RuRu: HOWDEE! Hmm, I had no idea there was a NiGHTS section...::kicks self::
Chichiri: Yeah, isn't this the game you made me play? No da!
RuRu: - That is correct! This is my all-time favorite game, its beats every game I have ever played, even Harvest Moon! ::ducks::
Chichiri: ...That's scary, No da!
RuRu: Perhaps, but, this was the first video game I ever played and I hope it never stops playing....I got it when I was four and have had it since then. Hopefully everyone knows if you put your NiGHTS game disc in the computer, you can get cool pics! ON WITH THE STORY! You know....I usually dedicate stories I write to people, but you know....no one in my world freaking cares about my stories, so I'm not dedicating this story to anyone.
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Disclaimer: The thought of me owning NiGHTS is music to my ears, but alas, I do not...
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Chapter One
Heroes Returned
Claris sat there by the window, unable to really focus in on the teacher's lecture. She was off in her own world; wondering about the "something" that had been bothering her for quite some time now. She sighed a dreary sigh and propped her head up in the palm of her hand. Ever since the incident one year ago, with the nightotopians she hadn't been able to think about much else in her free time. She wasn't sad she had been involved with it, after all she had helped save a world and made many new friends....including Elliot.
Since that fateful day where Elliot and her had met in person they hadn't spent much time apart. She, of course, became more involved with her singing and him in his basketball, but by some twist of fate, no matter what, they always had contact. She knew that this might not last, but she honestly did enjoy every single second she spent with Elliot. The recordings, practices, and such, were a lot of stress, but when she was with Elliot he lifted all that off her shoulders and helped her relax. She knew she couldn't do this without his aide and she was constantly thanking him for that.
"Ah-hmm." The teacher growled, obviously annoyed by Claris's disrespect in class.
Claris quickly apologized, and the teacher once again began her lecture. Claris heard the first few sentences before going into "her world" again.
'Did they just forget about us? Who we were? Where we are? I know I miss them, could they have actually forgotten about us...this doesn't seem to add up.' She thought to herself.
She missed the Nightopians and NiGHTS, and the thought of them having forgotten Elliot and her broke her heart. She knew they had to go on with their lives, but they could have made a little effort to stay in touch. She was snapped back into reality with the sound of the bell, and she stood up and walked out. The end of the day had finally arrived, but her day wasn't over yet. She had to meet up with Elliot, walk with him to the recording studio where they would split up and he'd head to basketball practice.
She decided before she reached him to talk about what she had been thinking about recently. She wanted him to understand that this wasn't right, and she knew it wasn't. She rounded the corner and two students ran past her, nearly knocking her over. She collected herself and made her way to Elliot who was standing on the stonewall outside their school waiting for her arrival.
"Hey." She said bluntly, walking over to him.
"Hey....someone didn't get enough sleep last night." He replied.
"Nope, three hours." She said yawning and rubbing her eyes.
"I need to get used to this lack of sleep though, in the future things aren't really going to change much." She said with a faint smile.
Elliot chuckled and offered to carry her bag, she happily complied with his request and they made their way towards the studio. Claris had decided to talk about the subject with him, but now she was beginning to question her own judgment.
"Ok, what's wrong?" Elliot said, having sensed something was amiss.
"Eh-err, nothing! Why do you ask?" She stammered.
"Come on, I can tell what that look means. You're arguing with yourself. So what is it you wanted to talk with me about?" He asked, with a smirk of victory showing on his face.
"You know me all too well." She said giving a small laugh.
"Well...."
"It's just....aren't they going to try and stay in touch with us?" Claris said looking up at the cloudless sky with a sad face.
"Who?" Elliot asked baffled.
"NiGHTS and the others, aren't they going to try and-"She was cut off by a sudden, violent rumble.
She started to fall sideways, but Elliot snatched her around her waist and drew her close to him. He held on to her till the rumbling had stopped. Claris's face showed scarlet and she drew away from him.
"What the heck was that?" Elliot said to no one in particular, not noticing her reaction.
"I-I don't know," Claris said, her heartbeat slowly returning too normal.
Elliot sighed and stopped looking around for the moment. His attention turned to Claris, and he bent down a little to get eye contact with her.
"Are you ok?" He asked, both his hands rubbing her shoulders.
"Me? F-fine!" She blurted out, still a little shaken up.
He sighed, he could tell she was lying, but he didn't press the matter too much. He did however drape an arm around her shoulders and rested his hand on her right shoulder. She blushed slightly by this action, but said nothing. She didn't want to admit it, but she enjoyed having him close to her.
