyper-active fangirl in two seconds flat, "I found the keyblade-y kid! Oh, don't you love me now?"

"No."

A high-pitched laugh ensued within the room, coming from a girl known as 'Yuffie'. The guy standing against the wall with his arms crossed was named 'Squall', though he loathed that name; if you didn't call him 'Leon', he would probably 'pwn' you with his gunblade.

"Shut you, you stupid ninja!!" Raynie growled as a glare became pinned to her face.

"Dawwwwwww! You're no fun, Raynie-chan!!" Yuffie frowned, her loud mouth forming into a cute, innocent pout on cue.

"Will you two SHUT UP?" Leon growled, his voice seeming rather cool despite the fact that he was incredibly annoyed.

"Yes, sir, Mr. Squallie sir!!" the two teens exclaimed in unison, both returning to their rightful spots on either the bed or at the small table within in the room.

Rena gulped, like always, as she curled herself up into a ball on the bed after she begun to hug her knees.

"Now..." Leon begun, turning his eyes to glance over at the tomboy sitting on the hotel room bed, "What's your name, kid?"

"I'm Re--"

"Aw, c'mon! We've gone through this a million times already!!" Raynie rudely interrupted as she sat upon the bed with Rena, "The kid's name is Rena, she's from Cucio Bay, the place got destroyed, she's got a keyblade, now can we please talk about that key over there!?"

A pout seemed to form on Raynie's face, seeming irritated enough to start shouting at Leon (Who, of course, just have her a dirty look, which looked like his same static expression), and she crossed her arms as if she were sulking.

Rena seemed to fidget, though, and tempted to reach out a hand to grab the oversized key. But, Raynie simply whacked her hand, as if she was being a terrible little brat, and the tomboy let out a small 'ow'. Leon gave a sigh of frustration.

"Ever heard of a kid named 'Sora'?" Leon questioned, shifting his eyes off to the floor.

Rena shook her head, "So... ra...?"

"He was a kid with a keyblade, too," Yuffie begun to explain, twirling an index finger around while she rocked back and forth in her chair, "He ended up here... 3 years ago...? Right?"

Squall gave a slight nod, and Yuffie let out a giggle; Raynie only glared and fumed.

"It was in this room, too! 'Cept Squall-san knocked him out before we had to drag him back here... That wasn't really fun, actually..."

"He was a keyblader, and a keyblader has the job of protecting the worlds by sealing their keyholes," Leon begun, arms still crossed as he leaned against the wall, "Sora went back to his homeworld 2 years ago, though, and everything turned out normal for a while, until the Heartless started popping up again. Hollow Bastion got overrun by them, and we ended up back here. The keyblader always will protect the worlds, so we were expecting him to come seal the keyhole. Instead, we found you."

Rena sunk down and cringed, lowering herself as if Leon's last phrase was a bad thing, "Oh, goodie. I get to be a replacement then?"

"Kinda..." Yuffie added in, her rocking seeming to slow, "Every keyblader has to seal keyholes, ya know. But, not everyone does, I guess..."

"There were two other keybladers, too: King Mickey and Riku; we haven't really found them either, actually," Raynie slid in, leaning backwards as she sat atop the bed, "They never sealed keyholes, unless they really really had to..."

Rena then perked up, no longer curled up in a ball on the bed, and begun to grin, "Okie-dookie, then! I won't seal keyholes 'n..."

"But, it seems stupid if you don't," Squall growled, lifting his head up to glare over at the young tomboy.

Rena simply frowned, her frown seeming to form a sort of pout.

"Keyholes and all that isn't why I dragged you here, though," Raynie shrugged.

"It's Hollow Bastion," Leon continued on, "That's our homeworld. We know Sora wouldn't hesitate helping out with that, but he's not here and you're not him."

"And, Heartless can't be defeated, unless you've got a keyblade!" Yuffie leapt in with a giggle, "So, we want to ask for your help, too..."

"No," Rena spat, sliding backwards on the bed as if she were going to shove herself into a corner, "Why should I help you? I don't even know any of you, and Raynie was screaming at me the whole time and dragging me around and..."

"If you help us, though," Squall interrupted, stepping away from the wall to grab the tomboy's oversized key that stood with him, "We'll help you get back your home, too."

She froze.

"Really!?" Rena instantly perked up once more, a grin replacing her sour frown, "Well, that's one thing--"

We're coming.

A strong, freezing chill ran down Rena's spine. Her eyes grew wide. Her anxiety begun to swell up. Did she hear whispers?

I hear them! I hear that fear...

Fear? She froze, trying to scoot backwards into that corner again.

"Rena?" Raynie questioned in a confused and weirded-out tone, as she glanced over at the tomboy, "You... okay...?"

"Give it," Rena spat, reaching out her palm in attempt to grasp the key within Squall's hand, "Give me my keyblade..."

They all probably thought she was nuts at that point, but hearing 'whispers' probably never was a good thing, right? Why else would you hear them?

The door burst open with a slam. Everyone jolted up, except for Rena. Her eyes wide with panic as she watched a silvery mist begin to creep into the room.

We have come for you...

They were here.

------------------------------------------

004 + APOCALYPSE PLEASE

in this home away from home

the darkness begins to creep in and corrupt
[it's time we saw a miracle]​

when nobody shall destroy and take over​

It was terrifying. There was no other word to explain it.

Her lungs gasped for air as if nothing came. Her heart pounded so wildly that the beat didn't seem to exist. Her eyes stared at the doorway in horror as it crept open.

It was like a demon, smiling insanely as it lunged forwards. No one was there to stop them. The room was empty except for the one terrified. And, they didn't move an inch for their weapon as the creature drew closer.

Their whispers was more terrifying than seeing them. She could hear them laugh so insanely that made you sick.

We have come for you...

That phrase repeated itself over and over again, and each time, she felt more panic come marching in.

"Help..." she whispered, tempting to hold back tears of fright as they ran down her face, "Please..."

[come on it's time for something biblical]​

"Kid! KID!!" a voice snapped the tomboy back into reality. She instantly let out a loud choke, as a hand grasped her arm.

"You okay?" the voice questioned as Rena begun to nod hesitantly.

"...I'm scared," she said in a soft tone, making her seem like a scared-beyond-belief child when meeting someone in a scary costume on Halloween.

"You will be, when we get outside," that voice belonged to none other than Raynie, who released her grasp on the tomboy's arm. The fist fighter gave a nervous laugh, as if her quote had a sarcastic tone and she only wished it was indeed sarcastic.

"C'mon! I'm not dragging you along if you're going to just sit there like that!"

The teen grabbed a weapon as she made her way towards the door, giving the article a toss as a glove grasped the doorknob.

"You'd better hang onto that... Really, really well."

The weapon went twirling through the air and 'bonking' Rena on the head as it landed in her hands. That definitely shook the tomboy out of her scared, trance-like state, even with a small 'ow!' attached. She grasped her familiar keyblade and glanced up at the tan teen, while jumping off of the bed.

"What's going on?" she curiously questioned, her deep blue eyes sparkling as if no fear had come in the first place.

"I don't really know, actually," Raynie replied with another laugh, tightening her grip on the doorknob, "You ready?"

"For what?"

"Anything that comes flying as soon as I open this door."

The door burst open.

Flying through the air was a creature like no other. It would seem rather foul, especially with it's white skin, zipper-lined mouth, and fin-like 'claws' or hands. Yet, it wasn't coming towards both of them mindlessly: it had a prey in sight.

"OY!!" a loud, booming voice cried, sliding forwards and grabbing what seemed to be the creature's throat, "DON'T YOU DARE-- Kid?"

"Raynie-chan!!" As if that wasn't a familiar voice.

"Hang on two damn seconds!!" Raynie angrily cried, punching the creature repeatedly in the stomach as if it were a punching bag. The strange creature soon met its fate, the teen's fist went flying through its abdomen, and burst into a silver-y gooze mess that had bubbles with it.

"Ew!" Raynie stuck out her tongue in disgust, "What the heck are these things!?"

"RAYNIE!!"

The teen's ears perked up, "Hang on! I'll be right there!"

"Please hurry!" Rena shrieked, as she watched the doorway to the hotel room begin to disappear from view as silver begun to flood in. She was inches away from a strange black and purple hole in the ground, and seemed to be helplessly blocking one of the strange silver creature's attacks. What were these things? Both the creatures and the hole in the ground made her wonder...

"Shit!! What is going on!?" Rena heard Raynie's scream and curse as she made her way into the hotel's hallway. The tomboy glanced up from the creature continuously slashing at her key, forcing the keyblader closer and closer to the black cavity. Unfortunately...

"AHHH!!"

The creature succeeded in its task: the young keyblader went toppling over the edge and into the dark depths of oblivion that awaited down below.

"Don't you dare think about falling, kid!!" Raynie screamed, grabbing the very edge of Rena's fingers and managing to throw the girl out of the hole without dislocating anything. The teen then snatched the keyblade from Rena's grasp and thrust it through the silver creature, destroying it in the process.

"And, that is why you seriously need to learn how to handle that thing," the teen replied, tossing the key back at its wielder.

"...T-thanks," Rena replied in a shaken tone, her deep blue eyes staring to down at the black hole.

She was curious, maybe too curious for her own good. What awaited down below in the darkness? Her eyes swirled as the hole swirled clockwise. It was no surprise that she actually started to lean forwards as well.

"Hey! Cut it out!" Raynie exclaimed, snapping Rena back into reality harshly. The teen grabbed the tomboy's shoulders and pushed her past the hole in the ground. But, as soon as they were past it, Raynie jerked Rena around, still grasping her shoulders, and snarled.

"You go down there and we're all screwed! You don't even know why these things are chasing you; do you really want to find out?"

Rena choked on the laugh that she was about to cough up. She didn't want to say it aloud, but truthfully, she did want to jump into it, even if it was just to find out where it lead.

"C'mon," the tan-toned girl snapped, pushing Rena out of the hotel forcefully. As soon as they made it out of the hotel and slammed the door shut, Rena became curious again. Yet, it wasn't about doing something stupid this time.

"Where are those things...?" she questioned, keeping a tight grasp on her keyblade as she glanced around in the silent district.

"I guess they're all stuck in the hotel..." Raynie gave a tiny, triumphant laugh, "Let's go find Squall and baka ninja before they get out!"

With half of a nod, Rena followed behind Raynie as the teen took off towards the First District. But she couldn't help it.

The tomboy's feet slid to a stop as she jerked herself around to peer off into windows of the hotel. Had they figured out they ran off yet? It was hard to tell, especially with the windows so tinted like that. Hopefully, they were stupid and hadn't realized the two left.

"HEY!!" a stentorian voice called, "I'M NOT DRAGGING YOU OVER HERE!!"

Rena froze up at the voice. She didn't know whether to turn around and start shouting about something stupid that was meant to be an argument, or just ignore her. Maybe it was a good time to run off. Yeah! That was it!

Raynie was really obnoxious, to Rena, anyways. She didn't want to hang around. After all, what had she been called a million times upon entering this world?

"BRAT!!"

Yeah, that was it. 'Brat'. Was that just a new nickname for her, or was everyone in this town just a complete jerk?

Rena's deep blue eyes focused on the door. They narrowed. Staring. No sound seemed to jump into her ears, not even the wind.

C'mon, she mouthed before giving a gulp, Please come out...

She tightly closed her eyes. She wished to get out of this stupid place. She wished to forget about Raynie.

No word, though, could describe how much she regretted her words.

A flash came and went, a slam of a door echoed in her ears. Rena opened her eyes and froze.

The tomboy took a step backwards and begun to lean back as well, as a familiar triangular face grimly grinned with their zipper teeth. Rena gave a gulp.

"Um... where're we... going...?" she nervously questioned, giving a small laugh.

Yet, it disappeared. Just like that! One moment, it was there. The next, it wasn't? Rena frantically glanced around for the strange, silver creature. No luck. In its place, there stood a figure, who had their fists tightly gripped.

"Hey!!" Rena angrily exclaimed with a snarl, "I wanted them to catch me, stupid!!"

