Disclaimer: Erm...I do not own kingdom hearts, anything that has to do with it, or final fantasy, or anything that has to do with it. Duh. It's a fan fic. Throws a purple monkey at layers Bla!
Chpt. 1
The Beginning of Darkness
The stars were shining so brightly tonight. There seemed so small and far away. All the brunette girl wanted to do was reach up and claim one for herself. They were all so beautiful. But they made her curious, too. She wanted to know more about them. What were they really? Could they truly be simple little specks of light in the distance?
The whole idea of simplicity just amazed her. Could anything really be that simple? Or was there something else out there? Something amazing, just begging her to reach out, and set the chain of events in motion? Those stars called out to her. She couldn't resist their call. Maybe if she had, things would have been simple a little while longer.
She sighed, leaning backwards on the grassy hill, laying her head on her tan, folded arms. She always got so annoyed when questions popped up in her head like this. It was always so aggravating. She sighed a second time.
It wasn't like she could just answer these things off the top of her head. And it wasn't like she could go asking her parents about what was out there. Would they even know what was there? Or would they just avoid the question, trying to sound smart like all adults do?
"Yuna! What are you doing over there?" A happy voice called to her from a distance. Blue and green eyes glanced around, looking for the source of the voice. Yuna's eyes had always been considered weird to most. One so blue you could get lost in it, and the other as green as the cool grass on a peaceful night. Those eyes lit up as Yuna found the person the voice had come from.
The smaller girl smiled as one of her friends, Tidus; a rather tall, well built boy with the bluest eyes, most golden hair...everything about him and the way he looked seemed to be more. Yuna sat up, waving a little.
Tidus ran up to her, sitting next to his younger friend. He stared right at Yuna, grinning his usual arrogant grin. "How come you're all the way down here?" He asked, blunt as he always was.
Yuna had almost forgotten why she was even there, with all those questions. It was a party. Tidus's in fact. It was his birthday, and Yuna and another friend had convinced everyone to sneak out that night to throw him a party. They all knew that they'd be in big trouble when they were caught, of course. But she didn't think any of them cared. Even the stingy ones showed up. That made Yuna very happy.
She shrugged, looking at him sweetly, "I guess I was just thinking about something. That's all."
"What about?" He asked. Poor Tidus. He wasn't really...one of the sharpest of the group. In fact, she was pretty sure the was the dullest out of the bunch when it came to smarts, but they all liked him anyway. He'd always had a certain...something to him. Maybe it was how cheerful he was. Yuna didn't know. But she liked it about him too.
"Oh? Nothing really." She lifted herself off the ground, clapping the dirt off her hands. She looked over to where the others were. Besides Tidus and herself, there were four others, Tidus's older brother included. Then there was his girl friend, and three other boys who were of no relation. She'd met them all in this place.
It was the largest plain in her home. The calm lands. For a person on foot, walking along the plains, all you could see was grass and the horizon. It was actually pretty nice, because you couldn't see anyone there spare the odd shopkeeper trying to sell to tourists. Even if there weren't many. Then there was the hidden area where few other than her small group of friends know about. It was an old temple for a lost religion. Some say there a spirit of a former priest resides there still, but Yuna and her friends knew better. They'd gone there many times and nothing had ever happened while they were there.
They were supposed to go there tonight, just incase all their parents showed up. She didn't think they would, but they were cautious enough to plan just incase.
Yuna held out her hand to Tidus, pulling him up after he accepted. He smiled at her, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. He did that a lot. It kind of annoyed her, really. It normally ended up in Yuna punching him or something, but she figured she'd let him have his way for tonight. She'd let him consider it his birthday present.
Together, they both walked over to where the others were sitting around a small campfire, telling each other stories. Just as Yuna had expected, they didn't forget to take advantage of the two's posture, either. One of their friends, Gippal, didn't let the opportunity pass especially. He grinned, his green eyes, his right eye covered by a patch, beamed at the sight. He ran a hand thought his blond hair, which stood up about a half a foot high. Yuna had always wondered how he managed to accomplish that..., "Aw. Look at the two lovebirds. Getting comfy are we?"
Tidus just shrugged it off, letting go of a blushing Yuna as they sat down. She'd be sure to get him later for that one.
