The Care Bears and the Valley of Rainbows
"We'll wait for you at the entrance to the Valley while you go and get the rest of the Care Bears," Forest told Tenderheart, giving him one last hug and then waving as the Bears and Cousins returned to their cloud vehicles.
"I can't wait... Youngest is going to be so happy to meet all her new big brothers and sisters!" River said, still waving as they disappeared into the clouds. She turned at the sound of an engine and the crunch of gravel as a dark car pulled up. The four of them walked over as a dark window was rolled down and a red-haired adult with dark glasses waved to them with a soft smile.
"Need a lift?" he asked, already popping the locks for them to get in. Forest got into the front and the others climbed into the back together.
"Thanks, Jin," Forest said, grinning widely up at the man. The man was probably in his mid-twenties and had long red hair. His eyes were hidden by dark glasses and he was dressed in a formal white and blue priest outfit like those seen at shrines all over Japan. Despite the obscurity of his dark glasses, his face still had a friendly, approachable look to it.
"Something good happen, Forest?" Jin asked. "You're grinning fit to burst."
"Oh, you'll see," Forest said, giving a knowing look over his shoulder to the others in the back seat. "We'll be having some visitors in the Valley tonight."
"Is that... so..." Jin said, softly. He looked out the window for a long, silent moment before shaking his head and getting the car into gear. "Glad to hear it. It's been such a long time since I've seen... er... since we've had visitors, right?"
"Yep," Forest agreed, winking at him.
* * *
Jin parked the car in an old shed right at the mouth of the valley, which was hidden deep in the woods on a mountainside in the Hokkaido wild country. The road leading up to the area was very old and the only one who had driven their for the last 10 years was Jin, but his wheel ruts were well carved into the old dirt road by now.
"Look, they're already coming!" Forest said, pointing up at the clouds where he could just make out two white cloud cars coming down. His eye sight was much better than the others, and it would take them a few minutes longer to finally make them out.
"Well, you wait here for them. Silver and I will be at the Temple," Jin said, staring off toward the valley with Silver at his side.
"Oh, aren't you going to greet them?" River asked.
"Hmm... it's been a long day for them. Let's just give them one surprise at a time..." Jin said, grinning lopsidedly. He and Silver vanished into the shadows at the mouth of the valley long before the cloud cars had finally set down.
From the cloud cars descended the 8 remaining Care Bears and Cousins. Tenderheart, Grumpy and Wish Bear descended first, followed by the lethargic Bedtime Bear, who looked like he had been awoken just a few moments before. Brave Heart Lion, Bright Heart, Swift Heart Rabbit and Gentle Heart Lamb descended from the other.
There was a round of new introductions and hugs as the nameless bears were presented to Bedtime and Gentle Heart and vice versa. There were happy, warm smiles all around as the nameless ones led their lost brothers and sisters into the valley.
Now, the Care Bears had seen a lot of magnificent and special places in their lives. The Forest of Feelings, Care-a-Lot and the Kingdom of Caring where they had grown up... Not to mention places like Wonderland where they had visited on various trips. However, if it wasn't the most beautiful spot they had ever been to, the Valley of Rainbows was certainly near the top of the list.
"W... Wow..." Grumpy murmured, completely overcome by the sight. Enough so that he forgot to grumble about the misty spray of water in the air or the rushing sound of water.
The Valley was actually more of a tunnel, since the mountain rock on both sides sloped up and curved over until it almost met over their heads. From the overhanging rocks there was a myriad of huge waterfalls crashing down into a river that cut through the middle of the valley, running into the underground near the entrance to the Valley. The paths on both sides of the river passed in and out of curtains of falling water and every inch of the place sparkled and shined with a kind of rainbow light. Every waterfall must have been giving off ten rainbows at least, and even the dust on the ground, moistened by crystal drops and dew, seemed to glow.
"Where does all this water come from?" Bright Heart asked, after they had stared around in awe for at least 5 minutes.
"The Rainbow Glacier, up on the mountain. The whole Glacier is infused with holy light so that every single little trickle that comes off of it has its own glow and rainbow. Even on the darkest, stormiest nights nothing changes in this place. This is the Valley of Eternal Rainbows," River explained, her voice reverent as she spoke.