"Why would you want that?"

That voice wasn't Raynie's. Those fists weren't clenched for the reason the tomboy thought they were. And, that hair definitely wasn't brown.

Rena perked up. She tilted her head to the side, studying the unfamiliar figure, and then she figured it out...

"YOU!"

"I have a name, ya know!!" they bitterly replied, a sore frown forming on their pale face.

They had spiked hair. Their clothes were painted light blue, black, and tan. And, within their two hands were a pair of oddly familiar keys. It was that boy from Cucio Bay! That really... weird boy...

"Kid, you okay!?" Raynie exclaimed, seeming rather late on the subject. The teen instantly ran over to Rena, frantically checking to make sure no scratch had appeared on the young keyblader.

"You didn't get hurt, did you? No scratches... or blood... Is the keyblade okay!?"

Rena quickly pushed the older girl away, taking a bitter step backwards. "It's perfectly fine! Why'd you care!?"

"You know exactly why!" Raynie groaned with a pout. Her groan seemed to transform into a growl when Rena stuck out her tongue, though; and then she started mumbling something about 'stupid little brat...'.

"Um," the boy's voice finally chimed in, "I'm not... cutting in on anything... right?"

"The only thing you're cutting in on is Raynie's stupid tantrum..."

"HEY!!"

The boy gave a small laugh at the comment. Rena seemed to perk up once again. Raynie only looked like she was pouting with her arms crossed.

"...What's your name?" the tomboy timidly questioned.

It was almost as if this question was a tough one to answer. The boy bit his lip, his deep blue eyes narrowed in thought. Yet, only after a moment, it came up:

"My name's... Ven."

"Ven?"

"That's a stupid name..." Raynie bitterly replied, receiving a harsh glare from the tomboy standing nearby. Ven really didn't seem to notice, though. He looked like he was thinking again, staring at the door of the hotel. It was still closed, as if all of those things had disappeared, but the blonde headed boy just looked too worried.

"Something bad's coming..." he muttered, giving a gulp, "I think we need to get out of here..."

Rena's mouth formed into a pout. It was just like back on Cucio Bay! He was saying they had to get out of there... again. It just seemed so overused around him, even though the tomboy really did want to leave Traverse Town.

Ven's eyes glanced over at Raynie, whom he thought probably knew more about what was going on than Rena.

"How'd we get out of here?" he asked with a stern tone.

Raynie simply blinked. How much had he changed in the last five minutes?

"There's a world door that goes to the gummi ship docks in the other district..."

"The First?"

"Yeah!"

Ven shook his head, "I think someone's figured out that someone is here. That place is crawling with Nobodies."

"What's a Nobody?" Rena threw in, sounding timid once again.

"That silver and white thing from before," Ven quickly begun, "That one's called a Dusk."

Yet, the blonde teen quickly changed the subject as he strode towards the lower level of the Second District.

"I think if we sneak through the Third District, we can get over to the world door without getting caught."

But, Raynie had to interrupt, "Hey!! Who said you were with us!?"

"Um..." Ven looked rather dumbfounded for a moment, "Well... this girl said something about..."

"I bet you're not an officially guardian like me!" Raynie coolly exclaimed, which only managed to receive another glare from Rena.

"Why do I need a freakin' guardian!? That's stupid!! I can take care of myself!"

"Kid, you can't even lift up your own keyblade!"

"Oh! So, it's called 'a guardian', then?" Ven threw in, watching as Rena threw herself into a sulk.

"Yeah..." Raynie replied, seeming to stick her nose a bit into the air, "But, if you wanna be one, you can't hog all of the glory..."

Rena let out a growl, "Can't you guys just be called 'party members' or something, like in those games?"

"NO!"

Ven gave a frustrated sigh, "Can I please just join up with you guys?"

"Yeahyeah, sure, whatever... Just hurry up!"

"I'm not the one dragging everything behind..."

"HURRY IT UP, BLONDIE!!"

Sounding defeated, Ven gave a frown as he got ready to jump down into the lower area of the district, "Just keep up, okay?"

"Don't challenge me, blondie."

With haste, the blonde haired boy jumped down from the sidewalk and headed towards the alleyway to the next district. Raynie was right behind him, while Rena was screaming 'Hey! Wait for me!' behind the two.

The whole place was eerily quiet. Ven had said that there were Nobodies in the next district, but it didn't sound like it; of course, they might not have been that loud, either. An uneasy feeling seemed to jump into the two keybladers. Was something there, besides the three of them?

They got that answer in only a moment's notice. With a blink of an eye, the line stopped moving and everyone went into their battle position, except for Rena who just realized what showed up.

Those Dusk things! At least ten of them appeared and surrounded them, leaving no exit. Typical, huh?

"Great. The albino Heartless are back..." Raynie threw in with a sharp tongue, giving a grin as she tightened her fists.

Ven, on the other hand, was glancing around at all of the creatures, with his two keyblades held tightly in his grasp; Rena noticed that his keyblades were pointed behind him, almost as if he was wielding the two blades like twin daggers. The teen sounded frustrated once more.

"Dammit..." he cursed under his breath, his blue eyes shifting back and forth, "We need to get out of here..."

"No, really? How'd you expect we do that?" Raynie loudly threw in.

"Quiet!" Ven whispered, "These aren't stupid like the Heartless..."

With a frown, he continued in a whisper, "If we defeated a few of them, there should be an exit. But, we have to hurry, or else more will show up."

"...Sounds good to me!" Raynie replied with a grin.

Rena simply blinked, glancing down at the oversized key within her grasp. She timidly begun, "Um... What'd I do?"

"Just slash your keyblade back and forth, okay? I guess that's all you really can do," Ven commented. Rena gave a frown and a nod.

"Ready?"

"I've been ready for the past 5 minutes... you're the slowpoke!"

Ven rolled his eyes, "Whatever... Just attack now!"

Both keyblades flew forwards into an expert's slash. Both fists swirled with a strange, green-orb-filled seas. And, the last keyblade? Well, it was bonking one of the Dusks on the head repeatedly, as if it were a hammer.

"Kid, WHAT THE CRAP." Raynie shouted as she threw the sea into a wave that shot at the Nobodies.

"But, it works!" Rena persuaded, eagerly grinning as she attacked. What she said, though, was a pretty good lie.

The Dusk shot forwards, wrapped its fin-like arms around the oversized key, and begun to tug on the young tomboy's weapon. With a defensive shout of 'HEY! GIVE THAT BACK!', Rena begun to tug on the key as well, pulling the two into a strange 'tug-of-war' over a weapon.

A hopeful, bright pair of slashes pierced through the silver creature, eliminating the enemy amazingly.

"Um... thanks, Ve--!" Rena exclaimed, only to realize that Ven had gone off to attack another one of the creatures. Yet, in the place of the previous Nobody, another swam before Rena. With a gulp, she positioned her keyblade between her two hands and bent her knees, ready to pounce.

Why did this feel so familiar? It happened so many times before, with so many different people, yet this just felt like deja vu.

What if you were surrounded by creatures with your weapon, ready to attack? What would you do, then?

Rena slashed horizontally through the air, and stared with wide-eyes at the outcome.

A scratch! A simple, little, tiny scratch, but it was a scratch, nonetheless! With a triumphant grin, Rena charged straight forwards, finding herself stepping swiftly as the Dusk attacked and sliding to attack.

In mere moments, it was gone. Rena blinked and found that her enemy was no longer standing before the tomboy. There was nothing. No speck of silver or white in sight. Not even near Ven or Raynie, either!

"Alright... where'd you learn that?" Raynie bitterly questioned. Rena only blinked.

"...Learn what?"

"How to actually fight."

"But, Ven just said to slash! That's what I did, right?"

Ven was trying to slide his keyblades onto the two belts across his back, the two keys seeming to disappear as they slid. He then stepped over to the two and gave a shake of his head.

Raynie's frown had turned into a displeased scowl, "Why'd you act like such a weakling before, brat?"

Rena gave a snarl, "I wasn't being a weakling... I seriously dunno how to fight with this key-thingy! He said just to slash, and that's what I did!"

"Whatever," Raynie then said with a snarl, stomping off towards the Third District, "You slowpokes coming or not!?"

As Raynie stomped off into the dark alley, Ven and Rena lagged behind, since the tomboy had a question for the blonde boy.

"I did just slash, right?"

"Uhhh... not... really...?" Ven nervously replied, receiving a glare from Rena, "Well, you didn't! It looked like... uhh... me fighting, not you?"

Rena gave a pout after hearing Ven's nervous laugh, "I wonder where that came from, then..."

Ven was looking thoughtful again, "I guess it was the keyblade... then...?"

"Yeah! It has to be their weirdo key thingy!! No wonder it's so weird!"

"...Right..." Ven gave another nervous laugh. Yet, just as he did so, a thought sprang into mind.

"Hey, what if I taught you how to fight?"

"Why would I need that?" Rena questioned with a grin, "This weird key knows how to fight! I'll just let it do all of that!"

Ven's palm seemed to meet his forehead with a slap, "No, it can't do tha--"

"C'mon, slowpoke!! Raynie's beating us out of here!!"

With a groan, Ven slumped behind the speedy tomboy as she took off through the alley. He sounded defeated again. Was everyone else as hyper and loud as these too? Doubtful... He didn't think anyone could scream as much as Raynie could...

"Fine..."

[to pull us through and pull us through]​

"Dammit, you guys are slow!!" Raynie screamed.

With a unison sigh, both Ven and Rena replied by saying, "We know... we know..."

Raynie saying that either one of them were slow was getting a little bit overdone, if not rather annoying. As the three stood next to the door back into the Second District, the older teen glared down at the two keybladers.

Timidly, Rena asked her own question, "Can't you yell at us about something... else? That's kinda old..."

"No!! Of course not!" Raynie revolted, causing Rena to shrink closer to the ground, "It's my insult! You have to deal with it!"

"Raynie, cut it out!" Ven growled, "We have to get out of here!"

"...And that is why you guys are slow," Raynie replied smugly with her arms crossed, sticking her tongue out childishly. The teen instantly made her way to a nearby staircase, pointing to it as she exclaimed:

"C'mon! The door's really close by, I promise! We'll be out of here in no time!"

Yet, as this sigh of relief came to mind, another question popped up out of Ven's thoughts, "Yeah, but do you even have a gu--"

"COME ON!!"

She was dragging the two behind now, though it was by words and not by actions. By persisting on with her loud mouth-ed exclamations, Ven and Rena finally followed behind, though it wasn't faithfully or anything of the sort.

There! A door brightly stood nearby, waiting for someone to push past its barriers and into the next District. The only thing to worry about right that second was making sure no Heartless or those Nobodies show up. Cautiously, Ven stepped before Raynie, checking to make sure neither of the foul creatures had appeared.

"Blondie! What're you--" Raynie exclaimed, her voice lowered into a harsh whisper as Ven shot her a glare, "...Oh. Right. I knew that, baka."

Nothing. There was nothing there. Ven let out a sigh of relief, stepping forwards out of the block standing before the stairway. They were standing near the center of the district now, though it was much closer to that doorway than anywhere else.

"C'mon, we're almost out of here..." Ven whispered, believing that shouting would've drawn those stupid monsters into the district.

His footsteps echoed against the grey, brick walls and the checkered, concrete ground, as did Raynie and Rena's own. As they neared the doorway, the air begun to feel cooler and cooler, as if displaying an odd sense of foreboding. Yet, the question was: was something coming into this District, or was there some many things on the other side of the wall?

Rena's head perked up as something caught her eye. Curiously, she glanced to the side and merely blinked. Once... twice...

"Who's that?" she questioned, her footsteps slowing to a stop as she glanced towards a large door with a fire insignia.

Raynie noticed them, too! She quickly jerked herself around, a pensive frown formed on her tan face.

"Dunno..." she replied, tilting her head to the side with equal curiosity, "I know how to find out, though..."

Now with a smug grin on her face, Raynie took a step forwards. Ven jerked himself around, eyeing the situation with a bit of interest. He couldn't help but jump at the transformation.

