Chapter 9: Fear

Disclaimer: Tekken and its characters don't belong to me!

Julia frowned at her newest dress. Its purple velvet fringe didn't really match with her orange sash, and the dress's patterns just weren't to her liking. She bit her lip in concern and then twirled around in front of the mirror.

The servant stared in wonder.

"Princess Julia…maybe I should get one of the servants to go to the shops and buy a different dress!" she suggested.

Princess Julia stopped twirling around and sat down by her dresser. She nodded her head graciously and commanded the servant to leave.

Just as the servant left general Hwoarang entered the room. He looked up and down at Julia, admiring her beauty. He shut the door quietly and placed his hands over Julia's eyes.

"Guess who!" he whispered softly in her ear.

Princess Julia smiled and gently removed his hands from her eyes. "Hwoarang!" She turned around and looked deeply into his eyes, then without hesitation they both kissed on the lips.

On the grand walls that protected the palace a large group of guards and Prince Jin stood keeping a watch. Prince Jin shaded his eyes and looked down to see Xiao with Miharu talking by the edge of a large lake.

Meanwhile back down on the ground Miharu was giggling and whispering to her best friend. "Why does he keep staring at you?" she asked, keeping her gaze lowered and only seeing the long grass.

Xiao sighed deeply. She bent down and carefully plucked the flowers from the green lush grass.

"Hmmm…maybe your in love with him too!" she joked.

Xiao looked up straight at Miharu. "Who could love an arrogant and unpleasant…" but she never finished her sentence because Mi already interrupted.

"Handsome, flirty, a rich guy?" Mi grinned at Xiao and quickly dogged out of the way as a bunch of flowers came soaring behind her.

"Firstly, I don't look for looks in a guy…I look for someone who makes me happy, smile and laugh! He just makes me nervous and low classed." Xiao carefully got up and walked over to the fallen flowers, picking them up and putting them carefully into the basket. "besides, he's marrying the Princess Julia isn't he?"

Mi nodded sadly. "Shame eh? You and him would have made a great couple!"

"Yeh, like a ying and yang match actually works out!"

"Well in case you didn't know King Kazuya and Queen Jun are opposites of each other!"

Xiao ignored Mi's presence for a while, and then she felt a slightly painful grab on her wrist. "Mi!" she exclaimed furiously. "What's up with you?" she asked, rubbing her wrist and trying to get blood circulating back into it again.

"Captain…Reaon, right behind you!" she warned.

Xiao grinned menacingly and turned around, she bowed gracefully and forced Miharu to stand. "My friend Miharu will probably like to talk to you sir!" Quickly Xiao flashed a smile at her friend's shocked and ashen face before disappearing off with a basket on her arm into the palace at amazing speed. Behind the two lovers backs she clapped her hands together and softly whispered, "lovers by day, married by night!"

As Xiao walked into the grand ballroom where feasts and dances were going to be held she took in a deep breath of admiration!

The room was lit well with pink candles that gave off enormous amounts of light, he candles sat in holders proudly with little borders of small flowers by them. The floor sparkled and glimmered with no marks at all on it! By the blurred windows there were large, velvet, rose pink coloured curtains.

Carefully Xiao's daze was taken to a large oaken table; already ten baskets of flowers had been placed neatly in the centre, steadily Xiao walked towards the table and gingerly placed her basket down in the centre. Then she stood back to once more admire the room in all its magnificence and glory!

"Beautiful isn't it?" asked a familiar voice by her side.

Xiao smiled dreamily. She showed no shock or fear of the prince as he towered over her. "Queen Jun knows how to make a room like this more grand then imagination!" she murmured.

Prince Jin nodded proudly. "It is amazing and a gift to have a mother like her…" The young prince looked down at the servant only to notice small tears rolling down her face.

Xiao quickly wiped away the tears from her face. "My mother…she was murdered when I was away from my village…I knew that she was dead even when I was miles away from her, I could feel her pain…" Xiao took a deep breath. "Be glad you have a mother like Queen Jun sir, for some like me…" Xiao bravely looked at is face and deep into his eyes before speaking in her high and proud way. "Have none!" she concluded. For a second they stayed looking at each other then Xiao turned away from the prince and walked away. The only thoughts in her mind were of her dead mother, happy memories long gone into the winter snow!

As Xiao sat on her bed meditating she heard the room door open and a gust of fresh air swim through the room. Xiao quickly grinned and stopped meditating to greet her friend. "So Mi…how was the talk with Reaon?" she asked curiously.

"That's captain Reaon to you Xiao…besides, how did you know I had something for him?" she asked carefully.

"Call it woman's intuition…or the fact that when he talks to you, you seem to blush and talk back in stutters!"

"Well, thanks for giving me a chance to talk to him alone…apparently he's got second thoughts about taking me out to the dance, apparently he has some work to do! Or he just don't like me," Mi sighed sadly and sat down beside her friend.

"If he doesn't love you then he's a fool! I mean, how often can a guy come across a beautiful clever girl like you?"

