Ah, yet another chapter! The rising action is climbing...
Thanks again to my awesome beta reader, Mystics Apprentice!
Other than that, I don't have much to say. ^^;
DISCLAIMER: Do you believe that I don't own anything Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy related yet?
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In the lush, vibrant setting of the Radiant Garden Town Square, a small shape was flying in a similar fashion to a werewolf on the hunt. His thin, angular features and pointed ears revealed that he was of fey origin; that is, if his wild garb and music note wings (eighth notes, to be exact) had not revealed it first. The frayed edges on his denim jacket billowed in the rush of air behind the speeding faery, revealing a black, sleeveless shirt underneath. Absurdly tight leather pants were held up by a metal belt and a pair of black chucks that were being held together by threads. His attire, along with the mullet he wore, completed his Rock 'n' Roll outfit.
This particular faery happened to be flying straight into a sleek building of granite and steel. The sign on the front read "Radiant Garden Scientific Laboratory," a queer place for a faery such as this one to enter. He quickly clasped his hands together, a gesture which caused him to grow to the standard size of other creatures. He then inhaled deeply, swung the glass entrance open, and entered the building.
"Name," a deadpan voice said from behind the smooth, white office desk. The rocker faery frowned at the lack of enthusiasm in the secretary's voice, who was hidden behind the tall countertop, though he ignored it and proceeded to introduce himself.
"Hiya, I'm Myde!" he said cheerfully as he leaned over the desk.
"Do you have an appointment?" the monotonous voice continued.
"Hey, cheer up a little!" Myde told the woman - or at least, he thought it was a lady.
"Listen pal," the female said in a fuming growl. She rose from her hidden chair to reveal a pale woman about his age with short, platinum blonde-hair styled into two antennae-like strands behind her head. Waves of electricity were slowly channeling up her body and into these two strands, giving Myde the impression that they weren't merely for decoration. Her aquamarine eyes, now filling with lightning bolts, glared into the musician's green, musical note-filled ones. She wore a white lab coat over a simple black cocktail-length dress, which contrasted heavily with her natural appearance.
"I'm not here to act like a smiling, peppy little twit. I'm here because I have to make some money, got it? If you want cheerful, you've come to the wrong place!" the blonde snarled at him.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down!" Myde cried as he waved his hands protectively in front of himself. Through this action, he ended up knocking over a glass flower figurine on the side of the counter.
"Oopsie daisies!" he exclaimed. "I'm so sorry; I'll fix it in a jiffy!"
"Yeah, you'll fix it." The blonde leaned over the desk with a malicious grin, replacing her furious scowl that she'd worn only moments ago. "You'll fix it by paying for it."
She extended a thin, tanned arm out in front of the blonde and rubbed her fingers together in a gesture that said, "Pay up, kid."
"B-b-but I can't do that, I'm broke!" Myde protested. "Can't I just use some magi-"
"Pay up or I'll beat you up, rocker freak!" the secretary demanded as she leaned into his face, jabbing a finger into his chest.
"I'm really, really, really sorry! I don't have any money, that's why I came here; to get a job! I called last night and made the appointment and, and –" He gulped nervously before continuing,"–and everything!"
The blonde fey glared at Myde for a moment, and then blasted the lightning she had been channeling through her body into the faery.
"Wa-YEOW!" Myde shrieked as he fell to the ground, twitching as smoke left his singed skin and clothing.
"You're lucky I was going easy on you, punk," the blonde fey spat at him.
"Is there a problem here, Arlene?" a deep, booming voice called from the spiral staircase in the corner of the small lobby. Ansem descended the stairs slowly, his amber eyes resting upon the two young adults without straying for even a moment.
"Arlene, I thought I told you to be gentle with…visitors," The blonde-haired man said sternly. He then turned towards Myde.
"I apologize, young man. Young Arlene here is a storm spirit, and she tends to get carried away sometimes," he explained. "And you are…?"
"Hiya sir! I - ouch - signed up for an - ouch - job here," Myde explained while painfully rising from the ground. As he held his burnt hand out to shake Ansem's, the sleeve to his singed denim jacket fell off. "Oopsies!"
"Ah, you must be the new assistant to Master Even that I hired. Myde, is that right?" Ansem asked thoughtfully.
"Yes sirree!" Myde responded enthusiastically. "You see, I'm kinda sorta broke right now, and my band really needs money. I promise I'll work really hard; I'll do everything you need, just please let me get this job!"
Ansem frowned at the pleading young faery, scrutinizing him with his amber gaze. He barely looked a day over eighteen, but being an assistant merely meant doing menial tasks around the lab such as cleaning and organizing papers. It was a minimum wage job, and Even had been moaning about his lack of aid in the lab; surely the teen couldn't do too much damage.
