Prologue
And the twelve
Destined shall come forth
From the Realm of the Gods
Their souls of fire and
ice
Wind and earth and soul
Shall ban the everlasting
darkness;
A Prince
Out of the Realm of the
Beasts
Mind troubled but soul
true;
Warriors
Armed with courage and
light
Hope and compassion;
Nobles
To govern the troubled
land
With sincere and just
hands;
Healers
With trust to mend the
torn
And cease the bleeding;
Mages
To guide with wisdom and
kindness
Of a thousand moons;
And, at the last
A Guardian of Spirits
His soul tarnished and
mind aged
Savior of the souls of the
Realms
Men, creatures, and beasts
alike
Bow before he who
sacrifices all
To appease the darkness.
Demons
Unholy creatures of the
night
Prepare for thy end
The light comes
Withered,
gnarled hands placed the browned parchment back onto the elegant table within
the cold, stone chamber. Fingers
encrusted with jewels and golden rings drummed impatiently against the stained,
wooden desk.
"Well?"
asked the owner of the restless fingers.
The normally warm tenor was chilled in the darkness of evening.
"Well what?" replied the other. His voice was hoarse and wreaked of evil.
"What are we going to do about this? That fool Mage is preparing to bring those
so called 'Destined' ones through the portal as we speak."
"Do I sense fear in your voice m'Lord?"
"Of course not! This
is a game to me. This is simply an
obstacle for me to overcome."
"You speak of these affairs as a game. If you intend to think as such, let me warn
you of the consequences should you lose this 'game…'" Standing, the man reached
into the folds of his ebony cloak.
Withdrawing a rather large, black rat, he placed the horrid creature on
the table in front of his disgusted companion.
"What's this?" asked the nobleman.
"A demonstration.
Watch."
The rich man's eyes traveled back to the rodent squeaking on
the table. Before his eyes, the rat
jerked and rolled onto its back, it's legs kicking madly in the air as shrill
screeches issued from its snarling mouth.
Fine ribbons of smoke rose from every orifice; indeed, from the creature's
very pores. The men watched as the
revolting creature writhed under an invisible tormentor's torture for a few
moments more before it bucked up with a squeal. It twitched in its death throes, then lay still.
The nobleman's eyes widened as he stared at the now-limp
thing smoldering on the table. The
gnarled hands of the cloaked man reached forward and took the smoking animal
from the table with agonizing slowness and hid the thing back in the folds of
his cloak. At last he spoke.
"Do you understand, m'Lord?" the dark man asked with
contempt. The wealthy man simply nodded
dumbly. Visions of the rat's agony
replaced with his own fail surged through his mind. He could not fail. The
cloaked man smiled and walked to the door.
Before leaving, he turned to the other man still sitting at the polished
table and said, "I certainly hope you win this game…m'Lord…" With an evil
cackle, he left the nobleman to his fearful thoughts and dreadful scheming.
Part I
Sora Takenouchi yawned and stretched as she lay back on the
cool grass in the park. She rolled over
onto her stomach and looked up at the others that had already gathered
there. Tai was sitting on the ground
with his hands resting on the soccer ball that had just been bouncing on various
limbs moments before. Jyou was immersed
in a novel as Mimi rested her head on his shoulder. She flicked her gaze between the book Joe was reading and the
others visiting the park on such a nice day.
Izzy was helping Miyako with her web page and TK and Kari were off
talking together. Every now and then,
Tai would look at the young couple with a glare. His "over-protective-older-brother personality" always seemed to
make Matt chuckle.
Thinking of the lanky blond, Sora looked over at Matt who
sat a little ways away from the others.
With headphones in place, and a pen and notebook at the ready if any
random lyrics popped into the artistic one's head, Matt sat with his eyes
closed. Every now and then they would
open to reveal the vibrant, sapphire eyes deep in thought or re-informing
himself of what was going on, usually closing them shortly afterward.
Forever the bachelor, Sora thought as she smiled at
her friend. The older they all got, the
more Matt seemed to want to be positively untouchable. The young woman shrugged and looked back at
her boy friend that once again looked like he was about to tackle Matt's
younger brother if he even dared to lean against his younger sister. This time Sora herself had to laugh. At the sound, Tai turned to her and flashed
a smile. He looked down at his watch
and muttered, "And I thought I was always the one to be fashionably late."
"You are…" Matt said leaving his eyes closed, "Ken just
stole the bumper sticker that says you are off of your forehead."
