"Shh." Kaia hissed, peeking out from behind the boulder, her teal blue eyes searching the grounds. A flash of white hair caught her eye.
"Kaia…they look just like you- complexion wise." Sora whispered.
"Eye colour's different." Rika remarked.
"I'll go out first." Kaia whispered. "I should be able to speak their language." Cautiously, Kaia stood up from behind the boulder, her hands up.
"Look!" One of the men said in Atlantean. Although her companions were confused (except Rika, who caught bits and pieces here and there) Kaia understood him perfectly. It was technically her first language after all.
"*Noi noanoi isa Kaia i oa-asa paolino xaili." Kaia said loudly in Atlantean.
"What's she saying?" Sora hissed. Rika's forehead creased in concentration.
"Not sure. I think I heard the word for name and born in there…" Sora opened his mouth again, but Rika held her hand up to silence him, as the Atlantean people had started to speak.
"**Lioka ati xaili i-i-isa...." Kaia blinked. Why were they looking at her eyes?
"***Iaosati li-ikai ti-i lionoia liosati pali-inosaisasa."
"My parents are Queen Kidaragash and Milo Thatch." .
"The Crystal Princess…it truly is her!" They were muttering in their native language and gazing at the tattoos on her arm.
"She shouldn't be here!"
"It's fine now that we have it under control."
"Come with us princess!" One of the people yelled happily. Two small children ran up to snatch her hands. Kaia beamed. Sora couldn't help it. A huge smile lit up his face as well. To see Kaia finally find her home…it was touching beyond belief. He couldn't help but noticed the similarities as well as the differences. Kaia and the Atlanteans shared the same skin tone, tattoos and hair colour. The differences were, the hair styles. Kaia's was braided back and cut into a neat style that was down to her waist, whilst the Atlanteans' hair style was noticeably layered. And there was the eye colour. Kaia had explained to them earlier that it was probably the result of incomplete dominance with eye colour- brown mixing with blue in a way.
"Wait, I have brought friends with me. If it weren't for them," Kaia looked back at her friends, her eyes sparkling, "I wouldn't be here."
"Come then friends of the Princess!" The group yelled, more people coming to grab their wrists to drag them in the right direction. They crossed a bridge, shouting and cheering, causing civilians to look up and see what the commotion was all about. They listened for barely a second before erupting into cheers, screaming in their native tongue,
"The princess is home! The princess has returned!"
"What are they saying?" Sora whispered to Kaia. Kaia turned her head towards Sora.
"Nothing of any importance." She said quietly.
******
The group approached the palace still cheering happily. Before they entered, the Atlantean Guard that had escorted them said in flawless English,
"Only the Princess may enter." Sora's jaw dropped.
"Princess?!" Rika smacked her hand over his mouth.
"Of course, we understand." She informed the guard, who gestured for Kaia to go in. Again, before she entered, she turned to face her friends, her eyes shining with excitement.
"Go Kaia! Don't keep them waiting!" Rika said to her, in a common alien tongue they had used often at Arrow. Kaia smiled, and entered the doors.
"Your majesties, Queen Kida and King Milo, a surprise guest has arrived to meet with you." The guard announced. Kaia saw her parents' gaze look up to meet hers. They looked different from the picture in her locket. Her mother was sitting on the loveseat throne. She still looked young, yet the deep grief that seemed to have permanently seared itself in her eyes aged her. Her hair was tucked by in a headband crown, and her periwinkle blue robes flowed around her body where she sat. Her father stood behind her mother, his hands on her shoulders. He too, looked as if he hadn't aged, but his eyes held deep sadness as well.
"Where did you come from?" Her father asked. Kaia looked up to meet their gaze, a sense of panic setting in. What if they hadn't wanted her? Was that why they had given her up?
"Apaopai." Kaia replied, which basically meant 'above' in perfect Atlantean. Her father's eyebrows rose in surprise.
"You speak the language very well."
"Thank you." Kaia replied. Her mother had not said anything, but was studying her quietly. She shook off Milo hands on her shoulders (not unkindly) and came up to her. Her hand reached out and grasped Kaia's arm, pulling it out to see the tattoo that decorated the better part of her arm. She unfisted Kaia's hand and pulled out the silver locket. Kaia had completely forgotten she was still clutching. She heard her father take a quick intake of breath. Finally, her mother's eyes met her own. She saw the shock in there multiply.
