The Realms

The Realms

By Britts

Author's Notes: This is the story that's been in the "Infamous In Progress Folder" for almost seven months!  O.O!  Soooooo…I decided that I could start putting parts up.  I don't know how well this is going to go over with all of you "UD" fans.  Hopefully you'll like it.  I actually enjoyed planning out all of the characters and all.  I even did lil sketches of their outfits and everything!  You'll notice that a certain young adult fantasy series played a major role in the summaries.  ^_^  PS – The Prophecy was written by DarkSaint and I both ~ Britts

Warning: This ficcie contains (if not obvious here then later) the pairings of Taiora, Jyoumi, Takari, and Koushlei (or Koushiyako or Miyashiro or Yoshiro…whatever).  Oh, I also interchange between TK and Takeru, Kari and Hikari, Matt and Yamato, as well as Izzy and Koushiro.  Come on people, you can have both names in a ficcie – they're Nicknames!  ^_^  It all depends on what the mood is.  Like for me, if my friends are trying to tell me something serious or are scolding me or something, they'll use "Brittany" and if not, they'll use "Britts."  O.o;; Well, you're probably sick of my incessant ranting so…ON WITH THE FICCIE!

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