Welcome to another chapter of Shadow Prince! I thank you for reading this far, and I hope you enjoy!

Shadow Prince
Chapter Two
Unforgiving

In which Kairi meets the two other cursed and learns of things that she'd only heard of in fairytales.

xXx

"How's she doing?"

"Okay. That really was some bump on the head, she really is lucky to be alive."

"You've said that several times Naminé,"

"I know… but it is true. Few people, especially girls, come away alive."

"I guess…"

Kairi slowly awoke to the sound of people talking. Everything was blurry when Kairi opened her eyes. She could vaguely make out two figures to her left. Her mind was blank aside from a sharp pain. All her muscles ached and cried out in pain.

"Ah, she's awake," One figure said, it was a girl. Kairi blinked several times, trying to clear her vision. Little by little she was able to make out her surroundings. She pushed herself up into sitting position and stared at the girl sitting in a chair to the left of her bed. Her skin was very pale, almost like it had seen no sun in years. Her hair was pale blonde, cut a little short on the right with the rest swept over her left shoulder. Her blue eyes had a gentle and calming effect on Kairi. Although she seemed so frail, Kairi thought she was very pretty. Her clothing was a plain white dress.

"Psh. It isn't polite to stare you know." A male voice said in an accusing tone. Kairi turned her head to look at the other figure. He was standing, looking at Kairi with almost emotionless blue eyes. His hair was a darker, almost dirty, blonde. It stuck out at the bottom and was styled to his left and then spiked up. He was wearing a black cloak that had a checker pattern on the bottom. His arms were crossed against his chest; Kairi thought he looked rather strong. He and Kairi stared at each other for a long time before she finally broke off and looked around the room.

It was fairly large, with a large picture window on the wall to Kairi's left. Everything in the room looked old, and was dust covered. The canopy bed she was sitting in had its canopy torn and ragged looking even. She was still looking around the room when she felt something press gently against her shoulders.

"It would be best if you didn't strain yourself right now." The girl said. Kairi obeyed, lying back down. The girl turned to look at the boy, "Roxas go get her some tea." The boy, Roxas, left the room with a grunt.

"… Where… am I?" Kairi asked quietly. She turned her head to look at the girl. She smiled sweetly.

"This… is Castle Oblivion. Of course it wasn't always called that…" She trailed off. Kairi cocked her head slightly. "I'm Naminé, and that was Roxas. What's your name?" Kairi looked up in thought, searching her mind for her name. "Ah… I see. That must have been one nasty hit to the head,"

"… Ka… Kai… Ri… Kairi…" She said slowly. Things became a little clearer in her mind, basic things like her name. Slowly things came back to her, like what she'd been doing for the past year. She knew she was missing something. Suddenly a pair of bright yellow eyes appeared in her minds eye. Kairi gasped and shut her eyes tight in fright.

"Are you okay, Kairi?" Naminé asked, something that seemed like worry laced her voice. Kairi put her hand on her forehead only to recoil when she felt a sharp pain. Naminé looked at her, a soft expression on her face, "No, I wouldn't do that if I were you; you hit your head pretty hard."

"A… ah," Kairi mumbled. She realized that she was covered in bandages. There were some on her head, covering her arms and hands, legs, and finally stomach and chest. She wondered if they were all caused by the monster she met last night. Kairi looked at Naminé, she smiled sweetly. But her eyes seemed to say something different. She turned her head to look away from Naminé; something just didn't seem quite 'right' about her. Kairi thought that anything she said seemed a little fake, and her eyes didn't seem to portray any emotion. She had gotten that feeling from Roxas as well, except the feeling it was stronger coming from him. Kairi stared at the wall, contemplating the two people she'd just met.

A large painting was hung on the wall, it looked old and the colours were dull. Kairi looked at it, it was of a boy. They were kneeling down, holding a large key like weapon with one hand and the other resting on his lap. He was wearing a light blue cape over a darker blue t-shirt and some black shorts. Kairi's eyes scanned further up, his cape was wrapped around his neck like some a large scarf. From under the folds of the cape a chain necklace emerged, a three point crown pendant hanging from it. He had chocolate brown spikes for hair and a small crown was perched a top his head. But there was one thing that made Kairi raise and eyebrow, though, where the face should have, was instead a large tear revealing the frame behind. The tear was large and completely obscured the face.

"Who's that?" Kairi asked turning her head to look at Naminé once again. Naminé looked away towards the door, seemingly not wanting to answer.

"That… was my brother." Kairi turned her head to look at the door, where Roxas had just entered. He held a round steel tray in his hands with three cups and one kettle on it. He handed one cup to both Kairi and Naminé, put the tray on a nearby end table, and finally sat down on a chair.

"Was…? Is he dead or something…?" Kairi asked with an unsure tone. She sipped her tea slowly. It made her feel a little better. Roxas shook his head.