"Kaia?" Her mother finally whispered. Too choked to speak, Kaia nodded, tears spilling from her eyes.
"Kaia!" Her father shouted, running from the throne platform. He wrapped his wife and Kaia in a tight hug. "I'm so happy your safe. And that you remembered us."
"I forgot for awhile." Kaia whispered, sinking into her father's embrace. "But I remember now."
****
Later, Kaia and her companions were seated around the royal table, 'enjoying' some food that would not stop wriggling.
"It's a beautiful city you have here." Sora commented, glancing around at the view the dining hall provided.
"Thank you." Kida replied. "I want to thank you all for bringing our daughter back to us. You have no idea what this means to Milo and I."
"Gawrsh it was no problem." Goofy said, trying to prevent his food from running away. Kaia laughed, and glanced at each of her teammates. They had all been fitted with
atlantean clothes, while their regular ones were washed. But, no one minded. They actually seemed fascinated with the complex workmanship of the clothes.
"So. What brings you to our humble city?" Kida asked.
"The Heart of Atlantis." Kaia answered. "We believe that it is the larger source of a magical object called the Kingdom Stone." Kida's face immediately blanched and Milo's hardened.
"No. Absolutely not." He snapped.
"But-"
"No. I'm sorry, but the Matag Yob is too dangerous to go near."
"We can handle danger." Axel protested.
"And there's seven of us, and four of us are keyblade users. I'm pretty sure that the Heart Atlantis will hurt us." Terra chimed in. Rika remained silent, her hazel eyes studying the King and the Queen.
"Mother, Father, I-"
"Especially not you Kaia." Kida said softly, grasping her daughter's hand in her own. "I can't bear to lose you again." Kaia withdrew her hand, her face stony.
"Then why did you give me up fourteen years ago?" She asked quietly, standing up. Not listening to her mother and father's protests, she left the table and sprang up on a nearby vine covered boulder and climbed out of sight. Kida started after her, but Rika finally spoke up.
"Let her go." Kida sagged.
"I haven't even had her back for three hours and I've already upset her."
"Kaia has issues with bonding with people. Loving people." Rika replied, swallowing her tentacle fish.
"Why?" Milo asked, grasping his wife's hand in his own when she dropped back down on the pillow.
"I guess she was abandoned a lot. First by you guys, and then by Terra here." Rika said, popping a grape- like ration in her mouth. "It gave her commitment issues. She might have a bit of resentment towards you guys unless you tell her the truth."
"But we-"
"Look. You have to tell her. I can tell you're not telling her everything. Why don't you tell us?" Rika suggested, stretching out on her pillow. Kida and Milo sighed, glancing at each other.
"Kaia was born…with a few complications." Kida began.
"What do you mean by complications?" Donald asked. Rika shot him a dirty look before gesturing at Milo and Kida to continue.
"You see, Kida was taken by the Heart of Atlantis, or the Matag Yob when we first met." Milo said.
"Wait wait wait…taken?!" Axel demanded.
"The Heart of Atlantis is a power source. When it needs an extra boost, it takes a sacrifice of royal blood to protect the city."
"Why not destroy it?" Terra asked, leaning back from the table.
"It cannot be destroyed." Kida said fiercely. "It is impossible. Not to mention it is the life force of our people. We destroy the crystal. We destroy our existence, which is why it's called Matag Yob- which means 'Mother Crystal in your tongue."
"How does this affect Kaia?" Terra demanded.
"I was taken over twenty years ago." Kida said, earning shocked glances from the group. Kida didn't look a day over eighteen and Milo didn't look a day over twenty- five.
"Due to the crystals and the Heart of Atlantis, we don't age." Milo quickly explained.
Even though the companions' faces stayed incredulous, they nodded in understanding. It would explain why Kaia looked so young for her age. Kida nodded, and continued her tale.
"Since I was exposed to the crystal, and survived, I must have carried something over to Kaia." She whispered, grief evident in her voice. "When she was born, she was extremely ill. As if she held something that her body wasn't able to handle. Everyone told me that since I was a first time mother, it was normal for me to feel that something was always wrong with my baby. But as she passed through her first year, she grew sicker. She had never cried and she just seemed so…limp and lifeless. She also had always had a cough that refused to go away. And, I knew for a fact something was different about her, but I couldn't put my finger on it. So, we took her to the shaman. He tried everything to heal her. But, none of it worked. He put his hand on her heart and said to us 'your child contains great power. A power that her human body can't handle. The only way to save her is to go to the Heart of Atlantis and ask if it will save her, for the power is the Heart of Atlantis that slowly kills her.' We were desperate to save her, so we took her to the Matag Yob. I remember feeling so helpless as it took my baby away. After an hour, it finally gave her back to us. Her eyes were glowing. The last time I remember seeing eyes glow like that, was when my own mother was taken by the crystal before we sunk beneath the ocean. But, I forgot about that once Kaia started to cry for the first time."
