Hey my beloved readers, I finally updated! Sorry if it took a while, because firstly I was getting nervous that no one might be reading my story. Secondly, if you noticed some technical para-problems in chapter 3, I'm sorry for that too. Now may I present "Chapter 4!" Enjoy (P.S. this chapter is a bit different from what I promised earlier in my author's note. I'm really sorry, but it was necessary because of a bit of plot fillers that revolve around Ahmed. I promise it'll be good though).
Chapter 4:
A sky, land and walls reduced to nothing but darkness.
Black monsters everywhere.
Zaebos walking in between them as she pulled back her head, cackling maniacally.
"Join me Ahmed. Together we will rule the worlds." She extended a hand toward him.
Ahmed jumped into his battle stance; pulling out his sword.
"And what if I refuse?" Zaebos' golden eye flashed angrily as her purple hair blew in the wind.
"Do you have any idea what I'm capable of Ahmed?" she extended her arms over the monsters as they grew a good few inches taller and muscular. Ahmed took a step back but felt himself going closer toward them. What in the….?
Then the truth hit him.
"Zaebos…. d-do you control those monsters by any chance?"
The corner of her unspoilt-cut lip curved upwards as she slowly nodded her head. The dark monsters around her bowed and stepped back.
"I can't just control them honey, but I can also summon them at my will-"
"So, you called them to beat us up then?"
"Yes…. and no my sweetheart." She winked as she smirked.
Okay this really ticked him off.
"Stop calling me these names Zaebos! I thought you didn't even like me, and what do you mean by 'yes and no?'"
This seemed to hurt her as she looked back at him with a sad expression.
"Not like YOU?! Ahmed, you're the only one I want. I'm the only one who really understands your potential. It's your weak and pathetic friends who fail to see your true form; a creature of unimaginable strength and power."
He quirked an eyebrow at this as he took in her form. Her face was apparently free of all sarcasm or possible hatred that it generally held. Was she telling the truth?
"Riiight! What are you implying at?"
"I know what you are Ahmed; you're part jinn, part human. I've seen it myself – a being of pure darkness."
Ahmed was taken aback as she disclosed his secret. It was true, Ahmed was part jinn. But how did she know this? He stepped up and gripped her arm, a little too harsh for his own taste. Instead of yelping in pain, Zaebos looked up at his face smiling.
"How do you know this! Who told you?!"
"Ahh that's it my sweet!" she moaned in her unusually deep and chilly voice. "Tear off my limb with your inhuman strength. DO IT!"
Ahmed let go of her as he pushed her away and examined his own hand which was glowing red hot before it sputtered out a small orange flame. His powers, they were going active again after all these years.
Zaebos pulled back her head as she an array of uncontrollable laughter escaped her lips. The black monsters around her crept up as they stared at the fire in the gelled black haired boy's hand.
Ahmed shot out a flame from his hand as it completely eradicated the monsters coming closer to him. 'Wow, I destroyed them?!' he thought as he pulled back his fiery hand. If only he had used his powers to save his friends…. 'Oh who am I kidding! I can't openly display my true self, what'll everyone think of me?'
"They should love you for who you are Ahmed, kind of like how I do." Zaebos cried out as she rose up off the ground – the monsters encircling her feet. "Join me Ahmed. Together, we'll eclipse the worlds in eternal and burning darkness, capture every dark heart in our possession, and take Kingdom Hearts for ourselves."
"Kingdom Hearts?" Ahmed muttered as he looked back at her confusedly. Strangely enough, the name seemed familiar to him. Then he snapped;
"I'll never join you! Even if I have to perish in my own fire, I'd rather do that then to be evil like you. Not all jinns are evil, and neither is darkness! I'll use this power for good and only good!"
He summoned a large fire claymore in his right hand. The blade appeared to be made entirely of molten magma with the hilt being made of lava rocks, before tossing his blue and yellow plastic 'Young Threats' sword over his shoulder. It fell off into the dark abyss around them before melting into it.
He rushed forward and leaped into the air as he brought it hard against Zaebos' figure in a hard and slow burning combo.
Zaebos crashed into the dark floor as her pet monsters jumped at the porcupine-haired boy in vengeance of their fallen enchantress.
Ahmed roared demonically as he twirled around – creating a flaming vortex around his figure, scorching all the monsters to a crisp.
Zaebos rose up off the ground as she summoned a pair of dark blackish-purple daggers in her hands. Black smoke encircled over them as she held then in her hands – her left leg stuck out as her right one was a bit back. Each hand in accordance and angle with the parallel foot; pointing toward the black haired boy.
