Well the two warriors finally meet, and about damn time too.
Well, I'm glad that some of you are still faithful to my work. I felt that the long delay between chapters had you lose interest.
For this chapter, I kinda had some small issues with filling in the page, so with great regret, this chapter will be slightly shorter than the normal chapter length.
And I am very sorry for taking so long, but I had trouble finding a good song for Saji to sing, something that would work well for the chapter. But I finally found it.
The original song is 'The Court of Miracles' from Hunchback of Notre Dame. The lyrics are my own, but I do not own the original music.
"What the hell do you mean?" Tai asked, "My dreams keep telling me that you would be the one to save me. How the fuck would you not know?!"
"Hey, watch the language. I'm trapped in this hellhole just like you."
"Well, this is just fucking fantastic." Tai slumped on the ground, leaning on the stone wall. "I guess we're both trapped here."
"Well, maybe we can try and get some more detail on how to get out." Takato said, "Tell me more about your dream, what do you see in it?"
"Well...every single one always has the symbol flashing everywhere." Tai began, trying to remember the contents of his dream to every detail. "And...well, there's also a voice in my dream."
"What does the voice say?"
"I..." Tai tried to remember his dream, trying to remember what happened in his dreams. "I...I can't remember."
"You serious? You've had these dreams for a while and you can't remember what a voice says?"
"You wanna try and live alone in the Dark Ocean?" Tai asked, "When you lived here for as long as I did, you tend to ignore many things."
"And you chose to ignore your dreams?"
"You showing me attitude?" Tai asked, getting on his feet. "If you want to get out of here, shut up and start thinking." Tai then sat back down.
Takato could see that Tai was irritated about this. "You really want to go home, don't you?"
Tai''s expression changed as he let out a sigh. "Yes, more than anything. I need to get out of here, you have no idea about the horrible things I've had to go through in here." Tai then put on his mask, and placed his hat on.
"Um...what are you doing?" Takato asked.
Maybe you've heard of a terrible place,
where the evil of all
collect in a lair.
Maybe you've heard of that horrible place,
called the Ocean of Darkness...
"Hello, you're there!" Saji shouted. The loud voice caused Takato to jerk back a little bit.
Where the Light has died.
Where the Shadow has grown.
And there's no way out!
So we won't be around,
to reveal what we've found.
I've followed a method, all of this time,
Much like a hornet, protecting my hive.
Here in the Ocean of Darkness,
it's been much of a hassle in staying alive!
"Um...Tai?" Takato was hoping that he could say something to him, looking quite irritated by the fact Tai was singing.
"Wait one moment." Saji said, "I'm not finished."
Evil is vast in the Ocean of Darkness
Mad, cynical, murderous, and dumb. All in one!
I prefer to make the killings quite quick,
Cause its the number of kills that's really the fun.
"TAI!"
"Hmm?" Saji finally stopped singing to listen to what Takato had to say.
Takato simply stared at Saji, he didn't have much of an expression, just a blank look on his face. "Do me one favor."
"What will that be?" Saji asked.
"You sing again, I will kill you."
Saji took off his mask. "What did I say about the attitude?" Tai pushed at Takato.
"Hey, don't push me." Takato pushed him back.
"Watch where you put those hands." Tai pushed him back.
"Ok, that's it!" Takato threw a punch at Tai, connecting it square in the jaw. The force of the punch spun Tai around and forced him to knock his head on the stone wall. Once his head hit the wall he fell to the ground, knocked out. Takato simply looked at Tai's unconscious body, looking very concerned. "Uh oh...um....Tai? You alive there?" Takato gently tapped his body with his foot, thinking that moving his body would wake him. "Tai?
"Oh.....god. My head..." Tai rubbed his forehead. "I'm gonna kill you for that, you little." When Tai looked up, he found that he was no longer in the cave which he considered his home. "Whe.....where am I?" He looked around, everything around him was pitch black, even the floor he was standing on was the same. Suddenly, Tai noticed something in the distance. The figure slowly came into view, getting larger as it came closer to him. "...Sora?" After all this time of being away from her, Tai still remembered how she looked, remembering just how beautiful she was.
"You have a chance for freedom Tai." Sora said.
"But, what can I do?" Tai asked. "What can I do to get out of here?"
"Summon the Rose to open the Rose."
"What?"
"Summon the Rose to open the Rose." Sora was then slowly pulled away from Tai, slowly disappearing from Tai.
"Sora, wait!" Tai ran towards Sora, but the speed of her moving away was much faster than his running. "Sora!"
"Find the Rose to summon the Rose." Sora continued to repeat this on and on until she finally disappeared from Tai's sight. Once Sora was suddenly gone from view, Tai looked behind him and saw a blurred image coming into focus, it was Takato.
"Come on Tai, wake up." Takato shook his body. "Don't die on me dude."