Really, the entire group had always teased them, saying that she and Tidus would make a good couple. But it just wasn't there for Yuna. And she'd never seen anything coming from him that would signal anything other than friendship. To tell you the truth, she was happy that he didn't feel differently towards her. She didn't think she would be strong enough to tell him that she didn't feel anything.
Two people who had no problem in the romance area, though, were Tidus's older brother, Shuyin, and Yuna's closest friend, Lenne. Both were older than Yuna, Lenne being seventeen and Shuyin, the oldest out of the group, was eighteen. It was rather surprising that they were together though, at least in Yuna's eyes. They both seemed to contrast so much.
There was Lenne, who Yuna was extremely close to, with her long dark hair, which actually didn't look to bad on her because of her tone of her skin, a rather pale, but still elegant ivory color. She had big brown eyes, which were always full of emotion. Because of that, Lenne was always easily readable to everyone around her. It was pretty useful when she was feeling upset, because they always screamed, 'Give me attention.' Lenne had always loved attention, but she played it low, though.
Shuyin, on the other hand, was very tall, with harsh features. His coloring was the same as his younger brothers, hair so golden it was almost amazing, and blue eyes. What made it easy to tell to two apart was his face though. He just seemed older. He had a stronger looking jaw, and his eyes were a lot like Lenne's, always showing emotion, though it was normally annoyance, where as in Tidus's eyes, you could always tell when he was about to cry. He was kind of a crybaby...
Lenne leaned against Shuyin comfortably, smiling, but not laughing. She rarely ever laughed. Yuna always wondered about that. It made her feel like Lenne never had fun, though she knew it was wrong because she was the other girl who helped convince everyone to come tonight. Meaning Yuna asked her to convince Shuyin to attend. He never really listened to anyone but her.
Shuyin just held his arms around her shoulders, leaning in. He never really was one for little jokes.
Yuna sat down between Tidus and the last of their friends, Cloud. There were so many boys in this group...but that was all right, because they were all usually pretty cool. Cloud was one of the nicest, if not the most quiet. He was normally the one who would give into something, such as a party, just so he could get Yuna and Lenne, who normally gang up on him together, to shut up and leave him the hell alone. Those were normally his words while explaining the situation to the others boys, too.
This boy, unlike the others, really didn't talk much at all. Even Shuyin would throw a few words into a conversation ever once in a while. Not Cloud. Nope. He was normally the one who sat there and thought. No one knew what went through his mind, unless he told them about it. He was actually pretty handsome, even to Yuna. Like the other boys, he too had blonde hair. He had green eyes that could just burn a hole through you. Which he often took advantage of that when you annoyed him.
But at moments like this, he just stared, and often smiled, never saying anything unless it was necessary.
Yuna smiled. It was nice being here together. They did this quiet often, but moments like this Yuna cherished. There were really the only friends she had, because at home, she lived to far away from anyone her age. So she always came here. Lenne often teased her for it, because she'd always see Yuna sitting in the grass, just waiting for someone to come. Lenne always said that she seemed dependant on her friends, too. But...meh. She's depended on them if she had to. She knew they wouldn't be here forever.
"Hey, what else is gonna go on tonight, huh?" Tidus asked, impatiently. He never was one that was good at sitting still. He liked to run around and do things. Unfortunately for him, really, all they'd planned was to be around each other. They did it for everyone's birthday, and Tidus was always the first one to complain of boredom. It was just a normal part of their lives.
"Shut up and deal with what you have, pint size." Shuyin said, smiling. He never did miss a chance to mess with his little brother. It was all in good fun, "You should be thankful we even bothered."
"Besides," That was Lenne, who spoke up this time, "It looks like there's gonna be a storm later tonight. Something fun should happen then."
A storm? That can't be right. Yuna was staring as the sky just a few moments ago and there wasn't a cloud in site...
She looked above to see that she was wrong. A storm was beginning to show. The clouds had gathered fairly quickly, too. She stared, seeing little fits of lightening in the distance. All of the sudden, she felt a little worried about weather they should be there or not. She was a little afraid now. But she didn't say anything to everyone else. They all seemed better with lightening that she is. She just fiddled with her fingers a little, shrugging mentally.
Tidus, on the other hand, seemed all to excited about the storm. He smiled, almost falling off his seat in excitement. "Great!" He laughed.