"No. He's suffering a fate far worse then death." Kairi cocked her head slightly and thought, A fate worse then death? Roxas drew in a deep breath, "His name is Sora. When he was four and I was three, our parents died. In the orphanage, while we were living there a large mysterious key came to Sora. It's called a keyblade. Of course we didn't know that at the time. We mostly used to sneak around the orphanage, get into the kitchen for extra snacks, stuff like that.

"A year later one of the staff found out about the keyblade. News about it spread pretty fast. We were both adopted by King Mickey, and treated like his own sons. When Sora turned ten the King started training him to be a warrior. Sora really took to it. Usually I'd watch him train, I wasn't really good with weapons. When he turned fifteen, Sora left to wage war with the Heartless." Roxas paused and looked at Kairi. She wasn't quite sure if she understood, but she sipped her tea and waited for him to continue. "I left the main castle and moved to this one after Sora left. Naminé worked here as a maid. But anyway, Sora came back a couple of times, but after about two and a half years he came back, completely different from the person I used to know. Eventually we found out that the Witch Maleficent, leader of the Heartless, had put a curse on Sora's heart. She came here one day and put a curse on the entire castle. And thus, here we are today. Sora cursed to be a blood thirsty beast, Naminé and I empty shells with out a heart or emotion and you, most likely going to die at the claws of my brother."

Naminé glanced at Roxas sternly, "Don't scare her, Roxas."

"… How can you be alive… with out a heart?" Kairi asked quietly, she sipped her drink silently. Roxas sighed.

"Everyone has two hearts, one pumps blood and is essential for living, while the other holds all your emotions and lets you be able to portray them properly. The mind and heart work together to create emotions, the mind tells the heart what emotion to produce and then you are essentially able to… well have emotion. Naminé and I are what most call Nobodies; shells of their former self, unable to produce emotion. Nobodies are made when a person loses their heart to darkness. The heart turns into a creature know as Heartless, although they actually have hearts. Essentially they are merciless monsters who attack anything with a heart." He explained slowly. Kairi just looked at him, wide eyed. She'd never known any of this, although she'd heard of Heartless the details were foggy since the war had ended so long ago. "Naminé and I never lost our hearts to darkness though. This is just the power of Maleficent. She said we could break the curse, if one of the Seven Princess of Heart fall in love with Sora, and vice versa."

"I… I see…" Kairi wasn't quite sure what to think, she wasn't sure if she should believe any of this. "But… you said you could break the curse if a Princess of Heart fell in love with Sora… right?"

"Yes, that's correct." Naminé sighed. "But no matter how hard we looked, we could find the seventh. You see, we have to find all seven as well. The six Sora did manage to find had a suitor already."

"Uhh… lets see there's Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Bell, Jasmine, and… Alice." Kairi said thoughtfully, she lifted one finger as she went down the list. "That's only six though."

"Yes, that's the problem. There is no seventh Princess. Nobody has heard of one. It was just one of Malifecent's dirty tricks." Naminé said, looking away. Roxas had his eyes closed, and his head was down. An unsettling silence fell upon the group of people. Kairi finished her cup of tea and placed it on the end table. Roxas stood up, still looking down.

"I'm going to check on brother." He said simply. He took the tray and the tea cups and left the room. The silence persisted, and Kairi eventually fell nodded off into a somewhat peaceful sleep.

xXx

Kairi awoke some time later. She looked around the room to find it void of life. Outside she could see it was already dark. She somehow found the strength to get herself out of the queen sized canopy bed. Her legs wobbled as she stood on them, and she found that much of her clothes had been torn. Her chest was completely bandaged and pretty much all she was wearing was her badly torn skirt (which was formerly part of a short dress). Kairi spotted her cloak and wrapped it around herself. Taking one last look around the room, Kairi opened one of the large doors, and slipped out silently.

The hallway was huge. To her right it stretched quite a ways until there was finally a door. The carpeted floor was dusty yet soft under her bare feet. Kairi started walking towards the left, where she could not make out a visible end to the hall. There were doors every couple of meters, most probably leading to unused rooms seeing as only three people (that Kairi knew of) lived in this immense place. Paintings hung in the hallway. They were in a slightly different style then the one in the room she was in. All of them were of Roxas. Kairi absent mindedly wondered why, but shrugged it off. Soon enough she reached a set of stairs. It went down several steps and led to a platform which then had one gigantic set of stairs that seemed to lead to the main floor.

Across from her was another set of stairs which led to another part of the castle. Kairi took the large one that led to the main floor. The concrete was oh so cold against her bare feet. Kairi continued on, ignoring the cold and exploring the castle. She found several rooms with layers of dust and cobwebs covering them. Eventually Kairi came across the ballroom.

It was the biggest room she had every seen in her life. It had hardwood floor and an extravagant chandelier. The walls were covered with faded red fabric. Kairi could only imagine what it had been like when it was in use. She slowly walked through it and made her way to the dinning room. It was also quite large. A large table was in front of a huge unlit fireplace. She marveled at the extravagant furniture and features of the room until a voice filled her ear.