"Arlene has the paperwork in her desk. Fill it out and return it to me by tomorrow and I'll allow you to start on Monday. Master Even won't be back until then anyway, so it should work perfectly," Ansem finally relented.
"Yipeee!" Myde shouted happily. "Thank you, sir! You - ouch - won't regret this!" He turned to Arlene, who angrily thrust the papers into his charred hands.
"Goodbye, sir!" the rocker faery shouted, waving to them as he ran out the door. As soon as he reached the outside, he clasped his hands together, shrunk to a normal faery size, and darted off into the town square.
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Click. Click. Click.
Even's dark loafers gave a small click upon the tile floor with each step of his nervous pace. Four days had passed, and he still had no clue how he was to obtain the data Master Ansem required. Frustrated, he threw himself into the leather-clad chair of his Gummi Ship and stared blankly at the dashboard. All the data he had collected about the three misfits appeared on the screen in cyan letters; their behavior, their sleeping and eating patterns, their physical and mental differences, and hundreds of other minor observations. However, no matter how much he stared at his data, he had absolutely no clue about what to do.
"Come on, Even!" he thought angrily. "Master Ansem chose you for your creativity, you must not fail him!"
His emerald eyes drifted away from the screen and out the tinted windows of his ship. Outside he noticed Yen Sid's broom servants dutifully clipping the trees, planting flowers, and cleaning the windows of his tower.
"How charming," Even mused to himself. Suddenly, an idea formed in his scientific mind. "Hmm, I wonder…?"
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"I can't believe that we've been here for four days already."
"Yeah, it's been so boring here that it's felt like an eternity!"
"Sora, you're a pain in the fins."
Kairi shook her head at the brunette faery's attitude towards the kingdom. The two were walking through the market streets, spending the munny they'd earned through gardening and other menial tasks. The place was lively with a multitude of fey, such as a satyr selling a bouquet of carnations to a well-attired dragon, a pixie pulling her lavender tresses back with a ribbon, and a group of snickering Samodivas (1) exiting an herb parlor. It was all so charming; how could anyone turn their nose up at it?
"Why would you want to live somewhere boring?" Sora asked, causing Kairi to realize that she had indeed uttered her last thoughts aloud.
"You know my reasons already," Kairi retorted. "I wanted to go to a peaceful safe haven. Being different yourself, I would've thought that you knew what I was talking about."
"What do you mean by that?" Sora asked her in bewilderment.
"Oh, you know..." When Sora gave her a look that indicated he had no clue what she was talking about, Kairi sighed exasperatedly. "The bullying, the judgmental glares, the exclusion and loneliness, the pain of knowing that you'll never fit in... Don't tell me you haven't experienced any of that!
Sora chuckled lightly in response, which surprised Kairi.
"What's so funny?" she demanded.
"What's funny is how worked up you are over that," he replied simply. "Sure, I've dealt with some stares and bullying. I never let it get to my head, though. I stand my ground and show them that they can't hurt me that easily!"
He grinned at this statement, jabbing a finger at his own chest. "If there's one thing that bugs me the most, it's running away from your problems. That's why I didn't want to come here."
Kairi stared in shock at the small faery's speech. All this time, she thought that Sora was just being pigheaded about the whole situation. She had been unaware of his true opinion, an opinion that made her question her own motives. Why had she wanted to come here? Did she truly just want to run away from her problems?
Yes, she realized. In fact, that's all she had been doing this whole time. She had been running away from her problems, but most of all, she had been running away from herself.
Suddenly, she felt a strong urge to stop running from herself, as Sora and Riku were. She was going to run towards her problems and discover why.
"What's got you so quiet?" Sora asked the silent half-mermaid curiously.
"Oh, nothing," she replied dismissively. "C'mon, let's go find Riku and see if he's discovered any way to sneak into Yen Sid's tower."
"Whoa, you actually want to do that now?" Sora exclaimed.
"You could say that," she replied, smiling.
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"Hey Riku, we bought some food!" Sora said cheerfully as they barged into the Moon Elf's cabin. It was oblique in shape, with various constellations and worlds circling the twilight-colored surface of the house. Its roof was milky-white in color, although it could be easily removed so its resident could stare into the night sky instead. The interior walls were similar to those of the outside, only images of swirling galaxies joined the nighttime wonders. Sleek white furniture lined the inside of the house, including the armchair in which Riku was sitting in with a large book.
"It's about time," Riku retorted, casting his book aside and accepting the wild boar sandwich that Kairi handed him.
