Kingdom Hearts II: A Journey's End
Chapter 25: Pain and promise
Haruka opened her eyes and sighed with a smile.
"Thank goodness, it was only a dream." Her blurry vision became clear and what she saw first made her face pale. She screamed loudly and Sora felt like his ears were going to bleed any minute. Haruka saw the candle about to kiss her but thankfully she woke up in time. The red haired girl jolted up and gulped.
"Why the jolie princesse has woken up." Lumiere said and she was even more freaked out. She stared at him with wide eyes, as if he was talking in another language.
"W-what the hell is g-going o-on h-here?" She stammered with a pale face. Sora placed his hand onto her shoulder and smiled.
"Well, basically an enchantress came to this Castle and turned the Prince into the Beast and his servants into objects." He tried to summarise it and she stared at him as if he was crazy.
"I think I'm hallucinating, wait what?! The Beast was a Prince?!" She asked not believing a word he said. The brown haired teen nodded at this with a grin.
"Uh-huh." He said.
"Right." Haruka crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.
"They might think that the Beast might turn into a Heartless." Her eyes widened and she gasped.
"WHAT?! I won't let that happen, he's our friend and we need to help." She stood up and said with determination.
The cup hopped up to her and the teapot was in front of Haruka.
"Mama, is she a Princess?" The chipped cup asked and the red haired teen smiled at this.
'Aw, he's so cute!'
"Chip, why don't you ask her yourself?" Mrs Potts said softly.
"But I'm scared." He mumbled and Haruka kneeled to the ground.
"Hey, you don't have to be afraid of me. Come on." She cupped her hands and the cup jumped into her palms.
"What's your name?" She asked in a curiously and she sounded like a 5 year-old.
"My name's Chip." He said optimistically.
"It's nice to meet you Chip, my name's Haruka but you can call me Haru or Ruka for short. Chip, I am a Princess; a Princess of Light and Darkness. I won't hurt you." The little cup started to yawn and the red haired Princess place her new friend next to his mother.
"He's tired. Let him get some rest." She mumbled and stood up next to Sora.
"We should better get going, come on!" Donald said and they started to walk.
"Sometimes you can really act like a Princess, Haru." Sora said and Haruka glared at him.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" She asked.
"You know sweet, nice, caring and gentle." The brown haired boy mumbled.
"I take that as an offence." Haruka muttered and Sora laughed nervously at this.
"I can actually sense the sarcasm from what you said." She raised an eyebrow at this.
"I wasn't being sarcastic, Sora. I am seriously offended for you telling me that." She said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Girls, I seriously don't understand them." Sora said.
"Tell me about it." Donald agreed and Haruka rolled her eyes at this with a huff; men.
They entered the Undercroft and noticed a few armour in front of an entrance. Haruka gulped at this; where they people or just armour. What was worse was that she felt cold and it was dark and damp.
"Please let our guests pass." Cogsworth stated and the armours stepped aside. Haruka gasped at this and linked arms with Sora.
"Scared much?" He asked with a smirk.
"Shut it and keep walking." She mumbled and Sora smiled with pink cheeks. As they walked past the armours, Haruka eyed them out and they did a bow. She laughed nervously and waved a bit.
"Hi…" She mumbled and they went through the entrance. They went into this large secluded place and had to light up a few lanterns to reveal a secret door.
Haruka walked up to a lantern which had clouds of darkness on it. She held her necklace and closed her eyes.
"LIGHT!" The necklace emitted an extremely bright light and all the lanterns lit up.
"Great job, Haru!" Sora said and she turned to him. Haruka grinned at him with the thumbs up.
"So are we all set?" Sora asked.
"Oui. The secret door should open now." Lumiere said. They waited for a few seconds. Haruka placed her hand onto her hip and tapped her foot; she was getting frustrated and impatient.
"But I don't see a door." Goofy finally pointed out.
"And neither do I. Where is it?" Haruka asked.
"Just push that block over there; the one that's sticking out." Cogsworth pointed and Sora walked over to the block on the wall. He pushed it and a brick door opened. Haruka watched wide eyed; everything about this Castle amazed her.
"Well I'll be off then dears. Take care of yourselves now. And Princess, it was nice to meet you." Mrs Potts smiled and Haruka did a little curtsey.
"I must be going as well. Next time, my lovely princess." He kissed her hand and winked at her. Haruka shivered at this and thought it was wrong; a candle having a crush on her. They made their way down the West Hall and entered the Beast's room.
"Who could ever love a Beast?" A mysterious man asked. He wore a black coat and a hood on.
"Why don't you shut your mouth, bastard?" Haruka growled and they had their weapons in hand.
"See? She has accomplices." The guy said and Haruka's eyebrow twitched.