Great...Yuna thought. Now she'd never get out of it...
But still. Something about that storm just bugged her. It wasn't like she was really afraid of the lightening. It just looked darker than what she'd ever seen before..
After a little while of sitting there, talking, it began to rain. At first, it was only a little drizzle, quite refreshing for the teens, but after about five minutes, the rain poured, causing the two girls to shield themselves with their arms, and the boys, all but Tidus, who was still happy about the storm, just sat there, some of them laughing at Lenne and Yuna.
"Let's go to the temple!" Lenne whined. She hated to get wet, or dirty, and she knew that both would end up happening if they didn't move fast. Yuna agreed with her. She stood up.
"Please?" She asked, looking to Tidus, "I really don't like this..." She looked right at him, fear apparent in her expression. She'd given up trying to shield herself from the rain, unlike the, still complaining, Lenne. She just wished Tidus would quit with the power trip and let them go inside. He was just so annoying when he got like this.
Of course, the boy didn't like making his friends unhappy either. He smiled, shrugging. "Sure." was all he said.
They boys stood up, Shuyin hushing a hysterical Lenne. Yuna smiled, relieved. As they all turned around to go to the temple, Yuna thought she saw a little dark speck in the distance of the plains. She blinked a little, but saw nothing after that one instant. It didn't help in her relief of the situation that was for sure. She shook her head.
"Yuna?" Clouds cool voice sounded from just behind her. He looked at her coolly, obviously wondering what was the matter. She blinked, shaking her head again. Smiling at her friend, the younger girl waved if off.
"Huh? Oh. Sorry. Just the weather playing tricks on me." Yuna shrank a little under his stare, hoping he wouldn't think her crazy.
It only took them about five minutes to get to the temple, although to Yuna, climbing that bridge, which was suspended in air god knows how high, seemed like it took an hour. She walked a little bit ahead of everyone else, besides Gippal, who was always far ahead of them on anything.
The room itself was rather large. The ceiling was around forty feet high, decorated with stone podiums leading all the way down, separating small sectors of the walls. It always reminded Yuna of a castle, had there not been such a large space on the floor. The room on itself was huge, with equal space on the floor as there was in the ceiling. At the far side of the room, there were small, well-decorated doors that lead to some kind of room. None of them have ever been able to get to unlock the doors thought. Yuna never really tried, but she'd seen Gippal and Tidus try over and over again, to no avail. She was well aware that they would probably try to do so again. Who knows, maybe this time they might actually do it.
Lenne growled in the general direction of the door, soaking wet. She pulled her arms down to her side, gripping her hands tightly. Three...two...one...
The nerve! I dressed all nice for this tonight, wearing some of my best things, and now they're all soaked! If I'd have known I'd get wet, I wouldn't have worn this tonight!" She raved. Yuna normally only listened to the first few parts of her whining, then just smiled and nodded. Lenne tended...to blow up a little when she was mad. It was best to just let her get it out of her system.
Shuyin tried to calm her down, holding her tight and saying sweet little things, but really, all that did was just stop her from shouting. She'd be stingy for the rest of the night most likely. But that was all right. They all expected stuff like this from her. Yuna sat down quietly, wrapping her arms around herself. She didn't enjoy being soaking wet, either. But she didn't complain or cry about it. It really wouldn't make her any dryer, would it?
Looking at the door they came in, Yuna sighed. She was a little worried. This storm looked bad. They families would be worried. She hoped they wouldn't go out in that looking for them. Then, there was what she saw out side for a moment. It looked just like a little animal. At least, that's the closest thing she could pin it to. Kind of like a little cat, but it moved around like a little baby, with big, pointy ears. Not like any animal she'd ever seen before. Plus, it was all black. She was surprised she could have seen it while it was so dark out. She sighed, leaning in against her folded legs, thinking.
That storm, that little creature she'd seen. It was all so weird. She was sure there were clear skies, full of stars just minutes before it started raining. She couldn't see a cloud anywhere. She winced as she heard a loud crack of thunder, covering her ears on reflex. This was just so...weird. She looked over next to the others.