"Anyway, I may have thought up a strategy for sneaking into Yen Sid's tower," he reported to the other two fey, who were digging into their own meals as he spoke.
"What is it?" Kairi asked eagerly. Riku raised an eyebrow at her sudden eagerness, but continued on about his plan.
"Yen Sid leaves his tower daily at around noon to explore the town and to make sure that everything is running smoothly, correct?"
Kairi and Sora nodded.
"I thought that we could use Sora's pixie dust to shrink and fly into the window of the highest point of the structure. From there, we'll search the room for anything that may be useful and leave as quickly as possible."
"Wow, that seems really easy," Sora remarked.
"Indeed," Riku agreed. "I figured that Yen Sid would never consider that anyone from the town would sneak into his office."
"There is one problem though," Sora added sheepishly. "I can't make us fly. I haven't bloomed yet, remember?"
"I knew that you couldn't fly, but why can't your faery dust make us fly?" Kairi pointed out.
"Psh, only faeries who have bloomed can do that with faery dust." Sora explained. "I can shrink us, but that's about it."
"Is that why you haven't checked out the treetop town for faeries?"
"Yep."
"Well, that plan is unusable," Riku muttered, rubbing his temples as he said this.
"We could still use the plan," Kairi said thoughtfully. "We'd just have to walk as opposed to flying."
"That's extremely risky though, Kairi," Riku told the half-mermaid. "If we can't think of any other plan, we'll do it. However, I don't want to try that unless absolutely necessary."
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Suddenly, there was a knocking at the door.
Riku swung open the front door to find a human with long blonde hair and a scientific lab coat standing in the doorway. If his assumptions were correct, this was Scientist Even. His mysterious jade eyes met Riku's opalescent ones, jade eyes that were filled with an unsettling expression that one looks upon a successful lab rat with.
"Ah, if it isn't young Master Riku," Even said cordially. "Do you remember me?"
"Yes, I do. You're Master Even, are you not?" Riku replied.
"Why yes, I am. I'm surprised that you remember me," Even said.
"Well, what brings you here?" Riku asked as Sora and Kairi joined him at the door.
"I was merely hoping that you would be willing to partake in a couple of tests for scientific purposes," Even explained. "They're perfectly harmless, plus they may aid you in discovering some of the answers that you are looking for."
The teens turned to look at each other. Even certainly was a creepy person, and they weren't sure if they could trust him. However, this was more than Yen Sid offered them. Should they let this opportunity slip by?
"Fine, we'll participate in your tests," Riku answered for the three of them.
"Splendid!" Even exclaimed happily, a mysterious glint shone in his eye. "Follow me to my ship and we'll complete them in no time."
In the distance, Yen Sid skeptically watched the four of them walk to the Gummi Ship.
"Master Even, what scientific plot do you have brewing?" he asked himself mysteriously.
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"If you don't mind, I would like to work with each of you individually," Even told them as they approached the red, yellow, and blue aircraft. The three were reluctant to be alone with the strange scientist, yet they agreed to it anyway.
"I'll go first," Kairi volunteered.
"Brilliant! Sora and Riku, would you mind waiting out here?"
"Well -" Sora tried to say, but Riku cut him off.
"Of course."
"Thank you. Kairi should be out within a half hour." Even gestured for Kairi to follow him through the bright-yellow doorway, and then they disappeared into the strange scientific structure.
"Just let her go. Even wouldn't dare try anything funny in Yen Sid's domain," Riku told Sora.
"How do you know?" Sora challenged
"Trust me on this one," Riku replied simply.
The two sat in silence for a moment, until finally Riku broke it.
"Once we find out why we are misfits, what do you plan on doing?" he asked the faery.
"Figure out how to end it. Being trapped at age ten without being able to fly gets pretty boring after a few years," Sora replied half-jokingly. "How about you?"
"I don't know," Riku admitted. "I'd have to hear the reason before deciding. However, I may try to remove my differences as well. After the Calling…" His voice trailed off upon his last words.
"What's a 'calling?'" Sora asked, confused.
"The Calling is like a formal version of blooming. All the teenaged elves gather together under a full moon, and the leader calls upon the spirits to bestow each elf with their individual gifts," Riku explained.
"Oh, I get it!" Sora said. "And you said earlier that there's only one Moon Elf at a time, but you're the second one in existence right now, right?"
Riku nodded slowly.
"I don't get why you can't just say that," Sora muttered.
"The spirits weren't too happy with my result," Riku replied shortly.
Sora shrugged, but didn't press the matter further. Instead, he busied himself by kicking nearby rocks into the edge of the forest.
After what seemed like forever, Kairi and Even appeared in the entranceway to the Gummi Ship. The redhead was sopping wet, but other than that she appeared to be fine.
