Ani: Welcome to Heartless Kingdom. My baby. My baby epic-length fic. Yesy friends, this is my baby. And I'm very proud of her. Except for one tiny detail... many of my main characters are OCs. I am ashamed of this fact, but that's just how it appeared in my head. Hopefully, people will still like it despite this. Besides, two of the OCs are only half OC - but that's not explained until later, but some people will have it figured out by the end of chapter 1. I am determined to finish this fic, and I'm staying about four chapters ahead. However, reviews will encourage me a lot, so review if you can. It makes me feel better. Anyway...
Icy: On with the fic!
Chapter Info
Title: Prologue - Rebirth
Rating: K+
Warnings: OCs, slight shounen-ai
Word Count: 3,112
"Please, please, Riku, please!"
"Sora! Sora!"
"Please, please, help me! I can't –"
"Sora? SORA!"
-----
"Two hundred years ago, the paths between worlds were opened, ushering in a new era of radical change for every world, economically, socially, and technologically. Does anyone remember the name of these events?"
Quickly, a small strawberry blonde girl raised her hand in an attempt to catch the eye of her professor.
"Yes, Antheia?"
The girl, Antheia, shifted proudly in her seat, sitting a bit taller. "It's called the 'Awakening Road' by most, but scholars studying the Second Wave usually call it the 'Unlocking of Barriers'."
"Very good Antheia," The instructor praised, beginning to pace in front of the classroom. "Now, can anyone tell me why there are two separate names for this series of significant events?" Antheia's hand shot up. "Someone else, please?" The class gave a light chuckle and Antheia's hand lowered to rest in her lap. "Raashiel, go ahead."
A serious-looking black haired boy lowered his hand, brushing long dark strands from his eyes as he did so. "The 'Awakening Road' alludes to the fact that when the roads were opened, it was a huge development – an awakening. The 'Unlocking of Barriers' refers to the theory that all worlds are separated by invisible magical barriers."
"Very good Raashiel." The professor quickened her pace, now wandering in the aisle. "But what originally unlocked these barriers?"
Raashiel and Antheia shared a glance. Both knew the answer but they were swiftly passed over. "How about Takami?" The teacher paused in front of the desk of a snoozing boy. Spiky brown-blond hair fell over his closed eyelids. Breath passed over his lips in a slow, steady rhythm. He didn't stir at the sound of his name.
"Takami," the woman said in a calm, mothering voice. "It's time to get up."
"I'm up!" Takami violently jerked his head away from his desk, causing the rest of the classroom to jump in fright. "I'm awake!"
"So we can see," the woman muttered loudly, covering her thumping chest with her hand. "Can you answer the question?"
"Question?" Takami asked, still dazed from his nap. "Question, question, what question?"
The teacher sighed. Though Takami had the potential to be an incredible student, he chose to be one of the many slackers that graced her history classroom. "What unlocked the world barriers?" she repeated impatiently.
"The Keyblade," Takami answered instantly, the drowsiness erased from his eyes. The woman cocked an eyebrow, impressed. Usually when caught napping, Takami would give an impressive blank stare or tongue-in-cheek answer.
"Correct. For once. The Keyblade, a legendary weapon with mysterious mystical powers, unlocked these gateways. Of course, this weapon is surrounded by ambiguity, and the actual extent of the Keyblade Wielder's involvement is unknown. For the last unit of the year, we will be studying the First and Second Wave, and the beginning of the Unity Era. A final project – " The class groaned in unison. " – will be assigned to each one of you. Every person will receive a name of a famous figure that played an important role in these 250 years. You will receive your person and the rubric tomorrow. The project will not be due until a week and a half before finals, so you will have plenty of time. Now, if you will all get your pens out, we have a Unit Test to do." The entire class groaned again as their data screens flashed the words "Unit Test 8".
-----
"Kairi, Kairi, help me!"
"Sora?"
"He's trapped! Dammit, Kairi, help me!"
"Sora!"
-----
"Good job zoning out in class today, Takami," Raashiel teased lightly, leaning over the coffee table in the center of Raashiel's front room, where the three friends usually studied. Currently, they were dining on ice cream over math homework. "Real smooth."
