Well, I've finally decided to post up one of my stories that I've been holding onto for a while now, but only because I wanted to try to finish it before I started posting but I failed miserably. If I could get some help with a few Ideas I'd really appreciate it. My story will be your story! So, without further interruption...

A/N: It just occured to me... Single quotes will stand for thoughts '(thought)'

Speech will be basic double quote "hiya"

1 - Dream Reborn

"Wake up Ken." A black haired hazel-eyed blacksmith said.

"Lemme sleep…" Ken trailed off. Kenneth Hamira was always a late bloomer in terms of waking up. This merchant always dyed his hair to stand out in a crowd and today was no exception. Last night he dyed his hair a crimson red and was up late while it dried.

"This'll wake him…" Snickered a brown haired blue-eyed Crusader as she threw a piece of hot live coal under his blanket near his legs.

"YEEEOWWWW! What was that for!?!" Ken growled.

"You're lucky I didn't do a Grand Cross little bro…" She said while walking out of the room laughing.

'I thought she needed her sword for that…'"Mom?!? Why didn't you stop her?"

"Well if she didn't do that you'd be late for school," she said while showing him her watch.

"AHHH! It's 7:45 already!?!"

Ken's mother left the room and shut the door. Ken hopped out of bed and took a long stretch. He looked at himself in the mirror and admired his partly buffed physique. He took some time on his very muscular legs.

'I really need to stop dragging carts around…' He thought to himself as he jumped in the shower. Ken is known to be a hyper quiet person, meaning he's shy until you make him say or do something, then you can't make him stop. He hopped out of the shower, got dressed, got his bag and ran out the door.

"I need to talk to you so get here by 8:10 okay?" A voice reminded to him as he looked at his watch.

"8 o' clock already?!?" He screamed. He remembered he brought his teleport clip with him. He took it out and tried it. He ended up right back at his house. He sighed and tried again and ended up about four blocks from the school. He smiled and ran from there. He finally arrived at the school.

"8:05, made it!" He said as he walked through the front door. He arrived to see a girl pacing back and forth in the hallway. Thankfully for her the hallway was empty. She had coal black hair about shoulder length and calming brown eyes.

"Wow! You're early. Nice hair."

"Thanks Shina. I knew you'd like it." He said as he leaned in and hugged her.

"Yeah, it's cool but why a bloody color? It looks like you killed some people and put the blood in your hair."

"Well I wasn't looking for the super bloody color I was going for the color of the heart. I guess it was too realistic." He sighed.

"Or maybe you really killed someone…" she said giggling. She realized she was being distracted by that while Ken moved in to sneak a kiss. The two of them had been together for about half the year. She backed away from the kiss and frowned. He looked puzzled.

"Is something wrong?" He questioned with very caring eyes that seemed to change with his emotions. Every day you would practically see a rainbow in his eyes but right now they seemed an uncertain sky blue. She was about to drown in them when she recovered and began to speak.

"I... don't think that our relationship is working out. I believe we should leave it and look elsewhere."

"W-w-wha, why?" Ken stuttered as he stepped back and began to lean on a pillar nearly in shock. However, he kept his original expression of concern.

"I think that it's too early for me to have a relationship right now."

"But, we've been together for…"

"For six months I know but I believe I need to have fun with friends a little more, I noticed that when my friends always went out. I was either doing homework or out with you. I hope you can understand."

"Hmm… I understand." He said plainly as he looked straight at her. She backed away in fear when his eyes were the darkest blue she had ever seen. He began to walk towards his locker as more students were pouring into the building. She frowned.

"Hey man!" His best friend nudged him on the shoulder and smiled, not realizing that the simple tap had sent Ken into a locker. He looked over. "Damn man what happened to you?"

"She…she…"

"She hit you? Hugged you? Drugged you and had her way with you?" He continued to joke around.

"Damn it Josh! She broke up with me!" Ken snapped as he hadn't moved from that spot, fearing that he might fall if he did. Josh pulled him up.

"I kinda figured that would happen. You're too shy! And more so, you didn't see it coming! My first rule of dating; Dump her before she dumps you. That way she'll always come back for more!" Josh snickered as he leaned against the locker nearest Ken. Josh was basically known as the school's playboy and was with a different girl every other day because he simply had a charm that was unmatched. He even had one girl on 2 different days with a girl in between!

"She's different you asshole! She was perfect! One that would always be by your side no matter what happened to you! If you slipped, she helped you up. If someone made an ass out of you she's the only one who wouldn't laugh. She…"

"Okay, okay, I get the idea." Josh said shaking his head. He did know however that his friend's emotions had been shaken. "You gonna be okay?"

