BRC: I don't own Kingdom hearts but I own the few original characters that appear in this. Please Read and Review
The Awakening: Balance
Black Rose Crystal
Chapter One: Beginning
'She could taste the salt in the air and could feel the sea breeze hit her face. She opened her eyes and there was Riku's beautiful form in front of her, a Paopu fruit held in his hands. He grins and his smile looks like 100,000 suns lighting up the sky…'
"That was the gayest sentence I have ever read, Ryler."
"Shut up, Marcel. What do you know about fan fiction?" The girl says glancing up to glare at her best friend, Marcel.
"Enough to know that that sentence was all kinds of gay. Anyway what's with the awesomely bad Kingdom Hearts fan fiction? I thought you said you had more respect for the series then to write anything that bad. Plus your original character feels kind of Mary Sue-ish." The boy sits beside the shorter girl on her porch, pulling off his hat to reveal the dyed red hair courtesy of Ryler and her connections at the local hair salon.
Ryler sighs and scribbles on the fan fiction with her pen, "Yeah I know. It's just that I'm so bored waiting for Birth By Sleep to come out that I've been trying to write too much. I guess I ran out of ideas for original characters and pulled out Mrs. Princess Sparkly bums here out of my ass. I need something to do, man. This summer has been sucking majorly."
"It's only just started Ry. It's going to start off boring but I'm sure something interesting will happen."
Ryler and her friend Marcel were two 20 year old gamers who loved Kingdom Hearts and were bored out of their minds while waiting for the newest game to come out and for the next game/anime convention to pop up. Since there was not much to do in their town other then go shopping, play video games with their fellow nerds and maybe go to the beach, they had become restless and didn't know what to do to make their summer better. It didn't help that their anti social personalities kept them from making friends easily, well that and the fact that Ryler was a bitch and Marcel was too shy to speak to most people about anything other than comics or video games.
Thus the two were stuck hanging out with each other in the small town called Eclipse, a town basically in the middle of nowhere that only had a few stores, a mall and fast food restaurants. The only saving grace for the town was the fact that there was a beach somewhat close to it but that meant in the summer the town got overrun by tourists and not many townsfolk wanted to deal with the Hawaiian shirt clad zombies.
"The only thing interesting is the storm that's coming in tonight…Now that is going to be amazing plus it will keep the zombies in for a while," Ryler grins punching the African-American boy in his arm, "And the waves will be epic for the next few days."
"I'm sure the surfing zombies think the same thing, Ry. You know you aren't going to be the only one out there trying to catch the "perfect one"…plus you know Sadira ain't gonna want to let you out in a storm." Marcel sighs when a gust of wind catches them and they both look at the sky to see the first dark clouds roll in, "It's coming in a lot faster than I thought."
"Yeah the weatherman said it wasn't supposed to rain until at least 12…"
Marcel nods then blinks, "Don't we have to work today?"
"Shit, yeah we do. Come on lets go before Arden has a cow about me being late." Ryler stands and dusts off the seat of her black skinny jeans and walks inside the small house, dodging the three running kids that were her siblings and walking to the woman standing behind the stove.
"I'm leaving mama. I'll be home soon."
The woman, a tall dark skinned female with long black hair and green eyes that Ryler inherited, turns and smiles at her oldest daughter, "Be good, little one. And be safe, this storm is going to be a bad one. I wish you two wouldn't be out in it."
"We aren't going to be out in it mama. We will just be driving in it until we get to Expressions then we will be safe and sound in the café all warm and toasty and what not," The short girl smiles when her mother ruffles her hair.
"Still…I'm afraid this storm will be a lot worse than people think. It does not feel normal little one. It feels evil almost." Sadira touches the pendant around her neck, a piece of metal in the shape of a cross with one bat wing and one angel wing on either side, a silver ring hung beside it. She takes it off and places the necklace around Ryler's neck and kisses the girl's forehead.
"What's this for? Dad gave you this."
Sadira smiles, "It will keep you safe, little one. I just wish you didn't have to go out tonight."
"You and Dad are the one who got me the job so I have to stick with it. Tell Dad that I said hi and I'll be back later okay?" Ryler picks up her messenger bag and pulls on her cropped white hoodie and almost walks outside before turning around, a strange feeling in forming in her stomach.
Marcel looks up at the girl from his spot checking his text messages, "What's up, Ry?"
Ryler frowns then looks at her family, "Um…hey guys. I love you all. I just wanted you to know that okay?"
Sadira smiles sadly, "I know Ry. We love you too."