"Whoa. How old are you?" Sora demanded.
"Over eight thousand years old." Kida said, making this sound perfectly normal. Which in a way, it was. The majority of Atlanteans were well over five thousand years old. Sora turned to Milo.
"How old are you?"
"Forty eight." Milo smiled humorously. Sora looked baffled.
"Wha-"
"Just ignore him." Rika said brightly. Kida nodded, before continuing.
"Then, the crystal that was hovering above the city started to glow and pulse. The shaman, who had come with us, looked terrified, before grasping both our hands in his own. He said, that my exposure to the crystal caused the crystal to automatically choose our daughter as its next sacrifice, and in a way, pass on the power of the Matag Yob- which is not meant for a human body." The entire group gasped.
"Imagine what it's like…to hear that your daughter is doomed to die." Milo said sadly.
"But the shaman said that unless our city was in danger, that her life would not be needed to protect it. Since the Shepherd's Journal was the only map to our city, we thought that Kaia would be safe. So we took her back home, gave her the tattoos that the shaman said would control her powers and…minimize them, as well as help her in the future if the crystal did decide to take a life."
"How?"
"He never said." Kida said, shrugging. "But it did help her. She became more normal- not that she wasn't normal to start with, but the feeling that I had went away. The next three years were perfect- until that man came." Sora stiffened.
"What man?"
"He introduced himself as Ansem. He came to hopefully be the founder of Atlantis and find the power source. But, I told him he had to leave. With Kaia's…condition, I was paranoid to have anyone intrude the city from outside Atlantis. He became furious, but accepted the verdict we set out for him. Later that night, the sky turned red and pulsing. Milo and I ran to look out the window and saw the crystal, hovering just a couple feet above the city. It had its searchlights going and with a feeling of dread, I knew what it was looking for." Kida's voice grew bitter. "We went to find Kaia, but found that she wasn't in her bed. Panicking, we looked out the window again, and saw that the crystal had frozen. And our daughter was standing in one of its searchlights. We screamed for help and fled out the window. Once we left the palace to save her, we came out to see the body of a man lying in the street, his body charred. Kaia was lying near him. After Milo verified that the man was dead, we went to check on Kaia. She was alive. We quickly picked her up, and the searchlights began again. They scanned the city. Knowing that Milo and I were the only ones in the city that could possibly gain enough control over it, so we had to entrust Kaia to Siphon, a trusted guard. He took Milo's mini-sub and brought her up to the surface. We thought that if she remained above the surface, she would be safe. And we were right. As soon as she broke the surface, the crystal stopped its rampage. Luckily, no one else was hurt. Siphon returned two days later. It was then we saw that the Heart of Atlantis seemed to be missing a piece, which caused it to seek out its source of regeneration- Kaia. Somehow, that Ansem man took a piece of the crystal. We had to put it underground, because it caused more harm then good after that. It has not reacted since Kaia arrived. So as long as the crystal doesn't 'see' her, she should stay safe." Kida finished. Everyone just stared, their mouths open in shock. Even Rika's.
"So…she's in danger." Terra said quietly.
"We have to find her! What if she finds it?" Sora said, jumping up with a panicked expression on his face.
"Relax. We hid it well. But if she finds it- Matag Yob will take her. And if Matag Yob takes her, it will be complete."
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Rika asked suspiciously.
"It would be a good thing for your quest. But, I will not allow it. Not at the cost of my daughter." Milo said firmly. But the six friends thought the same thing. They wouldn't be able to use the power source unless they completed it.
"But you were freed!" Sora protested.
"The Matag Yob was completed and I was bound to it for a short time." Kida answered.
"Kaia would never be able to come back."
"We need that Kingdom Stone though." Axel muttered. Rika stood up, her face emotionless.
"Let's ask Kaia what she wants to do. Kida, Milo, you should tell her the story."
***
Atlantean Translations:
*My name is Kaia. I think I was born here.
** Look at her eyes
***It's the long lost princess