Disclaimer: See previous chapters

I finally updated. Thanks for the wait! For those who have been reading my other stories, I will have updates before The end of January at the very least! (Blame college) Enjoy!

Chapter 25

It took well after the sun goes down to tell my story. Of course having John and Nick interrupt and answering all the questions didn't exactly help. I skipped over some of it, like some of the more personal conversations with the demons, but I tried to tell as much as possible.

When I was finished the clearing fell into silence for a whole five minutes. Dwayne looks somewhat resigned, as though he had expected something like this. David, however, just looked annoyed.

"So, what you're saying," He says, his annoyance clear. "Is that the guy who was originally supposed to deal with all of this craziness is dead."

Nick, John and I all nod.

"And now the universe has decided that we," he motions with his hand to all five of us. "Are now supposed to take his place and save the whole of creation from an evil entity that before now was invincible."

"That sounds about right." John mutters.

"And further more, there's a chance that the bastard who's responsible for all of this can warp our sister's mind and turn her into the equivalent of one of Dracula's brides."

I wince and I feel Dwayne's arm tighten around me. "Unfortunately."

David hauls himself to his feet. He paces back and forth in the small clearing. Then he stops, nods, and turns back to us. His stance screams 'Shut up and Pay Attention!' Full leader mode.

"Alright, listen up. First off, as far as I'm concerned this Prophecy thing is on the back burner. I don't know much about this kind of thing. I don't really trust it. But stopping Ansem is our priority despite the prophecy.

"Second, Sam." He looks directly at me. "There is no way in hell that this guy is going to get you as long as any of us breathe. Okay?" The last part is spoken softly. I smile and nod.

"Third, I think that we should try to follow the game storyline. Meaning, we should save as many worlds as we can. The more good we do, the more pissed off Ansem will be." A smirk appears on David's face. "And that's just pure fun on our part."

All five of us laugh at that. David continues. "Like I said before, I think that we're all in agreement about following the story?" We all nod.

"Plus," Nick adds. "Do we really want what happened to our world to happen to others?"

"So, all in all, a good deal all around." Dwayne says.

"Good. Plan in motion." David says. "Since it's getting dark we'll stay the night here. For some reason Heartless won't come near this grove. So we'll stay here tonight and tomorrow we'll head over to the camp."

'What do we do about Clayton, though?" Nick asks. "I mean, I know we'll follow the story and all but what do we do? For those of us who haven't played the game?" He deliberately looks over and Dwayne and I on that last part.

Dwayne and I chuckle. "Fine. We'll take pity on the pour, uninformed souls. Won't we Dwayne?"

Dwayne makes a whining noise. "Ahhhh. Do we have to?"

David, John and Nick mock growl as Dwayne and I laugh. I sober up rather quickly. "Well, according to the game Sora, Donald and Goofy crash land and get separated. Clayton brings Donald and Goofy to the camp, while Tarzan rescues Sora at the tree house. The three are reunited and meet up with Jane. They go around saving the gorillas in order to try and earn Kerjack's trust. They save the gorillas but fail to get his trust. Then Clayton reveals his true nature and they have to fight him along with a huge chameleon-like Heartless. They win and Kerjack opens the way to the gorilla nests and the waterfall cave where they find the keyhole. Sora closes it and they leave."

Dwayne shrugs. "That's pretty much it in a nutshell."

"You and David already met Jane and Tarzan. So all we need to do is save the gorillas and stop Clayton when he makes his debut. Right?" John asks.

David grins. "Sounds like a good plan. We'll head over to the camp tomorrow. We keep an eye on Clayton and be prepared to confront him when the time comes."

I smile. "But for now, we sleep?"

The guys all chuckle. "Yeah. Let's get some sleep." David says.

The five of us spread out on the ground, making sure to stay within close vicinity. I cuddle up next to Dwayne, my head on his chest. John lies down on Dwayne's other side, backpack underneath his head. Nick lays next to me with David on his other side.

I sigh in contentment as I drift off. I missed this. All five of us, together. I finally feel like I'm completely, utterly safe. I feel like nothing can harm me, that we can accomplish anything.

"What the hell?!"

"Holy shit!!" Shouting. Too much shouting.

"What the fuck!" What? Did Nick find a lizard in his pants?

"Sam! Wakeup!"

My eyes slowly open. The guys sound frantic. What's wrong? John's kneeling above me. He looks freaked out.

"Sam! Are you okay?"

Huh? "Yeah. Why?" Why the hell are you waking me up?

"Because we got transported somewhere! We're not in the jungle anymore!"

I blink several times before it sinks in.

"What!" I jump to my feet with John following. Nick, Dwayne and David have taken up points around us, observing our new location.

My eyes widen in shock. No. Fucking. Way. What the fuck is going on! All of a sudden I find it difficult to breath. What does this mean? How the hell did this happen?

John has take note of my shock and lays a hand on my shoulder. "Sam? Where are we?"

David and the others turn to me at John's question. "You know this place, Sami?" Dwayne asks. "I don't remember this place being in the game.

I shake my head. "It's not." I clear my throat. "This is from another game, sort of."