"Oh, hush," Takami pouted, taking a bite out of his blue-tinted treat. "S'not my fault."
"Right," Antheia interjected, finishing off another logarithm problem. "It was Raashiel's fault for keeping you up all night long!"
Takami and Raashiel blushed, Takami gagging over the Popsicle stick.
"We were on the phone," Takami muttered, turning his eyes towards his worksheet.
Antheia grinned. "Right. 'The phone'."
"We were!" Raashiel insisted. Antheia laughed. "Get your own boyfriend to tease," he mumbled. This time, Takami's blush was in delight. Two years of going out had not lessened the thrilling embarrassment of being referred to as 'my boyfriend'. Together: Raashiel and Takami. Best friends turned boyfriends. It was a classic.
Life is good, Takami thought decidedly.
-----
"Riku…""Sora, Sora, please stay with me here."
"Riku, I can't see you anymore…"
"Sora, baby, please…"
"Riku…"
-----
The next day after school, Takami announced that he would do the unthinkable – start his project early.
"You are! Why?" Antheia asked, curious. Takami was the resident procrastinator of the trio, and had no problem with it. Antheia and Raashiel, however, always did things on time – especially Raashiel, who was extremely dedicated to his studies.
Takami shrugged, ensconcing himself more firmly into Raashiel's lap. The weekend had finally come, so the trio was relaxing, this time in Raashiel's room. Antheia was sprawled on the bed while Raashiel and Takami meshed themselves together on Raashiel's rolling computer chair. "I got someone interesting, that's all."
"Who?" asked Raashiel, blowing at the strands of brown-blond hairs that tickled his face.
"The Keyblade Master," Takami answered lazily.
"Aww, lucky!" Antheia whined. "I got some random politician from Reconstruction."
"Me too," Raashiel offered, trailing his fingers up and down Takami's light arms, while Takami giggled when they brushed a sensitive spot.
"I'm not all that lucky," said Takami between giggles. "I did a quick search of him on the Uni-Net and there's practically nothing on him aside from what we already know. There's only speculation."
"You're not at that much of a disadvantage," Raashiel countered. "They paper may give you some problems, but you'll have much more freedom with the presentation."
"That doesn't help me if I fail the paper."
"She'll understand. She wouldn't give you a project knowing you would fail it."
As the two spoke, Antheia tilted her head to the side in thought. "You could always try the old castle," she suggested slowly. Raashiel and Takami stopped their conversation and glanced at her quizzically. "Radiant Garden is supposed to be one of the central locations in the Keyblade Master's adventures."
"How important?" Takami asked.
"Well, for one thing we have the original copy of Merlin's Manual. Merlin lived here for the time, and he must have known the Keyblade Master, because the Manual has excerpts from Jiminy's Journal."
"Jiminy's Journal? The Holy Grail for First and Second Wave scholars?" Raashiel interrupted. Jiminy's Journal was a complete archive of the Keyblade Master's journey and supposedly held information impossible to find anywhere else, from profiles to sketches of important events. The journal of Jiminy Cricket had yet been discovered, and was only known because of the footnotes within Merlin's Manual.
"That's the one. Plus, according to researchers, the castle would have been in its full structural glory sometime around the First Wave. There must be something there." Antheia looked to Takami, blue-violet eyes searching for approval. He frowned instead.
"That would make sense, except for a couple of things," said Takami as he played with the ends of Raashiel's long black hair. "One, they don't give tours anymore because they were worried about the castle's integrity. That means, two, I can't get in." Both Raashiel and Antheia shot him a look at that one. The three had snuck inside the castle several times when they were younger, and, occasionally, even now. Of course, they had only ever been in the upper levels where the tours were held before they closed the attraction, the lower levels having been considered too dangerous for the public. "Three, even when they did give tours and people were still allowed in, there was nothing there. Scientists and tourists alike scrambled through that place like madmen. The place had been turned completely inside out."
"Ah, now that's where you're wrong," Raashiel cut in. "They haven't searched the entire castle. I found underground caverns there that I know the archeologists haven't been in." Raashiel's mother, a scientist, had been an advent follower in the studies of Radiant Garden before the Unity Era. "The caverns are sealed shut. Archeologists couldn't get in because they were afraid that moving the rocks would bring the entire castle down. However, I've seen accessible alternate entrances."
