Chapter Eleven
Royal Shock
Jade cuddled her new boyfriend, sighing happily under the stars; the lilac haired girl closed her eyes and took in his soft scent as she breathed deeply, a strange but relaxing smell. To be this close to Reo she thought would only ever happen in her dreams; Reo still seemed a little nervous about the whole thing, not use to relationships or any sort of close contact like this at all, but then again, neither was Jade. The teenage ex-talon know that they'd just got through it their own way; she was completely relaxed, breathing the same pace as Reo, head on his chest...she had to get use to the fact she'll never hear a heart beat in there...but that wasn't the point.
Reo had his hands behind his head, looking up at the stars, thinking; he didn't want to tell Jade of the visions he had been receiving the past few days, surprisingly he hadn't even told Firno, he didn't want to either, not until he needed to; the images he saw, of the Shadow Realm flashed in his mind nightly, the castle was the main thing that was bothering him… Reo just couldn't remember why it was so important to him...
Reo blinked and look at his company as Jade reached up and stroked his hair gently a slight concerned look on her face "For someone so young you look so worried..." She said softly smiling weakly at him as Reo laughed slightly.
"What are you talking about? I'm fine." He smiled reassuringly, sending Jade's heart into a series of flips as he smiled like that
The shadow boy sat up, letting Jade slip off his lap before standing up. "But...I have been thinking about her offer..."
"About going to Cyclonia?" Jade asked curiously as she sat back on the floor crossing her legs a little before she bit her lip. "W-well if you want to Reo, you know I'm coming with you, if it bothers you that much, besides, who can defeat the great Reo War?!" She asked with a chuckle as Reo smiled.
"Great...then we leave at dawn."
Jade suddenly had a look of complete lust, lost in the image that she could see right now of Reo he was stood there with the genuine soft smile on his face his body and face illuminated by the moon, the image, put bluntly was …breathtaking. She quickly wiped her mouth before Reo could notice the tiniest bit of saliva on her mouth.
"What?" Reo raised an eyebrow that smile still in place he looked the epitome of coolness and its what did it for her; Jade dived on him and kissed him deeply much to the shadows surprise; Reo blinked at her when she parted. The lilac haired girl laughed sheepishly realizing she'd just totally baffled Reo by her behaviour "Sorry…uh you looked...hot…as in attractive, hot, against the moon just then..." Jade blushed deeply now embarrassed; she wanted to go hit he head on the side of the condor for all the romantic crap that was spewing out her mouth. Reo blinked looked behind him, and realized what she mean, with the full moon behind him, bringing his features up and out, he just laughed nervously in response
*
"I'm still not so sure of this Brother." Firno whispered as they walked through the empty corridors of Cyclonia.
"Normally, I would always listen to you, but...maybe we should hush a bit." Reo whispered, his weapons out but not lit, Jade was walking between them, on high alert, he katana also out and ready in case of an ambush, as they walked Jade noticed that Cyclonia seemed different already; it was much, much darker even with the lights on at full power, it looked deserted and yet…she couldn't shake the feeling they were being watched. Swallowing a little, she stayed close to the Brothers...
"Did you hear that?" Jade muttered, barely audible, the Shadow Brothers stopped and their ears twitched just a tiny bit.
"I hear talking...left over Talons?" Firno asked in a soft whisper.
"No...it's a different language altogether...shadows maybe?" Reo mused to himself. "We need to be closer."
"Oh, there is no need." Lene spoke, stepping out of the shadows in the same uniform she wore before he dark purple hair tied into a tight plait, she looked at then and spotted Jade, her eyes narrowed before she hissed. "I told you not to bring her."
"Tough, now what do you want?" Reo narrowed his eyes at the darker version of Jade. Lene turned her vision to face Reo "You and your brother need to follow me...she stays behind."
"She comes with us." Firno growled, lifting his crossbow up slightly. "I don't trust you."
Lene glared at Jade at this as if this was all her fault, she avoided her shadows gaze nervously not wanting to give her any reason to hate her more "Fine, follow me; there will be no use for weapons by the way." Lene huffed before she turned and walked down the hallway expecting the trio to follow.
"We'll decide that for ourselves, thanks-Jade?" Reo turned to face the lilac haired girl as he realized she hadn't moved yet and was still looking at the floor, she blinked and looked up at Reo's voice
"Oh...sorry." Jade shook her head, getting out of her thoughts and ignoring that strange feeling of her stomach twisting; this must have been what Aerrow and Finn felt like when they met their doppelgangers.