David frowns. "What do you mean, 'sort of?'"

"I mean that the idea of this place is from a video game. The place itself is not."

Nick throws his arms up in frustration. "But where are we?!"

I take another look around, just to be sure. There is no doubt in my mind. The sunset, the courtyard, everything screams the truth. "This place is my Graveyard. We're inside my soul."

Silence. John and Nick look around in curiosity. They have already been briefed about my Graveyard and how it links to me being a Harmonixer. But Dwayne and David haven't. I told them how I morph into demons but I don't think I explained everything, looking back. David looks a little gob smacked while Dwayne is just plain shocked. Judging by the spark of recognition in his eyes I gather that he remembered the video games that I am somewhat embodying.

David rubs his temples. I can see the signs of a major headache in his eyes. I don't blame him. Can't tell you how many headaches I've had since this whole thing started.

"Wanna run that by me again?" He says, the exhaustion in his voice apparent. "How the hell can we be inside your soul? What the hell is a Graveyard?"

I take a deep breath. "Do you remember that I explained my power? That I turn into demons?" Both David and Dwayne nod. "There's more to it than that. I just gave you the short version for time purposes.

"I can transform into demons because I'm a Harmonixer. Like I told you before, Harmonixers have the power to fuse their soul with that of a demon, gaining its powers and characteristics. Follow me so far?" The boys nod. "Well, a Harmonixer has a Graveyard as a way of stabilizing the demon soul. Normally Harmonixers have only one soul, but I have four."

I point to each of the symbolized doors. "Each of those doors houses one of my demon spirits. When I open one, I fuse with the demon inside. The Graveyard helps to keep my soul in balance with that of the demon's."

"So, this helps to keep you from going insane doesn't it?" David asks.

"Exactly. This keeps my soul in balance with the demon souls within me. Aerith said that since I'm not a normal Harmonixer I may have more possibilities open to me."

Nick turns away from his examination of the Ferai door. "You mean you could have more demon souls?"

I shrug. "I have no idea. There's no good basis for me because of the whole prophecy bull. I'll juts have to learn as I go along, I suppose."

Dwayne chuckles. "Isn't it how that always is?" He and I share a smile.

"Hey Sam."

We all turn to John, who is standing in front of the unmarked double doors. "What's behind here?" He asks.

I shrug. "I have no idea." I go stand by John. "When I was first here I tried to open them. Some sort of force field keeps me from finding out what's inside. It's frustrating."

"It's your soul, and you can't even get through a door?" Nick asks as he walks up to Johns other side.

I give him a look that tells him I am clearly not amused. He smiles in return. David and Dwayne come to stand beside us.

"We're all avoided an important question." David says. "Why are we here? If it's Sam's soul, or a representation or whatever, then why are the rest of us here?"

"That's a good question." I grumble. I turn and face the doors. I mentally prod each of the demon consciousness to try for a response.

Nothing. I can feel them there, but barely. I sigh in frustration. "Well, no answers there." I turn back to the guys. "I have no idea what's going on, and I can't hear any of them," I motion to the doors. "So now what?"

David opens his mouth to speak but before he can a white light overtakes us.

I scrunch my eyes as the sunlight invades the grove. Yawning, I open my eyes and slowly start to wake up. We're all still in the grove, in the same positions we fell asleep in. I smile sleepily. Dwayne always was my favorite pillow. I snuggle a bit closer to him. I really don't want to get up right now. I'm still so tired.

Out of the corner of my eye I see John and David shifting as they wake up. Even Dwayne is moving a bit. I smile. It's going to take all four of us to wake Nick up. He sleeps like the dead. I yawn again as my body starts to follow my brain into the realm of awakening. I can even feel the demons stirring inside my-

I sit up sharply, getting a groan from Dwayne as he is forcibly woken by my sudden action. He slowly sits up next to me. He blinks his eyes and yawns. "Ugh, Sam? What's wrong?" He says, running a hand through his hair. I want to giggle. Dwayne's long hair makes bed head so annoying. Already he is tugging his fingers through the long black strands.

The others are up now too, even Nick. Wow, that's surprising. Normally he won't wake up until one of us forces him too. But he's up for some strange reason. Why? Is it because…

David rubs his hands over his face before turning to me. "Sami? Was-"

Nick's loud yawning cuts off whatever David was about to say. "Damn!" He says, scratching the side of his face. "I had the freakiest dream last night! And considering all of the crazy stuff that's been going on, that's saying something!"

John grumbles darkly. I smile. He just looks so cute with his tangled blond curls. He cracks open one brown eye and manages to glare at Nick. "Jerk. How the hell can you be so loud?" He groans and shakes his head. "Ugh. Man what a weird dream." He mutters.

David and Nick both stare at John. "Hey Johnny," Nick says. "Your dream didn't happen to be in a courtyard surrounded by a bunch of doors, did it?"

John blinks in surprise. "Yeah. How did-" His eyes widen. "You mean, it wasn't a dream?"

Dwayne turns to me. "That place, was it really your soul, Sami"

The others turn to me. I nod. "That place was my Graveyard. It's the representation of my soul."