"HEY!! WHO THE HECK ARE Y--!?"

Ven seemed as if he had flown across the ground in a mere second, almost as if he gained some strange ghost powers that allowed him to disappear and reappear. The boy shoved the palm of his hand over Raynie's mouth, who looked as if she wanted to bite his fingers off at that exact moment.

The district was no longer 'quiet'. It was nowhere near quiet. It was the complete opposite of quiet! Well, that's what the pessimistic thoughts of the blonde haired boy immediately declared. But, if one thing had gotten louder, it was the illusion of the wind howling wildly when nothing was there.

"Be quiet!" he exclaimed in the form of a whisper; though it was pretty quiet, you could feel how annoyed he was at that moment, "That could be a Heartless or a Nobody for all you know!"

"Well, Mr. I'm-So-Smart," Raynie replied, her voice muffled beneath Ven's partially-gloved hand, "Heartless and Nobodies can't look like people!"

"How'd you know that?" Ven snarled, "Have you ever met someone who's Heartless but--"

"Hey, mister!"

Ven seemed to have a mini freak out at the sight of watching Rena make her way towards the figure.

"Shit!" he exclaimed, his hand no longer covering Raynie's mouth. He went to run forwards, yet...

"Hey!" Rena exclaimed as she stopped behind the tall figure. She could only see their back, but with their shoulders looking decently stiff, she could tell he was kind of freaked out. Actually, they looked rather... terrified.

After a moment or so, a voice finally poked out: it was a teenager's voice! It sounded like a boy, and it sounded really, really freaked out.

"Y-Yeah...?" he questioned, turning his head very slowly to gaze down at the brown haired girl.

Rena looked rather startled herself, giving a gulp as she saw his face: if the golden, hawk-like eyes didn't scare you enough, the sickly pale skin would. The tomboy took a step backwards, giving another gulp.

The teen perked up. At first, he didn't seem to get it. Then, he finally did.

Jerking himself around, he fully came into view, which only seemed to freak Rena out more.

"I-It's okay!" he exclaimed, trying to hide his face underneath his spiked black hair, "I didn't realize that I... um..."

There came a snap. A snap that sounded as if it were a bolt of lightning. With a bash of thunder following right behind. Then came the wall of dust. And a huge black object. Well, several black objects.

Rena felt herself being shoved backwards, yet didn't feel herself hit the nearby wall.

When the dust cleared, Rena hadn't realized that she was now staring at that same back once more. That guy pushed her out of the way!

"You okay?" he questioned, no longer sounding afraid one bit.

"Y-yeah..." Rena replied, instantly jerking eyes away from seeing what freaked her out in the first place. That, though, seemed to make the teen look rather upset, even for just a moment. Seeing that expression, though, she felt kind of bad.

"Um... what's your name?" she questioned, with a nervous grin as she glanced up at him.

He merely blinked, "I... um... my name...?"

Rena gave a small nod.

"I'm... Adyn..." he replied sounding rather nervous still.

The tomboy gave a small smile, "Cool! My name's Rena!"

Yet, that rather happy attitude seemed to disappear with a moments notice. Remember that black object that came bursting out of the sky? Well, they just figured out what it was, sort of anyways.

A strange, black mound laid aimlessly in a pile on the ground. You couldn't tell if it were different pieces, or it transformed into something else. All you could see what pure black.

But, finally, it came to life.

One by one, it shifted. It changed.

A round ball cracked open. A strange cylinder-like object spun around. There were feet and hands, yet they weren't exactly in the right places. The cylinder begun to glow with a strange, purple aura as tainted yellow eyes glared back down at the two.

If there were two things known about this creature, it was that it was pure, black armor and there was an emblem on its 'torso'. Adyn snarled as he saw it.

His hand gave a twirl, and Rena saw, within his grasp, one of the strangest weapons she had ever seen; that, or one of the most foreboding.

It was black and silver. The handle was merely a black 'stick', yet the blade was more than 'simple'. It looked like crescent-shaped shards of steel, all laid down in a particular pattern to create a menacing weapon. That looked much cooler than a keyblade, that's for sure!

"Uhh... you have a weapon... right?" The boy questioned, sounding divided between being nervous and being rather puzzled. Actually, truth be told, he didn't expect the girl to have a weapon at all!

Rena instantly gave a grin, holding up her own weapon before him, "Of course I do!"

Adyn took a step backwards and looked rather awestruck when he shook his head. Of course, he was surprised that Rena had a weapon, but a keyblade? Of all things! It was a keyblade!

The boy rubbed the back of his head, eyes glancing off to the side, "Well... um... you know how to fight with it, right?"

"Sorta..."

"Sorta is something! You can still--"

ZHOOM!

A large crater was left in the stop where Adyn and Rena once stood. Another cloud of dust sparked up instantly upon the impact of the purple sphere that blasted out of the cannon-like torso. Adyn had quickly dragged Rena aside with him, as the two landed near that large, stone door. The problem with the sight of the attack was that they weren't the only ones witnessing it: Ven and Raynie saw it, too!

"RENA!!" Ven screamed, banging his fists against wall before them. Unlike a generic stone wall that would appear when a gigantic monster appeared, this one was an invisible barrier that kept both Ven and Raynie away, yet allowed them to witness the beating Adyn and Rena were about to get.

That wasn't the only reason Ven was screaming and banging on the wall: it was because that guy was creepier beyond belief! He had a scythe, creepy eyes, unbelievably sick skin, and all of those features made Ven's skin crawl. He didn't know if he was friend or enemy; he just knew that there was something very freaky about him, and the blonde haired boy had to get to the other side!

"Blondie, cut it out! You're not doing it right!" Raynie exclaimed, tightening her gloves as she glared over at the boy.

"Then do it right! NOW!"

"Alright alright! You're really pushy, ya know!"

"Just shut up and punch the damn thing!!"

It looked as if a ripple had gone through a screen that showed what was happening in the rest of the district. Yet, that ripple threw Raynie to stumble backwards, and look rather taken aback.

"Okay... that normally doesn't happen..."

"Well, it's magic," Ven replied with a snap.

Raynie threw him a glare, "I know that, blondie! It's not letting me punch it, if you can't tell!"

Ven instantly wanted to bash his head into the wall, knowing that would get them absolutely nowhere at the moment. There was something else, though. Something he didn't know would work or not... But, it was worth a try!

The boy put out his hand, "Close your eyes and keep them closed. I'll get us out of here..."

"Why should I--?"

"Just close them! Please!" He sounded rather desperate at the moment.

With a blink and a moment, Raynie gave in and tightly shut her eyes.

"...Are you going to keep them closed?"

"Yes, blondie..."

"Promise?"

"YES."

"Alright..."

Ven quickly latched onto the girl's hand and stared off into the distance. He knew where he had to go, he was taking Raynie with him, but... how do you get to the other side?

"One..." he begun, taking a deep breath, "Two... Three..."

"VEN!" a familiar voice exclaimed, sounding more than glad to see the blonde haired boy. He was more than ecstatic to hear that voice. Yet, there was something else...

With a flash of light and a rather strange moment, Ven now stood right in front of the boy known as 'Adyn', who looked pretty confused, and shot him a look of pure disgust. The flash of light formed into his rusty-like keyblade, as he pointed the strange, blunted-appearing blade at the black haired boy's neck.

"Don't you dare go near Rena again! Or any of us for that matter!"

"...Huh?" Adyn replied, blinking several times as he looked completely confused, "What did I--"

"Ven, stop that!" Rena exclaimed, "He's not hurting anyone!"

"Except for that freakishly huge black Heartless, which I hope you were both attacking!" Raynie's voice slid.

The creature felt rather left out at that moment. No one had been paying any attention to it; not even the writer! Out of desperate hope to strike fear into the hearts of both the group and the readers, it begun to stomp its 'feet' wildly, attempting to catch the attention of everyone at that precise moment.

The whole district felt like it was in an earthquake! The ground rumbled insanely, everything begun to shake, and you felt as if you were on an insane, runaway rollercoaster that just would not stop spinning!

"Get me off of this thing!!" Raynie screamed as her voice shook, replying to the figurative speech portion above her comment.

When the district finally came to its last rumble, everyone was ready. Except... not everyone would run forwards.

As soon as the shaking ceased, both Adyn and Raynie stroke forwards, their weapons ready as they begun their attack on the Opposite Armor. Rena immediately followed along, but of course...

"Where're you going?" Ven snapped, receiving a glare from Rena.

"I'm going to help!"

"Not with a Heartless..."

The boy seemed to motion his hands, showing that there wasn't any keyblade within his grasp; especially since his other had disappeared from sight. Rena blinked for a moment, then figured out that, unlike everyone else, he wasn't going to fight.

"...Why?" Rena questioned, more so to the fact that he wasn't going to fight more than anything.

"Blondie! Kid!! A little help over here!" Raynie exclaimed as both Adyn and herself smashed one of the pieces of the armor, causing the 'feet' to disappear.

Ven roughly shook his head, suddenly becoming torn between helping the fight and giving an explanation. But he knew that the former wasn't an option...

"BLONDIE!" Raynie screamed once again, sounding rather angry this time, "STOP STANDING THERE AND GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!!"

Ven bit his lip. What could he do? No one else knew why he wasn't fighting, yet he couldn't just randomly start explaining to all of them.

"Alright, keybladers can't fight a Heartless because--"

He was talking to thin air. No one was there to listen. They were all busy doing something else. Including the one person he pulled away from the fight.

The boy was forced to do a double take, glancing before him and then at the side several times. Between the swinging of hands and feet, the flurry of weapons slashing through the air, and a blur of various colours, Ven finally caught where the young keyblader had run off to.

"RENA!!" he screamed, running straight into the fight with the thought of attacking what he shouldn't have been attacking in the first place.

Rena was between Raynie and Adyn, who were all either punching or slashing away at the armored creature. Yet, the thing was almost gone...

"DON'T YOU DARE ATTAC--!"

It was gone. It burst into a million pieces. It disappeared from sight.

Ven stared, a hopeless expression on his face, up at the night sky. There it was, floating away into nothing. It was engulfed in darkness and gone from sight.

"...Shit," the boy cursed, letting out a low growl.

"Aw right, kid!" Raynie triumphantly exclaimed, as the trio of fighters made their way from where the fight took place.

They all looked so happy. Ven felt torn between envy and frustration at the sight. He kind of wished that he was celebrating the victory, too, but a fact kept him feeling frustrated. He wished he wasn't told that...

"Do you guys know what you just did?" Ven snarled, viewing the trio's halt before him. They each had blank faces, now. They all looked confused beyond belief!

"We just beat the crap out of the weirdo Heartless thing?" Raynie replied while she seemed to trail off at the end of her sentence.

"Did you see me beat it up, Ven-kun?" Rena questioned with a grin.

"Well, if I hadn't punched it in the first place..."

"I helped, too," a small voice poked out suddenly. Raynie instantly took notice.

"Yeah, this guy was AWESOME! He's gotta tag along with us! Except he can't be an offically guardian like me--"

"Would you guys shut up!?" Ven finally managed to scream. He sounded way past frustrated... and his face was kind of red.

The trio finally closed their mouths for five seconds, giving Ven the ability to speak. That's when he begun:

"Didn't you guys see that gigantic heart float up to the sky?"

"...Is that a bad thing?" Raynie questioned, looking puzzled.

"Yes," the boy snapped, "Keyblades release hearts, which means..."

"Someone gets their heart back! I know!" Raynie snarled, receiving a glare from Ven.

"No! That's not what happens! It's--"

"Cut it, blonde! We don't need a history lesson... We gotta get somewhere... You can explain on the way there!"

A pair of 'huh?'s came from both Ven and Rena. Raynie never mentioned anything about going anywhere... It was either going to find 'Squall' and 'the baka ninja', or going to find a way out of Traverse Town. She never said a word about going to a specific place! That thought, though, received a scoff from Raynie, who seemed annoyed at them from 'not listening'.

"We have to get to Hollow Bastion, of course!"

