DUSTIE: Hey again and welcome to Chapter Two! No reviews. At all. But enjoy anyway! By the way, the stuff the creepy voice guy says is taken directly from Kingdom Hearts gotta give Square Enix credit! so it should sound a little familiar... 3rd Chapter's coming soon!

KINGDOM COME
Chapter Two

That night, Jo fell straight to sleep, exhausted from the day, as did the five others. She'd been fast asleep until she broke into a very strange, very realistic dream. She was falling and falling into endless darkness, flashes of the Destiny Islands and her friends flying past her through the shadows. Finally, she reached the bottom and stood on a beautiful stained glass platform. After looking harder, she noticed that it was a painting of a girl.

"SO MUCH TO DO, SO LITTLE TIME," said a voice. "TAKE YOUR TIME. DON'T BE AFRAID. THE DOOR IS STILL SHUT. NOW, STEP FORWARD… CAN YOU DO IT?"

Jo did as she was told and cautiously took a few steps forward. Suddenly, three podiums erupted from the ground in front of her, floating above each were an item; a sword, a shield, and a staff.

"POWER SLEEPS WITHIN YOU," the voice continued. "IF YOU GIVE IT FORM… IT WILL GIVE YOU STRENGTH. CHOOSE WELL…"

Confused, Jo walked slowly up to the platform with the sword.

"THE POWER OF THE WARRIOR," the voice in her head told her. "INVINCIBLE COURAGE. A SWORD OF TERRIBLE DESTRUCTION… IS THIS THE POWER YOU SEEK?"

Power… destruction… Sounded good.

"Yes," Jo replied confidently. Her voice echoed through the darkness.

"YOUR PATH IS SET. NOW, WHAT WILL YOU GIVE UP IN EXCHANGE?"

She had to get rid of one now? The shield or the staff? After thinking for a moment, she walked over to the staff.

"THE POWER OF THE MYSTIC," it told her. "INNER STRENGTH. A STAFF OF BOTH WONDER AND RUIN. YOU GIVE UP THIS POWER?"

"Yes," she said, and the staff disappeared into the air.

"YOU'VE CHOSEN THE POWER OF THE WARRIOR. YOU'VE GIVEN UP THE POWER OF THE MYSTIC. IS THIS THE FORM YOU CHOOSE?"

Jo nodded as the shield disappeared as well. Suddenly, the ground began to shake and the platform she was standing on shattered. She fell through darkness again until her feet hit the ground. The sword she had chosen earlier appeared in her hands.

"YOU'VE GAINED THE POWER TO FIGHT. USE THIS POWER TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND OTHERS."

A shadowy creature appeared in front of her, its antennas twitching as it rocked back and forth; it looked harmless, but the voice told her otherwise.

"THERE WILL BE TIMES WHEN YOU HAVE TO FIGHT. KEEP YOUR LIGHT BURNING STRONG."

So she did what she did best; battle. She took a powerful swing at the Shadow and watched, satisfied, as it vanished into the darkness just as more appeared around her. She was surrounded and all she could do was destroy them. When they were finally all gone, a door appeared in front of her. Jo walked up to it and tried turning the handle, but it wouldn't open.

"OPEN YOU STUPID THING!" she shouted, kicking the door out of frustration.

"HOLD ON!" the voice told her again. "THE DOOR WON'T OPEN JUST YET…"

Jo sighed and held her sword at the ready.

After defeating another round of Shadows, the formerly closed door that stood before her started to glow. Jo walked through it and found herself on yet another platform, a set of rainbow stained-glass steps stood before her. She followed them to a podium shrouded in darkness.

"THE CLOSER YOU GET TO THE LIGHT, THE GREATER YOUR SHADOW BECOMES. BUT DON'T BE AFRAID. AND DON'T FORGET…"

"Forget what!" she demanded.

No answer. Before her, her shadow grew and grew into a huge shadow creature, larger than those tiny things she'd had no problem defeating earlier. She jumped back and ran toward the edge of the platfrom. Don't be afraid… she reminded herself. Jo spun around to face the creature, narrowing her eyes, and charged forward…

"Wha!"

Jo sat up in bed with a start, shaking. She'd just been swallowed up by darkness. That creepy voice… "But don't be afraid," it had been saying. "You hold the mightiest weapon of all. And don't forget… You are the one who will open the door…" She'd just been fighting off shadows, but now she was in her bedroom, the covers kicked off the bed. How…? No, she remembered, that was just a dream. But it seemed so real. Just the thought of the dream sent a shiver up her spine as she looked toward a corner of her room that lie in the shadows. For an instant, she could've sworn she saw two yellow eyes staring back at her. She took in a sharp gasp and took off at full tilt into Tidus' room, where he sat awake.

"Bad dream scare you, Jo?" he teased, his voice trembling.

Jo sat down at the edge of his bed and studied him closely for a moment. He looked scared. He was just trying to cover it up.

"You had the dream, too, didn't you?" she whispered.

Tidus' eyes went wide. "Dream? W-what dream?" he stuttered, staring at her.

"The one when you were falling through the darkness. Where you had to choose between three weapons; where the shadows came alive. You know exactly what dream I'm talking about, don't you?" Jo hissed.

Her brother shook his head in disbelief. "How the…?"

"Weird, isn't it?"

Tidus shut his eyes for a moment before opening them again. "Wait. You said you were falling through darkness, right?"

"You heard me," she replied.

"I had the same dream except I was falling through fire," he told her, getting a bad case of the shivers. "It was so real."

They both sat in silence until they heard a quiet clinking sound at Tidus' window. Jo looked toward it and found Rina sitting on the windowsill in her pajamas, waving at them. She got up and let her in immediately.

"This may sound sort of stupid," Rina sighed, "but I kind of got scared -"

"Of a dream you had," Jo interrupted. "We know. Me and Tidus had the same dream. So that must mean you had it too."

Rina gave them a puzzled look then shook her blonde head, her icy blue eyes full of wonder. "I remember falling through water…"

"Fire," and "Darkness," Jo and Tidus said together.

Rina shook her head. "What power did you choose? I took the shield; the power of the guardian."

"I chose the power of warrior," Tidus answered.

"Me too," Jo said, smoothing down her big white T-shirt.

"Surprise, surprise," Rina teased. "On my way over, I sort of calmed myself down and thought about it for a little bit. It must mean something, right? I mean, all three of us had almost exactly the same dream. If that's not strange, I don't know what is."

"But what does it mean?" Jo asked. "Yeah, it's weird, but it might just be some kind of strange coincidence."

"I don't believe in coincidences," Tidus told them, shaking his head.

"Me neither, and I think it's telling us something." Rina paused for a second. "I just can't figure out what."