"That's the place where the demon souls are too, the ones that give you your power as a Harmonixer." David says. I nod.

"So…if that was your soul, then how the hell were we there?!" Nick shouts.

No one says anything. "I have no idea." I mumble. "This is really frustrating."

"I'll say." Nick says. "Does the book say anything?"

Why the hell didn't I think of that? I pull the book out of my jacket and open it. The gold-lettered prophecy is still on the first page. No changes there but I think I'll check up on it from time to time. Aerith did say that Prophecies, especially Forked ones, were prone to change. Damn…I miss them…

I flip a few more pages and stop. On about page five is a full-page painting of a jungle. "Well, that's different." The guys move and crowd around me to see. I flip to the next page. The blank sheet begins to fill with words and pictures. Soon several pages are filled with character profiles and walkthrough information, including Heartless that commonly appear in this particular world.

"Cool." Nick says. The other boys murmur their agreement. "So I guess this thing will provide us info on the world that we're in?"

"It would appear so." Dwayne says.

I flip through. "It's got a few rough maps, and it doesn't tell us where we should go exactly. It just has character information, Heartless information, a bit of history about the world and a few key points. Other than that we'll have to rely on what we know." I read through the biography on Deep Jungle. "It looks as though it takes stuff from both the movie and the game."

Nick grins. "I always did like a challenge."

"Does it have any other information?" David asks.

I shake my head no. "Looks like it'll give us the info when we need it." I flip through the rest of the book. The other pages are blank until I get near the end. "Some more Heartless profiles in the back, but nothing else."

David nods. "Okay. Sami, you keep the book. Do you have a pen?" I nod. "If you have to, jot down any details or notes along the way. It may help if we record John's visions too."

John shrugs. "The only one I've had so far was of Dwayne here in the jungle but there's no telling when I'll have another one."

David looks over at me. "Think you can handle it Sam?" He says with a small smile. I thump him on the shoulder.

"Duh. No problem. Now, what do you say we go find our resident ape-man?"

Dwayne looks up toward the trees. "No need, I think."

The rest of us look up. The trees are rustling with movement. I stuff the book back in my jacket and stand along with the others. David steps forward, positioned slightly in front of me I might add, to greet Tarzan.

Suddenly a roar erupts from the trees and a blur lunges toward our white-blond leader. Dwayne quickly knocks them both to the side as the rest of us jump away from the blur that nearly decapitated David. The furry mass quickly pivots as it lands, lunging instead at Nick.

Nick quickly summons his keyblade, swinging it at the threat. Unfortunately it manages to twist in midair, landing off to the side. Meanwhile David, John and I have our keyblades out and Dwayne is crouched near to the ground, ready to lunge himself. His teeth are bared and his eyes have morphed into something more animalistic. His nails have lengthened into claws and his canines have grown.

The five of us have formed a semi-circle around our new opponent, Sabor. I recognize the leopard that has haunted the jungle. He's crouched, muscles tensed and ready to spring. He eyes us all, as individuals and as a group.

"Okay," I say quietly. "This guy is fast, agile and hard to hit. We need fast attacks."

It looks like you need my help. (Wraith)

Or mine. I know how this creature's mid works. (Ferai)

Either way, I need a moment to transform. I'll see what I can do.

"Sam!"

I jerk out of the trance to see Sabor lunging at me. As I bring my keyblade up Dwayne as a fully transformed black wolf knocks him to the side. Fur and claws fly before the two leap off each other. Both are a bit scratched up but here's no real damage until Sabor is suddenly knocked a few feet away by a well-timed fireball from Nick. Sabor screeches as his side is scorched. John shoots a few at Sabor but the feline sidesteps them. Dwayne lunges at him again but this time Sabor is ready and leaps out of the way toward David, who quickly swings his keyblade, the cold stone surrounded by a fiery red aura.

Sabor screeches again as the fiery blade makes contact with his underbelly. He rolls to prevent himself from hitting a rather large rock. I bring my keyblade up as the injured cat turns toward me-

You must transform! Let me out and you can kill that beast! (Wraith)

Stop it…Leave me alone…I have…to…Stop…The Wraith's screaming is almost deafening. The other demons are trying to silence her, but their added presence is making the pressure in my head worse. I can feel the pressure spreading through the rest of my body, my arms dropping. My vision is blurred…god! The pain!

LET ME OUT! SET ME FREE, DAMNIT! (Wraith)

STOP! MAKE IT "STOP!"

I fall to the ground just as Sabor lunges at me, fangs out and teeth bared. Through my blurred vision I see David and Dwayne rushing to get to me. John is firing like and Nick is frantically calling up a fire spell.

Suddenly another blur shoots out of the trees. It collides with Sabor and both of them go sailing over me. David's concerned face is the last thing I see before I pass out.

Please review be it good or bad. I accept all! But please make it constructive critisism. I will NOT accept flames. I will harness them and return them to their owners with orders to KILL!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But seriously, I would like to know if myfight scenes are okay. I'm not all that sure that they are realistic or anything. Please let me know where I can improve.

To all my readers and reviewers, thanks for reading and please continue to R&R!!