Author's Note-Sorry, everybody, for the wait, but I've been really, really busy lately with a severe case of writer's block. Waiting for the next chapter might take about another week also since I have like...three projects in school (while working just about overtime on my homework in general), a book to read for karate class (that I just started -.-;) so that I can get promoted to yellow belt this week, a comic, two rpgs, and two or three stories, including this one. –sigh- I really am overworked... But anyways, I just saw Jungle Book for the first time since I was probably five, and now I'm starting to be revived with ideas for Dark Rain, thankfully. The writers block is beginning to dissipate, so hopefully I'm gonna write a whole lot to the rough draft when I have the time. Anywho, I don't own Kingdom Hearts (as usual...-sigh- -.-;), so do not sue me. Now, enough with my rants and excuses and on with the chapter.
"Princess..." The voice echoed in the darkness. "Princess..."
Blue eyes opened slowly. She was lying on something...a platform? A platform surrounded in black. She sat up. "H-hello...?" she called. "Where am I...?"
Lying on both sides of her was Tifa and Kiyoshi. "Kiyoshi! Tifa!" she exclaimed. When she got no answer, she said as she stood up, "They're both unconscious..." She looked around. "Hello? Hello! Is anybody there? Hello!" she called.
All that she got in reply was an echo. She took a few steps forward when she suddenly came to a dead stop as she felt a chill whip around her.
Suddenly, a pair of amber eyes! One, no, two, no, three! They seemed to appear all around her. She gasped as the eyes seemed to burn into her and she took a step back.
That seemed to be a signal for the shadows. They all leapt forward at once, claws bared. The redhead shrieked, putting her arms up instinctively in front of her face and shutting her eyes.
But the claws never came.
The redhead opened her eyes again and slowly lowered her arms. Standing before her was a ghostly apparition. She glowed in this darkness with an almost-divine light, and looked in her early twenties, if not in her late teens. Her long black hair was up in a high ponytail. Her outfit consisted of black silk pants and a midnight, sleeveless, blue tunic, tied at the waist with a black belt. When she turned her dark blue eyes were revealed. A thin, gold band, a tiara, circled her head.
In her hand was a double-sided sword, blue, silver, and black. One blade shone silver and the other black, and on the blue handle shone a picture of a heart of gold. The pale woman smiled gently. "Another princess trying to defeat the shadows? How will you do so...without a weapon?" she asked, gently amused.
The redhead lowered her head. "I went to look for someone... I guess I didn't really think it all the way through, huh?"
"Princess." The woman said.
The redhead looked up. "Huh?"
"I have been looking for you." The woman said. The redhead blinked.
"What? What do you mean that you have been...looking for me...?"
The woman tilted her head. "It is just as I say. I have been searching...for the seventh princess of heart, and that is you, is it not?" she said. The redhead nodded.
The woman shook her head. "Don't ever think you're without a weapon. As a princess of heart, your heart, and the light of your heart, piercing through the eternal darkness is your weapon, for that is the strongest force ever known."
The redhead blinked, then nodded. "Yes... I guess you're right."
"And yet, it may not be enough... At least, at the beginning of the journey..." The woman said, almost to herself as an afterthought. She then nodded and held out her weapon. "Here. Take it. You'll need it." She said.
The redhead blinked. "What is it...?" she asked, looking up at the woman.
"This is the bladed heartstaff. It can only be used by princesses and by those with a pure heart. Half of it is created by darkness, while the other half of it is created by light, therefore giving it very destructive power. Swear that you won't ever allow your heart to be corrupted by darkness, or else the heartstaff will be as well." The woman explained.
The redhead looked up at the woman. "But...don't you need it?"
The woman shook her head, smiling. "No. This was once my journey, but no longer. This is now your fight. Here. Take it." She repeated.
The redhead blinked, then nodded as she took the heartstaff. "I swear on my title as the seventh princess of heart that I won't ever let the heartstaff be corrupted, nor my own heart." She said.
The woman smiled and nodded, then turned her back to the redhead. "It is done." She said. With that, she held out her hands to the darkness. There was a ripple, then the darkness opened up as a hole, revealing a doorway of light that cast over the redhead and the waking Tifa and Kiyoshi. The woman turned to the three children. "You can go on ahead to Traverse Town now. Hurry, for this door will not be open long."
"But what about you? Who are you?" Kairi, the redhead, asked.
The woman smiled. "I will join you all someday, perhaps. But as I said before, this is now your fight. Not mine. I am merely a ghost from beyond. Now get going. Go find your prince."
The redhead blinked, then nodded as she smiled softly. "I will." She said. "Thank you." With that, she, Tifa, and Kiyoshi passed into the door that quickly closed behind them. Into the realm of light...
-----
"Lord Silence! Lord Silence!" Came a boy's yell, echoing in the dark chamber's corridor.
Silence turned to see the tousled, brown-haired boy suddenly burst into the room, almost out of breath. "...Hyotoko. What is it?" he asked.
"I-it's Sakura's body! Something strange is happening to it! Please, come look!" Hyotoko explained quickly.
That seemed to raise the wise man's interests. He nodded and followed the boy out of the chamber and down the corridor. Taking the lifts up, they eventually made it up to one of the laboratories in one of the many towers where Sakura's body laid. They walked over to the table that she had been lying on and stopped in surprise.
Instead of looking as if she were sleeping peacefully like she had previously been doing, she was floating. Floating about a foot up above the table and glowing a royal blue, a glow that seemed to spread and light up even the darkest shadows in the room, causing Silence to grimace slightly. Sakura's blue eyes were blank yet wide open, as if she were in shock over nothing. Her clothes and red hair swirled around her.