"And if a bunch of highly trained professionals can't do it, I certainly can," Takami said dryly. "And if you know all of this, why haven't you been down there? Or told your mom?"
"I have. And I'm not telling my mother, simply because there's nothing interesting down there. But just because I can't find anything," Takami twisted around to look into Raashiel's mirth-filled eyes, "doesn't mean you won't."
-----
"Sora!"
-----
Though Takami had been in the old castle a hundred times before, he had never descended in the lower levels and had never gone alone. Even though he thought it ridiculous, he still felt his thoughts turn to the ghost stories he often heard when speaking of the old castle. Apparently, if one was close enough to the castle, the sound of a girl crying could be heard accompanying the crash of metal blades. He never told anyone, but when he was younger he thought he heard these sounds while in the grand hall, one of the main attractions on the tour. Looking back, he reminded himself of the overactive imagination that he had when he was ten.
Takami entered the castle by crossing the bridge built by the tour company and going through main entrance. He followed a path he had taken repeatedly, going into the library (all of the books had been removed, of course) and through the secret passageway. Here is where the journey would become more difficult.
Back when the tours began, stairs were installed leading up into the higher floors. Though none of the archeologists had been able to figure out why, there were no stairs leading up to higher floors. For some odd structural reason, stairs had been excluded from the original design. Many theories suggested an elevator system, but whatever system was used now laid in pieces, with no one able to make sense of them. Thus, stairs and hand railings were installed, but none led downstairs. Excavators insisted that until a complete search was done of the lower levels, none of the structure was to be touched. To proceed, Takami would be forced to climb down using piles of rubble. Although nervous, he wasn't afraid. He and Raashiel had often climbed around the structure on the open-air areas of the towers, which was much more dangerous. Carefully, he descended, reaching from stone to stone, leading him to the lower floors.
Reaching the end of his rocky path, he began to navigate rooms that directed him to what he assumed was underground, flipping on his flashlight. He halted his descent when he reached a large, empty, dank room. Sighing, he lowered himself to the ground, dropping his backpack from his stinging shoulders. Rummaging through the bag, he pulled out a bagged sandwich and a book. Taking out the sandwich he began nibbling on it while opening the book on his lap. Daintily scribed on cover was the title Merlin's Manual. While the tome primarily acted as teaching material in magic courses, it contained several references to the Keyblade and its wielder. He had previously marked all of the pages containing the word 'Keyblade' using a query. Flipping to the first marked page, he began to read.
"Magic, while a fickle creature, can be used by anyone, a fact generally unknown to those without natural magic talent. Every soul has the ability to harness magic if only given the opportunity. While there are many born with an innate ability to manipulate magic power, like myself, many times an amplifier (i.e. a spelled item or weapon) is needed to gain the power to aptly and correctly use magic in the beginning. A prime example is the Keyblade, a magical blade with the power to open any lock. Until the Keyblade Master received the Keyblade, he was unable to do magic of any kind, even basic elemental spells. However, after receiving barely a day's worth of instruction, he could successfully use a fire spell and went onto to cast the advanced forms of many spells with ease. Using the Keyblade as a focal point gave him the boost he needed to – "
Takami suddenly snapped the book shut, a scratching noise assaulting his ears. Setting the book aside, he gave a small shudder and got to his feet, praying there weren't any rats gracing the castles old halls. Brushing off breadcrumbs, he replaced Merlin's Manual to its original place in his shoulder bag, ready to continue foreword. Had he known what was ahead, he wouldn't have stopped at all. It took him only a few minutes to find what would certainly give his project an 'A+'.
Though the room should have been pitch-black, an unearthly glow filled it, illuminating even the farthest, darkest corners. The light showed that every inch was covered in grime. A crystal no smaller than six feet hovered in the center of the room, each side cut to perfection. Shaped like a six-sided prism, the sculpture revealed itself as the source of the light, glowing strongly even beneath two hundred years of dust.