'This guy talks like he's got something up his butt.' She thought. He raised his arm and there was a force field blocking the magical rose in the glass. He also disappeared.
"Coward." Haruka mumbled.
"Hey Prince." Sora said and the Princess' eyes widened; this wasn't gonna be good. The Beast looked up with rage written all over his face. The Beast roared very loudly and they exclaimed.
"Oh dear, Master!" Cogsworth tried to reason. Haruka sensed the anger coming out from the Beast. He raised his arm and was just about to gash Sora.
"SORA!" She shouted and pushed him out of the way. The Beast gashed her on the arm and she didn't yell. She shut her eyes and grinded her teeth together as the tears fell down her cheeks. She rolled onto the ground and gripped onto her bleeding shoulder.
"Sora, I can't fight. I'm sorry." She whispered and he ran over to her.
"It's alright, don't worry about it. I'll fight." He kissed her forehead and turned to the Beast. They kept on fighting him. Haruka and Cogsworth kept on yelling to help the Beast get back into his senses.
"Snap out of it!" Haruka screamed.
"We're your friends! Remember, me and Sora protected you when Riku fought you!" She shouted and after a few minutes, the Beast came to his senses.
"Cogsworth, what happened?" The Beast asked and the clock started to stammer. Haruka got up and ran towards the Beast.
"I'm so glad you're alright, Beast!" She said and his eyes widened when he saw her bleeding shoulder.
"Well you locked everyone in the dungeon." Donald said.
"Haruka, you're bleeding. Who did this to you?" The Beast asked and she winced as the pain increased.
"Don't worry about me." She whispered.
"Tell me! Who did this to you?" He demanded and she looked up at him.
"You weren't in your senses." She mumbled and he gasped. She looked at him seriously.
"Who was that man?" She asked.
"Yeah, the guy in black." Sora added.
"Xaldin, that's his name." The Beast growled and looked at his hands.
"He came from the darkness. He used my anger to control me. He took all my sorrow, my sadness, my pain and turned it all into rage. There was nothing I could do. I could no longer see the truth." He said feeling guilty. He felt someone touch his shoulder and saw Haruka smiling at him.
"It's okay." She whispered.
"Well I'll be. That must be why you threw all your friends down there into the dungeon. You wanted to make sure you didn't want to hurt 'em, right?" Goofy pointed out.
"Was that it? Was it to protect them?" The Beast asked.
"Sure, we know you're good inside." Goofy nodded.
"You might seem to look and sound scary but you've got a heart of gold." Haruka grinned.
"Goofy and the Princess are right, Master. We've all seen how kind you can be. After all, Belle can see the goodness in your heart, but I'm afraid you've yet to…" Cogsworth trailed off.
"Belle. I've mistreated her; I've mistreated her and been so selfish." Beast sighed.
"She didn't say that." Sora said.
"She'll never tell anyone about my cruelty. She's too good." Beast mumbled.
"I'm afraid the Master judges himself too harshly." Cogsworth whispered and Haruka gave him a warning glare.
"Why don't you just go talk to her?" Sora asked.
"He's right. Take it from me, trust me I've been through all this." Haruka said and they looked at her curiously.
"When Riku and I had an argument, all he had to do was come and talk to me. He apologised and that made up for all the mistakes. Since, Belle has a heart of gold, obviously not like me, she'll obviously accept the mistakes you made." Haruka explained.
"But…" The Beast mumbled.
"No buts! We're going with you!" Sora said and the Beast looked at him and Haruka.
"We'll be by your side, like how you were a year ago." She said with a smile. Before they left, Haruka got a bandage wrapped around her shoulder.
They went to Belle's room and saw the wardrobe.
"Make sure you don't faint like last time." Sora whispered and she glared at him. The Beast asked where Belle was and the wardrobe said that she was going after a man in black.
"Holy crap! Where did she go?!" Haruka exclaimed.
"Temper, temper and you call yourself a Princess." The wardrobe said and she growled.
"You better keep quiet if you know what's coming." She threatened.
"Come on, we have to go find her." Sora said holding his dear friend back.
They went downstairs into the Entrance Hall and heard Belle's muffled voice.
"I'm warning you! You'll be sorry!"
"Belle, where are you?" The Beast shouted.
"Beast! Help, I'm in the ballroom!" She yelled.
They ran into the ballroom and Belle went out onto the balcony.
"I'll be alright." In her hand was the enchanted rose. They saw this massive floating Heartless with chains wrapped around it. The Heartless turned to the group and hit itself onto the ground. The floor started to turn a very dark purple. Donald jumped onto Goofy and Haruka's bright green eyes widened and she gasped.
"Haruka!" Sora exclaimed and wrapped his arms around her. He pulled her closer to him and she held onto him.