The name seemed to strike fear into the hearts of everyone standing before Raynie. Both Ven and Adyn's frozen stances didn't seem to have a clear reason, but Rena's did; hence why she was the only one to speak up.

"Hey! I never agreed to go there!!" the tomboy stubbornly exclaimed, crossing her arms with a pout.

"Of course you did! Remember? You said yes before you got really freaked out and started talking about your keyblade..."

"I'm not going to help you guys with whatever it is!"

"Whatever, kid..."

Abruptly, Raynie put out her hand, palm facing the ground, as she commanded:

"C'mon! We need to make a pact!"

"...What?" Ven questioned.

"A pact! You put your hand on mine and that means you're on the team! Hurry it up so we can get out of here...!"

Adyn was the first to throw his gloved hand over Raynie's own, while Ven was second; but, Adyn was the only one to receive a grin from Raynie. The last person wouldn't put their hand on top, either contemplating if she should join in or realizing that she was too short to put her hand on top; at this pause, Rena received a glare from Raynie.

"Just put your hand on top, kid!!"

Rena's mouth formed into a frown that looked rather puzzled.

"Lemme think..."

The echo of feet would have made you wonder if you had just stepped into the district. Especially when you saw the group nearby. What was going on?

Raynie's expression explained everything. She was annoyed. Beyond annoyed. Now, her face was turning red.

"You... little... BRAT!!"

Yes, Rena had taken off running. And, yes, it angered Raynie very much. When she found the kid, someone was probably going to be choked...
 
Last edited:

Mason Stark

TICK TOCK, KID!
Joined
May 12, 2004
Messages
7,091
Awards
18
Location
Gravity Falls, OR
Website
twitter.com
Thankies! 8D; Sorry it was so much... I'm going to attempt to shorten the chapters. Thankfully, this one's shorter than all of the others...

...And Rena says she's not a brat. D: Raynie is just icky and called her that and the name stuck. Yay for nicknames! I think! xD;

Now I must rush to get Chapter 7 up by Wednesday. Thankfully, I'm nearly done with chapter 6... 83; Anywho, NEW CHAPTER TIME! Enjoy ittttt!

-------------------------

005 + PRESSURE

my enemies begin to appear

yet my friends aren't beside me here
[i can feel the pressure - it's getting closer now]​

who's there to trust?​

I could always imagine the rain to follow me.

Funny, it's here, too...

This world isn't anything like the others. Not even the deepest, darkest world I've ever witnessed. Not even the home of the shadows compares to this place.

This place is, by far, the darkest and the gloomiest. The only light is the moon, and I despise that more than anything. The rain only makes it worse.

The reason I'm here isn't a 'normal' one. I guess you could say that it's because of a grudge, or because of opposites. I thought I knew why I was here.

But then again, I don't.

[we're better off without you]​

Raynie looked stunned. There were no words to say. Nothing she could scream out. Except for, of course...

"You... little... BRAT!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, hoping to scare the crap out of the stupid little keyblader, "WHEN I CATCH YOU, YOU'RE GONNA BE DAM--"

"Raynie! Calm down!" Ven stepped forwards, hoping his words could coax Raynie to calm down, or at least take a deep breath.

She looked like she was about to bite his head off, "I do NOT calm down when my ti-- er-- that keyblader takes off!"

"Well, maybe if you would actually be consider--"

"AND WHATEVER IT IS, IT'S NOT MY FAULT!"

Ven was really tempted to slam his head into a wall. He turned his glance over to Adyn, who he wasn't so keen to, as if hoping the strange teen would help him out. However, the sickly-pale boy was soon dragged off by a certain loud-mouthed fist fighter.

"Hurry it up!! We've gotta catch the damn kid, or else I'm gonna use those stupid keyblades on you!"

What she was going to use those keys for was beyond Ven. But, to save himself a massive headache later, he pushed himself after the loud teenager. How he wished Rena hadn't run off in the first place! Or, at least he wished that Raynie didn't care about the young keyblader so much...

[feel the pressure - it's getting closer now]​

Splish-splash-splish-splash.

Her lungs gasped for air. Her heart pounded wildly. Yet, she pushed forwards. She couldn't stop. She had to run!

Rena helplessly waded through the water, pushing forwards quickly before anyone got the idea to go after her. Her fingers tempted to grab onto the tall ledge above, but no avail. It was also the same with the strange, moving rocks in the water. She couldn't grab onto those, no matter how hard she tried!

Faster. The tomboy pushed herself faster as she heard a noise outside of the huge door. She still didn't know how she got inside of this place, but that was the funny thing, wasn't it? Almost like something heard the girl's cries in her mind. But, why would she think that?

Because, apparently, that door needed magic to get past.

Drenched, Rena swam faster going around the isle to the back, hoping there was some way to get onto the rounded surface without using those strange rocks. If she could just hide, then maybe...

"RENA!!"

The tomboy froze. Her heart jumped. That voice she hated! Just that one word showed how angry the screaming voice was.

With haste, Rena scrambled onto the back of the isle, using her fingers and shoes to dig into the ground so she could climb up. It was a bit of a difficult task, but as long as she didn't make a sound...

"GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!!"

She gulped, hiding beneath a set of perfectly stacked boxes that resembled a stairway. She wouldn't be using them as stairs, but as a cover. A place to hide until Raynie believed the girl wasn't inside here.

Rena hated that loud teenager. She was just like that Cid guy, but he actually seemed decent. At least he didn't scream at her as much as Raynie does! That's exactly why she took off. To get away from the stupid girl.

But where was there to go now?

What if Raynie figured out Rena was here? She'd probably shred her to pieces!

Now hopelessly lost, the tomboy merely pulled her arms over her head and shrunk back into the darkness. Maybe, just maybe, none of them would be able to find her! She hoped that would be right.

"Please don't let her find me..." she muttered, pulling her arms tighter now.

A sound. An unfamiliar sound.

Her deep blue eyes flickered. She glanced up. And simply stared.

That... wasn't normal.

The tomboy put her arms by her sides, placing her hands lightly against the ground. She stared at the object before her. Tilting her head back and forth. A curious expression lightened on her face.

She pushed her hands off of the ground, slowly and cautiously standing to her feet. Glancing back and forth.

No one was there.

She quickly peeked around the edge of the house, seeing a shadow. That had to have been Raynie... She didn't really have a choice, did she?

Instantly, Rena sprung forwards and ran straight through the strange dark portal that appeared before her.

[you're better off without me]​

The midst between one world and the next. Did it have a name? Or was it merely just given a simple single-word description? This place, to her, would have merely been called 'a path'.

However, this was no ordinary path. None by which she had ever seen before.

This was a place, resembling a cylinder with a horizontal axis for the walkway. The walls were mainly made up of a bright red colour, as if resembling some sort of sunlight or light. However, towards the darker end where a dark hole was, light, cool colours seemed to appear: mainly blues, greens, and maybe even some purple.

The place was almost like a sea, a tunnel in a strange multi-coloured sea. And, in the midst of these swirls of colours were strange insignias that didn't have any sort of meaning to herself.

Rena blinked, wildly glancing around the trail, before finally taking one step forwards into the unknown.

Her pace quickened, the tomboy taking off down the path and towards the darker end. The light begun to disappear, however...

As she charged closer, the simple dark hole quickly spawned into a gigantic circular portal. Dark green and black swirled around the outside of the white center, beaconing the girl closer and closer.

Rain?

Rena took a step back.

Rain begun to drop to the ground in a flurry, covering the tomboy with the same droplets as the clouds soaked the world below it.

However, the tomboy was rather taken aback from the sudden change to rainfall. In fact, it wasn't just rainfall.

This was a dark street. A street in nowhere.

Buildings hovered high above, only resembling dark blocks in the darkness, and a darkened, violet, concrete street was now beneath her feet.

It clicked.

Rena glanced around wildly once more, taking in the dark setting as she realized.

"I've been here before..." she muttered, as the rain continued to soak her now drenched clothes and hair.

She was cautious as she walked amongst these streets. She couldn't put her finger on it exactly, but this place just forced her to put her guard up. Something to be weary about. Or something that happened, making her believe that bad things happened here.

She walked into the next alleyway, glancing around as she walked through the puddles and through the street.

Of course, she still had to look where she was going.

"Ow!" she exclaimed as she ran straight into something. Something moveable. It wasn't a wall...

Harsh eyes glared down at the clumsy girl and she gave a nervous laugh. This was...

"Sorry... I didn't mean to do that..." Rena immediately apologized, taking a step back as those eyes turned around.

One factor raised her anxiety, however: those eyes were...

Red. That's all you could see. Red eyes. However, as they stepped closer, she realized that this was a boy.

As the only light source rose higher into the sky, Rena saw what this boy looked like.

Wet, spiked dark teal hair. A high collar that nearly covered his chin. A short-sleeved shirt with a zipper. And she believed he was wearing some sort of long shorts and combat boots.

He merely raised a brow at the appearance of the girl. He gave a scoff, "What's a stupid short kid doing here?"

That voice...

"Hey! I'm not short!" she screamed, pointing an index finger right at the boy's nose.

Giving another scoff, the boy discontently pushed the girl's hand out of his face, giving her another harsh glare.

"It's not nice to yell at a King. Pointing is an even worse offense, squirt."

She tilted her head to the side, "You're a king?"

He gave a vigorous nod.

"...You're short, too."

"Shut up, you stupid child!"

Rena gave a giggle, "So, what's your na--"

He was pointing this time. However, it wasn't with an index finger.

"So, peasant, what do they call you?"

There was the tip of a curved sword pointing right at her nose. She staggered. "R-Rena..."

"Pathetic name for a pathetic child out in the middle of nowhere..."

Rena growled, "Well, what's your name, idiot?"

"You can call me 'Your Majesty' if you wish..."

"Well, I don't think 5-year-olds are allowed to be kings. What's your real name?"

He gave a scoff, "Why should I tell you?"

"Because I'm actually decent enough to tell you my name!"

"What if I'm not 'decent'?"

"Just tell me already!"

He growled, "My name is..." Yet, he cringed.

"...Haru..."

Rena tilted her head to the side again, "What? Don't like your name?"

"It doesn't suit me..." he crossed his arms childishly.

"I think it's a good name!" she perked up, giving a grin as a raindrop hit her nose.

"...It's worse now..."

"AH! I'M SORRY!"

He gave another growl, "Shut it already, child! I don't need apologizes and I don't need you telling me that you like my name! The last thing is need is your opinion!"

Rena's frown turned into a pout, "Sorry, I was just trying to help..."

"Just screw off, shortie..."

It seemed as if the boy was taking off. However, this wasn't true one bit.

Once again, he pointed his weapon right at the girl's face, "Or do I need to force you off with a fight?"

Defensively, however, Rena's hand begun to grasp a blade-shaped light with swirls of black around it. She believed he was going to attack her; no wonder she grabbed it!

Haru's eyes seemed to widen as he watched the light turn itself into a key-shaped weapon: Rena's keyblade.

"You don't deserve to have that..." he spat, his red eyes seeming to brighten.

Rena merely glared and gave a growl, "Why shouldn't I? I'm the one who found it!"

"A pathetic little wench doesn't deserve a weapon like that! You don't deserve a weapon at all!"

"Then why don't you take it from me, jerkface?!" she spat, sticking her tongue out at Haru.

He gave one last growl, "Alright then..."

His fist was quickly raised into the air, the sky's light reflecting onto his black glove. Yet, quickly, his hand was pushed with his palm straight out. Rena stared, wide-eyed, at his hand. She could've sworn she saw yellow dots, like the ones on...

"Destroy this stupid child, Heartless!"

Rena froze. What were 'Heartless'?

Her stare grew wider. Fear closed its icy fingers on her neck. Her heart pounded in her ears. She realized it now... She knew what 'Heartless' were.

A black, round head with beady yellow eyes. Two quirky, wonky antenna topped it's head. The body pressed through the boy's gloved hand in a grotesque manner. Unlike their brother, however, the rest appeared around the two humans.

An army of those shadows! The same ones from Cucio Bay!

His gaze was plain, yet spiteful to the young girl.

