Okay, so this isn't the greatest, longest chapter I have ever written, but it is a change of pace from what I've normally been doing. It only focuses on one section of the story, and is entirely dialogue. This was necessary as I felt the need to explain the long history of Dayne and Rain. Originally, this chapter revealed that Dayne and Rain had a son and many more little tidbits of their life, but I didn't think it was entirely necessary after looking at the whole back story.


Also, like many people, I have noticed it is winter. Last year, the area I live in (the Lower Mainland of British Columbia) got dumped on by a snowstorm. It was the most snow I have ever seen in my entire life. From November until February, the ground was white. We have been lucky so far not to get anything that bad so far, but it is cold as all hell over hear. There are some ponds on my school grounds, and it is so cold that they have frozen over entirely. You can play ice hockey on them for god sakes – and people indeed are playing ice hockey on them! Now, I know I have no write to complain about the cold, as it is colder in other parts of Canada, and I am not. But ice hockey on a pond, that's pretty damn cold for the west coast!

Finally, I'm thinking of creating a fan-art page on my profile, a la ShireFolk. But, like Shire, I have no drawing skills. Like, they are worse than Rukia Kuchiki's. So a fan-art page would be entirely up to you, the fans. If anyone is an artist out there and would like to draw for me, please let me know.

Once again, please review and enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 25: The Tale

After what proved to be the most hellish detour imaginable, the party had taken the rest of the day off. Rain and Dayne had their injuries tended to (Dayne said that he had used too much energy for his regeneration factor to work as of now) and then everyone went out for a quiet meal to regain their energy (Sora had never seen Kairi eat that much in his life). By the end of the adventurous day each party had returned to their ships, now fully repaired, for one final task.

It was around nine o'clock in the evening when each group gathered in their ship's common room, linked together by a video system. Well, everyone except Namine and Roxas who couldn't assume physical form as of now, but everyone knew they would be listening in to the conversation. The two parties had gathered together at Dayne and Rain's behest, and every being present in the two floating ships were waiting intently on what the two had to say.

"Okay," Rain began with a pent up sigh. "I know that everyone here knows about us...but I think we should set the record straight on our lives." Rain was fairly banged up. The wound from Kaiser was savage to say the least, and now the left side of her shoulder and the upper part of her torso were bound in white linen. Even though she was in stable condition, her skin was abnormally pale and everything about her body gave off how fatigued she was. "We also want you all to know that some things we told you were... well, not lies, just misinformation to help cover us in case you got too close to the secret."

"So, where do you two what to begin?" Kairi asked.

Both former Immortals looked at each other, Rain nodding at her husband. "Well, I guess from the beginning." Dayne said. He was nowhere near as badly banged up as his wife, only a few bandages here and there, but everyone could tell that the warrior was bothered by the battle.

"First, yes, Immortals do... "eat" hearts to lengthen their life." The admission came through clenched teeth. "But Rain and I haven't eaten any hearts in thirty years and we don't plan to ever again.

"As for how an Immortal is created, well Cassius told you the right of it. When a Heartless and Nobody are trapped in a surge of energy – usually a world collapsing – they fuse together to form an Immortal. But he left something out. When an Immortal is created shortly after splitting into Heartless and Nobody, then that Immortal retains the memories of their human life."

Riku gave a shrewd look from his ship. "That happened to you, didn't it Clau...er, I mean Dayne?" The warrior nodded.

"Yeah. Cassius and I are the only two Immortals to remember their human life. If I remember correctly, Cassius was a monk of some sort who became obsessed with his studies...

"But that's not important. I gave you that information 'cause I want to tell you all about my life. I was born 77 years ago, on a world I know nothing of, to an impoverished family. I was the seventh child, a child that ate too much and grew out of his clothes too fast; an unwanted child. Because of this, my father sold me to a slave army when I was five." Certain members had mortified looks on their faces, as Dayne rubbed in chin, smiling at some thought of his.

"For the next twelve years, I trained and fought and watched everyone around me die. Then, well, again, Cassius had the right of it. The Heartless attacked and I became and Immortal. Cassius found me and I joined him for the next thirty-one years."

Silence fell on the group. A question was on everyone's minds but no one wanted to be the one to ask it. Finally, Dayne spoke again. "And I just want everyone to know that I never enjoyed working as an Immortal. At least.... I don't think...anyways." He shook his head. "I just went along because there was nothing else for me in life. My family was dead and I was tossed into a world of Heartless and multiple worlds and things I didn't understand in the slightest. So I fell back on instincts and acted like a soldier."

"And you served for thirty-one years, right?" Kairi asked.

Dayne nodded in response. Cassius had actually told the truth of Dayne and Rain's history with the Immortals, he just left all the personal information. "Thirty-one years. For the first twenty-nine of those, it was just me, Cassius, Tallgeese, Kaiser, and Arianne. But, at the twenty-ninth year with the Immortals," Dayne reached over and held Rain's hand, turning over to give the young woman a kind look. "I got a little joy in my dreary life." He added with a smile.