"Whatever you do, don't let go of me. I don't want to lose you again." Sora mumbled.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Just trust me on this." They stared into each other's eyes. He nodded and he let go of her. The Princess summoned her Keyblade and they got ready to fight the Heartless. It was extremely difficult for them to defeat the Heartless but a few minutes the Heartless was defeated.
The Heartless started to move around and there was a dark smoke surrounding it. After a few moments, that very Heartless they defeated turned into something so much bigger. Haruka turned to Sora who nodded.
"Let's do this, together." She said and they bumped Keyblades. They turned to the Heartless and Haruka smirked.
"You're going down!" She shouted.
They fought like they've never fought before, with determination, courage and strength. This Heartless was full of anger and rage not to mention ten times scarier than the Beast. But Haruka wasn't afraid, for one reason; because she had her friends by her side.
She was panting and the Heartless disappeared. The ballroom became normal again.
"We did it!" Sora jumped.
"So you think." That man in the black coat said and Haruka looked up at him.
"Shut your mouth!" She yelled and just as the Beast was about to attack him, the man disappeared. Sora and Goofy started to tell the Beast about Organisation XIII.
The Princess on the other hand kept on breathing hard. She fell onto her knees and placed her hand onto her heart. Again, it was paining her, not by emotion. It felt like someone was dragging their nails against her heart and ripping it out of her chest. Haruka started to cough and Sora turned to her.
His blue eyes widened and he ran to her side.
"Haruka! What's going on? Are you okay?" She gripped onto his top and took deep breaths until she was okay. She looked up at him with a smile.
"I'm okay, Sora. Just run out of breath, that's all." She winked and he nodded. Sora helped her up and she dusted her shorts. He held onto her hand tightly and they saw Belle walk in.
"Belle!" The Beast exclaimed and ran up to her. He was silent for a few moments and Lumiere, Cogsworth and Mrs Potts came in.
"Belle, I'm sorry, I wasn't myself. I hope I haven't done anything to hurt you." Haruka smiled at this.
"Aw, that's so sweet." She said and Sora snickered quietly at her.
"I know you weren't yourself. You don't have to apologise." Belle said with a smile.
"But I had hoped that you changed a little bit! I wish you could start trusting me." She crossed her arms with a pout and Haruka laughed at that.
"She's just like me, that's for sure."
"You can say that again!" Sora agreed.
Ms Potts and Lumiere started to tell them about the legend of the rose, how true love breaks the spell.
"I HOPE he makes it." Sora said and Haruka elbowed him in the stomach.
"Stop being so pessimistic!" She growled.
"What does that mean?" He asked.
"Being negative, Roxas." A voice mumbled and they turned around. There was a boy the same age as Haruka, wearing a black coat. He had brown hair and cool grey eyes. The boy looked at Haruka and turned around. The teenager disappeared and they twitched at this.
"Who was that?" Sora asked.
"Beats me." Haruka replied and her Keyblade appeared in her hand.
She lifted her Keyblade in the air and a design of her necklace appeared under her feet. Her hair danced in the wind. Her Keyblade shot a ray of light towards a keyhole which was formed.
She lowered her Keyblade and the Beast walked up to them.
"What happened?" He asked.
"The gate is open!" Donald jumped and said happily.
"Do you have to go?" Belle asked.
"Yeah." Sora said.
"Now, no more arguin', okay?" Goofy warned.
The Beast looked at Belle who smiled at him. He blushed at this and Haruka giggled.
'Someone's in love.' She sang in her mind.
"We'll see to it." Lumiere said.
"Take care now, dears." Mrs Potts smiled.
"You're welcome here, anytime." Cogsworth stated.
"Wait, Princess Ruka!" Chip came hopping and Haruka kneeled on one knee.
"Chip!" She giggled and picked him up.
"Do you really have to leave?" He asked.
"Uh-huh. My friend Riku is waiting for me and I have to find him. But I promise, I'll be back soon to see you again, 'kay?" She asked.
"Promise?" The little chipped cup pouted.
"It's a promise!" Haruka said and kissed the cup. She placed Chip on the ground and said their goodbye.
"I want a kiss." Sora pouted and she rolled her eyes at this.
'What is this, déjà vu?' She thought but sighed.
Donald, Goofy and no one else wasn't looking and Haruka grabbed Sora's chin. She leaned closer to him and kissed his forehead. She pulled away from him and smiled.
"Happy now?" She asked and he nodded without saying a word.
"Good, let's go." She mumbled. Sora's face was the colour of her hair; bright red.
Please review and thanks for reading. Sorry for not updating soon! I want you guys to keep it in mind, the pain Haruka gets in her heart. It'll be useful, because in the story after the next, that's going to get worse. Well no more details! Bye for now!
~Parisa01