"Attack, foul beasts..." he barked, his red eyes seeming to grow brighter in an evil, malicious eyes, as if they belonged to a demon.

Instantly, the tomboy took off in the opposite direction. However, this meant she wasn't running straight into her starting point; rather, she was running past the young 'king'.

The Heartless instantly charged after their prey. A mound of the black creatures hurried off after her, nearly on her tail now.

Her deep blue eyes full of fright, she ran. Faster and faster through the streets. Dreary. The rain fell faster. Sliding through the puddles.

They tempted to claw at her feet. She ran faster. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest. As she slid through the concrete alleys.

And then she was suffocating. A hand pulled over her face. Holding her breath.

Yet, she was no longer running.

A hand was placed on her shoulder as an arm was pulled before her, the hand forcing her to hold her tongue. As strange as it may be, it was actually comforting the tomboy.

Rena's heart pounding madly in her chest. Her lungs gasped her breath. Yet, she could only watch as those idiotic creatures tore past their quarry.

It was only after a few moments, once they all safely passed, that the hand was relinquished. The tomboy immediately gave a sigh, "Er... thanks..."

"You really think you should be thanking me? I thought you hated my guts..."

A chill. Running down her spine. Raising her anxiety to the edge. That voice was familiar. In a spiteful way.

Slowly and cautiously, the girl turned her gaze.

And immediately pulled herself to her feet.

Defensively, her key-shaped weapon was pointed straight at their face, as she gave a terribly harsh glare to them.

"Screw off!" she screamed, her anger raising past the boiling point.

Dirty blonde hair, emerald green eyes, and that black cloak. It was...

"Aw, I thought you missed me!" Aoi laughed, pulling himself to his feet as the rain dampened his perfectly spiked hair even more.

Rena merely growled, "I'd never miss a jerkface like you!"

"I was just trying to help out.." the enigma gave a shrug.

"I don't need your stupid help!"

"Funny, you accepted it the first two times. Why not the third?"

Rena blinked. What was he talking about? He never helped her before...

"You wouldn't have gotten past that door or to this world if it wasn't for me, kiddo!"

She let out a growl, "...Screw off!"

The dirty blonde gave a smirk, "Telling someone to 'go away', like you should be saying it, doesn't really help when you're trying to run away from the real bad guy, does it?"

"That Haru jerk?" she snapped, "I can take care of him! Easy!"

"Oh, so that's why you're running the opposite direction, aren't you?"

"SHUT UP!"

"Wrong bad guy, too..." the enigma spoke with a shrug. This forced Rena to perk up; what other bad guy did he mean?

"Who's been the one calling you a 'brat' this whole time?" he queried.

"Raynie's a..." she froze with confused eyes, placing her keyblade by her side.

"Why else would she be treating you like dirt? Bad guys always treat the good guys like dirt when they want something..."

The rain continued to fall onto their heads. The random spikes on her head seemed to lower as Rena thought; however, it didn't seem to have anything to do with the rain.

"Why does she want something from me...? It can't be because of that Hollow Bastion place..."

"Maybe it's because of something gone missing..."

She let out a growl, "So now she wants me to go find something stupid for her!"

"Or, maybe, she wants you to get something back for her," he continued as his emerald eyes glanced down at the tomboy.

She frowned and narrowed her eyes.

"That's why you're running away, isn't it? Because of that idiot?"

"Yeah..."

Rena jolted, her eyes wide. Why was he...

"But, what if you tagged along with me? I wouldn't treat you the way that idiot does..."

A hand. It placed itself before the young girl, beaconing her to grasp it. But, what would happen if she did that? She wouldn't know until she took it. But, he sounded a lot nicer than Raynie ever did, even if he ripped her friend's heart out; she wasn't exactly her friend, anyways, right?

She glanced down at his hand. Her eyes narrowed a bit. Her frown said she was deep in thought.

The tomboy cautiously raised her free hand and reached out. However, she was a bit slow about this; after all, she still wasn't exactly sure...

Then, she was thrown back.

The echo of footsteps splashing through the rain ran through their ears. And a voice, too.

"Don't you even think about it, asshole!" a familiar voice snapped, a flash of light appearing and disappearing with a moment's notice.

"Oy, blondie! The kid already agree--!"

"Really? You think a kid would warm up to someone as emo-tastic as you?" a female voice kicked in.

Every word after that was muffled in her mind, however. She was too busy trying to dig her fingers into her skull and trying to hold back a scream. Why did it hurt so much?

"Rena!" the boy's voice cried as he watched Rena curl up in pain. Yet, he was shoved backwards against the same wall. He sat next to the tomboy, and the same pain echoed through his mind.

What was this?

Their fingers dug further into their skull.

It was a flood. Of sights and sounds. Ambient, pulsing sounds. Voices. Beating wildly in heartbeats.

Were these...

"Hey!" Raynie exclaimed, charging forwards to at least punch the evil blonde right in the face.

Aoi snapped, "Shut it, wench! Lemme play with the kiddos for a damn--"

The enigma choked. His emerald eyes flashed. He was doubled over in pain, holding his stomach with his arms. His eyes were changing...

"Blondie!!"

The boy managed to break free of the damn enigma's grip thanks to Raynie's voice, lashing away at the dirty blonde mentally as if he held his keys in his imagination. However, it didn't take much for him to break free. On the other hand, Aoi simply released his grasp on Rena, her deep blue eyes glaring up at him.

"Screw off!!" Ven screamed, posed to violently strike with his two weapons.

"That wouldn't be fun, now would it?" Aoi choked mockingly, "You guys are fun to screw around with, after all..."

The dirty blonde gave his head a hard shake. His posture was straight now. He didn't look like he had ever been in pain. There was still something weird about him...

Ven gave a nasty growl. Yet, Aoi really didn't care if the boy hated his guts or not.

"I said..."

"Yeahyeah, I know, blondie."

Kid!

A voice echoed in the girl's mind.

With a flick of his wrist as a smug grin became plastered on his pale face, a flash of light went flying around the air.

And it shaped itself into another key-shaped weapon.

Hang onto this...

"See ya!"

Ven simply stared in awe, not even realizing the disappearance of Aoi. Raynie glanced over his shoulder to see what he was staring at. Rena stared up at both of them with one eye open.

"...Huh. I thought only you could do that..." the brown-haired teen muttered, directing her gaze down at the tomboy sprawled about on the ground.

Within her grasp was that key-shaped weapon. Yet, it wasn't the same as the one sitting by her side.

"What the..." Rena mumbled, staring at the silver and yellow keyblade now within her hands.

Instantly, Ven swiped up this weapon.

Holding it tightly within his tight grip, his deep blue eyes scanned it quickly and swiftly. But, he wasn't looking at it quick to give it back quickly...

"Hey!" Rena exclaimed, jumping to her feet. She glared up at the spiked blonde and gave a grumble, "He gave it to me!"

"Yeah, and it could be rigged for all you know!" the blonde spat. He turned the key over once more. Rena, however, just gave another grumble.

As soon as he offered it back, the tomboy swiped it away and stared at it herself for a moment.

Ven, with a frustrated tone, put his hand to his forehead and gave a sigh. "You don't even know how to use one. Why'd you need two..."

"I can handle it!" Rena immediately exclaimed, "Trust me! I can!"

"...It's not going to fight for you..."

"YES IT WILL!"

Raynie gave a scoff, "What? I get left out now?"

Rena gave a pause. A quick, insignificant little pause. Then proceeded to hide behind Ven.

"...Hey! What'd I do!?" the teen angrily snapped. Her mako blue eyes seemed to light up with flames as she spoke.

"What the heck are you guys doing here!?" Rena exclaimed, trying to hide away from Raynie's fiery glaze.

Ven blinked, "We had to come find you, ya know..."

"No, you didn't!"

"'Course we did!" Raynie growled, "Goth boy included... Where is he, anyways..."

"Here!" That voice, as familiar as it was, sounded very out of breath. That, and unusually happy; even if it was just a bit. He gave a strange grin, though no one seemed to count it as 'strange'.

Raynie's mako blue eyes glanced around to find Adyn, mouth wide open as he attempted to draw in breath. She gave a grin.

"Okay, we can go now!" she excitedly exclaimed.

"Yeah, you can go. I won't!"

Raynie gave a growl and shifted a glare over the protesting tomboy, "Really?" She cracked her knuckles, "Mind if I knock you unconscious, then?"

"Hey..."

Adyn's posture soon became straightened, the teen taking a step towards Raynie, Ven, and Rena. His golden hawk eyes glanced over the trio and his mouth curled into a frown.

"What happened...?" he questioned, his tone sounding rather nervous.

Raynie gave a scoff, "The brat won't come with..."

"I am NOT a brat!" Rena poked her head out from behind Ven, sticking her tongue out at the brown haired teen.

"Brat!"

Adyn leaned a bit to the side, his eyes meeting Rena's own gaze, "Rena..."

She merely gave a frown.

"C'mon..." the boy spoke.

As if he controlled the tomboy, Rena cautiously took a step out from behind Ven before standing alone by herself.

Raynie instantly reached a hand forwards, snatching Rena's hood into her grasp. Rena looked up, a now panicked expression lit up on her face, from the now-appeared shadow of her hood; Raynie didn't really care if she pulled it over the tomboy's head or not...

"Let's go already! You better actually walk, kid..."

Rena shot her a sour glare; unfortunately, both of those keyblades, including her own, were now gone from her grasp.

Raynie, dragging a silently protesting Rena behind, and Adyn stepped off in the opposite direction alongside the two. However, Ven's eyes glanced around the alley.

His deep blue eyes lit up.

Something...

"Blondie!! Don't make me drag you, too!!"

The boy disappeared at the warning.

There were so many strange things in this place. Ven wearily glanced behind him, staring down the street that soon disappeared from view. And, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rena do the same. She felt something weird, too...

She had heard that boy's voice before. That voice inside her mind didn't belong to Aoi, but she knew who it was...

Why was this place so strange?
 

Angel Shards

I would kill for you &lt;3
Joined
Dec 13, 2004
Messages
1,689
Age
36
Location
Under your bed
Rena :] Me likes. Keep going! I'd post on your deviantart, but i have no account D:

this makes me miss our rpg, lol oh man
 

Mason Stark

TICK TOCK, KID!
Joined
May 12, 2004
Messages
7,091
Awards
18
Location
Gravity Falls, OR
Website
twitter.com
...I have a feeling I'm going to regret posting right later. But, if I have to double post, I SHALL NOT CARE. >:O

Thankies for the comments! Glad ya liked that chapter! :] And... AS! 83 HIIIII *waves* I miss the RP, too >: this must be fixed, even if it's a little RP over some IM or program or something... D|

Now I get to ramble for five seconds! Yay! I have the 6th chapter already written, but I still have to revise it. [Which I WILL do, because I found 3 mistakes in the first section... *headdesk*] I'm working on the 7th chapter, I'm not very happy with it, but I'm trying to use Ven and Raynie more, as well as Adyn because he's currently unloved ahhhhhh D: I keep on getting distracted, unfortunately, by... another story... with another blonde haired boy and LOTS OF GHOSTS and drabbles and a Disney horror fic. [can that even exist >.>] YAY FOR DISTRACTIONS AND FINDING MY LOVE FOR WRITING AGAIN.

AKA I'll get up the new chapters soon. Must get back to writing 007... D|
 

Mason Stark

TICK TOCK, KID!
Joined
May 12, 2004
Messages
7,091
Awards
18
Location
Gravity Falls, OR
Website
twitter.com
Ahhhhh sorry I haven't gotten the new chapter up yet! >.< Revisionnnn... *headdesk* I'll get it up soon! That might mean a double chapter posting, too, 'cause I'm revising chapter 7 on the same day. *shrug* Yeahhh.

But, here's a little drabble that I wrote 'cause Aoi and Rena are cute fighting each other. 8D; Otherwise, I'll get the new chapters up soon! *scurries off to write* I really need to stick to that schedule... D|
 

Mason Stark

TICK TOCK, KID!
Joined
May 12, 2004
Messages
7,091
Awards
18
Location
Gravity Falls, OR
Website
twitter.com
Sorry to double post, but... I HAVE A NEW CHAPTER D: Kinda long, though. But lots of stuff happens in it...