Ahmed's appearance had also changed a bit. His incisors had grown longer as they protruded from beneath his upper lip; his previously doleful brown eyes had now turned a deep crimson entirely – the pupils, irises and lenses completely disappeared.
"Maybe I'll have to take you down myself then… I'm so sorry babe," the purple haired girl bolted ahead as she tossed her blades at Ahmed, the said boy simply growled and blocked off both daggers with his flaming claymore and brought it down heavy and powerful against Zaebos' botched face in slow and painful combos.
The said girl aerial dodged and dug her blades on the young jinn's back as she came down. Ahmed fell back from the impact – Zaebos lay atop his back with a look of malice in her gold eye as she refused him to get back on his feet.
"Hmm, even though I really like you Ahmed, but because you're still making all this hard for me, I guess you leave me no choice…" she lifted her right dagger against his chin. "And I thought we would make the perfect team, oh well nighty night!" with that, she slit his throat.
….
Ahmed jolted out of his sleep – sweating all over, his breath in heavy pants. 'It was just a dream,' he thought as he wiped his forehead which he noticed was really hot. Carefully, he pulled back his hands and noticed his palms burning red hot. Oh no, his jinn powers were active again. He tried to calm down his raced heartbeat as he took in deep gulps of air – before long, his palms turned to their usual pink color. 'This didn't happen to me in a while. Could those mysterious black monsters have anything to do with this?'
The black monsters!
Thoughts of the horrible night before invaded his mind as he snapped back to reality.
Ahmed's eyes widened as he took in the room's surroundings he was in. This looked nothing like his bedroom back home. He noticed himself tucked in a poster bed in a large room. The decoration largely academic; bookshelves stretched across two opposing walls, a desk with fresh sheets of papers and pens, and a small television opposite the bed with a small console wired into it below. 'An Xbox 360!' Ahmed's face lit up. Despite he saw no air conditioner anywhere, the atmosphere of the room was cool and very pleasant.
The Land of Departure.
The gelled black haired boy jumped out of bed as he felt an aching pain in his right arm. He looked down as he examined it closely.
It was bound in a small sling – the forearm had swollen up.
Turning his attention from his arm, he walked over to a corner and gazed out of a window; the sky was painted dark blue, peppered with a few stars here and there. This looked nothing like the beautiful night sky in Celestial City which was a much deeper blue-black in color, always full of stars every size, galaxies, shooting stars and meteor showers, finishing off with a huge white moon in the centre of it all – northern lighting washed over, finishing it all off. But what really captivated him and all his friends as they occasionally sat near the edge of the city creek, overlooking the silvery ocean while enjoying a stick of sea-salt ice cream and sharing jokes, were a number of worlds near their own – a bit further apart from each other as the hung up in the sky. Curious thing was that they could only see them at nightfall.
When they were younger, they planned on making a rocket to go visit all these worlds – a particular one with an ocean theme and tropical trees fascinated them above all, but it was furthest of them all. Oh, how he missed those good old days when it was just him, Sami and all their cousins and siblings. Then things got complicated when these two older boys grew a bit older and joined The Young Threats in aims of making 'new and more age-appropriate friends' as their parents thought.
Ahmed wasn't the only one different in the city. Sami also had unique powers as did his sister Soha. The messy black haired boy had the power to channel his adrenaline into electrifying blue energy and sometimes use it to his will and command. The energy, as he once told him privately, came from the core of his heart – as if it were a part of himself, but he tried to keep it under control, resisting the urge to let it loose because he was still too young to handle his own hidden potential and might seriously hurt someone. Soha also had a similar ability in her, but it was more white and colorless instead of light blue, with an icy cold base instead of her older brother's sizzle and high voltage. This magical power ran throughout his family.
In addition to the plain blue sky before the gelled black haired young boy, he noticed a fairly large, round and majestic patch of lawn in front of him. It had a marble fence around it and lights scattered here and there. Over the walls, was nothing but more blue sky – nothing else. 'That's funny,' he thought as he tried not to ponder too much on the topic.
Ahmed spun around as the bedroom door behind him swung open and a boy he had never seen before walked in; he wore a sleeveless purple hooded jacket with a red hood, a black collar-less button up black sleeveless undershirt, cut-offs similar to Sami, only they were all magenta, and large light-green shoes again similar to Sami's in a peculiar way. A strange piece of large golden armor was strapped onto his waist where his belt would be, and a somewhat matching small piece near his left shoulder and shoe soles. The boy had brown hair parted down the middle – messy at the back, and light brown oval eyes. In addition, he also held a small orange-yellow orb in his hands.
"Oh, hey there," he began cheerfully as he made his way towards Ahmed. "Did you have a good rest? Can I get you anything you might need?"