"How did it go?" Sora and Riku asked in unison.
"It was completely harmless. I didn't know half the stuff he was doing, but it all seemed fine to me," Kairi reported.
"Why are you all wet?" Sora asked.
"One of the tests was swimming in the water," she explained. "And I found out that I can get my tail back just by swimming in saltwater!"
"That's great!" Sora exclaimed.
"Who would like to go next?" Even asked the remaining two.
"I'll go," Riku responded.
"Wonderful! Follow me, please," Even said, beckoning for Riku to follow. As Kairi had done earlier, the two disappeared into the Gummi Ship before them.
The inside of the Gummi Ship was a strange place. The cockpit was similar in color to the outside, including the solid blue chairs in front of the computer built into the dashboard, and the yellow steering wheel. Once they entered into the back of it, however, the scene completely changed. The circular room was pure white and had a very sterile feel to it. Foreign metallic equipment lined the sides of the space, leaving the center of the room completely vacant. Two small pools of water were in the very back of the room, one being labeled 'saltwater' and the other 'freshwater.'
"Would you mind sitting right over there?" Even asked, gesturing to a metal chair. "I just need to grab a few simple materials."
Riku obeyed and sank into the white cushion of the silver fold-out chair. When Even returned with a large syringe and cloth, Riku immediately tensed up.
"Don't worry, I'm merely taking a blood sample. You'll feel a little pinch, that's all," Even explained. Riku still didn't like the idea, but he allowed the scientist to tie elastic around his forearm and dab an area of skin below it with liquid. Within seconds, Even had drawn the golden fey blood from his body and was carefully pouring the substance into a test tube.
"Wow, I didn't even notice," Riku commented.
"I'm an expert at this," Even replied proudly. "You won't find anyone who can handle needles as well as I."
Riku wasn't sure if that was good or bad to hear.
Even went on to take several pictures of Riku from almost every angle possible, swab his mouth with cotton, and have him run on a treadmill for fifteen minutes. Finally, they came to the final test.
"All I need you to do is drink this." Even held up a small vial of a shimmering substance.
"What is it?" Riku asked suspiciously.
"You should be able to figure it out," Even said as he handed it to the silver-haired teen. Sure enough, Riku recognized the material immediately - freshly caught moonlight. It shouldn't harm him, being a Moon Elf and all.
"You just want me to drink this?" he asked the scientist.
"Not the whole vial, of course. Just a small taste will do," Even said as he pulled a clipboard off his desk.
Riku shrugged, weighing out his options. If he wanted answers, he'd have to try it. He pulled the cork out of the phial and took a small sip, and then handed it back to Even. Immediately, he felt a warm sensation run through every inch of his body, as a soft glow rolled off his skin, emanating from his core. It was similar to how Serah had appeared on the night of the Calling, except on a much smaller scale. The phenomenon ended after several seconds, though it left Riku feeling amazing after the breathtaking sensation.
"Marvelous, marvelous!" Even praised Riku, the strange glint returning once more in his eyes. "You are done in here. Would you mind sending Sora up?"
"Of course," Riku replied, avoiding the human's gaze. With that, he left the Gummi Ship and sent his faery friend in.
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Meanwhile on Destiny Islands, four teens were sitting at the edge of the blitzball court. They were all sopping wet and panting, as though they had just finished a game.
"You had some nice moves back there, Wakka!" Sazh said, giving the ginger island elf a high-five.
"Thanks, man!" Wakka replied in his heavy accent. "I can't say that my shots are as good as Riku's were, but they're getting there."
"Who's that?" Sazh asked.
"You know, the friend I brought from up north. He had silver hair and hadn't played before, ya?"
"I don't remember a Riku," Shuyin said thoughtfully, running a hand through his dirty-blonde hair.
"I don't know. He sounds familiar to me," Tidus said.
"He went with your brother, uh…" Wakka paused, struggling to remember the name of Tidus's brother.
"Sora?" Tidus suggested helpfully.
"Yeah, that's right. They went to... uh... somewhere with another girl. Where did they go, man?" Wakka asked Tidus.
"You know, I can't remember." Tidus frowned, scratching leaf-filled hair.
"Huh, that's weird. Let's ask your parents when we get back. 'Kay, man?"
"Yeah, they'll remember!" Tidus said brightly.
"Break over!" Sazh shouted. On that note, the four teens jumped back into the arena and continued playing their game.
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(1) Samodivas are earth spirits in Slavic mythology. I just thought I'd get a little cultural and fancy-pants. Go Slavic myths!
Please review! It would motivate me to write another chapter. :P