I'm almost done with the 7th one, then I have to write the 8th one, which should be shorter but I'm not quite sure if it'll be or not. ^^; Here's chapter 6! Enjoy!

P.S. There's something in here that's prone to change. It's a word that's not in English, so I may take that out which'll change things a bit but not too much. I may keep it the same if it's not too weird, though. >.<;

-----------------------

006 + CALLING

no matter if i hate it

i guess i have to stay on this ride
[calling - you hear the calling]​

or can i run the other direction?​

Stupid... This is really stupid!

I don't get why I have to go with them. Or at least Raynie. Raynie's stupid. Stupid Raynie...

She kept on giving me dirty looks when I tried to push her away, like she thought I was only supposed to do what she said. Which sucks. I'm not gonna do that! I'll do everything but that!

Ven and Adyn aren't helping either. Adyn's the one that got me to go back with them, but still... They seem like stupid puppets to her or somethin'! They just walk behind, never talking. Unless they want their heads bitten off.

That Aoi guy was right! Raynie's a bad guy... Well, she was at least bossing everyone around. Or something like that. Can you consider someone like that a bad guy? I would...

She's screaming her head right now. ...Well, at least I think she is. Maybe that's not really true, but hey! She talks loud!

I'm kinda not listening, though. They were talking about these things called 'gummi ships'. What's a gummi ship? It sounds squish--

[wake up - leave your hesitation]​

Rena's deep blue eyes glared up at the tan-toned teen with discontent.

"Would you cut that out!?" she exclaimed through gritted teeth. Raynie shot her a glare when Rena tried to pull Raynie's fingers off of the tomboy's hood again.

"And let you run off? Again? Not gonna happen!" Raynie stuck her tongue out, the teasing making Rena fume.

"I won't run off! I swear I won't if you'd just quit dragging me around!"

"Raynie! Just cut it out!"

Finally! Someone stepped in to save the day...

Ven shot Raynie a glare, giving a growl as he hoped the teen would back off for five seconds.

"What?" Raynie questioned, as if she believed she was the victim there, "She started it!"

"I DID NOT!"

"Raynie, just leave Rena alone! Maybe if you weren't so obnoxious about i--"

"What was that, blondie?" Raynie's glare was like none other before: fiery, deadly, and rather demonic. (Well, one person would say that...) It struck fear into the hearts of the trio before her, and attempted to make them run off like pathetic little cowards, squealing helplessly to get away from the infuriated teenager. That was one deadly glare...

"I'm obnoxious to you?" she hissed, her eyes now even more fiery than before as she cocked her head to the side.

Ven merely froze. His blank, terrified expression was priceless. "...Not anymore."

Raynie snapped out of it, a gigantic grin forming on her tan face, "Good then! Now, HURRY IT UP, SLOWPOKES!"

Yet another frustrated sigh from the blonde haired boy.

[wake up - time for us to realize]​

"Lemme think 'bout it..." the old man muttered aloud, giving his scratchy bread a pensive scrape.

Raynie stared up at him, her mako blue eyes glimmering hopefully as she clasp her hands together. She saw him take a glance at her, staring at her for just a moment with that craziest look in his eye.

He gave a loud, hard laugh.

"Why the heck would I let ya take one of my damn ships!?" Cid shouted in between laughs. He believed this was a joke!

"ASS!" the teen growled, throwing her hands onto the counter. One index finger was pointed at the man's nose, as if Raynie was at a lost of what else to say. He simply rolled his eyes.

"I promise I won't crash any! I swear it!"

"Ya said that 'bout the other 15 ships ya crashed!"

"IT WAS THE HEARTLESS, DAMMIT! THEY KEPT ON SHOOTING AT ME!"

They stood, or sat, within the walls of the Accessory Shop. But, of course, it wasn't just Raynie, Cid, and Rena this time. Ven and Adyn were here, too! However, they weren't arguing with Cid, much like Raynie was.

Ven continuously glanced over at Adyn, a chill running down his spine each time he looked at the boy; there was something very creepy about him, and it wasn't just how he looked. The black haired teen, though, kept his silence and followed whatever Raynie, Ven, or even Rena told him. But, Rena wished he would talk more than he did.

Occasionally, Rena would glanced over to Adyn as well, sometimes even trying to duck behind him whenever Raynie screamed. Which she was doing right...

"Gramps, we need a damn ship!! I work for you; the least you could do would be let me use on--"

"You're workin' for me 'cause of those damn ships you crashed!"

"I DIDN'T CRASH THEM!!"

"Then why were they all crumpled up when I got them back?"

"Because Heartless are stupid and they don't like me! I don't like them either!"

"You're still ain't gettin' one!"

"What if I said I would keep it nice and safe, even clean it with my toothbrush or something?"

"Still ain't gettin' it."

"I HATE YOUR GUTS!" growled Raynie.

"Go right ahead then!" Cid exclaimed, giving a hard laugh.

"Whatever..." she snapped, considering to use a nice little finger gesture but managed to stay against it.

"Goth boy..." she then growled, grabbing the sleeve of the sickly pale boy's shirt, "You come with me..."

With Adyn now in tow, the two exited the Accessory Shop, and it was undeniable that Raynie was heavily fuming now; possibly even ranting to Adyn.

"...What?" Cid snapped, his blue eyes seeming to growl as he glared over at the remaining group, "Did loud 'n obnoxious start grabbin' people off the streets like you two?" He looked over at Ven with disgust.

The boy gave a gulp as he sat upon the couch, "No, sir... I kinda found--"

"No need to be a liar, kid!"

"But I'm not--"

"Hiya, Mister!" Rena exclaimed as she jumped to the counter, her deep blue eyes sparkling.

Cid gave a cringe, "...You're still short."

"I am not..." the tomboy muttered, folding her arms and proceeding to give a pout.

Ven merely blinked at the sight. Not at the old man's statement, but at the fact Rena actually knew who this guy was. But, of course, Raynie probably dragged her in her before the boy even showed up.

He watched Rena rummage through her pockets when the shopkeeper asked about something along the lines of 'being skin and bones'. The tomboy pulled out a barely eaten, messily wrapped piece of bread and Cid gave a quick shout before Rena hastily opened it back up. Ven merely gave a shrug. He pulled himself to his feet.

"Rena," he said, placing his arm on the tomboy's sleeve.

"Hm?" she queried, her voice now muffled from the round piece of bread in her mouth.

"Let's go..."

The tomboy gave a nod, following behind Ven as he stepped out of the shop, and sent a wave over to the grumpy old man. He gave a scoff, not even seeming to care.

[wake up - show appreciation]​

"Vennn! Where're we goin'?"

"Well, do you know what a keyhole is?" the boy queried.

Rena gave her head a slight nod, "Yeah, but those aren't supposed to be important..."

The blonde haired boy instantly halted in his tracks, skidding to a stop. He instantly jerked his head around to see Rena's confused gaze.

"Not important!? That's more important than... whatever Raynie wants...!"

"Oh, good. I hate them more now."

"Trust me, you won't."

She gave a grumble, "I don't have to rescue anything like Raynie wants, do I?"

"No, of course not! Why would you--?"

"Then why don't you deal with it?"

Ven gave a choke, "Well... uh..."

They were standing in the midst of the Second District, the district that seemed to interest Rena the most. There were no freaky Heartless things nor any of those Nobodies like before, so there was nothing to worry about! Therefore, she got to stand still and simply glance around; Ven thought this was a little weird, though, probably because of the district was so simple to him.

He gave a quick, little sigh, "My keyblade's kinda... weird..."

"It just looks different than mine..." Rena grumbled, bringing her gaze from the sky and down onto the blonde haired boy, "All of those weirdo keys at the same, right?"

"Not... exactly..." he gave a gulp, scratching the side of his head.

"Then what's so different about it?"

A pensive frown curved on Ven's face. He was truly at a loss of what to say, but how could he explain that whole thing?

With haste, he jerked himself around, "...C'mon, let's just go find it!"

"TELL ME WHAT'S DIFFERENT ABOUT IT FIRST!" Rena loudly protested.

"Later!!" The boy merely waved his hand.

Rena gave a huff, her frown forming into another pout, and she stomped off after the blonde haired boy. However, the boy didn't look like he knew what he was doing.

Yet, at the same time, he knew exactly what to do.

Eyes narrowed, he walked briskly down the street. Past the infamous hotel (Which had a mysterious chill next to it; probably because of the scratches on the glass), up a small stairway, and a turn into a pair of double doors. When the pair went into this room, Ven protectively pulled Rena closer, warning her to stay nearby.

"This place is dangerous. Lots of Heartless show up, so stay close..."

Rena simply rolled her eyes.

They journeyed through the place, known as the 'Gizmo Shop', and Rena soon became distracted by all the weird contraptions that clicked, moved, and made nifty, micro noises as they walked past. There were some that seemed to be fizzing, like a bottle of soda that got too shaken up but strangely with electricity. Levers were moving, platforms were lowering, and lights flashed wildly. It was no wonder that the tomboy stopped once or twice! Fortunately, Ven was able to get both of them out of there before any Heartless started popping up like wildfire.

This place, however, wasn't nearly as interesting as the Gizmo Shop.

It was a simply quaint, little 'alley' though it had a quick end against the wall and the other side showed a ledge. This place was very dark, much like that rainy world, and only a rickety, old ladder stood nearby. Boring, huh?

"Up here," Ven said, his eyes narrowing once more.

Rena tilted her head to the side, "How'd you know?"

"Not really sure..." he mumbled with a shrug.

He proceeding to climb up the ladder first, seeming to take his time with the task. Rena was right behind him, though she was a little more rushed with the climbing; after all, she just wanted to get out of this boring place.

With one foot on the top, Ven pushed off and landed in the midst of the flat rooftop. Rena, on the other hand, did it the normal, unskillful way by just crawling onto the roof. When they both stood up straight, the tomboy gave a gulp, realizing how high up they were now. They could probably touch one of those stars in the sky; though, that was very much an over-exaggeration.

Now rather weary, Rena slid behind Ven, who simply assured that they'd get down from there in a few moments.

"There's just one thing we have to do first."

The place no longer had wooden boards before it. It was open, revealing a dark corridor with a simple rope inside of it.

Ven looked into the darkness with perplexed expression. How did he know that?

One foot stepped forwards. Then the next. He went straight into the dark area, Rena closely following behind with a fear of falling in mind.

The boy stared at the wall, specifically at the limp rope laying against the pitch black wall.

"We have to pull on this first. It makes the bell ring and..." he narrowed his blue eyes once more, "...makes the keyhole appear."

Rena gave a shrug and decided to just go along with what Ven said. Hesitantly, she grabbed the rope first, giving several quick looks to Ven in case she wasn't supposed to ring the bell, and gave a hard pull when the boy nodded his head.

The ring echoed throughout the district. Possibly even throughout the town. And, at once, Rena dropped the rope out of her grasp, only to take a step back a moment later. Ven, however, instantly took the thick string back into his grasp; Rena gave a nervous laugh as he gave her a quick glance.

It rang twice more. Echoing throughout the district, if not through the whole world.

That's when the strange part came:

Ven hastily latched onto Rena's hand. They charged out of the corridor. The strange part wasn't his impulsive running: it was the fact that they were about to jump right off of the edge.

"VEN!!" Rena screamed, eyes wide with fright. She tempted to wrench her hand from Ven's own.

"Just trust me, okay?" he exclaimed, only seconds away from plummeting off of the edge. What was his rush?

Seconds ticked by. As the boy stepped off of the edge, Rena's grasp became tighter. Foot against the very edge now. She pushed off. Following the blonde haired boy.

They were flying to the ground, the wind rushing past wildly. Rena's eyes couldn't seem to focus, even when her feet touched the ground.

Ven expertly landed on his feet, knees perfectly bent as he used both his hands and feet to push off. Rena, on the other hand, only landed on her feet before proceeding to fall forwards.