Silence shot a glance at the young, surprised, and confused brunette. "What did you do?" he demanded.
"Nothing! I didn't touch anything, I swear." Hyotoko said truthfully. "I just came up here to see if there had been any changes in her condition. There was none, so I turned to leave, and well...this happened."
"...Come here, boy." Silence said. Hyotoko, confused, obediently walked over to Silence. The older man immediately grabbed the boy's shoulders into a tight grip and stared into his eyes. "The eyes are the windows to your soul. Are you being truthful?"
Hyotoko's brown eyes suddenly became blank as Silence looked into his mind. Through Hyotoko's eyes, his memories, he could see that the boy's story matched up. He had only come in to check on Sakura. And to do one more thing...
"I'll do whatever it takes to save you, Sakura. I promise..."
So, he had made a promise. Honest loyalty, hmph. It would only be so easy to manipulate later...
Silence released the boy's shoulders, breaking the young teen from his trance. Hyotoko blinked, confused. "H-huh? W-what? What just...happened...?" the brunette asked.
"...Nothing. You go run along and train, Hyotoko. Rest assured-I'll find out what is making Sakura react this way. Mark my words..." Silence replied, looking back at the glowing, floating girl, the amber glow of his eye narrowing a bit.
Hyotoko nodded. He didn't want to be treated so much like a child, but he wasn't going to argue. Silence seemed to be the only one that knew what was needed to be done in order to help Sakura. And just that was plenty reason enough not to question his orders, so the brunette boy left to go train.
-----
Tam wiped the sweat off her brow, a frown upon her face as she looked around, then fell wearily onto the grass. "Well, I told you so. There are no humans here. The damn tiger had been lying the whole frickin' time." She said.
Taro sighed as he fell back to lean against a tree. It was hot, and the heat itself was beginning to convince even him to give up his search. "Maybe you're right..." he admitted glumly.
Sora knelt down next to the river, cupping his hands and lifting them up to drink the cool water. "C'mon you guys, don't give up. Drink some water-it'll probably make you feel better." He encouraged.
"Ugh. Sora, that's disgusting! Who knows what kind of germs might be in there. Especially considering that we're right in the middle of a jungle." Tam scolded.
Sora blinked. "But I think I've done it before and didn't get sick." He said.
"Well that's a surprise. Honestly, you should try to be more sanitary." Tam said, rolling her eyes as she turned to study a couple of plants.
Taro blinked. "Say Tam. What was that that you did back there? You know, on the tiger?"
"..." Tam didn't take her eyes away from the plant that she was currently studying. "My father...was a pretty good fighter, and also a former thief. His weapon was plant magic. He would feed his spirit energy into a plant, making it grow quickly and in an instant, a deadly weapon. He was teaching me how to do the same before the Heartless came along and destroyed the planet, so I'm still practicing at it." She explained.
"...Oh." Taro said. He blinked, dwelling on this for a moment, then sweatdropped. "Did you get anything from your mom?"
Tam blinked, them smiled. "Well, my hairstyle, for one. And I also learned how to use a sword like her, though my godfather taught me a bit, too."
"Then why don't you carry a sword?" Taro asked, curious.
Tam shrugged. "I guess I just figure that I don't really need one, what with my plant power and all. And also, I had one, but it got lost sometime around when the Heartless came along.
"Oh. Alright, just wonder-"
"Ack!" Sora suddenly yelped. Both Tam and Taro looked over just in time to see Sora disappear up and into the canopy. "Hey, let go of me! Put me down!" Sora yelled. He suddenly hung out of the canopy upside-down.
"Sora?!" Tam and Taro both cried as they jumped up.
"Sora, what's wrong? What is it?" Taro demanded.
"What does it look like?! Something has me by the ankle and it's hanging me upside-down!" Sora cried.
"Look!" Tam suddenly exclaimed, pointed up and into its branches. "Monkeys!"
Taro sweatdropped and looked over at her slowly. "...Hyperactive toddlers?" he asked.
Tam shook her head. "No, real monkeys! Look!"
Taro looked up and had to do a double-take. There were monkeys-real monkeys, filling the trees. He was surprised that he hadn't noticed them all earlier.
He cupped his hands around his mouth so that all of them could hear. "...Oi!" he called. "Put our friend down!" Then he muttered, "I can't believe it. First I'm talking to a tiger and now to a bunch of monkeys. What next, elephants?"
Meanwhile the monkeys were mocking the two humans on the ground with whatever they could think of until finally replying, "No way! This mancub has got an invitation from King Louie!"
Tam held up a hand, a seed between each finger. "Put him down. Now." She said in a ticked-off voice as she glared near-death up at the monkeys.
"Sorry, mancub female, but orders are orders. You don't scare us!" One of the monkeys called down to her.
"Then prepared to be scared!" Tam shot back.
"Don't have the time for that. Too bad. Bye!" The monkeys called back, swinging off and tossing Sora from monkey to monkey.
"Follow them!" Taro said, starting after them.
"Way ahead of you, Taro." Tam said, following.
They ran along the riverside, both hoping that their friend Sora would be okay...
Author's Note-Er...I pretty much explained everything that's going on currently in the above note, but as I said, hopefully I can get the next chapter up by at least next week. Don't worry, this has not been abandoned! So please review, and I'll see what I can do. (No rhyming intended...heh...) Ja ne!