"I just need some time alone to think."

"That alone time might just be in your head. The bell for the first class is about to ring." Josh said noting the time.

"Yeah. Let's go." Ken said, drained. The two of them began to walk into class with Josh being the active one using a crazy uproar being the merchant that he is. Josh made a promise to Ken that they'd have a business together with Josh being an alchemist of course, seeming that that job was sexier out of the two, and Ken would be the burly blacksmith.

"Hello ladies! What's happenin'!?!" Josh uproared. All the girls could barely contain their excitement except for one. Shina just happened to be in their first class, she was reading. Ken simply followed Josh a little sluggishly and still quiet. He simply walked to his seat. In the class there seemed to be a handful of merchants and only a couple novices. Some meant to become merchants and some trying to learn to be a super novice. Shina fits in with the super novice group; she's reading up on a few things about acolyte support spells. She looked up and saw Josh in her face.

"I don't like it when a girl ignores me." He told her.

"I don't like it when people think they should be the center of attention." She countered.

"You don't deserve Ken, ya know…" he whispered and went past her to his seat. She glared at him. Ken normally sat near Shina but he simply walked past her and sat with Josh. She looked back in her book, avoiding the cold blue eyes that hadn't seemed to change at all.

"I forgot my pencil. You got one I can borrow?" Ken said blankly to his friend. Josh shrugged and shook his head. He partially turned to Shina. "What about you?" He asked just as blankly. She looked in her bag and grabbed a pencil, handed it to him and smiled. "Thank you." He replied in a monotonous voice and looked back towards the front of the class. Shina frowned and looked back into her book.

'Maybe I was too hard on him.' She thought to herself and the instructor started class.

Thankfully for Shina, the class had been uneventful as she was studying other things. Some went to their lockers. Ken was one of those people. He looked at the amethyst that he had gotten for Shina a couple days ago. He picked it up and looked at it and frowned. He was about to shatter the gem onto the ground, into a million pieces. He raised the gem above his head when he heard a soft, light voice come from the gem.

"You're not really thinking of smashing me on the cold hard ground, were you?" She said giggling at the innuendo she had made.

"Uhhh…no?" He replied as he was consumed by a flash of light. He appeared in front of a female dancer around his age with hair and eyes the exact color as the amethyst. Her skin was a silky tan color as she also had shoes matching her favorite crystal. (A/N: Note that Dancers don't wear very much…--;;)

"Hello. I am Angelica, a magical dancer from Comodo. I've been watching you for a while and I like you. But I couldn't talk to you because of your girlfriend Shina."

"Ex-girlfriend…" Ken replied coldly.

"That explains why I could talk to you. But I still cannot see you in person for there is a restriction to my being near another person. I absorb the power of amethysts to maintain this form. I 'm not absorbing power while I'm talking to you like this but if you can obtain five amethysts I am able to hold a human form for an entire day. If you do this for me, I can make you happier than anyone ever could." All Ken could do is nod.

"And if someone tries to interfere?" He asked.

"That is up to you Ken." She answered simply. She added, "You will now awaken in the nurse's office. Your best friend took you there. Your Ex is close in tow, although I believe she may be the primary problem with you collecting more than five amethysts." She frowned.

"But how can I…" He was cut off and he awoke inside the nurse's office.

"Man, did you get hit in the nuts or something?" Josh said joking. Shina still looked concerned.

"Are you okay?" She asked caringly.

"I simply wasn't feeling well, that's all." Ken replied as he sat up. "I'm okay now."

Shina let out a sigh of relief and had left the room. Josh was still there and he asked, "Okay, what really happened?"

"Well, you know about that amethyst gem that I had gotten for Shina?" Josh nodded. "Well someone was using the power of the gem to talk to me."

"You sure you didn't hit your head?" Josh asked. Ken shook his head.

"I'm serious! She was beautiful and she wanted me to gather five amethysts so I could see her in person! I'm so excited!" Ken exclaimed.

"Then I guess it's your lucky day." Josh said pulling two amethysts out of his bag. "I have no use for them, I'm gonna be a babe magnet! Hell, I already am a babe magnet!" He chuckled.

"Thank you so much!" Ken hugged his friend. Josh started to pull away.

"Hey I did it so you would stop moping around about Shina." Josh said slyly.

"Oh, what do you know!?!" Ken countered.