"Clumsy..." she muttered, quickly jumping to her feet and following behind the boy once more. The tomboy looked at him with a rather concerned expression, especially since he was now holding both of his keyblades within his grasp. What was up?

"Get going!" he exclaimed, pushing Rena forwards as she ran past; she nearly tripped because of that...

"Why!?" snapped the tomboy as she tried to regain her balance.

"If that's like that for too long, Heartless will show up and destroy the world!"

She gave a gulp. "But how'd I--"

"You'll figure it out!"

She gave a nervous laugh at that answer, but rushed forwards anyways.

That wasn't something you saw everyday...

Now in the midst of that strange, quaint fountain near the Second District's door was a shimmering hole. A keyhole shape, to be specific. It shimmered and seemed to call anyone near it closer. That only applied to Rena at the moment, unless, of course, Ven came closer.

Her empty hand soon became vacant, as her fingers curled around the handle of the blue and silver keyblade. The wisps of black quickly disappeared as she slid to a stop before the fountain. The tomboy's eyes glimmered as she stared at the gigantic keyhole. Yet, she still didn't know how to seal it...

Glancing back and forth between her keyblade and the unlocked lock, she still didn't know! How was she supposed to figure out? Ven wasn't helping, and it wasn't like her keyblade talk... Wait! It did! Sort of, anyways.

The key vibrated at the girl's thought and immediately, she figured it out.

Now, with the keyblade pointed straight at the keyhole and centered before her, a mysterious rush of wind swept through the district. It eclipsed itself around the keywielder, as the keyblade began to glow just like the keyhole. It was a enigmatic feeling, though...

After a moment, a point of light appeared before the tip of the keyblade and shot itself outwards, in the form of a white beam. The beam soon found itself inside of the keyhole.

The wind died down. The keyhole drew itself out of existence. The tomboy's keyblade disappeared from her grasp. Everything felt safe now. But, there was something about it... Why did it feel so empty?

"Look!" Rena exclaimed excitedly, pointing an index finger at the now plain mural, "I did it, nii-san!"

A grin quickly appeared on Ven's face. Yet, it disappeared with a moment's notice.

"Nii... san...?" queried the boy. He looked confused beyond belief.

Rena blinked at what she said. And at what he said. She looked just as clueless.

"...Um," she spoke after a moment of confused, clueless silence. Then a nervous laugh escaped from her mouth.

At a lost of what to say, Ven finally spoke. However, he didn't really realize what he was saying didn't seem to be the right question to expect.

"What's it mean?" Ven queried.

Rena narrowed her eyes, "Umm..." A gulp came. She quickly glanced up at the blonde haired boy, "I think the 'nii' part means big brother or somethin'..." She twiddled her thumbs, "And I think the 'san' part means... erm... I... respect... you...?"

Ven gave a choke. Then a laugh, "You respect me?"

"I think... so..." Rena shuddered, her posture seeming to lower thanks to the boy's laugh.

"Wow," he then replied, scratching the back of his head, "No one's ever really respected me before..."

"I dunno if I do or not! I just heard the word back home!"

"Well, you said it meant big brother..."

"'Cause I look up to you!" Rena shuddered once more. She bit her lip... then proceeding to cover her mouth with her hands. She looked rather embarrassed.

"You look up to me?"

The tomboy gave a quick little nod. "You're better than Raynie..." she spoke through her hands, resulting in a muffle, "It's 'cause of those keyblade things, too..."

Ven gave a smile. Though it was a little faint, you could tell that his face was getting a bit red, too. He didn't really know what to say...

Rena removed her hands from her mouth and hesitantly gave a grin. But, it was only a moment later before she begun to twiddle her thumbs again, "I think you're overprotective... Or somethin'..."

"I'm not overprotective!" the boy exclaimed with a scoff.

Rena gave a quick, little giggle, "And that isn't?"

"..." The boy's face was bright red now. He scratched the back of his head.

"Can I just call you 'nii-san'? Pleeeeease?" Her hands were clasped together. Just like Raynie's had been in the Accessory Shop when she was pleading to Cid.

"I... guess..." Ven replied, giving a faint laugh.

"OKAY, NII-SAN!" The tomboy sounded beyond ecstatic. But, he still sort of didn't get it...

"Let's go back to the First District," the red colour beginning to disappear from Ven's face, "Maybe Raynie and Adyn are there. ...Wherever they went in the first place..."

"Okies!"

[wake up - time for us to realize]​

"Where the heck did you two go!?

Expression? A sour frown and a pair of harsh mako blue eyes. Tone? Loud, annoyed, ticked off, the rest... Raynie was not happy to see Ven and Rena return.

"I told you two to stay in the shop with gramps!!" she exclaimed with crossed arms.

Ven gave a gulp, "You never did--"

"Of course I did! You two just don't listen!"

"If you had, we would've stayed in there in the fi--"

"So, where'd you guys go? You better not had gone too far!!"

"We just went to the Second District!"

"To seal the keyhole!" Rena jumped in with a bit of a sour tone, "Nii-san said we had to..."

Raynie choked.

"What... did you... say?"

"We had to seal the keyhole?"

"No, I could've sworn that I heard a cute little nickname in there..." Raynie tempted to hold back a giggle, "If you two wanted to be alone badly, you could've just said that! Not some stupid story..."

They both paused.

"...HEY!" It took them both a moment to figure out what the heck she was talking about, and Ven was the first to protest, "She's way too short for me!"

"I'M NOT SHORT!" Rena snapped, "He's too old for me, anyways!"

"I'm not that old..."

Raynie tilted her head to the side, "Alright, how old are you, blondie?"

"...Fifteen..."

"And you, kid?"

"I'm thirteen."

"Yeah, too big of an age difference. MOVING ON!"

Raynie rolled her eyes innocently as she muttered something about 'you don't look thirteen...', resulting in a quick glare and a shout from the tomboy.

"So, I figured out how we're gonna get out of here..." the brown-haired teen gave a sly grin. Not good...

"And that would be...?" Ven rolled his eyes.

"Steal a gummi ship, of course!"

The boy nearly fell over. Steal a gummi ship? That was nuts!

"Steal one? You're going to steal one?"

"Yup!"

"But... from where!?"

"Gramps, of course!"

"He already said--"

"IT'LL BE EASY! HE WON'T KNOW ABOUT IT, I PROMISE! Sheesh, don't be such a scaredy cat... It'll all be under control. Promise!"

"But..."

"JUST START WALKING, DAMMIT!"

It was a decently interesting sight: Raynie was trying to pull Ven towards a large door at the very front of the First District, specifically trying to pull him by the ear. Ven, on the other hand, was pulling back in the opposite direction, a frustrated look sprawled about on his peach-toned face. Rena merely watched, glancing back and forth at a loss.

"...Where's Adyn?" she questioned curiously.

Raynie let out a growl, her voice giving a snapped tone, "Stupid! He's right over there!"

"Adynnnnn!" Rena exclaimed excitedly.

Raynie simply rolled her eyes as the tomboy hurried off past both the fist fighter and the blonde-haired boy. The fact that Rena was going over to Adyn, however, didn't settle a bit too well with Ven.

"Rena, wai-- OW OW OWWW!"

"Okay, we can leave now!" Raynie grinned triumphantly, a hand tightly tugging on the boy's ear. He was forced to follow along; perfect!

Ven gave a grumble, "Why is that freak still here?"

"He's not a freak, ya know," Raynie gave a scoff, "He's a pretty damn good fighter, if you ask me..."

"Yeah, but he could be a heartless, too."

"Humans can't be Heartless!"

"And, normally, humans don't have sick-pale skin and tons of scars!"

"Whatever, just walk, dammit!"

Ven gave another grumble. He couldn't win this! He couldn't win against Raynie dragging him off to go steal a gummi ship, and he couldn't win the fight to get Adyn out of their little 'group'. He really didn't care if he was a good fighter or not; he looks way too weird! He gave a bit of a huff at the thought.

His electric blue eyes gazed over at Adyn and Rena. He gave a growl.

That guy had to be a heartless...

"Goth boy! Kid! Get your asses over here!" Raynie snapped, shooting a fiery glare over at the two. Instantly, they both came running over to reduce the risk of being beat over the head with their weapons.

"Mmkay, we're gonna steal a gummi ship and get the heck out of here. Get it? Got it? You better, dammit!"

[calling - someone is calling]​

The youngest of the bunch couldn't help but stop and stare at the outside world, beyond the doors of the First District and into something Raynie called 'a gummi dock'.

It was out in the middle of space! Thousands of stars twinkling against a navy blue-coloured sky, with swirls of a lighter blue seamlessly blended in. What was strange, though, was how they were standing out in the middle of space, feet firmly flat on the ground, and able to breathe.

"There's some weird thing around here. Like the atmosphere around Traverse Town, or somethin'. Not really sure about what it is exactly." Raynie replied when Ven realized they weren't floating off helplessly into space. Rena perked up when she heard the answer and merely tilted her head to the side at the reply.

All four pairs of feet clicked against the strange ground below. Actually, it was more like a deck of sorts. A metallic, steel deck. That made crunchy sounds when you walked on it...

Steel tiles, held together by little steel screws, lined next to each other, creating the gigantic, vast dock that was beneath their feet. Raynie said that it went all the way around Traverse Town, but it disappeared when you were driving away from it in a ship; something about having a gigantic steel dock looking tacky from a distance...

"Here it is!" Raynie grinned. However, her grin wasn't a normal ecstatic, excited one. Not, it was rather mischievous.

Ven's jaw dropped at the sight, "That's... a big... ship..."

"Yeah! It's his favourite!"

"WHAT!?"

Raynie whistled an innocent tune, one that sounded rather heroic after you had beaten up a bunch of monsters, and quickly made her way towards the monstrous ship. She rummaged through her pockets for a pair of keys; how she got them, though, was a mystery.

The ship that she was now trying to unlock was a gigantic, monstrous gummi ship, one that was bigger than any puny little ship that was sitting around aimlessly on the dock. It had a long nose and resembled a lengthened airplane, except with it was much more grudgy than any perfectly spotless airplane. Two large propellers sat atop two round parts of the ship, the propellers ready to fly off into space. But, despite the fact that it was bigger than the rest of the ships, this dark grey-coloured ship actually seemed smaller than another counterpart that Raynie had in mind. It was still pretty damn big, though.

"You're insane! You're not stealing that one!!" Ven protested, shooting a harsh glare over at the sly Raynie.

"Oh? And you're going to stop me?"

"...Y-Yeah! I am!"

"Okay! Come 'n get it, blondie!"

Another interesting sight, brought to you by Raynie and Ven getting mad at each other; well, Ven was getting mad, or at least frustrated, at Raynie again. The blonde charged straight forwards. Raynie merely continued to whistle her innocent little tune.

Yet, you had to have a pair of fast eyes to follow what happened next. As the expert fist fighter that she was, Raynie slammed her fist into Ven's stomach, dislocated his arm, and flipped him onto his back in the process. All in about two seconds flat.

She gave a grin, "Better get in the ship, blondie, or I'm leaving without you~!"

A painful moan came out of Ven's mouth, his eyes out of focus, as he laid flat on his back.

"...You okay, nii-san?" Rena questioned, leaning over to stare down into the boy's deep blue eyes. Ven only gave a slight nod.

"Rena, c'mon!" A familiar voice exclaimed, belonging to Adyn as he quietly boarded the ship.

Ven was nearly on his feet now, thanks to a hand from the thirteen-year-old, but he soon fell back onto his back when Rena nodded and followed Adyn onto the ship.

"...H-Hey!!" Ven screamed, slowly and painfully pulling himself to his feet, "Don't you dare start that ship up yet!"

The dual-wielding-keyblader charged off as fast as he could, growling as Raynie teased him by opening and closing the door to the ship.

When he reached the gummi ship, he snarled as he wrenched the door out of Raynie's hand, thrusting his own fiery glare onto the teen. She merely scoffed it off.

