"So we're finally home. Well, what now?" I asked having no idea what to do next.
"I guess we should head back to your house and figure it out from there," said Mina.
"I don't think that, that would be a bad idea Riku. Your appearance hasn't changed at all. That might shock your parents," said Chrono out of nowhere.
"Oh, Chrono, is that you? So that's what the pendants are for besides communication between us, but are they good for anything else?" I asked kinda tweaked that I hadn't changed back to normal.
"Yes, and if you concentrate your powers through the pendants then you can go back to looking human, but the hair color and animal like senses will stay the same, and yes Riku that means that Shadow stays too," she said almost mockingly.
"That's just what I wanted to hear, Chrono, thanks a lot," I said even more tweaked then before.
"Now, I'll leave you to your mission. And remember that the three new pendants I gave you will only glow in the presence of its new owner. Now, good luck and be careful, Ebony's minions can now also pass between the worlds as well," she said as her voice faded. (Chrono is a girl, in case there was some confusion, I didn't know that either.)
"Wait! How will we tell what Ebony's forces look like? Blast it all, she's gone. Well, let's go ahead and see what we can do about our appearances and let's get something to eat," I said heading back to the house.
"Riku, wait, don't we need to change the way we look before we go back to your house so our parents don't find out," said Raiden as the others began to follow me.
"Look Beasley, my parents are going to find out what's up eventually, so first off, calm down and stop calling me Riku, you dolt, its R.J., and another thing, don't try to hide this from your parents it won't work. Just come clean and show them your true form. If they don't accept you after that, then come stay with me, but until then get over it," I said, almost knocking over a tree.
"What's wrong with you all of a sudden?" Asked Rachel, speaking for the first time in the past couple of hours.
"Sorry, I'm just not used to having all of my emotions back, and I'm honestly thinking of just letting Shadow out and having him come to school with us. Let's just get back to the house and get something to eat. Then we'll talk about this after I calm down," I said as I walked up the trail to the house. After lunch we talked about what we were going to do about school and everything that was to come. We decided to split the new pendants between Joy, Rachel, and I. Now, the only thing left was to explain our new appearances to our parents. Mom and R.V. were fine with my change and were happy that I finally had a brother. They were also fine with putting him through school. The others had to spend the night again because of the snow- storm. I woke up the next morning with Chris pulling a scene from Fruits Basket that involved Ayame and Kyo (Volume #4, Ayame clung to Kyo in his sleep and Kyo flipped out when he woke up). When I finally woke up enough to realize what was going on, I blasted Chris through the door into the hall near my room and almost killed him. Rachel ran into the hall, clearly haven't slept at all.
"What's going on?" She asked, quite alarmed.
"God damn it Rika! Will you cut that out?" Chris yelled.
"What did you call me, you son of a bitch?" I yelled back conjuring my weapon and pointing it at his throat. At this point those who were watching burst out laughing.
"I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to Rika. I should have told you about her sooner. The advent put her in my head to keep me under control. Sorry, I forgot about her. She was being so quiet until she saw you, then she went ballistic about how cute you were. Normally I can keep her under control, but every now and then she gets control and I can't do a thing about it. Next time you will know the difference, I'm sure," he said, trying not to cry because I hit him square in the gut.
"How can I tell the difference when she's in your head?" I asked, wondering if this would be anything I wanted to hear.
"When she takes over I change sex and appearance, so believe me you'll know when it happens. But Rika promise me not at school." He said in an almost scared tone. Rachel and Joy had fallen to floor tears falling from laughing so hard.
"Fine, I promise," said Chris in a female voice that caused the laughter to get even more pronounced.
"So that's what she sounds like. I'll have to remember that in the future," I said in a mocking tone. Then we all got up and got breakfast. Then we started our mental training for school so as not to lose control and break form in front of classmates. Rachel (Julia) had no problem being the keeper of ice; she always has a cool head unless I do something stupid (actually it was mainly Shadow she couldn't stand). I had no problem either because Shadow has all my dark emotions. Mina and Shadow have the hardest time keeping their emotions in check, but we have worked on the anger management with them to the point that they can remain in their normal forms most of the time, but Shadow's attitude may get him into some trouble at school. Other than that, everything is going well. Everybody has informed they're parents about the transformation and they have all accepted what's happened. So things were going great until the storm let up and we went back to our normal lives. Christmas came and went. With it being Shadow's first Christmas we got him a lot of new stuff and thankfully he and I can share a lot of things since we can share the same body. Then, school started and things got interesting. We didn't really have any problems until we started getting comments about our hair and clothes. Even the teachers got on us (much to everyone's dislike; Rachel was ready to behead them) and we didn't break the dress code once. But oh well, Shadow only got in one fight and he was lucky that someone else started it because he was brutal. He basically played with them until he got bored. Then, it was one good punch to the gut and a kick to the head and they were out, but enough about the stupid stuff. Later on that week we all had quite the experience after we got home from school. We were all attacked by what looked like NeoShadow Heartless (Kingdom Hearts, they're little shadow midgets! ). And the fun part was that there were about fifty of the stupid little things. Shadow and I had a great time and actually made a contest out of it (Can you say Legolas/ Gimli rivalry? Or what?). I won, as always. The next day we asked Veritas about this and he called these little demons Shadow Haunt (Rachel liked to call them Nithlings; can anyone tell me what book that's from nithlings? Whoever gets it right gets…. nothing really). The next day was even more eventful. Josh got back from Balfour early and what's more is that he is the keeper of steel, Xion. The moment he walked in the room, the pendant lit up like a roman candle. Then, when Joy was talking to Krystal we saw that the other pendant lit up. All that was left to find was the keeper of water. Luckily, I got a phone call from a giddy Rachel (she's normally depressed at the moment) saying that she found the last keeper, Lizzie. So now we had water, nature, and steel. The only thing left to do was get back to Sol Sanctum and then Animos. This was probably the most unforgettable experience of my life. We had Josh, Krystal, and Lizzie come over to my place and explained every thing. Then, it was finally time head back. We had Veritas explain the new ceremony to us and we were on our way. What lies ahead for us? Well, you'll see.