They continued on amidst the falling sheets of shining water until they arrived at the end of the tunnel-like first part of the Valley. Tenderheart looked a little startled as he felt grass underfoot after the soft rock and dust of the passage. The valley opened out at that point into a wide basin with a huge shrine apparently made of glittering crystal. The crystal of the walls of the building shone like the rainbows and waterfalls all around them.
"Your first home. The place you were born... The Rainbow Temple!" Forest said, catching Tenderhearts gaze and gesturing with a sweeping paw at the large, beautiful building.
"Rainbow... Temple..." Tenderheart repeated, looking up at the tall spire of the building in awe.
Small, green-furred paws supported his body. He was wrapped in a blanket, sleepy, afraid. Never had a feeling such as this entered his rainbow-colored world. True Heart took him into her arms... she didn't have her tummy symbol yet. She looked worried, and she was looking at the bear who had held him.
"This is the last of the cubs, big sis..." the green bear said. His green paw lingered on Tenderheart's head, then slowly dropped away. The green bear was looking up at True Heart with tears in his eyes.
"We'll... we'll be alright, little brother. We'll lead Darkheart away from here and make sure he never reaches the Valley. You guys are strong, you'll definitely be alright until we get back," True Heart said, her voice sounding much younger than Tenderheart was used to. Her voice was also shaking, and he felt drops of moisture falling onto his head. Tears.
"Yeah... we'll be alright," the green bear scrubbed a hand across his eyes and looked up, meeting True Heart's gaze again.
"We've got to hurry!" Noble Heart's voice, also younger, came to them over the wind-blown grass of the valley. He was also carrying a cub in his arms, and his eyes were shining with tears. True Heart stared at the green bear for a moment longer, then with a flinch she turned away and ran after Noble Heart. Tenderheart, held up against her shoulder, could watch behind them as they ran toward the bay at the end of the Valley opposite the mouth. There was a ship waiting for them in that bay. Over True Heart's shoulder he could see five figures standing in front of the Rainbow Temple. The foremost was the green bear, whose eyes shone with a brave light...
"Tenderheart..." Brave Heart Lion's voice broke in through Tenderheart's memories, and they fled away like startled birds. He looked up in surprise to see that everyone was staring at him. He had frozen on the spot while looking up at the Rainbow Temple. Touching one cheek he felt dampness, and he realized that his vision was blurred with unshed tears.
"Hey hey, let's see a smile instead, huh?" Forest said, wrapping his arms around Tenderheart's shoulders and rubbing his head again. "You're finally home! Show me a grin!"
Tenderheart sniffled, wiped his eyes, and gave Forest a large smile. He remembered those same green-furred arms being wrapped around him in a time that seemed like a fairy tale, so long ago it was. He would never forget it again. This place really had been... really was... their home.
"Ah, here comes the remnant to say 'hi'!" Forest said, gesturing as a few figures came out of the large pearly entrance to the Temple.
A tall man with red hair was holding a small white bear in his arms. Next to him was Silver, who gave a small wave of greeting, and next to Silver was a red fox. Both the fox and the man were dressed in the traditional outfits of Japanese priests, though the man wore the male version (white robe with wide blue pants) and the fox wore the female version (white robe with wide red pants).
When they had gotten near the Care Bears the man stopped and set the white bear down. She wasn't a toddler, maybe more like a child of 9 or 10 by human reckoning, coming up to only chest or neck height on the Care Bears.
"C'mon, say hello. These are your big brothers and sisters," the man said. Something in the sound of his voice made Bright Heart suddenly look pensive and confused.
The small white bear, dressed in a long t-shirt that hung down all the way to her knees, looked up at the Care Bears for a moment with wide eyes. Then a soft, angelic smile spread on her face and she went to each one and one-by-one clasped one of their paws in both her small, gentle ones. She met the gaze of each of them and said: "Hello...." in a voice both sweet and low.
Tenderheart found himself blushing a little when it was his turn to clasp the paws of the little angelic bear. He saw that the other Care Bears and Cousins were having a similar reaction. The little bear, he realized, was probably the cutest creature any of them had ever before seen, even in their dreams. He had the urge to suddenly hug her, but he didn't want to startle her so he set it aside.