"Probably an earthquake...." He muttered and continued walking towards the studio with her.
"Now, as you were saying...." He said, giving her a warm smile.
"Oh, right. Well don't you think its weird how they haven't made much of an effort to contact us, much less write." She said, joking on the last part.
He smiled, "Yeah it's strange, but we have to remember what's going on in both worlds. Everyone has their own life."
"That's just it, we know what's going on in our world, but we're in the dark about theirs!" She exclaimed.
"Claris, just because you can't see something doesn't mean its not there." Elliot said, quoting from an old saying.
"I suppose so....I mean, it did happen right? We really didn't just dream it all up did we?" She replied, beginning to doubt the whole experience.
"No, that was too crazy to even be a DREAM." Elliot said, looking ahead of them, smiling brightly.
Claris sighed, Elliot was probably right. Nightopia had to exist, otherwise....
Another rumble arose.
"Ack!" Elliot exclaimed, moving Claris and himself closer to the ground.
Claris held onto his shirt and he kept his arms wrapped around her. The shaking lasted a little over a minute before fading. Elliot and Claris both looked around, and saw nothing wrong.
"That should have damaged some buildings...." Claris said, eyeing the structures near them suspiciously.
"And people seem to act like nothings wrong...." Elliot said, looking at the people walking by.
They stood up and made their way again towards the studio. When they arrived Elliot bid Claris a farewell and said he'd be by and 6 to walk her home. She then waved and went inside.
The studio was huge, but that made since seeing as how several people worked there and did multiple jobs at once. Claris was always getting lost in the mayhem and dreaded some of it. She walked towards the counter and showed her ID card to go back to her station. As she walked towards the room she noticed how good the air-conditioned building felt. The summer heat was excruciating and she needed to cool off. She went in the room where she was supposed to be and sat there a moment. She checked her watch every few seconds out of nervous habit.
The manager came in saying her teacher couldn't meet her there, he had a case of bronchitis. Claris shook her head and sighed.
"So, this means I won't be receiving lessons for a couple weeks?" She asked, annoyed at the very thought.
"Well you may continue today, we'll judge your progress. We have finished the paperwork and what not. Not to mention we haven't heard you sing since the parade a year ago...." The manager said, mumbling the last part.
Claris sighed a heavy sigh, but agreed to his request. She thought it'd be fun, AND it'd pass the time till Elliot came to pick her up.
After the people who wanted to hear her sing arrived, which was about 8 people, the music came on and she took a deep breath. Just as she was about to sing the first line, the rumbling returned, and this time it was worse then the two other times. Claris hit the ground and braced her self.
The other people looked confused.
"Don't you guys feel that?!" Claris exclaimed.
They looked at her oddly and calmly shook their heads.
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Elliot looked around him trying to find an opening to where he could pass the ball or make a decent shot. Then he found an opening and just as he was making the shot the rumble came to him and he hit the ground. He landed on his back as his team mates rushed to see what the problem was.
"Don't you guys feel that rumbling?!" Elliot exclaimed, looking at them in confusion.
"Dude....what rumbling?"
It could happened in an instant, it could have been days, but time seemed to disappear with Claris and Elliot; as did their surroundings as they sunk through the ground....
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"Oooo, what is it!?""I've seen it somewhere before!"
"Should we touch it?"
"NO! It could eat us!"
Claris's eyes slowly opened, but her vision was not clear at all. The pictures were fuzzy and the voices muffled.
"Hey you two, leave her alone. Don't you remember what NiGHTS told you?"
Claris's vision and hearing immediately became better again and she shot up.
"NiGHTS? WHERE?" She exclaimed, her head jerking in every which direction.
"AH!" All three creatures yelled simultaneously.
Claris's attention turned towards the creatures, and she saw they were petrified.
"Oh....I'm so sorry!" She said, standing to her feet, only to fall down again.
The ground was soft and moveable, bouncy if you would. Claris's eyes grew huge at the sight....
It was her old dream.
"Do you like it?!" The creatures asked.
"It's my old dream....the dream we all traveled through...." Claris said touching the wall near her. (the Soft Museum.)
The scenery was gorgeous: the plants, the buildings, the walkways, everything. She knew she wasn't dreaming....she could feel the softness of the squishy ground.
"YOUR dream? Wow, that's amazing! So this is what a Hamun looks like!" One of the smaller creatures exclaimed.