Gippal and Tidus, as she expected, were both examining the large door to the room they hadn't seen. She smiled a little as she saw Tidus knock, and then wait for a moment. Well, I guess it didn't hurt him to try. Gippal stood there for a minute, and then got in-between the door, and the small glass wing like things that decorated it. He looked over the door like he did every other time, trying to find some sort of trigger. A push stone, some sort of way to open the door.
Lenne and Shuyin were both sitting together, Lenne obsessing about her hair being wet, and Shuyin holding onto her, laying his head on her shoulder, telling her it looked fine, she looked fine, everything was fine. He smiled. Yuna knew that he loved it when Lenne got like this. He made her a whole lot more fun to deal with, he always said. He didn't like it when people were so easy to deal with. It annoyed him.
And Cloud, as usual, was just standing there, leaning against the door. He watched all of them quietly. He glanced at Yuna when he realized she was looking at him, and she looked away. She sighed. This was going to be a long night.
Bang!
Yuna looked up as she heard a loud bang, or thud, in Clouds direction. Instead of standing against the door like he was before, Cloud was on the ground, staring at the door. She looked at the door, then jumped when she head another bang from the other side of the door. She stood up, watching. Someone was trying to get in here. And they didn't sound nice, either!
She watched as Shuyin and Cloud herded Lenne back, and the four of them stood there, Tidus and Gippal still standing by the door, also watching. Yuna breathed fast, watching the doors from behind Cloud, who was standing protectively, in front of her. She heard Tidus and Gippal come, and watched them come in front of the two girls as well. But despite the boys protecting the two of them, Yuna didn't feel very safe. Something weird was going on, and she didn't think that the boys would be able to do anything about it.
Just as she thought that, something she never expected had happened. She heard a slight whistling sound behind her. She glanced behind, while the others watched the doors, which weren't going to last, by the way. The whispering noise she'd heard...it was the door! The door that they couldn't get open. It was opening. She small glass wings that decorated it glowed beautifully, and parted, as if something in the middle was blowing them away. Then, the red door, the heaviest one, rolled out of the way as if it were a boulder. She stared for a moment, until she heard the entrance collapse. She whipped around and saw three beings standing at the door, though she couldn't see anything to perfectly, because the boys wouldn't budge a bit. But she could see something small, almost animal like. It was that thing!
She knew it! She knew she wasn't going crazy! There really was something there!
Though, it wouldn't really help them now. Saying something else wouldn't have helped either. She stood there, not really that scared. She guessed it was just the immature side in her. She knew she was right.
Shuyin took a step forward, followed by Gippal and Tidus both taking his place in front of Lenne. The older boy stared straight at what looked like the one in charge of the three. Yuna could see them both fairly well, now, because neither of the three boys were as tall as Shuyin.
There was the little animal like thing she'd seen earlier. She was right about it before. It was totally black. Except for its eyes. They were a menacing shade of a mix of white and bright yellow. And it stared straight as the small group. The second was a short, stalky type creature, with the same colored eyes. This one looked a little less human than the other, if that was possible, with barely and neck, and thick, muscley lower arms, which held on to what looked like a very heavy shield with...another head? The shield was a live! Both heads roared a little, trying to scare them all.
But the one that looked as though it was the leader was the scariest.
He was rather human looking. That's all Yuna could really see of him, because he was covered by a black hood coat, which covered his entire body, besides his hands, which were covered by black gloves. The hood hid his face, so all she could tell what that he looked human, and male, most likely. She stared.
"What do you want?" Shuyin demanded, his hands in fists. Yuna could already hear the anger in his voice. No. She didn't even think it was his voice anymore. Now it sounded more like a growl, something he often did when he, or anyone of his friends, were threatened in anyway. It sounded rather frightening. Harsh, raspy. Like it came from deep in his throat rather than his own voice. He took another step forward, "Get out of here!"
The figure in front of them did nothing. Instead, he walked forward as well, but he didn't stop at just one or two steps. He went as far as about three yards. His head dipped a little lower as he did so. Yuna heard whispers as he did so.
You are nothing to me. Out of my way.
That was what she heard. Over and over again in her head. Was that...was that how the thing would talk to them? And how could he...How could her just speak to them in their heads, instead of with his voice? How was that possible?