Lene lead them into the late Cyclonis' chamber where a figure as standing at the top, a dark portal behind him, producing shadow tendrils crawling slowly across the walls. Reo and Firno felt a sense of belonging as soon as they stepped into the very dark room, able to see through the blackness, Jade could hardly see a thing and took both brothers hands gently to re-assure her she wasn't alone.
The man turned around, a mop of coal black hair atop his head, narrow pale face yet kind dark eyes met them, he stared at them for a long moment before a small soft smile spread across the man's face. "Reo War...Firno Fors. You two sure have grown up."
"Who are you? How do you know our names?" Reo barked a glare in his face, the man grinned at this seemingly pleased an amused "I didn't think you'd remember me...what do you know of the Shadow Royal family, hm?" The stranger raised a sleek eyebrow, Reo turned back to Firno who shrugged looking just as confused as he did
"There's a royal family in the Realm?" He asked his sibling, Firno just shrugged.
"Well, if you don't believe me." The elder threw at the brothers a large book, written in strange non-Atmosion letters, Reo glanced at his companions; Firno looked confused, Jade reflecting the same reaction; on the cover was a symbol of gold tendrils wrapped around a letter V. After spotting a lock, Reo suddenly had a flash of memory in his mind, he kneeled down and pricked his finger, letting his Matter drip on the lock.
"Reo, what are you doing?" Jade whispered, glancing at the man who had a grin on his face.
"Opening this book..." Reo answered, the lock clicking as he finished; with a smile, the older brother opened the heavy covers and scanned the important pages with Firno who frowned "So there's a royal blood-line. So what?" the blonde shadow asked.
"I am King Zexion, or rather, I was, the current Queen, Vexel, exiled me." Zexion replied softly.
"Oh boo hoo for you, frankly, we don't care, what do you want with us?" Reo snarled. Firno was looking around the room, soon he tapped Reo's shoulder.
"Brother...I think he's letting the shadows into Cyclonia..." He whispered. Jade gulped and too looked around, but it just looked dim to her, she couldn't see the shadows watching them but she felt the hairs standing up on the back of her neck, she KNEW they were watching them.
All three glanced upwards as loads of tiny shadow tendrils spilled from the walls, forming a pointed oval, door-like. A portal. "You figured it out, with Atmos and the Realm joined together...nothing can stop us." Zexion smiled softly.
"Us? Who is this 'us' you're talking about?" Firno spoke up.
"You two and me of course." Zexion shrugged a shoulder. "After all..." he paused at this and smiled softly "You are my sons..." He finished.
The Atmos suddenly froze to Reo, his eyes widened and he dropped the hard back book as he clattered to the floor with a dull thud; his breathing grew shallow. This man...was his...father?!
"Reo...Reo breath!" Jade whispered as she shook his arm worried; bringing Reo back to reality; she'd never seen Reo react like that before then again if some guy randomly said that he was her father shed probably react in the same way.
"Wait...wait, that would mean that me and Reo are-" Finro said; he seemed to have gotten over his shock first his logical brain now kicking into gear.
"Princes of the Shadow Realm. Yes." Zexion nodded finishing his sentence for him; Reo, Firno and Jade couldn't talk as this all sunk in for them it was like the air was taken from the lungs; this was all too much for them, the Brothers especially.
"Wait a second…I-I'm dating royalty?!" Jade gasped as this finally hit her.
"Oh, which one of my boys are you in love with?" Zexion looked rather pleased and amused by this news.
"Reo but that's not the point-!"
"Where were you?!" Reo shouted, brought back down to Atmos for the second time. "We were kidnapped from our own world and only NOW you come and find us?!"
"I tried before, young man, don't you dare use that tone of voice with me!" Zexion snapped with a frown "You're mother forbidden me ever seeing you boys, ever since you were just a baby, Firno, and Reo was only learning to walk."
"Wait...there's only a month difference between Reo and Firno. How could Reo walk at one month?" Jade asked confused Zexion turned to her with a slight smile.
"We shadows can learn a lot faster than humans can, it's natural to walk around two months old, but our Reo was a genius from day one. I have no doubt Firno was the same, and to answer you're next question I'm sure you will ask, shadows can reproduce in both ways. We can simply create a child by using our Matter, or reproduce the same way as humans can. Both boys were born the human way..." Zexion paused as Reo whispered 'ew' under his breath, undetected by Jade. "Shadow women can give birth in 3 weeks."