Takami openly gaped. It was floating. The thing had been floating for a couple hundred years, and whatever spell allowed it to hover was still active. Despite the fact that Takami was no mage, it was common knowledge that set spells had to be recast every year or so, maybe a year or two more depending on the caster and spell. But hundreds of years…? The very idea was unfathomable.
Mystified, Takami inched closer, as though something called out to him. A few feet away, he stopped. Without taking his eyes of the crystal, he reached into is backpack to remove his camera. Angling the camera and setting the flash, he pressed the shutter button to take a picture. Nothing happened. Scrunching his face up in annoyance, Takami put the camera and removed a sketchpad and pencil. No time like the present to do his art assignment. As he began to sketch the outline of the crystal and the wall behind it, he frowned and stopped, realizing a veil of gray obscured his view of crystal's details. Creeping foreword, he blew lightly on the surface, hopping to remove the dust without actually touching it.
The dust violently exploded outward with the slight breeze, effectively caking Takami in the dry substance. Sneezing and wrinkling his nose, he vainly attempted to brush the dust off his hair and clothes, but paused when the full light of the crystal struck him, lighting the room up like a well-lit, cozy house. Now he could comfortably observe the shell. The exterior was a foggy white, vaguely transparent. A hazy outline could be seen through the crystal, but it was unrecognizable. Etched into the front face was giant key, much too large for any door he knew of, almost two and a half feet in length. "Not quite a key," he realized. Aside from its size, where the butt of the key should have been, there was instead carved a handle made for two hands, almost like the hilt of a sword.
"The Keyblade!" Takami exclaimed in awe. An exhilarated feeling filled him from the inside out. Not realizing he had dropped his sketchbook, he eagerly scanned the crystal more closely. Behind the hilt, the shape of a hand could almost be made out. Reaching up with a trembling hand, he pressed his left palm over the hilt, lining up his hand with the hand shape resting almost level to his heart. The boy had a split second to wonder whether or not that was the wisest decision to make before the room was flooded with light. A harsh beam glowed beneath his fingers, tracing the scored image of the Keyblade. Takami pulled back, shielding his eyes from the burning gleam. Slowly, a weapon of fable and legend pushed out of its corresponding depiction, dimming the light as it emerged, pulsating with power. The blade (though it had no sharp edges) was pure silver, unmarked and shined enough to gleam. The yellow hilt extended around the black grip in a rectangular shape, ending at the pommel, though not acting as a guard. A key chain dangled from the pommel itself, a symbol of three circles at the end of the chain links, also silver.
Takami split his fingers as the light died down, watching the Keyblade through his digits. He could feel its power as it hovered before him, seemingly begging for him to just reach out… and take it.
Takami didn't hesitate in reaching out and grasping the hilt.
For a moment, the Keyblade's overwhelming vigor seemed to die down. But with a surge of renewed power, Takami was thrown backwards into a wall by a wave of power, his hold on Keyblade lost. Dazed with a painful throbbing wracking his body, he missed the weapon spinning wildly on its axis until the blade pointed towards the crystal, teeth down. A keyhole drawn from light sketched itself onto the crystal's face. The Keyblade slowly turned to its side, a gentle click echoing in the room once the weapon rested at its side. Steadily, the crystal began to melt, bits of its hard body dripping off like a snow cone, each drop disappearing as it hit the ground. Takami lifted his head just in time to see the last trickle evaporate. The Keyblade now sat vertically as it had before, behind it a limp body. Spiky brown locks fell over a lightly tanned face. A black outfit and odd yellow shoes covered the rest. Takami rose to his feet in wonder to stare at what could almost be his exact double.
Puppet-like, the double moved his arm foreword and clasped the Keyblade. The world went dead silent. The Keyblade vanished in a sparkle of light and the double's eyes slowly opened to meet blue eyes too similar to his own.
"Oh, crap," Takami whispered.
The double's feet touched the ground, the spell of silence broken with the light noise. Without another glance or a word, the double sped out of the room, leaving a confused Takami behind.
"I'm in trouble now," he continued to whisper, eyes wide. "At least I'm guaranteed an 'A'."
-----
"I'll save you Sora. I promise."