"It's dangerous to walk around alone you know. Especially at night." Kairi turned around in a flash to see Roxas.

"You… You scared me!" She cried, still startled about his sudden appearance. She was amazed she hadn't noticed him, it was dead quiet in the room. He was like a ghost, and she couldn't sense his feelings. She guessed the story was right, they really didn't have any emotions. Roxas shrugged absently, looking away.

"Come with me, Naminé is in the kitchen." He said evenly turning around. Kairi followed him as they walked through some swinging doors and into a brightly lit kitchen. She saw Naminé, her back turned to the both of them, she was obviously cooking. "Nam, I found Kairi wandering around in the dinning room."

Naminé turned around to look at the two and smiled warmly, her eyes closed, "Oh Kairi! I didn't expect you to be up and about so soon with those injuries. You must be hungry, I'm just finishing some soup,"

"Uh… yeah." Kairi nodded. Roxas showed her to a stool at a bar. Naminé poured the soup into some bowls and set them in front of Kairi and herself.

"We usually eat in here instead of the dinning room. It's kinda depressing in there," Naminé smiled again. Kairi was amazed at her ability to fake emotions. If she hadn't been good at sensing things she would have totally bought it. "And that reminds me, Roxas, we're running out of food supplies again. Could you go get some in the morning?"

"Yeah, whatever." Roxas replied in his usual uncaring tone. Kairi cocked her head to one side,

"But I thought you were cursed?" She said confusion lacing her tone.

"That doesn't mean we don't have to eat," Naminé said jokingly.

"Well… Mind if I go too then? I mean I need some new clothes… All I'm wearing is this cloak, some bandages and part of my dress." Kairi admitted, she could feel her cheeks go red with embarrassment. Roxas looked away and Naminé seemed to giggle (or at least try to).

"I'm sure something can be arranged. You can wear some of my clothes for now," said Naminé. Roxas looked at Naminé with all the rage he could muster in his current state.

"Naminé! What're you thinking?! She can't leave the castle, she'll be in even more danger if she leaves!" Roxas hissed, he lowered his voice, "Who knows what brother will do to her,"

"Just take her with you, I'll make sure his highness is to busy to notice," Naminé smiled at Kairi. She wasn't quite sure what to think about the situation, but she was glad that Naminé was on her side.

"C'mon, I'll take you back to your room." Roxas was already at the door. Kairi was taken a bit off guard and almost instantly got up. Before she walked about Naminé grabbed her hand and whispered to her,

"Don't worry if he seems a little insensitive. He's still not used to it,"

xXx

Something sinister lurked in the hallways that night, pacing uneasily back and forth in the middle of the hallway. Its razor sharp claws dug into its leathery skin as it lost itself in deep thought.

The Shadow Prince could not seem to settle down. His world had in a single second been turned upside-down. Pain had always helped before, he continued to drive his claws into his arms, but he still couldn't seem to calm himself. He gave up, and stopped pacing. Black goop oozed from his wounds and dripped onto the carpet. It was something that happened often and the carpet could show for it. He walked into his room, ignoring the bleeding cuts. He took to pacing in the dust covered room now, a path well worn after so many years.

There was a knock at the door, "Brother?" the black entity didn't respond. The door creaked open and now the Prince was no longer alone with his thoughts.

"You seem troubled…" Roxas stated before spotting the ooze slowly flowing from the Prince's arms, "You hurt yourself again!"

"So?" The Prince growled staring at his younger brother with yellow-green eyes. Roxas shook his head,

"You shouldn't do that is all…" The Prince growled and looked away.

"It helps me calm down."

"You don't look very calm. I can tell you were pacing before,"

A heavy silence fell over the room like the many layers of dust had done. The Prince looked over his shoulder and grunted after a while,

"What did you want anyway, Roxas?"

"Naminé said we need more food supplies. I'm going to go get some in the morning."

"You needed to tell me this because?" The Prince asked, obviously annoyed now. Roxas took a couple steps towards the Prince,

"I thought you'd like to know,"

"Not particularly." The Prince stated flatly. He really wasn't in the mood for this. His head was already swimming with other 'pressing' matters, Roxas was only worsening it in his opinion.

"Sora…" Roxas whispered, and then left. His brother was defiantly losing more and more of himself every day. It had only been a little under a month ago that the black hearted Prince had scolded him for leaving with out permission. He shook his head, trying to forget a unpleasant thought.

Time was unforgiving, and running out.

xXx

Whoo! It was really hard to write Naminé and Roxas because of their lack of emotions, but I got through it. I really find it odd how the game never really touched up on the 'Nobodies don't have hearts' department. So I devoloped my own theory about it. So, that's my theory. Feel free to opose it or whatever, but it isn't changing. Sorry!

Next chapter Kairi and Roxas go off to get food! I hope I'll see you there