After school Ken and Josh headed up to the mines trying to look for more amethysts as Josh was looking for cards for his weapons. A swarm of about twenty skeleton workers approached them.

"How annoying!" Yelled Josh as he took a few frost diver scrolls and froze about five skeletons.

"I know, but they could have what I'm looking for." Ken replied while he grabbed his cart and swung it full circle shattering the five skeletons Josh froze to bits and not to mention two others that managed to get in the way. Ken was a really lucky kid as three gift boxes dropped from the pile of bones.

"Oh my god! You lucky bastard!" Josh yelled as he looked at his friend's luck. Ken simply tipped his cubic cap and grinned. Josh has a cubic hat as well but not as protective as its pink frilled features showed off more of his boyish side. After a while the remaining monsters were wiped out without a problem. They sat and took a break, Josh pulling out some apple, grape, and banana juice. Ken hurried and snatched the banana juice. Josh sighed and began to drink the grape juice. He turned to Ken.

"Well you're not gonna just stare at them all day are you?!?" Josh asked. Ken began tearing through the gift boxes.

"Amethyst! Yay!" Ken cheered and opened another, "A Santa Poring Card…" he frowned and tossed the card behind his back. Josh saw this, freaked, and grabbed the card off the ground.

"Are you nuts!?!" Josh screamed. Ken went to the last gift box.

"An old purple box?" He said quizzically and opened it. One of his dreams came true. His eyes lit up as his friend looked on.

"Whatcha get?"

"I got sunglasses!"

"Dude man! Check for a slot!"

"It has one!"

"Oh My God! Dude I wish I was you."

"I'm still an amethyst short though…"

"Why are you worried about that? You're like the richest person in school now. I'm sure someone has an amethyst you can buy." Josh reminded his friend.

"You're right. I'm gonna meet Angelica tomorrow! I can't wait!" Ken said squealing.

Josh covered his ears.

"Damn Ken, do I have to take my two back for you to stop screaming? See now look what you did, there's an army of skeletons now. At least a dozen of them, you idiot!"

Of course this wasn't a problem for the two as they hacked through them with ease.

That night, Ken went to sleep with ease. But something was stirring in his thoughts.

He found him self at sea in a small boat with no land in sight. He was partially slumped into a lazy lean on the edge of the boat. Shina was leaning parallel on his lap. She had just given him a deep kiss. He responded, "I could stay like this forever."

"I love you Ken," Shina said slowly letting the words sink in more.

"I love you too Shina," Ken replied with a smile on his face.

The next moment the boat had been disturbed by a strong wind, rain soon followed. The boat was hit by a medium sized wave and nearly turned over. A Human sized squid came upon the couple, however its color was red and it adorned rubies on its arms. Ken embraced Shina protectively. The squid seemed to have a smirk as he turned the boat over and let the waves consume them. Soon the two had realized that they had washed upon the shore. Ken began to whisper into Shina's ear.

"No matter what happens I'll be here to protect you."

Not even a second after he had said that the red squid had appeared again. Ken didn't seem worried as the squid wouldn't dare come to dry land. He thought wrong. The squid had begun to emerge from the water and began to take a human form. It had transformed into a rogue, still adorned in the rubies from his previous form. The rubies began to shine and dissolve in front of them. With amazing speed the rogue had instantly cleared the distance between them and disappeared. Ken looked around fiercely trying to find him. The rogue had appeared and ran a flurry of hits at Ken's back, stunning him. He then grabs Shina and retreats to the water. Ken recovers from the stun and races after them.

The rogue had transformed back into a squid and began to submerge underwater.

"Help me! Please Ken! Hel…" She was taken underwater.

Ken's eyes widened and he dove into the water without hesitation. The squid was pulling Shina away at a slow pace. Ken would be able to grab her in a few seconds. As soon as he could nearly reach her hand, the squid started to speed up distancing them again. He could see Shina starting to struggle from lack of oxygen. He swam as fast as he could, knowing that if he failed now she'd drown. He began to catch up to them again and tried one more time, straining as hard as he could.

The rogue/squid did the unthinkable. He sped up and pulled her out of reach again. Then he finally spoke. "There are some things you deserve. This isn't one of them." He finished beginning to laugh. While he laughed Shina let out her last breath of air. He still tried to catch up in some hope of rescuing her. Then he noticed that he was beginning to lack air. Knowing that he failed in keeping the promise he made he allowed himself to drown as well…

That concludes the first chapter. I'd appreciate your reviews so go ahead and shoot.