The loud teen stepped off towards the ship's control panel, which stood up on a platform at the back of the room. The place, just like the outside, seemed gigantic compared to any other gummi ship interior. No square little space with two brightly-coloured couches. This was much bigger than that.

Surrounding the dome-shaped room were several large, glass windows that showed the outside world. Some of these windows were half-covered with black seamlessly put over a certain point, as if they were curtains that didn't actually exist; when Raynie pressed a certain button on the control panel before her, however, those black shades rolled themselves up out of existence.

The floor was also made of glass, but there was a round, steel part with two beams pointing outward in the middle of the glass. This floor too could be covered by that currently non-existant black.

Towards the back of the room, however, was a large platform with circular railing that curved around it. Beside the platform were two round objects on each side, that could open to reveal a small stairway; they were apparently able to cover and uncover themselves in case someone got ticked off at another person...

The steering wheel before Raynie was in front of a vast control panel, and a small little video screen that showed various worlds, as well as incoming ships. She gave a scoff as she glared down at the '#%!$' symbols on the circular part of the wheel, which was for slamming your hand against the thing and screaming your head off at stupid drivers, or stupid Heartless.

Before the tall platform were a couch with seatbelts and two chairs aimlessly sitting besides the couch. That was, obviously, where you were supposed to 'sit yer ass down 'n shut up, dammit!', according to Cid, anyways. There were also some sort of doors that lead out into other parts of the ship; Raynie said that there were actually rooms to stay in in this ship...

But, the most interesting thing of all, aside from the size of the interior, was the flat 'table' in the middle of the circular, steel part of the floor. When the echo of the propellers started up, this table lit up with holograms of, what appeared to be, worlds!

"It's off to Hollow Bastion, then!" Raynie grinned, as she pressed several buttons on the vast control panel before her.

"What about keyholes?" Ven queried.

"What about 'em? They're stupid little tunnels to the heart of a world... Why should be worry about them? Getting to Hollow Bastion is more important!"

The boy raised a brow, "Actually, if you think about it... If you don't seal the keyholes, there won't be a Hollow Bastion."

"...What?"

"Hollow Bastion will disappear if we don't seal some keyholes first."

"Really?" Raynie snarled, "Since when was this true?"

"Things can change in a couple of years," Ven begun, "And other keyholes can be effected if just one isn't sealed..."

"THEN PICK A WORLD, DAMMIT! Leon is not going to have my ass just because of some stupid world phenomena!!"

The covers over the two stairways opened and Raynie immediately rushed down them. She was in a rush to get over to the table in the midst of the room, which lit up as soon as she stepped in front of it.

A grid appeared, followed by small icons of what appeared to be 'worlds'. There were three that were the closest to the biggest, which was Traverse Town, while many others scrolled smaller off into the distance. Ven's eyes lit up at the sight when he stopped before the table, as did Rena's; though her expression was much more curious than Ven's was. Adyn, on the other hand, merely gazed over the holograms, his expression revealing that he wasn't too interested.

"What about this one?" Rena queried as she poked her finger through the hologram of a checkerboard-covered icon.

"No!" Raynie protested, "We're not goin--!"

"WORLD SELECTED!" a chipper, yet rather electronic voice exclaimed; Raynie merely cringed and mumbled something about 'stupid ninja...', "SEE YA IN WONDERLAND!"

"...Brat," Raynie snapped, her eyes deadly with fire, "You just had to pick that place... Of all places!!"

"It's not that bad," Ven chimed in, "We have to seal all of them, anyways..."

"But that stupid fat hag is gonna bite my head off when she sees me!!" Raynie's tone was now a bit hysterical, though it was still pretty annoyed, "Just 'cause I painted those stupid weeds blue instead of red..."

The teen continued to mumble some incomprehensible words, twiddling her foot around against the floor before jerking herself off into the opposite direction. She only gave an angry huff when that annoying, high-pitched voice returned on the non-existant speakers.

"PRESS THE BUTTON PRESS THE BUTTON PRESS THE --"

"SHUT UP, YOU DAMN NINJA!!" Raynie snapped while seeming to breathe fire into the air, "Dammit, why'd Cid let her record that damn thing in the first place!?"

After expertly pressing several flashing buttons, she snatched a small device into her grasp and her already loud voice echoed throughout the interior.

"GET IN YOUR SEAT, BUCKLE UP, AND IF SWIRLING COLOURS MAKE YOU THROW UP, CLOSE YOUR EYES AND DEAL WITH IT! WE'RE ABOUT TO GO ON WARP!"

At the warning, the trio standing on the floor hastily took their seats as Raynie screamed some other words into the intercom; she was just trying to be completely annoying, wasn't she? Ven, Adyn, and Rena took their places on the couch in the middle of the two random chairs, though Ven forced Rena to be in between himself and Adyn; she, of course, followed this command happily.

Now buckled up and ready to take off, Raynie expertly pressed another few buttons, turned a dial, and happily slammed a button that read 'WARP!' with her fist.

That's when she lowered herself to the platform's floor.

The windows showed everything: the ship was lifting off of the ground, raising itself into the air, and turning around to blast off.

The stars disappeared from the sky. As did the navy blue background. It all twisted together into a melody of cool hues, twisting and turning into one little point of light in the middle. The colours were spinning so much; it was no wonder Raynie was hiding!

Yet, with a brave effort, she slowly raised herself to her feet.

"Okay..." she begun, disoriented, "We'll be there in less than 5 minutes. If not a minute or so..."

"Hey!"

"What're you doin' on here!?"

Raynie merely raised a brow. Then proceeded to give a cringe.

"You're not Cid!!" the two voices screamed in unison.

"Why, oh why, are you here..." Raynie snapped.

"'Cause someone has to take care of this place!" the more intelligent one with the small black nose exclaimed.

"But Cid already takes care of his ship..." the other with the big red nose and two big bucked teeth muttered to himself.

They were tiny. Tiny little... rodents? There was brown fur, a stripe of black going down their backs to their tails, and little paws covered by gloves. They even wore little 'aprons' of sorts, dyed yellow along with various warm colours, that had a blue pouch on the front.

Raynie cringed once more, beginning to sink down to the floor, "Annoying little rodents."

"HEY!" the two chipmunks protested as they waved their cleaning-ware in their hands; the one known as 'Chip' held a miniature broom, while the one known as 'Dale' held a miniature mop.

"Aw, cool!" a familiar voice chimed in, "Talking chipmunks!"

Raynie snapped, "SIT DOWN, KID!!"

However, the two little fuzzy creatures slid down from the control panel and landed right down on the couch that the trio of Adyn, Ven, and Rena were sitting on. Rena immediately picked up Chip, while Dale jumped onto Adyn's shoulder.

"Hiya!" Dale exclaimed to Adyn, waving his little gloved paw at the black-haired teen. Adyn didn't give a glance to the creature. But, of course, Dale had to be annoying and tunnel into Adyn's black hair, giving a grin as he hanged onto one of the spikes.

Chip, on the other hand, shot a glare over to his annoying partner as Rena let him stand in her hand's palm. The two little chipmunks begun to speak in quick, incomprehensible voices, though Ven and Rena managed to catch a few words while Adyn seemed to sulk with a little rodent in his hair.

"Uhh... Rena," Ven begun, tapping the young girl on the shoulder to catch her attention. This question had, actually, been plaguing him for a bit; now seemed like the perfect time to ask, even if Rena had a little chipmunk in her hand.

"Hm?" Rena perked up, shifting her gaze over to him.

"Ummm... have you ever heard of an 'awakening'?" his voice got low and he frowned when Rena shook her head.

"What's that?"

"It's this trial that keybladers go through, I think. I guess to see if they're worthy to have a keyblade..."

"Have you ever been in one?" Rena tilted her head to the side. Ven merely shook his head. "Then how do you know what it is?"

"I've just heard about it..."

Rena gave a pensive frown, "Well, I guess it can't be a normal thing, 'cause we've never been in--"

"DALE!" the black-nosed chipmunk finally screamed, jumping onto Adyn's shoulder before scurrying up into his black hair alongside Dale.

Rena gave a little laugh, a nervous one at that, "Uhh... you've got chipmunks in your hai--"

"Yeah, I know," Adyn replied with a cool tone, crossing his arms as the two chipmunks climbed up one of the tall spikes on his head while giggling.

"Oh! Nii-san!" Rena exclaimed quietly, turning back around to face Ven once more. Yet, before she begun to talk, her voice became a whisper, "Did you lie to Raynie?"

"About what?" Ven querying, giving a nervous laugh.

"About the keyhole thing...?"

"That?" another nervous laugh came as his voice lowered, "Yeah... sorta did..."

"Good!" Rena gave a grin, "But, ya know, once we get there... I'm not gonna be with you guys anymore..."

"Huh?" Ven frowned.

"Well, I'm gonna leave once we get there. 'Cause Raynie won't care what happens to me after that..."

"Yeah, but what about everyone el--?"

"HIYA WONDERLAND!"

The ship came to a fast, abrupt halt. No longer were millions of colours swirling before their eyes. Now, there was that familiar navy blue background behind millions of stars. And, of course, the actual world.

"DAMN NINJA!!" Raynie cursed, attempting to throw something at one of the speakers that echoed throughout the ship. She gave a huff, and instantly took off to the floor.

"Okay, all of you!" she exclaimed, "Get up, get out, and... goth boy! Get those stupid rodents out of your hair!"

"We're not rodents!" the twin voices exclaimed, before they dove into Raynie's hands as she stood before Adyn; she gave a growl as they jumped to the floor.

"Okies, let's go, dammit!!" Raynie snapped, pushed the two boys and one girl towards the large door hastily. She didn't even bother to stop the ship or anything; apparently, she just wanted to get this place over with.

"Uhhh... Raynie?" Ven queried, looking at the door apprehensively, "Shouldn't we just go--"

"Just jump!!"

"But there's nothing down there!"

"Exactly!"

"WHAT!?" Rena exclaimed stopping the line abruptly, "We're not jumping!"

The door slid open. Raynie glared down at the tomboy, her eyes looking either pretty annoyed or evil right at that very moment as a shadow cast over them.

"Too late for that."

Rena gulped. Why did Raynie have to be so serious about...

An index finger pushed against her forehead. The girl went stumbled backwards. Falling right off of the ship. And into a black tunnel.
 
Last edited:

bizness86

New member
Joined
Feb 27, 2008
Messages
293
Thus far, I have read the first post; in my opinion, your storytelling abilities are next to flawless. So many vibrant and flourishing adjectives which heavily emphasis the atmospheres which your characters intertwine; the harshness of the outer streets in which the focal character Rena sustains is heavily set with a awe-inspiring array of characters imbellished with abstract imagery. On a side-note the outer streets remind me of Agrabah for reasons unknown.

Rena has lost the world she deems familiar and has treaded into a world of hopelessness. I intend to discover even more truths by reading the next chapter.

Good job.
 

Mason Stark

TICK TOCK, KID!
Joined
May 12, 2004
Messages
7,091
Awards
18
Location
Gravity Falls, OR
Website
twitter.com
Ack, sorry that chapter was so long... *headdesk* I'm trying to work on shortening it, though! But, there was lots of action in it, right? <.<; That might be why... 8D; Anywho, thankies for the comment, AS! :] *gives cookie*

Bizness... THANK YOU for posting that! I really, really, really appreciate that, 'specially since it's a review! And, that part reminds you of Agrabah? ...SHWEET. 8D It does seem like eet!

Mmkay, the next chapter'll be up as soon as possible. It may not be this week, though, but I'll try to get it up as soon as I can. I also have a beta for the story now, so I might let them look over that chapter before I posted it up. And 8 is almost done, 9 is one I'm planning, and I'm REALLY getting bored with this fic, so I might actually have to work on my other story for a bit. I'm gonna try really hard to get to chapter 13 before I do that, though, so we'll see.
 

Ban Mido

Kissing the skies.
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
4,679
Location
the Honkey Tonk.
Beta Reader Feedback: Piece of Heart

Definate progress in the later chapters. But I think the tips I gave my PM's a while ago still aplies. You'll only keep getting better.

Next time though, please give the link to a open, active thread.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top