Ryler blushes and nods before dodging the hugs of her two brothers and little sister and waves once then runs to dark green Mustang parked outside. She throws her bag into the back and cranks up the car, glancing back at the house once as Marcel gets in before driving off.
"It's really pouring down out there." An young man says to Ryler, looking up from his newspaper as she pours him a fresh batch of coffee. His name was Dr. Winston and was a regular at the Expressions Cafe and bookstore and was one of the few customers Ryler and Marcel could tolerate, even though the man was strange. Ryler had known the man all of her life, he had even babysat her when she was a child. She loved the strange man like a father and he seemed to treat both her and Marcel like the children he could not have.
"Yes sir it is. It will clear up in a few days and we'll be back to sunny skies and intense heat in no time." Ryler says smiling brightly, her hair tied back into a ponytail so it wouldn't fly in her face as she worked.
Dr. Winston shakes his head his blue eyes serious and worried looking, "No I don't think so. I think this storm is going to do a lot of damage…"
Ryler glances out of the window at the rain that pelted the streets outside. It didn't seem that bad at the moment, just a lot of rain and some strong wind. She didn't get what everyone was so worked up about; the town had been through worse storms before.
She just shakes her head and blows her white bangs away from her eyes, "If you say so doctor. I'll go get you some more cookies, sir."
The girl walks back to the kitchen and leans on the counter next to her boss, Arden. The emo male was sipping a coke and talking to Marcel who was cooking. Ryler blushes faintly as she stares at the tall male who was clad in a pair of tight jeans and a white shirt with a bloody heart on the front. His black hair fell into his gray eyes and in spite of his skinny appearance Ryler could see that his arms were quite muscular.
Arden was only three years older than her and was running the café in place of his father Kegan, who had left town for some time. Quiet, pale, and calm, Arden was different then Ryler in so many ways and yet the girl still had a huge crush on the older male and most everyone knew it except for Arden himself.
"Quiet day huh Ryli? I'm surprised you even drove today. I thought you hated driving." Arden smiles and glances at the girl out of the corner of his eye. The girl blushes faintly then pushes him in the arm.
"Yeah well wouldn't have missed work for the world. You couldn't bus tables without me, Hun." Ryler grins at the look the two boys send her.
"We only have four people out there right now. I'm sure I could have handled it…I'm glad you came in but I kind of wish you didn't…"
Marcel raises an eyebrow as he turns off the stove, "Why not? You hate us that much?"
"No. I don't. It's just that there might be a hurricane coming in and I don't want ya'll here when it hits but I don't want you out there driving either so you might be stuck here anyway."
Ryler grabs the plate of hamburgers and places it on the tray with Mr. Winston's cookies, "Hey at least you aren't gonna be stuck here with the annoying coworkers."
Arden shakes his head and snorts, "You are the annoying coworker, Hun."
The girl just laughs and takes the food out to the waiting customers.
"Okay people, the storm is getting stronger. I suggest we all stay in here until it passes over." Arden yells from his spot behind the bar, the television blaring the sounds of a severe storm warning. The only few people in the bar was a young couple, Dr. Winston, and him and his coworkers but Arden felt that he should be in charge all the same.
Marcel sighs from where he was moving the furniture away from the windows and glances over at Ryler, frowning when he sees the girl engrossed in a video game, "Is this really the time to beat heartless?"
"It's always a time to beat heartless, duh." Ryler rolls her eyes and then yelps when Dr. Winston snatches the game away from her and looks at it.
"Heartless huh? Strange little creatures aren't they?" The man says handing the girl back her game, "craving something they don't have of their own."
"What do you know about heartless, sir? Have you played Kingdom Hearts before?" Marcel says walking over to the bar where Ryler and Dr. Winston sat.
"Something like that yes…I think its sad how heartless and Nobodies are created. Lacking an organ which gives a person their emotions and the ability to love and feel love…" Dr. Winston trails off when he notices a small boy running through the storm towards the café, "Isn't that your brother?"
Ryler turns and see's her brother Kyle at the door and jumps down, running towards it with Arden. Arden opens the door and picks the boy up, motioning for Marcel to get him a towel.
"What are you doing out in the storm? That was dangerous and stupid!" Ryler cries out as the boy gets himself dried off.
"Its mom…she's…been taken. Dad was fighting them off but he sent me to go find you. He said you…had to go to her."
"What do you mean taken, by what?"
Kyle looks up at her and she winces at the tears in his green eyes, "Mom called them …the heartless. She's been taken by the heartless."