Rain returned the look and the smile, before the couple leaned in for a brief kiss. When they broke away, Rain continued with the story. "Unlike Heartless or Nobodies, Immortals have normal human emotions. Although these are usually twisted to negatives upon their "birth". But Dayne and I were different. Dayne had grown disillusioned with doing Cassius's dirty work, he was looking for a way out of that life, and saw a new life in me.

"As for me, I really didn't have any feelings either way about being an Immortal. For the first six-months, I did my duties ably and did my best to avoid Dayne's clumsy attempts to hit on me." This drew a quiet chuckle from the group. "But after that, after having to..." She shuddered and shrank inwards, "Eat...hearts. After that, I began to feel a resentment to my situation. The others were all content to their life of causing chaos and destruction to forward and unknown goal. Not me. And not Dayne. For the next year, we began to see each other in secret. At first, it was just sitting around, talking about meaningless things. But it evolved into something more... we started blowing off or extending missions on purpose just to be with one another. We would end up taking week-long vacations on whatever world we were stationed at. We were happy.

"But it just wasn't enough." Rain's downward facings eyes took on a sad cloud. "Even though we were together, we were still trapped, still were apart of the Immortals. We did despicable things that I don't even want to begin to remember; it was a horrible life, no matter how much time Dayne and I were together."

Dayne picked the story up now. "So, we made a decision. Thirty-years-ago, we ran. We ran and we never looked back." A grin began to spread on his face as he thought of the memory. "Our freedom...was a wonderful thing. For the first four years, we would world hop, go from place to place for a few months and then leaving to another place. If the Immortals came sniffing after us, we got out of dodge as quickly as we could and it worked...for sometime.

"After our fifth near-encounter with them, we decided we had to get away for good, to sever all ties with our pasts and just live normal lives. We found a nice world as far away from the Immortal's base as possible, we had found a world to call home.

"The Radiant Garden.

"We instantly fell into military service, joining the armed forces for seven years. If I remember correctly, I made it up the rank of Lieutenant and Rain was a Captain. (A/N 1)"

"Actually dear, you were a Lieutenant-Colonel, I was the Lieutenant." Rain corrected.

Dayne scrunched up his forehead. "Then who was the Captain? I know that we knew a Captain."

"Well you had to have been a Captain before becoming a Lieutenant-Colonel."

"No, no, no! There was a third person who we knew well that was a Captain. Some guy. Or maybe it was a girl? Or maybe-"

"Could you two get on with the story!" Ed snapped on the screen. "I hear enough talk about army ranks on my own world!"

Dayne rolled his eyes. "Alright, but this is gonna bug me for a long time." He cleared his throat and continued. "So, we were in the armed services for ten years. Then, due to are exemplary service, we were asked if we would like to move up to join the ranks of the Radiant Guardians."

Seeing the confused look, Rain jumped in quickly. "The Radiant Guardians are a special force made up of the best soldiers of the kingdom. They act as a secret service, as well as augment the police and military forces, and are connected to the Royal Bodyguards. We floated about the various sects of the Guardians for a year before being transferred permanently to the Bodyguards."

Dayne tented his fingers and nodded, breathing deeply as he did. "Now, this part of the story is...is the part that we lied to you when we previously explained who we were." He looked directly at Kairi, stared into her ocean blue eyes and blurted out, "Your parents." He inhaled again, clearly unnerved. "In order to protect ourselves in case you wanted to find out about our history on the Garden, we lied to you about your lineage, telling you the story of your ancestors instead of your actual parents." Dayne looked at his wife once more, and Rain nodded to him, clearly a signal. Dayne reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a battered bronze locket. He slid it across the table into Kairi's waiting hands.

The girl quickly opened the locket to reveal an old picture. The picture had five people in it, one of which was clearly a younger Ansem the Wise. The remaining four people, two adults and two children, all looked similar, indicating they were a family. The man looked like he was closing in on middle-age, but still looked powerful, strong and fairly youthful. He had short cropped black hair, an equally short black beard, clear cerulean eyes, and was wearing a a silver circlet on his head, eight swords running around the entire crown.

The woman looked younger than her husband, and truly looked beautiful, graceful and radiant, a warm smile crossing her face. She had rich chocolate eyes and cherry red hair that was woven into a braid that hung over her right shoulder. She two wore a silver circlet, this won mounted with an elegant heart at the front.

In the arms of the woman was a young boy, with a darker version of his mother's hair, but with her same deep brown eyes. The look on his tiny face was somewhere between petulant and nervous.

And in the arms of the father was a young girl, wrapped in a blanket, her eyes closed, and only a fine amount of red fuzz on her head.

Everyone who could see the photo (which was everyone but Ed, Al, and Riku) were shocked by the picture. Kairi especially, her mouth wide open in shock at what she was holding.

"The woman," Kairi said, "she looks just like me. Except for-"

"The eyes." Dayne quickly finished. "You have your father's eyes, but other than that, you look just like your mother did." He smiled again and faced the group. "May I present King Agrias II and Queen Beatrix of the Kingdom of Triveste, along with their children, the Crown Prince Kross Ralleone and their daughter Princess Kairi Ralleone." Again, he smiled broadly and then tapped on the glass of the locket. "That was actually taken about a week after your birth, Princess."