"You mean a Human?" Claris corrected.
"Yes, forgive him, he's still young." The oldest replied.
Claris recognized the creatures; they were Nightopians. The one that had spoken before was the eldest, she presumed the mother of the other two. And the two little ones were both boys. She gave all of them a kind smile, and held out her hand.
The eldest one shook her index finger and smiled back, "I am Katrita and these are my two sons, Nevan and Nek. We are all pleased to meet the creator of OUR world."
"Pleased to meet you as well, but what do you mean creator of your world?" She asked confused.
Katrita sighed, "You created this world with you thoughts, no?"
"I suppose so...."
"Well, you know we nightotopians bring all your thoughts together and make your dreams. Every time some one dreams something and it's decent enough to live in, we make it a world. Did you understand that?" She said, smiling.
"Yes, I understand." Claris said smiling back, "All the worlds must be so beautiful then...."
They all looked down.
"They WERE beautiful...." Nek said frowning.
"What do you mean WERE?"
"Every since the Darkness the cast over the main world the sub-worlds began to fall one by one. It's only a matter of time before none of the worlds exist and the dreams fall apart."
"Meaning that no one will dream and your home's will be ruined." Claris said with a saddened face.
"Precisely."
"What about NiGHTS? Where is he?" Claris asked.
"....Gone."
"WHAT!? What do you mean GONE?" Claris asked, slamming her hands in the ground, nearly falling forward.
"The Darkness swallowed him up!" Nevan exclaimed.
"Hush, don't trouble her with this." Katrita said, placing a "hand" on Nevan's mouth.
Nevan sulked, and Nek gave him a "ha-ha-you-got-in-trouble" look.
"Sorry, he speaks before he thinks, you wouldn't understand."
"That's not true! I've been through 7 of these worlds before, I helped save these world's from Wiseman and the other Nightmaren, and my friend and I fought alongside NiGHTS!" Claris shouted, worried now.
"Okay! Calm down!" Katrita said.
"Sorry...." Claris said, frowning and looking down.
"So you are the girl who helped saved us all....but wasn't there also a boy?" Katrita said looking up at her confused.
"Elliot! I wonder he was sucked in too!" Claris exclaimed, her eyes growing huge.
"Did this boy have blue hair?" Katrita asked.
"Yes! That's him! Have you seen him anywhere!?"
"I got a message from a world not far from here about him. Are you going to go look for him?" Katrita asked.
"Of course I am....he'd do the same for me...." She said, with a slight blush.
"Well, you can't travel out there by yourself, we'll have to go!" Nek said flying over to her.
"No, I couldn't possibly...."
"No, my son's right, and we're the only one's who know where this world is." Katrita said with a smile.
"Thank you, thanks so much." Claris said, her eyes beginning to tear up.
She was terribly worried about Elliot, he could be hurt....or worse. She knew she had to get to him fast. Then they'd go help NiGHTS and the rest of the worlds from this Darkness. She stood up and braced herself, she remembered that the Ideya Palace was where she always went to get from place to place so she and the others searched for it.
"Do you know who is behind this Darkness?" Claris asked, Nek resting on her right shoulder.
"Yup, Reala!" He said, still looking around.
"But....I thought NiGHTS and Elliot finished him off...."
"No, Reala returned from in prisonment and quickly took over. NiGHTS was in another world at the time, but tried to get to the problem as fast as he could. But by the time he arrived it was too late....the Darkness overcame his power and he was sucked into it. NiGHTS has a pure heart, and the Darkness will surely grow stronger with it. We must hurry to them...." Katrita said, spotting the Ideya Palace.
They rushed over to it and stood at the edge of it. Claris took a deep breath and stepped into the center of it. Suddenly her dream energy came forth as did her rare red dream energy. They all rested on the pillars and Claris braced for the impact, which felt like the air around you collapsing.
'Elliot I will find you, and then we both can save this world one more time....just as before.' She thought and closed her eyes feeling herself being pulled up.
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END CHAPTER ONE
RuRu: So, how did you guys like my first chapter....I think I am going to enjoy this story. Sorry if it's a little sloppy, I'll try and make it a little less sloppy. If this story sucks tell me, if you want a second chapter tell me. I will continue on the fifth review! -
Chichiri: Yeah, sure....No Da!
RuRu: I will!
The Helpful Quote Preview Chapter Thingy....(meaning this is a quote that fits the next chappie!)
....The Greatest Fear is Fear Itself....