Sora and the others laughed as Tai's amber eyes narrowed at
his friend before Matt and he both chuckled.
Right on cue, a certain blue-haired boy-genius walked up.
"I'm sorry I was so late," Ken stated as he came up to the
group as the put away their various items of entertainment to listen to
him. "Mom held me late to give me the
entire 'Now don't get into trouble' lecture." The young man's mood darkened
considerably before continuing, "plus I had to stop at Daisuke's to clear up a
few things with his parents."
His mood was contagious.
Tai was the first to speak.
"He's still missing then…" Ken
nodded. "For how long?"
"Four days and going," the younger teenager replied. "No one knows where he went; his mom said he
wasn't depressed or anything."
"It's not that hard to hide depression. You just have to know what to look for,"
Matt said softly.
"Dai doesn't strike me as the type to do something like that
though…" Kari muttered.
"I don't know…you did turn him down on that date last week…"
TK murmured.
"Yeah, but she's been doing that ever since you guys entered
seventh grade," Miyako contended.
"True."
"I don't understand it.
Miyako's right about it not being the turn down. But I think there's something we're
missing," Izzy reasoned.
"What if he was kidnapped?" cried Mimi suddenly grabbing
Jyou's collar. She then turned to look
at Ken who was staring at her in horror; she quickly let go of Jyou, cleared
her throat, and said gently, "Of course, I highly doubt that. He probably just wanted to be alone for a
little while."
"Four days is hardly a little while…" Matt said darkly.
"You're one to talk.
You were missing for at least a week when we were fighting the Dark
Masters," Tai answered harshly.
"And he came back," stated Sora. "So maybe Dai will to."
"If he wasn't kidnapped, that is," said Ken.
TK walked up to the young man and touched his shoulder. Ken's worried eyes met TK's own as the blond
consoled, "Dai will be back."
"You sure?" Ken asked softly, hope starting to brighten his
eyes.
"I'm positive," TK replied.
"Hey, anyone feel that?" Matt inquired suddenly.
"Feel what?" Izzy answered.
Mimi and Jyou simultaneously jumped up and off the bench
they had been sitting on with an alarmed cry and stared at it as if it had
grown a head. Tai looked over at them,
a look of confusion on his face. He
then looked at Sora who was looking at the sidewalk. He looked down and watched as a thin crack worked its way between
them.
Izzy groaned something about, "Damn plate tectonics…" and
Miyako muttered, "Don't worry guys…just a tremor."
"No…something…" Matt stated, his eyes searching around
him. "Something -- " Before he could finish, the earth shifted
violently throwing them to the ground.
"What the Hell…?" Tai asked as he got off of Sora, who he
had unintentionally tackled.
"I have no idea," Mimi answered shrilly. "In New York we didn't HAVE earthquakes!"
"Well, welcome back to Japan Mimi…" Jyou muttered as he
tried to pull them both to their feet.
The earth groaned and the sidewalk cracked down the
middle. As the 'quake built in
intensity, the street signs and lampposts twisted with metallic shrieks. Fissures split the earth; around them
volcanic gasses blasted from them. The
trees bent under a surreal wind.
"This is no ordinary 'quake…" Matt muttered under his breath
as the others fell to the ground with curses and cries of fright. He looked at the others and noted the terror
quickly spreading through the park.
Gazing toward the horizon, he watched as an unimaginable apocalypse
began unfolding. Something he thought
he'd never see in his lifetime was happening.
His cobalt eyes stared as black, billowing clouds erupted into the
sky. Burning ashes and fumes stung his
skin and eyes as he watched in horror.
Mt. Fuji had erupted. He turned
to the others as they too watched the spectacle in terrified awe.
Suddenly, Matt was encompassed in a white glare as he heard
the others scream as they too were absorbed into the white light. He felt all thought leave him as he was
viciously thrown into the colorless oblivion.
The sound of death and disaster filled his world.
Author's End Notes: Hey, that's a new concept for
me…"End Notes" Heh heh heh…so anyway,
yeah, yeah, and yeah, I KNOW that Odaiba is most likely nowhere NEAR Mt. Fuji,
but I needed a way to get them to the Realm without suddenly just having them
there. You know? *POOF* isn't a nice way to start a
ficcie. I hate it when Authors do that…unless
the characters are NATIVES to the AU world (in the ficcie) already. And they aren't here. ^_^
I hope you liked it and will continue to read this lil series. Like I said above, it's been in the "IIPF"
for at least seven months so…^_^ Come
back again soon! ~ Britt