Mi looked up blankly at Xiao. She didn't even crack a smile at the words of wisdom; she only sat still on the bed for a while before working in the grand hall to get it perfect!

Xiao walked quickly to the captain's door, as she was about to approach it she saw Prince Join coming in her direction. Quickly in desperation she knocked on the door and kept her eyes on the floor afterwards.

The prince just walked by as if he didn't even see her, she was glad.

"Come in servant!" commanded the captain.

"So what brings you here?" he asked.

"Captain Reaon Tilo…" Xiao smiled a little when she saw the captain twitch from being called by his full name. "I can't believe what you have done to my best friend Miharu, how could you say that you can't go?" she asked furiously, ready to box his ears in if need be!

"I'm sorry servant, but matters of that policy are not to be answered to the like of you!" he spoke with distaste.

"Unfortunately I am like a sister to Miharu, in fact I'm practically an adopted sister to her as she is to me! She's looked out for me ever since day one, and I intend to do the same! So, since you've just broken her heart…I think you should give her a reason why you can't go out with her!"

"I already did servant! Now if you don't mind…" Reaon stood up and opened the door to his room.

"You damnd right I don't mind!" she yelled, sitting down on a spare chair and waiting for an answer.

Captain Reaon sighed furiously and sat down himself. "If you really want to know, she is not my type…she might love me, but I don't really love her!"

Xiao gritted her teeth sharply and closed her hands into knuckles. "If you truly were a man, you would have told her yourself, instead of having me to tell her this!" she whispered, walking out of the room.

Miharu cried throughout the night, her only two comforts were being able to see Panda out in the gardens at midnight and having her friend by her side.

Little did she realise that thought inside her heart was broken, another man who would would heal it!

Xiao's Dream:

She felt so cold, her fingers numb and her toes frozen.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"You are inside his heart!" whispered a strangely gently voice.

"Who are you?" she asked, carefully moving her fingers from clenched position to a stretched position, back and forth till the joints started to ease up and warmth spread through them.

"I am his subconscious…his good heart!" replied the voice.

"Whose good heart?" Xiao shook with cold and struggled to get her words out.

"You should know young maiden, after all, his feelings for you are the same you have for him!" the ghostly voice whispered.

"I don't understand!" Xiao said, in haze and confusion she felt alone and withdrawn from the world of living.

"In time, when a path is put before him…when danger confronts you, you will understand!" the voice grew quieter until all Xiao could hear were the footsteps of some stranger.

She suddenly saw a man walk towards her; he wore a black cloak that was laced in dark red. She noticed him take out a newly polished sword and brandish it in front of her before without warning plunging it into her stomach. She tried to scream but nothing came out. When the figure came closer to her he took down his hood to reveal Prince Jin himself. He pushed the sword further and further into her. She gripped the sword with her own hands only to feel ice tremble through her fingers.

Prince Jin started to laugh loudly as he pulled out the blooded up sword and shoved it back into its sheath by his waist. Xiao clutched her stomach for a moment before feeling a burning pain inside. The man she though was Jin melted away in front of her and turned into a giant horrid beast!

This time when she opened her mouth to scream, her scream rang true and as loud as bells.

Jin's Dream:

He entered a freezing room but wasn't affected by the temperature! He started to feel a hue pain inside; he heard a loud and painful scream coming from ahead of him! He looked up in alarm and started to run towards the screaming.

Eventually he came in view of a young familiar woman on her knees with a huge monster towering above her, she seemed to clutch her stomach and had blood coming out of her wound, already a puddle had formed around her.

"Xiaoyu!" he whispered, he set off at full speed towards the figure.

Xiao's and Jin's Dreams Combined:

The monster laughed so cruelly in her face she felt like it was it that was tearing away at her insides and not the wound.

Her breathing became difficult and her thoughts full of panic. She knew she was asleep but to her the dream felt like it was real. She just couldn't wake up from it!

Then she felt a strong and gentle hand touch her face. She looked up to see Prince Jin. The beast had disappeared into the mist.

She looked down again at her wound. Her hands pressed down hard but the blood still dripped out.

She felt so sick and deathly pale, her head dizzy and her insides full of unbearable pain.

Then she felt two other warm hands alongside hers; she looked up again to look deeply into the Prince's eyes.

"I'll save you…I promise!" he whispered, helping her to lie down onto the hard floor, quickly he took off his shirt and bundled it up onto the floor underneath her head.

Then as if told by his conscious he bent down and kissed her, almost immediately Xiao's wound started to close up, the blood started to disappear and her pain started to vanish! Carefully she sat up.

"Thank you!" she whispered before disappearing back into the real world.

"Anytime!" he replied, finally letting his soul depart his nightmare that had turned into an amazing dream and enter the world of the living!

Writers Note:

I have spent proper AGES on this chapter, apparently I have been experiencing writers block! I just couldn't think of where I should start this chapter off!

This chapter is kind of like a special one…for Valentines Day! Well sort of! However I think I might right another special for Valentines Day...but it may be late because i have some exams comin up!

Also, thanks for ALL the reviews so far. You reviewers are the best!

Got to go and do…HOMEWORK! groans!