Ryler stares at the young boy and shakes her head, "Heartless aren't real. I told you that. What really happened to mom?"
Kyle frowns and grabs the girl's hand pulling her to the door and throwing it open. To the surprise and horror of everyone, they saw that out of the storm and shadows, what appeared to be real live heartless were appearing.
"No way…they are real? How did you get pass them?!"
"Dad said they wouldn't touch me and they didn't. Anyway they took mom away, you have to save her Ry!"
Ryler frowns and picks Kyle up and hugs him before handing him to Dr. Winston, "Watch him for me. I have to go find my family."
Marcel and Arden watch as the girl picks up her messenger bag and places her DS inside of it before grabbing a broom and snapping the head of it off, then she pulls her hood up and runs outside into the rain. Marcel shouts after him and grabs a nearby mop while Arden glances back at the other people in the café before breaking off the leg of a table.
"Take care of Kyle for her okay Dr. Winston? Ya'll watch the café and keep safe." He says then runs out, hitting the attacking heartless with the table leg. It doesn't do much but it keeps them at bay while he runs up to follow Marcel and Ryler.
The three teens end up at Ryler's house which looks as if it has been robbed and they run through the wreckage to look for Ryler's father and siblings but they were nowhere to be seen.
"Why is this happening?" Ryler drops to her feet, her hands going into her hair, "This is crazy and…"
Marcel halls her to her feet, "Come on I'm sure your family is fine. Kyle made it out and I bet they did as well. We just have to find your mother."
"Guys…I think I know where she is…" Arden motions them towards the door and points out into the distance towards a bright light in the center of the storm, "I just have a weird feeling she's there."
"This is no time for weird feelings, Arden! I just want my mom!" Ryler shakes off the tears, "How are we going to get out there? There are heartless everywhere and we barely have weapons."
"Sora did it with only a wooden sword." Marcel heads towards the door and holds out his makeshift mop handle staff, "We can do this for your mom, Ry."
Ryler frowns then nods, tightening the straps of her messenger bag before twirling the broom handle and hitting herself in the face, "Okay so that wasn't as cool as I thought it would be….ow. Anyway let's do this!"
Arden resists the urge to laugh and once again they head out into the storm.
Rain pours down upon them as they head toward the one spot of light through the waves of heartless that surrounded them. Scratches cover their skin and it was a wonder they survived that long running from the shadow heartless that pursued them. When they finally reach the light they see that it went from the sky to the ground and floating in the dead center of it was Ryler's mother, tentacles of darkness twisting around her skin and heartless circling the light but unable to get close.
Ryler rushes towards it but the light forces her back, "Mom!"
"It is time, little one. This world will be destroyed and you must be ready to defend yourself in the battle that shall erupt." Sadira's voice seems cold and lifeless, the shadows seeming to pull the color from her body.
"What's going on Mom? Why is this happening? What's wrong with you?!" She rushes towards the light but it forces her away from her mother yet keeps her and the two boys in its protective barrier.
"I am doing all I can to protect this world, to keep the heart of this world from being consumed by darkness. The wars between darkness and light have leaked into our dimension and I, its protector, cannot keep the barrier closed any longer. That is why you must leave this place and be safe. You must go out into the other worlds to help fight in the war."
"Why me? Why do you have to be the protector of this place if it is just going to be destroyed anyway? Can't we protect it together?"
"No. You are the child of darkness, I cannot keep you here any longer then I have. You and your friends will find what you need in the other worlds but this world, this star, shall go dim before the night is over. I'm sorry it has to be this way but this is what has been foreseen." The light around Sadira grows brighter still but the darkness on her body continue to pull the color from her until the only color on her was her bright green eyes, the rest of her form gray and dull.
"Sadira, what are you talking about? None of this should be happening, this isn't real!" Marcel yells and Sadira smiles.
"It is very real, future mage. Now I ask you two to protect my daughter during her journey. It's going to be hard enough as is," Sadira eyes glow brighter and a strange wind seems to blow around her, going in the opposite direction of the winds coming from the storm, "You will find the people you need in the other worlds don't worry."
"Mom!" Ryler screams as the light grows brighter and runs through the pillar of light to wrap her arms around the woman who touches her head.
"Be good, little child of darkness. It is your turn to open the door." Sadira touches the cross pendent on Ryler's neck and the light glows into painful levels and the last thing Ryler saw before everything went white were the glowing green eyes of her mother.
"I've been having these weird thoughts lately. Like is any of this for real…or not?"
BRC: Please Review. I would love feedback on this.