Kairi kept her eyes on the photo, clutching the open locket tightly. "May I keep this?"

"Of course," Dayne said. "It should be yours to keep in the first place."

"But anyways, back to the story. We joined the Guardians, and became Bodyguards. Well, at first all we did was guard the King and Queen on shifts. But then, we you were born your Majesty, we were chosen to be your personal guard, to be with you from the moment you woke to the moment you fell asleep. I thought that our lives had finally found meaning, that we finally had found our happy place."

"Sadly, though, that wasn't the case." Rain said, her eyes as mournful as her tone. "Around your fifth birthday," She said to Kairi, "Your father, mother and brother all died mysteriously. We still don't know how your mother and father died, but at least we can assume that Kross was turned into a Heartless and a Nobody and became an Immortal later on. Ansem the Wise – who is not related to you, he was simply a trusted advisor and friend – took emergency provisions and came into power as Regent. He wanted to keep you safe until you came of age, but only a few months after he took power, he whisked you away to an undisclosed location. Not we even knew where you went. Of course, now we know he blanked your memory and sent you to another world."

Dayne then picked up, his demeanor as dour as his wife's. "Weeks after he sent you away, Ansem stopped appearing in public. This is about the time that Xehanort took power and began to control the Garden under the guise of Ansem, having sent the real Ansem into the Realm of Nothingness. Shortly after that, we gave our resignation to the Guardians and left the world. We had no more purpose in the world, our Princess was gone after all."

Dayne exhaled loudly, shutting his eyes, and then stroking his hair back. "And that is basically our lives." He smiled uneasily at the group. "Any questions?"

The others were left incredulous, trying to process the information of the story without burning their brains out.

Even on the screen, the three young men were left in a stunned state. Slowly, Riku opened his mouth and asked a question. "Well, I think you clearly explained everything that needed to be explained, but I have one question about the fight: Tallgeese and Cassius kept mention "The Infuse", what the hell is that?"

"An Immortal can convert their mass of stored up hearts into energy," Rain explained. "The energy increases their powers temporarily, rising to amazing heights. Most Immortals don't like to do it though, as it shortens their lifespan meaning they must...well you know. Also, the Infuse creates a backlash after use, causing immense physical damage based on how much energy used."

Kairi jolted up in her chair. "Wait? If you two used your hearts for the Infuse, how much...time do you two-"

"We don't want to talk about it," Rain snapped coldly, surprising the group. "When we left, we both swore off devouring hearts for ever. We will live with whatever time we have left and not a second more. When we die, we die."

An uncomfortable silence fell on the group again, Kairi's question still hanging on the tips of everyone's minds.

"Listen, I think we should all get to bed," Dayne said, coolly. "We had a long hard day, and it looks like life won't be getting easier for any of us."

Everyone murmured agreement, saying their pleasantries before heading off to bed. Sora and Kairi kissed each other lightly and Dayne hugged his injured wife, telling her to get some rest. When the group slowly began to disperse, Dayne turned to the only person left in the room and talked in a hushed voice.

"Sora?"

"Yeah," the brunette said with a slight edge to his voice. "What is it?"

"I know you're good at it, but don't play dumb with me!" Dayne narrowed his eyes at the boy.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know what I am talking about! Twilight Town. You were the only one who didn't say anything encouraging to us. Hell, you've been shooting us dirty looks since the fight! What the hell is wrong with you?"

Sora rubbed the back of his head, averting Dayne's intense gaze. " You know..."

"No, I don't! Didn't your friends explain it clear enough? They all did terrible things to you in the past, and you forgave them. Why can't you forgive us?"

"You said it yourself, they're my friends. I don't know you and Rain; Riku has been my best friend for years, Roxas is pretty much me. But how do I forgive two people that I barely know and...and-"

Dayne was getting impatient. "And what?"

"And trying to steal Kairi away from me..."

"What? I'm sorry, I think I had something crazy in my ear!"

"Well, you two are always spending so much time with her, talking to her, making her laugh."

"We are her servants," Dayne clenched his fist and teeth, the two body parts equally white. "She wants to know about her past. We are just trying to help the poor girl."

"Well maybe I'm just a weird guy when I think Kairi should be spending more time with her boyfriend than with a pair of creepy adults!" Sora yelled.

"Wow," Dayne rubbed his eyes with his palms and swore into his hands. "God damn it, you really are just a pathetic idiot!" The Immortal grumbled something, Sora trying to listen.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Dayne spun on his heels and walked away briskly. "Sora the Keyblade Master... HA! That's freaking hilarious!" He added bitterly.

To Be Continued

Please be kind, review. It would make me feel happy to see some more reviews on my story.

And again, anyone who has artistic talents, don't be afraid to contact me. Also, I do take suggestions on things like worlds, villains and what-not. So don't be afraid to drop a line.

(A/N 1): For the Radiant Garden Military Rankings, I decided to use the Canadian System

Please Review

SirAngelo