Obviously, all the others had heard it too, because they all looked rather distressed, all except Shuyin, who only looked angry. He didn't move at all, demanding the same thing as he did before. "I said get out!" He reminded Yuna of an adult, just then. Someone who was responsible for them, and was protecting them. Maybe it was just because he was older than Yuna was. She didn't know.
Have it your way. The voice continued. He held out his hand towards Shuyin. Yuna blinked. What was he going to do?
Thwoof!
That answered Yuna's question. Out of nowhere, Shuyin flew towards the wall, as if thrown by someone. Or something. Followed by Lenne, who rushed his side. She knelt down next to him, helping him up. "Shuyin!" She cried, looking at his face. He wasn't answering her. He was knocked out. Which only made Lenne cry more. "Wake up!"
Tidus was next. Only instead of just suddenly flying at a wall, he actually lunged at the figure. "That's my brother, you jerk!" He shouted. He didn't really have anything to hit the guy with, so he probably just would have stuck with punching him. But he didn't have enough time, seeing as how the thing with the shield blocked them, and then actually threw him.
Then Gippal, there was Gippal, who proceeded to throw anything he could find at pretty much anything in general, as long as it wasn't his friends. Again, the large thing with a shield came and rammed into him, leaving just Cloud and Yuna left standing there.
Cloud stood there, in front of Yuna still. He didn't look at her. Yuna knew it was because he didn't want to take his eyes off his enemy. If he did, she was sure they'd try something. She stayed behind him, almost unable to move. "Cloud..."
"Yuna." He said with all the authority he could muster up in his voice, "You should go see if the others are alright." He said, as if it was the simplest thing to do. Yuna couldn't help but cry a little. What the heck was going on! Why was this person hurting her friends?
"Cloud, I-" Yuna gasped out, but was interrupted again by the human looking guy. His hand was up again, and Cloud seemed to be in pain. As Yuna looked closer, it looked like the same thing was happening to him that was happening to Shuyin, only Cloud was fighting it. He was standing in some sort of fighting stance, trying to get as good a hold on the ground as he could. But he was already failing, because she saw him lifted off the ground a little, and then he flew as well, hitting the wall, and not moving afterwards.
Now it was only Yuna. She stared at the man in front of her, tears streaming down her face. She winced as he took a step towards her, as if it was already painful. But she didn't moved back, even as he continued to come near her. Obviously, he didn't seem to think he'd need to use as much force on her as he did the others.
After what seemed like hours to Yuna, he was right in front of her, and she was looked straight at him, into the dark shadow of his hood, almost being able to make out the shape of his face. All she saw was areas in the darkness that looked a little less black then the rest. She saw his lips curve into a smile, as he raised a hand, and lifted her chin up. Yuna gripped his wrist, almost running if she could have. When she touched him, all she felt was cold. So cold she had to let go, and all she could do was stare as he spoke to her.
Your hearts...they beat differently...
It sounded as if he didn't really direct that to her. Like it was just a thought of his. And before Yuna could have said anything, he let go of her, and walked around her. Yuna stood there, just listening to his footsteps as the sounded softer and softer, until she couldn't hear them at all. Once that happened, she finally regained her mobility, which seemed so unfamiliar to her at the moment, and turned around, seeing that he had walked through to door to the little temple. She ran after him, stopping at the door limits, though. She held on to the rims of the stone entrance, watching him. He didn't seem to notice her at first. But then, after about three minutes of just standing there silently, he spoke to her one last time.
We'll see each other again. That's a promise.He continued with what he was doing. At first, Yuna didn't know what that was just yet. There was something in front of him. It looked like a small pool type thing, covered in a glass bubble on the floor. But when she looked closer, Yuna noticed something glowing in the center. She didn't notice what it was, because the strange man had cracked the glass just before she managed to get a good look. Almost immediately Yuna felt a wind pick up inside the little temple.
She shielded her face from the glass that flew everywhere, trying to see what else was going on. But she couldn't see anything at all. She had a hard enough time standing. All the while, she thought to herself. Is this the end? What exactly was that thing thing? Her friends! Were they all right? What would happen to them? Why...
Yuna began to get light-headed, and felt herself fall on the ground. She thought she screamed. She didn't hear a thing. She couldn't even hear herself think anymore. Or was she even thinking at all? She was frightened. What was going on, anyway? The last thing she saw before passing out was shadows. So many shadows...