When she finished greeting all the newcomers the little bear jumped into a big hug for Forest, who caught her and held her as he went to introduce the two others that the Care Bears hadn't met yet.
"This fox is Russet, our local visionary and spiritual guardian of the Rainbow Temple. Between her, Silver and this guy here..." he gestured at the man who was fiddling with his dark glasses "... the Rainbow Crystal is kept safe from any and all that would take its power."
"The Rainbow Crystal?" Bright Heart asked, sounding very interested. He had never heard of such a gem, not in all his studies.
"Well, we'll get to that, but first things first. You'll probably want to meet this guy here..." Forest said, again gesturing to the man. There was a conspiratorial grin on his face. He knew what a big surprise it would be for them.
The man gave Forest a small smile, then took off his dark glasses. His eyes were deep and blue, but didn't look quite human. There was a kind of intensity and ancient feeling from them, as if he had lived for a lot longer than his physical age. Also, there was just a slight hint of sorrow in his eyes, like a bad memory that would never go away.
Tenderheart felt something stir within him, looking at the man's face. It was so familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Slowly recognition dawned on him. His eyes opened wide first with confusion, then understanding, then open surprise.
"Why you... you're...!" he began, but couldn't finish. The other Care Bears, coming to the same realizations, all gave small gasps. Bright Heart nodded. He had finally recognized that voice.
"Darkheart..." the man said, smiling softly and painfully.
There was a dead silence as the Care Bears looked uncertainly from the man who they had last seen as a young boy at a summer camp. Then it had taken all the people in the world caring at the same time to turn him from bad to good but... To see him in this magical valley, standing so naturally among their older brothers and sisters was more than slightly odd.
"His heart is pure," Forest explained, simply, looking up at 'Darkheart' with a smile.
"After I was cured by you bears and those kids I took to wandering, doing good like you had taught. Each time I helped someone it awakened a bright and happy feeling in my heart that I had never felt before..." the repentant Darkheart explained, sitting down and looking deep in thought as he remembered his earlier wanderings. "I made lots of friends, but I never felt at home in any place because... well... I knew I wasn't really a human like everyone else was. I've been alive for a lot longer than my body seems to think I have. Eventually, as my body aged over the years, I had to leave off helping out kids in need since it kinda creeped their parents out once I was in my late teens. After that I just followed my heart where it would take me... Eventually I crossed over the ocean and found myself called back here, a place that was buried somewhere in my heart. Once I had hated this place and promised to destroy it and all its habitants to cleanse the world of goodness, but now it was a shining beacon for me in my journey..." At this point he trailed off and glanced at Forest, who picked up the story.
"Well," Forest said "When he showed up here I knew right away who he had been but... I also could see who he was. My sight is never wrong about these things, so I knew he had repented completely. We were still wary at first, just because we'd never had a human among us, but he and Silver became good friends and they helped each other tend to the Rainbow Crystal. Plus lil' sis took a real liking to him, so we couldn't really argue with that, now could we? Anyway, he had a bunch of names he threw around whenever someone asked but he wanted us to pick a real name for him. Not that we're any good for that, considering our own nameless state but... We decided to call him 'Jin'."
"Jin?" Bright Heart said, tilting his head a little. "That's the word for 'human' or 'person' in Japanese, isn't it?"
"That's right. The best name I could have asked for. The thing I've wanted to be for such a long time. I started life as a force of evil, nothing more than a manifestation of the darkness that dwells in human hearts, but now I'm 'Jin', a person, a human who can feel and love and... well do whatever I think is right. I'm no longer just a... 'thing' or 'power'... I have a soul and free will to choose how I'll act and what I'll do. Therefore, I'm happy to be called Jin."
"Jin... Jin... That is a good name," Tenderheart smiled, and nodded.
"Right? So I've been living here ever since helping Silver tend to the Rainbow Crystal," Jin said, summing it up. The Care Bears looked among each other and exchanged smiles. It warmed their hearts to know that someone they had helped so long ago was still doing this well.
"What exactly is the 'Rainbow Crystal'?" Bright Heart asked, curious as always.
"Ah, right, you still haven't seen it yet!" Forest said, snapping one finger. "Follow me!"