Tai slowly opened his eyes, blinking a few times to get everything in focus. "The voice..."
"What?" Takato asked.
"I've got it." Tai said, "The voice in my dream, I finally remember what it says."
"Well?"
"Summon the Rose to open the Rose."
"What?"
"That's what it says, 'Summon the Rose to open the Rose.'." Tai repeated himself. "Maybe it has something to do with whatever powers you have."
"Well, that might be a problem." Takato said. He remembered how he felt different while in this world, "I can't use any of my powers. I'm able to teleport, heal, and move things with my mind. But none of that works now that I'm here."
"Well, maybe you just need to focus hard on it." Tai said. "Concentrate as hard as you can."
"Master, what shall we do?" one of the shadow creatures asked.
Havik, standing before a large mass of the same monsters answered. "Well, you know where the two are located. GO GET THEM!"
In response, the monsters all marched out. Since they all knew where Saji's cave was located, they obeyed Havik's orders and went to the cave to draw Saji and Blood Rose out.
"I told you Blood Rose, you've only delayed the inevitable." Havik spoke to himself. "I will draw you out into the open, and then I'll kill you. Tha is when it will all end."
"Give it a shot." Tai said,
Takato closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. "Alright, here goes nothing." Takato brought his hands to his chest, focusing his inner energy. He slowly spread his arms apart as he exhaled deeply, all while his eyes remained closed. Come on, focus. I need to get out of here. He opened his eyes and he looked down to his feet. Nothing. "Why can't I do it?"
"Maybe you need motivation." Tai said, "Try and motivate yourself, think about what pushes you to be strong."
"What makes me strong?" Takato closed his eyes, bringing his hands to his chest again and assuming to focusing position. Think about what makes me strong. Rika. Its Rika that motivated him to fight. He focused his thoughts on her, focusing on how his strength is what keeps her, and his city safe from harm. This is it. Exhaling deeply, Takato moved his arms away, channeling his inner energy through his body. He felt a sudden surge of intense, yet warm energy flowing through his chest and moving down to his feet. Takato opened his eyes and saw that it finally worked. "I did it!" Without wasting any time, Takato motioned his right hand forward, as if commanding to Rose Symbol to move forward. The symbol on the floor did as commanded and moved towards the symbol on the wall. "It's working." When the summoned Rose symbol aligned with the symbol on the wall, the outline began to glow a bright white light.
Tai stared at the light, admiring the beauty of finally seeing something that was no longer dark. "My god...light..."
The light from the Rose symbol began to stretch out, spreading from lines to becoming a full stretched mass of light. The immense force of the light was so strong that Tai and Takato were forced to put on their masks to block out as much of the light as they could. Takato stepped forward, knowing that this was how things were meant to play out. "This is it, Tai. Come on, let's go back home." Takato stepped deeper into the light, being consumed by the bright mass and disappeared from Tai's view. Tai followed shortly afterwards, but stopped briefly. He couldn't leave just yet, he had to at least keep this place away from others in this world, prevent them from entering his home world. He took out two dice and dropped them on the ground, letting them bounce. The dice resulted in the outcome of a three and a five. "Kaboom..." As Tai stepped into the light, the last thing he heard was the sound of an explosion and stone breaking.
"WHAT?!" Havik yelled as he kicked one of the shadow goons in the throat. "THEY'VE ESCAPED?! YOU FAILED ME!!" He pressed his foot on the creature's throat, while the rest around him backed away in fear.
"...please...master..." The one pinned under Havik's foot begged through the small airway in his throat.
"I told you of what would happen should you fail me." Havik put more force on his foot. "And I am not one to lie."
The light had finally faded from around the two. When Tai opened his eyes, he saw something that he hasn't seen in years. For the first time in a long time, he saw things in color.
"It...it can't be..." He removed the mask from his face to remove any possible obstruction of vision. "I'm...free..." Tai dropped to his knees and touched the ground. He then brought his face onto the ground and cried out of joy. "I'm Back!!"
"Uh..." Takato looked at Tai, slightly uncomfortable. "You're not gonna kiss the ground are you?"
Tai got back on his feet. "I can't believe I'm actually back." Tai said, "After all these years, I'm back home." He then remembered everything he left behind, "Sora...I'll be back soon."
I'M DONE!!!!!
Once again, I'm so sorry about the super long wait, but at least its done at last.
I'll try to get the updates coming sooner, but no promises. School's more important, and I won't screw things up with my studies.
Oh, and maybe I should mention a few things about the future chapters, just so you don't have hope for the wrong things.
1) Sora and Tai won't reunite in this story. That'll happen in The Dark Jester 3
2) Davis/Vestige isn't gonna in this story. He's got his own spin-off to worry about, which I have to update.
And....well, that's everything.
Please be patient for the next chapter.