"Too much information for one day, don't you think." Firno raised his hands to stop Zexion talking any more. "Where did you go after Mother forced you out?"
"I remained the Shadow Realm but on the border, also called the Horizon, it's hard to sneak into the Realm and get away with it, so I often came to Atmos. I read in a newspaper article that some Master Cyclonis had been killed...I recognized my son anywhere. I knew you were taken, but no matter what I did, I couldn't get to you, either of you. I can only last so long in Atmos. I'm not as strong as I use to be."
"Why did we forget all about this?" Firno asked, Reo could answer that one; he experienced it more than his younger sibling.
"The way we were dragged out of the Realm made us leave some memory behind." He muttered, almost to himself.
Reo walked closer to Zexion. "You were that man in that cloak all those decades ago...in the Realm..." He stared at Zexion right in the eyes.
"Yes...I tried to take you away from the pain and torture you're Mother put you two through." Zexion whispered.
"What torture?" Firno asked confused at that he didn't remember anything at all.
"You were both born with human emotions. Of course, all shadows do, but as soon as they're born, their linked to their humans and those emotions are gone by a month or two, depending on the human-"
"Our humans weren't born yet...only within the last fourteen years we found our human and were joined to them." Firno interrupted with a frown
"Correct. But, you still had you're emotions…all of them. Lene here experienced the same; she was soon exiled as well, she's been my companion over the past few decades. You're Mother often beat you if she caught you using those emotions, the only feeling she accepted was anger."
"But if this Vexel was so horrible...why were you married to her?" Jade asked softly
"She wasn't always like this, of course. But when Firno was an infant, she changed..." Zexion glanced down at Reo, a fair foot taller than his elder son.
"Our father..." Reo said. While he was talking, he was pointing (behind his back) up at the ceiling as the tendrils from the portal grew and took over almost half the corridor, and had been growing since they started talking.
"Jade, remember, don't touch it." Firno whispered to her softly
"What do we do, we can't let your Dad take over" Jade muttered back.
"I know...Reo's distracting him...we have time to think of something."
"What about Lene?"
"She's-...has gone...where did she go?" Firno looked around.
Reo was indeed distracting his Father, giving Firno time to close the portal...if he knew how to at least, he withstood Zexion's fingers rustling through his hair as the man smiled at his son's apparent happiness, though, this was all an act.
Firno had to remember; he racked his brain, scrolled through the hard book as quick as he could,but nothing came up. Then Reo made a sign with his fingers...Firno only took seconds to realize it was to resemble the shadow symbol for a 'crossbow'.
Firno took his crossbow and aimed it for the heart of the portal.
"Sorry father..." Both brothers said at the same time, creeping Jade out even more then the situation. "Not today!" They finished, as Firno made the shot.
"NO!" Zexion yelled as the crystallized arrow split the portal, causing the shadow to collapse in on itself. A rumble suddenly ran through the fortress, the ceiling began to cave in and fall on the gang, Lene suddenly yelled from behind them.
"This way, sir!" She was gesturing for them to run the way she just came, they all sprinted after her, dodging falling debris. Reo began to wonder if it was just the building coming down...or the whole Terra. Either way, it didn't matter-
"AH!" There was a sudden growl of pain, Reo span around, Firno doing the same. Zexion was caught, stuck under a pillar, he tried to move it but he crumbled as more debris fell on him
"Go, Brother, I'll be there soon!" Reo shouted over the noise as Cyclonis collapsed in on itself, Firno hesitated. "GO!" Reo pushed his brother further down the hallway before the younger sibling sprinted away making sure to drag Jade along with him.
Reo struggled to pull the pillar off, even with Zexion's help. If they didn't get out soon, they wouldn't at all; Reo took out a blade and sliced the pillar clean in half, Zexion stood up, coughing. "Thank you..." He wheezed
Reo nodded before beginning to run down the corridor, but soon realized it was blocked. "Other way, move!" He ran the other side, passed his Father, who soon followed. "There should be another exit."
Smashing and slicing any rubble in their way, Reo made his own path, Zexion at his heels, they sprinted down other corridors, before they spotted the exit. Reo was too busy looking at the way out and stumbled over a shadow tendril. Quickly finding his feet, he didn't fall, giving his Father the chance to run ahead. Just as Reo was about to start running again, there was a crack from above him, and the whole ceiling came down. Right on top of Reo...
"REO!" Zexion shouted as he screeched to a halt and ran back to his son; pale hand stuck out of the concrete pile.
It didn't move...