* * *
Forest led them into the large, crystalline Temple. The huge doors glittered and seemed to ring with a harmonious tone as they opened magically for the approaching bears. Immediately inside was a huge chamber dominated by the largest gemstone any of the bears had seen.
It was a perfect sphere hanging in the air in the middle of the large room. All around it was a kind of white, misty haze of water particles. These droplets caught the inner gleam of the crystal and reflected rainbow light into every corner of the large chamber.
"The Rainbow Crystal," Forest said, after they had all watched it in awed silence for several moments. "It collects the good feelings from all over the world and, after its harvested enough it glows brilliant white and a new Rainbow Child is born. All of us are Rainbow Children, see? We're distillations of the good feelings of people and creatures all over the planet. This is our origin, the place we were all born. I was there when each and every one of you was born. Whenever it happened we'd all throw a huge party... Big Sis and Big Brother would always... they'd always cook up something special and..." Forest tried to keep going but he choked a little and had to reach up to wipe away a tear. Tenderheart laid a hand on his shoulder and Forest looked at him and smiled.
"True Heart is only sleeping for now. She'll wake up soon and then you'll be able to see her again..." Tenderheart said, gently. Forest nodded. He then turned back to the Rainbow Crystal and was about to begin talking again when suddenly the room around them went cold and the breath of all the bears came out in white puffs of steam.
"Wh... what?" Bright Heart gasped, looking around for some explanation in the drop in temperature.
"It's FREEZING!" Grumpy complained, shivering.
"The Crystal has gone cold!" the fox named Russet said, rushing toward the Crystal to look up at it. Her eyes scanned over it for a moment then she looked back over her shoulder at everyone, her foxy face serious. "Something wicked this way comes."
Everyone rushed outside to see what was the matter. As soon as they exited the white bear (who still didn't have a workable name to the Carebears as they'd only heard her called 'lil sis' and 'Youngest') launched herself into a glomp on Forest whom she clung to, burying her face in fear. Jin and Silver were standing on the path to the Temple, eyes serious.
"What's going on?" Forest asked, coming up beside Jin and Silver. He stopped with a gasp as he saw what they were looking at.
Ken Mizuki was standing in the middle of the path leading into the basin of the Valley of Rainbows, knife held loosely in one hand. His eyes looked strange, like fish-eyes... empty.
"K-... Ken!?" Grumpy exclaimed, completely confused.
"Not this again..." River said, her voice full of despair. The Care Bears all looked at her.
"What? What is it?" Tenderheart asked, looking between Ken and River. It was Forest that answered, though.
"This isn't the first time this has happened to a kid we've helped. Someone's doing this to them. Whoever it is got Ken as well..." Forest said, gritting his teeth in frustration.
"What? What did they do?" Bright Heart asked, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. He had never seen someone have that kind of look and still be conscious and moving.
"Whoever it was put a needle... a needle of pure evil..." Forest said, pointing to the left side of his own chest. "... right in his heart."
* * *
Anjin's Notes: Well. Still in the 'pilot episode'. Sorry I keep ending at random places but I want the chapters to be well paced without one being terribly longer than the others. At this length it's easy for me to put out these chapters pretty fast, so I like keeping it short like this. Longer chapters slow me down and generally make it so I don't want to work on a story.
You'll notice that the emotions I portray in this series are deeper and more poignant than those normally present in the Care Bears show. Tenderheart and the others are growing up, and experiencing new things and new emotions. They'll need to be able to understand these emotions in order to put up with modern problems. Kids these days are not as emotionally simple as they were back in the old days when the Care Bears used to help them. Forest and the others, as the older siblings, will have to help their younger siblings to understand newer and deeper emotions than they're used to.
I know everyone's desperate to know what the new bears will be named... just a little longer! I don't plan to keep you in the dark for too long.
Oh! And Darkheart! Obviously I couldn't leave Darkheart out. I base most of my Care Bears knowledge off of the 2nd movie (A New Generation). I thought that movie was a cut above anything before or after it in the Care Bears franchise. It amazed me and still does. So, if you're wondering, the 'canon' I base my stories off of comes from Care Bears: A New Generation, as well as some of the other films like Care Bears in Wonderland.
Please review if you read it! I really value the opinion of other Care Bears fans in how I'm handling the characters etc.!