Instead of answering him, Ahmed simply blurted the question which kept circling his head.
"Where am I, and how did I get here?"
The boy blinked before answering calmly, "Why, you're in The Land of Departure. Master Bux and Master Eraqus brought you here from your world after-"
"Tell me quick! Do you know what happened to my friends and where they are? One had messy black hair and the other with light brown hair covering part of his face?" Ahmed interrupted him.
"Dude, chill!" The oval-eyed boy reassured the doleful eyed one as he gave his shoulders a friendly squeeze, "Both your friends are here and they're safe; the long haired one – Asad – is downstairs right now in the dining hall. The other one you talk about, well…. I, uhh…." He paused as he rubbed the back of his head uncomfortably.
"But… what?"
The boy looked up to Ahmed's face; his eyes held genuine concern.
"He hasn't awakened yet. His condition's pretty serious."
This made the gelled black haired boy's heart drop and he dropped onto the bed. The parted-down brown haired boy quietly took a seat next to him as Ahmed continued.
"What happened to him?"
"A badly busted up right leg and a really strong blow to the head."
The boy crept closer as he extended a hand towards Ahmed, smiling warmly.
"I'm Ammar,"
Ahmed took his hand as he tried smiling back, "Ahmed."
Ammar looked down to his lap, picking up the small round package as he opened it, revealing a mixture of clear amber liquid with tiny stars, moons and what looked like shredded gold paper all swimming in it. Ahmed stared at the mixture wide eyed as Ammar placed it in his own hands.
"What's this thing right here?" he questioned the boy next to him.
"This thing right here," he spoke as he pointed to it smiling broadly, "Is an amazing concoction called an Elixir. Drink up! You'll feel amazing after."
Ahmed eyed the curiously beautiful-looking liquid as it swayed slightly in his lap, "Are you sure that after I drink this, I'll feel better?"
"I swear! Trust me, it also tastes amazing."
Without further interruptions by the bubbly personality next to him, the gelled black haired boy gulped down the contents in one long sip. 'Ammar was right! This tasted amazing.' he thought. The Elixir tasted like sweet mandarin juice as it slipped down his throat. Within a second, Ahmed felt his strength returning back to him; his sore arm no longer hurt him as it appeared good as new. In addition, he also started to feel unbelievably energized and healthier than ever.
"Oh WOW!" Ahmed sighed as he placed the empty orb onto a bedside table and tearing off his sling, "What was in that stuff Ammar?"
The said parted down brown haired boy chuckled, "It's a secret recipe of Master Bux. Apart from being a Keyblade Master, he's also an expert in potion making. The Elixir is a special potion which helps the drinker gain back all their lost health, focus and mana in a battle. Apart from this, he also knows how to brew standard Potions; to gain back part of a person's health, Hi-Potions; for max health gain, Ethers; to gain back mana, and also a range of Mega brews which can be shared equally amongst three people."
Ahmed smiled at his new friends' detailed explanation on these special assets. This all seemed unreal to him, like a dream – but since he was part-jinn, his life never really was normal, as was Sami's too of course. Ammar seemed like a nice boy to him. Wonder if the other people around this castle are as friendly as he is. His thoughts were interrupted as his stomach growled, making Ammar stop as he looked back quirking an eyebrow.
"You hungry Ahmed?"
Ahmed smiled sheepishly as he ran a hand through his gelled hair, "Yeah, I guess I am."
Ammar grinned, "Well, you're gonna love it here. Its dinnertime already and Master Bux is an amazing chef. Come on, I'll tell you all about him and what we do here – the basics on Keyblades and everything. And wait till you meet Terra and Aqua, the new students here at the castle."
"Wait, so there are more children like us in the castle?"
"Well, yeah. Terra's eleven like me, while Aqua's ten. How old are you Ahmed?"
The gelled black haired boy paused before answering, delighted at the fact that he will be making new friends. "I'm eleven too, and so is my friend Sami. Asad's ten."
Ammar chuckled as he wrapped an arm around Ahmed as they walked out towards the exit of the room. "Yeah, Asad's a good kid. I would like to meet Sami too though; I can't help but feel a strange yet constant connection between him and me."
…...
Finally done! Bet you didn't expect that to happen huh? So, are you guys excited that I added Terra, Aqua and Master Eraqus to the story as well? As all you fans know, Terra and Aqua have said to be with Master Eraqus most of their childhood and teen years, so I thought to myself that it would make the story more appropriate and fun if I fill their mysterious past with a story that fits pretty well, and befriend them with my OCs. Please review and tell me if y'all are loving this chapter as I'm loving to write this for you :D